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May 26, 2022, 7:40 PM
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Top News

Politico:
Sources: a bipartisan bill that would ban Big Tech companies from favoring their products faces resistance from some Senate Democrats worried about the midterms  —  A bipartisan legislative effort to rein in the nation's largest tech companies is facing fresh resistance from a faction …
The Markup:
An investigation finds Apple, Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have launched a coordinated campaign in 31 states against data privacy legislation since 2021  —  Coordinated industry lobbying is overwhelming the scattered efforts of consumer groups and privacy-minded lawmakers
Chavi Mehta / Reuters:
Broadcom offers to acquire VMware for ~$61B in cash and stock, paying $142.50 per share, a nearly 49% premium, and will assume VMware's $8B in net debt  —  May 26 (Reuters) - Broadcom Inc (AVGO.O) said on Thursday it will buy cloud service provider VMware Inc (VMW.N) in a $61 billion cash …
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to keep iPhone production in 2022 at ~220M, about the same as 2021, compared to ~240M market forecasts, amid inflation and a tough market  —  Apple Inc. is planning to keep iPhone production roughly flat in 2022, a conservative stance as the year turns increasingly challenging for the smartphone industry.
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
A profile of Stripe co-founders John and Patrick Collison; sources: Stripe gross revenue rose 60% YoY to nearly $12B in 2021 as net revenue reached almost $2.5B  —  Billionaire brothers John and Patrick Collison built Stripe into one of the world's most-hyped, highest valued — and profitable! — startups, worth some $95 billion.
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Q&A with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney on creating the metaverse, Unreal Engine's role, Apple's and Google's app store monopolies, Meta's metaverse investment, and more  —  Online game Fortnite is arguably the closest thing to the metaverse that exists today.  Some 70mn gamers immerse themselves …
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft plans to slow hiring in Windows, Office, and Teams groups, citing a need to realign staffing priorities; EVP Rajesh Jha must approve all new hires  —  Microsoft Corp. will slow hiring in its Windows, Office and Teams chat and conferencing software groups, citing a need …
Kyle Alspach / Protocol:
Cloud security startup Lacework, which employed 1,000+ in March 2022, lays off 20% of its workforce; Lacework has raised $1.85B including $1.3B in November 2021  —  A well-funded startup in the cybersecurity industry, Lacework, has become the latest tech firm to disclose a major round …
Dan Primack / Axios:
Bolt Financial laid off 185 employees, or about one-third of its workforce; some have to repay loans they took from the company for vested shares within 90 days  —  One-click checkout company Bolt Financial yesterday laid off 185 employees, or approximately one-third of its workforce …
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Sources: Substack dropped efforts to raise money, after talks to raise $75M-$100M at a $750M-$1B valuation, during which they said they had ~$9M revenue in 2021  —  Amid an industrywide downturn, venture investors are preaching austerity and halting new deals, particularly for companies that have spent aggressively on growth.
Bloomberg:
The tech market collapse, aided by macroeconomic forces, is an opportunity to reckon with wildly inflated valuations, overpaid VCs, and crypto pyramid schemes  —  Over the past half-century, Silicon Valley has toggled between two similar-sounding pursuits that are often in conflict: wealth creation and moneymaking.
Sujith Somraaj / Decrypt:
Binance, FTX, Crypto.com, Huobi, Bitfinex, Kucoin, and other exchanges pledge support for Do Kwon's Terra 2.0, set to launch on May 27 by airdropping tokens  —  Cryptocurrency exchanges have pledged support to Terra's upcoming relaunch, following the passing of a proposal to launch a new blockchain.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Human Rights Watch finds 89% of 164 remote learning apps and sites used during the pandemic in 49 countries shared student data with marketers and data brokers  —  The educational tools used by students during the pandemic shared their information with advertisers and data brokers that could track …
Source: Human Rights Watch.  More: 9to5Mac and CNN
Tweets: @hrw, @walterkirn, and @hrw
Sam Nussey / Reuters:
Sony plans to ramp up PlayStation 5 production as supply chain issues ease, and a radical broadening of its game portfolio, including more PC and mobile titles  —  Sony Group Corp (6758.T) said it plans to ramp up production of its PlayStation 5 console as supply chain snarls ease and signalled …
Michael Tobin / Bloomberg:
Instacart plans to slow hiring as it prepares for its IPO, after hiring over 1,500 staff in 2021; Instacart cut its valuation by 40% to $24B in March 2022  —  Grocery delivery startup Instacart Inc. is planning to slow the pace of hiring as it prepares for an initial public offering, focusing instead on profitability.
Bloomberg Línea:
Source: Brazilian e-commerce startup Vtex, which has an $820M market cap, cut ~200 jobs, or 13% of its workforce; Mexican crypto exchange Bitso cut 80+ staff  —  Bloomberg Línea — Latin American unicorns Vtex and Bitso laid off hundreds of employees on Thursday (May 26).
Tim Higgins / Wall Street Journal:
Apple plans to bump US hourly workers' pay to $22+ per hour, up 45% from 2018, amid inflation and unionization pushes; US starting salaries are also set to rise  —  The iPhone maker faces store unionization attempts, higher inflation  —  Apple Inc. AAPL .11%▲ is boosting pay …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:40 PM ET, May 26, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Sara Guaglione / Digiday:
The Washington Post's new Your Personal Podcast, which offers AI-generated customizable podcasts, was developed under a multiyear agreement with ElevenLabs

Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Disney and OpenAI sign a three-year deal to bring 200+ Disney characters to Sora; Disney will make a $1B investment in OpenAI and become a major OpenAI customer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

More News

Steve Dent / Engadget:
Oura debuts the Gucci x Oura Ring wearable with its Generation 3 tech to monitor live heart rate, sleep, activity, and more, available in select stores for $950
Jonathan Browning / Bloomberg:
The UK's CMA opens an investigation into whether Google abused its dominant position in ad tech to illegally favor its ad exchange services and exclude rivals

Earlier Picks

Peter Grant / Wall Street Journal:
Some hotels look to guarantee reservations revenue by partnering with startups like Pinktada that convert stays into NFTs, which guests can buy and sell
Ashley Stewart / Insider:
Interviews with former and current Microsoft employees suggest a widespread pattern of executive misconduct persists, years after Satya Nadella vowed to end it
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
Twitter agrees to pay $150M to the FTC, settling allegations that it misrepresented the “security and privacy” of user data between May 2013 and September 2019
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