Techmeme
September 16, 2022, 2:00 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Uber is investigating a breach of its computer systems, saying a hacker compromised a worker's Slack account and also gained access to other internal systems  —  The company said on Thursday that it was looking into the scope of the apparent hack.  —  Uber's computer network was breached on Thursday …
Bloomberg:
Adobe plans to buy UI design and prototyping tool Figma for ~$20B, half cash and half stock; CEO Dylan Field will continue to lead Figma; ADBE closed down 16.8%  —  Adobe Inc. agreed to buy software design startup Figma Inc. in a deal valued at about $20 billion in a bid to expand its suite of creative tools for professionals.
More: Figma, Adobe Press Releases, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, ZDNet, Wall Street Journal, Greylock, SecurityWeek, CRN, SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, CNBC, Daring Fireball, Index Ventures, Pixel Envy, Tomasz Tunguz, Michael Tsai, San Francisco Business Journal, iTnews, Space Among The Clouds, and Forrester
Wall Street Journal:
Speaking hours after Ethereum's Merge update, SEC Chair Gary Gensler says cryptocurrencies that let holders stake coins may be subject to US securities laws  —  SEC chairman says system used by ether following software update could trigger securities laws  —  WASHINGTON—Ethereum's big software update …
Mike Truppa / The Block:
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Source: Meta's Chris Cox directed the New Product Experimentation division to scale back; Meta says the division will focus on short-form video  —  Facebook's New Product Experimentation division is scaling back its mission dramatically, Platformer has learned.
The Information:
Memo to staff: Adam Mosseri says Instagram's creator surveys show the app lags behind TikTok and YouTube on the most important creator satisfaction dimensions  —  For the past couple of years, as Instagram has sought to better compete with TikTok, becoming more appealing to creators has been a top priority.
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
California Governor Newsom signs into law an online safety bill that puts limits on the data companies collect on minors; the law goes into effect in July 2024  —  The bill could require many social media sites, games and other online services used by children to install protections for minors.
Meghan Bobrowsky / Wall Street Journal:
COO Vanessa Pappas told senators that TikTok is working on a final deal with CFIUS that satisfies all US national security concerns, but didn't give a timeline  —  Lawmakers express concern over potential Chinese influence of the popular short-video app  —  Investigation: How TikTok's Algorithm Figures Out Your Deepest Desires
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
TikTok rolls out Now, a BeReal-like feature, to its app in the US, with daily prompts to capture a 10-second video or a photo using both front and back cameras  —  TikTok launched a new feature today that is basically just a copy of BeReal, the buzzy French social app that's been steadily gaining popularity.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Senator Ron Wyden reveals the CBP told Congress it adds data from ~10K travelers' devices per year to a database, accessible by 2,700 officers without a warrant  —  Contacts, call logs, messages and photos from up to 10,000 travelers' phones are saved to a government database every year
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Some YouTube viewers say the platform's ads expanded in length and quantity over the past month or two, with reports of five to 10 unskippable ads per break  —  The experience of watching YouTube has been infiltrated by ads over the years as a means of maintaining the platform and supporting creators financially.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Winn.AI, maker of an AI assistant to help sales teams track, capture, and update CRM entries, comes out of stealth with a $17M seed led by Insight and S-Capital  —  Conventionally, salespeople are responsible for juggling tasks like following a playbook, capturing responses, building rapport …
Sam Kim / Bloomberg:
South Korea's trade ministry data shows its DRAM chip exports fell 24.7% YoY in August 2022, the biggest drop since 2019, indicating a deepening slump in demand  —  South Korea's exports of its most lucrative memory chip fell by the most since 2019, indicating a deepening slump in technology demand central to global economic growth.

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Earlier Picks

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Financial Times:
Melissa Repko / CNBC: