Techmeme
January 21, 2023, 9:15 PM

Top News

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Q&A with Netflix co-CEOs Greg Peters and Ted Sarandos about shared leadership, what role Reed Hastings may play, adding FAST channels, the ad tier, and more  —  So that's what an orderly transfer of power looks like.  —  While Disney chief Bob Iger ousted every potential threat …
Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal:
Apple's lean hiring may help the company avoid layoffs; Apple's workforce grew ~20% from 2019 to 2022, Amazon's grew 100%, Meta 94%, Alphabet 57%, Microsoft 53%  —  The iPhone maker's workforce grew 20% in the past three years, a far slower pace than rivals  —  Tech Layoffs Pile Up as Bosses Reverse Course
Jez Corden / Windows Central:
Microsoft has laid off the entire teams behind the virtual reality platform AltspaceVR, which will shut down in March, and the Mixed Reality Tool Kit framework  —  HoloLens, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality are all but dead at Microsoft.  —  What you need to know
New York Times:
Emails and sources: Google fired 16% of its ~400-person Fuchsia OS team, Research cut jobs in lower traction areas, and Cloud cut operational and other roles  —  The layoffs amount to about 6 percent of the global work force at the company, the latest tech giant to make cuts after a pandemic hiring spree.
Bloomberg:
More: The Information, The Keyword, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Reuters, CNBC, The Economic Times, TechSpot, Insider, Livemint, MarketWatch, Associated Press, TechCrunch, CNBC, NPR, BBC, 9to5Google, Fortune, Pixel Envy, Tech.co, TIME, Ars Technica, PYMNTS.com, GeekWire, PCWorld, WinBuzzer, GamesIndustry.biz, Patently Apple, TechRadar, Fast Company, Thurrott, PhoneArena, NBC Bay Area, DCD, Coinspeaker, Tech Xplore, IGN, Mashable, Micky, Appuals.com, ZDNet, Search Engine Land, TheGamer, Gizmodo, Tech Monitor, TechCircle, Deadline, City A.M., Computerworld, Neowin, Variety, Silicon Republic, PCMag, Semafor, TechCrunch, WRAL TechWire, Financial Times, The Hollywood Reporter, Engadget, RTÉ, The Economic Times, Moneycontrol, Business Post, Barron's Online, and Slashdot
Dietrich Knauth / Reuters:
US prosecutors provide a list of nearly $700M worth of Sam Bankman-Fried's seized assets, including ~$525M in Robinhood stock and $94.5M cash at Silvergate Bank  —  Federal prosecutors have seized nearly $700 million in assets from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in January …
Can Duruk / Margins:
ChatGPT is a threat to Google mainly because the latter's monopoly position let the search experience degenerate into a spam-ridden, SEO-fueled hellscape  —  I hate monopolies and welcome our AI overlords … I don't really cook often, but I do love making pasta aglio e olio.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
A look at Amazon's nascent drone delivery unit, which has struggled due to crashes and other safety issues and now faces layoffs and other cost-cutting measures  —  - As part of Amazon's widespread layoffs, some employees in the nascent drone delivery project are losing their jobs, according to people familiar with the matter.
Sarah Wynn / The Block:
The US SEC charges Avraham Eisenberg for manipulating Mango Markets' governance token MNGO to steal ~$116M of crypto assets and says MNGO was sold as a security  —  - The SEC brought charges against Avraham Eisenberg on Friday after the U.S. securities regulator said Eisenberg stole $116 million from Mango Markets.
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Internal records: Twitter now has ~1,300 active employees, including fewer than 550 full-time engineers, and ~1,400 non-working staff who are still being paid  —  - Internal records show that Twitter has shed about 80% of its employees since Elon Musk took over and headcount is hovering around 1,300 employees today.

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Regulatory compliance for enterprise email  —  Enterprise email security and regulatory compliance are now essential, not luxuryIn today's threat landscape, the inbox isn't just a productivity tool, it's a security perimeter.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
Live @ Nvidia's nerd Super Bowl, poker takes over tech, and the future of AI banking
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Superapp Ambitions, Jensen on Jobs, Bezos's $100 Billion Automation Fund
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
'A.I.-Washing' Layoffs? + Why L.L.M.s Can't Write Well + Tokenmaxxing
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Social Radars:
Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Star Catcher's Andrew Rush: Harnessing The Sun To Build The First Energy Grid In Space
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:15 PM ET, January 21, 2023.

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.

More News

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Josh Scott / BetaKit:

Earlier Picks

Emily Baker-White / Forbes:
Brian Fung / CNN:
Kevin Simauchi / Bloomberg: