Techmeme: Alex Szapiro, co-head of SoftBank's nearly $8B Latin America fund, says he is confident about securing extra capital from its parent despite a ~$900M paper loss (Michael Pooler/Financial Times)

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March 27, 2023, 4:05 AM

Top News

Daniel Taub / Bloomberg:

First Citizens agrees to buy the commercial banking business of Silicon Valley Bank from the FDIC including all deposits and loans — First Citizens BancShares Inc. agreed to buy Silicon Valley Bank which was seized by regulators following a run on the lender.

More: FDIC, Associated Press, Axios, BBC, CNBC, CoinDesk, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Reuters, Cointelegraph, Washington Post, Financial Times, New York Times, CoinGape, Watcher Guru, CryptoSlate, The Information, Cryptopolitan, PYMNTS.com, and MarketWatch

Tweets: @fdicgov, @business, @nmasc_, @mcbyrne, @pitdesi, and @b6nbrown

New York Times:

Filing: some Twitter source code was leaked by user “FreeSpeechEnthusiast” on GitHub, which removed the code to comply with Twitter's DMCA notice on March 24 — The leak adds to the challenges facing the Elon Musk-owned company, which is trying to unmask the person responsible and any other people who downloaded the code.

New York Times:

Eight current and former Apple employees share their concerns about the upcoming MR headset's $3,000 price, its utility, and the unproven AR/VR market — The company is expected to unveil an augmented reality headset in a few months. Some employees wonder if the device makes sense for Apple.

More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Digital Trends, iMore, The Verge, PhoneArena, Wccftech, Bloomberg, KnowTechie, iThinkDifferent, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iPhone in Canada Blog, iClarified, MacRumors, The Apple Post, Slashdot, and Daring Fireball

LinkedIn: Neil Shah. Tweets: @trippmickle, @parkerortolani, @yoda, @stevesi, @scobleizer, @anthony, @kt_so_it_goes, @scottnover, @benjysarlin, and @chrisfralic

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple last week demoed its mixed reality headset, likely dubbed Reality Pro or Reality One, for its top ~100 executives, ahead of their annual offsite — Apple's push into mixed reality will take years to pay off, with the company hoping the device follows the same trajectory as its smartwatch.

Bloomberg:

Sources: the Hong Kong arms of three Chinese state banks have reached out to offer services to crypto businesses in recent months, despite a mainland crypto ban — Crypto firms rushing into Hong Kong after the city opened its doors to the battered sector are finding a surprising source of potential support: China's state-owned banks.

More: Cointelegraph, CoinGape, Financial Times, Forkast, and Politico

LinkedIn: Kiuyan Wong. Tweets: @cz_binance, @degenspartan, @harry_forj, and @eug_ng

Pranshu Verma / Washington Post:

A mid-March Midjourney update seemingly fixed one of the AI image generator's major failings: its inability to depict lifelike human hands with five fingers — Improved AI image-making software churned out believable yet fictional images of former president Trump getting arrested

More: Forbes. Tweets: @heykahn, @michaeleaves, @glynmoody, @alistaircoleman, @washingtonpost, and @samgregory

Samriddhi Sakunia / Rest of World:

After India's legal orders this week, Twitter blocked the tweets of 122 users, including reporters and politicians, from Indian users; it used to push back more — Last year, before Elon Musk took over as CEO, Twitter pushed back against such requests from the government. — • NEW DELHI, INDIA

Mastodon: @dangillmor@mastodon.social, @mmasnick@mastodon.social, and @lauren@mastodon …

Tweets: @russellbrandom, @iamcouncil, @cengizyar, @cpjasia, @rvawonk, @gypsystrategy, @restofworld, @arsh11kaur, @restofworld, @gaganjassowal, @thejagmeetsingh, @friedrichpieter, and @cpo10za

See also Mediagazer

Michael Pooler / Financial Times:

Alex Szapiro, co-head of SoftBank's nearly $8B Latin America fund, says he is confident about securing extra capital from its parent despite a ~$900M paper loss — Alex Szapiro says he is confident about securing extra capital from Japanese technology conglomerate

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:

A look at Modulate's ToxMod and other AI-based tools that help gaming companies moderate voice chats in online games, amid concerns of accuracy and user privacy — New artificial-intelligence tools can mute, ban players who violate conduct rules — In the videogame “Gun Raiders,” …

LinkedIn: Rob Schoeppe. Tweets: @saraheneedleman, @speechlyapi, @gunraidersvr, @saraheneedleman, @jeffjarvis, @pavtalk, and @wsj

ProPublica:

A look at OBNBrandon, a prolific scammer in a booming community focused on banning influencers' accounts, mainly on Instagram, and extorting for “reactivation” — Just after midnight on Sept. 13, Kristian “Murda” Murphy was watching TV at home in Boca Raton, Florida, when his phone began buzzing.

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:

A profile of Atlanta-based Yellow Card, Africa's largest centralized crypto exchange, which raised $57M and facilitated $1.75B in transactions since 2019 — - Yellow Card is the largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange in Africa. — For its nearly 1.4 million users across the continent …

More: Politico, Cryptonews, New York Times, and New York Post

Viola Zhou / Rest of World:

A look at the Chinese social e-commerce app and women-friendly “lifestyle bible” Xiaohongshu, which has 200M MAUs and critics describe as a consumerist trap — Known as China's “lifestyle bible,” the social media platform is an aspirational living guide or a consumerist trap.

Tweets: @restofworld, @restofworld, @mvzelenks, @cengizyar, @mikeelgan, @violazhouyi, @openbarllc, @anupkaphle, @restofworld, @restofworld, and @violazhouyi

Erin Woo / The Information:

Source: Elon Musk emailed Twitter employees offering stock grants at a ~$20B valuation, or 55% less than what he paid to buy the company — Elon Musk offered Twitter employees stock grants at a valuation of roughly $20 billion, said a person familiar with an email Musk sent to staff, less than half what he paid to buy the company.

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