Techmeme: Thoma Bravo takes critical event management software company Everbridge private in a $1.5B all-cash deal; Everbridge had a market cap of $6.4B in 2021 (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)

Top News

A Hong Kong-based firm's employee was tricked into paying $25M to fraudsters who used deepfake tech to pose as the company's CFO and staff during a video call — A finance worker at a multinational firm was tricked into paying out $25 million to fraudsters using deepfake technology to pose …

More: South China Morning Post, TechSpot, The Standard, RTHK, SiliconANGLE, Security Affairs, Cointelegraph, Crypto Daily, The Information, The Register, Hackread, The Star, Telegraph, SamMobile, Cybernews.com, Business Insider, Bankless Times, Neowin, Business Today, The Overspill, Agence France-Presse, The Decoder, Marcus on AI, and Bloomberg

Threads: @renee.diresta. Mastodon: @ErikJonker@mastodon.social, @Zeb_Larson@zirk.us, and @jwildeboer@social …

X: @carnage4life, @aifray, @pitdesi, @garymarcus, @gergelyorosz, and @pitdesi

LinkedIn: David Ferbrache Obe, Benjamin Quinlan, and Nico Popp

Forums: Hacker News, r/privacy, and r/technology

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

UK's Reach strikes a deal with Amazon for “contextual” first-party data to target online ads, as the media industry responds to end of third party cookies — Media sector scrambles to deal with fallout from phase out of cross-website trackers — Tech giant Amazon has struck …

Sylvia Westall / Bloomberg:

Yandex plans to sell its entire Russian business, including its popular search engine, to a group led by Yandex management in a deal valued at about $5.2B — - Dutch-registered firm reaches agreement to sell Russian unit — Fallout from the war in Ukraine forced tech giant to split up

More: Engadget, Search Engine Land, Yandex, TechCrunch, Reuters, Reuters, NV, Neowin, Financial Times, and Benzinga. X: @maxseddon

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Source: Microsoft's Bethesda considers bringing the new Indiana Jones game to PS5, months after Xbox and PC release, as part of a new multi-platform approach — Bethesda's upcoming Indiana Jones game is also tentatively set to launch on Sony's PlayStation 5 console.

More: Thurrott, Forbes, Tom's Guide, XboxEra, Game World Observer, GamesIndustry.biz, Game Developer, MobileSyrup, Variety, Video Games Chronicle, MSPoweruser, GameSpot, IGN, Pure Xbox, T3, TechRadar, TweakTown, Stevivor, SamMobile, Game Rant, Gameranx, Wccftech, TrueAchievements, Press Start, Metro, Gematsu, Aftermath, Dexerto, Neowin, TheGamer, Push Square, Dot Esports, and GamingBolt

X: @tomwarren and @tomwarren

Forums: r/gaming, r/Games, r/XboxSeriesX, r/PS5, r/NoSodiumStarfield, r/BethesdaSoftworks, and r/XboxSeriesS

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

A look at UMG's TikTok retreat, stemming from issues like low payouts and a lack of assurances on fighting deepfakes, and TikTok's role in the music industry — We're about to find out how important TikTok is to the music industry. — Happy Grammy Sunday to those of you who celebrate.

More: Financial Times and New York Times

X: @lucas_shaw and @lucas_shaw

See also Mediagazer

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:

Thoma Bravo takes critical event management software company Everbridge private in a $1.5B all-cash deal; Everbridge had a market cap of $6.4B in 2021 — Everbridge, a critical event management (CEM) software company, is going private in a $1.5 billion all-cash deal that will see it taken over by private equity giant Thoma Bravo.

More: Reuters, Business Wire, and TechStartups

Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk:

Montenegro's government says it has extradited Han Chang-joon, the former CFO of Terraform Labs, to South Korea — Han Chang-joon was charged with carrying falsified travel documents alongside Terra co-founder Do Kwon last year. — Register Now — Han Chang-joon, the former CFO of Terraform Labs …

More: Reuters, DL News, Decrypt, The Block, Agence France-Presse, Bloomberg, CoinStats, Coinpedia Fintech News, CryptoSlate, crypto.news, CoinGape, and Cryptopolitan

Kim Bhasin / Bloomberg:

StatusPro, which makes a first-person simulation NFL game for VR headsets, raised a $20M Series A led by GV — - The $20 million funding round is set to be announced Monday — Google has poked its way into the extended reality industry … The $20 million round set to be announced Monday …

More: Sportico, Sports Business Journal, and StatusPRO. X: @mgsiegler

Rohan Goswami / CNBC:

Snap plans to lay off 10% of its global workforce, or around 529 employees — Social media company Snap said on Monday that it would lay off 10% of its global workforce, or around 529 employees. — Snap shares were up around 1% in pre-market trading. — This is breaking news.

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, NBC News, Reuters, Deadline, Variety, and The Hollywood Reporter

Financial Times:

Sources: the UK shelved plans to publish rules on the training of AI models using copyrighted material, after artists and tech groups failed to agree terms — Government-led talks stall as artists and tech groups fail to agree terms over access to copyrighted work

More: TNW, Cointelegraph, Proactive, and ComputerWeekly.com

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

F5:

Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit — Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23. Register now to save your spot.

Zoho:

Summer '26 release: Zoho SalesIQ enters the era of Agentic Intelligence — Empathy has never been able to scale. Until now.You probably wouldn't have expected a release announcement that has Agentic Intelligence in the title to start with “Empathy.”

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

What Should An AI Device Look Like? — With Alex Himel

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.

Great Chat:

Founders dish on VC bad behavior (and bring receipts)

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Uncapped with Jack Altman:

Mike Volpi from Hanabi Capital

Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.

Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.

Training Data:

LIVE: Jensen Huang on Building the Dynamo of the Intelligence Age

Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.

Subscribe to Training Data.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Brian Stelter on the 60 Minutes Mess; Nilay Patel on Apple's AI Problem

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:00 AM ET, February 5, 2024.

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.