|
January 20, 2026, 10:10 AM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Brian Stelter / CNN: |
Netflix and WBD say Netflix revised its WBD offer to an all-cash deal for $27.75/share, with the same $82.7B value; its original bid had $59B in debt financing — In an ongoing struggle over the future of Warner Bros. Discovery, Netflix says it is now prepared to pay all cash for Warner Bros. and HBO …
More: The Verge, The Information, TechCrunch, Deadline, The Wrap, Yahoo Finance, The Independent, Benzinga, Bloomberg, Pulse 2.0, Streaming Better, Sharecast, The Standard, Blockonomi, Dow Jones Newswires, CNBC, Barrett Media, Reuters, Associated Press, New York Post, Cord Cutters News, Screen, Outlook Business, Far Out Magazine, iPhone in Canada, Livemint, Forbes, NewsMax.com, Fox Business, Wall Street Journal, Advanced Television, Broadband TV News, Screen Rant, New York Times, Netflix, Inc., Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Axios, Bloomberg Law, Mediaite, Barron's Online, The Daily Upside, and FX Empire
X: @xpangler, @xpangler, @brianstelter, @badcapitalvc, and @brianstelter
| Jess Weatherbed / The Verge: |
Sony and TCL sign a non-binding agreement to spin off Sony's TV and home audio hardware business into a new joint venture, aiming to finalize the deal by March — The two companies are planning to form a new joint venture that will carry the ‘Sony’ and ‘Bravia’ branding.
More: Sony Corporation, 9to5Google, PCMag, CNET, Business Today, Engadget, Bloomberg, Tom's Guide, The Shortcut, Digit, FlatpanelsHD, Phandroid, Telecompaper, and Nikkei Asia
Bluesky: @thomasfuchs.at and @wario64
Forums: r/tcltvs and r/4kbluray
| Cade Metz / New York Times: |
Humans&, founded by ex-Anthropic, xAI, and Google staff to build collaborative AI, raised a $480M seed from Nvidia, Jeff Bezos, and others at a $4.48B valuation — As a research scientist at Anthropic, one of the world's leading A.I. companies, Andi Peng was part of a team that tried …
More: Bloomberg
| Anthropic: |
Anthropic details the “Assistant Axis”, a pattern of neural activity in language models that governs their default identity and helpful behavior — Read the full paper — When you talk to a large language model, you can think of yourself as talking to a character.
More: Matt Mullenweg, Implicator.ai, eWeek, and arXiv.org
X: @enscion25, @gallabytes, @jack_w_lindsey, @tessera_antra, @peterwildeford, @thebasepoint, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, @anthropicai, and @anthropicai
Bluesky: @emollick and @tachikoma.elsewhereunbound …
Forums: Hacker News, r/claudexplorers, and r/singularity
| Naga Avan-Nomayo / The Block: |
Portugal orders Polymarket to stop operations and blocks it in the country after heavy activity tied to its recent presidential election, with €110M+ in volume — Partner offers — Quick Take — Portugal's gambling regulator has ordered prediction market platform Polymarket …
More: CoinDesk, WebProNews, Bitcoin Insider, Coinpedia Fintech News, The Crypto Times, Cointelegraph, and BeInCrypto. Bluesky: @direthoughts.com
| Michael Thomsen / New York Times: |
How Zynga uses a secretive VIP program with personal account managers and exclusive sweepstake entries to keep top players spending on games like FarmVille — CSR 2 Realistic Drag Racing is a simple game, even by smartphone standards. Players compete in short street races … | Zach Vallese / CNBC: |
Sensor Tower: Reels accounted for 50%+ of all Instagram ads in 2025, up from 35% in 2024; Reels accounted for 46% of time spent on Instagram in the US in 2025 — More than half of all ads on Meta's Instagram ran in the service's short-form video Reels product in 2025, up from 35% in 2024 … | Newley Purnell / Bloomberg: |
Meta VP of Public Policy Simon Milner, the company's most senior Asia-Pacific policy executive, plans to leave after 14 years to retire from full-time work — Meta Platforms Inc. is losing its most senior public policy executive in the Asia-Pacific at a time when the company faces several … | John Liu / Bloomberg: |
Sources: China broadens its probe into Temu owner PDD, dispatching 100+ investigators to its Shanghai HQ, after staff exchanged physical blows with regulators — China has broadened a probe into PDD Holdings Inc. after its employees exchanged blows with regulators, dispatching over 100 investigators …
More: Tech in Asia
| Aditya Soni / Reuters: |
Legal AI startup Ivo, which aims to reduce hallucinations by breaking legal reviews into 400+ tasks, raised a $55M Series B, a source says at a $355M valuation — Artificial intelligence startup Ivo raised $55 million in a funding round, led by existing investor Blackbird …
More: Forbes, Artificial Lawyer, Tech Funding News, and Axios
| Christina Kyriasoglou / Bloomberg: |
Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei says selling AI chips to China is a blunder with “incredible national security implications”, calling it a “big mistake” and “crazy” — Anthropic Chief Executive Officer Dario Amodei said selling advanced artificial intelligence chips …
More: Quartz, Blockonomi, and Silicon UK
| Yazhou Sun / Bloomberg: |
French accounting software startup Pennylane raised $204M led by TCV, a source says at a ~$4.25B valuation, with participation from Blackstone, DST, and others — Pennylane, a French startup that sells accounting software, has raised €175 million ($204 million) in a funding round led by growth equity investor TCV.
More: Sifted, Tech.eu, Pulse 2.0, Tech in Asia, and EU-Startups
| Kiran Stacey / The Guardian: |
The UK launches a consultation on whether to ban under-16s from using social media, alongside restrictions on addictive app features like infinite scrolling — Move comes as peers prepare to vote on an amendment to a bill that would enact a ban within a year of the bill passing
More: Associated Press, Engadget, Financial Times, BBC, GOV.UK, GB News, The Guardian, Lawyer Monthly, Silicon Republic, CoinGeek, BusinessCloud, SiliconANGLE, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Global Banking …, The Times, Sky News, Telegraph, and Reclaim The Net
X: @togetherdec, @bambosmp, @anglofuturist, @lukeaaronmoore, @lukeaaronmoore, @prestonjbyrne, @defossardf, @samanthataghoy, @astor_charlie, @jackguyanderton, @mavenpolitic, @russellquirk, @ellymelly, @tomhfh, @fredthomasuk, @mollyroseorg, @kemibadenoch, @sophielouisecc, @alanvibe, @charleshymas, @richardwellings, @landeur, @douglascarswell, @lauratrottmp, @davidghfrost, @kemibadenoch, @rupertlowe10, and @richardwellings. LinkedIn: Andy Burrows
Bluesky: @acerbialberto.com, @parismarx.com, @k2mey, @goodlawproject.org, @katebevan.com, @goodlawproject.org, @dorianlynskey, and @sophiasgaler
Forums: r/LabourUK and r/technology
| Ben Bergman / Business Insider: |
Vibe coding startup Emergent raised a $70M Series B led by Khosla and SoftBank Vision Fund 2, after a $23M Series A in September 2025, and claims 5M+ users — - Emergent is an AI software creation platform that helps anyone build web and mobile applications.
More: TechCrunch, Reuters, The Economic Times, Entrackr, VCCircle, Inc42, Tech Funding News, and Analytics India Magazine. Forums: r/technology
Sponsor Posts
Airtable:
The central nervous system of your business — Used by 80% of Fortune 100 companies, Airtable combines AI with the scale of an infinitely flexible, no-code system. With all your data in one place, it's like mission control for your company.
The central nervous system of your business — Used by 80% of Fortune 100 companies, Airtable combines AI with the scale of an infinitely flexible, no-code system. With all your data in one place, it's like mission control for your company.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform — Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN. That's the power of Intel Inside®
5G's most deployed platform — Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN. That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Automate CRM Data Hygiene With ETL Pipelines — A CRM is only as useful as the data inside it.Even the most expensive automation or workflows deliver wrong results when the CRM is filled with duplicates and inconsistent values.
Automate CRM Data Hygiene With ETL Pipelines — A CRM is only as useful as the data inside it.Even the most expensive automation or workflows deliver wrong results when the CRM is filled with duplicates and inconsistent values.
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.
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
Big Technology Podcast:
AI's Unpopularity + Competing With ChatGPT — With Olivia Moore
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Matt Belloni on the Oscars, the Ellisons, and Hollywood's Next Chapter
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.
Cheeky Pint:
Bret Taylor of Sierra on AI agents, outcome-based pricing, and the OpenAI board
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Invest Like the Best:
Shyam Sankar - Celebrating Heretics
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
How Sierra Is Pulling Ahead in the AI Race | Co-founder Bret Taylor
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak: Investing in an AI-Driven World
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 10:10 AM ET, January 20, 2026.
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
Scott Nover / Washington Post:Mark Stenberg / Adweek:
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Upcoming Tech Events
Earlier Picks
| Kalyeena Makortoff / The Guardian: |
| Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog: |
More: Cursor, The Decoder, and Digit
| Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg: |
More: Superintelligence and Motley Fool
X: @buccocapital, @netcapgirl, @samsolid57, @scottastevenson, @conorsen, and @sergeycyw. Bluesky: @bottleofstars
| Olivia Solon / Bloomberg: |
More: Gambling Commission, The Register, The Indian Express, Blockonomi, Engadget, and Channel NewsAsia. Bluesky: @glinden