Techmeme
December 11, 2017, 10:05 PM

Top News

TechCrunch:
Apple confirms Shazam acquisition; sources say deal was for about $400M, and Snap and Spotify also expressed interest  —  After we broke the story last week that Apple was acquiring London-based music and image recognition service Shazam, Apple confirmed the news today.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Ex-Facebook VP of user growth and Social Capital CEO says social media is “destroying how society works” and leads to “no civil discourse, no cooperation”  —  ‘No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth.’  —  Another former Facebook executive …
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission:
SEC chairman Jay Clayton releases statement on cryptocurrencies, says ICOs effective for raising funds “whether they represent offerings of securities or not”  —  SEC Chairman Jay Clayton  —  The world's social media platforms and financial markets are abuzz about cryptocurrencies and “initial coin offerings” (ICOs).
John Voorhees / MacStories:
Apple announces developers can now make their apps available for pre-order  —  You may recall that when Super Mario Run was announced in 2016, customers could request notification of its release, which was a first at the time on the App Store.  Now, all developers can do something similar by offering their apps for pre-order.
Stan Higgins / CoinDesk:
Restaurant review startup Munchee halts ICO after SEC investigation, which said in cease-and-desist order that the firm's tokens were unregistered securities  —  A California-based company has refunded a $15 million initial coin offering following an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Serena Saitto / The Information:
Sources: neighborhood social network Nextdoor has raised $75M in new funding at a valuation higher than previous round's $1.1B valuation in 2015  —  Nextdoor, the social media platform for city neighborhoods, has raised $75 million at a valuation above the $1.1 billion level it reached …
Peter Rudegeair / Wall Street Journal:
Financial-tech startup Affirm says it's raised $200M led by Singaporean sovereign-wealth fund GIC; source says at a valuation between $1.5B and $2B  —  Battling larger players getting into its core business of lending to consumers for retail purchases  —  Financial-technology startup Affirm Inc …
More: TechCrunch
Bloomberg:
Microsoft releases a free preview of its Quantum Computing Development Kit, which includes the Q# programming language, compiler, and simulator  —  Software giant releases a quantum programming language and simulator, but still has no working computer  —  In the race to commercialize …

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