Techmeme
December 18, 2017, 5:20 AM

Top News

Garrett M. Graff / Wired:
Inside the investigation led by the FBI to identify key perpetrators behind the Mirai Botnet, which was created initially to DDoS Minecraft servers  —  THE MOST DRAMATIC cybersecurity story of 2016 came to a quiet conclusion Friday in an Anchorage courtroom, as three young American computer …
Benedict Evans:
How Amazon's decentralized operating structure and small, independent teams that use common internal systems, are integral to the company's unending scalability  —  When you look at large manufacturing companies, it becomes very clear that the machine that makes the machine is just as important as the machine itself.
Mike Murphy / Quartz:
The number of AmazonBasics products available on Amazon.com grew from about 250 products in June 2013 to over 1,500 products now, according to Internet Archive  —  Amazon launched a house brand, called AmazonBasics, in 2009.  It was originally a way for Amazon to sell low-cost …
Erin Griffith / Wired:
Behind Fitbit's gradual pivot toward personal medical devices via its b2b arm, Health Solutions, as revenue declines and competition from Apple Watch rises  —  FITBIT SPENT ITS first decade selling activity trackers.  With its latest moves, the company is starting to look less …
More: diginomica
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Splice, a startup that sells digital tools and music samples to musicians, raises $35M Series B led by DFJ Growth  —  Steve Martocci's first company was a text messaging service.  Now he's behind the scenes of a Demi Lovato song.  —  Making money selling songs is hard: Just ask Spotify …
More: FinSMEs
Stan Higgins / CoinDesk:
A man in New York allegedly stole $1.8M worth of ether cryptocurrency, kidnapping victim, forcing him to give up his digital wallet, then transferring the funds  —  The New York County District Attorney's Office has filed armed robbery and kidnapping charges against a man alleged …
Axios:
Source: Amazon in advanced talks to acquire Sqrrl, a startup that analyzes big data to detect cybersecurity threats; Sqrrl has raised nearly $30M in VC funding  —  Amazon is in advanced talks to acquire Sqrrl, a Massachusetts-based cybersecurity software company whose founders used to work for the NSA, Axios has learned.
Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg:
Sources: Tencent Music plans IPO in 2018, is expected to raise $1B+, valued at $10B  —  Internet giant is said to plan music-business IPO next year  —  Katy Perry, local artists exploit messaging, karaoke apps  —  One of China's most-anticipated initial public offerings next year …
Tweets: @mdudas

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Earlier Picks

Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
Kate Conger / Gizmodo: