Techmeme
May 3, 2018, 9:40 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Cambridge Analytica is shutting down following the Facebook data misuse scandal, says it was losing clients and facing mounting legal fees  —  Company had lost multiple clients in recent months  —  Cambridge Analytica , a data firm that worked for President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign …
New York Times:
Filing shows executives at Cambridge Analytica and SCL Group, along with the Mercer family, have moved to create a new firm, Emerdata, possibly for “rebranding”  —  The embattled political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica announced on Wednesday that it would cease most operations …
Peggy Sito / South China Morning Post:
Xiaomi files for an IPO in Hong Kong; sources say the Beijing-based company is seeking to raise $10B at a valuation of $100B  —  Xiaomi's 2017 sales jumped by two-thirds to 114.6 billion yuan, while operating profit tripled and adjusted net profit soared from a year earlier
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Amazon launches Wag, its own brand of pet products, starting with dry dog food, only available to Prime subscribers  —  Amazon.com Inc. has started its own brand of pet products, called Wag, expanding on existing private-label efforts that include batteries, baby products, clothing and household goods.
More: PYMNTS.com, CNET, and BetaNews
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Goldman Sachs to open a Bitcoin trading operation, will begin using its own money to trade Bitcoin futures contracts on behalf of clients in the next few weeks  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Most big banks have tried to stay far away from the scandal-tainted virtual currency Bitcoin.
Spotify Investor Relations:
Spotify reports first ever financial results with Q1 revenue of €1.139B, up 26% YoY, on operating loss of €41M; MAUs up 30% YoY to 170M  —  Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE:SPOT) today reported financial results for the first fiscal quarter of 2018 ending March 31, 2018.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Google is building Arcade, a social-gaming startup led by 21yo ex-Facebook staffer Michael Sayman, which will release a trivia-style app this summer  —  Michael Sayman, 21-year-old ex-Facebooker, said to be leading  —  Company will focus on mobile gaming with friends, Google says
Bill Jia / Facebook Code:
Facebook debuts PyTorch 1.0, which optimizes production performance and improves model compatibility with other AI frameworks, coming to beta in a few months  —  The path for taking AI development from research to production has historically involved multiple steps and tools …
Jerome Pesenti / Facebook Code:
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Wall Street Journal:
Some of the 200+ cities Amazon rejected for its HQ2 have begun to make changes based on feedback given by Amazon during rejection phone calls  —  After the retail giant told cities why they didn't become finalists for its second headquarters, some started making changes
Kara Swisher / Recode:
Zynga founder Mark Pincus reducing his voting power in the social gaming firm from a 70% to 10% stake, will remain on board but as non-executive chairman  —  In an unusual move, Pincus doesn't want the final say anymore and wanted more freedom.  —  In an unusual move for a Silicon Valley company …
Paul Vigna / Wall Street Journal:
Source: Telegram is calling off the public part of the ICO for the Telegram Open Network after raising $1.7B from 175 accredited investors via private deals  —  Telegram plans to put the money it raised into a new digital payment platform, Telegram Open Network, meant for a wide audience

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Earlier Picks

Thuy Ong / The Verge:
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