Techmeme
February 13, 2020, 1:25 PM

Top News

Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Larry Ellison is hosting a fundraiser for Donald Trump next week; while Ellison has consistently backed Republicans, he wasn't a major Trump donor until now  —  Larry Ellison risks blowback from his employees at Oracle.  Phillip Faraone/Getty Images  —  It's the most significant endorsement …
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
The Bloomberg campaign is working with Meme 2020, whose lead strategist is the CEO of Jerry Media, to create sponsored posts on influential Instagram accounts  —  A campaign of sponsored content for the candidate flourished suddenly on Instagram.  A new outfit, called Meme 2020, is behind it.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Senator Gillibrand proposes creating a government agency to protect internet privacy, similar to a bill proposed by a pair of California House Democrats  —  - New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand just became the latest lawmaker to propose digital privacy legislation.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
GSMA says it has canceled Mobile World Congress after the coronavirus made it “impossible” to hold the event  —  MWC 2020 is no more  —  The world's biggest phone show, Mobile World Congress, is no longer taking place this year.  After coronavirus threatened to throw MWC into chaos …
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Uber pilots booking rides with a phone call, not via the app, in Arizona, by dialing 1-833-USE-UBER and talking to a human operator  —  Uber is piloting a different way to order one of its cars beyond its apps or voice assistants, and it's one you might be familiar with if you ever had to order a cab before 2009 or so.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Datometry raises $17M Series B led by WRVI Capital to virtualize data warehouses, following its $10M Series A in June 2017  —  Warehouse virtualization, alternatively known as logical data warehousing and data federation, offers advantages over traditional data warehousing solutions in that it's faster and cheaper to market.
More: TechCrunch and FinSMEs
New York Times:
Andy Rubin's Essential Products, which raised $330M to build smartphones and was valued at $1B, says it is ceasing operations  —  The smartphone company founded by Mr. Rubin, a former Google executive, struggled to win over customers.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Essential Products …
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Sources: Google's scattered health care projects unify under Google Health, which now has over 500 employees and is led by former Geisinger CEO David Feinberg  —  - More than 500 people now work at Google Health, mostly out of the Palo Alto offices formerly occupied by smart home group Nest.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Astranis raises $90M Series B from a16z and others to launch its first commercial satellites through which it wants to provide broadband internet  —  YC-backed Astranis has raised $90 million of new combined debt and equity funding in a Series B round led Venrock, with a sizeable contribution …

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More News

Sarah Holder / CityLab:

Earlier Picks

Data Protection Commission:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Financial Times:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Alex Hern / The Guardian: