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May 16, 2020, 8:10 AM

Top News

Axios:
Facebook to buy Giphy, keep its branding, integrate with Instagram; sources say the deal is worth ~$400M, while Giphy was valued at ~$600M in its latest round  —  Facebook has agreed to buy Giphy, the popular platform of sharable animated images, Axios has learned from multiple sources.
More: About Facebook, The Verge, GIPHY, Ars Technica, BetaNews, The Verge, The Information, CNBC, TechRadar.com, Crunchbase News, The Edge Newsletter, Silicon Valley Business …, Digital Trends, Reuters, Unique Business Models, Ubergizmo, Gizchina, Tom's Guide, AdExchanger, Daring Fireball, The Daily Dot, SiliconANGLE, Social Media Today, Gizmodo, Input, Adweek, Tubefilter, Android Authority, SlashGear, 9to5Mac, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, The Mac Observer, TechSpot, Wccftech, CNN, The Next Web, Neowin, Pocket-lint, XDA Developers, Washington Post, Android Headlines, MacRumors, Hollywood Reporter, Thurrott, Business Insider, TechCrunch, iMore, ZDNet, and NBC News
Owen Williams / OneZero :
Facebook's purchase of Giphy gives FB insight into how and where gifs are shared outside of its own apps, including device IDs and keystrokes in Giphy tools  —  GIPHY joins Facebook's data collection arsenal  —  Facebook announced on Friday that it will buy Giphy, a popular GIF search engine …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: DOJ and state AGs are likely to bring antitrust lawsuits against Google as soon as this summer, focusing on its ad business and search dominance  —  Both the federal and state investigations are focused on Google's ad business  —  WASHINGTON—Both the Justice Department and a group …
Reuters:
US bans sales to Huawei of semiconductors and semiconductor designs made abroad using certain US software and technology  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday moved to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies from global chipmakers, in an action that could ramp up tensions with China.
Global Times:
China signals it is ready to retaliate for US' Huawei ban by launching investigations or imposing restrictions on companies like Qualcomm, Cisco, and Apple  —  China is ready to take a series of countermeasures against a US plan to block shipments of semiconductors to Chinese telecom firm Huawei …
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Sources: Clubhouse raised a Series A round from a16z, which includes $10M in primary capital and at least $2M in secondary shares, at a $100M valuation  —  Clubhouse is a voice-based social media app with about 5,000 beta test users.  Prospective listeners have to sign up for a waitlist via Google form …
Stratechery:
Forcing Facebook and Google to pay for news could lead to uncritical reporting on tech; better approaches would tackle roots of media woes, including ad markets  —  Exponent — as promised! — will be back tomorrow, talking about podcasting, Spotify, and working from home.  —  On to the update:
Jina Moore / Rest of World:
A deep dive into Sudan's 2019 internet shutdown, how telecom engineers disrupted the government's control over the internet, and the future of digital rights  —  How citizens, telecom employees, and activists in Sudan turned a battle for digital rights into a referendum on the government
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
The pandemic could accelerate consolidation in the scooter-sharing industry, as companies cut costs and lay off staff to cope with severe declines in ridership  —  Public transportation is on life support, as the pandemic makes people less inclined to want to cram themselves into underground metal tubes …

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