Techmeme
December 24, 2020, 5:20 PM

Top News

Financial Times:
China's market regulator announces an antitrust investigation into Alibaba for alleged monopolistic practices, the first investigation of its kind in China  —  Probe into China's biggest tech group is one of the first of its kind for country's internet sector
Bloomberg:
Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
In unsealed court docs, Facebook managers appeared to admit to major flaws in ad targeting capabilities in 2016 and wondered if they were misleading advertisers  —  Facebook is currently waging a PR campaign purporting to show that Apple is seriously injuring American small businesses through its iOS privacy features.
Eric Newcomer / Newcomer:
An interview with Keith Rabois, who has championed Miami as a tech destination after moving there, and whose investment portfolio has seen major exits this year  —  Keith Rabois just moved to South Florida.  Now he wants Silicon Valley to join him.  —  15 hr ago  —  Keith Rabois is ubiquitous these days.
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Seven startups, including Thrasio and Heyday, hoping to become conglomerates like P&G, have raised a combined $950M to acquire small Amazon Marketplace sellers  —  Start-ups including Thrasio, SellerX and Heroes are rolling up small brands, hoping to become the new P&G or Unilever
Lorraine Longhi / The Copper Courier:
Some GoDaddy employees are upset after the company sent a phishing email scam to test its employees, with the email promising a $650 one-time holiday bonus  —  GoDaddy surpassed 20 million customers this year and laid off or reassigned hundreds of employees during the coronavirus pandemic in Arizona, Iowa, and Texas.
Kate Duffy / Business Insider:
April Christina Curley, a Google recruiter focused on Black colleges, says she was fired in September and alleges a hostile work environment for Black people  —  - A Google employee, who said she was fired by the tech giant in September, claimed Monday that her manager told her that her way of speaking …
Bloomberg:
Source: Square has held talks to acquire music streaming service Tidal, which Jay-Z acquired for $56M in early 2015  —  - Streaming music platform has struggled to keep up with Spotify  — Dorsey has met with Jay-Z multiple times during the pandemic  —  Square Inc., the digital-payment …
Giles Turner / Bloomberg:
Filing: ByteDance says TikTok UK had sales of $20M in 2019, with a loss of $119.5M, driven by advertising and marketing expenses of $109M  —  - Chinese owner ByteDance has not disclosed global figures  — Video-sharing app has been rapidly expanding in U.K.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Nuro says it has been granted a permit to test and charge for its commercial autonomous delivery service by California's DMV, the first company to do so  —  Hours after announcing that it acquired self-driving truck startup Ike, Nuro revealed it's the first company to receive permission …
John Harney / Bloomberg:
DHS has issued an advisory to US businesses, warning of data security risks with using communication equipment and services from China-linked companies  —  - Homeland Security warns of trade secret, competition risks  — Advisory comes after hack that Trump advisers blame on Russia
Zach Dorfman / Foreign Policy:

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Earlier Picks

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Kevin McLaughlin / The Information:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch: