Techmeme
January 14, 2021, 12:05 AM

Top News

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Jack Dorsey says Trump ban was the right decision for Twitter, but reflects a “failure” to promote healthy conversation and sets a dangerous precedent  —  Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained in a tweetstorm that the company faced an ‘extraordinary and untenable circumstance’
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Snapchat says it will permanently ban Trump's account on January 20 in the interest of public safety and based on repeated violations of Snapchat's guidelines  —  Snapchat will permanently ban President Trump's account on Jan. 20, Axios has learned, after locking it indefinitely last week following the Capitol siege.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Airbnb says it is canceling and blocking reservations made for the week of Biden's inauguration in the Washington, DC metro area  —  - Airbnb is canceling and blocking future reservations in the Washington, D.C., metro area during the week of President-elect Joe Biden's inauguration, the company said Wednesday.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Intel CEO Bob Swan will step down on February 15 and VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger will replace him; Intel's stock is up 6%+, VMware's stock is down 6%+  —  - Intel CEO Bob Swan is set to step down effective Feb. 15, the company announced.  — VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger will take over the position.
Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:
In an interview, Parler CEO John Matze says he is not sure whether the social network will ever return after being cut off by service providers  —  (Reuters) - Social media platform Parler, which has gone dark after being cut off by major service providers that accused the app of failing …
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Qualcomm acquires chip startup Nuvia for $1.4B, with plans to put the company's tech into its smartphone, laptop, and automotive processors  —  (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc on Wednesday said it will acquire Nuvia Inc, a chip startup founded by Apple Inc veterans, for $1.4 billion …
Gené Teare / Crunchbase News:
Global VC report 2020: overall funding rose 4% YoY to ~$300B, despite a slow Q1, with ~$13.6B seed, $88.4B early-stage, and $198.4B late-stage and growth  —  Startups closed out 2020 in a much stronger position than the one they started the year in, with global venture funding up 4 percent year over year to $300 billion.
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Crypto startup Anchorage says it has received a federal bank charter, making it easier for big banks to use Anchorage to offer cryptocurrencies to customers  —  A startup called Anchorage announced on Wednesday that it has become the first cryptocurrency company to receive a federal charter …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Ring says it is adding opt-in end-to-end encryption for eight cameras in technical preview for US users  —  Starting today in a ‘technical preview’  —  Ring is starting to add support for end-to-end encryption to its cameras.  The feature will keep video streams encrypted from the camera …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Affirm began trading at $90.90 and closed at $97.24, up 98% after pricing shares at $49; the company raised $1.2B after pricing shares above its $41-$44 range  —  - Shares of Affirm, an online payments company, began trading on the Nasdaq.  — Affirm priced its shares at $49 apiece, above its target range of $41 to $44 each.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Actions taken by Big Tech after violence at the Capitol may have sowed the seeds for Internet 3.0, which will be defined by open protocols and decentralization  —  Francis Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man is, particularly relative to its prescience, one of the most misunderstood books of all time.
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
TikTok makes accounts of users aged 13 to 15 private by default, limiting who can comment on the videos and how other users can download or remix their videos  —  TikTok is introducing a new set of “enhanced” privacy settings that restricts certain features for younger teens and changes …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Poshmark is pricing its IPO at $42 per share, raising $277M, up from its $35-$39 price initially noted in an earlier filing  —  - Online marketplace is raising $277 million in share sale  — Poshmark IPO follows trading debut by consumer lender Affirm
More: TechCrunch
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Dropbox says it will cut about 11% of its global workforce, affecting about 315 employees, and COO Olivia Nottebohm will leave on February 5  —  - Dropbox is cutting its global workforce by about 11%, the company said in an 8K filing released Wednesday.  — The company's stock dropped more than 6% in the premarket.
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Apple announces new projects related to its $100M pledge for racial equity and justice, including a developer academy focused on Black entrepreneurs  —  Last June, Apple committed $100 million to a Racial Equity and Justice Initiative (REJI).  Lisa Jackson, Apple's vice president of environment …
Benjamin Powers / CoinDesk:
Ledger offers a 10 bitcoin bounty for details on the hacker who stole info on 272K crypto wallet device owners and says 20K more user records have been exposed  —  Ledger was also targeted by hackers in Shopify's data breach.  —  Matt Johnson, Ledger's new Chief Information Security Officer …
The Guardian:
Audio and chat logs of walkie-talkie app Zello reveal some Capitol rioters communicated via the app; Zello says it has now deleted 2K+ militia-related channels  —  Audio and chat logs show insurrectionists communicated via the app, which has avoided proactive content moderation
Megan Graham / CNBC:
Google says it will pause political ads, and those referencing “impeachment, inauguration or protests at the US Capitol” on all its platforms starting Jan. 14  —  - Google is suspending political ads along with any reference to “impeachment, inauguration or protests at the U.S. Capitol” beginning Thursday.
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Asus unveils 14- and 15-inch ZenBook Duo dual-screen laptops with a second display built into the keyboard; the 14-inch version ships this month from $1,000  —  Preorders start tomorrow  —  Asus has announced two new dual-screen ZenBook Duo laptops as part of its slate of CES 2021 announcements.
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Webflow, which helps businesses build no-code websites, raises $140M Series B led by Accel and Silversmith at a $2.1B+ valuation  —  This morning Webflow, a software company that helps businesses build no-code websites, announced that it has raised a $140 million Series B. The round …
Mercedes Ruehl / Financial Times:
Grab raises $300M led by Hanwha Asset Management for its financial services business, which spun out of Grab in 2018 and is now valued at $3B  —  New firepower comes as group faces an increasingly competitive landscape in south-east Asia  —  Grab, the south-east Asian ride-hailing and food delivery app …
More: TechCrunch and Reuters
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Telehealth startup NeuroFlow, which uses applied AI to treat patients with behavioral health conditions, raises $20M Series B led by Magellan Health  —  NeuroFlow, a digital health company combining workflow automation, patient engagement solutions and services, and applied AI to promote behavioral health …
More: NeuroFlow
Nick Statt / The Verge:
WhatsApp clarifies its new data sharing policy with Facebook, which mostly concerns businesses, after recent backlash and surge in Telegram and Signal downloads  —  The company is trying to contain fallout over a privacy policy update  —  WhatsApp has published a new FAQ page …

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