|
February 3, 2021, 3:15 PM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Ben Thompson / Stratechery: |
Jeff Bezos departs as perhaps the best CEO in tech history, having created three huge businesses: Amazon.com, AWS, and Amazon's marketplace/fulfillment services — It's the refunds that blow my mind. — You may be surprised to know that, despite the fact I live in Taiwan, I have an Amazon Prime account.
More:
The Verge, Daring Fireball, CNBC, and Business Insider
Tweets: @mathewi, @ntaylor963, @ahmed, @cagan, @dylanbyers, and @stratechery
| Brad Stone / Bloomberg: |
Jeff Bezos's surprise resignation feels natural and even inevitable; the walls of his highly compartmentalized empire have been crumbling for some time — Jeff Bezos has a formulation about one-way doors and two-way doors—decisions that are irreversible and permanent and those that can always be unwound.
More:
The Verge, Tech Xplore, The Irish Times, CNBC, BBC, Data Driven Investor, Axios, and The Economic Times
Tweets: @business, @dylanbyers, @histoftech, @josh_wingrove, and @retogregori
| Jeff Bezos / About Amazon: |
More:
Washington Post, GeekWire, InfoWorld, USA Today, New York Times, TechCrunch, Business Insider, On my Om, Ars Technica, Vox, CNBC, OneZero , Reuters, Cloud Computing News, Financial Times, Redmond Pie, cloudpro.co.uk, MediaNama, Newser, coinspeaker.com, Telecoms.com, ComputerWeekly.com, Engadget, Silicon Canals, Protocol, Wall Street Journal, The Overspill, Associated Press, KnowTechie, Politico, NPR, and The Economic Times
Tweets: @film_girl, @werner, @om, @missgallo, @voxdotcom, @iradhikagupta, @firstadopter, @robertcaruso, @danprimack, @bymikebaker, @apollozac, and @sdkstl
| Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal: |
SolarWinds CEO says hackers had breached the company's Office 365 email system for at least nine months starting December 2019 — Investigators still don't know how the company was breached in attack that will cost millions — The newly appointed chief executive of SolarWinds Corp …
More:
Reuters, Trustwave, Axios, CNET, The Hill, CyberScoop, Washington Post, Wired, OnMSFT.com, Dark Reading, BleepingComputer, CRN, The Hacker News, Forbes, SecurityWeek, infosecurity-magazine.com, SC Media, NBC News, Cybereason, and AppleInsider
Tweets: @hatr and @zachsdorfman
| Bloomberg: |
Report: Apple plans $3.6B investment in Kia, with a deal on Feb. 17, and aims to start making cars in Georgia, US in 2024, with initial target of 100K cars/year — - Local media report says deal may be signed later this month — Hyundai last month confirmed then backed away from Apple talks
Source:
gongA.com. More:
Reuters, PCMag, TechSpot, MacRumors, Light Reading, Mashable, The Mac Observer, MacDailyNews, Redmond Pie, TechRadar, iDownloadBlog.com, BGR, iPhone in Canada Blog, MSPoweruser, Cult of Mac, MakeUseOf, Fortune, KnowTechie, Tom's Guide, iMore, iPhone Hacks, Pocketnow, and AppleInsider
Tweets: @carnage4life, @sam_l_shead, @imkialikethecar, @mpelletiercio, @brianroemmele, and @twitandrewking
| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
TikTok will prompt users to seek credible information if they try to share videos flagged as misleading, and disincentivize creators from uploading such content — TikTok will begin asking users to seek credible information about a topic if they try to share a video that carries …
More:
TikTok, CNN, The Verge, Forbes, KnowTechie, Pocketnow, TechCrunch, and Silicon Republic
Tweets: @tiktokcomms and @sarafischer
| Marc Andreessen / Andreessen Horowitz: |
a16z names Sriram Krishnan as its newest GP, after roles at Facebook, Snap, Twitter; Krishnan has been consulting for nine months on an a16z “community project” — Welcome, Sriram Krishnan, our newest general partner, to Andreessen Horowitz! — Sriram is a well-known …
Tweets: @pmarca, @sriramk, @sriramk, @sriramk, @alexeheath, @amir, @andrewchen, @mylesudland, @hunterwalk, @thekenyeung, @jyarow, and @thekenyeung
| Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge: |
Google rolls out an update for Android TV with a refreshed UI that is similar to Google TV on Chromecast — A fresh look for Google's (other) smart TV software — Google is rolling out a new update for Android TV that gives its smart TV OS a fresh new look — one that's almost identical … | Sam Byford / The Verge: |
Sony says it shipped 4.5M PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, and reports revenue of $8.4B in Q3, up 40% YoY, operating profit of $763.3M, up 50% — A similar figure to the PS4 launch — Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, as revealed by information published alongside …
More:
Ars Technica, Engadget, Reuters, VentureBeat, Tom's Hardware, Laptop Mag, Trusted Reviews, Android Headlines, Nikkei Asia, CNET, Dot Esports, 9to5Toys, Wall Street Journal, PCMag, Financial Times, TechSpot, Thurrott, CNBC, TechPowerUp, and KnowTechie
Tweets: @tomwarren and @vikingsizegamer
| Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: |
Box says it has acquired Dutch cloud-based e-signature startup SignRequest for $55M and plans to launch Box Sign in summer 2021 — Cloud storage and collaboration giant Box has announced plans to acquire SignRequest, a cloud-based electronic signature (e-signature) startup based in the Netherlands, in a deal worth $55 million.
More:
Box Blog, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Tech.eu, Business Insider, and ZDNet
| BuzzFeed News: |
Facebook says it will try to protect posts that criticized Myanmar's military and its coup and will remove content that praises or supports the coup — After failing to stem the hate speech and misinformation that fueled a genocide in Myanmar, Facebook now says it plans …
More:
The Verge. Tweets: @tomscocca, @jeffhorwitz, @max_fisher, @mantzarlis, @alkapdc, @riegerreport, @graceonfootball, @charlesarthur, @peterwsinger, @rulajebreal, and @slpng_giants
| Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch: |
Wine recommendation and marketplace app Vivino raises $155M Series D led by Sweden's Kinnevik, bringing its total raised to $221M, and says it now has 50M users — If you're at all interested in wine, chances are you've turned to Vivino at least a few times for recommendations.
More:
FinSMEs, The Spoon, StreetInsider.com, PYMNTS.com, and Bloomberg
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: Jack Ma's Ant Group has reached an agreement with Chinese regulators to turn Ant into a financial holding company, subject to bank capital requirements — - Ma's fintech giant will become a financial holding company — Ant is still exploring a potential IPO, but timeline unclear
More:
CoinDesk, PYMNTS.com, Financial Times, Cointelegraph, Wall Street Journal, and Tech in Asia
Tweets: @luluyilun and @glennluk
| Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal: |
Spotify reports Q4 results: 345M MAUs, up 27% YoY, as paying subscribers grew to 155M, up 24% YoY, topping expectations; revenue was up 17% YoY to €2.17B — But streaming giant offers conservative outlook for the current year as new sign-ups could ebb
More:
Spotify, The Verge, Business Wire, RAIN News, phonearena.com, 9to5Mac, Variety, Axios, Bloomberg, Deadline, TechSpot, and Engadget
Tweets: @kerrymflynn and @dylanbyers
| Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: |
Google and its partner SubCom say the Dunant subsea cable between US and France is now operational; the 4,000-mile cable can carry 250 terabits/second — Google's second fully privately owned subsea cable is now open for business. The announcement comes shortly after the company recorded …
More:
Google Cloud Blog, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, and ZDNet
| Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware: |
Report: in Q4 2020, Intel clawed back QoQ desktop PC and notebook CPU market share from AMD for the first time in 3 years amid AMD's ongoing supply chain issues — The Mercury Research CPU market share results are in for the fourth quarter of 2020, with the headline news being that Intel … | Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Instagram confirms it is working on an early prototype of Vertical Instagram Stories, which are presented in a TikTok-like scrolling fashion — Instagram is developing a new feature that could give its app more of a TikTok-like feel: Vertical Instagram Stories.
More:
Instagram, 9to5Mac, Social Media Today, and phonearena.com
Tweets: @alex193a, @mattnavarra, and @justiacom
| Bloomberg: |
Online payments service Payoneer, which counts Airbnb and Amazon as clients, agrees to go public via SPAC at a $3.3B valuation — - Payment firm used by Airbnb, Amazon to merge with FTAC Olympus — Company is profitable, expects $432 million in revenue in 2021
More:
MarketWatch, Reuters, Business Insider, Globes Online, Finextra, and PYMNTS.com
| Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: |
Online grocery delivery service Good Eggs raises $100M led by Glade Brook Capital Partners — Grocery delivery startup Good Eggs is announcing that it has raised $100 million in new funding, and that it's planning to launch in Southern California in either the summer or fall of this year.
More:
San Francisco Business Journal, GlobeNewswire, and BloombergQuint
Tweets: @mattrosoff, @foodtechconnect, and @autumncapital
| Jesse Pound / CNBC: |
GameStop's shares closed for the day at $90 on Feb. 2, down from a peak of $483 last week, as other Reddit-fueled stock trades like AMC suffer similar reversals — - Shares of GameStop skidded further before Tuesday's opening bell, with shares of the volatile retail-trader favorite sliding more than 40% …
More:
Washington Post, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, New York Times, and CBS News
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Rescale, which offers “infrastructure-as-a-service” tools for scientific and engineering simulations, raises $50M Series C, bringing total raised to $100M+ — Rescale, a San Francisco, California-based startup developing a software platform and hardware infrastructure for scientific … | Kris Holt / Engadget: |
Facebook rolls out Messenger for Oculus Quest, as well as App Lab, letting developers distribute apps outside the Oculus Store without needing to sideload — Facebook is continuing to stitch its services more closely together — it's now rolling out Messenger on Oculus.
More:
Oculus Blog, Messenger News, Trusted Reviews, VRFocus, Tom's Guide, KnowTechie, The Verge, and TechCrunch
Tweets: @oculus, @jeffbulljr, @diegomendes, @lucid00, @visigoth, @creationsdb, @vr_sam, @id_aa_carmack, and @jacobrossi
| Natalia Drozdiak / Bloomberg: |
Biden's administration signals it is open to a deal on taxing US tech companies globally, after EU-Trump clashes, as OECD plans an agreement by summer — Hey all, it's Natalia. Tech giants including Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. could soon be hit with higher taxes around …
Tweets: @glynmoody and @economics
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
India warns Twitter to comply with its order to block content related to a farmer protest and not “assume the role of a court and justify non-compliance” — India has issued a notice to Twitter, warning the American social firm to comply with New Delhi's order to block accounts …
More:
Wall Street Journal, The Guardian, Reuters, NDTV.com, Variety, and KnowTechie
Tweets: @meghavishwanath and @accessnow
| Reuters: |
Microsoft says it supports Australia's proposed new laws forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news content and it would be “willing to live by these rules” — (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it fully supported proposed new laws in Australia that would force internet giants Google … | Jill Lepore / New Yorker: |
Nations are engaging in a cyberweapons arms race, with agencies like the NSA prioritizing offensive capabilities over defense, fueling a lucrative 0-day market — Amid a global gold rush for digital weapons, the infrastructure of our daily lives has never been more vulnerable.
Tweets: @hatr, @nicoleperlroth, @newyorker, @hoanssolo, @scottshanenyt, and @hatr
Sponsor Posts
Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning — SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds. Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference — Stop preparing for agents. Start running them. 100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference — Stop preparing for agents. Start running them. 100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Generate Sample Data the Way You Want It Using AI, for Free — Finding good sample data is harder than it should be.If you've ever tried to test a dashboard, build a demo, or train a team on an analytics tool, you know the drill.
Generate Sample Data the Way You Want It Using AI, for Free — Finding good sample data is harder than it should be.If you've ever tried to test a dashboard, build a demo, or train a team on an analytics tool, you know the drill.
IDrive:
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI — L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI — L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
Cloudflare CEO: We're Ready To Block Millions of Websites From AI — With Matthew Prince
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Data Centers, Elon Musk, and the New Politics of Tech, with David Weigel
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Sam Altman on OpenAI's next model and the AI backlash
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Brian Singerman from GPx
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Training Data:
Making Cities Awesome: Peregrine's Nick Noone & Ben Rudolph
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:15 PM ET, February 3, 2021.
The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.
From Mediagazer
Brian Steinberg / Variety:Andrew Marchand / The Athletic:
Katharine Q. Seelye / New York Times:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.vc: |
Tweets: @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @benedictevans, @zoescaman, @akruglov, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ballmatthew, @ricardobsalinas, @pierskicks, @ballmatthew, @dsilverman, @ballmatthew, @timsweeneyepic, @ctothejones, @micapital2, @lucas_shaw, and @valuations_
Earlier Picks
| Jay Greene / Washington Post: |
More:
Bloomberg, The Guardian, Business Insider, Fortune, and NPR
| Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: |
More:
AppleInsider, XDA Developers, MacRumors, Macworld, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tom's Guide, Wccftech, Security Affairs, iPhone Hacks, 9to5Mac, BleepingComputer, and Lifehacker. Tweets: @gurgling_mrd