Techmeme: Dialog Semiconductor, whose clients include Apple and Samsung, is in advanced talks to sell the company to Japan's Renesas Electronics Corp. for ~$5.9B (Bloomberg)

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February 8, 2021, 7:15 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:

Hyundai and its affiliate Kia say they are not in talks with Apple to develop an autonomous vehicle; Hyundai shares fell ~8.4% in Seoul, while Kia dropped 14%. — - Apple's plans for own-branded EV are being intensely watched — Hyundai's new EV platform can charge cars to 80% in 18 minutes

Wall Street Journal:

After a flurry of tweets from Elon Musk in recent weeks, dogecoin, which launched in 2013 as a joke, has jumped in price from half a cent on Jan. 1 to ~8 cents — Cryptocurrency that started in 2013 as a joke is suddenly worth a total of more than $6 billion

More: CNET, Bloomberg, Firstpost Tech, Cointelegraph, cryptodaily.co.uk, TechCrunch, Decrypt, and Forbes

Tweets: @elonmusk, @elonmusk, @wsj, @haralabob, @haralabob, @elonmusk, @nategeraci, @elonmusk, @adamugarba, @elonmusk, @dansmithholla, @peterschiff, @crescatkevin, and @jordanuhl

Charles Fitzgerald / Platformonomics:

Analysis: in 2020, Amazon's capital expenditure grew 69% YoY to $54B, Microsoft's grew 14% YoY to $20.6B, and Google's declined over 5% YoY to $22.3B — It is time for our annual bulletin to CAPEX obsessives (previous updates from 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019 as well as earlier installments).

Tweets: @justincormack, @jordannovet, @fatrat, and @kensan42

Thomas Brewster / Forbes:

Review: in 200+ charging docs filed in relation to the Capitol siege, 73 reference Facebook, 24 reference YouTube, 20 mention Instagram, and 8 mention Parler — Just after the Capitol Hill riots on January 6, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook chief operating officer admitted the company's ability to enforce its own rules was “never perfect.”

Tweets: @iblametom, @jason_kint, @rvawonk, @kazweida, @emptywheel, @mmasnick, @yaeleisenstat, @matthewstoller, @mehdirhasan, @bostonjoan, @emilybell, @jaredlholt, and @maxabrahms

New York Times:

Leaked cellphone data from the siege at the Capitol demonstrates how advertising IDs can be used to identify and track the movement of specific individuals

Julia Chan / Sensor Tower Blog:

Sensor Tower data on top apps worldwide: Telegram led with 63M downloads in Jan. 2021, as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, Messenger downloads fell from Dec. 2020 — Telegram was the most downloaded non-gaming app worldwide for January 2021 with more than 63 million installs, 3.8 times its downloads in January 2020.

More: Notebookcheck.net, PCMag, TechRadar, Deccan Herald, Gizchina, Firstpost Tech, BGR India, and Entrackr. Tweets: @sensortower

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Nexthink, which lets businesses monitor software performance on employee devices, raises $180M Series D led by Permira at a $1.1B valuation — Nexthink, a platform used by businesses to monitor software performance on their employees' devices, has raised $180 million in a series D round of funding led by Permira.

More: Tech.eu, TechCrunch, Nexthink, and Business Wire

Bloomberg:

Dialog Semiconductor, whose clients include Apple and Samsung, is in advanced talks to sell the company to Japan's Renesas Electronics Corp. for ~$5.9B — - Renesas prepared to offer EU67.50 per share in cash for Dialog — Dialog comments on bid in statement after Bloomberg report

More: Reuters, 9to5Mac, Reuters, MarketWatch, Renesas Electronics …, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Nikkei Asia, and iTnews

Kevin / kwokchain:

How Figma, which bet on collaborative product design, and Canva, which focuses on helping non-designers excel in marketing design, are succeeding against Adobe — How Figma and Canva are taking on Adobe—and winning — In 2010, Photoshop was ubiquitous.

Tweets: @gavinsbaker, @jalajboy, and @sachinrekhi

Michael Vizard / VentureBeat:

Vendia, which offers a serverless SaaS product to share data and associated code across multicloud environments, raises $15.5M Series A led by Canvas Ventures — Vendia revealed it has raised $15.5 million to advance development of a Vendia Share service that enables IT teams to share data and code …

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:

Study of 130+ facial recognition data sets compiled over 43 years: driven by ML's data needs, researchers gradually abandoned asking for people's consent — The largest ever study of facial-recognition data shows how much the rise of deep learning has fueled a loss of privacy. — hide

More: Mashable. Tweets: @_karenhao, @phoebemoore, @dorotheabaur, @cristiancanton, @proftomcrick, @bohyunkim, @frankpasquale, @rajiinio, @hypervisible, @_katiesaurus_, @forteller, @histoftech, @ultrasaurus, @techreview, @fabiochiusi, @iethics, and @iethics

Reuters:

China issues new anti-monopoly rules putting more pressure on its local tech giants like Alibaba, Tencent, and JD.com — BEIJING (Reuters) - China's market regulator released new anti-monopoly guidelines on Sunday that target internet platforms, tightening existing restrictions faced by the country's tech giants.

More: AppleInsider

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Commsor, which gives companies insights about employees using data from tools like Slack and GitHub, raises $16M Series A at a valuation “well north of $100M” — Community is at the heart of many businesses, whether we're talking about customers, coders, or brand superfans.

Tweets: @justiacom

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Myanmar's new military government orders local telecom operators and ISPs to block Twitter and Instagram, days after imposing a similar blackout on Facebook — Updated at 1.46AM PT February 6: Telenor says Myanmar Ministry of Transport and Communications (MoTC) has directed all mobile operators …

More: The Verge, ZDNet, The Register, Gizmodo, NPR, CNN, CNBC, and news.com.au

Tweets: @tostevinm, @houseforeign, @waiwainu, @kathleenreen, @hanna_hindstrom, @kevin_m_woods, and @alexstamos

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

As protests grow in Myanmar, NetBlocks says the country's internet connectivity fell to 16% of ordinary levels, indicating a near-total internet shutdown

More: MediaNama, The Guardian, and BBC

Tweets: @netblocks, @betterpakistan, @netblocks, @kharym1, @bbcworld, @em_thuthu, @htet21059606, @mgurri, and @shaylugh

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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Source: Bari Weiss is planning to create a masthead for CBS News as part of a broader overhaul of standards and procedures

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast extends Mike Cavanagh's contract through January 1, 2029, and grants a ~$35M performance-based stock package; he's set to become co-CEO in January 2026

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:

WBD's board says it will “carefully review and consider” Paramount's revised offer, which includes a full backstop personally guaranteed by Larry Ellison

Upcoming Tech Events

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More News

Carolina Milanesi / Fast Company:

Interview with Samsung VP Jaeyeon Jung on the new Galaxy SmartTag and how it fits into the SmartThings ecosystem, which as of December had 66M active users

Frank Bajak / Associated Press:

Some experts raise concerns about the US Election Assistance Commission's proposed security standards that would allow voting machines with wireless hardware

Tweets: @rad_atl

Financial Times:

Analysis: Vision Fund, which posted a record annual loss last March, returned ~$18B to investors by the end of 2020, up from $13.4B it reported in Q3 2020

Tweets: @arashmassoudi

Julian Chokkattu / Wired:

A look at Metalenz, which aims to replace multiple lens elements in smartphone cameras with a single lens system that utilizes optical metasurfaces technology

More: IEEE Spectrum and Forbes

Tweets: @mattk, @vscpr, @dez_blanchfield, @ohmdee, and @crunchbasenews. Thanks:@ericrandall

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

Andy Jassy is said to be “warmer and fuzzier” than Bezos, but as Amazon's next CEO, he faces many hurdles if he wants its tech to manage workers more humanely

More: ccn.com, BBC, and Associated Press

Tweets: @wsj, @shashib, @jensmithwsj, @profgalloway, @mims, @smulpuru, @mims, @mims, and @mims

Earlier Picks

Will Oremus / OneZero :

Unlike established social media platforms, Clubhouse is built to replicate real world social structures, norms, and status hierarchies rather than collapse them

More: Forbes, The Startup, and Medialyte

Tweets: @willoremus, @jordosh, @lunamoth, @robmay, @jai__malik, @jeanyvesgonin, @davechensky, @willoremus, @mattyglesias, @carnage4life, @joonian, @rafat, @niviachanta, and @terrygtnguyen

Washington Post:

Jody Williams, the owner of TheDonald's domain name, explains why he pulled the plug on the pro-Trump forum that became a staging ground for the Capitol attack

Tweets: @nuclearfootie, @brianstelter, @marissa_jae, @tracyjan, and @washpostpr

Adam Ciralsky / Vanity Fair:

Profile of BitMEX cofounder Arthur Hayes, who remains at large after the CFTC filed a suit against BitMEX for allegedly running an unregistered trading platform

More: HODINKEE. Tweets: @jude_mugabi, @denvern3, @oluyomiojo, @chrischameleon, @solidusmax, @vanityfair, and @btcschellingpt

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: CEO of Robinhood, which had 20M users in 2020 and recently raised $3.4B, told investors that he still plans to take the company public in H1 2021

Tweets: @onelinders, @jason, @joshuatopolsky, @morganhousel, @rudegeair, @davidboboy, @greatquarter, @elerianm, @alex, @compound248, @samanthaladuc, @fintechfrank, @mims, and @hkanji