Techmeme
December 21, 2021, 8:25 PM

Top News

Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
The Cloudflare Blog:
TikTok.com was the most popular domain globally between August and December 2021, after passing Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, and Amazon this year  —  Loading...  Sofia Cardita  —  The years come and go, Internet traffic continues to grow (at least so far and with some ‘help’ from the pandemic) …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
AT&T plans to sell its Xandr programmatic advertising marketplace to Microsoft; the deal would not include the ad sales business supporting DirecTV  —  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed; the transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory reviews.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely steps down as CEO, naming head of communications and marketing Ami Gan as his replacement; Stokely will remain as an adviser  —  OnlyFans named spokesperson Ami Gan as its new chief executive officer, replacing Tim Stokely, who founded and built the media company …
Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times:
Sources: how a 2019 NSO deal to sell Pegasus to Uganda, followed by an unknown actor using Pegasus to try to hack the US embassy in Uganda, led to NSO's decline  —  For years, the Israeli spyware maker thrived through scandal.  Then, US diplomats in Uganda got hacked by Pegasus
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Kraken acquires non-custodial staking platform Staked and claims it's “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date”, but doesn't disclose a price  —  The crypto exchange referred to the deal as “one of the largest crypto industry acquisitions to date” but did not disclose the amount paid.
Kimberly Chin / Wall Street Journal:
McDonald's is selling Dynamic Yield, a startup it acquired for $300M+ in 2019 that helps retailers offer personalized digital promotions, to Mastercard  —  Burger chain acquired startup in 2019 for more than $300 million, which was then its largest acquisition in decades
Mathew Olson / The Information:
Meta says it acquired ImagineOptix, a North Carolina-based startup specializing in liquid crystal lenses, which could help reduce the size of VR headsets  —  It's time to add another company to the list of Meta's acquisitions in the AR/VR industry.  Meta has acquired ImagineOptix …
Stephanie Chan / Sensor Tower Blog:
In 2021, 906 developers are projected to pass $1M annual revenue for the first time on Apple's App Store and Google Play, vs. 475 in 2016 and 1,003 in 2020  —  As global consumer spending in mobile apps is projected to again reach new heights in 2021, Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals …
The Information:
Sources: Bolt, which offers a one-click checkout service, is seeking to raise ~$400M at a $14B valuation, after raising $393M at an $11B valuation in October  —  With the ink barely dry on one fundraising effort by Bolt, a firm that makes e-commerce checkout software, the startup is already pitching investors on a new round.
New York Times:
Crypto and blockchain startups raised $28B+ in 2021, up 4x YoY, according to PitchBook, as large tech companies lose execs and engineers to crypto companies  —  Tech executives and engineers are quitting Google, Meta, Amazon and other large companies for what they say is a once-in-generation opportunity with crypto.
Isla McKetta / Speedtest Stories & Analysis:
A look at US satellite internet speeds, with Starlink median download/upload speeds of 87.3 Mbps and 13.5 Mbps, followed by HughesNet at 19.3 Mbps and 2.5 Mbps  —  Satellite internet is making headlines across the globe as Starlink continues to launch service in new countries and Viasat plans to acquire Inmarsat.
Politico:
Sources detail Amazon's increasingly close relationship with the DOJ and FBI, as it tips off the agencies to investigate its employees and third-party sellers  —  Amazon has increasingly tipped off the Justice Department and FBI to investigate its own employees and the sellers using its platform …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:25 PM ET, December 21, 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.

More News

Sahar Massachi / MIT Technology Review:
Mario Gabriele / The Generalist:

Earlier Picks

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Brian Sozzi / Yahoo Finance:
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: