Techmeme
December 21, 2021, 11:35 PM

Top News

Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Amid COVID-19 concerns, Meta, Amazon, Ring, and Twitter cancel in-person CES plans, while T-Mobile and AMD plan a limited presence, as others monitor conditions  —  - Google, HTC, Samsung and Sony still currently plan to go  — Host of CES conference remains steadfast in moving forward
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
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) …
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.
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.
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 …
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 …
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
Ryne Hager / Android Police:
CEO of OSOM, a privacy-centric smartphone company founded by ex-Essential employees, teases OV1, the company's first handset slated for launch in summer 2022  —  Essential, the smartphone company once helmed by Android creator Andy Rubin, might be dead, but the rest of the team behind the cult-favorite phone isn't done yet.
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.
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 …

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Sahar Massachi / MIT Technology Review:
Mario Gabriele / The Generalist:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
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Brian Sozzi / Yahoo Finance:
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: