Techmeme
February 1, 2022, 11:00 AM

Top News

The New York Times Company:
The New York Times acquires Wordle, the simple word game that has amassed “millions of daily players”, for “an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”  —  Wordle, Josh Wardle's stimulating and wildly popular daily word game, is joining The New York Times's portfolio of original …
Brendan Sinclair / GamesIndustry.biz:
Sony Interactive Entertainment announces it is buying Bungie, which makes Destiny and other games, for $3.6B; Bungie will become an independent subsidiary  —  Destiny studio will remain multiplatform, able “to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play”
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:
Source: the FTC, not the DOJ, is reviewing Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition and will focus on potential harm to rivals  —  The U.S. antitrust review of Microsoft Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will be handled by the Federal Trade Commission …
Maximiliano Firtman / firt.dev:
iOS 15.4 beta code shows Apple is working on support for Safari push notifications for web-based apps  —  iOS 15.4 beta has finally added icon support in the manifest, Web Push, AR, and VR experiments.  —  Twitter @firt About Newsletter  —  About 8 min reading time
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India proposes a 30% tax on income from the transfer of crypto, NFTs, and other digital assets and will launch a digital rupee in the next financial year  —  India on Tuesday proposed launching digital rupee in within a year and a 30% tax on income from transfer of virtual digital assets …
John Hendel / Politico:
Nonprofit suicide chat service Crisis Text Line ends its data sharing relationship with for-profit spinoff Loris.ai and asks the company to delete existing data  —  The nonprofit mental-health hotline Crisis Text Line ended its data-sharing relationship with a for-profit spinoff Monday …
Taylor Lyles / IGN:
Discord starts letting US PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 users link their PSN accounts and display game activity; support for more countries is coming soon  —  Support will roll out first to US users, though.  —  PlayStation owners will able to connect their accounts to Discord starting today …
Tom Krisher / Associated Press:
Docs: Tesla will issue an OTA update to its FSD software that let vehicles roll through stop signs without coming to a halt, affecting around 54,000 vehicles  —  DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their “Full Self-Driving” software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt.
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Ryan Breslow, co-founder of one-click checkout startup Bolt, steps down as CEO and becomes executive chairman, after his tweets bashing YC and Stripe went viral  —  Ryan Breslow, who founded the “one-click” checkout tech company Bolt as a Stanford student and dropped out of college to build it …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Metronome, which helps SaaS companies charge on a usage basis using its APIs, raises a $30M Series A led by a16z  —  As more software companies shift to more flexible pricing models based on consumption, many are choosing to charge customers on a per-use, or usage, basis.
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Lunchbox, which offers restaurants tools for ordering, managing apps, and other tech, raises a $50M Series B led by Coatue after a $20M Series A in October 2020  —  It's not a secret that the restaurant industry was a late adopter of technology, a move that unfortunately left many restaurants unprepared …
More: FinSMEs
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Silvergate Bank confirms it is purchasing the Diem Association's tech and other assets by issuing $132M in stock and paying $50M in cash; Diem is shutting down  —  The Diem Association is shutting down.  —  Silvergate Bank confirmed Monday that it's purchasing the technology and other assets from Diem …
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Metafy, a marketplace for video game coaching, raises a $25M Series A led by Tiger Global and Seven Seven Six, following a $8.65M seed in 2021  —  Metafy, a startup that operates a marketplace for video game coaching, announced this morning that it has closed a $25 million Series A. Tiger Global …
Wall Street Journal:
Indian politician Rahul Gandhi writes to Twitter's CEO alleging it has been unwittingly complicit in a government campaign to limit new followers to his account  —  Politician writes to Twitter CEO to complain about curbs he blames on India's government, highlighting how New Delhi polices U.S. social media companies
Ann-Marie Alcántara / Wall Street Journal:
Pinterest adds an augmented reality tool for furniture to its mobile app, letting users see how 20K products from retail partners would look in their homes  —  The new tool expands on its existing technology used for beauty products  —  Pinterest Inc. is introducing a new augmented reality tool …
More: Engadget and The VergeThanks:@malliegator
Dan Taylor / Tech.eu:
Finnish startup MariaDB raises a $104M Series D and plans for an IPO on the NYSE via a SPAC merger  —  Finland's MariaDB has closed a $104 million Series D private placement round and announced its intention to become a publicly-traded entity on the New York Stock Exchange via a merger …
Source: Business Wire

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
The hidden gaps in your sanctions screening process and how to close them  —  This is a guest post by Trademo.A widespread scenario that plays out more often than most businesses realise: a new dealer is onboarded …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
The billionaire paying AI researchers to stay out of Big Tech
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
The Race to the Middle
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
After you ring the bell
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:
AI Fact or Fiction: The Fable Ban, Tokenmaxxing, Saaspocolypse — With Ara Kharazian
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.
Hard Fork:
'Hard Fork' Live Part 2: Dylan Field on Standing Out in the A.I. Era
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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 11:00 AM ET, February 1, 2022.

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

Ed Dixon / SportsPro:

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:
Sam Byford / The Verge: