Techmeme
April 21, 2022, 2:15 PM

Top News

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Filing: Elon Musk has secured $46.5B to acquire Twitter, including $25.5B in debt financing via Morgan Stanley and other firms, and is exploring a tender offer  —  - Elon Musk is exploring whether to commence a tender offer for Twitter, according to a new securities filing.
Bloomberg:
Elon Musk's free speech promise for Twitter follows years of silencing or punishing criticism at Tesla and SpaceX, including attacking staff trying to unionize  —  If Elon Musk is able to take over Twitter Inc., his biggest promise is to transform it into a platform for free speech with few restrictions …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Meta is reviewing whether COO Sheryl Sandberg pressured the Daily Mail in 2016 and 2019 into killing stories about her then-boyfriend Bobby Kotick  —  Social-media executive, who dated the Activision Blizzard CEO, was part of campaign to persuade the U.K. tabloid to shelve a potential article
New York Times:
Warner Bros. Discovery will shut down CNN+ on April 30, after its March 29 debut; sources: CNN+ had ~150K subscribers and was on pace to hit first-year goals  —  The new corporate owners of CNN are moving to end the new streaming service after a splashy debut.
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
Binance begins enforcing tougher KYC checks, including proof of address, on Russian users with crypto holdings exceeding €10,000, following further EU sanctions  —  Crypto exchange Binance is enforcing tougher Know Your Customer (KYC) checks for Russian users after the latest wave of European Union sanctions.
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Andreessen Horowitz launches a16z Crypto Research, focused on Web3 breakthroughs that can contribute to deployable code, to be led by academic Tim Roughgarden  —  Venture capital giant Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) is diving deeper into the crypto market with the launch of a new academic lab dedicated …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon unveils Buy with Prime, which lets select third-party merchants use Amazon's shipping and logistics network to fulfill orders placed on their own sites  —  - Buy with Prime enables third party retailers to take advantage of Amazon's vast shipping and fulfillment network for orders placed on their own site.
Cobie:
A look at the evolution of crypto staking, from a useful tool to a quasi-Ponzi scheme, and how Yuga Labs is effectively paying people in ApeCoin to hold ApeCoin  —  Recently, I was contacted by a member of the board of ApeCoin, which is the BAYC token's equivalent of a board of directors I guess.
Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
After conversations with regulators, Google announces a redesign of its cookie consent banner in Europe, including a “reject all” button, starting in France  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google said it's rolling out a new European-wide policy allowing users to more easily avoid being tracked on the internet via cookies.
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Sources: the EU is set to unveil the Digital Services Act, which bans targeting users based on religion, gender, and more, among other rules, on Friday  —  Digital Services Act lays out rules for technology groups to keep users safe online  —  The EU is poised to unveil a law on Friday …
MIT Technology Review:
How AI data-labeling companies like Appen profit from cheap labor in crisis-ridden countries like Venezuela to meet exploding demand  —  It was meant to be a temporary side job—a way to earn some extra money.  Oskarina Fuentes Anaya signed up for Appen, an AI data-labeling platform …
Logan Plant / IGN:
Report: Sony is working on a PlayStation program to let select partners insert ads within free-to-play games, similar to a reported Microsoft effort for Xbox  —  Sony is reportedly planning its own program to insert ads into games.  —  After last week's report that Xbox is looking to include …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Spotify now lets all creators in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand upload video podcasts to through Anchor  —  After over a year of more limited tests  —  All creators in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand can now upload video podcasts to Spotify, the streaming service has announced.
Anushree Dave / The Block:
Flipside Crypto, which provides blockchain analytics and business intelligence to crypto companies, raises $50M led by Republic Capital at a $350M valuation  —  Quick Take  — The funding round, led by Republic Capital, values the company at $350 million.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Cybersecurity authorities of Five Eyes countries warn of Russia-backed hacking groups targeting critical infrastructure organizations in and outside Ukraine  —  Today, Five Eyes cybersecurity authorities warned critical infrastructure network defenders of an increased risk that Russia-backed hacking groups …

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