Techmeme
May 13, 2022, 6:40 AM

Top News

Nivedita Balu / Reuters:
Elon Musk says his Twitter deal is temporarily on hold “pending details supporting calculation that spam/fake accounts” represent <5% of users; TWTR drops 17%+  —  Elon Musk said on Friday his $44-billion deal for Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) was temporarily on hold, citing pending details on spam and fake accounts.
@kayvz:
[Thread] Twitter product chief Kayvon Beykpour says he is leaving at the request of CEO Parag Agrawal, who wants to “take the team in a different direction”  —  Interrupting my paternity leave to share some final @twitter-related news: I'm leaving the company after over 7 years.
Bloomberg:
In a memo, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts; VP of product Jay Sullivan will take over as head of product  —  Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal announced a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts on Thursday …
Sunil Jagtiani / Bloomberg:
Terraform Labs halts Terra block production for the second time in 24 hours “to come up with a plan to reconstitute it”, after UST and LUNA collapsed  —  The blockchain behind the collapsed TerraUSD stablecoin and the affiliated Luna token stopped processing new transactions for the second time in less than a day.
Financial Times:
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:
Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg:
Coinbase's market cap falls to $12.98B from a $75B+ peak in 2021 as its stock closes at $58.50, far below its first day closing price of $328.28 in April 2021  —  Coinbase Global Inc. has declined precipitously this year, largely mimicking the drop in Bitcoin prices and taking its market value …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Ex-Facebook crypto chief David Marcus launches Lightspark, a payments startup building on Bitcoin's Lightning network, backed by a16z, Paradigm, and others  —  After his departure from Facebook in November, many crypto industry insiders speculated where long-time executive David Marcus would land.
Veronica Irwin / Protocol:
Masayoshi Son says SoftBank plans to cut its startup investments by 50%-75% through March 2023, after Vision Fund reported a $20B+ loss for its fiscal year  —  Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is severely cutting its planned startup investments through next March, Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said in a Thursday earnings call.
Washington Post:
Interviews with 17 Hollywood insiders reveal that celebrities view Twitter as a high-risk, low-reward platform, and why Musk's ownership might make it worse  —  Elon Musk was right that Twitter's most popular accounts have gone quieter over the years.  Hollywood insiders explain what happened …
Tanaya Macheel / CNBC:
SEC filing: FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried bought a 7.6% stake, worth $648M, in Robinhood, calling it “an attractive investment”; stock jumps 20%+ after hours  —  Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has taken a 7.6% stake in Robinhood, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mahira Dayal / The Information:
PitchBook: 16 new VC funds with 60%+ female decision makers have raised $4.5B from January to April 2022; women-led funds raised $3.7B in 2021 and $1.8B in 2020  —  For years, women-led venture capital funds were the true Silicon Valley unicorns, a rarity in a sector where the vast majority of check writers are men.

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More News

Paresh Dave / Reuters:
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Earlier Picks

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