Techmeme
May 18, 2022, 11:25 AM

Top News

Brian Stelter / CNN:
Twitter's board says it intends to “close the transaction” at the agreed price and “enforce the merger agreement”  —  New York CNN Business — … Who wants to own Twitter?  Maybe Elon Musk doesn't.  Sure, maybe he is causing chaos to extract a lower price from the Twitter board …
Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
Edwin Chan / Bloomberg:
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Acer unveils the Swift 3 laptop, starting at $900 with a 14" OLED display, 12th-Gen Intel Core H-series CPUs, and claimed 10-hour battery life, coming in July  —  A new 14-inch OLED for $899.99  —  It wasn't too long ago that the phrase “OLED laptop” implied a luxury product.
Financial Times:
China's top economic official meets dozens of tech execs and industry experts, pledging “support” for Chinese tech companies amid a deepening economic slump  —  Beijing's top economic official holds meetings with executives and industry experts  —  China's top economic official met dozens …
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Ian Goodfellow, Apple's former director of machine learning who left due to the company's return to work policy, is joining Alphabet's DeepMind  —  An Apple Inc. executive who left over the company's stringent return-to-office policy is joining Alphabet Inc.'s DeepMind unit, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Financial Times:
Filing: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund takes a ~5% stake in Nintendo, worth $2.98B; the PIF disclosed a 5% stake in Japan's Nexon and Capcom in February  —  Sovereign wealth fund has already bought into Japan's Capcom and Nexon  —  Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund has acquired …
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
CoinGecko: after Tether lost its dollar peg, leading to $8.5B+ in redemptions, Circle's USDC stablecoin circulation rose by $3.4B and Binance USD is up $1.2B  —  Circle's USD Coin is reaping the benefits as circulation of Tether, the world's largest stablecoin and its closest rival, continues to decline in a wave of redemptions.
Nellie Andreeva / Deadline:
Netflix cuts 150 jobs out of 11K across departments in a new round of layoffs, mostly in the US, as the company reins in costs amid slowing revenue growth  —  EXCLUSIVE: Layoffs are underway at Netflix today.  About 150 positions out of the streamer's workforce of 11,000 are being eliminated amid …
Tiffany Hsu / New York Times:
Celebrities have been criticized for hyping crypto without highlighting the risks after this month's sell-off, as Crypto.com and FTX scale back on ad spending  —  Crypto boosters such as Matt Damon, Reese Witherspoon and Gwyneth Paltrow have been criticized for hyping virtual currency without highlighting the risks.
Bloomberg:
Research: despite China's crypto mining ban, its global bitcoin hashrate share grew to 21.1% from Sept. 2021 to Jan. 2022, suggesting a rise in covert mining  —  While the US extended its leading position as the dominant location for Bitcoin mining, China has reemerged as the second-largest locale despite …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Masterschool, a network of virtual coding schools that takes 10% of monthly income to repay tuition, raises a $100M seed led by Group 11  —  Masterschool, which describes itself as a “network of tech career-training schools,” today announced that it has raised a $100 million seed funding round …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Soxton:
AI-powered 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!
Zoho:
Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements  —  2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
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

Lenny's Podcast:
10 contrarian leadership truths every leader needs to hear | Matt MacInnis (Rippling)
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Alex And Ranjan's 2026 Outlook: ChatGPT 1 Billion, AI Shopping, Apple's Big Year, AI Love Boom
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:
Where Is All the A.I.-Driven Scientific Progress?
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.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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 11:25 AM ET, May 18, 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

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch: