Techmeme: N3TWORK Studios, a blockchain gaming startup that incorporates features like NFTs into its mobile games, raises a $46M Series A led by Griffin Gaming Partners (MK Manoylov/The Block)

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May 19, 2022, 9:00 AM

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Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

The CISA orders US federal civilian agencies to patch or remove VMware products affected by a critical RCE vulnerability that hackers are actively exploiting — Security flaws in VMware and F5's BIG-IP are being exploited by malicious hackers. — Malicious hackers, some believed to be state-backed …

Source: CISA, CISA, VMware, and CISA. More: BleepingComputer, BleepingComputer, Federal News Network, Bob's Newsletter, Overt Operator, CNN, Cybernews.com, The Hacker News, SC Media, The Register, Nextgov, iTnews, PCMag, The Record, Dark Reading, FedScoop, and Reuters

Tweets: @kimzetter, @vickerysec, @ericgeller, @bad_packets, and @vmwaresrc

Emma Roth / The Verge:

Report: Netflix had 3.6M cancellations in Q1 2022, up from ~2.5M for each past five quarters; 13% came from subscribers who had the service for over three years — Users subscribed to Netflix for more than three years represented 13 percent of total cancellations

Source: The Information. More: XDA Developers, Neowin, iThinkDifferent, Digital Trends, BGR, MobileSyrup, Slashdot, The Mac Observer, and iMore

Tweets: @jeremiahlee, @mrinaldesai, @carnage4life, @blackamazon, @thrasherxy, and @royprice

See also Mediagazer

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

New York AG plans to investigate social media platforms “used to stream, promote, or plan” the Buffalo attack, including Twitch, Discord, 4chan, and 8chan — - New York Attorney General Letitia James will investigate social media companies in connection to the apparently racially motivated attack …

Source: NY State Attorney General. More: Mashable, The Verge, State of New York, TechCrunch, Polygon, NPR, GamesIndustry.biz, Protocol, Kotaku, The Hill, and The i Paper

Tweets: @newyorkstateag, @newyorkstateag, @deoliver47, @markhughesfilms, @gregkash, @travisakers, @mmasnick, @prestonjbyrne, @heymakwa, @notcapnamerica, @gpollowitz, @nycmayor, @philthatremains, @gregkash, and @b_fung

Financial Times:

Chinese citizens angered by Shanghai's ongoing lockdowns are evading censorship of a viral post and video criticizing the government by minting them into NFTs — Growing popularity of decentralised ledger technology presents fresh challenge for country's censors

Tweets: @katebevan, @jerrybrito, @alisonkilling, and @youtuberlaw

Joy Dong / New York Times:

China's internet censors are expanding the practice of displaying social media users' locations and IP addresses under posts, ostensibly to fight disinformation

Tweets: @johnliunn, @andreaslandwehr, @jojjeols, @nytimestech, @identityreview, @kenroth, and @kashhill

Kim Velsey / Curbed:

AirDNA, Inside Airbnb, and Douglas Elliman data: NYC has ~3K to ~13K more Airbnb listings than rental apartments despite Airbnb listings falling in the pandemic — The fever isn't breaking. There are now bidding wars for one in every five Manhattan rental apartments (and one in three luxury units) …

More: Engadget, govtech.com, and KnowTechie

Tweets: @thrasherxy, @sesmith, @tomgara, @pt, @kvelsey, @bigblackjacobin, @bigmeaninternet, @rmac18, and @can

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Meta freezes hiring of engineers for product teams including Facebook Gaming, Dating, and Commerce; Zuckerberg said internally Meta is not planning layoffs — Mark Zuckerberg has internally downplayed the possibility of layoffs — Meta is pulling back its investments in a number of products …

More: Washington Post and Digital gefesselt

Tweets: @thestalwart, @alexeheath, @carlquintanilla, @edbott, @jowens510, @alexeheath, @ibd_ecarson, and @alexhern

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Stripe launches Data Pipeline, letting its US customers link Stripe transactions data and their data stores in Amazon Redshift or Snowflake's Data Cloud — Stripe — the payments giant valued at $95 billion — is on a product sprint to expand its services and functionality beyond …

More: Silicon Republic, Stripe, PYMNTS.com, VentureBeat, Protocol, Network World, and eWeek. Thanks:@ingridlunden

David Pierce / The Verge:

Framework updates the 13.5" modular Framework Laptop with 12th-Gen Intel CPUs, starting at $1,049; owners can upgrade existing laptops with a $538 kit — A new laptop that fits inside your old laptop — A little more than a year after announcing the first version of its ultra-repairable …

More: Ars Technica, Tom's Hardware, Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, and Framework Blog

Tweets: @frameworkputer, @mobile_dom, @dcseifert, @freedmanae, and @dcseifert

Bloomberg:

Singapore-based Grab reports Q1 revenue rose 6% YoY to $228M, beating analyst estimates, as its net loss narrowed to $435M; Grab stock is down 70%+ from its IPO — Grab Holdings Ltd. said revenue rose 6% in the first quarter after the ride-hailing and delivery company won back consumers as the pandemic receded in Southeast Asia.

More: Grab Holdings

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:

SpotOn, which provides payment and management services to SMBs in retail, food, and hospitality, raises a $300M Series F led by Dragoneer at a $3.6B valuation — Payments and software startup SpotOn has closed on $300 million in a Series F financing that values the company at $3.6 billion.

More: FinSMEs, Business Wire, SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, Grit Daily News, Restaurant Business, San Francisco Business Journal, and Reuters. Tweets: @caseynewton

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube rolls out player features to all users, including a graph to easily locate the “Most replayed” video parts, support for video chapters, and video loops — YouTube today is launching a new feature designed to help users identify the most popular parts of a video they're watching …

More: Android Authority, MacRumors, iMore, The Verge, Android Central, CNET, Android Police, MobileSyrup, 9to5Google, Tubefilter, and Engadget

Tweets: @huguito, @anthonyquintano, @mattnavarra, and @reneritchie

Richard Waters / Financial Times:

A look at the competition between China and the US to build exascale supercomputers, useful for defense and climate modeling, as China pulls ahead — World's biggest economies battle to dominate advanced processing power that will affect defence and climate modelling

More: Financial Times. Tweets: @rch371, @1br0wn, @niubi, @martijnrasser, @aadilbrar, @hpc_guru, and @magicsilicon

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

India says cloud providers and VPN operators that don't comply with its cybersecurity rules, effective as of June 27, “will have to pull out” of the country — India is pushing ahead with its new cybersecurity rules that will require cloud service providers and VPN operators …

Source: Cert-In, Cert-In, and Press Information Bureau. More: Moneycontrol, Slashdot, Livemint, The Economic Times, Nikkei Asia, The Financial Express, IT Management, PCMag, and Inc42 Media

Tweets: @chandrarsrikant, @vatsrishap, @chandrarsrikant, @chandrarsrikant, and @zafaraafaq

Bloomberg:

Xiaomi beats estimates with ~$10.9B in Q1 revenue, down 4.6% YoY for its first-ever decline, and a ~$87M net loss, as China's lockdown cripples smartphone sales — Xiaomi Corp. posted its first quarterly revenue decline on record after Beijing's strict Covid containment policies …

More: Xiaomi Investor Relations, Pandaily, and Reuters

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Everstream Analytics, which uses AI to offer supply chain insights and risk analytics, raises a $24M Series A led by Morgan Stanley — Everstream Analytics, a supply chain insights and risk analytics startup, today announced that it raised $24 million in a Series A round led …

More: Business Wire

Ryan Felton / Wall Street Journal:

NHTSA records show it is investigating over 30 incidents of a Tesla suspected of being on Autopilot mode going on to be involved in a serious crash — Wreck under investigation involves a Tesla Model S and left three people dead, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said

More: Engadget, Associated Press, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, and Tech Xplore

Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:

Texas asks SCOTUS to keep the state's social media law in effect; AG Ken Paxton argues that social media platforms should be regulated as common carriers — Texas attorney general Ken Paxton argues social media platforms are the 'twenty-first century descendants of telegraph and telephone companies …

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From Mediagazer

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

As the BBC fights Trump's $10B lawsuit and ITV plans to combine its broadcasting business with Sky in 2026, a look at the slow death of the UK's TV channels

Alex Ritman / Variety:

In Channel 4's 2025 Alternative Christmas Message, Jimmy Kimmel said “tyranny is booming” in the US and, on his ABC suspension, “We won, the president lost”

Henry Blodget / Regenerator:

Bari Weiss' 60 Minutes decision may have been a way to both signal that she's serious about shifting CBS' sensibility to the right and “improve” a story

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Frank Chaparro / The Block:

FTX.US launches FTX Stocks, a zero-commission stock trading feature available through the FTX app, rolling out in the US over the coming months

More: Fortune, CoinDesk, Wall Street Journal, Cointelegraph, Financial Times, and Cryptopolitan

Tweets: @sbf_ftx, @mayazi, @fintechfrank, and @mayazi

Reuters:

Sources: TikTok is testing in-app games in Vietnam as part of a push into gaming; TikTok says it has tested HTML5 games in partnership with Zynga and others

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Klarna is aiming to raise up to $1B at valuation of around $30B, a ~30% drop from its $46B valuation in its last round led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2

More: Bloomberg. Tweets: @eliotwb, @drnovac, and @ingridlunden

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:

Cairo- and San Francisco-based Instabug, which helps developers monitor performance and fix bugs in their apps, raises a $46M Series B led by Insight Partners

More: Instabug Blog, Forbes, FinSMEs, Disrupt Africa, and WeeTracker

Tweets: @afarha, @bayareawriter, and @jeffhollan

MK Manoylov / The Block:

N3TWORK Studios, a blockchain gaming startup that incorporates features like NFTs into its mobile games, raises a $46M Series A led by Griffin Gaming Partners

More: FinSMEs, VentureBeat, Business Wire, Bloomberg, VentureBeat, CoinDesk, and Pocket Gamer.biz

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Cisco misses with Q3 revenue flat YoY at $12.8B, vs. $13.34B expected, and forecasts a YoY revenue decline in Q4 between 1% and 5.5%; stock drops 10%+

More: Insider, Investor's Business Daily, Dow Jones Newswires, CRN, Protocol, Bloomberg, Reuters, Cisco, SiliconANGLE, and Barron's Online

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

New York accuses Amazon of discriminating against pregnant workers and those with disabilities; the state seeks civil fines and an end to discriminatory conduct

More: Insider, Governor Kathy Hochul, New York Daily News, Politico, Shacknews, The Hill, Barron's Online, The Information, and Reuters

Tweets: @komonews and @sengianaris

Victoria Song / The Verge:

Wear OS watch users with YouTube Premium can now use the YouTube Music app to stream 80M songs over Wi-Fi and LTE, which doesn't work for iOS Wear OS 2 users

More: TechRadar, Gizmodo, Thurrott, CNET, Android Police, Engadget, Android Beat, and Digital Trends

Earlier Picks

Kate Rooney / CNBC:

At Block's first investor day since 2017, CEO Jack Dorsey doubled down on the company's bitcoin bet; Block's stock is down from its peak of $289.23 to ~$82.05

More: CoinJournal, Barron's Online, Investor's Business Daily, Bitcoin Magazine, Protocol, The Daily Hodl, Creating Focus, PYMNTS.com, CoinDesk, and The Block

Bloomberg:

Four Democratic senators ask the FTC to investigate whether ID.me illegally misled consumers and government agencies about its use of facial recognition tech

More: Krebs on Security, PYMNTS.com, CyberScoop, VICE, U.S. Senator Ron Wyden …, SiliconANGLE, The Register, and Engadget

Tweets: @briankrebs and @paulnovosad

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:

Amazon refreshes its Fire 7 tablet with USB-C charging, better battery life, and a 30% faster processor, and raises the price from $50 to $60, coming June 29

More: Club386, PCWorld, CNET, TechCrunch, Softpedia News, Stuff, ZDNet, Neowin, TechSpot, Laptop Mag, TalkAndroid.com, Tech Advisor, Android Police, TheStreet, PennLive, Entertainment Tonight, Android Authority, KnowTechie, AppleInsider, 9to5Toys, PCMag, Engadget, and CNBC. Tweets: @icave_dave

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Palo Alto-based Glean, which uses AI to offer unified search across apps used at a company, raises a $100M Series C led by Sequoia at a $1B post-money valuation

More: GlobeNewswire News Room, SiliconANGLE, Crunchbase News, and FinSMEs. Thanks:@belril

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:

CoinGecko: after Tether briefly lost its dollar peg, leading to $8.5B+ in redemptions, Circle's USDC circulation rose by ~$3.4B and Binance USD gained $1.2B

More: Decrypt, Micky, and Crypto Briefing

Tweets: @chrisbloomstran, @toby_n, @zhusu, @mdudas, @defimoon, @jerallaire, @gaborgurbacs, @jeetsidhu_, @toby_n, @davetroy, @cryptoseq, @degenspartan, @degenspartan, @biancoresearch, @biancoresearch, @biancoresearch, @mdudas, and @bennetttomlin

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

In response to rivals' complaints, Microsoft begins relaxing its cloud licensing rules in Europe, which made running its software on other clouds more expensive

More: Silicon Republic, Microsoft On the Issues, Thurrott, iTnews, GeekWire, Financial Times, Softpedia News, Euractiv, OnMSFT.com, and The Register

Tweets: @carnage4life, @bradsmi, @bradsmi, @stevekovach, @getwired, @quinnypig, @klyngec, and @maryjofoley

Financial Times:

Filing: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund bought a 5% stake in Nintendo worth $2.98B; the PIF disclosed 5%+ stakes in Nexon and Capcom in February 2022

More: Bloomberg, Gamereactor UK, TechSpot, Polygon, Game Rant, iMore, and Wall Street Journal

Tweets: @gearoidreidy, @andyplaytonic, @stephentotilo, @randallbell, @jenny_b_3, @toadsanime, and @quinnypig

Brian Stelter / CNN:

Twitter's board says “Mr. Musk agreed to a transaction at $54.20 per share” and that it intends to “close the transaction and enforce the merger agreement”