Techmeme
April 27, 2023, 7:45 AM

Top News

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:
The UK CMA's objection to Microsoft's Activision deal focuses on the nascent cloud gaming market, a departure from regulators focusing on mature markets  —  UK regulators blocked Microsoft Corp.'s $69 billion purchase of Activision Blizzard Inc. over concerns it would harm competition in cloud gaming …
BBC:
Microsoft's Brad Smith says the CMA blocking the Activision deal was “probably the darkest day in our four decades” in the UK and will be “bad for Britain”  —  Microsoft's president has attacked the UK after it was blocked from buying US gaming firm Activision …
Meta:
Meta reports Q1 revenue up 3% YoY to $28.6B, net income down 24% YoY to $5.7B, and family daily active people up 5% YoY to 3.02B for March 2023; META jumps 10%+  —  “We had a good quarter and our community continues to grow,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Meta founder and CEO.
Jonathan Vanian / CNBC:
Meta's Reality Labs unit reports Q1 revenue down 51% YoY from $695M to $339M and operating loss up 35% YoY from $2.96B to $3.99B, after losing $13.72B in 2022  —  - Meta's Reality Labs unit had a $3.99 billion operating loss in the first quarter, after losing $13.72 billion last calendar year.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Amazon shuts down its health-focused Halo division, discontinues its Halo Band, Halo View, and Halo Rise devices, and plans to lay off portions of the team  —  Amazon has decided to shutter its health-focused Halo division, The Verge has learned.  Amazon has stopped selling its three Halo products …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google plans to add E2EE to Google Authenticator “down the line”, after researchers warned that its new feature to sync 2FA codes is not E2E encrypted  —  On Monday, Google Authenticator launched the ability to sync 2FA codes to your Google Account.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg disputes the narrative that Meta is moving its focus away from a metaverse vision and sees AI tech working in tandem with the metaverse  —  Things are looking up for Meta.  The company beat revenue expectations, reporting an increase in year-over-year revenue for the first time in three quarters.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Meta says time spent on Instagram grew 24%+ since Reels launched thanks to AI recommendations, and expects Reels to be revenue-neutral by year end or early 2024  —  Meta shared some updated engagement info around its platforms on its Q1 2023 quarterly earnings call on Wednesday …
Reuters:
Samsung reports Q1 operating profit down 95% YoY to ~$478.6M, its lowest since 2009, revenue down 18% YoY to ~$47.6B, and a ~$3.4B loss for its chip division  —  Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) flagged a gradual recovery for chips in the second half of the year after its semiconductor business reported …
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
Lookout agrees to sell its consumer mobile security business to F-Secure in a deal valued at around $223M, transitioning into a “pure-play enterprise company”  —  Lookout's long-running transition to becoming an enterprise security company is all but complete …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Germany is in talks to limit the export of chemicals used to make advanced chips to China, seeking to join US and EU allies in closing ranks on China  —  Germany is in talks to limit the export of chemicals to China that are used to manufacture semiconductors as Berlin steps up efforts …
Reuters:
A California judge tentatively rules Elon Musk must testify about his Autopilot statements, after Musk's lawyers argued he is a subject of many deepfake videos  —  A California judge on Wednesday ordered Tesla CEO Elon Musk to be interviewed under oath about whether he made certain statements regarding …
Brian Fung / CNN:
US senators unveil a bipartisan bill that bans kids under 13 from joining social media and requires tech companies to get parental consent for teens' accounts  —  A new federal bill unveiled Wednesday would establish a national minimum age for social media use and require tech companies …
Jeffrey Knockel / The Citizen Lab:
An analysis of Baidu, Bilibili, Bing, Douyin, Weibo, and other Chinese search platforms finds 60K censorship rules, implemented differently by each service  —  This report has an accompanying FAQ.  —  Key findings  — Across eight China-accessible search platforms analyzed — Baidu …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku reports Q1 revenue up 1% YoY to $741M, platform revenue down 1% YoY to $635M, streaming hours up 20% YoY to 25.1B, and active accounts up 17% YoY to 71.6M  —  Users streamed a record high of 3.9 hours per active account per day during the quarter, company says

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
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

Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
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.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
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.
Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
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:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:45 AM ET, April 27, 2023.

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

Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Angus Loten / Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft:
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg: