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

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Earlier Picks

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Microsoft:
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg: