Techmeme
May 16, 2023, 5:50 AM

Top News

Adam Satariano / New York Times:
EU regulators approve Microsoft's $69B Activision Blizzard acquisition after Microsoft made concessions to keep rivals' access to Call of Duty and other games  —  The green light follows objections to the blockbuster deal by American and British regulators on the grounds that it would undercut competition.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
WhatsApp debuts Chat Lock, letting users put chats in a password- or biometrics-protected folder and removing sender and message contents from notifications  —  WhatsApp is getting a new “Chat Lock” feature intended to make it easier to keep conversations more private.
Jacob Bogage / Washington Post:
Sources: the IRS quietly built a prototype system to let Americans file tax returns digitally and free of charge, with a pilot slated to launch in January 2024  —  The prototype program developed by the federal government could be available for a small group of taxpayers by January
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon job listings mention an “AI-first initiative to re-architect” search and “reimagining Amazon Search with an interactive conversational experience”  —  Amazon.com Inc. plans to bring ChatGPT-style product search to its web store, rivaling efforts by Microsoft Corp …
Bloomberg:
Q1 2023 filings: Berkshire Hathaway sold its TSMC shares after cutting its position by 86% in Q4 2022, while Tiger Global and Coatue added to their TSMC stakes  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. drew mixed bets from top investors in the first quarter, as Warren Buffett closed …
More: Reuters
Ciara O'Brien / The Irish Times:
Irish Council for Civil Liberties: 75% of the Irish DPC's GDPR decisions in EU-level cases since 2018 have been overruled by the European Data Protection Board  —  Meta, Google, Airbnb, Yahoo!, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple and Tinder account for 87^% of cross-border GDPR complaints to Ireland's DPC
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Court filings show Jump Trading secretly purchased tens of millions of dollars worth of TerraUSD and made ~$1B in profit a year before the coin's collapse  —  Chicago firm made about $1 billion through dealings with crypto mogul Do Kwon's company, according to the agency
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Source: Twitter buys recruiting startup Laskie for “tens of millions” in cash and stock, its first deal of the Elon Musk era; PitchBook: Laskie had raised $6M  —  Twitter appears to have made its first deal of the Elon Musk era: Buying a job-matching tech startup called Laskie, Axios has learned.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
An interview with Kevin Systrom on Artifact's new writer features, serving writers as a key to the news app's growth, matching consumers with writers, and more  —  Artifact aims to unlock new, cross-platform audience relationships for people who write for a living

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More News

Casey Wagner / Blockworks:
Tom Warren / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Phoebe Liu / Forbes:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Samuel Stolton / Bloomberg:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Jared Newman / Fast Company: