Techmeme
November 2, 2023, 8:15 AM

Top News

The Walt Disney Company:
Disney plans to acquire NBCU's 33% stake in Hulu, gaining full ownership, and expects to pay ~$8.61B, representing NBCU's share of a $27.5B guaranteed floor  —  The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) announced today that it will acquire the 33% stake in Hulu, LLC held by Comcast Corp.'s (NASDAQ …
Khari Johnson / Wired:
The OMB releases draft rules that require US federal agencies to monitor AI in health care, law enforcement, and housing for potential harms against citizens  —  Draft rules from the White House would require federal agencies to assess AI systems currently in use in law enforcement …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Joe Duball / IAPP:
The EDPB instructs the Irish DPC to ban Meta's use of personal data for behavioral ads across the EU member states and EEA countries within two weeks  —  An unprecedented shakeup in the advertising technology space has arrived in Europe.  Changes are coming to adtech's approach to privacy …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple quietly discontinued Apple Music's $4.99/month Voice Plan, introduced in 2021 to let users access the Apple Music catalog exclusively via Siri  —  Apple this week held a special event to announce new Macs, but what the company didn't tell is that it has just quietly discontinued the …
Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
US v. SBF: in closing statements, the US relied heavily on evidence to argue SBF is guilty and said he was “greedy” while SBF's defense only made things worse  —  Mistakes aren't illegal, but fraud is — and Bankman-Fried's lawyers never made his defense land.
Niket Nishant / Reuters:
PayPal says the company received an SEC subpoena tied to its US dollar stablecoin, launched in August 2023  —  Payments firm PayPal Holdings (PYPL.O) said on Thursday it had received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) tied to its U.S. dollar stablecoin.
CoinDesk:
The US SEC charges SafeMoon and its executives for selling unregistered crypto securities and misappropriating investors' funds the team promised were “locked”  —  Crypto company SafeMoon's CEO and chief technology officer were arrested, accused of withdrawing more than $200M …
Amanda Chicago Lewis / The Verge:
A critical look at the SEO industry: users complain that Google isn't as useful anymore, some SEO experts say gaming Google's algorithm is now harder, and more  —  As the public begins to believe Google isn't as useful anymore, what happens to the cottage industry of search engine optimization experts …
Leah Nylen / Bloomberg:
US v. Google: Google's VP of Search Elizabeth Reid disputes the government's contention that Google “rushed” Bard's launch after Microsoft announced Bing Chat  —  - Chatbot offered wrong answer on James Webb telescope images  — Elizabeth Reid testified about AI efforts at antitrust trial
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
The UK plans to invest £225M into Isambard-AI, an AI supercomputer 10x faster than the UK's current quickest machine, to be built by the University of Bristol  —  - The U.K. government said Wednesday that it will invest £225 million, or $273 million, into an AI supercomputer …
Theo Wayt / The Information:
Flexport acquires the tech stack of shuttered digital freight startup Convoy; a source says Convoy CEO Dan Lewis will join Flexport as part of the deal  —  Flexport has reached a deal to buy the technology of shuttered trucking startup Convoy, as Flexport doubles down on its U.S. trucking ambitions …
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
DoorDash tests a prompt warning customers that orders with no tip ahead of time may take longer to get delivered, since drivers choose which orders to accept  —  DoorDash has added a pop-up in its app this week warning customers that orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered.
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Intuit plans to shut down personal finance app Mint, which had 3.6M MAUs in 2021, on January 1, 2024, and is pushing users to Credit Karma, acquired in 2020  —  - Credit Karma hopes to attract more high-score customers  — Mint service had 3.6 million monthly active users in 2021
Ilya Banares / Bloomberg:
Shopify reports Q3 revenue up 25% YoY to $1.71B, beating $1.68B est., a $56.2B GMV, beating $54.42B est., and expects ~25% 2023 revenue growth; SHOP jumps 18%+  —  Revenue for the period came in at $1.71 billion, up about 25% year-over-year and beating the $1.68 billion average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
More: Reuters and Shopify

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More News

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Rohan Goswami / CNBC:

Earlier Picks

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Sam Tobin / Reuters: