Techmeme
May 20, 2024, 12:10 PM

Top News

Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
OpenAI pulls ChatGPT's Sky voice after users said it sounded like Scarlett Johansson, saying it is an actress' voice and wasn't chosen to be an “imitation”  —  OpenAI is working to pause the use of the Sky voice from an audible version of ChatGPT after users said that it sounded too much like actress Scarlett Johansson.
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Grayscale CEO Michael Sonnenshein resigns, to be replaced by the head of strategy for asset and wealth manager at Goldman Sachs, Peter Mintzberg, on August 15  —  Sonnenshein's replacement will be Peter Mintzberg, currently head of strategy for asset and wealth management at Goldman Sachs.
Chae-Yeon Kim / KED Global:
Sources: LG has ended its Meta partnership due to a lack of “synergy”, three months after the companies agreed to develop XR devices; LG may partner with Amazon  —  Industry sources say LG, recently cut ties, may have seen little synergy from its collaboration with Meta on XR devices
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
NY AG announces a $2B settlement with crypto lender Genesis, after claiming Genesis misled investors about its Gemini Earn program, leading to $1B+ in losses  —  WATCH NOW  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James is settling with crypto lender Genesis for $2 billion, in an effort to repay defrauded investors.
Financial Times:
PE firm EQT is in advanced talks to buy video game services company Keywords Studios for £2.2B, or £25.5 per share, a 70%+ premium on Friday's close  —  Private equity firm has already made four unsolicited proposals for Keywords Studios  —  European private equity group EQT …
Max Tani / Semafor:
Many outlets have increased reliance on Apple News+; The Daily Beast is set to make $3M-$4M from it in 2024, and Time says it delivers a 7-figure annual revenue  —  The Scoop  —  Like many digital publishers, The Daily Beast was struggling at the end of 2023.
Sophie Shulman / CTech:
CyberArk acquires machine identity management company Venafi from Thoma Bravo in a deal valued at around $1.54B; Thoma Bravo bought Venafi for $1.15B in 2020  —  The Israeli company is purchasing the machine identity management company from Thoma Bravo as it looks to combine Venafi's machine …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Appfigures: ChatGPT's iOS and Android apps hit $4.2M in net revenue from May 13 through May 17, as net revenue grew 22% the day of the GPT-4o launch  —  Consumer demand for the latest AI technology is heating up.  The launch of OpenAI's latest flagship model, GPT-4o, has now driven …

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