Techmeme
February 16, 2019, 9:00 AM

Top News

Jason Del Rey / Recode:
Amazon's grave NYC HQ2 mistake: the political landscape changed but the company's playbook didn't  —  The HQ2 contest was very Amazonian.  So was its refusal to back down.  —  No one looks good in the wake of Amazon's decision to scrap plans for a giant New York headquarters in Long Island City, Queens.
Brad Stone / Bloomberg:
After Amazon misread New York's politics, pulling out was a typical Bezos power play of belligerently confronting opposition he views as unfair or unjust  —  In retrospect, the helipad was probably a bad idea.  —  The proposed transportation hub for senior Amazon executives was supposed …
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed:
Twitter hides a tweet, reportedly from Iran's head of state, for pointing out that a previous leader's verdict to murder novelist Salman Rushdie is still valid  —  Twitter has previously used a newsworthiness standard to defend its refusal to apply abuse and harassment rules to President Donald Trump's account.
TechCrunch:
Security researcher says Twitter retains direct messages for years, including messages users have deleted, which may be illegal under the EU's new GDPR laws  —  When does “delete” really mean delete?  Not always or even at all if you're Twitter .  —  Twitter retains direct messages for years …
Axios:
Sources: Apple buys Pullstring, an SF-based enterprise voice app developer, for up to $40M; Pullstring has raised around $44M in venture capital  —  Apple has agreed to buy Pullstring, a San Francisco-based startup that enables the design and publishing of voice apps, Axios has learned.
Matthew Gardner / ITEP:
Amazon has made $11.2B in profits in 2018 but will pay no federal income tax and will receive a rebate of $129M due to unspecified tax credits  —  Amazon, the ubiquitous purveyor of two-day delivery of just about everything, nearly doubled its profits to $11.2 billion in 2018 from $5.6 billion …
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Pokémon Go creator Niantic agrees to settle class action with property owners for unsanctioned PokéStop and Gym placements; monetary damages up for mediation  —  After fighting over the meaning of “trespass” in the digital age, Niantic agrees to a system for resolving nuisance complaints …
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Uber reports Q4 revenue of $3B, up 24% YoY, gross bookings of $14.2B, up 37% YoY, and adjusted EBITDA losses of $842M, up 88% YoY and 60% QoQ  —  Uber on Friday released its latest quarterly financials, likely its last before formally filing to go public. showing continued growth and investment in areas like UberEats.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out ARCore 1.7 with a new Augmented Faces API for the front-facing camera that can overlay effects on a user's face even without a depth sensor  —  ARCore is Google's platform for mobile augmented reality which does not require specialized hardware.
Shoshanna Solomon / The Times of Israel:
Insiders at Israeli hacking tools company NSO Group say they bought back the 70% stake they sold to US PE firm Francisco Partners; source: at a $1B valuation  —  Market source says the deal values the Israel-founded company, which helps governments spy on phones, at about $1 billion; NSO says it had revenues of $250 million in 2018
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber sues New York City over the law that caps the number of ride-hail cars and pauses the issuance of licenses to drivers for 12 months starting last August  —  The city's approach amounts to a ‘ban first, study later’ approach, Uber says  —  Uber filed a lawsuit on Friday to overturn …
Patrick Clark / Bloomberg:
Profile of real estate ad giant Zillow, as it joins the new breed of “iBuyers” who flip homes at a massive scale using algorithms for granular price predictions  —  With its tan stucco exterior and red tile roof, the Rittenhouse home on South Star Canyon Drive looks a lot …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Zoho Forms for successful Black Friday sales  —  Black Friday is a retail frenzy that can significantly impact your bottom line.  To make the most of this shopping bonanza, you need a strategy that not only attracts customers …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 11/04 - Apple Buying And Investing In Things
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:00 AM ET, February 16, 2019.

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

Earlier Picks

Stefan Etienne / The Verge:
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Shara Tibken / CNET: