Techmeme
February 7, 2020, 11:30 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: The Trump admin has bought access to a database tracking locations of millions of phones in the US and is using it for immigration and border control  —  Commercial database that maps movements of millions of cellphones is deployed by immigration and border authorities
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram has internally prototyped an Instagram Partner Program that will let IGTV creators earn money by showing ads alongside their videos  —  Instagram may finally let IGTV video makers earn money 18 months after launching the longer-form content hub.  Instagram confirms to TechCrunch …
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
CNBC:
Uber's stock rose as much as 10% after hours after the company announced a Q4 loss that was narrower than expected and moved its profitability forecast forward  —  - Uber's revenue growth picked up in the quarter.  — During the fourth quarter, Uber faced tighter regulations impacting …
Uber:
Uber reports Q4 revenue of $4.1B, up 37% YoY, gross bookings of $18.1B, up 28%, and net loss of $1.1B; gross bookings from Uber Eats were $4.37B, up 71% YoY  —  Revenue of $4.1 billion, growing 37% year-over-year or 39% on a constant currency basis  —  Rides Adjusted EBITDA of $742 million, with continued margin expansion
Joe DeBlasio / Google Online Security Blog:
Google says starting with Chrome 82 in April, it will gradually start blocking “mixed content downloads”, which are non-HTTPS downloads started on secure pages  —  Today we're announcing that Chrome will gradually ensure that secure (HTTPS) pages only download secure files.
Wall Street Journal:
NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange abandons potential eBay takeover deal after a backlash from investors  —  Investors had pushed back against move to acquire e-commerce company  —  The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange abandoned its pursuit of eBay Inc. EBAY 2.36% …
Ben Lane / HousingWire:
HouseCanary, which develops software to automate residential real estate valuations, raises $65M Series C, bringing its total raised to $130M  —  Series C funding round grows fintech's total funding to $130 million  —  It seems that investors have some interest in automating real estate appraisals.
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: ViacomCBS is building a new ad-supported streaming service that will build on CBS All Access, and an ad-free version that includes Showtime  —  - ViacomCBS is preparing to throw its hat into the streaming wars after consummating a merger on Dec. 31.
Mark Harris / TechCrunch:
Facebook and Google seek FCC permission to activate a portion of the PLCN undersea cable, excluding Hong Kong and China's section amid ongoing regulatory battle  —  Tech giants' high-speed internet link to Hong Kong has become politically toxic  —  Google and Facebook seem to have resigned themselves …
AnandTech:
64-core AMD Threadripper 3990X CPU review: great for rendering and scientific computing but has the same performance as AMD's 32-core CPU for other applications  —  The recent renaissance of AMD as the performance choice in the high-end x86 market has been great for consumers, enabling a second offering at the top-end of the market.
Thanks:@anandtech
Bloomberg Law:
FCC announces proposals to pay satellite companies $9.7B to quickly free up C-band spectrum for 5G, and another $3.3B-$5.2B to pay for costs  —  Listen  —  Intelsat SA and other satellite providers would share as much as $14.9 billion under a proposal from federal regulators to compensate …
Robert Stevens / Decrypt:
Blockchain data management startup Fluree says it has signed a contract with US Air Force to securely share data within the military and with US allies  —  The US Air Force has signed a contract with blockchain data management company Fluree to more securely track and share information within the military.
Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, and Twitter workers contributed ~$270K to the Bernie Sanders campaign, more than any other presidential candidate, in Q4 2019  —  Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, has been highly critical of tech companies.  Their employees don't seem to mind.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
SEC commissioner proposes a three-year grace period from a startup's first token sale to achieving a level of decentralization sufficient to pass SEC evaluation  —  SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce wants to give legitimate crypto projects a shot at success without running afoul of U.S. securities laws.
David Shepardson / Reuters:
Appeals court declines to reconsider a ruling upholding the FCC's repeal of net neutrality rules, rejecting requests from over a dozen states and tech groups  —  (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court said late on Thursday it will not reconsider an October ruling that largely upheld the repeal …
More: Engadget and WebProNews
Reuters:
US Attorney General William Barr says the US and its allies should consider investing in Nokia and Ericsson to counter Huawei  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General William Barr on Thursday stressed the threat posed by Huawei Technologies and said the United States and its allies …

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Introducing captions, dynamic cross-references, table of tables and figures, and more in Zoho Writer  —  Easily ensure that your documents—reports, manuals, research papers, or thesis—are neatly structured …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:
NYT publisher AG Sulzberger on Trump, OpenAi and the economy
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Techmeme Ride Home:
It's Already Starting...
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Spotlight On:
Corelight's Brian Dye on What He's Learned About Scaling
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Michael Ovitz - Turning Potential into Prominence
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
UiPath CEO Daniel Dines on AI agents replacing our jobs
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Grit:
Brex 3.0: Inside the Radical Turnaround with Pedro Franceschi
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:30 AM ET, February 7, 2020.

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

Vipal Monga / Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Journal:
Biz Carson / protocol:

Earlier Picks

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Nick Statt / The Verge:
David Kirton / Reuters:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Juli Clover / MacRumors: