Techmeme
February 27, 2020, 1:35 PM

Top News

Queenie Wong / CNET:
Facebook cancels its F8 developer conference, which was scheduled to take place May 5-6 at the San Jose McEnery Convention Center, over coronavirus concerns  —  Facebook said Thursday it's cancelling its annual F8 developer conference, the social media giant's biggest event of the year …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Reddit CEO Steve Huffman says TikTok is “fundamentally parasitic”, always listening, and its fingerprinting technology is “truly terrifying”  —  TikTok is one of the hottest social media platforms but the CEO of Reddit had some harsh words for the popular app …
Aaron Holmes / Business Insider:
Report: Rajeev Misra, head of the $100B Vision Fund, is accused of sabotaging other SoftBank execs for career advancement; Misra and SoftBank deny allegations  —  - Rajeev Misra, the head of SoftBank's $100 billion Vision Fund, is accused of overseeing a plan to lure SoftBank's then-president into a …
Jason Del Rey / Vox:
Sources: Walmart plans to start publicly testing a membership program called Walmart+ as soon as next month to compete with Amazon Prime  —  Walmart has struggled to keep up with Amazon's online dominance for years.  Javier Zarracina/Vox  —  Amazon Prime has devastated traditional retail.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra review: 120Hz screen is nice and battery life is good but the main camera often acts like a first-gen product with first-gen problems  —  A new-generation camera with first-generation problems  —  Samsung has something to prove.  —  That's the most obvious feeling …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
DoorDash announces it has confidentially filed documents for an IPO with the SEC  —  Food delivery service DoorDash announced Thursday it has taken a first step toward a public offering.  —  DoorDash said it has confidentially submitted a draft S-1 filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Bloomberg:
Sources: Nokia is working with advisers to explore strategic options ranging from asset sales to mergers  —  - Company working with advisers to consider asset sales, mergers  — Equipment maker has cut outlook amid fierce competition  —  Nokia Oyj is exploring strategic options …
Martin Brinkmann / gHacks Technology News:
Google officially adds support for Google Earth on Firefox, Edge, and Opera browsers, and says it is working on adding support for Safari  —  When Google unveiled the new Google Earth back in 2017, it switched Google Earth from being a desktop application to a web application.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Online gaming platform Roblox raises $150M led by a16z's Late Stage Venture fund, reportedly at a $4B valuation; Roblox was valued at $2.5B+ as of last year  —  Online gaming platform Roblox, now home to 115 million largely Gen Z players per month, announced today it has raised $150 million …
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Square beats Q4 expectations with revenue of $1.31B, up 41% YoY, says its Cash App has 24M MAUs, up 60% YoY, with a profit of $144M; stock rises 10%+  —  The company reported its fourth quarter financial results on Wednesday.  —  Square reported its fourth quarter financial results on Wednesday.
Carli Velocci / Windows Central:
Microsoft says it will not attend Game Developers Conference due to coronavirus concerns and will make sessions and experiences available in a digital event  —  The move follows Sony, Facebook, and Unity.  —  What you need to know  — Microsoft Game Stack announced it's pulling out of GDC due to coronavirus concerns.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Microsoft says it will likely miss its guidance for its More Personal Computing segment, which includes Windows, due to COVID-19's impact on its supply chain  —  Microsoft shares fell 2% on Wednesday after the company said it doesn't expect to meet the quarterly revenue guidance …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
LinkSquares, which allows legal and finance teams to automate searches of legal documents and eases management of company contracts, raises $14.5M Series A  —  It takes between 20 days to 30 days for a company to create, negotiate, and finalize a contract, according to Aberdeen Research.
More: FinSMEs
Spencer Neale / Washington Examiner:
Ninth Circuit court affirms YouTube, as a private company, did not violate free speech rights when it tagged some of PragerU's videos as age-restricted in 2017  —  A top right-wing, nonprofit organization known for publishing conservative videos on YouTube has lost an appeal against Google, the owner of the video-sharing platform.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
YouTube appoints Matt Koval, a former YouTube creator who joined the company full time as a lead content strategist in 2012, as its first “head creator liaison”  —  A buffer between YouTube and the creator community  —  YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki has repeatedly said that YouTube …
Yomi Kazeem / Quartz:
South Africa-based Jumo, which partners with financial service providers and telecoms to offer lending, savings, and insurance services, raises $55M  —  African fintech has scored yet another major investment win: Jumo, a five-year old fintech startup has raised $55 million in debt and equity funding.
Edward Ludlow / Bloomberg:
Ford's e-scooter rental startup Spin to expand internationally, starting with Cologne, Germany, as soon as the spring, with plans to apply for a permit in Paris  —  Spin, the scooter-sharing service owned by Ford Motor Co., is expanding to new markets outside of the U.S.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it has paused use of the election reminder feature in the EU after the Irish DPC raised concerns about what data it collects and how it is used  —  Big tech's lead privacy regulator in Europe has intervened to flag transparency concerns about a Facebook election reminder feature …

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