Techmeme
May 15, 2020, 1:45 PM

Top News

Axios:
Facebook to buy Giphy, keep its branding, integrate with Instagram; sources say the deal is worth ~$400M, while Giphy was valued at ~$600M in its latest round  —  Facebook has agreed to buy Giphy, the popular platform of sharable animated images, Axios has learned from multiple sources.
Reuters:
US bans sales to Huawei of semiconductors and semiconductor designs made abroad using certain US software and technology  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Friday moved to block shipments of semiconductors to Huawei Technologies from global chipmakers, in an action that could ramp up tensions with China.
Global Times:
China signals it is ready to retaliate for US' Huawei ban by launching investigations or imposing restrictions on companies like Qualcomm, Cisco, and Apple  —  China is ready to take a series of countermeasures against a US plan to block shipments of semiconductors to Chinese telecom firm Huawei …
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Sources: Clubhouse raised a Series A round from a16z, which includes $10M in primary capital and at least $2M in secondary shares, at a $100M valuation  —  Clubhouse is a voice-based social media app with about 5,000 beta test users.  Prospective listeners have to sign up for a waitlist via Google form …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Kuo: Apple planning a 10.8 inch iPad in H2 2020 and a new iPad mini in H1 2021, predicts AR glasses with laminated lens in 2022 at the earliest  —  - Apple could launch new iPads in the coming year, TF Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said in a new note on Thursday.
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Netflix begins restoring full quality streaming in Europe; Apple TV+ restored 4K streaming in late April  —  Netflix is gradually lifting coronavirus-related streaming quality limits in Europe.  Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video has all complied with a European Commission request …
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Members of the anti-vaccine community are experienced at exploiting weaknesses of social media platforms and are primed to sow doubts about a COVID-19 vaccine  —  Social media is already filling up with misinformation about a Covid-19 vaccine, months or years before one even exists.
Saheli Roy Choudhury / CNBC:
Singapore state investor Temasek joins Libra, along with cryptocurrency investor Paradigm and private equity firm Slow Ventures  —  - Singapore state investor Temasek is one of the latest organizations to join the Facebook-backed digital currency project libra.
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
Foxconn reports profit decline of 89% YoY to $70M in Q1 with revenue down 12% YoY, as the coronavirus froze much of its China production and demand slumped  —  - Hon Hai's net income dived 89% in virus-hit first quarter  — Apple's main partner drives home extent of global malaise
Shannon Vavra / CyberScoop:
Microsoft opens up its threat intelligence data, including file hash indicators used in email scams, to wider security community via GitHub during the pandemic  —  Microsoft is making the threat intelligence it's collected on coronavirus-related hacking campaigns public, the company announced Thursday.
Wall Street Journal:
TSMC says it plans to spend $12B to build a 5nm chip factory in Arizona as the White House seeks to increase domestic chip production  —  Plans for TSMC's Arizona Plant Come As Trump Seeks To Cut Dependence on Asia  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., TSM 2.32% the world's largest …
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Spotify restores web player support for the Safari browser after previously removing it in 2017  —  Spotify users can once again use Safari to access the streaming service's web player, following the restoration of support for Apple's browser this week after over two-and-a-half years of incompatibility.
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
Nvidia launches Clara Guardian, an edge AI system that uses sensors for contactless patient monitoring to limit infectious disease spread, in 50 hospitals  —  Nvidia today announced the launch of Clara Guardian, a smart hospital edge AI system that uses sensors to limit the spread …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

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Bloomberg: