Techmeme
February 3, 2021, 10:55 AM

Top News

Jeff Bezos / About Amazon:
In letter to employees, Bezos says his transition is not a retirement and he'll use his time to focus on the Day 1 Fund, Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, and WaPo  —  Fellow Amazonians:  —  I'm excited to announce that this Q3 I'll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO.
Amazon Investor Relations:
Amazon reports Q4 net sales of $125.6B, up 44% YoY, net income of $7.2B, up from $3.3B YoY, with full year net sales increasing to $386.1B, up 38% YoY  —  Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos will transition to role of Executive Chair in Q3, Andy Jassy to become Chief Executive Officer of Amazon at that time
Todd Haselton / CNBC:
Amazon says Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO and transition to the role of Executive Chair in Q3; AWS CEO Andy Jassy will become the CEO of Amazon at that time  —  Amazon announced on Tuesday that AWS CEO Andy Jassy will replace Jeff Bezos as CEO during the third quarter of this year.
CNBC:
Profile of AWS' CEO and Amazon's next CEO, Andy Jassy, whose success has been built on attracting a variety of customers to AWS, ranging from the CIA to Apple  —  - Amazon said on Tuesday that Andy Jassy, who runs the cloud unit, will succeed Jeff Bezos as CEO of the parent company in the third quarter.
Bloomberg:
Report: Apple plans $3.6B investment in Kia, with a deal on Feb. 17, and aims to start making cars in Georgia, US in 2024, with initial target of 100K cars/year  —  - Local media report says deal may be signed later this month  — Hyundai last month confirmed then backed away from Apple talks
Reuters:
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Facebook rolls out Messenger for Oculus Quest, as well as App Lab, letting developers distribute apps outside the Oculus Store without needing to sideload  —  Facebook is continuing to stitch its services more closely together — it's now rolling out Messenger on Oculus.
Ian Hamilton / UploadVR:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Sony says it shipped 4.5M PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, and reports revenue of $8.4B in Q3, up 40% YoY, operating profit of $763.3M, up 50%  —  A similar figure to the PS4 launch  —  Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, as revealed by information published alongside …
BuzzFeed News:
Facebook says it will try to protect posts that criticized Myanmar's military and its coup and will remove content that praises or supports the coup  —  After failing to stem the hate speech and misinformation that fueled a genocide in Myanmar, Facebook now says it plans …
Alphabet:
Alphabet Q4: revenue of $56.90B, up 23% YoY, Google Cloud revenue of $3.83B, up from $2.6B, and YouTube ads revenue of $6.89B, up from $4.7B; stock jumps 5%+  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - February 2, 2021 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2020.
Jesse Pound / CNBC:
GameStop's shares closed at $90, down from a peak of $483 last week, as other Reddit-fueled stock trades like AMC suffer similar reversals  —  - Shares of GameStop skidded further before Tuesday's opening bell, with shares of the volatile retail-trader favorite sliding more than 40%, and then extended those losses during market hours.
Matthew Ball / MatthewBall.vc:
Apple's iOS is inhibiting the growth of the future internet but regulators can remedy that by forcing Apple into competition in app distribution and payments  —  Chapter One: The Creation of Today's Internet and the Needs of Tomorrow's  —  One of the neat things about the internet is who created it, why, and how.
Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify reports Q4 results: 345M MAUs, up 27% YoY, as paying subscribers grew to 155M, up 24% YoY, topping expectations; revenue was up 17% YoY to €2.17B  —  But streaming giant offers conservative outlook for the current year as new sign-ups could ebb
Jay Greene / Washington Post:
As Alabama warehouse workers prepare to vote on unionization, Amazon is sending workers 5 texts/day and putting flyers in bathrooms urging them not to unionize  —  The stakes couldn't be higher for the e-commerce giant, which is fighting the biggest labor battle in its history on U.S. soil
Jill Lepore / New Yorker:
Nations are engaging in a cyberweapons arms race, with agencies like the NSA prioritizing offensive capabilities over defense, fueling a lucrative 0-day market  —  Amid a global gold rush for digital weapons, the infrastructure of our daily lives has never been more vulnerable.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Granulate, which develops tools to optimize computing infrastructure with AI, raises $30M Series B, bringing its total raised to $45M  —  Granulate, a startup developing a platform that optimizes computing infrastructure, today announced it has raised $30 million, bringing its total raised to $45 million.

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