Techmeme
February 3, 2021, 5:15 PM

Top News

Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Jeff Bezos departs as perhaps the best CEO in tech history, having created three huge businesses: Amazon.com, AWS, and Amazon's marketplace/fulfillment services  —  It's the refunds that blow my mind.  —  You may be surprised to know that, despite the fact I live in Taiwan, I have an Amazon Prime account.
Brad Stone / Bloomberg:
Jeff Bezos's surprise resignation feels natural and even inevitable; the walls of his highly compartmentalized empire have been crumbling for some time  —  Jeff Bezos has a formulation about one-way doors and two-way doors—decisions that are irreversible and permanent and those that can always be unwound.
CNBC:
Amazon Investor Relations:
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 …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
TikTok will prompt users to seek credible information if they try to share videos flagged as misleading, and disincentivize creators from uploading such content  —  TikTok will begin asking users to seek credible information about a topic if they try to share a video that carries …
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
Robert McMillan / Wall Street Journal:
SolarWinds CEO says hackers had breached the company's Office 365 email system for at least nine months starting December 2019  —  Investigators still don't know how the company was breached in attack that will cost millions  —  The newly appointed chief executive of SolarWinds Corp …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Box says it has acquired Dutch cloud-based e-signature startup SignRequest for $55M and plans to launch Box Sign in summer 2021  —  Cloud storage and collaboration giant Box has announced plans to acquire SignRequest, a cloud-based electronic signature (e-signature) startup based in the Netherlands, in a deal worth $55 million.
Marc Andreessen / Andreessen Horowitz:
a16z names Sriram Krishnan as its newest GP, after roles at Facebook, Snap, Twitter; Krishnan has been consulting for nine months on an a16z “community project”  —  Welcome, Sriram Krishnan, our newest general partner, to Andreessen Horowitz!  —  Sriram is a well-known …
Bloomberg:
In an email to staff on February 1, Andy Jassy reaffirmed his commitment to making video games, following a scathing Bloomberg profile of Amazon Game Studios  —  One day before he was named the next chief executive officer of Amazon.com Inc., Andy Jassy reaffirmed his commitment to making video games …
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 …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Jack Ma's Ant Group has reached an agreement with Chinese regulators to turn Ant into a financial holding company, subject to bank capital requirements  —  - Ma's fintech giant will become a financial holding company  — Ant is still exploring a potential IPO, but timeline unclear
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
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google rolls out an update for Android TV with a refreshed UI that is similar to Google TV on Chromecast  —  A fresh look for Google's (other) smart TV software  —  Google is rolling out a new update for Android TV that gives its smart TV OS a fresh new look — one that's almost identical …
Reuters:
Microsoft says it supports Australia's proposed new laws forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news content and it would be “willing to live by these rules”  —  (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it fully supported proposed new laws in Australia that would force internet giants Google …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Instagram confirms it is working on an early prototype of Vertical Instagram Stories, which are presented in a TikTok-like scrolling fashion  —  Instagram is developing a new feature that could give its app more of a TikTok-like feel: Vertical Instagram Stories.
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.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Online grocery delivery service Good Eggs raises $100M led by Glade Brook Capital Partners  —  Grocery delivery startup Good Eggs is announcing that it has raised $100 million in new funding, and that it's planning to launch in Southern California in either the summer or fall of this year.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India warns Twitter to comply with its order to block content related to a farmer protest and not “assume the role of a court and justify non-compliance”  —  India has issued a notice to Twitter, warning the American social firm to comply with New Delhi's order to block accounts …
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.

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