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February 11, 2021, 9:15 AM
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| Financial Times: |
Sources: Microsoft made an offer to acquire Pinterest in recent months; talks are not active right now — Microsoft approached Pinterest in recent months about a potential deal to acquire the $51bn social media company popular with hobbyists posting home decor, food and wedding collages, people briefed on the matter said.
More:
The Verge, Insider, cloudpro.co.uk, PYMNTS.com, coinspeaker.com, Neowin, Windows Central, and MSPoweruser
Tweets: @spottedfirefly, @carlquintanilla, @shivsharma_5, @thekenyeung, @mgsiegler, and @bdsams
| Mike Isaac / New York Times: |
Sources: Facebook is building an audio chat product, currently in the earliest stages of development, that is similar to Clubhouse — The social network, which has a history of cloning its competitors, has started working on an audio chat product. — SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is building …
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VICE, The Verge, Bloomberg, iPhone in Canada Blog, BGR, Engadget, BGR India, t3.com, International Business Times, Facebook Technology, NDTV Gadgets 360, Techpoint Africa, Firstpost Tech, SlashGear, Digital Trends, MUO, The Next Web, Daily Mail, 9to5Mac, Input, CNET, Android Central, Social Media Today, Vox, iPhone Hacks, Pocketnow, XDA Developers, Mashable, and Insider
Tweets: @mikeisaac, @mattyglesias, @willoremus, @kantrowitz, @anothercohen, @thekenyeung, @ericajoy, @film_girl, @df_porto, @darrenrovell, @profgalloway, @vijayshekhar, @stalman, @krishnanrohit, @bryanedwardhill, @hunterwalk, @morningbrew, @producthunt, @imkialikethecar, @dcseifert, @dcseifert, @richlightshed, @caseynewton, @jonrussell, @danprimack, @stevenlevy, @mmasnick, @neiltwitz, @mulligan, @rstephens, @samfbiddle, @caro, @owillis, @benedictevans, @benedictevans, @benedictevans, @benedictevans, @martinsfp, @benedictevans, @kantrowitz, @sameer_singh17, @mgsiegler, @mattnavarra, @mikeisaac, @db, @epro, @kantrowitz, @pierce, @fmanjoo, @alexrkonrad, @saramorrison, @caseynewton, @scottnover, @kateconger, and @stevekovach
| Daniel Goldblatt / The Wrap: |
Facebook says Instagram has removed Robert F Kennedy Jr's account for making false claims about COVID-19 and vaccines — Move comes as the company is expanding efforts to crack down on conspiracy theory content — Instagram removed Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s account on Wednesday …
More:
Media Matters for America, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Washington Post, Reuters, The Guardian, and Variety
Tweets: @yashar, @maggienyt, @mattgertz, @blakersdozen, @chelseaclinton, @camliveshere, and @getongab
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Users noticed Google iOS apps warning them the apps were out of date, despite Google not updating them since before Apple's Dec. 8 privacy label change — Though Google has promised to update its suite of apps with App Privacy labels to comply with App Store rules that Apple began enforcing in December …
Source:
product considerations. More:
9to5Google, 9to5Mac, t3.com, The Verge, Daring Fireball, phonearena.com, iMore, AppleInsider, and Mashable
| Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: |
Europol, working with US, UK, and others, says 10 people have been arrested for allegedly stealing $100M in cryptocurrency from celebrities via SIM-swap attacks — Eight men were arrested in England and Scotland as part of an investigation into a series of SIM swapping attacks targeting US celebrities.
More:
Europol, Engadget, Insider, Ars Technica, United States Secret Service, U.S. Department of Justice, infosecurity-magazine.com, InsideBitcoins.com, iTnews, and Finextra
Tweets: @usdoj_intl, @campuscodi, and @europol
| Bloomberg: |
Ahead of its debut Thursday, Bumble raises $2.15B in its IPO with shares priced at $43 each, up from the previous range of $37-39 — - Listing upsized, priced above already elevated range — Wolfe Herd is youngest female CEO to take big U.S. firm public
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GlobeNewswire, Reuters, and TechCrunch
| The Information: |
Internal data shows only 11.3M US households regularly watch NBCU's Peacock; sources: NBCU has pitched ViacomCBS about bundling their streaming services — As Netflix and Disney cement their leads over an array of rivals in the video-streaming market, top executives at Comcast and its NBCUniversal arm are in a quandary.| Justine Calma / The Verge: |
Tesla's $1.5B bitcoin purchase conflicts with its environmental goals, as mining the cryptocurrency consumes massive amounts of energy by design — Tesla's banking on a cryptocurrency that's inherently inefficient — Tesla just gave bitcoin a big boost that's likely to result … | Dave Gershgorn / OneZero : |
CBP scanned 23M+ people with facial recognition tech at airports, seaports, and pedestrian crossings in 2020, and reveals it caught zero imposters at airports — U.S. Customs and Border Protection scanned more than 23 million people in public places with facial recognition technology in 2020
Source:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Tweets: @willoremus, @dlberes, @ozm, @freakonometrics, and @davegershgorn
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
India's BharatPe, which helps offline merchants accept digital payments, raises $108M Series D, at a $900M valuation, led by Coatue Management — India may soon have another fintech unicorn. BharatPe said on Thursday it has raised $108 million in a financing round that valued …
More:
The Economic Times, Tech in Asia, Entrackr, VCCircle, Inc42 Media, and MediaNama
| The Information: |
Sources: Stir Money, whose software helps video and audio producers, writers, and performers manage their income, raises Series A led by a16z at $100M valuation — Andreessen Horowitz recently won a competitive deal to lead the Series A financing of Stir Money, a startup whose software helps video … | Financial Times: |
Banks hope to persuade Biden admin that Big Tech and fintech startups should not be able to offer services that compete with banks without facing the same rules — Banks see a chance to direct tougher regulation against Facebook, Google and fintechs — Wall Street executives see the prospect …
Tweets: @hoofnagle, @richardturrin, and @financialtimes
| David Yaffe-Bellany / Bloomberg: |
Biden administration asks a federal judge to put litigation over Trump's proposed TikTok ban on hold while it undertakes a review — The Biden administration asked a federal judge in Washington to put on hold the litigation over a ban on the Chinese-owned video-sharing app TikTok that was pursued by former president Donald Trump.
More:
Wall Street Journal, PCMag, Gizmodo, Associated Press, SlashGear, Pocketnow, NPR, marketingdive.com, Input, Pocket-lint, Financial Times, Slate, dot.LA, Social Media Today, Tech Xplore, CNET, Techdirt, CNBC, chainstoreage.com, Tech in Asia, Ars Technica, Deadline, Android Central, New York Times, GeekWire, PYMNTS.com, BBC, and Bloomberg
Tweets: @stuartklau, @matthewstoller, @kylebrussell, @jchengwsj, @azeem, @jenniferjjacobs, and @stokel
| Varsha Bansal / MIT Technology Review: |
Instead of using its successful door-to-door vaccination approach, India is scaling up a glitchy biometric software system, hampering its vaccination goals — Instead of using its successful door-to-door approach, it's scaling up a new system linked to fingerprints and iris scans. — hide
Tweets: @charlottejee, @varshaabansal, @engagemedia, and @techreview
| Elena Schneider / Politico: |
Political campaigns are shifting marketing dollars after ad bans by Facebook and Google, with email lists, influencers, and other ad platforms on the rise — Renting, swapping and selling campaign email lists to new candidates and causes is a booming political business, but it comes with risks.
Tweets: @josh_nelson, @juliarosen, @sticka, @davidsiders, @ec_schneider, @opensecretsdc, and @politico
| Amy Lewin / Sifted: |
Dublin-based food ordering service Flipdish raises €40M round from Tiger Global Management — Pre-Covid, says McCarthy, lots of restaurants relied on platforms like Deliveroo for a small portion of orders, but when everything moved online, “they realised they weren't making a whole load …
More:
Silicon Republic, FinSMEs, Forbes, RTÉ, and The Irish Times
| Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch: |
Sweden-based digital bank Northmill raises $30M led by M2 Asset Management — Northmill Bank, the Sweden-based challenger that has around 200,000 customers across three European countries, has raised around $30 million in new funding. — Leading the round is M2 Asset Management …
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Silicon Canals
| Patrick Clark / Bloomberg: |
Zillow says it will acquire ShowingTime, which makes software to arrange home showings, for $500M, and announces record Q4; Zillow stock up 11%+ after hours — - Company shares surge in late trading on strong results — Stock had already rallied more than 600% since March
More:
Barron's Online, Chicago Business, GeekWire, HousingWire, PR Newswire, Inman, MarketWatch, ZDNet, and GeekWire. Tweets: @laz
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Twitter says it has suspended 500+ accounts in India for violating rules but has not taken any action on accounts of journalists, activists, and politicians — Twitter said on Wednesday it has taken actions on more than 500 accounts and reduced visibility of some hashtags in India …
More:
Twitter, pib.gov.in, New York Times, BuzzFeed News, The Economic Times, Firstpost Tech, MediaNama, CNBC, Voice of America, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, and The Verge
Tweets: @twittersafety, @rmantri, @chandyanil, @alfonslopeztena, @dhume, @mshannahmurphy, @evan_greer, @dhume, @gaamuk, @rasmus_kleis, @glakier, @rasmussen_poll, @rasmus_kleis, @raheelk, @sagarikaghose, @dangillmor, @michaelkugelman, @iamnikhilnanda, @basuashis, @lfreshthelion, @prasanto, and @calamur
| Saqib Shah / Engadget: |
Google launches Google News Showcase in UK and Argentina, after debuting the service in Australia last week, and says it now has over 450 publications globally — Google News Showcase is starting to roll out to more countries worldwide, including the UK and Argentina, on the heels of its Australian launch last week.
More:
The Keyword, The Verge, news.com.au, Trusted Reviews, and Neowin
Tweets: @googlenewsinit, @googlenewsinit, @googlenewsinit, @googleuk, @glenngabe, @pete_nq, @jwhittingdale, and @googleuk
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