Techmeme
February 13, 2021, 9:45 AM

Top News

The Information:
Sources: Facebook is building an Android-based smartwatch with health and fitness capabilities, which it aims to launch in 2022  —  Facebook is building a smartwatch it hopes to start selling next year, according to people with direct knowledge of the device.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources shed light on the increasingly personal battle between Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg, who in private reportedly said “we need to inflict pain” on Apple  —  Animosity between CEOs Mark Zuckerberg and Tim Cook erupts over privacy and dueling visions of internet
Stanford Internet Observatory:
After researchers raised data privacy concerns, Clubhouse says it is taking steps “to prevent Clubhouse clients from ever transmitting pings to Chinese servers”  —  The audio chat app “Clubhouse” went viral among Chinese-speaking audiences.  Stanford Internet Observatory examines …
TechCrunch:
Jack Dorsey and Jay-Z create ₿trust endowment with 500 bitcoin, worth $23M+, to fund teams working on Bitcoin development, initially in Africa and India  —  Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay Z have created an endowment to fund bitcoin development initially in Africa and India, Dorsey said Friday.
David McCabe / New York Times:
Maryland approves the Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax, the first tax in US on digital ads revenue, creating a 10% tax on firms with $15B+ global revenues  —  Analysts estimate that the tax will generate up to $250 million for schools in the state in the first year.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
LinkedIn announces the formation of a global creator management team, led by its EIC Dan Roth, aiming to support and grow content creators on the platform  —  LinkedIn is building a creator management team to help grow its community of content creators on the platform, according to an announcement from the company's editor in chief.
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
AT&T installs fiber for a 90-year-old after his WSJ print ad complaining of slow AT&T Internet service speeds goes viral  —  From 3Mbps DSL to 300Mbps fiber: Aaron Epstein's newspaper ad gets amazing result.  —  When 90-year-old Aaron Epstein bought a Wall Street Journal print ad …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm are among companies asking US to intervene in Nvidia's Arm acquisition, and at least one company wants the deal killed  —  Some of the world's largest technology companies are complaining to U.S. antitrust regulators about Nvidia Corp.'s acquisition …
Sam Shead / CNBC:
Michelai Graham / Technical.ly DC:
Data privacy management company WireWheel raises $20M Series B led by ForgePoint Capital, bringing its total raised to $45M  —  Led by ForgePoint Capital, this new financing will go toward expanding the data protection company's SaaS platform and adding to its product engineering, sales and marketing teams.
Bloomberg:
Report: African startups raised $1.43B in 2020, down 29% YoY, declining for the first time in almost a decade  —  - Pandemic related slowdowns make investors wary of big deals  — Funding rounds increased in Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa  —  Funding for African startups slowed …

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Earlier Picks

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Bloomberg:
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Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Sara Fischer / Axios: