Techmeme
March 5, 2021, 9:05 PM

Top News

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Sources: at least 30K US organizations have been hacked by an aggressive Chinese espionage group exploiting unpatched flaws in Microsoft's Exchange Server  —  At least 30,000 organizations across the United States — including a significant number of small businesses, towns …
Adam Klasfeld / Law & Crime:
US indicts John McAfee for fraud and money laundering over an alleged $13M cryptocurrency “pump-and-dump” scheme  —  Antivirus software mogul John McAfee, who has been awaiting extradition from Spain on tax evasion charges since late last year, just had his legal woes compounded …
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Tim Wu, an outspoken critic of Big Tech, is joining the National Economic Council as a special assistant to President Biden for tech and competition policy  —  Tim Wu's appointment to the National Economic Council would signal a confrontational approach by the Biden administration.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: India threatened to jail Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter employees if the companies don't comply with takedown requests related to farmer protests  —  Country flexes new powers over big platforms while companies are counting on world's second-largest population for growth
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Jack Dorsey has listed his original tweet, “just setting up my twttr”, as an NFT on auction site Valuables  —  Apparently you can actually sell your tweets as NFT  —  Jack Dorsey, the billionaire co-founder and CEO of Twitter, a man who stans bitcoin right on his Twitter bio …
Riley de León / CNBC:
Online learning provider Coursera files its S-1, reports 2020 net losses widened to $66.8M, up 46% YoY, on revenue growth of $293.5M, up 59% YoY  —  - Coursera filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “COUR.”
Kevin Reynolds / CoinDesk:
Bitcoin mining startup Bitfury merges with a SPAC to create a US-based company called Cipher Mining, raising $595M at a valuation of $2B  —  The mining SPAC has an expected value of $2 billion.  —  Cipher Mining Technologies, a newly formed U.S.-based bitcoin mining operation formed …
Robert Hackett / Fortune:
Eco, a personal finance app that offers yields of 2.5% to 5% and cash back for shopping at Amazon, Uber, and DoorDash, raises $26M led by a16z crypto  —  Just over a decade ago, Uber cleverly combined existing technologies into an on-demand taxi service.  Without a confluence …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Leaked interface shows that Twitter is testing an “undo send” feature which may be a button that doubles as a progress bar  —  A work-in-progress interface has been unearthed  —  A potential animation for Twitter's long-rumored “undo send” feature has been discovered …
Katherine Rosman / New York Times:
Square acquires a majority stake in Jay-Z's streaming service Tidal for $297M; Jay-Z will join Square's board  —  What did Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey talk about when they went yachting around the Hamptons together last summer?  Perhaps only Beyoncé knows.  —  Maybe now we do, too.
New York Times:
Research: low-wage workers at businesses in the areas where Amazon operates have seen significant wage growth since the company raised minimum pay to $15/hour  —  New research suggests that when big companies increase wages, they drive up pay in the places where they operate — without a notable loss in jobs.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Reddit hires Drew Vollero as its first chief financial officer to prepare the company for an eventual IPO  —  The addition of Drew Vollero, formerly of Mattel and Snap, is a move toward developing operations more like publicly traded social networks.  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The world's …
Sujeong Lim / Counterpoint Research:
Global smartwatch shipments rose 1.5% YoY in 2020, with Apple Watch shipments up 19% YoY, Huawei's up 26% YoY, and Fitbit shipments down 4% YoY  —  - In Q4 2020, the shipments decreased slightly YoY due to a fresh wave of COVID-19.  — However, Apple managed to expand its market share and remains firmly at the forefront.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: digital imaging company Shutterfly has held talks to go public via SPAC at a valuation between $4B-$5B, including debt  —  Discussions come less than two years after Apollo took the online-photo-book company private  —  Shutterfly Inc. is in talks to go public through a merger …

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More News

Varun Mishra / Counterpoint Research:
Bennett Cyphers / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Earlier Picks

Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Saqib Shah / Engadget:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times: