Techmeme
October 21, 2021, 4:50 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: PayPal has approached Pinterest about an acquisition, potentially valuing it at $39B; Pinterest stock had dropped 16% this year but is up 10%+ today  —  PayPal Holdings Inc. is exploring an acquisition of social media company Pinterest Inc., people with knowledge of the matter said, Bloomberg News reports.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg has not settled on a new name for Facebook, which could be announced as early as Monday  —  See you Monday!  —  Facebook is changing its name.  Perhaps you heard.  The news was broken by Alex Heath of The Verge on Tuesday night, and I've since confirmed it with sources of my own.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft begins letting Windows 11 beta testers try Android apps from the Amazon Appstore, starting with 50 apps including Kindle, Apple Music, and Signal  —  Beta Channel testers get access first  —  Microsoft is now allowing Windows 11 testers to try out Android apps.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Twitter acquires London-based Sphere, which develops a group chat app and has raised $30M to date  —  Twitter has acquired London-based Sphere, which operates an eponymous groups chat app, the latest in a series of recent moves from the social network as it looks to aggressively broaden and improve its product offerings.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Internal email: Apple will test unvaccinated corporate staff each time they enter offices starting Nov. 1, and asks US staff to report vaccine status by Oct. 24  —  - The company is still stopping short of requiring the shots  — Unvaccinated retail staff will be asked to test twice a week
Aisha Counts / Protocol:
Since May, Google says it has blocked 1.6M messages and restored ~4,000 YouTube influencer accounts affected by a phishing campaign offering fake collaborations  —  A network of Russian-speaking hackers are phishing YouTube influencers with fake collaboration offers in order to hijack their accounts …
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post:
US Commerce Department announces rules banning the export or resale of hacking tools to China, Russia, and other countries of concern  —  The Commerce Department on Wednesday announced a long-awaited rule that officials hope will help stem the export or resale of hacking tools to China …
Emily Birnbaum / Politico:
Source: Pierre Omidyar's philanthropic organization Luminate handles Frances Haugen's PR in Europe; Omidyar donated $150K to Whistleblower Aid in 2020  —  Support from eBay-founder-turned-tech-critic Pierre Omidyar is helping Frances Haugen take on one of the world's most powerful companies.
Alex Webb / Bloomberg:
Apple's product design has improved since Jony Ive left, as it seems to be putting the emphasis back on function over form and is less obsessed with thinness  —  At one time, even broaching the idea would have been sacrilegious.  But here goes: might Apple Inc.'s product design have improved since the departure of Jony Ive?
ABC News:
Trump announces the Trump Media & Technology Group and TRUTH Social, a social network coming in Nov. to “stand up” to Big Tech, in the App Store for preorder  —  The former president has been banned from several platforms.  —  Silenced by many major platforms …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify partners with Shopify to let artists list merch on profiles for $29/month to $299/month, starting in the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand  —  Spotify on Wednesday announced a new partnership with ecommerce provider Shopify to let artists list merchandise directly on their profiles …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Hex, which simplifies storing and sharing large data sets with integrations for Snowflake, BigQuery, and others, raises a $16M Series A led by Redpoint Ventures  —  Data is everywhere inside organizations, and employees are increasingly trying to find ways to put it to work to improve business outcomes.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
SkyHive, which develops workforce planning software that lets customers benchmark against competitors by analyzing labor market data, raises a $40M Series B  —  SkyHive Technologies, a company developing workforce planning software, today announced that it closed a $40 million series B round led …

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Jordan Novet / CNBC:
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Earlier Picks

James Vincent / The Verge:
Ian Bremmer / Foreign Affairs:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times: