Techmeme
December 7, 2021, 8:50 AM

Top News

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Microsoft seizes 42 domains allegedly used by a Chinese cyber espionage group that targeted organizations in 29 countries including the US  —  Microsoft said today that its legal team has successfully obtained a court warrant that allowed it to seize 42 domains used by a Chinese cyber-espionage group …
Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:
Samsung merges its mobile and consumer electronics divisions into one business unit led by JH Han, and names Kyehyun Kyung as the CEO of its semiconductor unit  —  The Galaxy-device maker's smartphone and TV divisions will now be run by a single CEO.  —  Samsung said on Tuesday it has merged …
Wall Street Journal:
Intel plans to take its Mobileye unit public, sources say at a $50B+ valuation; Intel acquired the self-driving car company in 2017 for about $15B  —  Move could value Mobileye at more than $50 billion, according to people familiar with the matter  —  Intel Corp. is planning to publicly list shares …
David McCabe / New York Times:
Ahead of a congressional hearing, Adam Mosseri outlines forthcoming parental controls for Instagram, including monitoring time spent and deleting posts in bulk  —  Adam Mosseri, the head of the company, is expected to face questions from lawmakers this week about whether social media harms children.
The Markup:
Sources: Life360, a family safety app with 33M users, has sold users' precise location since 2016 and is one of the location data broker industry's top sources  —  The app is a major source of raw location data for a multibillion-dollar industry that buys, packages, and sells people's movements
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Report: the US DOJ has asked Roblox why it changed “games” to “experiences” on its website, and asked Roblox and other developers to clarify the difference  —  The United States Justice Department is investigating Apple for antitrust issues, and Roblox is an area …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Lyft CFO Brian Roberts, who joined the company in 2014 and took it public, leaves to become CFO at NFT marketplace OpenSea  —  Lyft's long-time CFO Brian Roberts, who took the company public, announced Monday that he was departing the ride share company that he joined in 2014 to take the same role at NFT marketplace OpenSea.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
WhatsApp now lets users set all one-to-one chats to disappear by default after 24 hours, seven days, or 90 days  —  Its disappearing messages feature is getting an upgrade  —  WhatsApp is adding new functionality to its disappearing messages feature, which lets users set messages in a chat …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Microsoft tells its partners that enterprise customers will be charged 20% more for their Office subscriptions if they don't switch to an annual plan in 2022  —  - Microsoft is telling partners that customers will soon be charged 20% more for Office subscriptions if they prefer to keep paying by the month.
Packy McCormick / Not Boring:
The allure of speculative returns on Web3 is attracting talent, who in turn will create opportunities for more people to earn money by doing what they find fun  —  More fun making money, and more money having fun … Today's Not Boring is brought to you by... Mosaic
Bloomberg:
NFT data shows price differences based on race and gender; the average minimum sale price of darker-skinned male CryptoPunks trails lighter ones  —  Price differences based on race and gender are emerging among the CryptoPunk NFTs.  What do the disparities mean?
Chainalysis Insights:
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
WeLab, which offers consumer fintech products across Asia, raises $240M and buys Indonesian commercial bank Jasa Jakarta  —  A virtual bank is soon coming to Indonesia.  WeLab, a Hong Kong-based fintech unicorn, announced Tuesday its acquisition of Bank Jasa Jakarta (BJJ), an Indonesian commercial bank.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Facebook Gaming announces Play with Streamer, letting lets creators invite audience members to join a game, launching alongside Pac-Man Community  —  Mark Zuckerberg unveiled that Pac-Man Community is debuting on Facebook Gaming as one of the first games where audiences can play together while spectating.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Atomico: European tech startups will raise a record $121B in 2021, up from $41B in 2020, with <1% going to early-stage; 98 unicorns were created in 2021  —  - Start-ups in Europe are on track to haul in a record $121 billion in funding this year, according to a report from venture capital firm Atomico.
Antoine Gara / Financial Times:
Sources: Thomas Bravo is raising $35B for tech company buyouts; in 2021, the PE firm acquired RealPage for $10.2B and Proofpoint for $12.3B  —  US-based specialist on an acquisition binge is raising $35bn for more  —  The mood was buoyant when private equity executives congregated at the SuperReturn conference in Berlin last month.
Tweets: @robinwauters
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
London-based Pento, which offers payroll services for SMBs, raises a $35M Series B led by Tiger Global and Avid Ventures, after raising a $15.6M Series A in May  —  One of the biggest pain points for any business, but especially SMEs, is managing payroll.  —  A startup that has built payroll …
More: Tech.eu and VentureBeat
D. T. Max / New Yorker:
An in-depth look at Welshman James Howells' desperate efforts to excavate his local landfill to recover a hard drive with 8,000 bitcoins mined in 2013  —  For years, a Welshman who threw away the key to his cybercurrency stash has been fighting to excavate the local landfill.
Bloomberg:
A look at the impact of a COVID-19 outbreak at a STMicroelectronics chipmaking factory in Malaysia, as pressure to increase production overrode safety concerns  —  While companies and governments push to keep supply chains running, ordinary people are the ones putting their lives at risk.

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