Techmeme: Critical Start, a managed detection and response service for enterprises, raises $215M from Vista Equity Partners (Mike Wheatley/SiliconANGLE)

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April 12, 2022, 8:15 AM

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The Verge:

Meta rolls out a test for some creators to sell virtual items and effects in Horizon Worlds, which will take a 25% cut of any sale after app store fees — Horizon Worlds will take a 25 percent cut of any sale after app store fees — Meta is testing new features to let creators …

More: YouTube, Meta, Reuters, Insider, Protocol, CNBC, Laptop Mag, cybernews.com, TechCrunch, PhoneArena, Neowin, Tubefilter, Cryptonews, Social Media Today, VRScout, Android Central, CoinDesk, Road to VR, UploadVR, The Economic Times, VentureBeat, and Engadget

Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg. Tweets: @slhamlet, @tomaxwell, @brianjjackson, @mixedrealitytv, @oculos410, @alexdchandler, @jonvirtual, @alexeheath, @ericpresidentvr, @iainmacl, @alexeheath, @ballmatthew, @ernestle, and @boztank

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:

Ethereum developers launch the so-called mainnet shadow fork, a key stress test ahead of the proof-of-stake Merge upgrade, expected to reduce energy use by ~99% — Ethereum's network is inching closer toward its much-anticipated software upgrade known as the Merge, having just entered a key testing step.

More: CoinDesk, Fortune, Cointelegraph, Cryptonews, Micky, CryptoPotato, The d-Learner Path, and Forkast

Tweets: @vdwijden, @vdwijden, @cory_eth, @bulldogholmes, and @monetarywonk

Bhanvi Satija / Reuters:

Research: TikTok's ad revenue is projected to triple in 2022 to $11B+, surpassing Twitter and Snapchat combined, which are expected to make $5.58B and $4.86B — Video-sharing app TikTok's advertisement revenue is likely to triple in 2022 to more than $11 billion, exceeding the combined sales …

More: eMarketer, PYMNTS.com, Telecoms.com, Coinspeaker, The Information, dot.LA, The Times, Pandaily, Benzinga, PingWest, and Tech News. Tweets: @tanarrowz

Janko Roettgers / Protocol:

Netflix is rolling out a Double Thumbs Up ratings option, which will appear next to the thumbs up and down buttons, to let it refine content recommendations — For nearly five years, Netflix has had simple thumbs-up and thumbs-down icons to express viewing preferences and help its algorithms provide better recommendations.

More: About Netflix, The Verge, TNW, XDA Developers, Variety, TechSpot, Tom's Guide, Fossbytes, Neowin, Phandroid, Pocket-lint, Digital Trends, SlashGear, GameSpot, CNET, iPhone in Canada Blog, Android Police, Engadget, and Android Authority

Tweets: @dcseifert, @carnage4life, @alexhcranz, @mmasnick, @ihnatko, and @jank0

See also Mediagazer

Andi Ortiz / The Wrap:

Last Week Tonight's John Oliver weighed in on data brokers, showing how easy it was to target members of Congress with ads after obtaining their personal info — John Oliver escalated his typical shenanigans on Sunday night's episode of “Last Week Tonight,” going from poking fun at politicians to outright blackmailing them.

Eli Tan / CoinDesk:

Coinbase will produce a movie trilogy based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club, set to premier at NFT.NYC in June; BAYC owners can submit their apes for consideration — The trio of films will tie into the launch of Coinbase's long-awaited NFT marketplace. — The Bored Ape Yacht Club is getting …

More: CNET, The Crypto Connection, CryptoSlate, HYPEBEAST, Coinspeaker, one37pm.com, The Block, Protocol, Bitcoin News, Crypto Briefing, Benzinga, Decrypt, and Forkast

Tweets: @mdudas, @piques15, @electiondaymad1, @alex, @valkenburgh, @discoverxnft, and @mixtatiq

Max A. Cherney / Protocol:

Filing: Chipmaker Ampere Computing, founded by former Intel president Renee James, has filed for an IPO; Oracle reportedly has a 20%-50% stake in Ampere — Oracle-backed server processor startup Ampere Computing said Monday that it plans to go public, filing initial confidential paperwork with the SEC.

More: DCD, SiliconANGLE, The Next Platform, CRN, Silicon Valley Business …, and Oregonian. Tweets: @dylan522p

Brad Stone / Bloomberg:

Marc Andreessen has tweeted ~350 times in the past two weeks, often referring to “the current thing” meme, joined by Elon Musk and others — Three of America's top technologists are talking and tweeting with unusual fervor. But first... - Beijing is targeting tech companies' algorithms

More: Protocol, Gizchina, Washington Post, NBC News, Financial Times, and ZDNet

Tweets: @parmy, @tomgara, @chafkin, @ryanlawler, @markmilian, @pmarca, @spakhm, @jesslivingston, @quasimondo, @ldrogen, @crypto, @technology, @tvietor08, @retalk_network, @paulg, @paulg, @elonmusk, @bradstone, @karaswisher, @elonmusk, @paulg, @pmarca, @pmarca, @pmarca, @pmarca, @pmarca, @pmarca, and @pmarca

Bloomberg:

Sources: Singapore-based fashion marketplace Zilingo suspends CEO Ankiti Bose, after attempts to raise $150M-$200M led to an investigation over its accounting — Zilingo Pte, one of Singapore's highest-profile startups, has suspended Chief Executive Officer Ankiti Bose after an effort …

More: Inc42 Media and Tech in Asia

Tweets: @sindhuhtoi, @pelstrom, and @chandrarsrikant

Alex Konrad / Forbes:

A profile of a16z's Chris Dixon, whose early bets on crypto startups, including Coinbase, Uniswap, and Dapper Labs, have made him Forbes' top VC in the space — The Andreessen Horowitz partner is the new no. 1 on Forbes' 21st annual Midas List of top venture investors, thanks to savvy bets on tokens …

Tweets: @forbes and @rabois

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE:

Critical Start, a managed detection and response service for enterprises, raises $215M from Vista Equity Partners — Cybersecurity firm Critical Start Inc., which sells a managed detection and response solution to enterprises, said today it has closed on a bumper $215 million strategic growth investment from Vista Equity Partners.

More: VentureBeat, Dallas Business Journal, and PR Newswire

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Some business customers say Microsoft's licensing rules make it harder and costlier to run Windows and Office on rival cloud platforms like AWS and Google Cloud — The current tide of antitrust scrutiny and regulations focused on big technology companies has conspicuously omitted one company …

Tweets: @dinabass, @bradstone, @markets, and @pelstrom

Jill R Shah / Bloomberg:

Filing: Meta spent $26.8M on Mark Zuckerberg's security in 2021, up 6% from 2020, far above other execs, such as Sundar Pichai ($4.3M) and Jeff Bezos ($1.6M) — The cost of keeping Mark Zuckerberg safe keeps going up for Meta Platforms Inc., far outstripping what similar technology companies with high-profile executives are spending.

More: Protocol, Meta, LatestLY, B&T, Silicon Valley Business …, New York Post, and Australian Financial Review

Tweets: @davidgura, @jackpullara, and @gregbensinger

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:

IAB: US digital ad spend rose 35% YoY to $189B in 2021, the largest gain since 2006; 10 publishers and platforms took 78.6% of the total, up from 78.1% in 2020 — Advertising has followed shopping online during the pandemic at a breathless rate. The ad spend was concentrated—78.6% …

Tweets: @neilretail and @megancgraham

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:

Meta has sent ~90 subpoenas related to the FTC's antitrust case to companies including Dispo, which says the requests are “overbroad, vexatious, and harassing” — On a quest to show the FTC that it isn't a monopoly, Meta flooded a wide swath of major tech companies with subpoenas last month.

Tweets: @tayhatmaker, @dlisscious, @nmasc_, and @seyitaylor

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:

Over 14,000 Etsy sellers start a week-long strike over an increase in transaction fees from 5% to 6.5%, grievances with Etsy's Offsite Ads program, and more — If you're in the market for funky trinkets and unique, handmade clothing, you might want to put off your shopping until next week.

More: Wall Street Journal, CBC News, The Recount, Protocol, Engadget, CNN, Bloomberg, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @esdin, @local12, @saraschaefer1, @chuckwendig, @aharonbernal, @abc12wjrt, @modestproposal1, @miarsato, and @charitylscott

Maria Chutchian / Reuters:

Cloud services provider Sungard files for bankruptcy with $424M in secured debt, its second bankruptcy filing in three years — (Reuters) - Technology company Sungard Availability Services returned to bankruptcy on Monday about three years after wrapping up its prior Chapter 11 case.

More: Sungard Availability Services, ZDNet, and SiliconANGLE. Tweets: @reuterslegal

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:15 AM ET, April 12, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Mark Sweney / The Guardian:

Sunday Express Editor David Wooding becomes the latest top Reach executive to leave, as the Express moves to create a seven-day operation amid Reach layoffs

Joe Flint / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: WBD and the NBA settle a lawsuit, giving WBD access to NBA content and rights in parts of N. Europe and LatAm; TNT will license Inside the NBA to ESPN

Max Tani / Semafor:

Q&A with Emily Sundberg, whose Feed Me newsletter on business and culture has over 50K subscribers and ranks sixth on Substack's paid leaderboard

More News

Akshat Rathi / Bloomberg:

A look at Stripe's $925M Frontier initiative, which funds carbon-removal startups and has received funding from Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and others

More: South China Morning Post. Tweets: @akshatrathi, @akshatrathi, @akshatrathi, @jasonclimateguy, and @johnfraher

Christine Hall / TechCrunch:

Berlin-based Choco, which makes ordering tools for restaurants and suppliers, raises a $111M Series B2 at a $1.2B valuation, bringing its funding to $282.5M

More: Tech.eu

Kris Holt / Engadget:

Fitbit receives FDA clearance for passive heart rhythm monitoring to detect signs of atrial fibrillation (AFib) and will roll out the feature in the US soon

More: Silicon Republic, Android Central, TechCrunch, Tom's Guide, Softpedia News, PhoneArena, MobiHealthNews, PCMag, MSPoweruser, The Hill, and Pocket-lint. Tweets: @fitbithealth

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Voyager Innovations, owner of popular Filipino financial app PayMaya and neobank Maya Bank, raises $210M led by SIG Venture Capital at a $1.4B valuation

More: Tech in Asia and Bloomberg

Teddy Amenabar / Washington Post:

Educators say esports infrastructure company PlayVS is misrepresenting itself as the exclusive provider of interscholastic high school esports for some games

Tweets: @tkidd, @jeffcohen23, @leadergrev, @teddyamen, @clerkie, @vicebabe, @teddyamen, @kevin_hitt, @teddyamen, and @jacobwolf

Wall Street Journal:

Okta, IBM, and other companies are increasingly setting aside college degree requirements for US job applicants, opening up tech jobs to a range of new talent

More: The 21 Hats Morning Report. Tweets: @lvgully, @bkcwilliams, @josephbfuller, @makingsenses, @wsj, @wsj, @tomgara, @tomgara, and @kathryndill

Laura Landro / Wall Street Journal:

A look at the use of AI in some US hospitals, including adopting predictive models to help identify and prioritize ER and ICU patients who are most at risk

Tweets: @dukehospitalist, @wsj, and @aboutkp

Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:

Sources: Meituan plans to lay off 10%-20% of staff from its core business units, days after announcing that it added 17K jobs from July 2021 to mid-March 2022

More: Tech in Asia and TechNode

Earlier Picks

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Stenn, which uses data analytics to provide loans to SMBs working in international trade, raises $50M from Centerbridge at a $900M valuation

More: Finextra and AltFi

Kim Zetter / Zero Day:

Substack rolls out 2FA, initially for writers and account holders who log in via its web platform, but plans to make it available for mobile app users soon

Tweets: @kimzetter, @briankrebs, and @kimzetter. Thanks:@thekenyeung

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:

NFT project Pudgy Penguins, once highly successful, is attempting a comeback after being acquired for 750 ETH; NonFungible says trading peaked at $13.6M/day

More: Mint Calendar. Tweets: @crypto, @olgakharif, @pudgypenguins, @asvanevik, and @business

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Beijing-based Cocos, which develops the open-source Cocos Creator engine for 2D and 3D games, used by 1.4M developers to date, raises a $50M Series B

More: GamesIndustry.biz, Cocos Creator & …, and TechCrunch

Andrew Duehren / Wall Street Journal:

US policy makers identified stablecoins as an initial target for regulation, asking lawmakers to pass legislation that would treat stablecoin issuers like banks

Tweets: @aduehren, @ronwhammond, @jessmarindavis, and @dizer_ym

Sara Fischer / Axios:

French social app BeReal, which encourages users to post one selfie per day, has exploded in popularity with Gen Z users; Apptopia says MAUs are up 315% in 2022

More: VICE and Social Media Today

Tweets: @semaforben, @liahaberman, @chrissyfarr, @davidskapinker, @ssingh2010, @mranthropology, @natalimorris, @mattnavarra, @martinsfp, and @sarafischer

New York Times:

In the absence of federal crypto regulations in the US, lobbyists and executives are helping draft and pass favorable bills at state level

More: The Signal, Protocol, Cryptonews, and CoinDesk

Tweets: @frankpasquale, @dukelaw, @aaschapiro, @leereiners, @bruneski, @haileylennonbtc, @ricardovalp, @silvermanjacob, @benmezrich, @blairherter, @cz_binance, @ericliptonnyt, @mdudas, @grahamdavida, @ericliptonnyt, and @rschooley

Omar Abdel-Baqui / Wall Street Journal:

Elon Musk appears to have deleted some tweets critical of Twitter and its leadership; Musk liked a tweet saying he was “told to play nice and not speak freely”