Techmeme
January 5, 2023, 8:45 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: OpenAI is in talks to raise $300M+ from Thrive and Founders Fund in a tender offer, valuing the company at ~$29B, up from $14B in its 2021 tender offer  —  Tender offer at that valuation would make OpenAI one of the most valuable U.S. startups  —  Cheating With ChatGPT: Can an AI Chatbot Pass AP Lit?
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: crypto lender Genesis Global laid off 30% of its staff, after cutting 20% of its 260 workforce in 2022, and is considering filing for bankruptcy  —  Firm suffered steep losses from loans it supplied to Alameda, Three Arrows  —  Massive crypto lender Genesis Global Trading Inc. laid off 30% …
Wall Street Journal:
New York AG Letitia James files a civil lawsuit against Celsius co-founder Alex Mashinsky, alleging he defrauded investors out of billions via false statements  —  Alex Mashinsky made false statements to investors about the crypto lender, lawsuit alleges  —  New York Attorney General Letitia …
Kate Clark / The Information:
Memo: Genesis parent company DCG shut its wealth management division HQ on January 2; filing: HQ had more than $3.5B under management as of December 2022  —  Digital Currency Group, the parent company of crypto broker Genesis and the publication CoinDesk, has shut down its wealth management …
David Benoit / Wall Street Journal:
US bank Silvergate, which caters to crypto, reports liquidating debt to cover $8.1B withdrawals as FTX collapsed and laying off 40% of its staff; SI falls 40%+  —  Bank sold assets at a loss to cover withdrawals and cut 40% of its staff but remains committed to crypto
Erin Woo / The Information:
Source: Twitter laid off ~40 ad optimization data scientists and engineers, as the company targets areas that leadership considers to be failing or unimportant  —  Twitter laid off about 40 data scientists and engineers working on advertising late Wednesday night in what amounted to at least …
Jules Roscoe / VICE:
The FTC proposes a rule banning non-compete clauses, saying the contracts harm healthy competition in the labor and product markets and block entrepreneurship  —  The agency stated that noncompete clauses are bad for both the labor market and innovation.  The proposed rule would make them illegal.
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Lenovo unveils the Yoga Book 9i, a laptop with two 13.3" OLED displays, available in June 2023 for $2,100+ with a 13th Gen Intel Core i7-U15 and 16GB of RAM  —  Dual monitor setups are great and all, but how about dual screens in a strangely tall laptop?  Lenovo is here to answer that …
Matt Burgess / Wired:
WhatsApp launches proxy support globally, letting users with blocked or disrupted connections use the app via servers set up by volunteers and organizations  —  Amid internet shutdowns in Iran, the encrypted messaging app is introducing proxy connections that can help people get online.
Stephen Totilo / Axios:
Microsoft files a revised rebuttal to the FTC's lawsuit to block its Activision deal, backing off its claim that the FTC's structure is unconstitutional  —  Microsoft says it made a mistake last month when it claimed that the very structure of Federal Trade Commission, the agency trying …
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon Satellite, to let phones with a Gen 2 SoC and X70 modem connect to Iridium's satellites for off-grid texting, available in H2 2023  —  Android phones will soon be getting a feature similar to — and perhaps even more powerful than — Apple's Emergency SOS via satellite.
Angus Berwick / Reuters:
Source: FTX's former top lawyer Daniel Friedberg cooperated with US prosecutors, telling them on November 22 what he knew about SBF misusing customer funds  —  FTX's former top lawyer Daniel Friedberg has cooperated with U.S. prosecutors as they investigate the crypto firm's collapse …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
California's pay transparency law, which requires employers to share salary ranges on job listings, went into effect this week, revealing some Big Tech salaries  —  - A new law that went into effect this week requires most California employers to disclose salaries on job listings.
Geoffrey A. Fowler / Washington Post:
Twitter verified a Washington Post columnist's fake US Senator Ed Markey account, after Elon Musk said “all verified accounts will be manually authenticated”  —  Elon Musk said Twitter would begin authenticating users who pay $8 for Blue.  Our tech columnist was still able to get a checkmark for an impostor Sen. Ed Markey.
Wall Street Journal:
Scott Stein / CNET:
HTC unveils the $1,099 Vive XR Elite headset with a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2, 110-degree field of view, and two 90HZ 2K LCD displays, available in February 2023  —  The compact, depth-sensing, $1,099 headset arrives in February.  Vive boss Dan O'Brien explains the strategy.  —  VR has suddenly gotten more expensive.
Levi Winslow / Kotaku:
After YouTuber Coffeezilla reported on Logan Paul's apparently sham NFT game CryptoZoo, Paul says his only mistake was trusting the project's many “bad actors”  —  Blockchain investigator Stephen ‘Coffeezilla’ Findeisen may see Paul in court  —  After keeping his mouth shut …
Jessica Conditt / Engadget:
Sony unveils Project Leonardo, a PS5 accessibility controller kit with circular gamepads, for use on its own or with DualSense; pricing and release are TBC  —  Sony is building a better PlayStation 5 controller with Project Leonardo, a kit that promises to make games easier to play for people with limited motor control.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:

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