Techmeme
July 14, 2023, 11:45 PM

Top News

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
The US Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit denies the FTC's appeal for an injunctive relief to stop Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard from closing  —  In a victory for Microsoft, the U.S. Appeals Court for the Ninth Circuit late on Friday denied the Federal Trade Commission's appeal …
Matt Wales / Eurogamer.net:
Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, Xbox's senior director of corporate communications, is leaving Microsoft after 22 years to “work on the next chapter of my career”  —  To “work on the next chapter of my career.”  —  Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb, long one of the most recognisable presences …
Wall Street Journal:
Source: Binance has fired over 1,000 people in recent weeks; the cuts are global, ongoing, and could result in the company losing more than a third of its staff  —  Crypto exchange reduces workforce as Justice Department investigation continues  —  Binance, the giant crypto exchange …
Hayden Field / CNBC:
Sensor Tower: from July 8 to July 11 and 12, Threads DAUs fell ~20% and time spent fell 50% to 10 minutes; Similarweb: Android DAUs fell 25%+ from July 7 to 10  —  - Facebook's Twitter-killer, Threads, has seen drops in daily active users and time spent on app since the weekend, according to SensorTower and SimilarWeb.
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Meta confirms taking “additional steps” to prevent EU-based users from accessing Instagram's Threads; users report no longer being able to use Threads via a VPN  —  After multiple EU-based users complained about not being able to access Instagram's Threads app through VPN, Meta confirmed that it is blocking such efforts.
Semafor:
Sources: Elon Musk claimed his new startup xAI was worth $20B while he was trying to recruit top AI talent, including by offering equity in xAI  —  Elon Musk sought to recruit top AI talent to his new artificial intelligence company with equity in the venture he claimed was already worth tens …
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
In a Twitter Spaces chat, Elon Musk says xAI plans to collaborate with Tesla on silicon and AI software, use public tweets for AI training, and more  —  - During a live audio session on Twitter, owner and chairman Elon Musk said his new AI startup, xAI, will use Twitter data for training the …
Matt Binder / Mashable:
Some Reddit users report disappearance of their private messages from before 2023; Reddit says the move was announced on June 22 and is effective since June 30  —  Many Redditors were caught off guard by the removal of their chat and message history.  —  The Reddit blackout protests …
Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
Aoyon Ashraf / CoinDesk:
Tom Hals / Reuters:
Tim Copeland / The Block:
Crypto bridging protocol Multichain ceases operations after confirming Chinese police detained its CEO, Zhaojun, and his sister, who held ~$220M of user assets  —  - Multichain confirmed its CEO has been detained in China.  — It said the CEO's sister moved $220 million of funds …
Salvador Rodriguez / Wall Street Journal:
Kaya Yurieff / The Information:
Creator monetization platform Fanhouse agrees to be acquired by Passes, a rival platform that only launched in beta in December 2022 and raised a $9M seed  —  A startup that rode the pandemic-era frenzy around OnlyFans is selling to a rival.  Fanhouse, which operates a website …
Michael Schulman / New Yorker:
Netflix's Orange Is the New Black was an early indicator of how lopsided the streaming economy would be, as 10 actors from the show detail tiny residual incomes  —  The innovative and daring show was a worldwide hit for Netflix, but some of the actors say that they were never fairly compensated.
Andrew Webster / The Verge:

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Zoho Books now enables direct VAT filing with EmaraTax  —  We're excited to announce that Zoho Books is now recognised as a Digital Tax Integrator by the Federal Tax Authority, enabling direct VAT return filing from within your favorite accounting software.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Tim Apple's Very Bad Week
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Jeffrey Katzenberg & Sujay Jaswa (WndrCo) on What Startup Founders Can Steal From Hollywood
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Google DeepMind C.E.O. Demis Hassabis on Living in an A.I. Future
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Spotlight On:
VBSR 1.01: RTO is back (again) + data moats dry up + Sara vibecodes
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
BG2 Pod:
AI, Middle East, China, Tariffs, Recon Bill, Invest America
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner and Bill Gurley.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is okay with reinventing the bus
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:45 PM ET, July 14, 2023.

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.

More News

Brendan Pierson / Reuters:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
More: Techlusive, Dexerto, and Engadget
Bluesky: @jww.wtf and @setia.inkTwitter: @twittersupportThreads: @carnage4lifeForums: r/RealTesla
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Reuters:
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: