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Techmeme
October 16, 2023, 12:20 PM

Top News

Victoria Kennedy / Eurogamer.net:
Bethesda Head of Publishing Pete Hines plans to leave after 24 years, just weeks after the release of Starfield, to begin an “exciting new chapter”  —  To begin “exciting new chapter”.  —  Bethesda exec Pete Hines has announced his retirement after 24 years at the company, just weeks after Starfield's launch.
Giulio Piovaccari / Reuters:
Ferrari begins accepting crypto payments for its cars in the US and plans to add the option for European customers in Q1 2024; Ferrari sold 13,200 cars in 2022  —  Ferrari (RACE.MI) has started to accept payment in cryptocurrency for its luxury sports cars in the U.S. and will extend the scheme …
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
Mojang announces 300M+ copies of Minecraft sold in ~15 years; Rockstar's GTA V is the second best-selling game ever after reportedly selling ~185M in ~10 years  —  Today, it adds more down to that particular feather in its cap with the announcement that it has sold a staggering 300 million copies.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
LinkedIn plans to lay off nearly 700 staffers, mostly from its engineering teams, after cutting 716 jobs in May; source: LinkedIn is ramping up hiring in India  —  - LinkedIn is cutting almost 700 employees as revenue growth has slowed over the past two years.
AnnaMaria Andriotis / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Goldman wants to exit consumer lending and offload its Apple partnership, possibly to Amex, which has balked at Apple Card's loss rate and other issues  —  The bank, which reports third-quarter earnings Tuesday, is fighting profit declines and flagging stock
Bloomberg:
Analysts: iPhone 15 sales in China are down compared to the iPhone 14; Counterpoint estimates a 4.5% drop after 17 days and Jefferies says Huawei outsold Apple  —  - IPhone 15 selling worse in China than its predecessor in 2022  — Sales of Apple's flagship device are down 4.5% in comparison
Karen Freifeld / Reuters:
Sources: the US plans new China chip rules to block some AI chips that fall just under the current technical parameters, expand company reporting, and more  —  The U.S. will take steps to prevent American chipmakers from selling semiconductors to China that circumvent government restrictions …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Intel plans to launch its 14th Gen desktop CPUs on October 17, offering up to 6GHz for its flagship $589 Core i9-14900K and increased core count on the $409 i7  —  Intel is launching its 14th Gen desktop processors this week, promising boost frequencies of 6GHz out of the box for its flagship Core i9-14900K.
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Australia fined X ~$384K and warned Google after the companies did not give enough info on their efforts to fight CSAM, despite a law requiring such disclosures  —  The service formerly known as Twitter told Australian regulators that its automated detection of abusive material had declined after Elon Musk bought it.
Vicky Ge Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Spotify launches a dedicated in-app Merch Hub that provides personalized merch recommendations based on users' listening habits  —  Spotify is launching a dedicated in-app Merch Hub that provides personalized merch recommendations based on your listening habits, the company announced on Monday.

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Financial Times:
Angus Berwick / Wall Street Journal:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: