Techmeme
November 1, 2023, 11:05 PM

Top News

The Walt Disney Company:
Disney plans to acquire NBCU's 33% stake in Hulu, gaining full ownership, and expects to pay ~$8.61B, representing NBCU's share of a $27.5B guaranteed floor  —  The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS) announced today that it will acquire the 33% stake in Hulu, LLC held by Comcast Corp.'s (NASDAQ …
Joe Duball / IAPP:
The EDPB instructs the Irish DPC to ban Meta's use of personal data for behavioral ads on the legal base of contract and legitimate interest in the EU and EEA  —  An unprecedented shakeup in the advertising technology space has arrived in Europe.  Changes are coming to adtech's approach …
CoinDesk:
The US SEC charges SafeMoon and its executives for selling unregistered crypto securities and misappropriating investors' funds the team promised were “locked”  —  Crypto company SafeMoon's CEO and chief technology officer were arrested, accused of withdrawing more than $200M …
Bloomberg:
A look at Apple's ambition to revolutionize health care: some breakthroughs marred by philosophical disagreements, a culture of conservatism, and tech realities  —  The company is working on big things, but employees disagree over whether they should be serving people who are healthy or sick.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans new health features for 2024's Apple Watch, like an elevated blood pressure sensor, and a paid health coaching service, possibly using AI  —  - AirPods will get hearing-aid capability and hearing tests  — AI health coach in the works, as are Vision Pro health tools
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
At the UK's AI Safety Summit, the UK releases the Bletchley Declaration, signed by 28 countries and the EU, and the US announces an AI Safety Institute  —  The world is locked in a race, and competition, over dominance in AI, but today, a few of them appeared to come together …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple quietly discontinued Apple Music's $4.99/month Voice Plan, which was introduced in 2021 and let users access the Apple Music catalog exclusively via Siri  —  Apple this week held a special event to announce new Macs, but what the company didn't tell is that it has just quietly discontinued the …
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
DoorDash tests a prompt warning customers that orders with no tip ahead of time may take longer to get delivered, since drivers choose which orders to accept  —  DoorDash has added a pop-up in its app this week warning customers that orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered.
Amanda Chicago Lewis / The Verge:
A critical look at the SEO industry, as users complain that Google isn't as useful anymore and some SEO experts say it's now harder to game Google's algorithm  —  As the public begins to believe Google isn't as useful anymore, what happens to the cottage industry of search engine optimization experts …
David Pierce / The Verge:
US v. Google offers a rare look at Google's top 20 queries by revenue for a week in September 2018: iPhone, insurance, cheap flights, online colleges, and more  —  Not all Google searches make Google money.  Google often says that it only shows ads on about 20 percent of queries, the ones it calls “commercial queries.”
Brian Steinberg / Variety:
Shareholder letter: Netflix says its ad tier has 15M+ MAUs globally, accounting for ~30% of new sign-ups where it's available, and plans new ad formats for 2024  —  Netflix is ready to use “The Crown,” “Squid Game” and other signature series to take ad dollars from rival streamers.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
RT Watson / The Block:
After securing regulatory approval, Coinbase says that eligible US retail customers can now access BTC and ETH futures contracts via Coinbase Financial Markets  —  - Coinbase's service offering crypto futures trading to eligible retail U.S. customers is now active and includes “nano” bitcoin contracts.
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Snowflake unveils Snowflake Cortex, a fully managed service designed to help business users and developers work with AI-powered apps on its Data Cloud platform  —  Companies use Snowflake to store their data in the cloud.  With the ever growing interest in generative AI and large language models …
Theo Wayt / The Information:
Flexport acquires the tech stack of shuttered digital freight startup Convoy; a source says Convoy CEO Dan Lewis will join Flexport as part of the deal  —  Flexport has reached a deal to buy the technology of shuttered trucking startup Convoy, as Flexport doubles down on its U.S. trucking ambitions …
Brody Ford / Bloomberg:
Intuit plans to shut personal finance app Mint, which had 3.6M MAUs in 2021, on January 1, 2024, and is pushing users to Credit Karma, which it acquired in 2020  —  - Credit Karma hopes to attract more high-score customers  — Mint service had 3.6 million monthly active users in 2021
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
CRM platform HubSpot plans to acquire B2B data provider Clearbit, which has 400K+ users and 1,500+ business customers, and was valued at $250M in January 2019  —  HubSpot, the Boston-based marketing software maker and CRM platform, announced today it's acquiring the B2B data provider Clearbit …
Sam Tobin / Reuters:
Apple loses a bid to block a UK lawsuit over allegedly hiding defective iPhone batteries and “throttling” them via updates; Apple calls the lawsuit “baseless”  —  Apple Inc (AAPL.O) on Wednesday lost a bid to block a mass London lawsuit accusing it of hiding defective batteries …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Chainguard, which helps companies secure their open-source software supply chain, raised a $61M Series B led by Spark Capital, taking its total funding to $116M  —  Chainguard, a Kirkland, Wash.-based cybersecurity startup, raised $61 million in a Series B round.

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