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.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
See how your customer experience priorities compare  —  TELUS Digital surveyed leaders about the tech they're investing in, the KPIs they're tracking and their plans for outsourcing.  Get the results.  No form fill required!
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
The rise of AI in recruitment  —  Note: This is a guest post by our integration partner Ringover.AI has already begun transforming recruitment, but in the coming years, it will reach new heights.
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

Lenny's Podcast:
Become a better communicator: Specific frameworks to improve your clarity, influence, and impact | Wes Kao (coach, entrepreneur, advisor)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) The Legality Of The AI Stuff
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
Tech Stock Shock + Solving the Mystery of OpenAI's "Blip" + Tinder's Flirt-Off
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.
BG2 Pod:
Liberation Day, Tariffs, US v China Open Source, OpenAI Fundraise, $CRWV, TikTok
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:
What AI anime memes tell us about the future of art and humanity
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Great Chat:
Battle of the startup cities
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:05 PM ET, November 1, 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

Earlier Picks

Hayden Field / CNBC:
Tim Wu / The Atlantic:
Joshua Oliver / Financial Times:
Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World:
New York Times: