Techmeme
February 7, 2018, 1:20 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Goldman Sachs is in talks with Apple to offer financing to Apple gadget shoppers, using its retail point-of-sale financing arm Marcus  —  Wall Street firm would lend to shoppers buying expensive Apple gadgets  —  As Apple Inc.'s AAPL 4.18% investment bank, Goldman Sachs GS 3.85% Group Inc …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Report: Google is developing a subscription game streaming service codenamed Yeti that could either work with Chromecast or a Google-made console  —  Besides Android apps and the Play Store, Google's current gaming efforts are particularly centered around video livestreams on YouTube and Daydream VR.
Wall Street Journal:
Snapchat is launching a tool to let TV networks pipe snippets of live broadcasts directly into the app, starting this Saturday with NBC's Olympics coverage  —  Deal could forge closer ties between traditional TV networks and Snapchat's parent company Snap Inc.  —  Georgia Wells and Benjamin Mullin
Olivia Zaleski / Bloomberg:
Inside the battle among Airbnb investors and executives over whether to remain private or IPO; sources say founders and early employees cashed ~$350M of equity  —  Investors and executives disagreed over when to take the home-rental company public.  The stay-private crowd is winning.
Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed:
Russian trolls posed as black activists on Tumblr and generated hundreds of thousands of interactions with anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-Bernie Sanders content  —  Tumblrs run by Russian trolls generated hundreds of thousands of interactions with anti-Hillary Clinton, pro-Bernie Sanders content.
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Streaming service ESPN Plus launching next month at $4.99/mo; sources say it won't have ESPN cable channels' content, which still requires ESPN subscription  —  How much would you pay for sports you weren't watching on TV?  —  Want to pay for a subscription to ESPN without paying for a subscription to other cable channels?
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
US DoJ charges 36 people tied to seven-year cyber-fraud ring that secured $530M+ from selling stolen identities, more; 13 arrested in total with five in the US  —  Prosecutors said the case is “one of the largest cyber-fraud prosecutions” ever carried out by the Justice Department.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Viacom confirms it has acquired online video conference VidCon and will run it as a standalone subsidiary  —  It's official: Viacom has announced the acquisition VidCon, host of the world's biggest conference dedicated to YouTube and online video.  —  Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat:
Social network Gab, popular with the far-right, says it raised $4.8M from 1,000+ investors on crowdfunding platform StartEngine and plans $10M ICO  —  Amid ongoing disputes about free speech and hate speech, “alternative” social network Gab says it has raised $4.8 million and is planning a $10 million initial coin offering (ICO).
Tweets: @shaig
Casey Newton / The Verge:
A pollster Facebook hired in April '17, who quit after 6 months, says his role was to measure Zuckerberg's approval ratings and track speeches amid US tour  —  Why Tavis McGinn quit after six months  —  Tavis McGinn applied for a job at Facebook last year hoping to work in market research.

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