Techmeme
February 6, 2019, 4:45 PM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Recode:
Spotify buys Gimlet Media, a podcast producer and network, sources say for ~$230M, and Anchor, which makes it easier for users to record and distribute podcasts  —  Daniel Ek says he wants to spend up to $500 million on acquisitions this year.  —  Spotify is a streaming music company that wants to become a podcast company, too.
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Following a lawsuit, Instacart CEO apologizes for changes that meant some tips were used to boost base pay and says those affected will get retroactive pay  —  On the heels of a recently-filed class action lawsuit over wages and tips, as well as drivers and shoppers speaking …
Austin Carr / Bloomberg:
Interviews with 49 people illuminate Wisconsin's disastrous deal with Foxconn, championed by Trump, that saw $4.5B in promised incentives with little return  —  “This is the Eighth Wonder of the World.”  —  So declared President Donald Trump onstage last June at a press event at Foxconn's …
Motherboard:
Inside the illicit world of “iCloud unlocking”, where cybercriminals trick iPhone owners or Apple staff into removing an iCloud account to resell the iPhone  —  In a novel melding of physical and cybercrime, hackers, thieves, and even independent repair companies are finding ways to “unlock iCloud” from iPhones.
Apple:
Angela Ahrendts to leave Apple in April after five years, as Apple names 30-year company veteran Deirdre O'Brien SVP of Retail + People reporting to Tim Cook  —  Angela Ahrendts Plans April Departure After Five Successful Years  —  CUPERTINO — Apple today announced that Deirdre O'Brien …
Ryan Felton / Consumer Reports:
Survey of 110 hospitals and five agencies from 47 US cities: 1,500+ e-scooter-related injuries since late 2017; quick spread of e-scooters surprised some cities  —  A Consumer Reports investigation finds 1,500 e-scooter injuries across the country, and many hospitals still don't track them
Nico Grant / Bloomberg:
Inside Oracle's ad software arm Data Cloud, built with ~$3B of acquisitions since 2014, that has reported disappointing financials and seen layoffs  —  Oracle Corp. has spent five years and billions of dollars getting really good at following people around the internet.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Security researcher, who's shared iOS flaws before, demos a macOS Keychain exploit but won't share details with Apple because of the lack of a macOS bug bounty  —  Security researcher Linuz Henze has shared a video demonstration of what is claimed to be a macOS Mojave exploit to access passwords stored in the Keychain.
Manish Singh / VentureBeat:
WhatsApp says it bans about 2M fake or abusive accounts each month, 75% of them without manual intervention, 20% of them at the time of registration itself  —  WhatsApp today outlined how it is tackling abuse and spread of false information on its instant messaging platform as its largest market …
Patrick Howell O'Neill / Gizmodo:
If Reddit lands a $150M Tencent investment, they'd make strange bedfellows: Tencent helps build the Great Firewall; Reddit's product, banned in China, is speech  —  Who really thinks about where the money is coming from as long as you get the money?  —  Reddit is about to get a huge new round …
Angelica LaVito / CNBC:
Meditation and sleep app Calm raises $88M Series B led by TPG Growth at a $1B valuation  —  - Calm has raised $88 million, valuing the meditation and sleep app at $1 billion, the company announced Wednesday.  — Calm is the top grossing health and fitness app and 20th overall on iOS, according to App Annie.
Elizabeth Schulze / CNBC:
SoftBank's Vision Fund says that it sold its entire stake in Nvidia, which was worth $3.63B on December 31, in January  —  Chipmaker Nvidia suffered another setback Wednesday after SoftBank's Vision Fund disclosed it had sold its entire stake, worth more than $3 billion, in the company in January.
Julie Verhage / Bloomberg:
Sources: no-fees mobile bank Chime is raising $300M at a $1.5B valuation, up from a $500M valuation in May 2018  —  Chime, a financial technology startup that offers online banking services, is close to raising $300 million at a $1.5 billion valuation, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Tweets: @alexThanks:@seriouslyrick
Julia Reda:
Weeks after EU member states failed to find common ground on the Article 13 proposal, negotiations are back on toward a final vote after Germany reverses stance  —  Let's recall: On January 18, negotiations about the new EU copyright law came to an abrupt halt after member state governments failed …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Zoho Forms for successful Black Friday sales  —  Black Friday is a retail frenzy that can significantly impact your bottom line.  To make the most of this shopping bonanza, you need a strategy that not only attracts customers …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 11/04 - Apple Buying And Investing In Things
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:45 PM ET, February 6, 2019.

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

Jeff Stone / CyberScoop:

Earlier Picks

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
Jeremy Burge / Emojipedia:
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Robert Hackett / Fortune:
The Keyword: