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February 6, 2019, 4:45 PM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop 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.
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Spotify, Spotify, The Verge, New York Times, Bloomberg, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, The Verge, Anchor, Marketing Land, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Telegraph, Android Police, Music Business Worldwide, Mashable, CNBC, Forbes, The Wrap, Axios, CBS Chicago, iPhone in Canada Blog, MSPoweruser, Pocket-lint, Music Week, CNET, ABC News, MacStories, CNBC, Tom's Guide, Fortune, Patently Apple, AdExchanger, The Guardian, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, Associated Press, RAIN News, Tubefilter, Nieman Lab, Adweek, 9to5Mac, hypebot, and The Mac Observer
Tweets: @stevekovach, @pkafka, @dcseifert, @lucas_shaw, @harrysiegel, @panzer, @austindarbo, @eldsjal, @geoffwood, @markcwebster, @caseynewton, @thestalwart, @ashleymayer, @anchor, @sallyshin, @joshelman, @jonfortt, and @tomgara
| Stuart Dredge / Music Ally: |
More:
The Verge, Business Wire, Engadget, RAIN News, Voicebot, Music Ally, Music Industry Blog, VentureBeat, MacRumors, Reuters, VentureBeat, and Thurrott
Tweets: @thestalwart and @pkafka
| Kara Swisher / Recode: |
Facebook's top global communications executive, Caryn Marooney, is leaving after eight years; Debbie Frost, Facebook's longest-serving PR exec, is also leaving — After a bruising year for the social media giant, longtime communications head Caryn Marooney is helping search for her replacement.
More:
Engadget and Wired
Tweets: @alexeheath, @kurtwagner8, @bafeldman, @waltmossberg, and @kurtwagner8
| 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 …
More:
NBC News, BuzzFeed News, The Instacart Checkout, New York Times, Recode, The Verge, CNBC, New York Times, PYMNTS.com, and TechCrunch
Tweets: @ceodonovan, @mikeisaac, @rmac18, @kevinroose, @caseynewton, @buzzfeednews, @histoftech, @kevinroose, @kevinroose, @zeynep, and @ceodonovan
| 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.
More:
9to5Mac, The Mac Observer, and iPhone Hacks
Tweets: @josephfcox, @josephfcox, @jason_koebler, @josephfcox, @jason_koebler, @josephfcox, @jason_koebler, @jason_koebler, and @josephfcox
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
On-demand e-scooter startup Lime raises $310M Series D, led by a16z, Bain Capital, Fidelity, GV, and IVP, at a $2.4B valuation — Confirming rumors that have been swirling for some time, on-demand electric scooter startup Lime today announced that it has closed a $310 million series D financing round led …
More:
Lime Blog, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, Business Insider, and PE Hub Blog
Tweets: @teddyschleifer and @teddyschleifer
| James Vincent / The Verge: |
Google says Gmail is now blocking an extra 100M spam messages each day by using TensorFlow-trained machine learning models — Google is using its machine learning platform, TensorFlow, to eke out additional gains — Google has recruited its in-house machine learning framework, TensorFlow …
More:
Google Cloud Blog, 9to5Google, SiliconANGLE, Thurrott, ZDNet, CircleID, VentureBeat, and Hacker Noon
| 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 …
More:
MacRumors, Washington Post, AppleInsider, Associated Press, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, New York Times, InvestorPlace, Observer, Bloomberg, iDownloadBlog.com, AOL, The Register, iPhone Hacks, Apple Must, Macworld, Redmond Pie, Business Insider, Android Authority, MacStories, Cult of Mac, PYMNTS.com, Ars Technica, The Loop, and Gizmodo
Tweets: @tim_cook, @geoffreyfowler, @caro_milanesi, @mikesilva, @markgurman, @kifleswing, @markgurman, @markgurman, @jacknicas, @kantrowitz, @jacknicas, @markgurman, @mgsiegler, @mgsiegler, @lexnfx, @markgurman, @caro_milanesi, @gartenberg, @iryantldr, @jeffersongraham, @reneritchie, @backlon, @mgsiegler, and @neilcybart
| 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
More:
TechCrunch, Fast Company, and Business Insider
Tweets: @kimzetter, @kimzetter, @ryanfelton, and @expolineledger
| 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.
Tweets: @sarahfrier, @sarahfrier, @carnage4life, @belril, @carnage4life, and @jeffmuskus
| 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.
More:
Forbes, BleepingComputer, Digital Trends, ZDNet, MacRumors, BetaNews, Softpedia News, Tom's Guide, Cult of Mac, and iPhone in Canada Blog
Tweets: @campuscodi and @iblametom
| 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 …
More:
CNET, Fortune, Financial Times, CNN, Mashable, The Next Web, NDTV Gadgets 360, Reuters, and 9to5Mac. Tweets: @scepticgeek
| 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 … | Matthew Ball / REDEF: |
Fortnite's longevity will hinge on its ability to evolve and to be a social network, which could allow Epic to build a Metaverse to rival big internet platforms — In 2018, there was a lot to read about Fortnite, and even more to learn from it. And to point, “the game” …
Tweets: @mariosundar
| Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet: |
Microsoft says Build 2019 will take place from May 6 to May 8, with registration opening on February 27 — Registration for this year's Microsoft Build developers conference opens February 27. And Build, again, is going head-to-head with Google's I/O developer confab.
More:
Engadget, Thurrott, The Verge, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Windows Central, Petri, TechSpot, MSPoweruser, Neowin, and OnMSFT.com
| BuzzFeed News: |
A story of two hackers, both US citizens and ex-members of UGNazi hacking group, who allegedly deceived and murdered one hacker's girlfriend in the Philippines — Tomi Masters was a 23-year-old from Indiana who moved to California with dreams of making it big in the cannabis business.
Tweets: @daveyalba, @buzzfeednews, @agoldmund, and @bernstein
| 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.
More:
TechCrunch, Business Insider, VentureBeat, Bloomberg, FinSMEs, and Telegraph
Tweets: @aparanjape and @pearlf
| 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.
More:
Financial Times, The Block, and TheStreet
| 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.| Jaclyn Peiser / New York Times: |
Around 1/3 of the content published by Bloomberg News uses some form of automated tech, as more news outlets are employing AI for story recommendations and more — As reporters and editors find themselves the victims of layoffs at digital publishers and traditional newspaper chains alike … | 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 …
More:
Council of the European Union, hypebot, TorrentFreak, IT PRO, Silicon Republic, and Telecoms.com
Tweets: @senficon, @tishadow6, and @remych
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