Techmeme
February 6, 2019, 2:30 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:
Spotify reports Q4 revenue of ~€1.5B, up 30% YoY, operating profit of €94M, says it has 207M MAUs, up 29% YoY, including 96M premium subscribers, up 36% YoY  —  Spotify has published its latest quarterly financial results, covering the final quarter of 2018.
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 …
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.
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Podcast platform Himalaya, which offers mobile apps that let listeners tip creators, raises $100M and aims to add exclusives and paid content to its app  —  San Francisco-based podcasting startup Himalaya has raised $100 million in funding to establish itself as a new force in the podcast distribution space.
Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
YouTube CEO says the number of channels with 1M+ subs nearly doubled and the number of creators who earned five or six figures grew 40%+ in the last year  —  In a post Tuesday about her goals for 2019, YouTube Chief Executive Susan Wojcicki touted several milestones Google's massive video site surpassed …
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Snap reports Q4 revenue of $389.8M, up 36% YoY, DAUs of 186M in Q4'18 from 187M in Q4'17 and 186M in Q3'18, as Android design refresh rolls out  —  Snap, the parent of disappearing message app Snapchat, stemmed recent declines in users and beat revenue expectations in its fourth-quarter results …
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
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.
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 …

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