Techmeme
February 12, 2021, 11:30 PM

Top News

The Information:
Sources: Facebook is building an Android-based smartwatch with health and fitness capabilities, which it aims to launch in 2022  —  Facebook is building a smartwatch it hopes to start selling next year, according to people with direct knowledge of the device.
Sam Shead / CNBC:
Sources: Qualcomm has told regulators around the world, including the FTC and UK's CMA, that it is against Nvidia's $40B acquisition of Arm  —  - Qualcomm has told regulators around the world that it is against Nvidia's $40 billion acquisition of British chip designer Arm, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm are among companies asking US to intervene in Nvidia's Arm acquisition, and at least one company wants the deal killed  —  Some of the world's largest technology companies are complaining to U.S. antitrust regulators about Nvidia Corp.'s acquisition …
TechCrunch:
Jack Dorsey and Jay Z create ₿trust endowment with 500 bitcoin, worth $23M+, to fund teams working on Bitcoin development, initially in Africa and India  —  Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay Z have created an endowment to fund bitcoin development initially in Africa and India, Dorsey said Friday.
Corinne Reichert / CNET:
BitPay adds Apple Pay support for its prepaid Mastercard which allows users to instantly convert their cryptocurrencies into fiat to pay for goods and services  —  Bitcoin wallet BitPay's Prepaid Mastercard users in the US can now add their card to Apple Wallet and Apple Pay will now allow Bitcoin …
Kate Klonick / New Yorker:
A look at the making of Facebook's Oversight Board, its members, Zuckerberg's rationale for its existence, and criticisms of the endeavor  —  The company has created a board that can overrule even Mark Zuckerberg.  Soon, it will decide whether to allow Trump back on Facebook.
Bloomberg:
Sources: US investigators say hardware and firmware of Supermicro servers were tampered with as late as 2018, via chips with backdoors sending data to China  —  In 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense found thousands of its computer servers sending military network data to China …
David McCabe / New York Times:
Maryland approves the Digital Advertising Gross Revenues Tax, the first tax in US on digital ads revenue, creating a 10% tax on firms with $15B+ global revenues  —  Analysts estimate that the tax will generate up to $250 million for schools in the state in the first year.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
LinkedIn announces the formation of a global creator management team, led by its EIC Dan Roth, aiming to support and grow content creators on the platform  —  LinkedIn is building a creator management team to help grow its community of content creators on the platform, according to an announcement from the company's editor in chief.
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
AT&T installs fiber for a 90-year-old after his WSJ print ad complaining of slow AT&T Internet service speeds goes viral  —  From 3Mbps DSL to 300Mbps fiber: Aaron Epstein's newspaper ad gets amazing result.  —  When 90-year-old Aaron Epstein bought a Wall Street Journal print ad …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Spotify says it is adapting a Work From Anywhere model and will provide co-working space memberships for employees who choose to work remotely  —  - Spotify is adapting a “Work from Anywhere” model, which will allow employees to choose whether they want to be in the office full time, be at home full time or a combination of the two.
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon sues NY state AG, seeking to prevent her from penalizing Amazon for alleged retaliation against staff and failures in its safety response to the pandemic  —  - Covid-19 worker safety claims are federal matters, Amazon says  — Company has been at odds with AG since firing worker activists
Michelai Graham / Technical.ly DC:
Data privacy management company WireWheel raises $20M Series B led by ForgePoint Capital, bringing its total raised to $45M  —  Led by ForgePoint Capital, this new financing will go toward expanding the data protection company's SaaS platform and adding to its product engineering, sales and marketing teams.
Will Oremus / OneZero :
Clubhouse employs an unusually aggressive user onboarding process, pressuring users to upload contacts before ranking those contacts based on total connections  —  The app pressures you to upload your phone's contacts — and makes them visible in surprising ways
William Turton / Bloomberg:

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Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Mariella Moon / Engadget:

Earlier Picks

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Sarah Whitten / CNBC:
Kerry Flynn / CNN:
Sara Fischer / Axios: