Techmeme
February 25, 2021, 12:20 PM

Top News

Alex Leary / Wall Street Journal:
Biden signs an EO mandating a 100-day review of supply chains, including for semiconductors and rare-earth metals, amid chip shortages  —  The president signed an executive order with the aim of eventually increasing domestic production of critical materials
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India issues tougher rules for tech firms and streaming services like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Netflix over resolving user complaints and more  —  India announced sweeping rules to regulate social media firms, streaming services, and digital news outlets, joining a handful of other nations …
Daniel Van Boom / CNET:
Australia passes news bargaining code that requires Facebook, Google, and other digital platforms pay local media outlets and publishers for their content  —  Australia on Wednesday passed a new media law that had generated noisy pushback from internet giants Google and Facebook …
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
ViacomCBS says Paramount+ will cost $5/month with ads and $10/month without ads; the ad tier will be available in June while the ad-free tier starts on March 4  —  ViacomCBS has a ‘mountain of content’ on the way to streaming, including a ‘Halo’ series and ‘Beavis and Butthead.’
Jeff John Roberts / Decrypt:
Coinbase files its S-1, reveals profit of $322M in 2020 on $1.2B in revenue, up from a loss of $30M in 2019 on $533M in revenue  —  The recent Bitcoin bull run helped Coinbase pull in a profit of $322 million on revenues of over $1.2 billion in 2020, putting the cryptocurrency giant …
Megan Graham / CNBC:
Facebook launches a TV, radio, and digital ad campaign in support of personalized ads called Good Ideas Deserve to be Found, ahead of Apple's IDFA changes  —  - Facebook is launching a new ad campaign called “Good Ideas Deserve to be Found,” which makes a case for personalized advertising.
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
BetterUp, which helps clients provide employees with career coaches and mental health counseling, raises $125M Series D at a $1.73B valuation  —  - $125 million Series D funding round led by Iconiq Growth  — BetterUp offers coaching, counseling as well as mentorship
More: Reuters
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Tech retailer Fry's Electronics announces it will cease operations effective immediately, blaming industry changes and the pandemic  —  Your best buys are no longer at Fry's, guaranteed  —  Fry's Electronics, one of the last big brick-and-mortar electronics store chains in the United States …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Sorare, an ethereum-powered marketplace for creating and trading football NFTs, raises $50M Series A led by Benchmark  —  Quick Take  — NFT marketplace Sorare has raised $50 million in Series A.  — The round was led by Benchmark, with participation from Accel, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian …
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Amazon is sending postal mail to warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama urging them to “VOTE NO” on unionization, and has also pushed anti-union ads on Twitch  —  A mysterious new USPS mailbox has appeared on Amazon property amid a historic union drive in Bessemer, Alabama.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Otter.ai, which offers an AI-based transcription service, raises $50M Series B, including $10M in convertible notes, led by Spectrum Equity  —  AI transcription startup Otter.ai today announced it has raised $50 million in a series B round that includes $10 million in convertible notes and was led by Spectrum Equity.
More: TechCrunch
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Nvidia beats with Q4 revenue of $5B vs. $4.8B expected, up 61% YoY, data center revenue of $1.9B, up 97% YoY, and gaming revenue of $2.5B, up 67% YoY  —  The GPU maker beat Q4 market expectations with record sales in its two key areas of business.  —  Nvidia on Wednesday published fourth …
Robin Wauters / Tech.eu:
Payments startup Klarna reports 2020 results: operating income rose 40% YoY to $1B, net loss widens to $167M; 18M app MAUs and 87M shoppers used its services  —  Klarna, the Swedish payments company that was Europe's most valuable private fintech firm until Checkout.com overtook it late last year …
More: Klarna
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Armorblox, which protects enterprise communications using AI, raises $30M Series B led by Next47, bringing its total raised to $46.5M  —  Armorblox, a cybersecurity startup using natural language understanding to protect enterprise communications, today announced that it raised $30 million in series B venture capital funding.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Crypto startup Anchorage, which recently became the first federally chartered digital asset bank, raises $80M Series C led by GIC  —  Cryptocurrency custodian and banking company Anchorage announced Thursday that it raised $80 million in a Series C funding round.
More: CoinDesk
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Stockholm-based Memmo.me, which allows users to pay celebrities for personalized video messages, raises $10M Series A  —  Memmo.me, a startup allowing users to pay celebrities for personalized video messages, is announcing that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding.
Bloomberg:
FCC says Verizon spent the most during its 5G licenses auction, bidding $45.5B, followed by AT&T with $23.4B, and T-Mobile with $9.3B  —  - AT&T is second at $23 billion in bids, followed by T-Mobile  — FCC releases results of so-called C-band airwaves sale
Rafael Frankel / About Facebook:
Facebook says it is banning all Myanmar military and military-controlled entities from Facebook and Instagram, and ads from military-linked commercial entities  —  Myanmar military banned from Facebook and Instagram with immediate effect.  —  Today, we are banning the remaining Myanmar military …

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 SalesIQ turns 10: Transforming customer experiences since 2014  —  October marked a remarkable milestone for Zoho SalesIQ—our 10th anniversary.  What began in 2014 as a simple live chat tool has evolved …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/01 - ChatGPT Search
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 12:20 PM ET, February 25, 2021.

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

Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Michael McSweeney / The Block:

Earlier Picks

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Tim Anderson / The Register:
Taylor Lyles / The Verge:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Sean Hollister / The Verge: