Techmeme
March 22, 2021, 10:05 PM

Top News

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Sources say Discord is exploring a sale that could value it at $10B+, with one source saying it is in the final stage of negotiations  —  Discord is going through a sales process now that could result in a purchase of the communications and cha5t platform for much more than $10 billion, GamesBeat has learned.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Judge certifies a class action suit against Apple that claims it knew for years that MacBooks' butterfly keyboards were flawed and small fixes were insufficient  —  The suit says Apple knew its thinner keyboard was rotten  —  A judge has certified a class action suit against Apple for its fragile butterfly keyboard design.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it will begin a limited reopening of its Redmond HQ on March 29 and plans a future focus on hybrid workplaces  —  Microsoft is letting some employees back into the office  —  Microsoft is planning to start reopening its Redmond, Seattle headquarters later this month.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Niantic announces a new partnership with Nintendo to develop mobile games built on Niantic's AR tech, starting with a game based on Nintendo's Pikmin franchise  —  Niantic and Nintendo announced a new partnership  —  Niantic, developer of the smash hit Pokémon Go, has announced a new partnership with Nintendo.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Biden announces his intent to nominate Lina Khan, a legal scholar and leading voice in the growing tech antitrust movement, to serve as an FTC commissioner  —  Khan brought Big Tech scrutiny mainstream  —  President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Lina Khan …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft rebrands Xbox Live as Xbox network, says the change is to distinguish the online service from Xbox Live Gold membership  —  Xbox network is the future  —  Microsoft is rebranding Xbox Live to Xbox network.  Instances of the new branding started appearing in the Xbox dashboard recently …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's HomePod mini has a sensor, currently disabled, that measures temperature and humidity; Apple is working on speakers with screens and cameras  —  Apple Inc.'s HomePod mini speaker launched last November with new features such as a home intercom system.
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Samsung plans to release new Galaxy Z Flip and Fold phones this year and is working on a double-folding phone to be unveiled as early as this year  —  South Korean tech titan is working on new double-hinged model  —  TAIPEI/SEOUL — Samsung Electronics is betting heavily on foldable smartphones …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Jack Dorsey's first tweet sold as an NFT for $2,915,835.47 on a service called Valuables; Dorsey says he sent all proceeds to GiveDirectly's Africa fund as BTC  —  The winning bidder for the Twitter CEO's first tweet was Sina Estavi  —  After it spent just over two weeks on the market …
Chavi Mehta / Reuters:
Facebook says it took down 1.3B fake accounts from October-December and 12M pieces of COVID-19 misinformation; Facebook has 35,000 staff tackling misinformation  —  (Reuters) - Facebook Inc said on Monday it took down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December …
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Spark Capital decides to “sever all ties” with Dispo after claims of sexual assault against a former Vlog Squad member; David Dobrik departs from Dispo  —  Dobrik departs from Dispo board and leaves company  —  Venture capital firm Spark Capital has decided to ‘sever all ties’ with Dispo …
Rand Fishkin / SparkToro:
SimilarWeb: in 2020, ~65% of Google searches ended without a click, up from ~50% in June '19; mobile searches are far more likely to end without a click through  —  In August of 2019, I published research from now-defunct clickstream data provider, Jumpshot, showing that 50.33% …
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
YouTube confirms it is testing a feature in the US that automatically detects products in videos and provides related content links  —  As part of one of YouTube's latest experiments, the video-sharing platform looks to expand beyond the “Products in this Video” feature that auto-detects specific items …
Andrew Chung / Reuters:
SCOTUS declined to hear Facebook's appeal to stop a proposed $15B class action lawsuit that accused Facebook of secretly tracking users via the “like” buttons  —  (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned away Facebook Inc's bid to pare back a $15 billion class action lawsuit accusing …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Long time Google VP Caesar Sengupta, who was in charge of Next Billion Users, Google Pay, and oversaw Chrome OS, is leaving the company after 15 years  —  One big focus for Google today is making products for what it dubs the Next Billion Users in countries just coming online.
Áine Cain / Insider:
Report: Amazon has added 3,700 new sellers every day in 2021 so far on its website for a total of 295,000; 26% of new sellers are in the US while 10.1% in India  —  - Research firm Finbold has found that Amazon is drawing in new sellers at a rapid rate.  — In 2021, the online giant attracted 3,700 new merchants a day.
More: FinboldTweets: @mehedih_
Bloomberg:
Online pharmacy Ro says it has raised $500M led by General Catalyst, FirstMark Capital, and TQ Ventures, sources says at $5B valuation  —  - Ro raises $500 million in round led by existing investors  — New investors Altimeter, Dragoneer participate in round
More: Forbes
Andy Day / Fstoppers:
Instead of convincing people merely to buy things that they don't need, NFTs are convincing them to buy imaginary optimism based on a mass enchantment and FOMO  —  Photographers, filmmakers, and digital artists are falling over themselves to mint NFTs in a get-rich-quick scheme …

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