Techmeme
May 13, 2021, 8:20 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Colonial paid ~$5M ransom in cryptocurrency within hours of the attack, but the hackers' decrypting tool was so slow that it had to use its own backups  —  - Payment came shortly after attack got underway last week  — FBI discourages organizations from paying ransom to hackers
Tom Schoenberg / Bloomberg:
Sources: Binance is under investigation by DOJ and IRS; officials involved include those who probe money laundering and tax offenses  —  - Justice Department, IRS seek information about crypto exchange  — The federal agencies haven't accused Binance of wrongdoing
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
Elon Musk says Tesla no longer accepts bitcoin for vehicle purchases due to its environmental cost, will look at more environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies  —  Tesla has stopped accepting bitcoin as payment for its cars out of concern that it will contribute to greater consumption of fossil fuels …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
The Block:
Vitalik Buterin sells large amounts of SHIB, AKITA, and ELON tokens, sent to him by coin creators, for ~$60M worth of ETH, and donates the proceeds to charities  —  Quick Take  — Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has offloaded a range of dog-themed meme tokens.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Apple says it parted ways with recent hire Antonio García Martínez, an ex-Facebook staffer and author, after employee petition citing “misogynistic statements”  —  Apple has severed ties with recent hire Antonio Garcia-Martinez, a former Facebook employee and author …
Joey Roulette / The Verge:
SpaceX signs a satellite connectivity deal with Google Cloud, as part of which SpaceX will install Starlink terminals at Google's data centers around the world  —  Under a new agreement, SpaceX will plant Starlink terminals at Google Cloud's data centers  —  Google said on Thursday …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Tether, which claimed at launch that each tether was backed 1:1 with USD, releases a breakdown of its reserves, revealing that only 3.87% are in actual cash  —  Quick Take  — Stablecoin issuer Tether has revealed a breakdown of its reserves.  — As of March 31, 2021 …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Google has been fined €100M+ by Italy's antitrust watchdog for abusing its dominant market position by restricting third party access to the Android Auto app  —  Google has been fined just over €100 million (~$123M) by Italy's antitrust watchdog for abuse of a dominant market position.
Richard Nieva / CNET:
YouTube has banned almost 40 QAnon channels that were evading YouTube's policies and escaping violations by self-deleting their own videos after a few days  —  YouTube banned almost 40 channels that used the tactic.  Disinformation experts say they haven't seen the ploy used before.
Strategy Analytics:
Global notebook PC shipments grew 81% YoY in Q1; both Apple, with 5.7M shipments, and Acer, with 4.9M shipments, grew 94% as HP grew 91% with 15.4M shipments  —  Gaming, Chromebooks, commercial and consumer demand stay hot as the return to work and school is slow and pointing to a hybrid approach long-term
Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon says it is hiring 75,000 workers, representing 8% of its US workforce, and offering an average of $17/hour, above its typical $15/hour starting wage  —  The retail and tech giant said the new roles—representing nearly 8% of its U.S. workforce—are offering average pay of $17 an hour
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Airbnb reports Q1 revenue of $886.9M, up 5% YoY, gross booking value of $10.3B, up 52% YoY, but net loss tripled to $1.1B, largely due to debt repayments  —  - While Airbnb's revenue grew 5% in the first quarter, gross booking value rose some 52% as users opted for full homes and destinations outside cities.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Roku announces launch of its original programming, including the Quibi content it acquired, on the Roku Channel, starting May 20  —  Roku today announced the launch of its own original programming, which will initially become available to viewers in the U.S., U.K., and Canada through …
Benjamin Wallace / New York Magazine:
Behind the online battle between notable tech figures including a16z partners and Balaji Srinivasan, and the journalists who report, and tweet, on the industry  —  Late last fall, the New York Times was preparing a bombshell article about Coinbase, a financial exchange that had become …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Chemical distributor Brenntag paid a $4.4M ransom in bitcoin to the DarkSide ransomware gang, who claimed to have stolen more than 150 GB of sensitive data  —  Chemical distribution company Brenntag paid a $4.4 million ransom in Bitcoin to the DarkSide ransomware gang to receive a decryptor …

Sponsor Posts

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:
CIO challenge 6: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/15 - Crypto Ascendant
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 8:20 PM ET, May 13, 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

Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post: