Techmeme
July 28, 2021, 5:10 PM

Top News

Patrick Klepek / VICE:
Activision Blizzard staff are staging a walk out today, demanding fairer treatment for underrepresented staff and ending arbitration clauses in staff contracts  —  “This is the beginning of an enduring movement in favor of better labor conditions for all employees.”  —  Patrick Klepek
Tripp Mickle / Wall Street Journal:
Google says anyone coming to work at its campuses must be vaccinated, starting in the US, and will delay the return to offices from September until mid-October  —  Tech giant postpones planned return to offices until mid-October after earlier targeting late September
Facebook:
Facebook reports Q2 revenue of $29.08B, up 56% YoY, MAUs of 2.9B, up 7% YoY, headcount of 63,404, up 21% YoY; stock down ~3% on warning of revenue slowdown  —  “We had a strong quarter as we continue to help businesses grow and people stay connected,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and CEO.
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Facebook says Q2 ad revenue was $28.58B, up 56% YoY, with average price per ad up 47% YoY and a 6% YoY increase in ads delivered  —  The rising price for ads delivered strong top and bottom-line results for Facebook, even as the social media giant continued to warn of “increased ad targeting headwinds.”
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Twitter says it is testing Shop Module, a new shopping section that brands can add to the top of their profiles, launching in the US today on iOS  —  Starting with a pilot of around a dozen brands  —  Twitter is piloting a new feature that allows businesses to add a shopping section …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
In a memo, Apple says it plans to restore a mask requirement for staff and customers at most of its US retail stores on Thursday, due to rising COVID cases  —  - Company to make change Thursday in areas with rising cases  — Company asks, but doesn't require, retail staff to get vaccine
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sony says it has now sold over 10M PS5 consoles, up from the 7.8M announced in April, making it the fastest-selling PlayStation ever  —  PS5 is the fastest-selling PlayStation  —  Sony has now sold more than 10 million PS5 consoles.  That's up more than 2 million sales …
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Biden instructs federal agencies to develop voluntary cybersecurity goals for companies operating critical infrastructure, as officials consider mandatory rules  —  Though voluntary, officials said the new step could be a prelude to a push for cybersecurity mandates
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Code and animation files in iOS 15 beta 4 show the process for validating ID cards in the Wallet app will likely include a verification system with selfies  —  Apple announced at WWDC 2021 that iOS 15 will add support for ID cards in the Wallet app, but details are unknown as this feature is not available in the beta version of iOS 15.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify Q2: revenue of €2.3B, up 23% YoY, ad revenue up 110% YoY to €275M; paying subscribers reached 165M, up 20% YoY, total MAUs reached 365M; stock down 6%+  —  Spotify, citing ongoing headwinds from the COVID pandemic, fell short of its total monthly user growth goal in the second quarter of 2021.
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Google says its upcoming Play Store safety listings, similar to Apple's app nutrition labels, will feature info on app data collection, encryption, and more  —  There's still half a year to go before you start seeing Google Play's new safety section, which will show you an Android app's privacy information …
Courtney Reagan / CNBC:
Walmart announces it will sell its e-commerce tech to small and medium-size retailers, and it partners with Adobe to sell the software as a subscription  —  - Walmart said it will sell the technology it developed to allow shoppers to buy items online and pick up the purchases at the store.
Cody Toombs / Android Police:
Google releases the first stable build of Jetpack Compose, a UI framework for Android, after two years in public development  —  Since its introduction during I/O 2019, Jetpack Compose was obviously destined to become the prescribed method of Android UI development.
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Snap says Snap Map will now include recommendations for places to visit based on location, friend activity, and previous favorites  —  The new feature is designed to make Snap Map more of a utility  —  More than 250 million people use Snapchat's built-in map to see where their friends are in the world.
Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
NSO Group confirms that Israeli government officials opened an investigation and visited NSO's Tel Aviv office on Wednesday to assess Pegasus abuse allegations  —  ‘We want them to check everything,’ says CEO of cybersecurity company implicated in campaigns against politicians, activists and other notable figures.
Jonathan Greig / ZDNet:
Google announces a new bug bounty program, called Bug Hunter University, and says the existing program found 11,055 bugs from 2,022 researchers, paying ~$30M  —  The platform includes a new “Bug Hunter University.”  —  Google announced a new bug bounty platform as it celebrated …
Gillian Tan / Bloomberg:
Lithic, previously Privacy.com, which offers APIs to help businesses issue virtual credit cards, raises $60M, sources say at an $800M valuation  —  - Bessemer, Index Ventures, Exor also part of fundraising round  — Firm's goal is to make issuing cards faster and easier
More: PYMNTS.com
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
CISA and FBI, UK's NCSC, and Australia's ACSC issue a joint advisory detailing the most exploited vulnerabilities in 2020 and 2021  —  Cyber-security agencies from Australia, the UK, and the US have published a joint advisory today listing the most exploited security flaws throughout 2020 and 2021.
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
QuotaPath, which offers tools to track commissions for sales and revenue teams, raises $21.3M Series A led by Insight Partners  —  QuotaPath, which has developed a commission-tracking solution for sales and revenue teams, has raised $21.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Insight Partners.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Qualcomm Q3: revenue of $8B, up 63% YoY, net income of $2.2B, up 124% YoY, and chip segment revenue of $6.47B, up 70% YoY, and forecasts strong Q4 revenue  —  - Qualcomm revenue was up 63% from the same period last year, and earnings per share more than doubled annually in the quarter that ended on June 27.
More: Qualcomm
Bloomberg:
PowerSchool, which develops software used by 70% of K-12 students in the US and Canada, raises $711M in its IPO, selling shares at $18, valuing it at $3.5B  —  Education software provider PowerSchool Holdings Inc. raised $711 million in an initial public offering priced at the bottom of a marketed range.

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