Techmeme
December 7, 2021, 12:15 PM

Top News

Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: a secret deal between Tim Cook and China, brokered in 2016, paved the way for Apple's success by promising to invest $275B+ in the country's economy  —  Interviews and internal Apple documents provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the company made concessions to Beijing and won key legal exemptions.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Microsoft seizes 42 domains allegedly used by a Chinese cyber espionage group that targeted organizations in 29 countries including the US  —  Microsoft said today that its legal team has successfully obtained a court warrant that allowed it to seize 42 domains used by a Chinese cyber-espionage group …
David McCabe / New York Times:
Ahead of a congressional hearing, Adam Mosseri outlines forthcoming parental controls for Instagram, including monitoring time spent and deleting posts in bulk  —  Adam Mosseri, the head of the company, is expected to face questions from lawmakers this week about whether social media harms children.
Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:
Samsung merges its mobile and consumer electronics divisions into one business unit led by JH Han, and names Kyehyun Kyung as the CEO of its semiconductor unit  —  The Galaxy-device maker's smartphone and TV divisions will now be run by a single CEO.  —  Samsung said on Tuesday it has merged …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Twitter acquires messaging app Quill, which will shut down and delete all user data on December 11 after launching earlier this year to challenge Slack  —  In February 9to5Mac reported on the launch of a focus-focused Slack competitor called Quill.  Today Twitter is bringing Quill under its wing …
Kenrick Cai / Forbes:
Anyscale, which helps apps run efficiently across distributed infrastructure with the Ray open source framework, raises $100M Series C led by a16z and Addition  —  The UC Berkeley computer science labs, from which seven academics formed $38 billion data startup Databricks, have minted a second billion-dollar business.
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Circle, a community platform where creators can manage content and memberships, raises a $24.7M Series A led by Tiger Global at a $200M post-money valuation  —  Having a thriving community is the backbone for creators, but when the global pandemic hit, brands also found that they needed similar engagement …
Wall Street Journal:
Intel plans to take its Mobileye unit public, sources say at a $50B+ valuation; Intel acquired the self-driving car company in 2017 for about $15B  —  Move could value Mobileye at more than $50 billion, according to people familiar with the matter  —  Intel Corp. is planning to publicly list shares …
Anita Ramaswamy / TechCrunch:
Majority, a mobile banking service serving migrants to the US, raises a $27M Series A led by Valar Ventures, six months after its $16M seed round  —  MAJORITY, a mobile banking service for migrants to the United States, said on Tuesday it had raised $27 million in its Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures.
More: FinLedger and Finextra
Packy McCormick / Not Boring:
The allure of speculative returns on Web3 is attracting talent, who in turn will create opportunities for more people to earn money by doing what they find fun  —  More fun making money, and more money having fun … Today's Not Boring is brought to you by... Mosaic
Bloomberg:
NFT data shows price differences based on race and gender; the average minimum sale price of darker-skinned male CryptoPunks trails lighter ones  —  Price differences based on race and gender are emerging among the CryptoPunk NFTs.  What do the disparities mean?
D. T. Max / New Yorker:
An in-depth look at Welshman James Howells' desperate efforts to excavate his local landfill to recover a hard drive with 8,000 bitcoins mined in 2013  —  For years, a Welshman who threw away the key to his cybercurrency stash has been fighting to excavate the local landfill.
Eric Geller / Politico:
White House officials met with Google, AT&T, Cloudflare, Mandiant, and others in Silicon Valley to discuss combating state-sponsored hackers and criminal gangs  —  As cyber threats from countries like Russia multiply, officials met with corporate executives to pitch their vision for “operational collaboration.”
More: SlashdotTweets: @ericgeller, @ericgeller, and @ericgeller
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Atomico: European tech startups will raise a record $121B in 2021, up from $41B in 2020, with <1% going to early-stage; 98 unicorns were created in 2021  —  - Start-ups in Europe are on track to haul in a record $121 billion in funding this year, according to a report from venture capital firm Atomico.

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Earlier Picks

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
The Markup:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: