Techmeme
April 18, 2022, 6:00 PM

Top News

Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
A look at corporate raider tactics requiring 51% of a company's stock, which tend to treat remaining minority shareholders poorly, amid Twitter's “poison pill”  —  Poison pills  —  Here are some things you could do 1 :  — Buy 51% of the stock of a public company …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
To unlock its vast potential, Twitter should go private and split into two companies: one for the service and social graph and one for its apps and ad business  —  Elon Musk wrote in a letter to Twitter's board: … The vast majority of commentary about the Musk-Twitter saga has focused …
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Experts say open sourcing Twitter's algorithm will not increase transparency because recommendation engines are complex and use an immense fire hose of data  —  Conservatives have long claimed discrimination by the social network, but there's no one algorithm that could prove it, researchers say
Ronan Farrow / New Yorker:
An in-depth investigation into the $12B spyware industry, dominated by Israel's NSO Group, as Citizen Lab finds Pegasus infected a device in the UK's No. 10  —  The inside story of the world's most notorious commercial spyware and the big tech companies waging war against it.
The Citizen Lab:
An investigation finds 65+ Catalans were targeted by Pegasus or Candiru, likely by Spanish authorities, and details Homage, a new iOS zero-click used by NSO  —  Key Findings  — The Citizen Lab, in collaboration with Catalan civil society groups, has identified at least 65 individuals targeted or infected with mercenary spyware.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Report: Microsoft is working on a program to let select brands advertise within free-to-play Xbox games, such as on a billboard, and won't take a revenue cut  —  The ads supposedly wouldn't disrupt gameplay  —  Microsoft is reportedly working on a program that will let brands showcase …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Code on Twitter's site reveals how an upcoming Edit button could work: by making a new tweet with the updated content and listing the old tweets before the edit  —  This month, Twitter announced the ground-shaking news that it was actually going to offer users a way to edit tweets — a longtime user request.
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
a16z unveils Start, an accelerator that offers early-stage founders up to $1M in capital from its seed fund, after quietly piloting the program for over a year  —  For more than a year, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has quietly piloted its own take on an accelerator for early-stage entrepreneurs …
Stacey Higginbotham / Stacey on IoT:
Smart home and IoT company Insteon seemingly shuts down as home hubs suddenly stop working and LinkedIn profiles of top executives show their roles have ended  —  Is your Insteon smart home system down?  I'm getting reports from dozens of Insteon users that as of Friday their smart home hubs have stopped working.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
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IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
How Palantir built the ultimate founder factory | Nabeel S. Qureshi (founder, writer, ex-Palantir)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Techmeme Ride Home:
Apple's Coming For The Meta Ray-Bans
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
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Hard Fork:
Bad Apple + The Rise of the AI Empire + Italian Brain Rot
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
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The Logan Bartlett Show:
Yotam Segev (CEO, Cyera) on Growing One of the Fastest Security Startups on the Planet
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
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Great Chat:
Great managers, and what makes them great
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Reuters is ready to stand up for the press -- and embrace AI
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
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Earlier Picks

Ignacio Olivera Doll / Bloomberg:
Kate Kaye / Protocol:
Michael McSweeney / The Block: