Techmeme
May 13, 2022, 5:05 AM

Top News

@kayvz:
[Thread] Twitter product chief Kayvon Beykpour says he is leaving at the request of CEO Parag Agrawal, who wants to “take the team in a different direction”  —  Interrupting my paternity leave to share some final @twitter-related news: I'm leaving the company after over 7 years.
Bloomberg:
In a memo, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announces a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts; VP of product Jay Sullivan will take over as head of product  —  Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Parag Agrawal announced a hiring freeze and other cost-cutting efforts on Thursday …
Tim Copeland / The Block:
Terraform Labs resumes Terra block production, with staking disabled, after halting the blockchain “to prevent governance attacks” following LUNA's collapse  —  Quick Take  — Terraform Labs has said the Terra blockchain has been halted.  — This is due to concerns …
Financial Times:
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino declines to reveal details about the company's $40B US government bond holdings, for fear of revealing its “secret sauce”  —  Token's tech chief declines to provide details on Treasury holdings on fear of revealing ‘secret sauce’
Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:
Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg:
Coinbase's market cap falls to $12.98B from a $75B+ peak in 2021 as its stock closes at $58.50, far below its first day closing price of $328.28 in April 2021  —  Coinbase Global Inc. has declined precipitously this year, largely mimicking the drop in Bitcoin prices and taking its market value …
Veronica Irwin / Protocol:
Masayoshi Son says SoftBank plans to cut its startup investments by 50%-75% through March 2023, after Vision Fund reported a $20B+ loss for its fiscal year  —  Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is severely cutting its planned startup investments through next March, Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said in a Thursday earnings call.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Ex-Facebook crypto chief David Marcus launches Lightspark, a payments startup building on Bitcoin's Lightning network, backed by a16z, Paradigm, and others  —  After his departure from Facebook in November, many crypto industry insiders speculated where long-time executive David Marcus would land.
Washington Post:
Interviews with 17 Hollywood insiders reveal that celebrities view Twitter as a high-risk, low-reward platform, and why Musk's ownership might make it worse  —  Elon Musk was right that Twitter's most popular accounts have gone quieter over the years.  Hollywood insiders explain what happened …
Tanaya Macheel / CNBC:
SEC filing: FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried bought a 7.6% stake, worth $648M, in Robinhood, calling it “an attractive investment”; stock jumps 20%+ after hours  —  Sam Bankman-Fried, the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, has taken a 7.6% stake in Robinhood, according to a Thursday filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Mahira Dayal / The Information:
PitchBook: 16 new VC funds with 60%+ female decision makers have raised $4.5B from January to April 2022; women-led funds raised $3.7B in 2021 and $1.8B in 2020  —  For years, women-led venture capital funds were the true Silicon Valley unicorns, a rarity in a sector where the vast majority of check writers are men.
Riana Pfefferkorn / Stanford CIS Blog:
If Roe v. Wade is overturned, the enforcement of US laws should be seen as a strong argument for strengthening encryption, not weakening it  —  With the Supreme Court poised to rip away a constitutional right that's been the law of the land for nearly half a century by overturning Roe v. Wade …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
MicroStrategy's massive bitcoin bet has become a $330M paper loss as bitcoin trades around $28K; MicroStrategy holds 129,218 BTC, bought for $30,700 on average  —  Quick Take  — Bitcoin's price fall has led to unrealized losses for MicroStrategy.  — The Nasdaq-listed company …
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Unveiling AI-powered updates in Zoho Sheet  —  In 2024, we, the Zoho Sheet team, dedicated ourselves to research and development in order to introduce new features that enhance productivity, data management, collaboration, and other functionalities.
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

Techmeme Ride Home:
Why COULDN'T Apple Make An iPhone In The US?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Big Tech's Tariff Chaos + A.I. 2027 + Llama Drama
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.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
The bull case for domestic manufacturing
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Why DOGE is killing the agency that keeps banks from ripping you off
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:05 AM ET, May 13, 2022.

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

Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:

Earlier Picks

Scott Stein / CNET:
Thomas Stackpole / HBR.org:
Reuters: