Techmeme
May 23, 2022, 4:27 PM

Top News

New York Times:
A look at efforts by 50+ countries to control the data produced by their citizens, governments, and businesses, driven by privacy concerns, economics, and more  —  Nations are accelerating efforts to control data produced within their perimeters, disrupting the flow of what has become a kind of digital currency.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Broadcom is in talks to acquire VMware, which has a ~$40B market cap; the discussions are ongoing and there's no guarantee they will lead to a purchase  —  Broadcom Inc. is in talks to acquire cloud-computing company VMware Inc., according to people familiar with the matter …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
UK's data protection watchdog fines Clearview AI ~£7.5M for violating privacy laws and orders the company to delete all info on UK citizens from its systems  —  The UK's data protection watchdog has confirmed a penalty for the controversial facial recognition company, Clearview AI …
The Information:
Sources: Coinbase is testing an app from Ray Dalio's company Principles that lets staff rate each other on how well they exemplify Coinbase's 10 cultural tenets  —  Coinbase, a cryptocurrency trading firm that garnered attention for banning salary negotiations and political speech among employees …
Mimi Billing / Sifted:
Klarna tells employees it plans to lay off 10% of its workforce, after reports of raising money at a reduced $30B valuation; LinkedIn shows it has 6,500+ staff  —  Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that Klarna was seeking a new round of investment that could see its valuation brought down by a third, from $46bn to $30bn.
Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
Meta, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are positioned to emerge stronger from this downturn; Refinitiv: from 2008 to 2010, the companies acquired 100+ firms  —  Flush with cash, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Google are positioned to emerge from a downturn stronger and more powerful.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Meta plans to give outside researchers more info on political ad targeting on Facebook and Instagram and to update Ad Library with more info starting in July  —  Academics and journalists will be able to see more data about the way political ads are used to target users across Facebook and Instagram.
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
The 11th Circuit federal court upholds blocking Florida's social media “censorship” law to protect First Amendment rights, as SCOTUS weighs Texas' similar law  —  As the Supreme Court weighs whether to block Texas' social media “censorship” law, a court of appeals has decided …
Patrick Klepek / VICE:
The QA team at Activision Blizzard's Raven Software votes 19-3 to unionize, as US labor board prosecutors say that the company illegally threatened staff  —  A huge event in the crunch-prone video game industry, which has long resisted organized labor.  —  Patrick Klepek
Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Sources: Amazon, which has too much warehouse capacity now that pandemic-era shopping has faded, is looking to sublet at least 10M square feet across the US  —  Amazon.com Inc., stuck with too much warehouse capacity now that the surge in pandemic-era shopping has faded …
Eva Szalay / Financial Times:
TechCrunch:
Sources: MainStreet, which helps SMBs find tax credits, is raising at a $200M valuation, down from $500M in March 2021, weeks after laying off ~30% of its staff  —  Weeks after laying off about 30% of its staff, MainStreet is said to be raising another round of funding at a $200 million valuation, sources tell TechCrunch.
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
StepN, a Solana-based app that lets users earn tokens by walking and running, says it has 2M-3M MAUs and makes $3M-5M per day in net profit from trading fees  —  But skeptics question its sustainability and whether it can be called a ‘game’  —  Since its launch in December, StepN …

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Gavin Bonshor / AnandTech: