Techmeme
May 26, 2022, 9:35 PM

Top News

Politico:
Sources: a bipartisan bill that would ban Big Tech companies from favoring their products faces resistance from some Senate Democrats worried about the midterms  —  A bipartisan legislative effort to rein in the nation's largest tech companies is facing fresh resistance from a faction …
The Markup:
An investigation finds Apple, Meta, Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have launched a coordinated campaign in 31 states against data privacy legislation since 2021  —  Coordinated industry lobbying is overwhelming the scattered efforts of consumer groups and privacy-minded lawmakers
Chavi Mehta / Reuters:
Broadcom offers to acquire VMware for ~$61B in cash and stock, paying $142.50 per share, a nearly 49% premium, and will assume VMware's $8B in net debt  —  May 26 (Reuters) - Broadcom Inc (AVGO.O) said on Thursday it will buy cloud service provider VMware Inc (VMW.N) in a $61 billion cash …
Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Sources: Substack dropped efforts to raise money, after talks to raise $75M-$100M at a $750M-$1B valuation, during which the company said 2021 revenue was ~$9M  —  Amid an industrywide downturn, venture investors are preaching austerity and halting new deals, particularly for companies that have spent aggressively on growth.
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
A profile of Stripe co-founders John and Patrick Collison; sources: Stripe gross revenue rose 60% YoY to nearly $12B in 2021 as net revenue reached almost $2.5B  —  Billionaire brothers John and Patrick Collison built Stripe into one of the world's most-hyped, highest valued — and profitable! — startups, worth some $95 billion.
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft plans to slow hiring in Windows, Office, and Teams groups, citing a need to realign staffing priorities; EVP Rajesh Jha must approve all new hires  —  Microsoft Corp. will slow hiring in its Windows, Office and Teams chat and conferencing software groups, citing a need …
Kyle Alspach / Protocol:
Cloud security startup Lacework, which employed 1,000+ in March 2022, lays off 20% of its workforce; Lacework has raised $1.85B including $1.3B in November 2021  —  A well-funded startup in the cybersecurity industry, Lacework, has become the latest tech firm to disclose a major round …
Dan Primack / Axios:
Bolt Financial laid off 185 employees, or about one-third of its workforce; some have to repay loans they took from the company for vested shares within 90 days  —  One-click checkout company Bolt Financial yesterday laid off 185 employees, or approximately one-third of its workforce …
Sujith Somraaj / Decrypt:
Binance, FTX, Crypto.com, Huobi, Bitfinex, Kucoin, and other exchanges pledge support for Do Kwon's Terra 2.0, set to launch on May 27 by airdropping tokens  —  Cryptocurrency exchanges have pledged support to Terra's upcoming relaunch, following the passing of a proposal to launch a new blockchain.
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Q&A with Epic CEO Tim Sweeney on creating the metaverse, Unreal Engine's role, Apple's and Google's app store monopolies, Meta's metaverse investment, and more  —  Online game Fortnite is arguably the closest thing to the metaverse that exists today.  Some 70mn gamers immerse themselves …
Bloomberg:
The tech market collapse, aided by macroeconomic forces, is an opportunity to reckon with wildly inflated valuations, overpaid VCs, and crypto pyramid schemes  —  Over the past half-century, Silicon Valley has toggled between two similar-sounding pursuits that are often in conflict: wealth creation and moneymaking.
Michael Tobin / Bloomberg:
Instacart plans to slow hiring as it prepares for its IPO, after hiring over 1,500 staff in 2021; Instacart cut its valuation by 40% to $24B in March 2022  —  Grocery delivery startup Instacart Inc. is planning to slow the pace of hiring as it prepares for an initial public offering, focusing instead on profitability.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
New York-based Parallel Learning, a telehealth service focused on students with learning challenges, raises a $20M Series A led by Tiger Global  —  If a kid is having trouble at school, one of the standard steps is to schedule an assessment for conditions like dyslexia, ADHD, or anything else that might require a special approach.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Human Rights Watch finds 89% of 164 remote learning apps and sites used during the pandemic in 49 countries shared student data with marketers and data brokers  —  The educational tools used by students during the pandemic shared their information with advertisers and data brokers that could track …
Sam Nussey / Reuters:
Sony plans to ramp up PlayStation 5 production as supply chain issues ease, and a radical broadening of its game portfolio, including more PC and mobile titles  —  Sony Group Corp (6758.T) said it plans to ramp up production of its PlayStation 5 console as supply chain snarls ease and signalled …
Bloomberg Línea:
Source: Brazilian e-commerce startup Vtex, which has an $820M market cap, cut ~200 jobs, or 13% of its workforce; Mexican crypto exchange Bitso cut 80+ staff  —  Bloomberg Línea — Latin American unicorns Vtex and Bitso laid off hundreds of employees on Thursday (May 26).
Debby Wu / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to keep iPhone production in 2022 at ~220M, about the same as 2021, compared to ~240M market forecasts, amid inflation and a tough market  —  Apple Inc. is planning to keep iPhone production roughly flat in 2022, a conservative stance as the year turns increasingly challenging for the smartphone industry.

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Google:
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UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Leveraging design tool extensions in Cliq: A designer's guide to Figma, Lucidchart, and Miro  —  Picture this: you're deep in a pixel-perfect Figma mock-up, bouncing between chats and emails, when someone pings you for feedback on a Lucidchart workflow.
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.

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