Techmeme
June 30, 2022, 8:00 PM

Top News

Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Sources: FTX is close to finalizing a term sheet to buy BlockFi for ~$25M and a deal could be signed by July 1; PitchBook: BlockFi was valued at $4.8B in 2021  —  - Crypto exchange FTX is close to finalizing a term sheet to buy BlockFi and a deal is expected to be signed by the end of this week …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Source: FTX walked away from a deal with Celsius after finding the crypto lender had a $2B hole in its balance sheet and was difficult to deal with  —  - FTX was interested in making a deal with Celsius but walked away because of the state of its finances, two sources told The Block.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Raspberry Pi announces the Pico W, a $6 microcontroller equipped with an 802.11n Wi-Fi radio, powered by an Infineon CYW43439 chip with Bluetooth disabled  —  It's the Pico, but it knows about the network  —  Raspberry Pi has introduced a successor to last year's Pico …
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
OpenSea warns all its users of email phishing attempts after an employee at email vendor Customer.io downloaded and sent email details to an external party  —  Opensea, the popular NFT marketplace that hit a colossal $13 billion valuation in January, is warning users of email phishing after a data breach.
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Apple's CarPlay update, demoed at WWDC 2022, will let users tap an app to navigate to a pump and buy gas from its dashboard as early as this fall  —  Apple Inc (AAPL.O) wants you to start buying gas directly from your car dashboard as early as this fall, when the newest version …
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:
Bitcoin is on track for its worst quarter since Q3 2011, plunging 58%, after sliding 6%+ to fall below $19,000 on Thursday, the second time in a fortnight  —  Bitcoin is on track for its worst quarter in more than a decade, as more hawkish central banks and a string of high-profile crypto blowups hammer sentiment.
Katie Paul / Reuters:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Google updates its built-in password manager for Chrome and Android with the option to manually add passwords across all platforms, a unified design, and more  —  A ‘simplified and unified management experience’ is also on the way  —  Google is updating its built-in password manager …
Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg:
CoinFlex postpones resuming withdrawals; CEO says they will return “as soon as possible, upon a successful raise” but won't share how much its token has raised  —  Cryptocurrency exchange CoinFlex won't resume withdrawals Thursday as it had planned as it continues to raise funds …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple says South Korean app developers can now use external payment methods from KCP, Inicis, Toss, and NICE by submitting a new app version, saving 4% in fees  —  Earlier this year, Apple announced that it would comply with a new law in South Korea that required the company to allow third-party payment providers in App Store apps.
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Gene Levoff, a former lawyer at Apple, pleads guilty to insider trading; he allegedly traded ahead of quarterly earnings from 2011 to 2016 and was fired in 2018  —  The former top corporate lawyer at Apple Inc (AAPL.O) pleaded guilty on Thursday to insider trading charges …
Bloomberg:
Filing: ex-Apple retail chief Ron Johnson's at-home tech setup company Enjoy files for bankruptcy, less than a year after its SPAC merger, and sells to Asurion  —  Enjoy Technology Inc., a retail startup founded by former Apple Inc. executive Ron Johnson, filed for bankruptcy on Thursday …
Reuters:
An investigation details an Indian hacking-for-hire scheme to obtain documents in legal cases, starting in 2013 and targeting 100+ US and European organizations  —  A trove of thousands of email records uncovered by Reuters reveals Indian cyber mercenaries hacking parties involved …
Ari Notis / Kotaku:
Unity lays off “slightly more than 200 people”, or 4% of its workforce, two weeks after the CEO said at an all-hands meeting that there would not be any layoffs  —  Management at the company behind the free game development engine has been a ‘shit show’ recently, sources say
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
April, which personalizes and autofills tax filings by using AI to analyze tax code, raised a $30M Series A led by Treasury, bringing its total funding to $40M  —  Most Americans dread doing their taxes.  Surveys show as much.  But as many as 40% rely on money from tax refunds to satisfy some financial obligation.
More: FinSMEs
Maria Heeter / The Information:
Source: eToro and the SPAC company that agreed to take it public are planning to let the June 30 deadline for their merger pass without closing the deal  —  Online brokerage EToro and the special purpose acquisition company that agreed to take it public are planning to let the deadline …
More: Reuters
Joyce Lee / Reuters:
Samsung becomes the first company to mass produce 3nm chips, beating TSMC, touting up to 45% lower power usage over 5nm chips, 23% more performance, and more  —  Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (005930.KS) said on Thursday it has begun mass producing chips with advanced 3-nanometre technology …
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Documents show Amazon has restricted items and search results related to LGBTQ people and issues in the UAE, after the Emirati government threatened penalties  —  Sales of items including flags and books were blocked in the country, where homosexuality is criminalized.  — Give this article- - - Read in app
Prarthana Prakash / Bloomberg:
Uber received 3,824 reports of sexual assault and misconduct in 2019 and 2020, down 38% from 2017 and 2018, but the rate of fatal physical assaults rose 18%  —  Uber Technologies Inc. said it received 3,824 reports of sexual assault and misconduct on its ride-hailing app in 2019 and 2020 …
More: New York Times and CNN

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