Techmeme
September 15, 2022, 11:25 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Adobe plans to buy UI design and prototyping tool Figma for ~$20B, half cash and half stock; CEO Dylan Field will continue to lead Figma; ADBE closed down 16.8%  —  Adobe Inc. agreed to buy software design startup Figma Inc. in a deal valued at about $20 billion in a bid to expand its suite of creative tools for professionals.
More: Figma, Adobe Press Releases, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, TechCrunch, Greylock, The Information, ZDNet, SecurityWeek, CRN, PYMNTS.com, SiliconANGLE, PCMag, Silicon Valley Business …, Daring Fireball, CNBC, Index Ventures, Space Among The Clouds, Tomasz Tunguz, Engadget, Pixel Envy, Forrester, Michael Tsai, The Information, iTnews, DEVCLASS, and Reuters
New York Times:
Uber is investigating a breach of its computer systems, saying a hacker compromised a worker's Slack account and also gained access to other internal systems  —  The company said on Thursday that it was looking into the scope of the apparent hack.  —  Uber's computer network was breached on Thursday …
Wall Street Journal:
Speaking hours after Ethereum's Merge update, SEC Chair Gary Gensler says cryptocurrencies that let holders stake coins may be subject to US securities laws  —  SEC chairman says system used by ether following software update could trigger securities laws  —  WASHINGTON—Ethereum's big software update …
Mike Truppa / The Block:
Ethereum activates its long-awaited Merge upgrade, in development since 2020, and transactions are now being processed under proof of stake  —  - The Merge upgrade is transitioning Ethereum from proof of work to proof of stake.  — The Merge is one of the largest technological events in the industry to date.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
TikTok and ByteDance's links to China mean wrongdoing will be punished more harshly in the US than Meta and Twitter, no matter how “transparent” the company is  —  In new testimony to Congress, the company faces stern questions on China  —  Ever since TikTok became …
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
California Governor Newsom signs into law an online safety bill that puts limits on the data companies collect on minors; the law goes into effect in July 2024  —  The bill could require many social media sites, games and other online services used by children to install protections for minors.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
TikTok rolls out Now, a BeReal-like feature, to its app in the US, with daily prompts to capture a 10-second video or a photo using both front and back cameras  —  TikTok launched a new feature today that is basically just a copy of BeReal, the buzzy French social app that's been steadily gaining popularity.
The Information:
Memo to staff: Adam Mosseri says Instagram's creator surveys show the app lags behind TikTok and YouTube on the most important creator satisfaction dimensions  —  For the past couple of years, as Instagram has sought to better compete with TikTok, becoming more appealing to creators has been a top priority.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Senator Ron Wyden reveals the CBP told Congress it adds data from ~10K travelers' devices per year to a database, accessible by 2,700 officers without a warrant  —  Contacts, call logs, messages and photos from up to 10,000 travelers' phones are saved to a government database every year
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Some YouTube viewers say the platform's ads expanded in length and quantity over the past month or two, with reports of five to 10 unskippable ads per break  —  The experience of watching YouTube has been infiltrated by ads over the years as a means of maintaining the platform and supporting creators financially.
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Snap makes Snapchat for Web available to all users globally, including chat, photos, and audio and video calls, releases iOS 16 lock screen widgets, and more  —  Snapchat's messaging and video chat features first made their way to browsers back in July, but only in select markets and for Snapchat+ subscribers.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Winn.AI, maker of an AI assistant to help sales teams track, capture, and update CRM entries, comes out of stealth with a $17M seed led by Insight and S-Capital  —  Conventionally, salespeople are responsible for juggling tasks like following a playbook, capturing responses, building rapport …
More: FinSMEs
Sandali Handagama / CoinDesk:
Chainalysis: emerging markets, led by Vietnam and the Philippines, drove global cryptocurrency adoption over the past year; China remained active despite a ban  —  The blockchain analytics firm's 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index also shows China remains active despite a ban on crypto trading.

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