Techmeme
January 21, 2023, 5:25 PM

Top News

Aaron Tilley / Wall Street Journal:
How Apple's lean hiring may help it avoid layoffs; Apple's workforce grew 20% from 2019 to 2022, Amazon's grew 100%, Meta 94%, Alphabet 57%, Microsoft 53%  —  The iPhone maker's workforce grew 20% in the past three years, a far slower pace than rivals  —  Tech Layoffs Pile Up as Bosses Reverse Course
Dietrich Knauth / Reuters:
US prosecutors provide a list of ~$700M worth of Sam Bankman-Fried's seized assets, including ~$525M in Robinhood stock and $94.5M cash at Silvergate Bank  —  Federal prosecutors have seized nearly $700 million in assets from FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in January, largely in the form of Robinhood stock …
New York Times:
Emails and sources: Google fired 16% of its ~400-person Fuchsia OS team, Research cut jobs in low traction areas, and Cloud cut operational and other roles  —  The layoffs amount to about 6 percent of the global work force at the company, the latest tech giant to make cuts after a pandemic hiring spree.
Bloomberg:
More: The Keyword, Livemint, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Reuters, TechSpot, CNBC, The Economic Times, MarketWatch, Insider, Associated Press, CNBC, NPR, Pixel Envy, 9to5Google, BBC, Fortune, Tech.co, TIME, Ars Technica, PYMNTS.com, GeekWire, PCWorld, GamesIndustry.biz, WinBuzzer, Patently Apple, TechRadar, Fast Company, Thurrott, IGN, PhoneArena, DCD, Coinspeaker, Tech Xplore, Micky, Mashable, Appuals.com, Search Engine Land, ZDNet, TheGamer, Gizmodo, Tech Monitor, TechCircle, Deadline, City A.M., Computerworld, Neowin, Variety, Silicon Republic, PCMag, Semafor, WRAL TechWire, TechCrunch, The Hollywood Reporter, Financial Times, Engadget, RTÉ, The Economic Times, and Moneycontrol
Can Duruk / Margins:
The main reason ChatGPT is a threat to Google is because the latter's monopoly position allowed search to degenerate into a spam-ridden, SEO-fueled hellscape  —  I hate monopolies and welcome our AI overlords … I don't really cook often, but I do love making pasta aglio e olio.
Sarah Wynn / The Block:
The US SEC charges Avraham Eisenberg with manipulating Mango Markets' governance token MNGO to steal $116M of crypto assets and says MNGO was sold as a security  —  - The SEC brought charges against Avraham Eisenberg on Friday after the U.S. securities regulator said Eisenberg stole $116 million from Mango Markets.
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Internal records: Twitter now has around 1,300 active employees, including fewer than 550 full-time engineers, and about 1,400 non-working employees  —  - Internal records show that Twitter has shed about 80% of its employees since Elon Musk took over and headcount is hovering around 1,300 employees today.
Paresh Dave / Wired:
Google, Microsoft, and other tech companies have offered a muted response to unrest in Iran, prompting staff side projects to fight internet censorship and more  —  Companies like Google have offered a muted response to unrest in Iran.  Grassroots coders are tackling internet censorship on their own.
More: PC Gamer
Kevin Simauchi / Bloomberg:
Crypto lender Genesis Global files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in New York, listing the estimated range for both assets and liabilities as between $1B and $10B  —  Cryptocurrency lender Genesis Global Capital filed for bankruptcy, the latest firm to collapse in the aftermath of FTX's swift downfall.

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More News

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