Techmeme: Sources: banks sold $5.5B in debt that X borrowed, at $0.97 on the dollar, after strong investor demand; they had planned to sell ~$3B at ~$0.95 on the dollar (Wall Street Journal)

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February 5, 2025, 10:00 PM

Top News

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

The USPS resumes accepting China and Hong Kong mail hours after suspension due to Trump's EO, disrupting e-commerce, and is implementing “the new China tariffs” — WATCH NOW — The U.S. Postal Service said Wednesday it will resume accepting inbound mail and packages from China and Hong Kong …

More: USPS Newsroom, Ars Technica, New York Times, The Verge, Bloomberg, Business Insider, CNN, The Hill, BBC, Tom's Hardware, Modern Retail, Engadget, TechRadar, Associated Press, Android Authority, Quartz, Raw Story, The Loadstar, TechSpot, New York Times, Hackaday, CBS News, Fortune, Financial Times, New York Times, Adafruit Industries, Proactive, Daily Sabah, Forbes, RTÉ, Washington Post, The Indian Express, Yahoo Finance, NBC News, FreightWaves, ZeroHedge News, WTTG-TV, Business Insider, Reuters, and Wired

Bluesky: @marypcbuk, @wildebees, @lmatsakis, @zeyiyang, @lauridonahue, @grantstern, and @jasonkoebler

X: @playasia, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, @mikeisaac, @samuelstolton, @mikeisaac, @josephpolitano, @jengriffinfnc, @typesfast, @tomlikestocode, @skchheda, @silvermanjacob, and @butleriano

LinkedIn: Deborah Elms, Marianne Rowden, and Andrea Kennedy

Mathieu Pollet / Politico:

The EU unveils e-commerce shipping rules that would add more customs checks and fees, potentially impacting Chinese platforms like AliExpress, Shein, and Temu

More: European Commission, European Commission, BEUC, Reuters, CBS News, Le Monde, Financial Times, Yahoo Finance, TechCrunch, The Guardian, European Commission, European Commission, Renew Europe, and Wall Street Journal

X: @digitaleu and @pinhopau

Miles Kruppa / Wall Street Journal:

Email: Google eliminates its goal of hiring more employees from historically underrepresented groups and is reviewing some DEI programs after Donald Trump's EOs — Search giant is eliminating goals to hire more minority employees and reviewing DEI programs, part of a pullback across Silicon Valley

More: The Verge, New York Times, The Guardian, NBC News, Los Angeles Times, Livemint, Engadget, Business Insider, Werd I/O, The Gateway Pundit, Quartz, TechCrunch, The Information, National Review, HotAir, CNBC, Axios, Fox Business, Washington Examiner, New York Post, Seeking Alpha, Reuters, Mediaite, KRON4, Blaze Media, Forbes, The Daily Wire, ZeroHedge News, Bloomberg, and The Hill

X: @jeffreyatucker, @joshuaogundu, @meridithmcgraw, @tjmoe28, @parissathena, and @alexeheath. LinkedIn: Lisa Haley

Forums: Hacker News, r/politics, r/womenintech, and r/technology

Kif Leswing / CNBC:

Qualcomm reports Q1 revenue up 17% YoY to $11.67B, vs. $10.93B est., handsets revenue up 13% to $7.57B, net income up 15% to $3.18B, issues a strong Q2 guidance — Qualcomm reported better-than-expected fiscal first-quarter results on Wednesday and issued strong guidance for the current period.

More: Qualcomm, SiliconANGLE, Thurrott, PhoneArena, Android Central, Reuters, and Bloomberg. X: @mytechmusings

Greg Bensinger / Reuters:

Amazon announces an Alexa-focused event on February 26 in New York; sources say the company will preview its long-delayed Alexa generative AI revamp — Amazon (AMZN.O) is set to release its long-awaited - and delayed - Alexa generative artificial intelligence voice service …

MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:

WH crypto czar David Sacks says stablecoin legislation could be done in the next six months, after lawmakers introduced a bill to create a regulatory framework — As David Sacks, the newly appointed White House AI and crypto czar, collaborates with lawmakers on potential regulations for digital assets …

More: Bloomberg, CoinDesk, US Securities …, Senator Bill Hagerty, Blockchain News, Forbes, Bitcoinist.com, ABA Banking Journal, Watcher Guru, DL News, PYMNTS.com, Inside Bitcoins, Benzinga, CoinGeek, CryptoPotato, and Bitcoin Insider. X: @kuenshahi

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:

Google adds Gemini 2.0 Flash, 2.0 Flash-Lite, and 2.0 Pro Experimental to Gemini's API, and 2.0 Pro Experimental and 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental to its apps — Gemini 2.0 AI updates include cheaper access for developers, and AI that can use other Google apps like YouTube.

More: The Keyword, Google Developers Blog, MacStories, 9to5Google, Android Authority, Android Headlines, Digital Trends, Android Police, VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, Tom's Guide, ZDNET, MacRumors, Mashable, CNBC, Techstrong.ai, and Droid Life

Bluesky: @emilprotalinski. Mastodon: @viticci@mastodon …. Threads: @crumbler. X: @bindureddy, @sundarpichai, @officiallogank, @shresbm, @ai_for_success, @maxwinebach, @kwindla, @deedydas, @google, @googledeepmind, @aravsrinivas, @ai_for_success, @thomasortk, @altryne, @googledeepmind, @brianroemmele, @google, @googledeepmind, @google, @googleaidevs, @chronicles_ofai, @googledeepmind, @gavinsbaker, @sundarpichai, @simonw, @officiallogank, @sundarpichai, @google, and @google

LinkedIn: Shrestha Basu Mallick and Krishna Kosuri

Forums: r/singularity and lobste.rs

Max A. Cherney / Reuters:

Arm reports Q3 revenue up 19% YoY to $983M, vs. $946.7M est., royalty revenue up 23% YoY to $580M, and lowers is FY revenue guidance; ARM drops 5%+ after hours — Chip tech provider Arm Holdings (O9Ty.F), said on Wednesday it will no longer meet the top end of its previous full-year guidance …

More: More Than Moore, Financial Times, Benzinga, Yahoo Finance, The Times, Bloomberg, and Arm Newsroom

X: @beth_kindig, @arm, @thetranscript_, and @beth_kindig

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: banks sold $5.5B in debt that X borrowed, at $0.97 on the dollar, after strong investor demand; they had planned to sell ~$3B at ~$0.95 on the dollar — X CEO tells investors that the financial health of social-media company is improving — Elon Musk's power in Washington …

More: Benzinga, Financial Times, Bloomberg, The Information, Forbes, Reuters, and New York Post

X: @deitaone. Forums: r/neoliberal

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:

Kaspersky researchers found apps in Google's Play Store and Apple's App Store that use OCR to steal crypto wallet recovery phrases from images on users' devices — Android and iOS apps on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store contain a malicious software development kit (SDK) …

More: Securelist, The Verge, MacRumors, Android Police, Lifehacker, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Decrypt, Gizchina.com, Digital Trends, FinanceFeeds, AppleInsider, crypto.news, Security Affairs, CyberInsider, and Help Net Security

Mastodon: @Gte@mastodon.social. X: @bleepincomputer. Forums: r/technews, r/apple, Slashdot, and MacRumors Forums

Pei Li / Bloomberg:

Sources: China's State Administration for Market Regulation is examining Apple's policies, including its up to 30% App Store fees, ahead of a potential probe — - Company under fire for app commissions, barring outside stores — Beijing is investigating Google as response to new US tariffs

Karissa Bell / Engadget:

Reddit banned r/WhitePeopleTwitter for 72 hours due to “a prevalence of violent content”, after Elon Musk said the subreddit had “broken the law” on February 3 — The company said it was due to a “prevalence of violent content.” — Reddit has temporarily banned …

More: BBC, The Verge, Android Police, Times of India, The Daily Dot, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast, and Techdirt

Bluesky: @esqueer.net, @robinsonmeyer, @cachiporra, @youranona, @goldengateblond, and @walmsley

X: @elonmusk, @reddit_lies, @reddit_lies, @kfile, @reddit_lies, @xdaily, and @reddit_lies

Forums: r/RedditSafety, r/stupidpol, r/NewLondonCounty, r/ConservativeKiwi, r/hungary, r/InternationalNews, and r/GlobalNews

Brody Ford / Bloomberg:

Workday is cutting about 1,750 workers, or 8.5% of its workforce, as it plans to hire in areas such as AI and take on more people overseas; WDAY closes up 6.33% — - Figure represents roughly 8.5% of company's workforce — Salesforce, Amazon, Microsoft recently cut personnel

Jason Shubnell / The Block:

MicroStrategy announces a new name, Strategy, a new logo with a stylized “B”, signifying its bitcoin strategy, and orange as the brand's primary color — - The brand's primary color is now orange, which it says represents energy, intelligence and Bitcoin.

Bloomberg:

Sources: SoftBank is in advanced talks to acquire Ampere in a deal that could value the Oracle-backed chip designer at about $6.5B, including debt — - Deal could value Oracle-backed Ampere at about $6.5 billion — Chip companies looking to capitalize on AI spending boom

More: TechCrunch and SiliconANGLE

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sonos is laying off about 200 employees, or 12% of its staff, as it reorganizes to make its product teams “flatter, smaller, and more focused” — Sonos Inc. said it's cutting about 12% of its staff, or 200 workers, in a bid to make its product teams “flatter, smaller and more focused.”

More: Sonos, Android Police, TechCrunch, Thurrott, Engadget, The Verge, MacRumors, and iPhone in Canada Blog. Forums: MacRumors Forums

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From Mediagazer

The Wrap:

VOA director Michael Abramowitz condemns its shutdown, says Trump is “failing to protect US interests”; others say shutting VOA is a “national security issue”

Nicole Sperling / New York Times:

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences says Conan O'Brien will reprise his Oscar hosting duties in 2026, one of the earliest renewals for an Oscar host

Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:

Trump praises Jeff Bezos for changes at WaPo, says he doesn't think media's treatment of him has changed so far, but he sees a shift among tech giants

More News

Chainalysis:

In 2024, ransomware attackers received ~$813.55M in payments from victims, down 35% on 2023's record $1.25B, as more victims refused to pay

More: Cybersecurity Dive, CoinDesk, SC Media, CryptoSlate, CyberScoop, Wired, Tech.co, DeviceSecurity.io, UPI, crypto.news, TechRadar, Gizmodo, BleepingComputer, TechCrunch, Metacurity, and The Block

Bluesky: @campuscodi.risky.biz. X: @jburnskoven

Daniel Cooper / Engadget:

Oura Ring 4 review: comfortable, better data collection, and gorgeous, clean app, but requires a paid subscription to use basic features and colors cost more

More: Patently Apple

Belle Lin / Wall Street Journal:

AWS aims to use “automated reasoning”, which uses mathematical logic to encode knowledge in AI systems in a structured way, to prevent AI models' hallucinations

More: Semafor. Bluesky: @quinnypig.com. LinkedIn: Curtis Langlotz

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

Brookhaven, a top title on Roblox with 120M+ monthly players, was sold by its anonymous creator Wolfpaq to game developer Voldex for an undisclosed sum

More: Voldex. X: @davidbaszucki, @andrewchen, @voldexgames, @gfalcomer, and @twektweak

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Analysis: European AI startups raised ~$8B in 2024, with 70% going to seed, Series A, and Series B rounds, led by UK startups, followed by France and Germany

More: Forrester, The French AI Report, Tech Policy Press, en.ain.ua, and The French AI Report. Forums: r/artificial

Kwanwoo Jun / Wall Street Journal:

LG CNS, an IT services affiliate of LG, made a weak debut in South Korea, falling ~10% to ~$38.44, cutting its market cap to $3.72B from $4.13B during the day

More: Nikkei Asia and Reuters

Gartner:

Global semiconductor revenue rose 18.1% YoY to ~$626B in 2024, led by Samsung, which regained the top spot, Intel, and Nvidia, and is set to reach $705B in 2025

More: Portland Business Journal. X: @1p_semicon and @nano_arun

Kevin Collier / NBC News:

The US OPM plans to make each government agency's chief information officer a political appointee who can be fired at will, helping Trump exert more control

More: TechCrunch, CIO.com, FedScoop, Blaze Media, EsstN, The Register, and Newser

Bluesky: @laurenleharper, @laurenmeidasa, @aterkel, and @kevincollier

Forums: r/politics and r/neoliberal

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:

Robinhood withdraws its plans to offer betting contracts on the Super Bowl, in partnership with online prediction market Kalshi, after pushback from the CFTC

More: CFTC, CoinDesk, Robinhood Newsroom, WTOP News, The Daily Hodl, Sportico, CryptoPotato, CoinJournal, and Reuters

Nikkei Asia:

Chinese chip firms blacklisted by the US are turning to universities, state-backed labs, and “pilot production lines” to keep their development efforts on track

More: Times of India and Digital Trends

Henry Chandonnet / Fast Company:

An interview with Twitch CEO Dan Clancy on competition with YouTube and Kick, exclusivity contracts, content moderation, Twitch's expansion plans, and more

More: Dexerto. X: @gekgemu, @grahamothgames, @kanzalonetv, and @svntvmvriv