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

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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

Filip Timotija / The Hill:

Source says “most” journalists at Voice of America were put on administrative leave, a day after Trump signed an EO aimed at eliminating the USAGM

Tara Bennett / AV Club:

How Looney Tunes' first original animated feature got released, as WBD's legacy franchise is at a crossroads, all but abandoned by the studio it helped define

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A look at Japan's first media nonprofit dedicated to investigative journalism, Tokyo Investigative Newsroom Tansa, started eight years ago by Makoto Watanabe

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

Daniel Cooper / Engadget:

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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:

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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

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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

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Henry Chandonnet / Fast Company:

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