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Sources: DataRobot's CFO and several other executives have resigned after CEO Dan Wright's resignation in July 2022 amid an uproar over execs' quiet stock sales
Memo: Dan Wright, CEO of enterprise AI company DataRobot, resigned after less than 1.5 years, following employee uproar over stock sales by senior executives
Google says it will pause hiring for two weeks, not affecting offers that were already made, after saying last week it would slow hiring for the rest of 2022
In an internal post, Meta's Head of Remote Presence and Engineering Maher Saba instructed managers to identify and "move to exit" low performers
Sources: Mysten Labs, a blockchain startup founded by ex-Meta crypto execs, is in talks to raise a $200M+ Series B led by FTX Ventures, seeking a $2B valuation
As tech stocks fall, Andreessen Horowitz, Sequoia, GGV, and other VC firms are buying publicly traded stocks of companies whose prospects they deem to be strong
Source: Oracle considered cost reductions of up to $1B that could result in thousands of layoffs as soon as August, mostly impacting staff in the US and Europe
Sources: more than two dozen Azure data centers globally are operating with limited server capacity; more than six will continue to be limited until early 2023
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
Source: Meta decided not to release the first version of its AR glasses, scheduled for 2024, to focus on its second version, with a release unlikely for years
Sources: Coinbase is testing an app from Ray Dalio's company Principles that lets staff rate each other on how well they exemplify Coinbase's 10 cultural tenets
Sources: Coinbase is pausing new projects, freezing hiring, cutting costs, and giving staff more stock grants after its stock fell 75%+ in the past six months
PitchBook: 16 new VC funds with 60%+ female decision makers have raised $4.5B from January to April 2022; women-led funds raised $3.7B in 2021 and $1.8B in 2020
Source: crypto analytics startup Chainalysis raises a $170M Series F led by GIC at an $8.6B valuation, up from $4.2B in June when it raised a $100M Series E
Sources: Meta is considering reducing the money it gives news outlets and focusing on news content as short videos on Facebook rather than as links to articles
Source: Cameo plans to lay off 80+ employees, or about 25% of its workforce; CEO Steven Galanis says the cuts will "balance our costs with our cash reserves"
Internal FTC survey: overall satisfaction among staff has dropped from 89% in 2020 to 60% in 2021; in an email, Lina Khan pledges to fix sinking staff morale
Roadmap: Meta plans four VR headsets by 2024; source says high-end MR headset Cambria, once set for 2021, could debut in September before its successor in 2024
Sources: Palmer Luckey's AI-powered defense tech startup Anduril is raising a $500M-$1B Series E at a $7B valuation, up from $4.6B about a year ago
Document: one-click checkout service Bolt's transaction revenue grew ~10% to $28M in 2021, and has had partner merchants numbering in the low 300s since 2020
Sources: the FTC opened an inquiry into whether Elon Musk complied with its reporting requirement as he amassed his 9.1% Twitter stake between January and April
Corporate data management and security startup Veza, formerly Cookie.ai, raises $50M led by Accel at a $500M valuation
Sources: Apple doesn't collect much user data from services and the data it collects is not widely accessible to staff, making it harder to compete with rivals
Source says Twitter's board of directors views Elon Musk's takeover offer as unwelcome, suggesting the company will fight the bid
Sources: Meta chose a Qualcomm chip for the second version of its Ray-Ban smartglasses, after struggling to develop its own custom chip codenamed Brasilia
Sources: one-click checkout startup Fast is shutting down entirely, after having raised $120M from backers including Stripe, Index Ventures, and Addition
Sources: at a recent employee town hall and a management offsite meeting, Netflix executives cautioned employees to be more careful about spending and hiring
Sources: Stripe-backed one-click checkout service Fast generated just ~$600K in 2021 revenue; source says Fast tried raising a $100M Series C in late 2021
Source: Philadelphia-based delivery startup Gopuff to lay off ~3% of its staff to cut $40M in costs; layoffs follow the resignations of several key executives
Sources: Sequoia China, whose portfolio includes ByteDance and online fashion startup Shein, is in early talks to raise $8B+ across four new funds
Sources: Sam Altman's Worldcoin is raising $100M in a token sale from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, a previous backer, and Khosla, at a $3B valuation
Tech execs may face criminal prosecution or jail time for failure to comply with Ofcom within two months after UK's Online Safety Bill, if passed, takes effect
Sources: Google has struck a deal to acquire Raxium, a five-year-old startup that makes microLED components for AR and VR displays
Bessemer Venture Partners launches BessemerDAO to discuss crypto trends and share resources, and earmarks $250M of its new $2.5B fund for crypto deals
Source: Tiger Global partners have committed $1B of their own cash, at $300M+ every year, to invest in seed funds that focus on backing the youngest startups
Source: Google is in talks to acquire cybersecurity company Mandiant, after a February report indicated Microsoft acquisition talks; Mandiant's stock is up 15%+
Sources: automation software startup Hyperscience, last valued at $1.65B, laid off 100 staff after missing FY financial targets; CEO Peter Brodsky stepped down
Sources: Meta broke up a 300+ team working on OSes for its VR headsets and upcoming AR glasses, including a group working on a new OS code-named XROS
Source: Tiger Global told investors earlier this month that it will no longer focus on large, late-stage startups preparing to go public
Source: Tiger Global has raised over $11B for its latest venture capital fund as of January and expects to close the fund at $12B in March
TikTok says it is testing allowing creators to charge subscriptions for their content
Sources: Meta has stopped developing a new OS for its VR devices and upcoming AR glasses; the multiyear project involved hundreds of employees
Kevin Martin, the Republican who was Meta's head of US public policy, will resume the position, as Meta drops plans to hire a Democrat to lead its lobbying team
Sources: Bolt, which offers a one-click checkout service, is seeking to raise ~$400M at a $14B valuation, after raising $393M at an $11B valuation in October
Meta says it acquired ImagineOptix, a North Carolina-based startup specializing in liquid crystal lenses, which could help reduce the size of VR headsets
Sources: despite publicly stepping down, ByteDance founder Zhang Yiming remains actively involved, focusing on long-term strategy
Sources say the FTC has opened an in-depth probe into Meta's acquisition of Within, the company behind VR fitness game Supernatural
A look at Solana's early backers including 500 Startups, Slow Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and angels David Quiec and Chris McCann, who have $1B+ stakes
Sources: Amazon's Instacart rival, internally called Fresh Marketplace, will expand to the US and Europe in 2022 following its recent UK debut
Techmeme · 8 months ago