Trending Stories from theinformation.com
Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market
Dented Reality: Magic Leap Sees Slow Sales, Steep Losses
Source: Airbnb lost about $100M in Q2 2019, compared to the profit of $10M it made a year ago
Sources: after exploring partnerships with banks in 2018 to offer an Amazon-branded checking account, Amazon scrapped those plans in their early stages
Techmeme · 3 weeks ago
Sources: Apple is aiming to release an AR headset in 2022 and a sleeker pair of AR glasses by 2023
Source: Facebook held talks to acquire Fitbit but wanted to pay roughly half of the $2.1B that Google eventually agreed to pay
Sources: Sony has hired bankers to explore a sale of its Playstation Vue service, which would include the company's tech and a subscriber list of around 500K
AWS Customers Rack Up Hefty Bills for Moving Data
Sources: China's ByteDance is in talks to sell TopBuzz, the English language version of its Chinese AI-powered news aggregator Toutiao
The Forbes ‘30 Under 30’ Hustle
Andreessen Horowitz Returns Slip, According to Internal Data
Andreessen Horowitz Returns Slip, According to Internal Data
Apple Change Causes Scramble Among Private Messaging App Makers
Waymo’s Backseat Drivers: Confidential Data Reveals Self-Driving Taxi Hurdles
Bill Stasior, former longtime Apple exec who oversaw Siri, has joined Microsoft as corporate VP of technology, reporting to CTO Kevin Scott
Sources: JD.com is talking with investment banks about a $500M US IPO in May for its online supermarket unit Dada-JD Daojia; Walmart owns 10% of Dada-JD Daojia
Toptal CEO Taso Du Val owns all stock, leaving none for investors and employees
Investors and employees of Toptal, a freelancing platform with ~$200M revenue and originally funded by $1.5M in convertible notes, have ended up with no equity
Sources: Spotify is discussing a plan with Apple to let iPhone users tell Siri to play songs, playlists, albums with voice commands, as anti-trust battle looms
Facebook Hit by Apple’s Crackdown on Messaging Feature
Sources: Apple will make changes to the iOS API for internet voice calls, limiting what apps like WhatsApp can do in the background
Facebook to Add Its Name to Instagram, WhatsApp
Hacker News · 4 months ago
Sources: Facebook is working on a new TV device that can stream video and make video calls using its Portal tech, and has approached Netflix, Disney, and others
Website Builder Webflow (YC S13) to Exceed $200M Valuation in New Funding
Sources: Huawei and Google were working together on a Huawei-branded smart speaker slated for September release, but that work ended after Trump's ban in May
On Inequality and Risk Capacity
Hit by Big Loss, Bird Seeks $300M in New Funds
Sources: Bird lost about $100M in the first quarter, with revenue shrinking to about $15M, and the company told people that it has about $100M in cash left
Sources: Facebook is looking to buy game studios and has signed deals for exclusive VR versions of Assassin's Creed and more to bolster its Oculus ecosystem
Uber to buy Seattle-based Mighty AI, which helps train computer vision models, to strengthen its self-driving car unit; Crunchbase: Mighty AI had raised $27.3M
Sources: Huawei has indefinitely postponed the announcement of a new Windows laptop, originally scheduled for this week, due to ongoing US trade sanctions
Sources: Apple is in talks to buy a key part of Intel's smartphone modem business, its German operations
SiFive, which helps companies ship custom chip designs based on the RISC-V architecture, raises $65.4M Series D from Qualcomm and others
As regulators ramp up antitrust scrutiny of Google, the company's global policy team is still adapting to a sweeping reorganization, with key roles unfilled
Sources: DoorDash is finalizing a major round that would value the food delivery app at $10B-$12B, just three months after it raised at a $7B valuation
Sources: Quibi, the upcoming mobile streaming service led by Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman, is planning to raise up to $1B, following a $1B raise in August
AI startup Clarifai laid off around 20% of its staff of around 100 employees, including the product manager who led its work on DoD's Project Maven contract
Sources: Google is rapidly adding retailers to Google Express, tests showing product recommendations and prices with an option to buy under YouTube videos
Techmeme · 7 months ago