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Sources: rental startup Domio, which had raised $50M in debt and a $50M Series B in 2019, plans to shut down after failing to raise more funds
Two senior executives at Lyft, in charge of strategic initiatives and design, respectively, are leaving the firm on the eve of California's vote on Prop 22
Sources: Alibaba is in advanced talks to invest nearly $300M in London-based online luxury fashion retailer Farfetch and potentially create a Chinese JV
Apple Rejects App for Verifying Pennsylvania Ballots
Quibi is shutting down
Sources: Jeffrey Katzenberg tried to sell Quibi's catalog to NBCUniversal and Facebook, but both passed; Katzenberg told others he may shut down the company
Google’s Internal Data Show Engineers Found It Harder to Code from Home
Sources: Katzenberg pitched Apple, WarnerMedia, and Facebook about buying Quibi, but so far had no takers; Quibi has between 400K and 500K subscribers now
Documents show that Airbnb spent $1.2B between mid-2019 and mid-2020, with the biggest portion of cash burn coming in Q1 2020 as it issued refunds amid COVID-19
Tribe Capital is close to announcing Firstlook, a program for individuals with a net worth +$1M and annual income of $200k to co-invest in startups with Tribe
Stan Chudnovsky, head of Messenger at Facebook, says Facebook has asked Apple for years to give users an option to make Messenger the default iOS messaging app
Sources: Google's pro-privacy plan to block online ad trackers has boosted the US' antitrust probe, as publishers argue it would create an unfair playing field
$200M Seed Valuation for Roam Shows Investor Frenzy for Note-Taking Apps
Profile of the note-taking startup Roam Research, which has raised $9M at $200M valuation from Patrick and John Collison, True Ventures, Lux Capital, others
Apple confirms it will delay enforcement of IDFA changes in iOS 14 until early next year "to give developers the time they need to make the necessary changes"
Sources: Patreon raises $100M at a $1.2B pre-money valuation, nearly double the value it had prior to a funding round last year
Sources: Epic has reached out to other tech companies, including Spotify, about forming a coalition of companies critical of Apple's App Store policies
Source: Facebook and Snap recently approached Dubsmash, a lip-syncing video app, about an acquisition, with discussions including a possible nine-figure deal
HeadSpin to return up to $95M to investors and has replaced its CEO after an internal review revealed financial irregularities; startup now valued at $250M
Sources: ByteDance execs see acquisition by Microsoft as more viable because of management's ability to absorb company as well as ByteDance execs' prior ties
Sources: Google used internal Android Lockbox project, which collects usage data on non-Google apps, to inform product strategy, like building a TikTok rival
Sources: a small group of ByteDance's US investors are discussing the possibility of joining forces to buy a majority stake in TikTok
Coursera, the online learning startup founded by Andrew Ng, raises $130M Series F led by NEA, at a valuation of around $2.5B
TikTok Agreed to Buy More Than $800M in Cloud Services from Google
Wells Fargo emailed a small number of employees who installed TikTok on corporate-owned devices, directing them to remove it over privacy and security concerns
Techmeme · 5 months ago
Zuckerberg Tells Facebook Staff He Expects Advertisers to Return ‘Soon Enough’
Sources: Zuckerberg told Facebook staff the ad boycott is more of a "reputational and a partner issue" than an economic one, expects advertisers to return soon
Source: following Amazon's acquisition, two of Zoox's earliest and most senior engineers have left for Waymo
Sources: Amazon to pay $1B+ to buy self-driving car developer Zoox; source says most investors will get their money back and some will make a positive return
Techmeme · 5 months ago
PitchBook: the median valuation for Series C and later stage funding increased to a new high of $120M in the first half of 2020, from $80M for 2019
Sources: TikTok expects its US revenue to hit $500M this year; in 2019, TikTok brought in about $200M to $300M in worldwide revenue
Sources: Google plans to overhaul Google Pay by letting online and brick-and-mortar merchants set up their own branded buttons inside the US version of its app
Media Matters is considering sending a letter urging advertisers to rethink spending on Facebook after Mark Zuckerberg's choice to leave up a Trump post
Internal memo: Magic Leap has raised $350M from new and existing investors and is withdrawing notices laying off remaining employees
Coinbase Making WFH Permanent
Uber engineering layoffs expected tomorrow
Sources: Zoox, which has raised $1B, is in talks with automakers about a potential deal or financing, as the self-driving car startup contemplates a sale
Cockroach Labs Gets $87M in New Funding
Sources: Airbnb plans to lay of 1,000-2,000 employees and will curb projects related to transportation and luxury, could save $400M-$500M annually
Sources: Uber is in talks to lead $170M investment in Lime at a $510M valuation, down 79% from last valuation, and will get option to buy Lime between 2022-2024
Uber discusses plan to lay off about 20% of employees
Sources: cloud collaboration service Airtable is in talks to raise at least $50M at a valuation between $2.5B and $4B; Airtable was valued at $1.1B in 2018
Sources: Zuckerberg suspended the push to introduce ads to WhatsApp partly to avoid antagonizing regulators but also to avoid angering privacy-conscious users
Uber Bookings Now Down 80%
Boom in Home Electronics Sales Shows Signs of Peaking
Sources: Didi Chuxing's bike-sharing unit Qingju raised $150M from SoftBank and Legend Capital in its latest round, while Didi itself invested ~$850M
SoftBank-backed home buying startup Opendoor says it's laying off 600 employees, or ~35% of its staff, after halting home purchases last month amid the pandemic
Sources: YouTube is planning to release Shorts, a rival to TikTok inside YouTube's main app, by the end of the year
Sources: Amazon, Walmart suspend commerce marketing deals with digital media such as BuzzFeed and Vox Media; ~20% of BuzzFeed 2019 revenue came from such deals
Techmeme · 8 months ago