Trending Stories from wsj.com
A fresh wave of COVID-19 outbreaks in Taiwan and Malaysia has disrupted the semiconductor supply chain in those countries, worsening a global chip shortage
McDonald's says hackers breached its operations in some markets, exposing some US business info and delivery customer data in South Korea and Taiwan
Robinhood and Didi to Kick Off a Hot IPO Summer
US launches a task force to develop plans for sharing records on health, driving, demographics, and more with AI researchers while addressing privacy concerns
A look at the ruthless Eastern European ransomware gang Ryuk, which hit 235+ US hospitals since 2018 and collected an estimated $100M in ransom last year
Hackers stole $650k and got away, showing limits to law enforcement’s reach
Heavier passengers on planes mean new safety limits for airlines
JBS says it paid an $11M ransom in bitcoin to resolve an attack last week; the payment was made after most plants were operational to avoid further disruption
If you sell a house these days, the buyer might be a pension fund
Senate approves $250B bill to boost tech research
Russia has been pressuring social media platforms like YouTube and Twitter to remove anti-government content and police its critics, and it seems to be working
FTC: consumers have reported losing nearly $82M to crypto scams during Q4 2020 and Q1 2021, up more than 10x YoY
DOJ says US investigators seized nearly 64 bitcoins, valued at ~$2.3M, that the Colonial Pipeline had paid in ransom to hackers last month
DeFi, which accounted for an estimated 40% of ether moved on the Ethereum network in the year ended April, is helping fuel the crypto boom and recent volatility
A brief history of cryptocurrency mining in China as authorities crack down on mining operations and miners in other countries cut into China's dominance
Analysis: Palantir's Alexander Karp got compensation worth $1.1B last year and DoorDash's Tony Xu got $400M, both among the biggest CEO pay packages since 2007
Bitcoin’s Reliance on Stablecoins Harks Back to the Wild West of Finance
Director of FBI says it is investigating ~100 types of ransomware, many tracing back to Russia, and compares the challenge of this wave of cyberattacks to 9/11
EU and UK regulators coordinate to open antitrust investigations into Facebook's classified ad service Marketplace; UK is also probing Facebook Dating
Prosus, a European tech giant and Tencent's largest shareholder, says it struck a $1.8B deal to acquire Stack Overflow, which attracts 100M+ monthly visitors
Stack Overflow sold to Prosus for $1.8B
Amazon quietly changed its terms of service to let customers file lawsuits against it, after facing over 75K arbitration demands from Echo users
Techmeme · 2 weeks ago
Sources: PE firms KKR and CD&R are nearing a deal to buy enterprise data cloud company Cloudera and take it private; Cloudera has a market value of nearly $4B
US's campaign against Huawei has opened the $35B/year cellular equipment market, giving rise to new players and helping US's bid to counter China's 5G dominance
Sources: Google is nearing a settlement of an antitrust case in France alleging it abused its power in online ads, and will likely pay a fine and make changes
Full Truck Alliance, a Chinese startup providing an Uber-like service for trucks, files for US IPO; sources say it seeks to raise $1B+ at a $20B-$30B valuation
Tesla says it will store all data generated from cars in China in a new data center there, after facing scrutiny in the country for handling vehicle data
Messari: transactions on decentralized exchanges totaled $122B in April vs. <$1B a year earlier; Uniswap had volume of $36.6B in April vs. $110B at Coinbase
Intelligence on Sick Staff at Wuhan Lab Fuels Debate On Covid-19 Origin – WSJ
Amazon Nears Deal to Buy Hollywood Studio MGM
Hacker News · 3 weeks ago
Ethiopia picks a consortium backed with US foreign aid and led by Vodafone over a China-backed group to build a multi-billion dollar 5G-capable network
How Pinterest's neural network curates pins for users, pairing them with tailored ads on their search results, drawing 480M people to the site in Q1, up 30% YoY
Study: among 44 tech startups that completed a SPAC deal from the start of 2020 through April 2021, their share prices had fallen 12.6% on average by May 17
A look at a fossil fuel power plant in NY that has been restarted to mine crypto, as NY considers a bill for placing a three-year moratorium on crypto mining
Sources: DeepMind sought autonomy from Google, aiming to keep its AI from being controlled by a single corporate entity, but Google nixed those plans last month
Zhang Yiming follows other Chinese tech CEOs, including Ant's Simon Hu and Pinduoduo's Colin Huang, who quit recently amid increased scrutiny by China
As Texas Went Dark, the State Paid Natural-Gas Companies to Go Offline
Right-wing video platform Rumble says it has raised an undisclosed amount from Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, and others; sources say Rumble is valued at ~$500M
Bright Machines, which uses robotics and AI to automate manufacturing tasks, is merging with a SPAC to go public at a $1.6B post-deal valuation
Tim Cook is expected to testify for about 100 minutes in Epic v. Apple late this week or early next; Phil Schiller and Craig Federighi will testify before Cook
Amazon announces WorkingWell, a new program to educate employees on avoiding injuries and improving mental health, expanding to 1,000 facilities by end of 2021
Techmeme · 4 weeks ago
As Epic and Apple face off in the antitrust trial, a snapshot of the app economy behind the fight
Profile of Foxglove, a tech-activism group famous for pushing UK into reassessing its use of algorithms, that's challenging Facebook and Uber on worker rights
Sources: Microsoft's board decided in 2020 Gates should leave the board as it probed claims Gates sought to initiate an affair with a Microsoft engineer in 2000
Sources: CloutHub and FreeSpace are among the apps vying to be next platform of Trump, who "wants cash money up front" in exchange for followers he would bring
Amazon says it is hiring 75,000 workers, representing 8% of its US workforce, and offering an average of $17/hour, above its typical $15/hour starting wage
Techmeme · 1 month ago
Profile of Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, who is presiding over the Epic v. Apple trial and has previously handled several cases involving both companies
Amazon wins appeal over $300M EU tax bill, as EU court in Luxembourg annuls a 2017 decision from the European Commission
Techmeme · 1 month ago