Sunday, April 2, 2023

In a now deleted tweet, Elon Musk said verified accounts would get a "few weeks grace" but would lose their badges if "they tell they won't pay now" (Aaron McDade/Yahoo Finance)

Aaron McDade / Yahoo Finance:
In a now deleted tweet, Elon Musk said verified accounts would get a “few weeks grace” but would lose their badges if “they tell they won't pay now”  —  - The first day of Twitter's previously announced axing of “legacy” verified checks nearly passed without incident.



A16Z appears to openly court Saudi capital; Horowitz compared the US unfavorably to the Saudis after the US government appeared unmoved by an Andreessen essay (Connie Loizos/TechCrunch)

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
A16Z appears to openly court Saudi capital; Horowitz compared the US unfavorably to the Saudis after the US government appeared unmoved by an Andreessen essay  —  Andreessen Horowitz is now openly courting capital from Saudi Arabia, despite U.S. strains.  —  According to Bloomberg …



Sources: SVB execs bought long-term assets that paid more interest based on a misplaced profit-driven strategy, falling out of compliance with its risk model (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
Sources: SVB execs bought long-term assets that paid more interest based on a misplaced profit-driven strategy, falling out of compliance with its risk model  —  Focused on profits, leaders made decisions that foreshadowed the bank's surprise failure  —  Flush with cash from a booming tech industry …



Saturday, April 1, 2023

Sources: Lyft founders' departures followed months of staff concerns as the company's market value fell 85% to under $3.5B in two years, while Uber fared better (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Lyft founders' departures followed months of staff concerns as the company's market value fell 85% to under $3.5B in two years, while Uber fared better  —  New CEO says he aims to boost employee morale and overhaul customer and driver experience  —  Tech Live: Lyft Co-Founder on Stock-Price Tumble, Autonomous Cars



NLRB says Activision Blizzard broke US labor law by illegally surveilling staff during a walkout and threatening to close some Slack channels amid a union drive (Daniel Wiessner/Reuters)

Daniel Wiessner / Reuters:
NLRB says Activision Blizzard broke US labor law by illegally surveilling staff during a walkout and threatening to close some Slack channels amid a union drive  —  Activision Blizzard Inc (ATVI.O) violated U.S. labor law by illegally surveilling employees during a walkout and threatening …



Sources: ByteDance had revenues of $80B+ in 2022, up 30% YoY, after growing 70% between 2020 and 2021; TikTok represented ~12% of total ByteDance revenue (Juro Osawa/The Information)

Juro Osawa / The Information:
Sources: ByteDance had revenues of $80B+ in 2022, up 30% YoY, after growing 70% between 2020 and 2021; TikTok represented ~12% of total ByteDance revenue  —  ByteDance, the Chinese owner of TikTok, generated more than $80 billion in annual revenue last year, up more than 30% from roughly $60 billion in 2021 …



How GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen abandoned the company's e-commerce push to refocus on its ~4.4K stores, leading to GameStop's first profit in two years (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
How GameStop chairman Ryan Cohen abandoned the company's e-commerce push to refocus on its ~4.4K stores, leading to GameStop's first profit in two years  —  Videogame retailer, the original meme stock, hits brakes on e-commerce push to refocus on its 4,400 bricks-and-mortar locations



AI tech like ChatGPT can surely boost experiences of our customers: HP

As the world embraces generative AI across the spectrum, PC and printer major HP Inc too feels that the age of AI has begun and technologies like ChatGPT can definitively solve most of the challenges that their customers are facing today. HP already uses AI in solving customers' issues across the domain, like 'Instant Ink' that automatically delivers ink and paper to customers before they run out of printing supplies. https://ift.tt/6AzfJI5

Binance plans to keep the $985M+ BUSD it moved from its industry recovery fund, launched in November 2022 amid FTX's collapse, in its corporate wallets (Leo Schwartz/Fortune)

Leo Schwartz / Fortune:
Binance plans to keep the $985M+ BUSD it moved from its industry recovery fund, launched in November 2022 amid FTX's collapse, in its corporate wallets  —  Founder and CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao, commonly known as “CZ”  —  In the wake of FTX's collapse in November, the newly crowned kingpin of crypto …



Friday, March 31, 2023

Siemens investigating report employee worked for Russian hacking firm

Siemens has launched an investigation after Der Spiegel reported a former programmer from Russian IT company NTC Vulkan - which has reported links to Russian security services - worked for the German engineering and tech company. https://ift.tt/y45lWOe

Huawei reports 2022 revenue up 0.9% YoY to ~$93.4B and net profit down 69% YoY to ~$5.18B, its biggest drop since 2011, amid pandemic controls and US sanctions (Arjun Kharpal/CNBC)

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Huawei reports 2022 revenue up 0.9% YoY to ~$93.4B and net profit down 69% YoY to ~$5.18B, its biggest drop since 2011, amid pandemic controls and US sanctions  —  - Huawei reported net profit for 2022 totaled 35.6 billion yuan ($5.18 billion), a 69% year-on-year decline.



Italy's privacy regulator temporarily bans ChatGPT and will probe OpenAI, claiming the company lacks a basis for "mass collection and storage of personal data" (Clothilde Goujard/Politico)

Clothilde Goujard / Politico:
Italy's privacy regulator temporarily bans ChatGPT and will probe OpenAI, claiming the company lacks a basis for “mass collection and storage of personal data”  —  The Italian privacy regulator Friday ordered a ban on ChatGPT over alleged privacy violations.



Indian-origin robotics engineer to head NASA's new Moon to Mars office

Indian-origin software and robotics engineer, Amit Kshatriya has been appointed as first head of NASA's new Moon to Mars Programme Office at the agency's headquarters in Washington. https://ift.tt/Ak9qLe3

Reddit's new Transparency Center to serve as hub for its safety, security info

Social discussion forum Reddit has launched a new online Transparency Center, which will serve as a central source for the platform's safety, security, and policy information. https://ift.tt/w9EpG8r

Twitter 'Verified Organisations' rolled out globally: What is it and how is it important

Twitter has rolled out a new feature called "Verified Organisations" that will allow pre-approved organisations to verify the Twitter handles associated with them, reducing the dependency on the platform to verify accounts. It will also allow companies to differentiate themselves on Twitter, and includes an affiliate badge to the accounts associated with the organization. Many organizations from different industries have already started using this Twitter feature. https://ift.tt/wrneIgz

MediaTek says it has started to use Intel Foundry's advanced chip packaging in addition to TSMC's, as the mobile chip designer bets on AI demand for growth (Cheng Ting-Fang/Nikkei Asia)

Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia : MediaTek says it has started to use Intel Foundry's advanced chip packaging in addition to TSMC's...