Friday, January 19, 2024

China forms a metaverse working group with members from government, academia, and tech companies like Huawei and Baidu to push for standardization in the sector (Timmy Shen/The Block)

Timmy Shen / The Block:
China forms a metaverse working group with members from government, academia, and tech companies like Huawei and Baidu to push for standardization in the sector  —  - The country's top industrial authority said that working group members include those from Chinese tech giants such as Huawei, Ant Group, Tencent and Baidu.



The EU Commission is seeking feedback on concessions Apple offered, including opening its Tap to Pay tech to third-party wallets for 10 years, to settle a probe (Piotr Lipinski/Reuters)

Piotr Lipinski / Reuters:
The EU Commission is seeking feedback on concessions Apple offered, including opening its Tap to Pay tech to third-party wallets for 10 years, to settle a probe  —  The European Commission is seeking feedback from rivals and customers on concessions Apple (AAPL.O) offered …



Some video podcasts are using AI-generated product placements from a company called Rembrand to supplement their typical host-read ads (Ashley Carman/Bloomberg)

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:
Some video podcasts are using AI-generated product placements from a company called Rembrand to supplement their typical host-read ads  —  A startup backed by United Talent Agency and L'Oreal is aiming to give podcasters a new line of revenue  —  Hello and welcome back to Soundbite.



Wednesday, January 17, 2024

Lexington, Brookfield and Sequoia Heritage's Pinegrove, and StepStone are raising billions to buy stakes in VC-backed tech startups via secondary share sales (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Lexington, Brookfield and Sequoia Heritage's Pinegrove, and StepStone are raising billions to buy stakes in VC-backed tech startups via secondary share sales  —  Buyers return after secondary market for private shares was hit by higher interest rates  —  Investment firms are raising billions …



Filing: Kazakhstan-based mobile app provider Kaspi.kz's CEO and other shareholders plan to sell 9M shares for $873M; Kaspi.kz's Super App had 13.5M MAUs in 2023 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Filing: Kazakhstan-based mobile app provider Kaspi.kz's CEO and other shareholders plan to sell 9M shares for $873M; Kaspi.kz's Super App had 13.5M MAUs in 2023  —  At current prices, the shares would be valued at $873 million, according to the company's filing Tuesday with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.



Omdia: the healthcare sector suffered more cyberattacks than any other sector between January and September 2023, with 241 publicly disclosed attacks (Nick Huber/Financial Times)

Nick Huber / Financial Times:
Omdia: the healthcare sector suffered more cyberattacks than any other sector between January and September 2023, with 241 publicly disclosed attacks  —  The vast amount of information held by health services makes them a prime target for cyber criminals  —  An increase in cyber attacks …



Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Coinbase offering custody, trading, and financing to a majority of bitcoin ETF issuers, including BlackRock, poses concentration risk and may intensify scrutiny (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Coinbase offering custody, trading, and financing to a majority of bitcoin ETF issuers, including BlackRock, poses concentration risk and may intensify scrutiny  —  - Coinbase provides custody, trading, financing for ETF issuers  — Arrangements pose concentration risk, may intensify scrutiny



A PwC survey of 4,702 CEOs ahead of Davos: 25% expect generative AI to lead to up to 5% headcount cuts, 46% expect GenAI to boost profits in 12 months, and more (Sam Fleming/Financial Times)

Sam Fleming / Financial Times:
A PwC survey of 4,702 CEOs ahead of Davos: 25% expect generative AI to lead to up to 5% headcount cuts, 46% expect GenAI to boost profits in 12 months, and more  —  Impact of cutting-edge AI tools on work and society set to dominate discussions at World Economic Forum in Davos



Vodafone and Microsoft agree to a 10-year, $1.5B deal to develop AI, digital payments, IoT, and other businesses; Vodafone will use OpenAI for customer service (Thomas Seal/Bloomberg)

Thomas Seal / Bloomberg:
Vodafone and Microsoft agree to a 10-year, $1.5B deal to develop AI, digital payments, IoT, and other businesses; Vodafone will use OpenAI for customer service  —  - Microsoft also plans to invest in Vodafone's IoT spinout  — Vodafone will also use OpenAI technology in $1.5 billion deal



Monday, January 15, 2024

After NFT sales dropped 63% YoY to $8.7B in 2023, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer talks OpenSea 2.0, set to offer improved differentiation between NFT categories (Hannah Miller/Bloomberg)

Hannah Miller / Bloomberg:
After NFT sales dropped 63% YoY to $8.7B in 2023, OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer talks OpenSea 2.0, set to offer improved differentiation between NFT categories  —  - NFTs have lagged behind Bitcoin in crypto resurgence  — OpenSea CEO Devin Finzer said more use cases for NFTs are here



Apple's September 2023 change to how its Podcasts app automatically downloaded episodes has dramatically curtailed download numbers for some podcasts (Max Tani/Semafor)

Max Tani / Semafor:
Apple's September 2023 change to how its Podcasts app automatically downloaded episodes has dramatically curtailed download numbers for some podcasts  —  Apple has quietly tightened its reporting of how many people listen to podcasts, sending shock waves through an embattled audio industry still reeling …



Switzerland-based SoftwareOne, which advises companies on cloud strategies, rejects Bain's $3.5B takeover, ending months of back-and-forth; SWON.SW drops 10%+ (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Switzerland-based SoftwareOne, which advises companies on cloud strategies, rejects Bain's $3.5B takeover, ending months of back-and-forth; SWON.SW drops 10%+  —  - Bain had offered the equivalent of 18.8 Swiss francs per share  — Company has been in negotiations with Bain for several months



Russia's finance minister says Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in international payments to counter Western sanctions (Gleb Bryanski/Reuters)

Gleb Bryanski / Reuters : Russia's finance minister says Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in i...