Saturday, January 20, 2024

After two failed attempts, a bipartisan effort is being made to remedy the issues caused by US tax law Section 174, which forces amortization of software labor (Kia Kokalitcheva/Axios)

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
After two failed attempts, a bipartisan effort is being made to remedy the issues caused by US tax law Section 174, which forces amortization of software labor  —  The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 is impacting some startups' tax bills, thanks to a provision that changes how R&D costs are deducted.



BreachForums admin Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka "Pompompurin", is sentenced to 20 years of supervised release for his role in running the cybercrime forum (Lawrence Abrams/BleepingComputer)

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
BreachForums admin Conor Brian Fitzpatrick, aka “Pompompurin”, is sentenced to 20 years of supervised release for his role in running the cybercrime forum  —  Conor Brian Fitzpatrick was sentenced to 20 years of supervised release today in the Eastern District of Virginia …



Apple and Google reducing their app store fees by just 3-4% for external payment methods simply make alternative options non-viable for app developers (Eric Benjamin Seufert/Mobile Dev Memo)

Eric Benjamin Seufert / Mobile Dev Memo:
Apple and Google reducing their app store fees by just 3-4% for external payment methods simply make alternative options non-viable for app developers  —  The Supreme Court this week declined to hear Apple's appeal of an antitrust case that compels the company to allow app developers to link to external, web-based payment options.



How AI has been helping criminals who use deepfakes and voice cloning for financial scams, forcing banks and fintechs to invest in AI to counter fraud (Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan/Financial ...)

Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan / Financial Times:
How AI has been helping criminals who use deepfakes and voice cloning for financial scams, forcing banks and fintechs to invest in AI to counter fraud  —  Voice cloning is just one of the new tools in the tricksters' armoury  —  It was last spring when Paddric Fitzgerald received a telephone call at work.



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 …



Montenegro says Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon will be extradited to the US, potentially ending a standoff over competing demands by the US and South Korea (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : Montenegro says Terraform Labs co-founder Do Kwon will be extradited to the US, potentially ending a standoff over competing ...