Sunday, October 6, 2024

A look at the fall of Byju's, India's most valuable startup in 2022 with an estimated $22B valuation, as it faces insolvency and lawsuits in India and the US (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
A look at the fall of Byju's, India's most valuable startup in 2022 with an estimated $22B valuation, as it faces insolvency and lawsuits in India and the US  —  Edtech company's legal battles from Delaware to Bengaluru have exposed corporate governance issues



Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are increasingly eyeing nuclear reactors, which provide steady "baseload" power, as their carbon emissions climb due to AI tools (Justine Calma/The Verge)

Justine Calma / The Verge:
Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are increasingly eyeing nuclear reactors, which provide steady “baseload” power, as their carbon emissions climb due to AI tools  —  Major tech firms, in search of carbon pollution-free electricity for data centers, are helping to revive nuclear energy in the US.



Sources: Apple plans to launch iOS 18.1 and Apple Intelligence on Oct. 28 and announce new Macs and an iPad mini in late Oct., with shipments starting on Nov. 1 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to launch iOS 18.1 and Apple Intelligence on Oct. 28 and announce new Macs and an iPad mini in late Oct., with shipments starting on Nov. 1  —  Apple is inching away from its annual product upgrade cycle, a move that could lead to more frequent releases and fewer jarring delays.



A profile of UK teenage hacker Arion Kurtaj, a Lapsus$ member who leaked GTA VI video in 2022 and was found guilty in 2023 for hacking Nvidia, Uber, and others (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
A profile of UK teenage hacker Arion Kurtaj, a Lapsus$ member who leaked GTA VI video in 2022 and was found guilty in 2023 for hacking Nvidia, Uber, and others  —  The City of London Police had put the teenage boy in the suburban Travelodge to protect him.  They even set up a code …



Saturday, October 5, 2024

Foxconn Q3: revenue up 20.2% YoY to ~$57.3B on strong AI server demand; consumer electronics revenue, including iPhones, was flat YoY; stock is up ~86% in 2024 (Ben Blanchard/Reuters)

Ben Blanchard / Reuters:
Foxconn Q3: revenue up 20.2% YoY to ~$57.3B on strong AI server demand; consumer electronics revenue, including iPhones, was flat YoY; stock is up ~86% in 2024  —  Taiwan's Foxconn (2317.TW), the world's largest contract electronics maker, beat expectations to post its highest-ever revenue …



Mullenweg says "WordPress.org just belongs to me personally", as his WP Engine feud blurs the lines between WordPress.org, WordPress Foundation, and Automattic (Emma Roth/The Verge)

Emma Roth / The Verge:
Mullenweg says “WordPress.org just belongs to me personally”, as his WP Engine feud blurs the lines between WordPress.org, WordPress Foundation, and Automattic  —  The lines between the WordPress open-source project, the nonprofit backing it, and the commercial arm owned by Automattic are blurring.



A look at the rise and fall of IronNet, a cybersecurity firm led by ex-NSA director Keith Alexander and whose valuation crossed $3B after it went public in 2021 (Alan Suderman/Associated Press)

Alan Suderman / Associated Press:
A look at the rise and fall of IronNet, a cybersecurity firm led by ex-NSA director Keith Alexander and whose valuation crossed $3B after it went public in 2021  —  The future was once dazzling for IronNet.  Founded by a former director of the National Security Agency and stacked …



How Beixiazhu, a Chinese village that was a hotspot of activity during the livestream shopping boom on Douyin, Kuaishou and other apps, became a cautionary tale (Wency Chen/South China Morning Post)

Wency Chen / South China Morning Post:
How Beixiazhu, a Chinese village that was a hotspot of activity during the livestream shopping boom on Douyin, Kuaishou and other apps, became a cautionary tale  —  To the unsuspecting outsider, Beixiazhu looks like any unremarkable Chinese village.  But for years, this was the place …



Friday, October 4, 2024

The CJEU rules that social networks, such as Facebook, cannot keep using people's data for ad targeting indefinitely, siding with privacy campaigner Max Schrems (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
The CJEU rules that social networks, such as Facebook, cannot keep using people's data for ad targeting indefinitely, siding with privacy campaigner Max Schrems  —  The European Union's top court has sided with a privacy challenge to Meta's data retention policies.



Robinhood plans to debut margin trading in UK in the coming weeks; it is exploring offering retirement products and letting British users invest in UK stocks (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Robinhood plans to debut margin trading in UK in the coming weeks; it is exploring offering retirement products and letting British users invest in UK stocks  —  - Company plans to debut margin trading in UK in coming weeks  — Robinhood has been expanding overseas as it hunts for growth



Google is "running a small experiment" showing blue verified checkmarks beside business links in its search results that indicate the company is genuine (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Google is “running a small experiment” showing blue verified checkmarks beside business links in its search results that indicate the company is genuine  —  Google is experimenting with a new verification feature in search that should make it easier for users to avoid clicking on fake or fraudulent website links.



Matt Mullenweg says 159 Automattic employees, ~8.4% of staff, accepted a generous buyout package offered to those who disagreed with his direction of WordPress (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Matt Mullenweg says 159 Automattic employees, ~8.4% of staff, accepted a generous buyout package offered to those who disagreed with his direction of WordPress  —  Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg said on Thursday that 159 employees (roughly 8.4% of staff) accepted a severance package …



A profile of Klarna and its CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski as it filed for a US IPO on November 13; investors hope Klarna can achieve a $150B-$200B valuation (Financial Times)

Financial Times : A profile of Klarna and its CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski as it filed for a US IPO on November 13; investors hope Klarna ...