In letter to employees, Bezos says his transition is not a retirement and he'll use his time to focus on the Day 1 Fund, Bezos Earth Fund, Blue Origin, and WaPo
Fellow Amazonians: — I'm excited to announce that this Q3 I'll transition to Executive Chair of the Amazon Board and Andy Jassy will become CEO.
Profile of AWS' CEO and Amazon's next CEO, Andy Jassy, whose success has been built on attracting a variety of customers to AWS, ranging from the CIA to Apple
- Amazon said on Tuesday that Andy Jassy, who runs the cloud unit, will succeed Jeff Bezos as CEO of the parent company in the third quarter.
Report: Apple plans $3.6B investment in Kia, with a deal on Feb. 17, and aims to start making cars in Georgia, US in 2024, with initial target of 100K cars/year
- Local media report says deal may be signed later this month — Hyundai last month confirmed then backed away from Apple talks Source: gongA.com .
Facebook rolls out Messenger for Oculus Quest, as well as App Lab, letting developers distribute apps outside the Oculus Store without needing to sideload
Facebook is continuing to stitch its services more closely together — it's now rolling out Messenger on Oculus.
Sources: Chinese hackers are thought to have hacked a payroll agency inside the US Dept. of Agriculture in 2020 by exploiting another bug in SolarWinds software
Update Now Eduard Kovacs / SecurityWeek : China-Linked Hackers Exploited SolarWinds Flaw in U.S. Government Attack: Report Phil Muncaster / infosecurity-magazine.com : US Payroll Agency Targeted in Se...
Amazon says Jeff Bezos will step down as CEO and transition to the role of Executive Chair in Q3; AWS CEO Andy Jassy will become the CEO of Amazon at that time
Amazon announced on Tuesday that AWS CEO Andy Jassy will replace Jeff Bezos as CEO during the third quarter of this year.
Sony says it shipped 4.5M PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, and reports revenue of $8.4B in Q3, up 40% YoY, operating profit of $763.3M, up 50%
A similar figure to the PS4 launch — Sony shipped 4.5 million PlayStation 5 units worldwide in 2020, as revealed by information published alongside …
GameStop's shares closed at $90, down from a peak of $483 last week, as other Reddit-fueled stock trades like AMC suffer similar reversals
- Shares of GameStop skidded further before Tuesday's opening bell, with shares of the volatile retail-trader favorite sliding more than 40%, and then extended those losses during market hours.
Amazon reports Q4 net sales of $125.6B, up 44% YoY, net income of $7.2B, up from $3.3B YoY, with full year net sales increasing to $386.1B, up 38% YoY
Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos will transition to role of Executive Chair in Q3, Andy Jassy to become Chief Executive Officer of Amazon at that time
Facebook says it will try to protect posts that criticized Myanmar's military and its coup and will remove content that praises or supports the coup
After failing to stem the hate speech and misinformation that fueled a genocide in Myanmar, Facebook now says it plans …
As Alabama warehouse workers prepare to vote on unionization, Amazon is sending workers 5 texts/day and putting flyers in bathrooms urging them not to unionize
The stakes couldn't be higher for the e-commerce giant, which is fighting the biggest labor battle in its history on U.S. soil
SolarWinds CEO says hackers had breached the company's Office 365 email system for at least nine months starting December 2019
Investigators still don't know how the company was breached in attack that will cost millions — The newly appointed chief executive of SolarWinds Corp …
TikTok will prompt users to seek credible information if they try to share videos flagged as misleading, and disincentivize creators from uploading such content
TikTok will begin asking users to seek credible information about a topic if they try to share a video that carries …
India warns Twitter to comply with its order to block content related to a farmer protest and not “assume the role of a court and justify non-compliance”
India has issued a notice to Twitter, warning the American social firm to comply with New Delhi's order to block accounts …
Spotify reports Q4 results: 345M MAUs, up 27% YoY, as paying subscribers grew to 155M, up 24% YoY, topping expectations; revenue was up 17% YoY to €2.17B
But streaming giant offers conservative outlook for the current year as new sign-ups could ebb
Sources: Jack Ma's Ant Group has reached an agreement with Chinese regulators to turn Ant into a financial holding company, subject to bank capital requirements
- Ma's fintech giant will become a financial holding company — Ant is still exploring a potential IPO, but timeline unclear
Box says it has acquired Dutch cloud-based e-signature startup SignRequest for $55M and plans to launch Box Sign in summer 2021
Cloud storage and collaboration giant Box has announced plans to acquire SignRequest, a cloud-based electronic signature (e-signature) startup based in the Netherlands, in a deal worth $55 million.
In a notice to investors, Alibaba says it is selling up to $5B in bonds, some with 40-year maturities; Alibaba sold $8B in bonds in 2014 and $7B in 2017
Quentin Webb / Wall Street Journal :
Alphabet Q4: revenue of $56.90B, up 23% YoY, Google Cloud revenue of $3.83B, up from $2.6B, and YouTube ads revenue of $6.89B, up from $4.7B; stock jumps 5%+
Apple's iOS is inhibiting the growth of the future internet but regulators can remedy that by forcing Apple into competition in app distribution and payments
Chapter One: The Creation of Today's Internet and the Needs of Tomorrow's — One of the neat things about the internet is who created it, why, and how. Tweets: @ballmatthew , @ballmatthew , @pierskic...
Amazon reports AWS Q4 revenue of $12.7B, up from $9.95B YoY, missing expectations; AWS was 10% of Amazon's total revenue and 52% of its total operating income
Oculus says six Oculus Quest titles have each cleared $10M in revenue and 60, or one third of all paid apps available on its store, have earned $1M+
Nations are engaging in a cyberweapons arms race, with agencies like the NSA prioritizing offensive capabilities over defense, fueling a lucrative 0-day market
Amid a global gold rush for digital weapons, the infrastructure of our daily lives has never been more vulnerable. Tweets: @hatr , @nicoleperlroth , @newyorker , @hoanssolo , @scottshanenyt , and @hat...
Five current and former Robinhood employees describe CEO Vlad Tenev as someone who has moved quickly to new projects without fixing existing problems
Microsoft says it supports Australia's proposed new laws forcing Google and Facebook to pay for news content and it would be “willing to live by these rules”
(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said on Wednesday it fully supported proposed new laws in Australia that would force internet giants Google …
FTC says Amazon will pay $61.7M to settle charges that it withheld some customer tips from Flex drivers over 2.5 years; FTC will use the sum to pay the drivers
Instagram now puts deleted content into a Recently Deleted folder for 30 days, where it can be restored by the user; deleted Stories disappear after 24 hours
Ashley Carman / The Verge :
Wikimedia begins work on implementing its first global code of conduct, which addresses harassment, the introduction of false or biased information, and more
Wine recommendation and marketplace app Vivino raises $155M Series D led by Sweden's Kinnevik, bringing its total raised to $221M, and says it now has 50M users
If you're at all interested in wine, chances are you've turned to Vivino at least a few times for recommendations.
A look at Visual Studio Code, Microsoft's open source cross-platform code editor, which has gained 5M new users in 2020 and now has 14M users worldwide
With 14 million users, Microsoft's open source cross-platform code editor Visual Studio Code is one of its key tools for keeping developers engaged with its future in the cloud.
Alphabet's “Other Bets”, which includes Waymo, Verily, Fiber, and others, had a Q4 operating loss of $1.14B, a decrease from $2B YoY, on revenues of $196M
Uber says it is buying alcohol delivery startup Drizly for $1.1B in cash and stock; Drizly co-founder and CEO Cory Rellas is expected to remain with Uber
Rescale, which offers “infrastructure-as-a-service” tools for scientific and engineering simulations, raises $50M Series C, bringing total raised to $100M+
Rescale, a San Francisco, California-based startup developing a software platform and hardware infrastructure for scientific …
Alphabet reports Google Cloud annual revenue increased to $13B, up 46% YoY, on losses of $5.6B, up 21%, in FY 2020
Online grocery delivery service Good Eggs raises $100M led by Glade Brook Capital Partners
Grocery delivery startup Good Eggs is announcing that it has raised $100 million in new funding, and that it's planning to launch in Southern California in either the summer or fall of this year.
Pornhub announces new measures to address abuse on its platform: expanding human moderation, a transparency report, and verifying uploaders via “biometric” tech
Following bans from payment processors and mass deletion of most of its content, Pornhub announced new details on its improved trust and safety polices.
Huawei's new beta of its in-house OS, “HarmonyOS”, is essentially an Android fork, despite Huawei's claim that it is a “completely different” OS
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica :
A researcher has discovered that the recently disclosed Sudo vulnerability, which can be exploited to grant root access to any local user, also impacts macOS
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet :
Biden's administration signals it is open to a deal on taxing US tech companies globally, after EU-Trump clashes, as OECD plans an agreement by summer
Hey all, it's Natalia. Tech giants including Alphabet Inc., Apple Inc. and Facebook Inc. could soon be hit with higher taxes around … Tweets: @glynmoody and @economics Tweets: Glyn Moody / @glynmoody...
Sundar Pichai says YouTube more than doubled its advertisers via its TrueView ad format and YouTube's brand business has rebounded from early pandemic losses
Brightwheel, which builds tools for preschools, like an app to communicate with parents, raises $55M led by Addition at a $600M valuation
- ‘Shark Tank’ alum helps kids safely return to preschool — $55 million startup investment led by Lee Fixel's Addition
Evinced, which helps companies improve accessibility by analyzing digital assets and suggesting fixes, raises $17M Series A
Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News :
Profile of Alondra Nelson, Biden's first deputy director for science and society, a role meant to examine the sociological effects of emerging technologies
Emily Birnbaum / Protocol : Tweets: @protocol , @aaronksaunders , @viacristiano , and @birnbaum_e Tweets: @protocol : Alondra Nelson is the country's first deputy director for science and society. Bi...
Granulate, which develops tools to optimize computing infrastructure with AI, raises $30M Series B, bringing its total raised to $45M
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Tealium, whose marketing software automates customer tracking on the web, raises $96M Series G at $1.2B post money valuation, bringing total raised to $250M+
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Scratchpad, which develops productivity tools in Salesforce for sales teams, raises $13M Series A led by Craft Ventures
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat :
Leadspace, which uses AI and big data to help sales and marketing teams build rich B2B customer profiles, raises $46M led by Jerusalem Venture Partners
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat :
Analysis: in 2020, Chinese firms bought ~$32B of chip-making equipment from overseas, up 20% YoY, while chip imports climbed to ~$380B or 18% of China's imports
Bloomberg : Tweets: @carlminzner and @mtdtl Tweets: Carl Minzner / @carlminzner : China is stockpiling computer chips and the machines that make them to protect itself from a widening U.S. technolog...
Deepgram, which builds custom speech recognition models, raises $25M Series B led by Tiger Global, bringing its total raised to $30M+
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
EA reports Q3 revenue of $1.67B, up 5% YoY; says it plans to bring back college football video games, announced a multiyear EA Sports FIFA game exclusivity deal
Wall Street Journal :
Experts raise alarm over the ways white supremacists and alt-right groups are using gaming communities and platforms like DLive to radicalize and recruit teens
Mark Keierleber / Fast Company :
Bangalore-based Zetwerk, which operates a B2B marketplace for manufacturing items, raises $120M Series D led by Greenoaks Capital and Lightspeed
Guangzhou Quwan Network Technology, a Chinese social gaming startup, raises $100M series B funding from Matrix Partners China and Orchid Asia Group Management
Doris Yu / Tech in Asia :
Hip, an app that connects commuters with third-party bus and shuttle operators, says it has raised $12M and added B2B offerings
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch :
Shopify's new AI commerce stack
Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.