Biden signs an EO mandating a 100-day review of supply chains, including for semiconductors and rare-earth metals, amid chip shortages
The president signed an executive order with the aim of eventually increasing domestic production of critical materials
Tech retailer Fry's Electronics announces it will cease operations effective immediately, blaming industry changes and the pandemic
Your best buys are no longer at Fry's, guaranteed — Fry's Electronics, one of the last big brick-and-mortar electronics store chains in the United States …
Australia passes news bargaining code that requires Facebook, Google, and other digital platforms pay local media outlets and publishers for their content
Australia on Wednesday passed a new media law that had generated noisy pushback from internet giants Google and Facebook …
ViacomCBS says Paramount+ will cost $5/month with ads and $10/month without ads; the ad tier will be available in June while the ad-free tier starts on March 4
ViacomCBS has a ‘mountain of content’ on the way to streaming, including a ‘Halo’ series and ‘Beavis and Butthead.’
India issues tougher rules for tech firms and streaming services like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Netflix over resolving user complaints and more
India announced sweeping rules to regulate social media firms, streaming services, and digital news outlets, joining a handful of other nations …
Facebook says it is banning all Myanmar military and military-controlled entities from Facebook and Instagram, and ads from military-linked commercial entities
Myanmar military banned from Facebook and Instagram with immediate effect. — Today, we are banning the remaining Myanmar military …
Smart TVs running Google TV will come with a Basic mode that strips smart features from the TV
Google TV is the company's next effort to rule the living room, picking up on the progress that Android TV made over half a decade. The first smart TVs running on top of Google TV have yet to hit the...
Coinbase files its S-1, reveals profit of $322M in 2020 on $1.2B in revenue, up from a loss of $30M in 2019 on $533M in revenue
The recent Bitcoin bull run helped Coinbase pull in a profit of $322 million on revenues of over $1.2 billion in 2020, putting the cryptocurrency giant …
Facebook launches a TV, radio, and digital ad campaign in support of personalized ads called Good Ideas Deserve to be Found, ahead of Apple's IDFA changes
- Facebook is launching a new ad campaign called “Good Ideas Deserve to be Found,” which makes a case for personalized advertising.
Amazon is sending postal mail to warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama urging them to “VOTE NO” on unionization, and has also pushed anti-union ads on Twitch
A mysterious new USPS mailbox has appeared on Amazon property amid a historic union drive in Bessemer, Alabama.
FCC says Verizon spent the most during its 5G licenses auction, bidding $45.5B, followed by AT&T with $23.4B, and T-Mobile with $9.3B
- AT&T is second at $23 billion in bids, followed by T-Mobile — FCC releases results of so-called C-band airwaves sale
Nvidia beats with Q4 revenue of $5B vs. $4.8B expected, up 61% YoY, data center revenue of $1.9B, up 97% YoY, and gaming revenue of $2.5B, up 67% YoY
The GPU maker beat Q4 market expectations with record sales in its two key areas of business. — Nvidia on Wednesday published fourth …
Sources: Parler investor Rebekah Mercer, who controlled 2 of 3 board seats in early February, is increasingly exerting control since the founding CEO's exit
Mercer, whose family also invested in right-wing news site Breitbart, controls two of the three board seats at the company
US Federal Reserve's systems that let banks send money back and forth went down for several hours, impacting its automated clearinghouse system and more
Sorare, an ethereum-powered marketplace for creating and trading football NFTs, raises $50M Series A led by Benchmark
Quick Take — NFT marketplace Sorare has raised $50 million in Series A. — The round was led by Benchmark, with participation from Accel, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian …
Microsoft announces industry cloud packages for financial services, available in March, and for manufacturing and nonprofits, available in June
new Industry Cloud service with a suite of tools for the healthcare sector last year and unveiling a Retail-specific version in January, Microsoft is ready to introduce more areas of focus.
GameStop shares closed up nearly 104% on Wednesday, halting twice for volatility; GameStop said on Tuesday its CFO will resign
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC :
SEC filing: Twitter says it aims to have 315M monetizable DAUs by the end of 2023 and to at least double annual revenue to $7.5B by then; stock up 7%+
- Twitter said on Thursday it aims to have 315 million monetizable daily active users by the end of 2023. — It also aims to at least double its annual revenue in that year.
Terminus, a B2B marketing service that combines sales and marketing functions, raises $90M Series C, sources say at a valuation of around $400M
Sales and marketing are often considered a single category on a business plan, but ironically, when it comes to building apps and services to help with them …
ViacomCBS says paid streaming subs for Showtime and CBS All Access climbed to 19.2M in Q4, up from 17.9M in Q3; Pluto TV hit 43M global MAUs, up from 36M in Q3
BetterUp, which helps clients provide employees with career coaches and mental health counseling, raises $125M Series D at a $1.73B valuation
- $125 million Series D funding round led by Iconiq Growth — BetterUp offers coaching, counseling as well as mentorship
California's 2018 net neutrality law, SB 822, can go into effect after a California judge declined to grant the telecom industry a preliminary injunction
Sean Hollister / The Verge :
Otter.ai, which offers an AI-based transcription service, raises $50M Series B, including $10M in convertible notes, led by Spectrum Equity
AI transcription startup Otter.ai today announced it has raised $50 million in a series B round that includes $10 million in convertible notes and was led by Spectrum Equity.
iRobot, which makes Roomba vacuums, says a software update to fix issues with i7 and s9 models will take several weeks, after users reported them acting “drunk”
Mitchell Clark / The Verge :
HP says it is acquiring gaming peripheral company HyperX for $425M, giving the company a major foothold in the gaming accessory market
Taylor Lyles / The Verge :
Crypto startup Anchorage, which recently became the first federally chartered digital asset bank, raises $80M Series C led by GIC
Cryptocurrency custodian and banking company Anchorage announced Thursday that it raised $80 million in a Series C funding round.
YouTube to roll out a “supervised” account option in beta in the coming months in more than 80 countries, aimed at kids that are too old for YouTube Kids
but aren't yet ready for the weird, wide world of unrestricted YouTube https://variety.com/... via @Variety
Optimism, which plans to help scale the Ethereum blockchain with a Layer 2 protocol, raises $25M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz
Ethereum has proven itself to be an extremely popular computing platform … John K. Kumi / coinspeaker.com : Optimism Raises $25 Million in Series A Funding Round Cryptonews : ‘Scaling Coming to Ethere...
Armorblox, which protects enterprise communications using AI, raises $30M Series B led by Next47, bringing its total raised to $46.5M
Armorblox, a cybersecurity startup using natural language understanding to protect enterprise communications, today announced that it raised $30 million in series B venture capital funding.
TikTok says it removed 300K+ videos in the US for election misinformation in H2 2020, and 441K videos from its For You recommendation page for misinformation
Source: Dispo, a retro photo sharing app co-founded by YouTube star David Dobrik, raises $20M Series A led by Spark Capital at a $200M valuation
Emails show how Facebook responded to requests by Turkey to censor content during the authoritarian government's 2018 military offensive against Kurds
or risk getting shut down entirely. “I am fine with this,” wrote Sheryl Sandberg. My latest with @JustinElliott: https://www.propublica.org/... Jane Lytvynenko / @janelytv : “I am fine with this” Just...
Payments startup Klarna reports 2020 results: operating income rose 40% YoY to $1B, net loss widens to $167M; 18M app MAUs and 87M shoppers used its services
Klarna, the Swedish payments company that was Europe's most valuable private fintech firm until Checkout.com overtook it late last year …
Google Cloud unveils Autopilot, an operating mode for its Kubernetes Engine that turns over management of its clusters to Google's engineers and automated tools
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch :
The People's Bank of China joins Hong Kong, Thailand, and the UAE to explore cross-border payments for digital currencies, like the digital yuan
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post :
Google says it has been sponsoring two full-time Linux developers at the Linux Foundation for years to improve security and hopes other companies will follow
he explains his mission to make the software industry more secure Tweets: @linuxfoundation : NEWS: @Google @linuxfoundation announce they are prioritizing funds to underwrite two full-time Linux kerne...
Amazon says its Luna cloud gaming service is available to try for free in the US on select Fire TV devices, after launching as invite-only last year
Jon Porter / The Verge :
Brazil-based RecargaPay, which lets users top up prepaid cell phones online, raises $70M Series C, bringing its total raised to over $100M
Doubtnut, which helps students learn about math and science concepts using short videos, raises $31M Series B led by James Murdoch's Lupa Systems and SIG
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Stockholm-based Memmo.me, which allows users to pay celebrities for personalized video messages, raises $10M Series A
Memmo.me, a startup allowing users to pay celebrities for personalized video messages, is announcing that it has raised $10 million in Series A funding.
US private equity firm Francisco Partners acquires online genealogy tracking pioneer MyHeritage, source says for $600M
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
Amazon announces general availability of Lookout for Vision, a cloud service that spots defects and anomalies in manufactured goods using computer vision
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Taiwanese chipmakers are buying water by the truckload for some of their foundries in drought-hit areas as the island widens restrictions on water supply
Spain-based Wallapop, an online classifieds marketplace for used items and crafts, raises $191M at an $840M valuation led by Korelya Capital
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
Auditing of algorithms can help address bias but there needs to be industry standards/regulations to hold the auditors or the companies that use them to account
Russian e-commerce giant Wildberries, which controls 14% of the market, has recently expanded into France, Germany, Italy, and Spain
Thomson Reuters says it will spend $500M-$600M over two years to develop its AI and ML tools as it transitions to a “content-driven technology company”
Reuters : Tweets: @cg_williams Tweets: Chris Williams / @cg_williams : “Content-driven tech company”. Very 2014. https://twitter.com/...
Portland ends partnership with Sidewalk Labs to track mobility; Sidewalk spin-off Replica says it was unwilling to share granular data requested by the city
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.