Sources: at an all-hands, Elon Musk said Twitter is done with layoffs and actively recruiting for roles in engineering and sales; Twitter has 2,700+ employees
After purging nearly two-thirds of Twitter's 7,500-person workforce in three weeks, Elon Musk is hiring again.
Records: FTX, its executives, and SBF's parents bought 19+ properties in the Bahamas worth ~$121M over the past two years as “residence for key personnel”
Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX, his parents and senior executives of the failed cryptocurrency exchange bought …
Sources: Genesis struggles to raise $1B+ funding for its lending unit and warns potential investors that it may need to file for bankruptcy if its efforts fail
Digital-asset brokerage Genesis is struggling to raise fresh cash for its lending unit, and it's warning potential investors …
After taking over Twitter, Elon Musk repeats tactics from SpaceX and Tesla, including firing workers, talking of bankruptcy, and introducing a “hardcore” style
Firing people. Talking of bankruptcy. Telling workers to be “hard core.” Mr. Musk has repeatedly used those tactics at many of his companies.
Filings: FTX, Alameda, and other affiliates have $1.2B in cash reserves, below the $3.1B owed to the top 50 creditors; Alameda's reserves are largest at ~$393M
The bankrupt crypto exchange FTX owes around $3.1 billion to its top 50 creditors. — The various divisions …
DCG's Grayscale refuses to share proof of reserves, citing “security concerns”, as Grayscale Bitcoin Trust reaches new lows and DCG's Genesis halts withdrawals
November 2022 will be remembered as one of the worst months in the crypto industry's history. Matt Turner / Bloomberg : Cathie Wood Goes On Coinbase Buying Spree as Wall Street Sours Liam ‘Akiba’ Wrig...
Elon Musk holds Blue Verified's relaunch until “there is high confidence of stopping impersonations” and floats using different colors for orgs and individuals
Elon Musk told Twitter employees on Monday that the company won't relaunch its paid verification subscription …
Crypto prices sink, with bitcoin down 5%+ to under $16K and ether down ~7% to ~$1.1K, rocked by the FTX saga, hacker offloading ether, and potential contagion
Sunil Jagtiani / Bloomberg :
An investigation reveals how online US sports betting grew so big, so fast and what the consequences are likely to be for public health, taxpayers, and others
The New York Times examined thousands of pages of documents and interviewed lobbyists, executives, lawmakers …
The UK's CMA launches an investigation into Apple's and Google's dominance in mobile browsers and cloud gaming, following a survey that found a “stranglehold”
Apple and Google could be forced to loosen their grip on mobile systems after the United Kingdom's competition watchdog launched …
Sources: Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao met with investors in Abu Dhabi last week to raise money for a crypto industry recovery fund
Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng “CZ” Zhao and several deputies met with investors in Abu Dhabi last week in an effort to raise cash …
Sources detail Elon Musk's rapid dismantling of Twitter's safety work, narrowing its scope to whatever he deems violent, threatening “sticks and stones” talk
Amid the wider turmoil since his takeover last month, Musk has moved rapidly to undermine Twitter's deliberative content-moderation system.
Research: between 100 and 150 crypto hedge funds, or 25%-40% of all specialized funds, have exposure to FTX or FTT, totaling around $2B
Financial Times :
Report: Amazon's hardware group is on track to lose $10B in 2022, as many Echo devices are sold at cost and plans to monetize Alexa have failed
Layoffs reportedly hit the Alexa team hard as the company's biggest money loser. — Amazon is going through the biggest layoffs …
Tumblr plans to support ActivityPub, the open and decentralized social networking protocol powering Mastodon, Instagram-like Pixelfed, PeerTube, and others
Tumblr will add support for ActivityPub, the open, decentralized social networking protocol that's today powering social networking software …
A Netherlands court finds Tornado Cash developer Alexey Perstev is a flight risk and must remain in jail until February 20, 2023; Perstev was jailed in August
Pertsev has been in Dutch prison since August, accused of facilitating money laundering for his work on the U.S. Treasury-sanctioned app.
Researchers: Apple analytics data include a unique ID for a user's iCloud account, despite Apple saying usage data does not include personally identifiable info
Thomas Germain / Gizmodo :
After criticism, India's government releases an updated and more “balanced” data protection bill, seeking passage in April or May 2023, the fourth such draft
and how it compares with data protection laws elsewhere
Sources: the People's Bank of China plans to fine Jack Ma's Ant Group more than $1B as soon as Q2 2023, potentially ending the company's two-year overhaul
Chinese authorities are poised to impose a fine of more than $1 billion on Jack Ma's Ant Group, said six sources with direct knowledge of the matter …
Victims of hacked Facebook accounts say Meta's customer support is largely unhelpful; Meta has no new initiatives for helping people recover their accounts
Tatum Hunter / Washington Post : Tweets: @advashutoshbjp , @stephenjhunter1 , @cauldwellkelly , @socalmom , @japster2008 , @sjvn , @tatum_hunter_ , @dannygroner , @tatum_hunter_ , and @kritims1 Tweet...
US DOJ says two Estonians were arrested for a $575M cryptocurrency fraud and money laundering scheme that allegedly defrauded hundreds of thousands of investors
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk :
JD.com plans to cut salaries of 2,000+ senior managers by 10%-20% in 2023, aiming to improve benefits for other staff, amid China's “common prosperity” drive
A look at the tech being used at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, including player-tracking tech for offside decisions and algorithms to forecast crowd patterns
Pranshu Verma / Washington Post :
The Walt Disney Company's board announces Bob Chapek will step down as CEO and be replaced by Bob Iger for two years effective immediately; stock jumps 5%+
A report by China's Game Industry Group Committee claims video game addiction among minors is “basically resolved”, following curbs on approving new titles
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times :
Online used car marketplace Carvana's stock hits an all-time low, closing down 13% to $7.05 on Monday; the company's stock is down 97% in 2022
Esha Dey / Bloomberg : Tweets: @trengriffin Tweets: Tren Griffin / @trengriffin : “We believe that Carvana will struggle to make a profit on vehicles previously purchased at high prices,” Argus Resea...
Madrid-based Cobee, which offers a “super app” for employee benefits, raised a €40M Series B co-led by Octopus Ventures and Notion Capital
Investment thesis — The workforce is increasingly mobile … Vishal Singh / Silicon Canals : Cobee raises €40M from Octopus Ventures, Notion Capital, Balderton, Speedinvest, others Thanks: @ingridlunde...
How centralized crypto exchanges could offer “proof of solvency” while protecting depositors' privacy by using ZK-SNARKs, a type of zero-knowledge proof
Vitalik Buterin's website :
Baidu reports Q3 revenue up 2% YoY to ~$4.6B, beating estimates, and a ~$20.5M net loss due to investments, signaling China's tech sector might be recovering
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg :
Elon Musk's changes at Twitter threaten to set up a showdown with Apple and Google over in-app purchases for subscriptions and content moderation issues
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg :
Zoom reports Q3 revenue up 5% YoY to $1.1B, Enterprise customers up 14% YoY to ~209.3K, and a FY 2023 revenue guidance below estimates; stock drops 5%+
Jordan Novet / CNBC :
Kuaishou reports Q3 revenue up 12.9% YoY to ~$3.2B, beating estimates, and a ~$378M net loss, holding its own against ByteDance and China's slowing economy
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg :
Twitter reinstates the accounts of Ye, Project Veritas, and others, despite Musk's pledge to delay such decisions until forming a content moderation council
Overview of Xi Jinping's efforts to bolster China's hacking teams, already skilled in espionage, by focusing on cultivating talent and funding security research
Dakota Cary / CyberScoop : Tweets: @suzannemsmalley Tweets: Suzanne Smalley / @suzannemsmalley : The latest @CyberScoopNews column from @DakotaInDC argues that Xi's calculated investment in cyber tal...
Connecticut-based SponsorUnited, a SaaS database of the brand sponsorship industry, raised a $35M Series A led by Spectrum Equity at a $100M+ valuation
Kyle Wiggers / 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.
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.