X could lean into NSFW content

X seems to be moving forward with NSFW material instead of away from it.

View this email online in your browser By Alex Wilhelm Friday, March 29, 2024 Welcome to TechCrunch AM! This morning, we have notes on Sam Bankman-Fried's sentencing and what this means for the future of crypto, Apple's response to a legal challenge, an interview with Bumble's new CEO, and even a fintech round. Let's dive in! — Alex TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch 1. FTX founder Sam-Bankman Fried gets 25 years: After being found guilty on seven counts – two fraud, five conspiracy to commit fraud – Sam Bankman-Fried is heading to prison for a very long time. TechCrunch's Matt Rosoff writes that the sentencing "brings to an end the most recent era of crypto," which focused on getting rich as fast as you could. That begs the question: What's next for crypto? Read More 2. X tests NSFW communities: Among the bigger social networks, X has been more welcoming of adult content than its peers — sometimes by choice, sometimes simply due to its seemingly unsolvable bot problems (NYMag has an investigation on this worth reading). Either way, X seems to be moving forward with NSFW material instead of away from it... Read More 3. Apple disputes antitrust comparisons with Microsoft: A recent Department of Justice suit against Apple is partially framed along the outlines of a prior, well-known case against Microsoft. Apple disputes the comparison, saying the market shares of its products are different from what Microsoft enjoyed with Windows in the 1990s, and that it had a smaller role to play in the App Store ecosystem's success... Read More Morning Must Reads Image Credits: Paul Yeung / Bloomberg / Getty Images Byju's tries to placate angry backers: Indian edtech company Byju's CEO is trying a last-ditch effort to appease some of the company's investors and hold on to $200 million that it had raised via a rights issue. The company's board is considering offering those irked investors another chance to buy shares that they previously declined to purchase so that their stake in the company is better protected. Byju's desperately needs the money right now, so this could be a turning point for the company... Read More 'Tis the season for turnaround CEOs: After stepping down from the top job at Slack after just 10 months, Lidiane Jones now has a turnaround job at Bumble, where she's tasked with solving user fatigue and a fickle public market. As TechCrunch's Connie Loizos notes in this interview, Jones is hardly the only CEO in the market today tasked with returning a previously high-flying company to its prior glory... Read More Kidsy's approach to selling childwear is a great idea: We cover startups that are building tools or software for other businesses. Better database software is great, but that kind of tech can sometimes feel a bit removed from daily life. Kidsy doesn't have that problem: Its business model of selling baby gear pulled from overstock piles and consumer returns could help parents save a buck while also cutting back on waste... Read More Palmsy will lie to you to sate your dopamine addiction: Can't stop scrolling and posting because the likes and comments have you hooked? Palmsy wants to give you a break from all that. This iOS app will let you post and enjoy all the social interaction you crave, but with a caveat: it's all fake. The posts go nowhere and there's no interaction. Still, if it makes your brain sing, is that such a bad thing? Read More The final countdown: Early Stage 2024 ticket savings end tonight, so hurry up and grab those tickets. See you in Boston in a month! Zaver's big ticket BNPL service raises $10M: Doubling its total Series A funding to $20 million with an extension round, Zaver now has more capital on hand to offer a buy-now-pay-later service for those really big purchases. Sure, you can buy a new bike with Klarna, but Zaver wants to help make your supercar dreams come true... Read More Activision investigating malware that targets players: If you like Activision titles, be careful. The company is looking into a hacking campaign that targets players by using malware to steal their credentials, crypto wallet info and more. The company says it is working to protect players, but if the issue has bubbled up enough to be on TechCrunch, it's got to be a mess... Read More Around the Web 1. Do not leak company plans from your corporate phone: Apple is suing an ex-employee for leaking info about the Journal app, Vision Pro headset and more over five years via his work iPhone, MacRumors writes. Dude, come on! Everyone knows you should use your personal phone to leak juicy info! Read More 2. Reddit's stock is losing some of its shine: CNBC notes that after a great first day on the market, Reddit's stock is giving back much of its gains to date. Large share sales by executives aren't uncommon following an IPO, but they are not helping Reddit's market worth right now... Read More 3. The chip wars continue: To more effectively slow China's domestic chip market, the United States is creating a new list of "Chinese chipmaking factories barred from receiving key tools," Reuters reports. If you were hoping for an economic détente, this ain't it... Read More Before You Go Image Credits: Gabby Jones/Bloomberg / Getty Images Grok set to receive upgrade: X.ai, Musk's AI company that offers its Grok chatbot to subscribers of X, has announced the next iteration of the AI model powering the chatbot. Grok-1.5, TechCrunch's Kyle Wiggers writes, "appears to be a measurable upgrade over its predecessor," going by the published benchmark scores... Read More Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. Got a tip? tips@techcrunch.com Question about our events? events@techcrunch.com Want to advertise on TechCrunch.com? advertise@techcrunch.com Interested in sponsoring live events? sponsors@techcrunch.com Update your preferences here at any time Copyright © 2024 TechCrunch, All rights reserved.Yahoo Inc. 110 5th St,San Francisco,CA Privacy Policy

SBF gets 25 years

Sam Bankman-Fried is sentenced

View this email online in your browser By Christine Hall Thursday, March 28, 2024 Welcome back to TechCrunch PM! The editorial team spent a chunk of the day discussing Sam Bankman-Fried's sentencing. We also have much venture news to go through, as well as Google's new generative AI accelerator program, a plea from the U.S. government and Ibotta's IPO. Let's go! — Christine TechCrunch Top 3 Image Credits: Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency Sam Bankman-Fried is sentenced: Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder and former CEO of crypto exchange FTX and trading firm Alameda Research, was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Five months ago, he was found guilty on all seven counts related to fraud and money laundering during his trial. Considering that Bankman-Fried was looking at a maximum of 110 years, it's up for debate on whether this was too short, too long or just right. Read More More funding for startups: Google's charitable wing, Google.org, launched a new program to help fund nonprofits developing tech that leverages generative AI. It is pouring $20 million into the program, which will be offered as grants to an initial group of 21 nonprofits. Read More Even more funding for startups: Two former Kleiner Perkins investors went out on their own to start Matter Venture Partners and just closed on $300 million in capital commitments to fund startups in the "hard tech" space. Read More Afternoon must-reads Image Credits: ChowNow ChowNow snaps up Cuboh: Over in restaurant tech, ChowNow, the online ordering platform for local restaurants, acquired point-of-sale platform Cuboh. On the one hand, this marks ChowNow's first acquisition and will help strengthen its POS integration solution and help restaurants tackle orders across multiple services. On the other hand, it laid off about 30 employees.  Read More Help solve a hack: The U.S. government is extending a reward for information about key leaders of the ALPHV/BlackCat cybercrime gang to its affiliate members, one of which last month took credit for a massive ransomware attack on a U.S. health tech giant. Read More Ibotta files for an IPO: Reporters Rebecca Szkutak and Alex Wilhelm take you inside cash-back startup Ibotta's S-1 filing. Read More UMG doubles down on deal with Spotify: This comes in the wake of Universal Music Group's public spat with TikTok, which saw the label pulling its full catalog from the video app earlier this year. Read More Microsoft tries to unlock LinkedIn's latent potential: Caught between TikTok and X? LinkedIn feels you. To help, the social network is experimenting with short-form videos. "It's as if LinkedIn is targeting a whole new 'type' of user — one caught in limbo somewhere between two other well-known social networks," writes reporter Paul Sawers. Read More Checkout in the palm of your hand: Amazon launched its new app for the contactless palm recognition service Amazon One. It allows customers to hover their palm over a device in order to purchase from select places, including Whole Foods Market stores, Amazon stores and more. Read More Money, money, money Image Credits: Kwarkot / Getty Images Today was a great day for venture capital news. Take a look: Skyflow raised a $30 million Series B extension led by Khosla Ventures. "The deal is interesting on a number of fronts, including the round's structure and how Skyflow has been impacted by the growth of AI," reporter Alex Wilhem writes. Read More E-commerce startup Kidsy, providing access to discounted baby and kids products, closed on an "oversubscribed" $1 million in pre-seed funding. Read More Startup studio super{set} adds another $90 million as it doubles down on its strategy of building enterprise startups. Read More Pelago, a Y Combinator–backed virtual clinic for addiction treatment, raised $58 million in Series C capital. Read More Around the web Image Credits: Getty Images / akindo MarketWatch reports on what's happening to Palantir after an analyst downgraded the tech stock's shares. Meanwhile, Microsoft customers say Copilot isn't as great as it seems, Business Insider reports. And over on The Atlantic, take a look at how Donald Trump gets into the meme stock business. TechCrunch Minute Image Credits: Instagram You're likely seeing less news and politics on Instagram. Here's why: Alex Wilhelm writes that as the election cycle heats up, Instagram and Threads will be cooling down the amount of political content entering many users' feeds. These changes, which limit the reach of political content from accounts users don't already follow, are enacted by default. Read More On the pods Image Credits: TechCrunch On today's Equity, Alex Wilhelm discusses some M&A in the edtech space of Wonderschool acquiring EarlyDay. EarlyDay's co-CEOs Emma Harris and Melissa Tran described the transaction as "opportunistic," saying it was not driven by fundraising needs. Tune in! Over on Chain Reaction, Jacquelyn Melinek interviewed Scott Dykstra, CTO and co-founder of Space and Time, about how the company aims to be a verifiable compute layer for web3 that scales zero-knowledge proofs, or ZK proofs, on a decentralized data warehouse. Listen here!   A MESSAGE FROM TECHCRUNCH Reserve Premium Ad Inventory in TechCrunch PM More than a quarter of a million users end their workdays with TechCrunch PM. Want to talk to this engaged audience? TC's auction for Q3 and Q4 inventory opens this Monday, April 1. For more information, email newsletter.auction@techcrunch.com.  SIGN UP Has this been forwarded to you? Click here to subscribe to this newsletter. 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