With Musk's purchase completed, NYSE will delist Twitter stock on Election Day

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall Friday, October 28, 2022

Happy Friday! Haje is enjoying some down time on the East Coast, so I am running solo. As you can see from the not-so-surprising move by Elon Musk last night and the sheer number of Twitter stories from our fabulous consumer tech team today, it has been all Twitter, all day. We promise to give you a little bit of that, of course, and a little of what else we've been working on. Let's dive in, shall we?  — Christine Image Credits: Lars Niki/Corbis / Getty Images

The TechCrunch Top 3 Flying the public coop: Now that Elon Musk owns Twitter, its days are numbered as a public company. In fact, Ivan writes, Twitter will be delisted on November 8 — voting day for the U.S. midterm elections. Caging the bird: Over to Europe, where just a few hours into actually owning Twitter, Musk already found himself on the wrong end of European Union officials, who corrected him after he tweeted about how free he thinks Twitter is now. Natasha L has more. Big Tweet Chief: Reports now say that Musk will take the CEO role for himself, Ivan writes, after he ousted Twitter's four top executives, as reported by Amanda.  For more news on the blue bird, head down to the Big Tech Inc. section, where we have you covered.

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Startups and VC Unfortunately, the hits keep coming for 54gene, an African genomics startup focused on providing more African genetic material to pharmaceutical research — there is just 3% now, Tage reports. After some months of layoffs and a CEO exit, the company confirmed that it not only made yet another round of layoffs — this time of 100 people — but it also slashed its valuation by over $100 million. And we have three more for you: Robot riot: Galen Robotics has a new robot that will assist with ear, nose and throat surgeries. Oh, and it secured $15 million in new funding, Andrew reports. Follow the yellow brick road: Game studio Hidden Door is using narrative AI to turn fiction into immersive role-playing experiences, and Rebecca writes it is testing out "The Wizard of Oz." Does anyone else use this word?: I was delighted to see that there is a company named Skidattl. The company is using augmented reality to show users what people are doing around them, in what Rebecca writes is "like a Bat-Signal for fun."

5 ways biotech startups can mitigate risk to grow sustainably in the long run Thanks to R&D and clinical trials, life science startups have long lead times before they can bring their capital-intensive products to market. “But,” asks Omar Khalil, a partner at Santé Ventures, “what happens when the funding suddenly dries up?” In a guest post for TC+, he shares five strategies for biotech startups that are trying to stay warm through the winter ahead. “It's still too early to know whether this is a short-term correction, or if it's a new normal that will be maintained for the foreseeable future.” Three more from the TC+ team: At least someone is soaring: Ron and Alex team up to write about one SaaS company, in this case, ServiceNow, whose stock soared this week while some of big tech's earnings took a dive. Speaking of diving: Dominic-Madori took a look at third-quarter venture capital funding into Latin American companies, which was down. She speaks with some folks on what needs to happen next. Grab on to that bear market: Jacquelyn spoke with some cryptocurrency executives who said that, despite appearances, bear markets are a "great time" to launch crypto startups. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: jayk7 / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. As promised, we have even more Twitter news for you to enjoy. As I write this, several of my colleagues hopped on Twitter Spaces to talk about all this. One of the latest bits of news from Taylor was that Elon Musk was forming a content moderation "council" to make certain decisions — for example, about account reinstatements for, cough, Donald Trump. Here's two more: Darrell pulled together the story so far on Elon Musk owning Twitter. We moved a TC+ story down here, because Twitter! Alex breaks down what the new value of social media companies might be thanks to Twitter's $44 billion price tag. Catching you up on more earnings reports: Meta shares took a tumble yesterday following third-quarter earnings that were less than impressive, Taylor and Amanda report, respectively. Even Apple's earnings fell short, Brian reports. And that was with iPhone revenues up. And over to Amazon, which also saw its Q3 income dip, Kyle writes. The company said "the economy took its toll." And we have four more for you: Not on cloud 9: AWS reports a slowdown as overall cloud infrastructure market growth dips to 24%, Ron reports. Second hack: Carly writes about yet another Twilio hack following an investigation that revealed the number of affected customers is growing. On the down low: Three years after building up a payment and lending app in India, Xiaomi quietly winds it down, Manish and Ivan report. When the chips are down…: The Biden administration imposed chip sanctions on China, and now reports say that those sanctions could extend to biotech. Rita has more.

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Mason raises $7.5M seed round to scale its no-code commerce engine

TechCrunch Newsletter

By Christine Hall and Haje Jan Kamps Thursday, October 27, 2022

Hello! And it's Thursday! We are all waiting with bated breath for the latest installment of “Will Elon Actually Buy Twitter or Will He Squirrel Out of It” — the miniseries of indeterminate length and too many twists and turns to enumerate. Supposedly we'll learn more tomorrow, but who knows. Also, what is time? And if we all leave Twitter in droves, where will we discuss all of this drama? Our fave little story today was Romain's, covering these adorable houseplants that can be used as air purifiers. Haje is out tomorrow, so a very happy weekend from him, and Christine will look after all your crunchy needs tomorrow. Adios! — Christine and Haje Image Credits: Mason

The TechCrunch Top 3 Ixnay on the self-drivay: Darrell has had it with all the speculation and calls it: "Truly autonomous vehicles just aren't going to happen. The evidence pointing to this has been mounting for years now, if not decades, but it's now tipped the balance to where it's hard to ignore for a reasoned observer — even one like myself who has previously been very optimistic about self-driving prospects," he writes. Darrell, we love you, and we hope you've never been more wrong. Closing the barn after the horse has bolted: We also have the latest on Elon Musk after his now-famous Twitter office sink video: Amanda reports on his open letter to Twitter advertisers that people have it all wrong about why he is buying the social media giant, but also that Twitter cannot become "a free-for-all hellscape." Rebecca writes that Musk now says he won't fire 75% of Twitter's staff. Avoiding that seller’s tax: Jagmeet writes that sellers on Amazon have to meet certain requirements to sell on the platform, but a startup called Mason is out to change that. The India- and California-based startup secured $7.5 million in fresh funding, led by Accel and Ideaspring Capital, to offer an Amazon-like selling experience but without requiring that "Amazon tax."

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Startups and VC There's a ton of new funds happening all at once, seemingly. Christine reports that Streamlined Ventures, led by Ullas Naik, secured $140 million in new capital commitments for its two newest funds. Haje reports that Human Impact Capital is a new $50 million fund investing in social impact startups, and Mike notes that Paris-based VC Satgana completes the first close of its €30 million fund to back climate tech startups. Meanwhile, there were a bunch of mega-rounds that put the actual investment funds to shame; it's a weird world when you can't skim the headline numbers to figure out whether it's a company raising a round or a new fund closing. We're collecting a handful of 'em below. 🎵 I wanna be sedated: HealthJoy raises $60 million to make benefits easier to navigate, Catherine reports. 🎵 I’ll take the force of the blow: Kyle reports that Versa raises $120 million for its software-defined networking and security stack. 🎵 I just want to tell you that I’ve had enough: Mary Ann reports that Uber alum rakes in $9.7 million to curb finance-related fights between co-parents. 🎵 Why’d you have to go and make things so complicated?: Navina secures $22 million to process and summarize medical data for clinicians, Kyle writes. 🎵 Do away with air pollution, and then I’ll save the whales: Tim reports that personal carbon-cutting app Joro raises $10 million Series A from Sequoia, Jay-Z's Arrive. 🎵The boy with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right: Lightspeed-backed Indian commerce Udaan raises $120 million, writes Manish.

5 tips for launching in a crowded web3 gaming market Every online product requires some network effect, but gaming is unique: Without large, loyal and enthusiastic customers, there’s no way to build products that can be monetized. Play-to-earn games (P2E) are particularly susceptible to this problem, which is why “building a game that succeeds in the long term means developing monetization strategies that can weather market ebbs and flows,” says Corey Wilton, co-founder and CEO of Mirai Labs, the gaming studio behind Pegaxy. In this primer for P2E founders, Wilton shares suggestions for how to approach investors, explains why tokens are not a reliable fundraising vehicle and discusses the recent “shift toward Web 2.0 monetization.” Three more from the TC+ team: A test of the times: The UserTesting sale to private equity is bad news for unicorns, by Alex. Cue the horse and pony show: 3 VCs explain how founders can stand out when pitching, by Becca. So you cut your SaaS bill…Now what's next?: Beyond cost control: Where cloud management is going next, by Anna. TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code "DC" for a 15% discount on an annual subscription! Read More Image Credits: Chelsea Sampson / Getty Images

Big Tech Inc. The New York Post had to do some deleting today after it was discovered that someone hacked into both the newspaper's website and its Twitter account, Zack reports. The article headlines in question were racist and sexually violent in nature, and the newspaper told TechCrunch that an employee was to blame for the incident but did not go into further details on how it came to that conclusion. Also, our team paid attention to earnings so you didn't have to. Rebecca has a look into Ford's third-quarter earnings, which she reports took a $2.7 billion hit related to Argo AI, which we reported yesterday was being shut down. Meanwhile, over at Meta, Amanda writes that Meta had yet another decline in its third-quarter revenue. And now we have three more for you: Googling: Google Cloud has entered web3 territory with a managed blockchain node service by taking on the heavy lifting there so that developers can do their thing, Ron reports. Meanwhile, Manish has details on a $100 million acquisition the search engine giant made in Alter, an AI avatar startup. On an acquisition roll: Ron also reported on yet another Thoma Bravo acquisition. This time, it and Sunstone Partners announced the proposed acquisition of UserTesting for $1.3 billion. The company plans to combine it with its UserZoom, another company Thoma Bravo acquired in 2021. Get your health advice here: YouTube says it will begin certifying channels for licensed health professionals, like doctors, nurses or therapists, who produce health-related content, Ivan writes.

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