The world’s largest crypto exchange by volume, Binance, said it would walk away from a deal with the third largest crypto exchange by volume, FTX. On Tuesday, Binance signed a letter of intent to purchase its troubled competitor, FTX, in what appeared to be a potential bailout of the latter amid a liquidity crunch. But … Read more
Twitter’s new CEO and owner Elon Musk is rattling the cage at his social network and ruffling a lot of feathers both inside and outside of the company. But while some in the tech world describe that kind of chaos as a garbage fire, others see it as something very different: an opportunity. Years-old federated … Read more
Kabam, the gaming company that has developed mobile games in partnership with entertainment brands including Disney, Marvel and Universal, has laid off about 7% — around 35 people — of its workforce, TechCrunch has learned from sources and confirmed with the company over email. The Vancouver-based company informed the affected employees about the move earlier … Read more
We’re packing our bags and getting pumped about flying to Miami for TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17. What about you? Don’t miss your chance to rub elbows with the kings and queens of blockchain, cryptocurrency, DeFi, NFT and web3 — the current rulers and the up-and-coming contenders for the crown. Buy your pass today … Read more
New Twitter owner Elon Musk joined a Twitter Space today to address concerns from advertisers about changes at the company. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO’s nascent foray into running a social media platform has been tumultuous, from launching unfinished products, to alienating advertisers, to laying off half of its staff. Twitter’s Client Solutions Leader, Robin Wheeler … Read more
Another day, another 52-week low. It seems that instead of finding fresh support, the value of software companies keeps discovering new basement levels to descend into. This afternoon, software stocks were off 3% or so, while the broader Nasdaq Composite was down around 2% in midafternoon trading. The dramatic collapse in the value of software … Read more
Elon Musk detailed his vision for Twitter’s plan to enter the payments market during a live-streamed meeting with Twitter advertisers, hosted on Twitter Spaces on Wednesday. The new Twitter owner suggested that, in the future, users would be able to send money to others on the platform, extract their funds to authenticated bank accounts, and … Read more
Zoom is working with Tesla to bring video conferencing into its vehicles. The announcement, made at the 2022 Zoomtopia conference, was light on details. But according to Zoom’s group product manager Nitasha Walia, the video conferencing feature “will come standard on all new Tesla models soon.” “You’ve been zooming from your home, your office, your … Read more
New crypto startups forged ahead during Alliance DAO’s demo day on Wednesday amid the FTX implosion. “This is actually worse than the 2018 bear market,” Qiao Wang, a core contributor at Alliance DAO, said, referring to the tentative plans for Binance to absorb competitor FTX. “Today, everyone was caught off guard, myself included … the … Read more
Janna Meyrowitz Turner’s biggest concern going into the U.S. midterm elections was that more than half of American voters had an election denier on their ballot. She was quite nervous, alongside pundits and polls who expected a red wave, a conservative flush that would take hold of Congress, state legislatures and city halls. That didn’t … Read more
Crypto exchange Binance, the largest in the world by volume, signed a letter of intent Tuesday to purchase its troubled competitor, FTX, in what appears to be a potential bailout of the latter amid a liquidity crunch. But after less than a day of due diligence, Binance appears highly unlikely to go forward with the … Read more
Astra, a rocket startup that went public last year, told investors Tuesday it laid off 16% of its workforce as part of a wider strategy to increase shrinking financial runway and decrease expenses. The company also said it would reduce near-term investments in space services to grow its core businesses: namely, launch and spacecraft engines. … Read more
For a few hours this morning, TechCrunch was recognized by Elon Musk’s newest plaything, Twitter, as a news organization with enough merit to warrant a highly-coveted “official” designation. We regret to inform our readership that this elite classification has since been rescinded… along with the designation on all other accounts that earned this momentous honor. … Read more
Understanding what’s going on in orbit, now and in the near future, is increasingly important for both business and military interests, and Slingshot Aerospace has positioned itself at the center of this quickly evolving space. Co-founder and CEO Melanie Stricklan will be joining us at TC Sessions: Space on December 6 to talk about simulating … Read more
Crypto trading behemoth FTX fell from grace this week after the exchange experienced a liquidity crunch and agreed to give its rival, Binance, the option to purchase the company’s non-U.S. operations in what appears to be a bailout. Now, U.S. regulators are looking into whether FTX potentially mishandled customer funds on its platform, sources told … Read more
Nintendo and mobile games company DeNA are forming a joint venture company called Nintendo Systems that will aim to enhance the digitization of Nintendo’s business. The joint venture builds on Nintendo’s years-long partnership with DeNA that began in 2015. The two have since worked together to develop a handful of titles, including Super Mario Run, … Read more
Today, YouTube announced that it surpassed 80 million YouTube Music and Premium subscribers globally, including customers using free trials. The year-over-year increase of 30 million subscribers is noteworthy and puts the company on track to becoming one of the top streaming music providers. In September 2021, YouTube reported 50 million Music and Premium subs. “We’ve … Read more
Spotify today announced it’s revamping its Apple Watch experience. The new version of the small-screen streaming app has been redesigned to make it easier for users to find the music or podcasts they want to hear from the “Your Library” section, as well as catch up with the latest podcast episodes, download playlists for offline … Read more
The dramatic fall of FTX is taking with it more than just the paper wealth of one of crypto’s most colorful players. Given the amount of invested capital that may be incinerated in the crypto exchange’s anticipated sale to rival Binance, it’s hard not to wonder where venture goes next in web3. FTX is no … Read more
Peacock announced that, on November 30, its Premium Plus subscribers will get 24/7 access to their local NBC station in all of NBC’s 210 markets, including live TV programming like local news, sports, weather, and entertainment. Subscribers will soon be able to livestream popular programs like “The TODAY Show,” “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” … Read more
Greg Soh Contributor Share on Twitter Kuan Wei (Greg) Soh is a technology entrepreneur and angel investor who enjoys building world-class technology teams. Previously, he worked in financial services, the hedge fund industry and at high-growth startups. Remote work is not for every business and it may not be everyone’s cup of tea. When my … Read more
One of the big players in the “metaverse” space, gaming platform Roblox, saw its stock tumble by over 15% in pre-market trading on Wednesday after reporting a wider-than-anticipated loss in its third-quarter earnings. The company, which caters to a younger demographic with its virtual world gaming platform, reported a loss of $297.8 million, or 50 … Read more
Volvo unveiled its flagship electric vehicle Wednesday, a seven-passenger SUV that can travel 370 miles on a fully charged battery. The debut of the Volvo EX90 is a “huge step forward” in the automaker’s quest to become a fully electric brand by 2030, CEO Jim Rowan said during a livestreamed launch event. Slated to arrive … Read more
A day after announcing that it’d denote high-profile accounts in a way distinctive from the blue checkmark now available to all Twitter Blue subscribers, Twitter has begun to roll out new badges that identify particular categories of official accounts, including government accounts, major media outlets and some public figures. The move is an attempt to … Read more
Notifi, a communication infrastructure platform for Web3, said Tuesday it has raised $10 million in an oversubscribed seed funding co-led by previous backers Hashed and Race Capital. Other investors include Struck Capital, HRT Capital, Wintermute, Superscrypt founded by Temasek, bringing its total funding to $12.5 million. The ten-month-old startup wants to address the broken … Read more
Hello and welcome back to Equity, a podcast about the business of startups, where we unpack the numbers and nuance behind the headlines. This is our Wednesday show, where we niche down to a single person, think about their work, and unpack the rest. This week, Natasha interviewed Nolan Church, the CEO and co-founder of Continuum, about … Read more
Binance founder and chief executive Changpeng Zhao says FTX “going down is not good for anyone in the industry,” and the ongoing episode has “severely shaken” the confidence of consumers, a day after the world’s largest exchange signed a non-binding agreement to acquire its most formidable rival firm. Zhao said the sudden liquidity crunch at … Read more
Game engine company Unity and adtech company IronSource finalized their merger this week, aiming to “create an end-to-end for developers to build and monetize games,” TechCrunch reported. While there’d be a lot to say about the deal from the perspective of game developers, we’d like to look at this from a different angle and wonder … Read more
Mobile developers earned more than $260 billion on Apple’s App Store between its launch in 2008 and the end of 2021. And yet, Apple doesn’t provide an easy way for companies to maximize how much they make from their apps — and neither does Google, which owns the rival Google Play Store. Enter New York … Read more
Edge computing cloud and global data network Macrometa has raised $38 million led by Akamai Technologies, as the two announce a new partnership and product integrations. The funding also included participation from Shasta Ventures and 60 Degree Capital. Akamai Labs CTO Andy Champagne will join Macrometa’s board. Macrometa founder and CEO Chetan Venkatesh told TechCrunch … Read more