Amazon’s iRobot purchase sucks up formal competition concerns in EU
European Union regulators have sent Amazon a formal statement of objections setting out competition concerns over its proposed acquisition of robot vacuum maker, iRobot. The step does not confirm the EU will seek to block the deal but it shows antitrust regulators do remain concerned. It could therefore push Amazon
Read moreTerran Orbital sues former CTO who joined call for leadership shake-up
Terran Orbital is suing its former CTO, Austin Williams, a little over a month after he and other shareholders publicly called for a change in company leadership. Williams was a co-founder of satellite design and manufacturing company Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, which was acquired by Terran Orbital in 2014, and has
Read moreShein files confidentially to go public in the US
Singapore-based fast fashion platform Shein has confidentially planned to go public in the United States, according to multiple media reports. The Wall Street Journal broke the news earlier on Monday. Shein raised $2 billion at a $66 billion valuation earlier this year, but is expected to go public at a
Read moreMax Q: The Thanksgiving edition
For my American readers, I hope you had a restful Thanksgiving with loved ones. In this issue: Venturi Astrolab's first moon rover mission, news from OneWeb India and more. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreThis virtual garage sale lets you haggle with AIs to buy Tesla stock, a PS5 or a toilet magazine
Cyber Monday is upon us, but the hottest deals in town are at the AI Garage Sale, where you can try to convince an AI to sell you some worthless junk (or, a PS5) for any given price. AI Garage Sale is a surprisingly functional internet gag from Brain, a
Read moreUkraine detains Victor Zhora, former top government cyber official
Last week, the Ukrainian government fired two of its top cybersecurity officials, who are accused of embezzlement. Now, one of them has been detained. Ukraine’s senior cabinet official Taras Melnychuk announced the firings in a public post on Telegram last week. The two officials are Yurii Shchyhol, head of Ukraine’s
Read moreReddit might once again be flirting with an IPO
Social media giant Reddit is once again reportedly testing the IPO waters. Bloomberg reported on Monday that Reddit “is holding talks with potential investors for an initial public offering.” The San Francisco-based company, co-founded by Steve Huffman, Aaron Swartz and Alexis Ohanian in 2005, is considering going public as early
Read moreMeta turned a blind eye to kids on its platforms for years, unredacted lawsuit alleges
A newly unredacted version of the multi-state lawsuit against Meta alleges a troubling pattern of deception and minimization in how the company handles kids under 13 on its platforms. Internal documents appear to show that the company’s approach to this ostensibly forbidden demographic is far more laissez-faire than it has
Read moreChris’ Corner: Good & Useful Ideas
I was ogling the idea of Exit Animations recently, that is, a recent proposal for (something like) @exit-style which could allow us to animate elements as we remove them from the DOM. That is largely just a proposal at the moment, with many challenges ahead. But there is new tech
Read moreWith AI chatbots, will Elon Musk and the ultra-rich replace the masses?
Elon Musk is hyping the imminent release of his ChatGPT competitor Grok, yet another example of how his entire personality is just itself a biological LLM made by ingesting all of Reddit and 4chan. Grok already seems patterned in many ways off of the worst of Elon’s indulgences, with the
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