Sonos lays off 200 ahead of rumored set-top box release
Sonos announced that it has laid off 200 people in a letter posted to its site Wednesday. The news follows a 100-person layoff in August. Both rounds arrive in the wake of a disastrously botched update to the Sonos app that alienated broad swaths of the premium audio hardware firm’s
Read moreResearchers created an open rival to OpenAI’s o1 ‘reasoning’ model for under $50
AI researchers at Stanford and the University of Washington were able to train an AI “reasoning” model for under $50 in cloud compute credits, according to a new research paper released last Friday. The model, known as s1, performs similarly to cutting-edge reasoning models, such as OpenAI’s o1 and DeepSeek’s
Read moreScout Motors sued over plan to sell EVs direct to consumers
Scout Motors’ plan to eschew traditional dealerships and sell EVs directly to consumers is running into legal trouble. A group of Volkswagen and Audi dealers filed a lawsuit this week against Scout Motors, the EV that spun out of Volkswagen. The lawsuit, which was first reported by Automotive News, seeks
Read moreBench burned through $135 million before shutting down
A clearer picture of Bench's downfall is emerging thanks to new bankruptcy filings, which show the accounting startup burned $135 million before collapsing. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreA comprehensive list of 2024 and 2025 tech layoffs
A complete list of all the known layoffs in tech, from Big Tech to startups, broken down by month throughout 2024. © 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.
Read moreXOi raises $230M, acquires Specifx to expand its tech for field service technicians
Field service engineers may not be the first group of customers that come to mind when you think about lucrative opportunities in B2B technology. But that same blind spot speaks of the opportunity in the space for those who are stepping up and targeting “the job site.” One of the
Read moreGoogle ditches DEI hiring goals
Google will no longer have diversity hiring targets and will review its diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, according to an email sent to employees seen by the Wall Street Journal. Google now joins other tech companies rolling back DEI practices, especially as DEI practices come under fire from conservative groups.
Read moreRansomware payments dropped in 2024 as victims refused to pay hackers
Ransomware payments fell by more than one-third in 2024 as an increasing number of victims refused to negotiate with hackers. In a report published Wednesday, crypto forensics firm Chainalysis said that while ransomware gang leak sites posted more victims than in previous years during 2024, fewer victims gave in to
Read moreStripe makes $1.1 billion crypto bet as it closes on Bridge acquisition
Stripe has closed on its $1.1 billion purchase of stablecoin platform Bridge – marking the payment giant’s largest acquisition to date and tangible push into crypto. Co-founded in 2022 by Coinbase and Square alumni Zach Abrams and Sean Yu, San Antonio, Texas-based Bridge built an API that helps companies accept
Read moreThe Elon Musk Act aims to ban ‘special government employees’ from having federal contracts
U.S. Democratic Representative Mark Pocan plans to introduce a bill designed to ban “special government employees” like Elon Musk from having federal contracts so they can’t steer spending towards their own self-interest. The proposed bill is called the ELON MUSK Act, which stands for Eliminate Looting of Our Nation by
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