Dan Primack / Axios:
Sources: Vista Equity has written off the entire value of its investment in tech learning platform Pluralsight, three years after taking it private for $3.5B — – One source says that the Utah-based company’s financials have improved, with a around 26% EBITDA growth in 2023 …
US Treasury Department will make IRS’ Direct File program permanent starting with the 2025 tax season and invites all states and Washington DC to participate (Axios)
Axios:
US Treasury Department will make IRS’ Direct File program permanent starting with the 2025 tax season and invites all states and Washington DC to participate — – Treasury announced earlier this month that more than 140,000 people participated in the Direct File pilot program …
Tether acquires a $100M stake in US-listed bitcoin miner Bitdeer with an option to purchase an additional $50 million in shares within a year (Emily Nicolle/Bloomberg)
Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:
Tether acquires a $100M stake in US-listed bitcoin miner Bitdeer with an option to purchase an additional $50 million in shares within a year — – Bitcoin miner is owned by the Chinese billionaire Jihan Wu — Bitdeer was previously in talks with private credit firms
How Meta revamped Facebook’s feed to show more posts from outside a person’s network of friends and family, in a move to fight TikTok and win back younger users (Kurt Wagner/Bloomberg)
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
How Meta revamped Facebook’s feed to show more posts from outside a person’s network of friends and family, in a move to fight TikTok and win back younger users — – Feed now features a broader array of posts based on interest — More young adults are back on Facebook after years of declines
Sources: Saudi Arabia’s Prosperity7 participated in a ~$400M round in Zhipu AI at a $3B valuation, making it the only foreign investor in Chinese generative AI (Eleanor Olcott/Financial Times)
Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times:
Sources: Saudi Arabia’s Prosperity7 participated in a ~$400M round in Zhipu AI at a $3B valuation, making it the only foreign investor in Chinese generative AI — Aramco’s Prosperity7 takes part in investment round for start-up Zhipu AI — A Saudi Arabian fund has backed China’s …
Sony says PS5 generated $106B in revenue in less than four years vs. PS4’s $107B over seven years, PS5 in-game purchases spending up 176% over PS4, and more (Evgeny Obedkov/Game World Observer)
Evgeny Obedkov / Game World Observer:
Sony says PS5 generated $106B in revenue in less than four years vs. PS4’s $107B over seven years, PS5 in-game purchases spending up 176% over PS4, and more — Sony has published its annual business briefing. Here are the key takeaways about the performance of the PlayStation business and updates to the company’s gaming strategy.
European Commission designates Temu as a “very large online platform” and says the company will have to comply with DSA rules by the end of September 2024 (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)
Paul Sawers / TechCrunch:
European Commission designates Temu as a “very large online platform” and says the company will have to comply with DSA rules by the end of September 2024 — Temu, the super low-cost e-commerce marketplace owned by Chinese online retailer Pinduoduo, is to face …
Spain’s data protection regulator AEPD bans Meta from launching election features on Facebook and Instagram in the country, citing GDPR concerns (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Spain’s data protection regulator AEPD bans Meta from launching election features on Facebook and Instagram in the country, citing GDPR concerns — Meta has been banned from launching features on Facebook and Instagram that would have collected data on voters in Spain using the social networks ahead of next month’s European Elections.
Stripe says it will temporarily move to an invite-only model for new account sign-ups in India, as it navigates the country’s evolving regulatory landscape (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Stripe says it will temporarily move to an invite-only model for new account sign-ups in India, as it navigates the country’s evolving regulatory landscape — Stripe, the global fintech giant, said on Friday that it will temporarily move to an invite-only model for new account sign-ups in India …
Sources: TikTok pauses plans to launch its e-commerce business in major European markets to focus on growth in the US where it’s fighting a divest-or-ban law (Zheping Huang/Bloomberg)
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Sources: TikTok pauses plans to launch its e-commerce business in major European markets to focus on growth in the US where it’s fighting a divest-or-ban law — – ByteDance halts plan to roll out shopping from Spain to Italy — Company aims to entrench itself in its most lucrative market
