Days after announcing plans to cut 10K jobs, Microsoft invests billions more in OpenAI

Happy new week! Did you know that TechCrunch has a bunch of amazing newsletters that aren’t this one? If you’re into transportation, don’t miss Kirsten’s The Station. Greg writes our weekly Week in Review (with Kyle currently filling in while Greg is on paternity leave); Sarah does the This Week in Apps newsletter; Mary Ann writes The Interchange, which is our fintech newsletter; and Darrell does the TechCrunch Podcast, which is kind of like a weekly newsletter, but for the holes on the side of your head, rather than the front ones. And there are even more than that, so go get ’em! — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

• Brian may have found the perfect MacBook: Brian gives us the ins and outs of the new Apple MacBook Pro 14-inch M2 Max, in which he writes, “It’s a reaffirmation of the ‘Pro’ in MacBook Pro: chunky, heavy, blazingly fast, full of ports and packed with the best the company has to offer.” This might be the 2023 version of “Mikey likes it!” Meanwhile, Matt reviews the 2023 Mac Mini, what he calls “a serious contender with the M2 Pro.
• Sounds like more layoffs: Another tech company reveals that its eyes were bigger than its stomach when it comes to hiring. This time, Spotify is the one cutting jobs, Romain reports. The music streaming company will lay off about 600 people, or 6% of its workforce.
• Give ’em something to ChatGPT about: After much speculation, Microsoft confirmed that it will invest an undisclosed number of billions in OpenAI, thus extending the companies’ partnership. Kyle has more.

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Startups and VC

TechCrunch Live is entering its third season, and Matt is, frankly, ludicrously psyched to be leading the events again this year. The first event is on February 1, 2023, and will feature a timely discussion on what to do if your company can’t raise a Series A. Cambly’s Sameer Shariff and Benchmark’s Sarah Tavel are speaking at the first one — stay tuned for what’s coming down the pike!

And we have five more for you:

• That’s a big deel, y’all: Remote work revolution is rolling along, and helping Deel reach $295 million in ARR, Mary Ann writes.
• That’s reinsuring: Christine reports that Bling Capital–backed Coverdash unveils its embedded, digital insurance for small businesses.
• Om nom nom: Anna reports how, with a focus on patients with chronic illness, Nourish hopes to help Americans eat better.
• I wonder what the due diligence was on that deal: Thoma Bravo agrees to acquire digital forensics firm Magnet Forensics for over $1 billion, reports Kyle.
• Selecting the cream of the crop: GoodOnes raises money to help make sense of your mess of a camera roll, Haje reports.

Failures are valuable IP: Protect your startup’s negative trade secrets

Patent applications and GitHub codespaces are obvious pieces of intellectual property, but so are the embarrassing mistakes and dead ends that every company encounters.

Rivals can learn a lot from competitors’ failed A/B tests, unsuccessful email campaigns and wasted engineering cycles, writes Eugene Y. Mar and Thomas J. Pardini, attorneys with Farella Braun + Martel LLP in San Francisco.

In this post, they offer advice for safeguarding your “negative know-how,” along with general tips for defining and managing trade secrets.

Three more from the TC+ team:

• Raindrops keep falling on my SaaS: Tech forgot its umbrella, writes Natasha M.
• It’s not quite that simple: Dominic-Madori is debunking the myths of why venture investors don’t fund diverse startups.
• Quite a catch: Christine spoke with four investors about the next big wave for alternative seafood 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!

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Big Tech Inc.

Just when Salesforce thought it was safe to go back in the water, the company now has an activist investor coming in and taking a multibillion-dollar stake. Ron writes that while Elliott Management is looking forward to working with Salesforce, there could be something else behind it: “Elliott typically takes a stake in a company to make changes in the way the company operates with the goal of cutting costs and increasing shareholder value. In some cases, it tries to push CEO changes or even sell the company, although that seems less likely in this case.” You be the judge.

And we have five more for you:

• No remittance for you: SBM Bank India was told by the India central bank to stop outward remittance transactions, Manish reports.
• Find love while binge-watching “Emily in Paris”: Netflix and Bumble are working together to help users bond over popular TV shows, Lauren writes.
• Game on: Devin tells us his experience playing Forspoken.
• Sinking its clause into payment terms: An antitrust investigation in Germany has it looking into PayPal’s terms for merchants. Natasha L has more.
• Don’t throw anything away: Tim rounds up all the climate tech news that’s fit to post, including food waste, wastewater and the UK’s troubled battery industry.

• SaaS Product Designer (full-time remote, America & Europe) at Baymard Institute (Anywhere)
• Epic BI Developer (Remote) at Yakima Valley Farm Workers Clinic (Toppenish, WA, USA)
• Senior Data Center Infrastructure Engineer at Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission (New Stanton, PA, USA)
• FOUNDATION RELATIONS ASSOCIATE at Catalyst California (Los Angeles, CA, USA)
• Principal software engineer (SQL API) at Cube Dev (San Francisco, CA, USA)

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