Thursday, April 18, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch PM! I’m glad you’re here. Today, jump into a potential acquisition deal between Wiz and Lacework. In addition, see how Meta’s Llama 3 works, as well as who’s holding some data for ransom and who did well in the public markets. Don’t forget to check out Tesla’s plans for an electric big rig charging corridor and learn how robots are affecting our job productivity. Let’s go!

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More consolidation in security: Cloud security startup Lacework, valued at $8.3 billion post-money in its last funding round, is in talks to be acquired by another security player, Wiz, for $150 million to $200 million. It’s an age-old story of high valuations and good M&A deals. Read More

Llama 3 is here: We take an extensive look at Meta’s Llama 3 open generative AI model, the claims Meta is saying it can do and what else is coming. Read More

World-Check hack: A hacker group calling themselves GhostR said they stole 5.3 million records containing personal and financial information from the World-Check screening database in March and are now threatening to make it all public unless they get paid. Read More

Afternoon must-reads

IPOh yeah!: We heard the sound of share prices pop as mobile technology company Ibotta began its first day as a public company. Alex Wilhelm writes, “Given that it started trading far above its IPO price today, some critics may argue that it left too much money on the table, and could have raised more for itself.” Read More

Speaking of the public markets: Serve Robotics made a splash of its own. The Uber- and Nvidia-based sidewalk robot delivery company raised $40 million. You may remember this was the company that spun out of Postmates in 2021. Read More

Tesla has other plans: After losing out on a $100 million contract that was part of the Biden administration’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Tesla is making its own plans to build an electric big rig charging corridor stretching from Texas to California. The plans just may not look the same as originally intended. Read More

A robot workforce could make jobs dull for humans: The Brookings Institution unveiled results taken over the past decade and a half that show the impact that robotics has on job “meaningfulness.” Read More

Put a patch on it: A month after a hacker has some fun interrupting an esports tournament of the popular shooter game Apex Legends, the game developers patch the bug exploited by the hacker. Read More

Cloudy with a chance of carbon pollution: Building owners wanting to be environmentally conscious is great. However, they have to start somewhere, and NZero aims to be that somewhere. The startup developed a new algorithm that helps building owners estimate how much pollution they are generating. Read More

How to play Pokémon and other Game Boy games on your iPhone: Now you can get a sophisticated emulator right in the palm of your hand for free on the App Store. Read More

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Magnus Metal, after raising a $74 million Series B, wants to revamp the 4,000-year-old way metal parts are made. Read More

Cape dials up $61 million from a16z and others for mobile service that doesn’t use personal data. Read More

Screen Skinz raises a $1.5 million seed to create custom screen protectors. Read More

For Dataplor’s data intelligence tool, it’s all about location, location, location. And $10.6 million in Series A funding. Read More

Around the web

Elon Musk is making a mea culpa after it came out that some of the laid-off Tesla employees received compensation packages described as “incorrectly low,” CNBC reports. In an email, Musk apologized for the error and said this would be corrected.

Meanwhile, we always knew there would be a price for what is happening with our climate. Now a new study puts a number on it: $38 trillion a year by 2049, according to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. And Axios notes that this is probably an underestimation.

And your hotel room just became more fun. Apple unveils a partnership with IHG Hotels & Resorts, where over 60 of its North American properties will now offer AirPlay. It’s the little things, right?

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