Wednesday, May 8, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch AM! Today we have notes on a big startup acquisition in the medical device space, news about how much money FTX will return to customers, Rivian’s mammoth losses, and lots of government action around digital services. To work! — Alex

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Chung Sung-Jun / Getty Images

1. Samsung Medison snags Sonio for $92.7M: Samsung’s medical device unit will pay nearly nine figures for French AI startup, Sonio. Sonio works with ultrasound software with a focus on pregnancy care. Crunchbase reports that Sonio raised €28 million while private. Read More

2. Rivian loses $1.45B in first quarter: Despite notching up revenue by 82% and cost-cutting work in its rearview mirror, EV company Rivian lost a massive $1.4 billion in the first quarter. Shares of the company, however, were down only 4%. Read More

3. FTX customers to be made whole, kinda: Good news! Some 98% of FTX creditors will receive 118% of the value of their FTX-stored assets in cash, while the other creditors will receive 100%. Bad news! The repayments don’t take into account how much crypto assets have appreciated since FTX collapsed in November 2022. Read More

Morning Must Reads

Image Credits: Insempra

Insempra raises $20M for organic lipids: German startup Insempra turns oil yeast into lipids, which can be used in cosmetics and foods. Today lipids tend to come from “environmentally problematic petrochemicals,” so Insempra could bring a green edge to lipid production. Read More

Luminar cites Tesla as leading customer: LiDAR company Luminar generated more than 10% of its first-quarter revenue from Tesla, despite the EV company’s CEO saying that Lidar sensors are a “crutch” for autonomous vehicles. Luminar went public via a SPAC back in 2020, and it expects a deal with Volvo to greatly expand its revenue later this year. Read More

Bluesky wants to become a dating app: Not really. But, you see, any digital service that has a private messaging feature is really just a dating app. And now that Bluesky is planning to add DMs, well, here we are. The Twitter alternative says that it is also working on custom feeds, more moderation tools, support for 90-second videos and more. Read More

The UK wants more social media filtering: To protect the kids, of course. Instagram and more than 100,000 other services are going to fall under a new push by Ofcom to “run better age checks, filter and downrank content, and apply around 40 other steps to assess harmful content,” TechCrunch’s Natasha Lomas writes. Read More

US finally makes it mandatory for online platforms to report shady people: U.S. President Joe Biden signed the REPORT Act into law on Tuesday, which requires websites and social media platforms to report crimes related to trafficking, grooming, and the “enticement of children.” Companies that fail to do so could face six-figure fines. Read More

Google Wallet comes to India: Google has brought its Wallet service to India. However, Google Pay is sticking around in that market. Why? Well, Google Pay is the company’s “primary payments use case” according to the company, while Google Wallet “is specifically tailored for thinking about the non-payment use cases.” Read More

A glimpse at Apple’s progress with AI: Everyone’s been talking about hardware in the wake of Apple’s iPad event, but Sarah Perez reports that in between the hardware news were notes and hints about Apple’s AI strategy. Of the tech majors, Apple has been the quietest on the AI front thus far, so even this little bit of news is interesting. Read More

Another day, another hack: I’ve never heard of Brandywine Realty Trust, but I have heard of a lot of ransomware attacks. The issue is being contained, per the company, but it’s not clear if critical data was lost in the breach. Read More

Around the Web

Microsoft shuts down game studios: Microsoft is a big name in gaming. Between Xbox and PC gaming, it has a lot of market share. And it bought ZeniMax Media back in 2021, which owned a lot of gaming studios. Microsoft is shuttering some of those now, per IGN. Sigh. Read More

The New York Times had 210,000 new subscribers in Q1 2024, apparently. The company reported a modest increase in revenue in the quarter, but its adjusted profit also rose. Read More

Wow, another big company behaving poorly with unions. Shocking: This time, Apple is in hot water with the National Labor Relations Board, Forbes reports. If you try to unionize your Apple Store, expect the company to not take the news well. How else can the company afford to launch $110 billion buyback programs? Read More

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Before You Go

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Historical Wordle: I beat today’s Wordle in three guesses. Yes, I am proud of myself. But after wrapping the day’s puzzle I was bereft of new Wordles. Thankfully, the New York Times is rolling out an archive of past puzzles so that its gaming business can eat even more of your time that you could have spent actually reading the news. Read More