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Friday, more like Fri-yay! It’s April 29, 2022, we’re here with the latest headlines, but honestly, our brains are mostly focused on all the intense fun we’re going to have this weekend. Like doing laundry, taking a nap, playing with our pets, reading a book for a while, and sleeping late. I know, we are old and boring, face it. — cristina Y Haje
TechCrunch Top 3
- Selling Tesla, getting a nice tweet deal: Everyone’s favorite social media billionaire acquirer is selling $4 billion worth of Tesla stock and reportedly has a new Twitter CEO lined up. He also shared that he has the beginnings of a plan on how to monetize tweets.
- Wait, companies have to make money? Robinhood’s stock price is plummeting as competition stiffens and its business model becomes more skewed.
- Home is where the benefits are: Airbnb employees got a fun surprise this week when the company told employees it was instituting a “live anywhere, work anywhere” philosophy. Do you want to work in the office? You got it. Do you want to continue working from home? No problem. Do you want to move to a foreign country and work from there? Yes, but only up to 90 days a year. We guess even they had to draw a line somewhere.
Startups and VCs
Civilian drone maker DJI and the Ukrainian and Russian governments continue their dispute. More recently, DJI has suspended sales in the Ukraine and Russia in an apparent attempt to appear more neutral.
We were especially wowed this morning Jim MotavalliFeatured article on bidirectional charging. In other words: if the power goes out, what does it take to power your house with your car batteries?
Johnny’s in the basement mixing the medicine, I’m on the sidewalk reading the news in awe:
- They grow so fast: That feeling when you really want to invest some money in a startup, but they’re too young? Yes, Techstars hates that too, introducing a new fund aimed at investing in early-stage companies.
- Do I look like I know? than a jpeg is: Review raises $3.5 million to empower NFTs beyond just being a pretty picture.
- The phone game: Vercom, which wants to compete with the likes of Twilio and Sinch, buys MailerLite marketing automation for $90 million.
Loaded With Billions In Capital, Meet The 9 Startups Developing Tomorrow’s Batteries Today
In his first TechCrunch+ article, Senior Climate Writer Tim De Chant examined nine startups optimizing battery technology for electric vehicles that have collectively raised just over $4 billion in the last 18 months.
Improving technology like solid-state batteries, replacing specific chemistries, and using hybrid chemistries are just some of the techniques startups are implementing to unlock benefits like reduced weight and increased range and safety.
“But cars and trucks won’t be the only thing affected by the battery revolution that will occur in the next few years,” he writes.
“Like many advances, better, lighter, longer-lasting batteries will drive changes in our lives that are unexpected and welcome.”
(TechCrunch+ is our membership program, helping startup founders and teams get ahead. You can sign up here.)
great tech inc
We’re on a bit of a rollercoaster ride in terms of good news versus not, so keep your hands and legs inside the newsletter and you’ll be fine.
- Amazon’s crown is falling: In the realm of the public cloud, we note that Amazon is an “undisputed king”, but Microsoft is ready to storm the castle. Amazon continues to dominate, controlling a third of the public cloud for years, but Microsoft has been quietly amassing a public cloud army that now accounts for 22%, up from 20% last year.
- And Amazon earnings, not so good: Shares of the company fell to a two-year low on news that the company reported a first-quarter loss attributed to “inflationary and supply chain pressures.”
- Apple has a different take profit: In today’s fruit news, Apple reported some record service revenue figures that were up 17% from last year to hit $19.8 billion. There are many reasons for the good quarter, including the sale of many iPhones, computers and watches.
- Netflix made some layoffs: Some of Tudum’s editorial staff were fired yesterday. Tudum, you may remember, is Netflix’s internal publishing that started just five months ago. While Netflix said Tudum was not shutting down, it is moving forward without an editorial manager and at least seven others.