WordPress.com owner Automattic is acquiring Beeper, the company behind the iMessage-on-Android solution that was referenced by the Department of Justice in its antitrust lawsuit against Apple.
One of the reasons why there are no other people building this type of app is it costs a surprisingly large amount of money to build a damn good chat app,” Migicovsky noted.
As for Beeper’s products, the company has now briefed the DOJ on what happened when Apple blocked its newer app, Beeper Mini, which aimed to bring iMessage to Android.
Beeper on Android launches to allThe company is instead releasing an updated version of its core app, Beeper, on Android.
In this rewritten version of Beeper, the company is starting to roll out fully end-to-end encrypted messages across Signal.
Twitter’s former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth announced today that he is joining Match Group, the parent company of several popular dating apps, including Tinder and Hinge.
Yoel, who shared the move on LinkedIn, is now the company’s Vice President of Trust and Safety.
I swiped right on Match Group,” Roth said in his announcement post.
Roth is now taking his trust and safety expertise to Match’s family of dating apps, which includes Tinder, Match.com, Meetic, OkCupid, Hinge, Plenty of Fish, OurTime, and more.
Although dating apps have built-in features to keep users safe, there is still a lot of toxic behavior on these apps, and not everyone trusts them.
Camshaft disclosed in court filings this week that some $533 million it managed for Byju’s Alpha, a U.S. unit of Indian edtech group Byju’s, was transferred to another 100% and U.S.-based subsidiary of Byju’s, thereby refuting allegations that the Indian firm used the wealth manager’s services to misappropriate money.
In the court filings, Camshaft said the capital was transferred to Inspilearn LLC, a Delaware-based subsidiary of Byju’s.
Camshaft also clarified that Byju’s or any of its entities are not limited partners in the hedge fund.
Camshaft Capital attracted media attention last year after lenders of Byju’s questioned the legitimacy of the wealth advisor as they claimed the $533 million was a collateral for a $1.2 billion they had lent to the Indian startup.
A select few estranged investors in Byju’s later used the allegation to discredit Byju’s founder Byju Raveendran’s credibility.
VF Corp., the parent company of the popular apparel brands Vans, Supreme, and The North Face, said Thursday that hackers stole the personal data of 35.5 million customers in a December cyberattack.
The Denver, Colorado-based company reported the data breach to regulators in a filing on Thursday.
The filing did not say specifically what kinds of personal data was taken, or if the company yet knows what was stolen.
VF Corp. spokesperson Colin Wheeler did not respond to an email from TechCrunch requesting more information.
VF Corp. previously said the hackers disrupted its operations “by encrypting some IT systems,” implying a ransomware attack.
The once popular third-party podcast app Castro has seemingly shut down, after earlier saying that it was “actively seeking a new home” for its product.
Concerns over Castro’s future, and the fate of the indie podcast app industry as a whole, have broadened in recent years as Spotify entered the market to compete with Apple Podcasts.
That move influenced the exits of other smaller podcast apps, which included the sale of Pocket Casts to a collective of radio broadcasters, including NPR and BBC Studios.
Satellite radio provider and Pandora owner SiriusXM also bought the podcast app Stitcher in 2020 for $325 million.
Another request for comment from Casto owner Tiny was not returned as of the time of writing, but we’ll update if more information is provided.
Pornhub’s parent company Aylo Holdings will pay $1.8 million to the U.S. government to resolve a charge of profiting off of sex trafficking.
In the worst cases, this can mean that victims of sex trafficking are portrayed in these adult videos against their will, or even without their knowledge.
By 2019, a federal grand jury in the Southern District of California indicted GDP for sex trafficking, among other charges.
But it wasn’t until several months after GDP was found guilty of sex trafficking that the network’s videos were removed from Pornhub and other Aylo sites.
Among other safety measures, the act requires platforms to comply with certain child protection provisions.
VF Corporation, the U.S.-based owner of apparel brands including Vans, Supreme, and The North Face, has confirmed a cyberattack has impacted the company’s ability to fulfill orders ahead of Christmas, one of the biggest retail events of the year.
When reached by email, VF Corp. spokesperson Colin Wheeler provided TechCrunch with a statement that echoed the company’s filing with regulators.
In its regulatory filing, VF Corp. warned that the cyberattack would have a “material impact” on its business until its systems are recovered.
VF Corp disclosed the incident on the same day that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s new data breach disclosure rules came into force.
This regulation means that organizations must report cybersecurity incidents, including data breaches, to the federal government’s securities regulator within four business days.
But things are now starting to shift again back to the open web, Mullenweg believes.
With Texts.com, he saw an opportunity to invest in another area where consumers are pushing for more openness: messaging.
As for Texts.com, Mullenweg saw the acquisition as a way to move into a third major market beyond publishing and commerce.
“I thought that we had a lot of ideas to build, and Automattic seemed like the right place,” Bagaria added.
Competitor Beeper recently made its iMessage-on-Android app Beeper Mini free as it does battle with Apple, which has been working to shut down its service.
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