News

David Ljunggren / Reuters: Canada plans to introduce a digital services tax on large tech companies, which could raise CA$5.9B over the five years starting FY 2024-2025  —  Canada will press ahead with introduction of a digital services tax on… Read More »Canada plans to introduce a digital services tax on large tech companies, which could raise CA$5.9B over the five years starting FY 2024-2025 (David Ljunggren/Reuters)

Kate Clark / The Information: Source: Mistral is in talks with investors about raising several hundred million dollars at a $5B valuation, after raising $415M at a $2B valuation in Dec. 2023  —  Mistral, a Paris-based startup developing artificial intelligence… Read More »Source: Mistral is in talks with investors about raising several hundred million dollars at a $5B valuation, after raising $415M at a $2B valuation in Dec. 2023 (Kate Clark/The Information)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: The Linux Foundation announces the Open Platform for Enterprise AI, to foster the development of open, multi-provider, and composable generative AI systems  —  Can generative AI designed for the enterprise (for example, AI that autocompletes reports,… Read More »The Linux Foundation announces the Open Platform for Enterprise AI, to foster the development of open, multi-provider, and composable generative AI systems (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Rob Golum / Bloomberg: Filing: Take-Two will fire 5% of its workforce and expects to incur up to $200M in charges as part of a downsizing effort, including $140M from canceled titles  —  The company sees expenses of up to… Read More »Filing: Take-Two will fire 5% of its workforce and expects to incur up to $200M in charges as part of a downsizing effort, including $140M from canceled titles (Rob Golum/Bloomberg)

Hana Yoo / AdExchanger: IAB and PwC report on US digital ad sales in 2023: total revenue grew 7.3% YoY to $225B, digital video grew 10.6% to $52.1B, and digital audio grew 18.9% to $7B  —  Nothing lasts forever.  Ad… Read More »IAB and PwC report on US digital ad sales in 2023: total revenue grew 7.3% YoY to $225B, digital video grew 10.6% to $52.1B, and digital audio grew 18.9% to $7B (Hana Yoo/AdExchanger)

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg: Kontakt.io, whose software and Bluetooth devices help hospital managers make decisions about patients, beds, and equipment, raised $47.5M from Goldman Sachs  —  – Bank invests $47.5 million into health care location-tracking  — Kontakt.io plans to build… Read More »Kontakt.io, whose software and Bluetooth devices help hospital managers make decisions about patients, beds, and equipment, raised $47.5M from Goldman Sachs (Mark Bergen/Bloomberg)

The Cloudflare Blog: Cloudflare says its network saw DNS-based DDoS attacks increase by 80% YoY in Q1 2024, with attacks on Sweden surging by 466% after its acceptance into NATO  —  Welcome to the 17th edition of Cloudflare’s DDoS threat… Read More »Cloudflare says its network saw DNS-based DDoS attacks increase by 80% YoY in Q1 2024, with attacks on Sweden surging by 466% after its acceptance into NATO (The Cloudflare Blog)

TechCrunch: Sources: HR tech startup Rippling plans to close a Series F at a valuation as high as $13.4B, after a $200M injection plus $670M in shares sold by stockholders  —  The round could total $870M, including $670M worth of… Read More »Sources: HR tech startup Rippling plans to close a Series F at a valuation as high as $13.4B, after a $200M injection plus $670M in shares sold by stockholders (TechCrunch)

Priya Anand / Bloomberg: Sensor Tower: Naval Ravikant and Brian Norgard’s audio-focused invitation-only social app Airchat has been downloaded 30K+ times since it relaunched this month  —  – The app feels like a combination of voice notes and Twitter  —… Read More »Sensor Tower: Naval Ravikant and Brian Norgard’s audio-focused invitation-only social app Airchat has been downloaded 30K+ times since it relaunched this month (Priya Anand/Bloomberg)

Ron Miller / TechCrunch: Loft Labs, which helps businesses spin up virtual Kubernetes clusters, raised a $24M Series A and says its open source project vCluster has had 40M downloads  —  It may seem like a paradox to have virtualized… Read More »Loft Labs, which helps businesses spin up virtual Kubernetes clusters, raised a $24M Series A and says its open source project vCluster has had 40M downloads (Ron Miller/TechCrunch)