Company Overview - 23andMe, a personal genomics company, went public in early 2021 through a merger with a blank check company, which valued it at $3.5 billion [1] - The company has faced declining interest in its main product, DNA kits, and suffered a data breach affecting 6.9 million users [1] Leadership and Strategic Moves - CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki is reportedly seeking to take the company private after her initial proposal was rejected by the board in July [2] - The independent directors have expressed a lack of confidence in Wojcicki's ability to present another proposal, citing her voting power as a factor in their decision to step back [2] Financial Performance - The company's market capitalization has fallen to $173 million, a significant decline from its initial valuation [3] - The departure of notable board members, including figures from Sequoia Capital and YouTube, is expected to further negatively impact the company's stock price [3]

Amazon has named long-time executive Samir Kumar as the new head of its India consumer business, following an abrupt leadership change in one of its key markets last month.Kumar, who has been with the e-commerce giant for 25 years, will assume the role of Country Manager for India, the company said. This appointment comes in addition to Kumar’s existing responsibilities overseeing Amazon’s consumer operations in the Middle East, South Africa and Turkey, the company said. The leadership transition was annou ...

Group 1 - NASA aims to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and is developing the Near Space Network for continuous lunar communications [1][2] - Intuitive Machines has been awarded a contract by NASA to build a satellite constellation for navigation and communications, with a maximum potential value of $4.82 billion [2][4] - The contract guarantees $150 million, with the possibility of exceeding this amount based on the services provided over a five-year period [4] Group 2 - The lunar satellite constellation will support NASA's goal to land humans on the Moon's south pole, which has limited direct communication opportunities with Earth [5] - The infrastructure will also enhance capabilities for uncrewed missions, including remote operation of rovers and improved data transmission rates [5][6] - Intuitive Machines, which went public last year, reported a revenue of $41.4 million in Q2, reflecting a 130% year-over-year increase, largely from government contracts [7]

JPMorgan Chase is in talks to take over the Apple Card business from Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street Journal reports. Goldman has issued credit for the Apple Card since its launch in 2019, but the Wall Street and Silicon Valley giants have been trying to untie their partnership since last year. In 2023, Goldman decided to abandon its push into consumer banking, including the $17 billion Apple Card program, because it was seen as a distraction from its core business.Goldman and Apple reportedly approached mul ...

Investment powerhouse BlackRock is set to launch a massive AI-focused investment fund, exceeding $30 billion, in collaboration with Microsoft and the Abu Dhabi-backed investment outfit MGX, the FT reported today.According to the outlet, the fund — among Wall Street’s largest — will focus on creating data centers and funding energy infrastructure to support AI. Chip giant Nvidia is also reportedly contributing its expertise around the energy demands of AI technologies, which are expected to face significant ...

Core Insights - Snapchat introduced a new AI video generation tool for creators, allowing them to create videos from text and soon from image prompts [1] - The tool is currently in beta for a small subset of creators and will include watermarks on generated content [1] - Snap aims to inform users when AI is used in content creation through icons and context cards [1] Company Positioning - Snap's AI video tool is ahead of competitors like TikTok and Instagram, which have not yet released similar text-to-video generators [2] - Meta's Make-A-Video tool, announced in 2022, has not been made publicly available, giving Snap a potential competitive edge [2] - The company is positioning itself against startups like Runway and established firms like OpenAI and Adobe, which plan to release their own text-to-video generators [2] Safety Measures - Snap has implemented safety evaluations and testing for its AI models to prevent harmful content generation [2] - Additional safety measures are in place during model training, prompt creation, and output stages [2]

U.S. tech giant Cisco has let go of thousands of employees following its second layoff of 2024. The technology and networking company announced in August that it would reduce its headcount by 7%, or around 5,600 employees, following an earlier layoff in February, in which the company let go of about 4,000 employees.  As TechCrunch previously reported, Cisco employees said that the company refused to say who were affected by the layoffs until September 16. Cisco did not give a reason for the month-long dela ...

Amazon said today that it will host its Prime Day-like sales event, “Prime Big Deals Day,” on October 8-9. For the last two years, the ecommerce company has scheduled its fall event in October and has continued that tradition this year.Apart from the U.S., this event will take place in countries including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, the U.K., and Turkey. Amazon will hold Big Deals Day in Japan l ...

As part of Salesforce’s massive tech conference, Dreamforce, taking place this week in San Francisco, its VC arm, Salesforce Ventures just announced a new $500 million fund dedicated to AI companies. This is significant for several reasons. First, in June 2023, Salesforce Ventures doubled its AI fund from $250 to $500, so the additional $500 million brings the AI fund to $1 billion. This compares to $5 billion total deployed in its first 15 years, since its 2009 launch. Salesforce Ventures is also among the ...

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent a memo to the company’s employees Monday morning, calling for a full return to office at the start of 2025.For the last fifteen months, Amazon employees have been expected to work in the office three days per week. Now, Jassy expects five days of in-person work from employees, with the caveat that work from home is okay in extenuating circumstances, like if an employee’s child is sick.“When we look back over the last five years, we continue to believe that the advantages of being ...