Dealogic: Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet announced more acquisitions in 2021 than in any other year in the past decade Source
App Annie: India saw 4.8B mobile game downloads in H1 2021, or one in every five downloads globally, making it the world’s top market for mobile games — A new report by App Annie, an app market analytics firm, puts numbers to something we’ve all known for 19 months now. Source
Disney+ misses on Q1 subscriber estimates, reaching 103.6M subscribers vs. 109.3M expected; ESPN+ subscribers rose 75% YoY to 13.8M, Hulu grew 30% YoY to 41.6M — The jets kept firing for Disney Plus, which reached 103.6 million subscribers worldwide as of April 3, the company reported. Source
A look at Valuables, a service from crypto company Cent that lets users sell their tweets as non-fungible tokens in exchange for Ethereum Source
Zuckerberg says Facebook is working with Spotify on a music integration project codenamed Project Boombox — – Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announced that the company is building audio features where users can engage in real-time conversations with others. Source
Crypto exchange BitMart says it was hacked, resulting in the loss of ~$150M in crypto after its Ethereum and Binance Smart Chain hot wallets were breached — Crypto exchange BitMart said late Saturday that it has suffered a hack, resulting in the loss of $150 million worth of crypto. Source
Profile of Edwin Robbe, who hacked the Netherlands’ largest telecom KPN as a teenager and cost the company €3M, before being found dead in South Korea — Edwin Robbe had a troubled life, but found excitement and purpose by joining an audacious community of hackers. Source
Profile of Tipatat Chennavasin, GP of Venture Reality Fund, which has backed Rec Room and Facebook-acquired Beat Games, on changes in the VR industry Source
Profile of and interview with CEO Cristiano Amon on Qualcomm’s auto industry push and the acquisition of Veoneer, as he navigates the global chip shortage — Cristiano Amon is the new boss of Qualcomm Inc., a U.S. tech giant that designs semiconductors. His first task: Convince companies to make more chips for him—and fast. Source
Helsinki-based Yousician, which claims to have 20M MAUs across its music education app and guitar tuning app, raises $28M Series B led by True Ventures Source
