Tuesday, July 16, 2024

Welcome to TechCrunch PM! This afternoon, we look at why Kaspersky is officially calling it quits in the U.S.; why David Sacks is all doom and gloom; why you shouldn't use stalkerware; and a better way to buy an event ticket. Enjoy!

TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Alexander Zemlianichenko Jr./Bloomberg / Getty Images

Kaspersky to shut down U.S. operations: The Russian cybersecurity giant will lay off dozens of staff and leave the U.S. market following a U.S. government order in June banning the sale of the company's software, citing security risks. Kaspersky initially planned to challenge the ban, saying at the time the ban was announced that it "does not engage in activities which threaten U.S. national security," and that it would "pursue all legally available options to preserve its current operations and relationships." Read more

David Sacks believes we are headed to World War III: The venture capitalist gave a six-minute speech at the Republican National Convention, warning Republicans of "a world on fire." The Craft Ventures founder largely focused on foreign policy and was filled with amped-up rhetoric about conditions in the country and world and how the blame rests on the other political party and President Joe Biden. Read more

Anthropic goes live with a Claud Android app: This is Anthropic's latest effort to convince users to ditch ChatGPT by making Claude available in more places. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: Jake O'Limb / PhotoMosh / Getty Images

Put that stalkerware app down: Consumer spyware apps like mSpy and pcTattletale are commonly referred to as "stalkerware" (or spouseware) because jealous spouses and partners use them to surreptitiously monitor and surveil their loved ones. However, even if you think you should be using one of these apps, we're going to show you why you shouldn't. Read more

Taking tickets to task: YC-backed CrowdVolt wants to disrupt the secondary ticket space with its user-centric, bid-ask ticket marketplace, which aims to give buyers an affordable ticket price with full transparency. It's also turning the traditional sale on its head by enabling the concertgoer to name their price rather than the seller. Read more

Wordle for chess: a16z Speedrun, Zynga founder Mark Pincus and Opendoor founder Eric Wu are among a group of investors who sunk $1.4 million into Echo Chunk, a company that is building a Wordle-style daily chess puzzle game called Echo Chess. The goal? To enable the community to create more puzzles with AI. Read more

WhatsApp wants you to find your Favorites: A new filter called "Favorites" lets you quickly find chats from the people and groups that matter most and directly connect with them over a call from the top of the calls tab. Read more

Microsoft faces U.K. antitrust probe: The Competition and Markets Authority is looking into the tech giant after it hired the core team behind Inflection AI, a U.S.-based OpenAI rival. At the heart of the concern is that Big Tech companies are adopting a new M&A approach designed to circumvent regulatory scrutiny around AI. Some have dubbed this the "quasi-merger," which may involve anything from strategic investments to scooping up startup founders and technical talent. Read more

Maybe startups can fix higher education with Tade Oyerinde from Campus: This week on Found, Becca chats with Tade Oyerinde, the founder of Campus, a fully accredited online community college. They discuss how Tade found a school that was willing to come on board and align with his mission, the challenges of getting investors, and what he thinks it will take to make the higher education system more equitable. Listen here

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Around the web 🌐

VC to VP: Forbes looks into J.D. Vance, who was tapped to be Trump's running mate, to find out just how lucrative Vance's former life as a venture capitalist was. Read more

Apple wants to go to bed with you: The consumer tech giant has a new app for the Apple Watch called Vitals that works best when you wear the watch to bed. CNET has more

Ever heard of "coffee badging"? Me neither. Today I found out that it means "employees who badge in, get coffee, and leave the office shortly to satisfy their return-to-office mandate," according to Business Insider. And Amazon is now cracking down on it. Read more