Meta lays off hundreds, FTX collapses, and Twitter has a really bizarre week • TechCrunch

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Twitter had every week so unusual that it might simply make up this whole publication, so we’ll preserve to the bullet factors:

• Final week Elon laid off an enormous chunk of the corporate. This week, a few of those that had been let go had been reportedly requested to return again.
• Twitter began giving blue verified checkmarks to anybody who’d pay $8. Issues received chaotic quick.
• Twitter rolled out a brand new, second checkmark for “Official” accounts. After which removed them. After which…introduced them again?
• By Friday morning, after faux “verified” accounts popped up for the whole lot from firms to athletes to politicians, Twitter paused the $8 verification badge program.
• Quite a lot of execs give up — to the purpose the place the exits perked the ears of the FTC.
• Elon reportedly informed Twitter workers that “bankruptcy isn’t out of the question” for the corporate.

FTX collapses: As soon as one of many largest crypto exchanges on this planet, FTX successfully exploded this week. It briefly seemed like competitor Binance would step in to amass FTX, just for Binance to take one take a look at FTX’s books and again out virtually instantly. FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried has since resigned, and the corporate has filed for chapter.

Meta layoffs: Meta — the father or mother firm behind Fb, Instagram, and Whatsapp — laid off 13% of its workforce this week. With a worldwide headcount of round 87,000 workers, that works out to over eleven thousand roles reduce.

Gmail will now not allow you to return to previous Gmail: Don’t like the brand new look that Gmail began rolling out again in July? Dangerous information. Whereas customers might beforehand revert to the previous design, the Gmail workforce introduced this week that the brand new design would be the “commonplace expertise” for all inside weeks.

Google finds exploits in Samsung telephones: “Google says it has proof {that a} business surveillance vendor was exploiting three zero-day safety vulnerabilities present in newer Samsung smartphones,” writes Zack Whittaker. “The chained vulnerabilities enable an attacker to achieve kernel learn and write privileges as the foundation consumer, and in the end expose a tool’s information.”

audio roundup

In search of a brand new podcast to tune into in your commute? Right here’s what’s up in TC podcasts these days:

• The Chain Response crew broke down the absurd collapse of FTX because it was occurring.
• Fairness (with a visitor look from TC’s Becca Szkutak) coated the seemingly countless layoffs we’re seeing from tech firms huge and small, and what FTX’s meltdown means for it and corporations prefer it.
• Darrell was joined on The TechCrunch Podcast by TC senior reporter Dom-Madori Davis to speak about “the coalition of VCs which can be standing for reproductive rights” and to recap the largest tech tales of the week.

TechCrunch+

Not a TechCrunch+ member but? Right here’s what members had been trying out most behind the paywall:

How ButcherBox bootstrapped to $600M in income: How did ButcherBox develop from a modest Kickstarter to $600 million in income in only a few years? Haje outlines the corporate’s path thus far.

The Trade: In his more and more well-liked each day publication, Alex Wilhelm wonders: Has everybody been valuing software program firms the mistaken manner all alongside?