Hello friends, welcome to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering the past week’s happenings in the tech sphere. Winter has finally arrived, judging by the New York weather outside my window, and a kind of winter might be coming to the tech industry too, as it unfortunately turns out.
This edition of WiR covers tech layoffs coming back with a vengeance, the collapse of internet access in Gaza, everything announced during Apple’s Halloween event, and the hack of CCleaner’s customer database. Also on the list is WeWork filing for bankruptcy, Anthropic raising $2 billion from Google, Costco selling surveillance equipment, and the valuation of X (i.e. Twitter) plummeting by 56%.
There’s a lot to get through, so let’s jump into it. But first, a reminder to sign up here to receive WiR in your inbox every Saturday if you haven’t already.
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Layoffs are back: In his column this week, Haje writes that despite signs of economic recovery and predictions of avoiding a recession, technology companies continue to lay off employees. Experts suggest that while the macroeconomy is improving, the recovery process remains slow, leading many companies to prepare for what they anticipate will be a long period of sluggishness.
Internet in Gaza collapses: As the conflict between Israel and Hamas continues, the infrastructure in Gaza is crumbling. Last Friday, internet monitoring company NetBlocks wrote on region.
Apple event summary: In lighter news, Apple announced a host of new products during its Halloween event this week, including an updated MacBook Pro, iMac, and the M3, its latest family of in-house chips. Among other notable elements, Apple eliminated the Touch Bar on the new 14-inch MacBook Pro and updated the iMac’s display with a 4.5K Retina display and a six-speaker system with support for Dolby Atmos and Spatial Audio.
CCleaner hacked: The maker of the popular desktop optimization app CCleaner has confirmed that hackers stole a large amount of personal information, including names and contact information, about its paying customers following a data breach in May. In an email sent to customers, Gen Digital, the multinational software company that owns CCleaner, said hackers exploited a vulnerability in the widely used MOVEit file transfer tool.
WeWork’s bankruptcy is imminent: WeWork is about to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy law in New Jersey, according to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal. If WeWork does indeed file, it should come as no surprise to close followers of the flexible workspace provider, Mary Ann writes: WeWork warned in August in its second-quarter results that “there are substantial doubts about the company’s ability to continue as a Continued concern.”
Anthropic raises billions more: Google has reportedly invested $2 billion in Anthropic, the artificial intelligence startup founded by former OpenAI executives, according to The Wall Street Journal. The deal comes shortly after Amazon pledged up to $4 billion into Anthropic. As Devin reports, this is just the latest in an unfolding proxy war between rival tech giants with a limited number of ai champions behind them.
Costco still selling spy cameras: This week, two US lawmakers asked retail giant Costco why it continues to sell surveillance equipment made by Lorex, despite warnings about cybersecurity risks and links to human rights abuses. The bipartisan letter dated Oct. 31, sent by Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J., 4th) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), said Costco’s continued sale of Lorex products is “even more disconcerting” given that several of its retail businesses Rivals have long since stopped selling the technology.
X’s valuation plummets: X, the company formerly known as Twitter, is being valued at $19 billion, according to internal documents obtained by Fortune. When Elon Musk bought the company a year ago this week, he paid about $44 billion (or $54.20 per share) for the microblogging platform. Amanda points out that the internal valuation marks roughly a 56% decline in the value of X over the last 12 months, which needless to say doesn’t look too good.
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Equity This week he featured Marisa Warren, co-founder and managing partner of Aliavia Ventures, which invests in US and Australia-based startups that have at least one female founder and helps its portfolio companies address new markets.
In Found, the team spoke with Abhi Ramesh, CEO and founder of Misfits Market, a grocery startup that sells surplus and unwanted products directly to consumers who don’t mind strange-looking food. They talked about how Ramesh founded the company in his apartment, handling everything from personally purchasing unwanted produce from farms to storing the food, packaging it and shipping it, all while managing the website and trying to raise funds.
AND Chain reaction recapitulated the end of the trial for Sam Bankman-Fried, former CEO of FTX, who is He faces seven charges related to fraud and money laundering.
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TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys, which you’ll find out if you’re already a subscriber. If not, consider registering. Here are some highlights from this week:
The “unicorns” complete the circle: Alex writes about how, about ten years ago, Aileen Lee of Cowboy Ventures wrote a column for TechCrunch that brought the term “unicorn” to the world. Lee’s column helped the world categorize startups in a new way, but it was also a sign of the times to come.
Make wind energy cheaper: Tim reports on AirLoom, a startup that aims to cut the cost of wind power in half with a novel turbine design oriented vertically instead of horizontally.
A sports accelerator: Ron covers Comcast’s relatively new accelerator focused on sports startups, the Comcast NBCUniversal SportsTech Accelerator, which finds startups that could bring innovation to Comcast’s sports league partners while giving young companies access to resources from Comcast media and the sports leagues themselves.
