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This calendar week , investiture firm KKRannouncedthat it would acquire VMware ’s last - user computing business from Broadcom for $ 4 billion . As Ron explains , that business include VMware Workspace One and VMware Horizon — two remote background apps that had been part of VMware ’s family of products .
Elsewhere , Mistral AI , the French AI startup , launched a new model to rival OpenAI ’s GPT-4 — and its own nervily named chatbot dubbed Le Chat . The releaseswere timedwith a Microsoft partnership to furnish Mistral fashion model to Microsoft ’s cerulean customer — and a minorityinvestment($16 million ) from Microsoft in Mistral .
bunch else happened . We recap it all in this edition of WiR — but first , a admonisher tosign upto receive the WiR newssheet in your inbox every Saturday .
News
Apple automobile canceled : Apple has scamper its secretive , long - running effort to build an autonomous electric car . The troupe is likely contract hundreds of employee from the team , and all act upon on the labor has stopped . It join alist of other projects Apple has quarrel in various stage , including AirPower and a TV ( not to be befuddle with Apple TV ) .
Bumble stumbles : Bumble posted unaccented Q4 results indicate a $ 32 million net exit and $ 273.6 million in tax revenue — below Wall Street expectations . To right the ship , CEO Lidiane Jones denote that 30 % of Bumble ’s workforce , or about 350 employee , would be let go and that Bumble would ship on an app redevelopment targeted at reviving growing .
Google ’s AI goes awry : Google has apologized for an awkward AI blunder this week : An image - generating manakin that injected diversity into pictures with afarcical disregardfor historic linguistic context . While the implicit in issue is absolutely understandable , Google blame the theoretical account for “ becoming ” oversensitive .
Join us at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI
Bad expression : Matt Mullenweg , CEO of Tumblr owner Automattic , is supposed to be on sabbatic . Instead , he argued with Tumblr users this workweek over a contented mitigation decision that sparked accusations of transphobia , Amanda report .
Founder drive out : A group of Byju ’s investors last Friday voted to take away the edtech group ’s founder and chief administrator , Byju Raveendran , and individually filed an oppressiveness and management causa against the leading at the house to parry therecently launch rights issue .
Funding
GenAI ebooks : Inkitt , a self - publishing platform using AI to develop bestsellers , has raised $ 37 million . The startup ’s app lets hoi polloi self - publish stories , and then , using AI and datum scientific discipline , selects what it believes are the most compelling of these to pluck and subsequently distribute and sell .
keep it old shoal : Lapse has raised $ 30 million for its smartphone app that has you wait for pic to be “ developed ” — with no chance of editing and retaking — before sharing them with a select grouping of friends if you choose .
Analysis
Techstars reckoning : Mary Ann interviewed Maëlle Gavet , chief operating officer of the startup accelerator programTechstars , in the wake of modification to its operation that have appeal biting criticism .
OnEquity , the gang talked through startup news show from Microsoft and Mistral AI , Thrasio and Glean — and also cover happenings over at COTU Ventures and Zacua Ventures .
Meanwhile , FoundspotlightedAriel Kaye , the founder of Parachute , a direct - to - consumer bedding and plate goods society .
And forChain Reaction , TC perpetrate from the archives to air an earlier conversation with Jack Lu , CEO and Centennial State - founder of Magic Eden , a “ community of interests - centrical ” NFT marketplace .
Bonus round
Steeply discounted Mirai : Toyota is propose $ 40,000 off a 2023 Toyota Mirai Limited , a fuel - jail cell vehicle that retails for $ 66,000 — plus $ 15,000 in free hydrogen over six eld . As Tim writes , there ’s only one stop : finding the H to power it .
