Trump Pardons Anthony Levandowski

As the day concludes, news includes a presidential pardon, the return of Jack Ma to public view, and a significant acquisition in the digital storytelling space. This is your Daily Crunch for January 20, 2021.

Key development: Anthony Levandowski receives a pardon from Trump

Even though Donald Trump had concluded his term as President of the United States by the time of this writing, he was still in office on Tuesday evening and used his authority to grant a pardon to Anthony Levandowski, a former employee of Google. Levandowski had previously been sentenced to an 18-month prison term for the theft of proprietary information. This decision was backed by prominent figures such as Peter Thiel of Founders Fund and Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus.

With today marking the inauguration of Joe Biden, the White House website underwent immediate updates. Amazon promptly offered assistance to the new administration in the distribution of COVID-19 vaccinations.

Additionally, an analysis from former White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina explores the dynamic between the Biden administration and the technology sector.

Major technology companies

Alibaba stock increases following Jack Ma’s first public appearance in three months — The billionaire founder of Alibaba was seen speaking with 100 educators in rural areas via a video conference.

Valve and five video game publishers are fined $9.4 million for implementing unlawful geo-blocking — Alongside Valve, the penalized publishers include Bandai Namco, Capcom, Focus Home, Koch Media, and ZeniMax.

TikTok introduces a new Q&A feature, enabling creators to answer questions from their audience using either text or video — Currently, this functionality is limited to a select group of creators participating in a trial program.

Startups, funding, and venture capital

Wattpad, the popular storytelling platform, has been sold to Naver of South Korea for $600 million — Naver intends to integrate at least a portion of Wattpad’s operations into Webtoon, another platform within its portfolio.

SpaceX launches 60 additional Starlink satellites, marking the company’s first mission of 2021 and establishing a new record for Falcon 9 rocket reuse — The total number of satellites in the Starlink network now approaches 1,000.

Landbot secures $8 million in Series A funding for its ‘no code’ chatbot development platform — The company has expanded to serve approximately 2,200 customers who are paying for its services.

Insights and reporting from Extra Crunch

Fintech companies and unicorns experienced a strong fourth quarter in 2020 — The final three months of 2020 saw considerable activity in the fintech space.

Dear Sophie: An update on President Biden’s immigration policies — This installment of Dear Sophie, an advice column, addresses questions regarding immigration and its impact on employment within the technology industry.

Greetings, Extra Crunch subscribers! — We are seeking feedback on how to improve the Extra Crunch experience.

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Other noteworthy news

MIT pioneers a technique for cultivating plants in a laboratory setting, potentially leading to alternatives to traditional forestry and agriculture — This method could enable the production of wood and fiber in a controlled laboratory environment.

Reflections on the first fully virtual CES — We have often considered whether traditional, in-person trade shows are becoming obsolete. This year’s CES provided a real-world test of that hypothesis.

Remote work may be environmentally friendly, but the technology supporting it still carries a significant carbon footprint — A recent study investigates the potential carbon costs associated with the connectivity and data infrastructure required for remote work.

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