After coming to the US in September, Spotify’s audiobook service has finally arrived in other English-speaking countries, including the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand.
There are over 300,000 audiobook titles available — but you can’t purchase them from Spotify’s iOS app due to Apple’s App Store restrictions.
After Elon Musk laid off a portion of Twitter’s sales team on Monday to “balance” out the remaining staff members, The Verge’s Alex Heath reported that Twitter’s now hiring again — apparently starting with Musk frenemy George Hotz.
We’re also keeping a close eye on the cryptocurrency market today, as major crypto brokerage Genesis reportedly warned investors that it could go bankrupt without additional funding. The firm’s lending arm already suspended withdrawals last week.
Penguin Random House has scrapped its $2.2 billion merger with the Paramount-owned Simon & Schuster.
A judge blocked the deal last month — which would’ve brought together two of the world’s largest book publishers — stating it could “lessen competition” between “top-selling books.” Penguin Random House no longer plans to appeal the decision.
Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at how The Verge’s art team created the photos for our holiday gift guide. (Yes, we really did put smartwatches in jello).
All eyes are on whether Donald Trump decides to tweet now that Elon Musk reinstated his Twitter account — or if he decides to stay loyal to Truth Social.
Over at Disney, Bob Iger has returned as CEO — replacing Bob Chapek — after stepping down from the position nearly three years ago.
It’s also day two of the World Cup. We’ll have to wait to see if Twitter can handle the increase in activity following the mass resignations that occurred last week.
Internal documents obtained by Insider indicate that Amazon’s Alexa division made up the “vast majority” of the over $3 billion that the company lost across its “Worldwide Digital” department, which includes Alexa, Echo devices, Prime Video, and other products.
Amazon confirmed layoffs affecting thousands of employees on its hardware and services teams last week, and the company’s CEO says to expect even more job cuts next year.
[Business Insider]
