Elon Musk completes Twitter purchase, Meta is in trouble, and it’s time to admit there won’t be any self-driving cars • TechCrunch

Hey guys, welcome back to another edition of TechCrunch Review of the week, the place where we show you the hottest stories of the past seventy days. I walk in front of the laptop Greg Kumparak this week, but don’t worry, he’ll be back soon.

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most read (Elon edition, multiple)

Elon did it: He bought Twitter. The $44 billion acquisition was completed this week, and on the first day the platform’s new owner “cleaned house,” Taylor and Amanda write, firing CEO Parag Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal and head of legal, policy and trust Vijay Gade. The buy capped off months of ups and downs, and this week was no different. Darrell summarized some of the main points.

Dismissal of Ilona in the face: While Elon Musk immediately fired some people at the top, earlier this week in rescinding his resignation letter last weekhe said he would not actually lay off 75% of Twitter’s employees — or 5,600 people — Rebecca writes, citing a Bloomberg report.

Apple’s Elon problem: Darrell’s headline says it all: “Elon’s problem at Twitter could soon become Elon’s problem at Apple.” The fact is that this week Apple updated its guidelines for developers, one of which “collects rent from the revenue generated by social networks from advertised posts.”

Disabling Argo AI: Autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI, which was valued at $1 billion at launch in 2017, has shut down. Its parts, writes Kirsten Korosets, “are absorbed by two main patrons: Ford and VW.”

Speaking of autonomous vehicles: After news of the Argo AI hit the news, Darrell took to the site to find out that no, there just won’t be any autonomous vehicles.

Worth MrBeast: Amanda asks if MrBeast, or 24-year-old YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, is worth the $1.5 billion he’s valuing his business at.

Meta is in trouble: This is the title. Meta reported its third quarter results this week and they weren’t great. As Taylor writes, “With Instagram’s business side not looking so popular lately, Meta shrunk the meta universe by a factor of five without knowing if it even knows what users want these days. And after changing the name of the company, spoiling a great word in the process, there’s just no going back.” Meta indeed was a very good word.

“Stupid” flaw of Google Pixel 7: Haje took a picture through an airplane window and noticed a reflection caused by the reflective chrome around the phone’s camera lens. “This is a fairly common use case for most photo apps, so it’s increasingly difficult to understand why Google would go out of its way to make the experience worse.”

audio roundup

• incl Own capital this week we’re sharing with you one of Natasha Mascareñas’ Disrupt panels. She spoke with Chief co-founders Lindsay Kaplan and Carolyn Childers about the future of their private membership club for women in leadership.
• More on this week FoundDarrell and Jordan sat down with Shanti Rajan of construction management software company Linarc to discuss entering a slow-changing industry, building a team with global talent, and working with customers to create the most useful product possible.
• And further Chain reactionAnita and Jacqueline talk about Apple’s new App Store guidelines, Reddit’s foray into the NFT space, and whether the UK’s new Prime Minister lives up to the hype he’s received from the crypto community.

techcrunch+

5 tips for getting started in the crowded web3 gaming market. Contributor Corey Wilton explains the steps that will set you apart in your search for capital.

Dismantling the Pitch Deck: Palau Project. Haye doesn’t usually stop the preliminary rounds, but this week he went for it with the Palau Project, founded by pro kitesurfer Jerome Klotens, who is taking on the challenge of climate change.