Kanye agrees to buy Parler, Elon Musk reportedly plans mass layoffs at Twitter, and Netflix gets into cloud gaming • TechCrunch

Hey, friends! Welcome again to Week in Assessment, wherever each individual Saturday we recap a handful of the leading TechCrunch stories from the previous seven days. Want it in your inbox? Get it in this article!

This week marked the in-particular person return of TechCrunch Disrupt, with our crew using the clearly show back again into the true globe after two years completely virtual. It was a single helluva demonstrate, with appearances from people today like tennis legend (turned trader) Serena Williams, comedian (also turned trader!) Kevin Hart, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer, and Figma CEO Dylan Area. Congrats to Minerva Lithium for profitable the Startup Battlefield level of competition!

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Google’s Ping-Pong robot: “As if it weren’t enough to have AI tanning humanity’s hide (figuratively for now) at every single board sport in existence,” writes Devin, “Google AI has received a single performing to ruin us all at Ping-Pong as very well.”

Elon expects big Twitter layoffs: Musk reportedly wants to reduce up to 75% of Twitter’s workforce — around 5,600 employment — if/when his acquisition of the business goes via. That range would seem fairly absurd. Even a great deal smaller layoffs have compounding consequences on issues like staff morale and productiveness — just think about the quantity of information/insight that disappears if the majority of a corporation is enable go.

Kanye West is obtaining Parler: Nicely, which is a headline I in no way, ever, ever would’ve predicted. “Kanye West, the rapper who also goes by the identify Ye, has achieved an agreement to acquire ‘uncancelable cost-free speech platform’ Parler,” writes Manish, “in a go [the involved parties say] will assistance people today specific their conservative viewpoints freely.”

Balance AI raises $101 million: The enterprise powering the AI-driven image generator Steady Diffusion and songs-generating program Dance Diffusion has elevated $101 million at a described valuation of $1 billion.

Netflix explores cloud gaming: Just as Google gives up on its cloud gaming endeavours, Netflix is diving in. At Disrupt this week, Netflix’s VP of Gaming explained the business is “seriously discovering a cloud gaming featuring,” saying that Google’s shuttered effort and hard work was a “technical success” with “issues with the business design.”

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Here’s what’s up in TC podcast land this 7 days:

• Fairness was reside and in individual! Immediately after a long time in pandemic mode, the Fairness crew (Alex, Natasha, and Mary Ann) kicked off Disrupt by recording a display experience-to-facial area for the initial time.
• On Located, Darrell and Jordan caught up with Jerrica Kirkley and Matthew Wetschler and figured out the story of Plume, their telehealth company that focuses on transgender care.

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What ended up TC+ users studying most behind the paywall? Here’s a peek:

2023 VC predictions: Right after a wild number of yrs of ups and downs, what will enterprise funds look like in 2023? Contrary Funds founder Eric Tarczynski weighs in.

Ron explores Celonis and its $13 billion valuation: Celonis could not be a identify that absolutely everyone recognizes…but the 11-year-outdated info-processing company has managed to increase billions of pounds in the past several a long time alone. What are they carrying out so ideal? Ron Miller usually takes us on a deep dive.