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Happy Friday! hi enjoy some rest on the east coast so i run alone. As you can see from Elon Musk’s not-so-surprising move last night and the sheer number of Twitter stories from our fantastic consumer tech team today, it’s all been Twitter all day. We promise to give you a little bit of that, of course, and a little bit of what else we’ve been working on. Let’s dive in, shall we? — Christine
The ukbusinessupdates.com Top 3
- Flying in the public coop: Now that Elon Musk owns Twitter, the days are numbered as a publicly traded company. In reality, Ivan writes, Twitter will be delisted on November 8 – the day of voting for the US midterm elections.
- Cages the bird: Over to Europe, where Musk had only been in possession of Twitter for a few hours, Musk was already on the wrong side of European Union officials, who corrected him after tweeting about how free he thinks Twitter is now . Natasha L has more.
- Big Tweet Chef: Reports now say Musk will take on the CEO role for himself, Ivan writes after he ousted the four top executives from Twitteras reported by Amanda.
For more blue bird news, head over to the Big Tech Inc. section, where we’ve got you covered.
Startups and VC
Unfortunately, the hits keep coming for 54gene, an African genomics startup focused on providing more African genetic material to pharmaceutical research – there is now just 3%, Tage reports. After several months of layoffs and a CEO departure, the company confirmed that it has not only made another round of layoffs – this time of 100 people – but that it has also lowered its valuation by more than $100 million.
And we have three more for you:
- robot riot: Galen Robotics has a new robot that will assist with ear, nose and throat operations. Oh, and it brought in $15 million in new funding, Andrew reports.
- Follow the yellow paved road: Game studio Hidden Door uses narrative AI to turn fiction into immersive role-playing experiences, and Rebecca writes that it is testing “The Wizard of Oz”.
- Does anyone else use this word?: I was delighted to see that there is a company called Skidattl. The company uses augmented reality to show users what people around them are doing, in what Rebecca writes is “like a Bat signal for fun.”
5 ways biotech startups can reduce the risk of long-term sustainable growth
Image Credits: jayk7 (Opens in a new window) / Getty Images
Thanks to R&D and clinical trials, life science startups have long lead times before they can bring their capital-intensive products to market.
“But,” asks Omar Khalil, a partner at Santé Ventures, “what happens if funding suddenly dries up?”
In a guest post for TC+, he shares five strategies for biotech startups trying to stay warm this coming winter.
“It’s too early to know if this is a near-term correction, or if it’s a new normal that will be maintained for the foreseeable future.”
Three more from the TC+ team:
ukbusinessupdates.com+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams stay ahead of the curve. You can register here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!
Big Tech Inc.
As promised, we have even more Twitter news to enjoy. As I write this, several of my colleagues hopped on Twitter Spaces to talk about all of this. One of the latest news from Taylor was that Elon Musk was forming a content moderation “council” to make certain decisions — for example, about restoring accounts for, cough, Donald Trump. Here are two more:
Stay tuned for more earnings reports:
And we have four more for you:
