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

Hey, associates! Welcome again to Week in Assessment, the place each Saturday we recap a handful of the highest TechCrunch tales from the previous seven days. Need it in your inbox? Get it right here!

This week marked the in-person return of TechCrunch Disrupt, with our crew taking the present again into the actual world after two years totally digital. It was one helluva present, with appearances from folks like tennis legend (turned investor) Serena Williams, comic (additionally turned investor!) Kevin Hart, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer, and Figma CEO Dylan Discipline. Congrats to Minerva Lithium for successful the Startup Battlefield competitors!

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Google’s Ping-Pong robotic: “As if it weren’t sufficient to have AI tanning humanity’s cover (figuratively for now) at each board sport in existence,” writes Devin, “Google AI has bought one working to destroy us all at Ping-Pong as properly.”

Elon expects big Twitter layoffs: Musk reportedly needs to chop as much as 75% of Twitter’s workforce — roughly 5,600 jobs — if/when his acquisition of the corporate goes by means of. That quantity appears fairly absurd. Even a lot smaller layoffs have compounding results on issues like crew morale and productiveness — simply think about the quantity of data/perception that disappears if the majority of an organization is let go.

Kanye West is shopping for Parler: Properly, that’s a headline I by no means, ever, ever would’ve predicted. “Kanye West, the rapper who additionally goes by the title Ye, has reached an settlement to purchase ‘uncancelable free speech platform’ Parler,” writes Manish, “in a transfer [the involved parties say] will assist people categorical their conservative opinions freely.”

Stability AI raises $101 million: The corporate behind the AI-powered picture generator Secure Diffusion and music-generating system Dance Diffusion has raised $101 million at a reported valuation of $1 billion.

Netflix explores cloud gaming: Simply as Google offers up on its cloud gaming efforts, Netflix is diving in. At Disrupt this week, Netflix’s VP of Gaming stated the corporate is “severely exploring a cloud gaming providing,” saying that Google’s shuttered effort was a “technical success” with “points with the enterprise mannequin.”

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Right here’s what’s up in TC podcast land this week:

• Fairness was stay and in particular person! After years in pandemic mode, the Fairness crew (Alex, Natasha, and Mary Ann) kicked off Disrupt by recording a present face-to-face for the primary time.
• On Discovered, Darrell and Jordan caught up with Jerrica Kirkley and Matthew Wetschler and discovered the story of Plume, their telehealth firm that focuses on transgender care.

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What have been TC+ members studying most behind the paywall? Right here’s a peek:

2023 VC predictions: After a wild few years of ups and downs, what’s going to enterprise capital appear like in 2023? Opposite Capital founder Eric Tarczynski weighs in.

Ron explores Celonis and its $13 billion valuation: Celonis won’t be a reputation that everybody acknowledges…however the 11-year-old data-processing firm has managed to boost billions of {dollars} in the previous few years alone. What are they doing so proper? Ron Miller takes us on a deep dive.