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1. John Legere is stepping down as CEO of T-Mobile, succeeded by deputy Mike Sievert on May 1
Sievert, who’s currently T-Mobile’s COO, will become chief executive on May 1, 2020. Legere will remain on the company’s board.
This only adds fuel to speculation that Legere will be taking over as CEO of embattled co-working company WeWork. The initial reports that Legere might be making a move prompted sources to push back and say he had no plans to leave T-Mobile, but it seems clear now that they were misinformed …
2. Yahoo Japan and Line Corp confirm merger agreement
SoftBank and Naver, the owner of Line, will each own 50% of a new holding company that will operate Line and Z Holdings (formerly known as Yahoo Japan). By uniting, SoftBank and Naver hope that they will better position search portal Yahoo Japan, Line’s messaging app and their other businesses to compete with rivals in the U.S. and China.
3. The man behind Bezos’ next lunar guidance system talks future tech
TechCrunch sat down with Ken Gabriel, who is regarded as the “godfather” of MEMs — miniaturized and integrated mechanical and electrical technology, which helps phones orient themselves, car airbags know when to fire and biomedical devices save lives. (Extra Crunch Membership required.)
4. SmartNews raises $92M at a $1.2B valuation
Looks like there’s still money to be made in news aggregation — at least according to the investors backing the news app SmartNews.
5. Microsoft announces changes to cloud contract terms following EU privacy probe
Specifically, Microsoft is accepting greater data protection responsibilities. The changes to contractual terms will apply globally and to all of Microsoft’s commercial cloud customers — whether public or private sector entity, or large or small business.
6. Opera’s Africa fintech startup OPay gains $120M from Chinese investors
Nigeria has become the epicenter for fintech VC and expansion in Africa. And Chinese investors have made an unmistakable pivot to African tech.
7. This week’s TechCrunch podcasts
On the latest episode of Equity, Alex and Kate discuss a new funding round for Docker. And on Original Content, we check out Disney+ and its flagship show “The Mandalorian.”
