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 Evaluation, in which each and every Saturday we recap a handful of the top TechCrunch tales from the past 7 days. Want it in your inbox? Get it right here!

This week marked the in-man or woman return of TechCrunch Disrupt, with our group using the show again into the true planet right after two many years entirely digital. It was one helluva exhibit, with appearances from people like tennis legend (turned trader) Serena Williams, comic (also turned investor!) Kevin Hart, Lyft co-founder John Zimmer, and Figma CEO Dylan Subject. Congrats to Minerva Lithium for winning the Startup Battlefield level of competition!

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Google’s Ping-Pong robot: “As if it weren’t more than enough to have AI tanning humanity’s conceal (figuratively for now) at each individual board match in existence,” writes Devin, “Google AI has got a single performing to destroy us all at Ping-Pong as perfectly.”

Elon expects big Twitter layoffs: Musk reportedly wants to reduce up to 75% of Twitter’s workforce — around 5,600 careers — if/when his acquisition of the corporation goes by way of. That quantity looks quite absurd. Even substantially more compact layoffs have compounding consequences on issues like workforce morale and productiveness — just consider the sum of information/insight that disappears if the bulk of a firm is allow go.

Kanye West is purchasing Parler: Very well, that is a headline I in no way, ever, ever would’ve predicted. “Kanye West, the rapper who also goes by the identify Ye, has arrived at an arrangement to purchase ‘uncancelable cost-free speech platform’ Parler,” writes Manish, “in a move [the involved parties say] will help people express their conservative opinions freely.”

Stability AI raises $101 million: The company powering the AI-powered image generator Stable Diffusion and new music-making system Dance Diffusion has raised $101 million at a documented valuation of $1 billion.

Netflix explores cloud gaming: Just as Google gives up on its cloud gaming initiatives, Netflix is diving in. At Disrupt this 7 days, Netflix’s VP of Gaming mentioned the business is “seriously exploring a cloud gaming supplying,” expressing that Google’s shuttered effort and hard work was a “technical success” with “issues with the enterprise product.”

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

• Equity was are living and in human being! Just after a long time in pandemic manner, the Fairness crew (Alex, Natasha, and Mary Ann) kicked off Disrupt by recording a display face-to-confront for the first time.
• On Identified, Darrell and Jordan caught up with Jerrica Kirkley and Matthew Wetschler and learned the story of Plume, their telehealth enterprise that focuses on transgender care.

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What had been TC+ users examining most guiding the paywall? Here’s a peek:

2023 VC predictions: Immediately after a wild couple a long time of ups and downs, what will enterprise capital glance like in 2023? Contrary Capital founder Eric Tarczynski weighs in.

Ron explores Celonis and its $13 billion valuation: Celonis might not be a identify that all people recognizes…but the 11-12 months-aged info-processing business has managed to elevate billions of bucks in the previous number of several years by itself. What are they accomplishing so right? Ron Miller can take us on a deep dive.