TechCrunch Top 3

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1. Maximizing shareholder value: Bending Spoons is taking video platform Brightcove private in a deal valued at $233 million. The Baillie Gifford-backed mobile app development company has a track record of buying up notable companies and then slashing their headcounts. Read More

2. Banding together: The U.K. is funding a new AI security research lab that's designed to counter Russia in the "new AI arms race," but it needs help from the private sector and other allied countries. Read More

3. In this economy? For early-stage VCs, a startup with an executive assistant on the payroll, or a founder with a $200,000 salary is a red flag. Because, this isn't 2021. VCs are actually doing due diligence now, so don't burn your cash up in one place. Read More

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Morning must-reads

Image Credits: TechCrunch

🙅 Anti-founder mode: We talked to Marc Lore, founder of Wonder Group, about his plans to take his food delivery company public and his management philosophy. More's thoughts on founder mode? He'd rather focus on vision alignment, and trusts his managers to handle the day-to-day stuff. Read More

⏯️ Press play: PlayAI lets customers either choose from an existing voice or even clone a voice to integrate text-to-speech into their apps, for everything from AI agents to PDF-to-podcast. The tech is pretty good, maybe too good, as once again it creates fertile ground for deepfakes. Read More

🕷️ The hacky wacky spider: U.S. authorities have caught some of hackers from the "Scattered Spider" group that is said to be behind cyberattacks against Okta, MGM Resorts, Coinbase, and more. Many of these renegades are in their teens and early 20s. Read More

📺 Will we finally get a real Apple TV? Despite its set-top box, Apple is yet to make an actual TV. The project has been on and off the table for years, but now, as Apple develops more smart home devices, a true Apple TV could be back on the cards. Read More

💸 Latin American fintech will be a market to watch in 2025. That might be surprising, given the drop in funding in the region, but some VCs think there's nowhere to go but up. The data supports that momentum swing, just in time for startups that raised in 2021 to raise again next year. Read More

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Around the web

🤑 For the billionaires, by the billionaires: Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy want to use DOGE to gut the federal workforce and slash hundreds of billions in federal funding. And they've signed new recruits, like Joe Lonsdale, Marc Andreessen, Bill Ackman and Travis Kalanick, reports The Washington Post. Read More

🧑‍💻 Is coding still safe? In a world where AI can now build software for companies, coding bootcamps would soon no longer be the golden ticket to well-paying jobs they once were. The New York Times breaks it down, alongside advice for the next generation of entry-level coders. Read More

🪙 Not-so-stable coin: A money laundering organization that's connected to cartels in Mexico and Colombia has moved tens of millions of dollars, in part by using cryptocurrencies like Tether (USDT) to wash money, reports 404 Media. Read More

Before you go

Image Credits: Apple TV+

❌ Keep your money! George Clooney and Brad Pitt co-starred in a movie called "Wolfs" that Apple released two months ago. Apple announced a sequel, but the film's writer and director Jon Watts has handed the money back and canceled the project after realizing he "no longer trusted [Apple] as a creative partner." Read More