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Hootsuite restructuring, laying off 30 percent of employees (BETAKIT)
The company confirmed the layoffs to BetaKit, with a statement from CEO Tom Keiser noting that the Hootsuite “made the difficult decision to restructure the company and reduce our global workforce by 30%,” citing a need to “refocus” on efficiency, growth, and financial sustainability.
Snap is planning to lay off employees (THE VERGE)
The planned cuts come after the company recently delivered disappointing earnings results and didn’t forecast earnings for the third quarter — news that sent its stock price cratering to near-all-time lows.
Bootstrapped since 2008, Evidence Partners closes $20 million to tackle automated literature review market (BETAKIT)
The Canadian tech firm helps organizations streamline the medical research process with its literature review automation platform, DistillerSR. Evidence Partners currently serves over 300 research organizations, and claims to cater to more than 60 percent of the world’s largest pharma and medical device companies.
This Is the Data Facebook Gave Police to Prosecute a Teenager for Abortion (VICE)
Motherboard has obtained court documents that show Facebook gave police a teenager’s private chats about her abortion. Cops then used those chats to seize her phone and computer.
Market watch: Magnet Forensics, Thinkific (BETAKIT)
Magnet Forensics shores up its bottom line as Thinkific focuses on a return to profitability.
HR tech startup Humi acquires SaaS scheduling startup Ameego (BETAKIT)
“As we continued to scale Humi’s product suite we came to a decision point: build or buy scheduling functionality,” said Simon Bourgeois, CEO and co-founder of Humi. “We had gotten to know Ameego over several years and knew there was no better team or product to execute this essential piece of Humi’s product roadmap.”
Overtime Scores Huge $100M Series D At $500M Valuation (CRUNCHBASE)
Overtime is trying to create a large sports community—mainly focused on Gen Z and millennials—around sports video and highlights on social media channels. The company takes videos of high school games from fans and posts them to accounts that have tens of millions of followers.
Dooly latest Vancouver startup to cut staff amid broader market downturn (BETAKIT)
Dooly CEO Kris Hartvigsen announced the layoffs in a LinkedIn post this week, describing the staff reduction as a “recognition of [his] failure to insulate them from the economic turbulence.”
“As a CEO, and a family-first person, frankly, today sucked,” Hartvigsen’s statement reads. “I know that rings hollow to those who are now looking for new work, but I considered each of them to be a part of my work-family.”
Wix lays off 100 (GLOBES)
Wix, which allows customers to build and manage websites, will publish its second quarter financial results tomorrow and analysts forecast a non-GAAP net loss earnings per share of $0.42. The company itself has forecast revenue of $342-346 million, 8%-10% higher than the corresponding quarter of 2021.
Market watch: Q4 Inc., E Inc., Goeasy Ltd., BBTV Holdings Inc. (BETAKIT)
Q4 Inc. claims to be accelerating its path to profitability, while BBTV sustains losses as YouTube growth slows.
Amid backlash from privacy advocates, Meta expands end-to-end encryption trial (ARS TECHNICA)
Meta first rolled out E2EE in 2016 in its WhatsApp and Messenger apps, with the former providing it by default and the latter offering it as an opt-in feature.
The company said it expects to make E2EE the default setting in Messenger by sometime next year. The Instagram messenger, meanwhile, doesn’t offer E2EE at all.
Canalyst acquired by Chicago-based Tegus in massive BC tech exit (BETAKIT)
The deal was announced today. Multiple sources familiar with the deal that requested anonymity as they are not permitted to speak publicly about its financial terms told BetaKit that Canalyst was bought for between $400 million and $500 million CAD.