Six-hundred million in its latest funding round means that payments company Stripe’s valuation now tops $95 billion, “making it the most valuable start-up in the United States” - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and MarketWatch
Popular but strapped communications app Telegram, on the other hand, is in desperate need of advertisers and oh, say, $700 million or so - WSJ
Chinese tech giant Xiaomi has secured a federal court ruling blocking enforcement of a U.S. ban on its technology, casting “doubt on the Pentagon’s decision in January to designate Xiaomi as a company with links to the Chinese military” - WSJ and Law360
After decades of being slowly starved of federal funds, state, local, and tribal governments are about to find themselves flush with American Rescue Plan funds—some $350 billion worth. So what’s on tap after the budget holes are plugged and pandemic-related costs are satisfied? Long-overdue civic initiatives, for starters - NYTimes
And while we’re feeling rosy, how about a spate of reasons from The Upshot to be optimistic about American economic growth - NYTimes
Meet [with a veil of anonymity, of course] the whistleblower largely responsible for the new DOJ allegations unveiled last week accusing Credit Suisse of continuing to “help[] rich Americans hide their wealth from tax collectors,” seven years after the bank paid $2.6 billion and promised federal officials it would stop the practice and close a series of offending accounts - NYTimes
As we hit the year mark for the pandemic label, the Journal looks back at March 2020, the “month coronavirus unraveled American business” - WSJ
Stewart Bainum, the Maryland hotel exec who led the charge to create a nonprofit organization to buy and run the Baltimore Sun as part of a spinoff from the Alden Global/Tribune Publishing deal, is reportedly throwing a wrench in plans over a disagreement with Alden and may make “a bid for all of Tribune Publishing” himself - NYTimes
A “long-simmering” dispute between Microsoft and Google boiled over on Friday in an unusually public way at a hearing about the effect of tech giants on the news industry, with Microsoft President Brad Smith calling out Google by name in his prepared remarks and eliciting a near-immediate response from a top Google exec - WSJ
Former Theranos chief Elizabeth Holmes revealed last week that she’s pregnant, and she and prosecutors have reached a deal to push back her trial by several months—an agreement that still needs court blessing – Law360
The Journal explores how Shopify is providing a means for small- and medium-sized retailers to fight Amazon without having to sell to consumers directly - WSJ
The unlikely alliance between a pirate (Sir Francis Drake) and a queen (Elizabeth I) as a driving force behind what would become the British Empire? Perhaps a bit of a stretch, but well worth a read anyway in the hands of Nigel Cliff - NYTimes
Stay safe.
