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Amazon is creating its own health care company with the help of Berkshire Hathaway and JPMorgan Chase. For now, Amazon and its partners are only rolling this initiative out to their own U.S. employees; the real threat to incumbent health care companies would be if Amazon decided to eventually roll it out more broadly. Here’s a look at what Amazon’s entry into the sector looks like by the numbers. [Jason Del Rey / Recode]
Facebook is banning all ads promoting cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin. The “intentionally broad” policy is an effort to prevent advertisers — even legal, legit businesses — from promoting what Facebook calls “financial products and services frequently associated with misleading or deceptive promotional practices.” The crypto ban is just the latest kind of verboten ad on Facebook — here’s a quick sampling of other “prohibited content.” [Kurt Wagner / Recode]
The biggest players in technology and the five largest U.S. companies by market cap — Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook — report earnings in the next two days. Here’s a preview of Facebook’s report, which is out this afternoon, along with Microsoft. [Kristy Westgard / Bloomberg]
On-demand dog-walking service Wag is replacing its CEO and accepting $300 million in cash from SoftBank’s massive, tech-focused Vision Fund, which will take a 45 percent stake in the company and two seats on the board. [Theodore Schleifer / Recode]
Fox is buying the rights to the NFL’s Thursday night games, and will pay “significantly more” than the $450 million CBS and NBC paid for this year’s games — even though NFL ratings look like they are in permanent decline. [Bloomberg]
Recode Presents ...
Rose McGowan was one of the first women to publicly accuse Harvey Weinstein of sexually assaulting her, and since then she has been one of the most outspoken figures in the #MeToo movement. Her new book, “Brave,” tells her story in her own words, and the upcoming documentary “Citizen Rose” will bring it to TV. And McGowan is joining us — along with an impressive roster of speakers — at Code Media in February. You should be there, too.
Top stories from Recode
New FCC rules will require wireless companies to deliver emergency alerts more accurately.
The agency also offered an update as to what happened in Hawaii earlier this month.
Mobile game company Scopely is now valued at around $800 million.
The Los Angeles-based company claims more than 125 million active players.
Social relationships, she adds, will remain human.
Tech’s crisis is way bigger than Russia.
On the latest episode of Recode Decode, New America fellow Dipayan Ghosh and senior advisor Ben Scott talk with Recode’s Kara Swisher about their new policy paper, “Digital Deceit: The Technologies Behind Precision Propaganda on the Internet.”
This is cool
Here’s Recode’s take on President Donald Trump’s first-ever State of the Union speech. And here’s the speech itself. Although he singled out Apple for praise for investing in the U.S., the president conspicuously didn’t have much to say about tech issues. With the SOTU fresh in the memory, read this viewer’s guide to Trump — by a guy who plays him on TV.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
