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Here’s what went on behind the messy and expensive split between Facebook and WhatsApp’s co-founders: Brian Acton and Jan Koum gave up $900 million and $400 million, respectively, when they departed Facebook in the last year. Facebook acquired WhatsApp for $22 billion in 2014, and Koum and Acton butted heads with Facebook over its efforts to further monetize the messaging service; the two companies also clashed over things like desk sizes and bathroom doors. [Kirsten Grind and Deepa Seetharaman / The Wall Street Journal]
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Will Apple ever merge the iPhone and Mac operating systems? That’s a question people have been asking for a long time. Onstage at WWDC this week, Apple’s software chief, Craig Federighi gave a definitive answer — “No” — which was projected in giant white letters on the screen behind him. But … it turns out that Apple has been working for two years on bringing iOS apps to Mac hardware. [Lauren Goode / Wired]
Tesla shareholders voted to let Elon Musk keep both of his jobs — as CEO and chairman of the board. The investors rejected a proposal to split the positions at the Palo Alto automaker. [Dana Hull / Bloomberg]
Facebook acknowledged that it has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including manufacturing giant Huawei, which has been flagged by American intelligence officials as a national security threat. Facebook also gave access to Chinese device makers Lenovo, Oppo and TCL along with other manufacturers — including Amazon, Apple, BlackBerry and Samsung. Facebook said that it would wind down the Huawei deal by the end of the week. [Michael LaForgia and Gabriel J.X. Dance / The New York Times]
SoftBank is in talks to lead a $150 million investment in clinical trial startup Science 37, which helps researchers find participants for medical trials. While it would be one of the Vision Fund’s smaller deals, it would be another sign of the powerful investor’s interest in life sciences and biotech companies during a boom time for those industries. Despite high-profile flops like Theranos, health-tech startups are so popular among venture capitalists that some VCs are leaving well-established funds to focus on biotech full-time. [Theodore Schleifer / Recode]
Cryptocurrency is making its way into the art world in works that explore value, decentralization and the buzz around digital money. Irish conceptual artist Kevin Abosch, who is intrigued by blockchain technology, has begun to think of himself as a coin, so he created 10 million tokens that are digitally connected to his body; a former tech executive recently paid $400,000 — more than the price of a real Lamborghini — for a neon sculpture that Abosch made of a blockchain address that symbolized Lamborghinis. The work is a reference to a half-serious joke in the crypto community about using profits to buy Lambos. [Sophie Haigney / The New York Times]
Recode Presents
Do you have questions about iOS 12, Memoji, 32-person FaceTime calls or anything else Apple announced this week at WWDC 2018? Send them to us for this week’s Too Embarrassed to Ask podcast! Tweet us your questions with the hashtag #TooEmbarrassed or email them to TooEmbarrassed@recode.net before 12 pm PT / 3 pm ET today.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
