The SEC charged blood-testing startup Theranos and its high-profile CEO, Elizabeth Holmes, with defrauding investors. The SEC claims that Theranos raised more than $700 million from investors through fraudulent claims. Holmes has agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty, give up majority voting control of the company and will be barred from serving as an officer at a public company for a decade. Here’s how Holmes and company first responded to the 2015 Wall Street Journal exposé that raised doubts about the blood-testing company’s claims. [Colin Lecher / The Verge]
Recode Daily: High-profile Theranos CEO Elizabeth Holmes has been charged with fraud by the SEC
Plus, the CFO of Boxed leaves as the company looks at acquisition offers, Toys ‘R’ Us is closing all of its 700 U.S. stores, and extraordinary human Stephen Hawking, in his own words.
Forbes
Leaked documents reveal data about Amazon’s video program. Most interesting: Amazon, which spent at least $5 billion on video content last year, served up movies and TV shows to 26 million people in the U.S. [Reuters]
The CFO of wholesale grocery startup Boxed is leaving the company as it explores acquisition offers. Naeem Ishaq, who joined Boxed from Square, is the third executive to leave the company in recent months. In January, grocery giant Kroger explored an acquisition of Boxed for $400 million; Boxed has since had discussions with Amazon, Alibaba and Costco. [Ruth Reader / Fast Company]
YouTube didn’t tell Wikipedia it was going to use Wikipedia to fact-check its videos. Why not? [The Verge]
Warby Parker is valued at $1.75 billion after announcing a pre-IPO investment of $75 million. The eight-year-old online eyewear retailer has now raised nearly $300 million. [Jason Del Rey / Recode]
Bankrupt big-box retailer Toys ‘R’ Us told its 33,000 employees yesterday that it will shutter all of its 700 or so remaining U.S. stores. And iHeartMedia, the giant radio conglomerate, has also filed for bankruptcy. [Phil Wahba / Fortune]
Mainstream news organizations are finally discovering online trolling — “the joy of disrupting another’s emotional equilibrium,” as Mattathias Schwartz put it in a colorful exposé of the phenomenon. Last week, MIT released a blockbuster study of “false news,” which concluded, among other things, that it was more novel than true news, and spreads more than the truth because humans, not robots, are more likely to spread it. Take a scroll through the long, lulz-filled history of web harassment, internet deception and rhetorical performance dating back to the Usenet groups late ’80s — and the physical reactions that clue you in: “Oh, yeah, I’m being trolled.” [Virginia Heffernan / Wired]
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Facebook finally suspended the anti-Muslim political group that President Trump retweeted last year.
Britain First shared posts “designed to incite animosity and hated against minority groups,” Facebook says. So they’re out.
He’ll remain at Greylock as a venture partner.
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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