UK-based news site The Guardian hit by ransomware attack, editor says • TechCrunch

For a preview of the biggest and most important stories from TechCrunch delivered to your inbox every day at 3:00 PM PDT,subscribe here.

This is the most wonderful moment of yeeeaaar. Today, we’ve ducked the work to explore the weirdest subgenres of holiday music. The Christmas trap is one thing. Christopher Lee (yes this Christopher Lee, Saruman in “Lord of the Rings”) recorded a heavy metal Christmas album, which is truly awful. Spinal Tap also did a holiday song, which… I mean. And neither are we bowled over by disco Christmas or those goats singing “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”…

Anyway . . . What are your favorite holiday tunes out of left field? Answers on an electronic postcard, please! — Christina and haje

TechCrunch’s top 3

• Extra, extra, read all about it: The British newspaper The Guardian has confirmed that it has been hit by ransomware following strange incidents that the newspaper began noticing in its IT infrastructure. Carly see you.
• Children, get your parents’ permission: If you’re a kid in the 80s, you might remember we were constantly reminded to “ask your parents for permission to…” Well, Google has now instituted something similar for Google Play, allowing children to send purchase requests to their guardians, Ivan written.
• Some light reading for the new year: Anne and alexander collected them and now shares some of the books that startup founders and venture capitalists couldn’t put down this year. Good reading!

Startups and VCs

Carl Eschenbach, a longtime enterprise software executive who joined Sequoia Capital in 2016 and later led a number of lucrative deals for the venture capital firm, is returning to an operating role, Connie reports. As the new co-CEO of Workday, Eschenbach will co-lead the enterprise cloud applications giant with co-CEO, co-founder and company president Aneel Bhusri, until 2024, when Eschenbach will take over as CEO. Single CEO.

You know what? We have a few more:

How to get the most out of your investor relations in 2023

As Santa goes through his list of who’s been naughty and nice, it’s also a good time for startup founders to take stock of their investor relations.

Sorenson Ventures Partner Vidya Raman has written a TC+ article with the do’s and don’ts for upcoming board meetings and her thoughts on which communication channels are best for different requests for help , as well as specific data points to raise in your discussions. .

“Be ruthless about how you spend your time,” he advises, “especially with your investors.”

Three others from the TC+ team:

Tech Crunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get a head start. You can register here. Use code “DC” to get 15% off an annual subscription!

Big Tech inc.

In July, the Federal Trade Commission sued Meta over its proposed acquisition of virtual reality company Within. This week it was Mark Zuckerberg’s turn at the helm, and Amanda has the details.

Now let’s move on to Tesla, where Darrell reports that the automaker could proceed with another round of layoffs in the next quarter. This is not the only problem in which the company finds itself. She also has a bit of a share price problem. Rebecca writes that Tesla stock plunged to its lowest level in two years for reasons that include all the Twitter drama and the loss of sales in China.

Here are four more for you: