Daily Crunch: Kanye West reaches agreement to acquire social media platform Parler

Every day at 3 p.m., you'll get a rundown of the biggest and most important stories from the site. Don't forget to subscribe here.

Thank you from the office. Even though we haven't seen the inside of the office for a while, we still have an office. We are getting ready for the event tomorrow. Some of us have been given a sneak peek at the venue. Some of the kids say, "Squeeeeee!"

The TechCrunch Top 3

• “That, that, that don’t kill me, can only make me stronger”: Two of our top stories for today centered on the same topic — Kanye West, who now goes by Ye, surprising us all by announcing he was going to buy the conservative social media site Parler. Manish has the basics on the deal.
• More on Ye: Meanwhile, Darrell takes a look at how similar the deal for Ye to buy Parler is to Elon Musk’s deal to buy Twitter. Hint: billionaire tantrums.
• Flipping over the metaverse: Manish had yet another chart-topper today. Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart unveiled Flipverse, its metaverse shopping experience that is even gamified so users can capture loyalty points called Supercoins.

Startups and VC

Can we celebrate Mary Ann and her wonderful newsletter? She puts the daily crunch team to shame with her deep analysis and summary of what is happening in the world of finance. The edition this week was brilliant. If you want to check it out, there is a clicky-link for that as well.

We wanted to highlight the piece about a bunch of CFOs at high-profile companies quitting, as well as what that says about the overall environment. Is CFOs ok? The answer is yes, but CEOs. She breaks it down in a way that makes it easy to understand.

We love our co- workers. Are you able to tell?

Let's take a look at what else is in the news pile.

2023 VC predictions: Finding an exit from the ‘messy middle’

Eric Tarczynski is the managing partner of Contrary Capital.

He wrote in a guest post that companies can't raise $5 million to $10 million seed rounds with nothing but a deck.

Tarczynski sees an environment where slow M&A activity and no IPOs will temper investor expectations in the years to come.

2023 VC predictions: Finding an exit from the ‘messy middle’

There are three more people from the team.

The membership program helps startup teams get ahead of the game. This is where you can sign up. You can get a 15% discount on an annual subscription.

Big Tech Inc.

If you love shopping with discounts, you'll be happy to know that there's more to it than that. Sarah writes that customers can redeem their points for cash, gift cards or shopping credits with the new program. Consumers will be able to redeem their points directly inside the PayPal app, as well as have new ways to earn, with the new PayPal rewards.

We have more for you.