In 2022, uncertainty continued: Major acquisitions took place, layoffs swept the tech industry and Elon Musk bought Twitter.
While that last one may not have been on your 2022 bingo card, it certainly caused quite a bit of commotion here at TechCrunch — and got us talking. This year, a big trend for us was doing “three views” and other collaboration pieces. It’s a fun way for us to work with our colleagues while offering differing opinions about trending topics in the tech space. Here are some of our favorites:
3 views on Amazon’s $3.9B acquisition of One Medical
Earlier this year, Amazon acquired One Medical for $3.9 billion, yes that’s billion with a B. We gathered some TechCrunch+ staff to get their thoughts on the purchase. Alex Wilhelm was skeptical because, frankly, he doesn’t want Amazon as his health provider. Miranda Halpern (me, hello, hi) felt that this acquisition followed a logical progression for Amazon since it entered the healthcare space in 2018. Walter Thompson saw this as a chance for Amazon to accrete additional mass.
Should Oracle or Alphabet buy VMware instead of Broadcom?
VMware was freed from Dell in April 2022, and Alex and Ron Miller wrote about who they think may buy it. In May, the Broadcom-VMware deal was a go, but Alex and Ron found themselves on opposite sides of a hypothetical — would a higher price or another bidder make sense? Alex didn’t feel that VMware deserved a higher price and Ron thought that the company’s value was higher than its financial results at the time.
3 views: Thoughts on Flow
We’ve all heard by now that the reason millennials won’t be able to purchase a home is that they keep buying avocado toast. As a zillenial, I disagree with the avocado toast sentiment, partially because I’m allergic to avocados but mainly because homes are no longer affordable. Adam Neumann’s latest startup, Flow, backed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), aims to revolutionize the rental industry. Tim De Chant, Dominic-Madori Davis and Amanda Silberling shared their thoughts on whether Flow will make a difference — and whether Neumann even deserved the VC funding at all.
3 views: Pay attention to these startup theses in 2022
In 2022, Alex predicted that open source would become the de facto startup model. Natasha Mascarenhas posited everything would be hybridized. Anna Heim, meantime, suggested a majority of SaaS companies would adopt usage-based pricing. While some of their predictions for 2022 came true, some fell short. In true TechCrunch fashion, they followed up this article by predicting 2023’s key startup themes. We’ll check back in a year to see how well they stood the test of time.
TechCrunch staff on what we lose if we lose Twitter
Where would you scream into the void if Twitter were to disappear (read: die)? While that may be the question for some people, others would miss it for more important reasons. Dominic would miss the community aspect of Twitter, specifically Black Twitter. “The memes are endless, as is the support — and the heat — we give and place onto people and topics. It was a place to find community in a world so unkind to us. It really does feel like its own universe sometimes,” she wrote. Check out the full article to see what Ron, Amanda, Christine Hall, Paul Sawers, Natasha, Ivan Mehta and Alex worry about losing if Twitter goes belly up.