Denmark-based Podimo, a subscription service for podcasts and audiobooks, raised €58.6M led by 83North, Highland, and Saban, bringing its total funding to €162M (Todd Spangler/Variety)

J. Clara Chan / The Hollywood Reporter:
Spotify launches an audiobooks service in the US with 300,000 titles, letting users purchase and download individual books to play in its app  —  The audio giant, which is offering 300,000 audiobooks for purchase at launch, is positioning its books service as separate from its Premium subscription for music and podcasts.

Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube’s Q3 ad revenue dropped 1.9% YoY to $7.07B, below expectations of $7.42B and marking YouTube’s slowest ad growth in at least two years  —  Overall, Alphabet, Google’s parent company, also came in below analyst estimates.  The company posted revenue of $69.1 billion and earnings per share of $1.06 for Q3.

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku reports Q3 revenue up 12% YoY to $761.4M vs. $694M est., 21.9B streaming hours, and 2.3M streaming accounts added; stock drops 17%+ on weak Q4 guidance  —  Roku handily topped Wall Street estimates for the third quarter of 2022, as the streaming platform and media company packed …

Jiaxing Li / South China Morning Post:
A look at Shanghai’s status as China’s chip hub: SMIC and SMEE making 14nm and 90nm chips, ~$36.95B market size in 2021 or ~25% of China’s total, and more  —  Shanghai is styling itself as China’s semiconductor highland with the city now accounting for one quarter of the country’s semiconductor value output …

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Elon Musk seeks to reassure Twitter advertisers, arguing his goal is not “to make more money” and the service “cannot become a free-for-all hellscape”  —  Mega-billionaire Elon Musk, nearing the finish line in his rocky takeover of Twitter, posted an open letter …

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku updates its $30 Roku Express streaming player, launches the $130 Roku Wireless Bass subwoofer, and details Roku OS 11.5, including a short-form content hub  —  Roku unveiled a software update to its streaming operating system — OS 11.5 — that among other features will introduce …