Tesla names new board members, Tumblr is back in Indonesia and Reid Hoffman faces scrutiny for funding election-related disinformation. Here's your Daily Crunch for December 28, 2018.

1. Tesla names Oracle’s Larry Ellison, Walgreens executive to board as part of SEC settlement

Tesla has added two independent directors to its board: Oracle founder, chairman and CTO Larry Ellison and Walgreens executive Kathleen Wilson-Thompson, as part of a settlement with U.S. securities regulators over CEO Elon Musk’s infamous tweets about taking the company private.

Ellison isn’t just a Tesla believer, he’s also a friend and ally of Musk. Ellison came to the Tesla CEO's defense during an analyst meeting in October and disclosed that Tesla is his second-largest investment.

2. Indonesia unblocks Tumblr following its ban on adult content

Tumblr (which, like TechCrunch, is owned by Verizon Media Group) announced earlier this month that it would remove all “adult content” from its platform. That decision, which angered many, was a response to Apple removing Tumblr’s app from the iOS Store after child pornography was found within the service.

3. Reid Hoffman denies direct knowledge of funding disinformation in the Alabama Senate race

One of Silicon Valley’s prominent billionaires is in hot water after funding deceptive social media campaigns with echoes of Russia’s own political playbook. Hoffman said he's sorry — but he also maintains that he didn’t know where his money ended up.

4. Grab raises fundraising target to $5B as Southeast Asia’s ride-hailing war heats up

The company, which acquired Uber’s Southeast Asian business earlier this year, is planning to raise as much as $5 billion from its ongoing Series H round, up from an original target of $3 billion, a source told TechCrunch.

5. Smart speakers hit critical mass in 2018

According to a series of reports from RBC Capital Markets analysts released in December, the near doubling of the adoption rate for smart speakers in the U.S. was driven by growth in both Alexa and Google Home devices, while Apple’s HomePod played only a small role.

6. Cap table management tool Carta valued at $800M with new funding

Founded in 2012 by Henry Ward, the Palo Alto-based company plans to use the latest investment to develop its transfer agent and equity administration products so that it can better support startups transitioning into public companies.