Techmeme
January 19, 2022, 2:05 AM

Top News

Microsoft:
Microsoft plans to acquire Activision Blizzard for $68.7B in cash, or $95/share, in FY 2023; Activision's stock, which closed last week at $65.39, jumps 25%+  —  Legendary games, immersive interactive entertainment and publishing expertise accelerate growth in Microsoft's Gaming business across mobile, PC, console and cloud.
More: Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Activision Publishing, New York Times, The Verge, CNBC, Kotaku, VentureBeat, The Verge, Bloomberg, BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC, Microsoft, TechRadar, Neowin, Forbes, SegmentNext, Financial Times, TechCabal, Born's Tech and Windows World, The Shortcut, Livy's Newsletter, Cointelegraph, PR Newswire, The Hollywood Reporter, Financial Times, Blockworks, MSPoweruser, Ars Technica, Bloomberg, LinkedIn, Engadget, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Entechtainment, Digital Trends, Dot Esports, Game Rant, thegamer.com, Polygon, PYMNTS.com, Bitcoinist.com, Slate, dot.LA, PC Gamer, Protocol, Dexerto, Android Headlines, and CNBC
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says Xbox Game Pass has 25M subscribers, up from 18M in January 2021  —  Microsoft's all-you-can-eat catalog of games is getting bigger, and now it's adding Activision Blizzard  —  Microsoft's Xbox Game Pass service now has 25 million subscribers.
Peter Kafka / Vox:
Following several game studio acquisitions, Microsoft's Activision Blizzard deal faces a big regulatory hurdle with Lina Khan's antitrust-focused FTC  —  Microsoft-Activision is like Disney-Fox.  Maybe bigger.  —  Microsoft is buying Activision Blizzard for $69 billion.
CNBC:
Apple and Google warn of harmful consequences to user privacy and security from two proposed Senate antitrust bills scheduled to be considered this week  —  - Apple warned in a letter on Tuesday that antitrust bills being considered in the Senate would increase the risk of security breaches to iPhone users.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Democratic lawmakers unveil the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act, which would ban targeted ads but allow broad location-based and contextual ads  —  It could reshape the entire tech industry  —  On Tuesday, Democrats introduced a new bill that would ban nearly all use …
Wall Street Journal:
AT&T and Verizon temporarily restrict 5G expansion near US airports, but a few airlines will still suspend some flights on Wednesday amid Boeing's guidance  —  Flight suspensions occur even as AT&T and Verizon agree to limit signals within 2 miles of runways to address air-safety concerns
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
The FTC and DOJ seek public comment on how to rewrite “the antitrust laws regarding mergers”, signaling a potentially tougher stance toward Big Tech deals  —  - The Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice Antitrust Division kicked off a process to rewrite merger guidelines for businesses on Tuesday.
Andrew Asmakov / Decrypt:
Crypto.com halted withdrawals on Monday and required users to sign back in and reset 2FA; research shows it lost 4,600+ ETH, worth ~$15M, in a presumed hack  —  The crypto exchange has reportedly lost at least $15 million in Ethereum, and security experts believe the true losses could be much higher.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube says it's winding down YouTube Originals after six years and will only fund programs that are part of its Black Voices and YouTube Kids Funds  —  YouTube is getting out of the business of originals: The Google-owned video giant said it is winding down its original productions team after more than six years.
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
OpenSea acquires crypto lending APIs startup Dharma Labs, which will shutter its wallet in 30 days; source says the deal was valued between $110M and $130M  —  Quick Take  — OpenSea confirms acquisition of Dharma Labs  — Dharma Lab's Hollander picked for CTO role
Jeffrey Knockel / The Citizen Lab:
China's MY2022 Olympics app, mandatory for attendees to report travel and health data, has serious encryption flaws and contains a censorship keyword list  —  Key Findings  — MY2022, an app mandated for use by all attendees of the 2022 Olympic Games in Beijing, has a simple but devastating flaw …
Kenrick Cai / Forbes:
Ironclad, which helps companies create and manage business contracts, raises a $150M Series E entirely from existing investors at a $3.2B valuation  —  Jason Boehmig spent two years as a lawyer in Silicon Valley, putting together documents for startups, before he had enough of the clunkiness of the job.
Kate Rooney / CNBC:
The US OCC and Federal Reserve approve SoFi's bid to become a bank holding company via its Golden Pacific Bancorp acquisition; SoFi stock jumps 16%+ after hours  —  - San Francisco-based SoFi got approval from its two key regulators to become a bank holding company.
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Survey finds that 76% of Chinese citizens and 68% of Indians say they trust AI companies compared to only 35% in France, the UK, and the US  —  For many outside the tech world, “data” means soulless numbers.  Perhaps it causes their eyes to glaze over with boredom.
Aastha Maheshwari / DealStreetAsia:
Indonesia's Moladin, which pivoted to a used car and motorbike marketplace in mid-2021, raises a $42M Series A led by Northstar Group and Sequoia Capital India  —  Moladin, an Indonesian marketplace for used cars and motorbikes, has announced the close of its $42 million Series A funding round …
Charlize Alcaraz / BetaKit:
Financial data and analytics startup Canalyst raises a $70M Series C led by Dragoneer Investment Group, bringing its total funding to over $100M  —  The round brings Canalyst's total funding to over $100 million.  —  Vancouver and New York-based Canalyst has raised $70 million USD …
Chris Stokel-Walker / MIT Technology Review:
A look at Tonga's internet blackout following the volcano blast, which initial investigations suggest destroyed the country's single undersea internet cable  —  The world is anxiously awaiting news from the island—but on top of the physical destruction, the eruption has disconnected it from the internet.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 6: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) How To Know When To Kill Your Startup
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:05 AM ET, January 19, 2022.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Tomer Ganon / CTech:

Earlier Picks

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Ashley Rodriguez / Insider: