Techmeme
October 13, 2023, 7:31 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft completes its Activision Blizzard acquisition after a 20-month battle with regulators in the UK and the US; Bobby Kotick will remain CEO through 2023  —  The Verge exclusively reported last week that Microsoft was planning to close today, and now it's official.
Samuel Tolbert / Windows Central:
The UK CMA approves Microsoft's $68.7B Activision Blizzard acquisition, after Microsoft reformed the deal to sell some Activision cloud gaming rights to Ubisoft  —  The final roadblock has been removed.  —  What you need to know  — UK regulatory authority the CMA granted Microsoft approval to purchase Activision Blizzard.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
A look at Microsoft's deal with Ubisoft, which now gets the cloud gaming rights for Call of Duty and current Activision games outside of the EU for 15 years  —  Microsoft's giant Activision Blizzard deal is complete, and it means Ubisoft has now obtained cloud streaming rights for Call of Duty …
Jo Marchant / Nature:
A student wins a contest to read the text inside a carbonized Roman scroll, which had been unreadable since a volcanic eruption in AD 79, using an ML algorithm  —  A 21-year-old computer-science student has won a global contest to read the first text inside a carbonized scroll …
Sarah Fielding / Engadget:
Meta responds to the EU's concerns about Israel-Hamas war misinformation, saying the company formed an operations center, restricted certain hashtags, and more  —  The company has created a new operations center with experts fluent in Hebrew and Arabic.  —  Meta has shared an updated content …
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
CD Projekt used AI to recreate the voice of Miłogost Reczek, a Polish voice actor who died in 2021, for Cyberpunk 2077's new Polish DLC, after asking his family  —  Gamemaker says it consulted with family of the late Miłogost Reczek  —  Polish video game developer CD Projekt SA …
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Tether promotes long-time CTO Paolo Ardoino to CEO, starting in December, and plans to become a “tech-centric organization”; the current CEO will be an advisor  —  - Stablecoin issuer Tether promoted its long-time CTO Paolo Ardoino to CEO as it envisions becoming a “tech-centric organization.”
New York Times:
In five hours of cross-examination, SBF's lawyer did not elicit any revelations or inconsistencies from Caroline Ellison, who said SBF made “terrible mistakes”  —  Mr. Bankman-Fried's lawyers sought to poke holes in Ms. Ellison's testimony, but her account remained largely consistent.
New York Times:
As China-linked Bitcoin mines open across the US, officials raise national security concerns, like about a Wyoming mine that is close to a nuclear missile base  —  Microsoft reported one site in Wyoming because of its proximity to a data center and nuclear missile base.

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Earlier Picks

Ian King / Bloomberg:
Blake Brittain / Reuters:
Sarah Wynn / The Block:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Reuters: