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March 12, 2025, 6:40 PM
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Top News

Bhanvi Satija / Reuters:
Intel appoints former board member Lip-Bu Tan as CEO, effective March 18; INTC jumps 11%+ after hours  —  Struggling U.S. chipmaker Intel (INTC.O) on Wednesday named former board member Lip-Bu Tan as its CEO effective March 18, more than two months after the it ousted company veteran Pat Gelsinger.
Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
Niantic Labs says it is selling its video game division, including Pokémon Go, to Saudi Arabia-owned developer Scopely for $3.5B, subject to regulatory approval  —  The $3.5 billion Scopely deal could bring Niantic's AR gaming catalog under Saudi ownership.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google unveils Gemma 3, the “world's best single-accelerator model”, running on a single GPU, in 1B, 4B, 12B, and 27B sizes, and says it outperforms Llama-405B  —  Following version 1 in February 2024 and 2 in May, Google today announced Gemma 3 as its latest open model for developers.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google DeepMind launches two AI models, Gemini 2.0-based Robotics and Robotics-ER, to help robots “perform a wider range of real-world tasks than ever before”  —  Gemini Robotics also makes robots more dexterous, allowing them to perform more precise tasks, like folding a piece of paper.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sources: Sonos has abandoned plans to release a streaming video player, which was set to be the company's major hardware launch in 2025  —  The device, codenamed Pinewood, was set to be the company's major hardware launch in 2025. … Sonos has abandoned plans to release a streaming video player …
Bloomberg:
Roomba maker iRobot warns of “substantial doubt” over its ability to continue operating, after Amazon abandoned a $1B+ takeover in January 2024; IRBT drops 35%+  —  IRobot Corp., the consumer robotics company that Amazon.com Inc. once planned to buy for more than $1 billion …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
The US FTC says it will meet the deadlines for its Amazon Prime deceptive practices case, hours after asking a judge for a delay due to staffing shortfalls  —  The Federal Trade Commission said it will meet the deadlines for its Amazon Prime deceptive practices case, hours after requesting a delay due to resource constraints.
Simon Willison / Simon Willison's Weblog:
Thoughts on using LLMs for coding, which can often be difficult and unintuitive, and why “vibe coding” is a fantastic way to explore the capabilities of LLMs  —  Online discussions about using Large Language Models to help write code inevitably produce comments from developers who's experiences have been disappointing.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: an Xbox-branded Asus handheld may debut this year as part of Microsoft's effort to unify Windows and Xbox into a universal library of Xbox and PC games  —  Microsoft's next-gen Xbox platform is shaping up.  —  Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer warned in November …
TechCrunch:
Indian police arrest Aleksej Besciokov, the co-founder of Garantex, a Russian crypto exchange sanctioned by the EU and the US, at the request of US authorities  —  Indian police have arrested the co-founder of Garantex, a Russian cryptocurrency exchange sanctioned by the European Union …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
In its final decision report, the UK CMA finds that Apple and Google's mobile browser duopoly is “holding back innovation”, but offers no enforcement action  —  A U.K. competition authority investigation of Apple and Google's mobile browsers has concluded that the mobile duopoly's policies are …
Financial Times:
Amazon, Google, and Meta sign a pledge, alongside Occidental, Dow, and others, to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050; Microsoft and Apple didn't sign  —  Tech giants join banks in calling for new power stations to meet growing energy demands and combat climate change
Reuters:
Sources: TSMC has pitched Nvidia, AMD, Broadcom, and Qualcomm about taking stakes in a JV to run Intel Foundry; TSMC would hold no more than a 50% stake  —  TSMC (2330.TW) has pitched U.S. chip designers Nvidia (NVDA.O), Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.O) and Broadcom (AVGO.O) …
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Food delivery startup Wonder acquires the media company Tastemade, sources say for around $90M, the latest step in its effort to create a mealtime “super app”  —  Wonder CEO Marc Lore hopes the company will one day offer AI-powered autonomous food ordering for all three meals of the day
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times:
Spotify says it paid $10B+ in royalties in 2024, “the largest in music history”, making up 60%+ of its $17.13B+ 2024 revenue, with ~1,500 artists earning $1M+  —  Company has long drawn ire from musicians who say streaming model does not remunerate them enough
Benoit Berthelot / Bloomberg:
French publishers and authors sue Meta for allegedly training AI models on their books without consent, say they have evidence of “massive” copyright breaches  —  SNE, the trade association representing major French publishers including Hachette and Editis, along …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Supabase, which bills itself as an open-source alternative to Google's Firebase, is raising $100M+ in a round led by Accel, valuing the company at ~$2B  —  Accel is leading the funding round of more than $100 million.  —  Supabase Inc., an open source developer platform …
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Binance says Abu Dhabi's MGX acquired a minority stake for $2B, the first institutional investment in the exchange and MGX's first entry into the crypto  —  Binance said Abu Dhabi's MGX has acquired a minority stake for $2 billion, the first institutional investment in the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange.

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UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
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From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Memo: Business Insider is cutting staff by 21% to “endure extreme traffic drops outside of our control” and “exiting the majority of our Commerce business”

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Starz reports Q4 revenue down 6.2% YoY to $330.6M, an operating loss of $136.3M, up from $30.8M, and 13.04M streaming subscribers, up 470K from Q3

The Bookseller:
Boundless, which bought crowdfunding publisher Unbound in March, tells authors that royalties accrued before March won't be paid until Boundless is cash stable

More News

The Reporters' Collective:
A look at community apps like Kutumb mobilizing millions of Indians for politics, spreading disinformation, and inciting hate, beyond civil watchdogs' scrutiny

Earlier Picks

Jagmeet Singh / TechCrunch:
India's largest telco Jio Platforms partners with SpaceX to offer Starlink in the country, just hours after rival Airtel announced a similar partnership
Stephen Totilo / Game File:
Mike Verdu, who joined Netflix in 2021 to launch its game offering and took on a new role as VP of Generative AI for games four months ago, has left the company
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google updates Chrome's extension rules to ban affiliate link injection without user action or benefit, after Honey allegedly stole creators' affiliate revenue
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