Techmeme
March 18, 2025, 11:30 AM

Top News

The Verge:
Google acquires NYC-based cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32B in cash, its largest acquisition yet, pending approval; antitrust fears stalled a $23B deal in 2024  —  The acquisition is Alphabet's biggest yet, after a $23 billion takeover attempt stalled last year.
More: The Keyword, Wiz Blog, The Guardian, Bloomberg, Reuters, Financial Times, Crunchbase News, The Economic Times, CyberScoop, Thurrott, Google Cloud Blog, Associated Press, PYMNTS.com, The Record, CNN, Benzinga, 9to5Google, CSO, SC Media, Reuters, Axios, Financial Times, New York Times, CTech, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, The Hacker News, Quartz, Fortune, Business Insider, The Wrap, Proactive, Infosecurity, Nairametrics, Fortune, Constellation Research, TechRadar, The Information, Android Headlines, Wall Street Pit, Sherwood News, Reuters, from ITPro in, Security Boulevard, The Independent, Tomasz Tunguz, CSO, WinBuzzer, CNBC, Channel NewsAsia, Finance Magnates, TechCrunch, Cyber Security News, TheCable, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, Jerusalem Post, Channel NewsAsia, Yahoo Finance, TipRanks Financial, Barron's Online, CRN, The Times, Silicon Valley Business …, Capital Brief, Ynetnews, The Verge, Investor's Business Daily, CTech, TipRanks Financial, Proactive, StrictlyVC, Financial Express, Verdict, Tech in Asia, Patently Apple, The Cyber Express, Benzinga, PYMNTS.com, en.ain.ua, Barron's Online, Moneycontrol, Wall Street Journal, Deccan Herald, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk, and Columbian
New York Times:
Starlink is now accessible across the White House campus, which already has fiber cables, after SpaceX “donated” the service, as some cite security concerns  —  Trump administration officials said the company donated the internet service, saying the gift had been vetted …
Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
Some owners of smart TVs and streaming sticks with Roku OS report seeing autoplaying video ads before they can use the home screen; Roku says it is just a test  —  Now, Roku is testing what it might look like if it took things a step further and forced people to watch a video ad play before getting to the Roku OS home screen.
Rajesh Pandey / Android Police:
Ahead of the Pixel 9a's rumored March 19 debut, a YouTuber posts a video of the alleged phone, showing a flat rear panel, minimal camera bump, and large bezels  —  - Detailed Pixel 9a unboxing and hands-on videos have been published on YouTube.  — One YouTuber has put the phone through its paces …
Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer:
Attackers are actively exploiting a critical Apache Tomcat RCE flaw to take over servers with a PUT request; Wallarm: the attack “requires no authentication”  —  A critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Apache Tomcat tracked as CVE-2025-24813 is actively exploited in the wild …
Timmy Shen / The Block:
Solana deletes a social media video ad promoting its NYC conference in May 2025 after the crypto community criticized it for insensitivity towards gender issues  —  - Solana posted a video ad on social media on Monday to promote its upcoming conference, but it was removed hours later.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta's Llama models have been downloaded 1B times since their 2023 debut, up from 650M downloads in early December 2024  —  In a brief message Tuesday morning on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company's “open” AI model family, Llama, hit 1 billion downloads.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
In an open letter to the OSTP, Ben Stiller and 400+ Hollywood creatives urge President Trump to not let Google, OpenAI, and others “exploit” copyrighted works  —  More than 400 Hollywood creative leaders signed an open letter to the Trump White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy …
Bert Hubert's writings:
A look at Europe's options and potential issues to get a “European Cloud”, which is likely to be more difficult to build than the €15B Galileo satellite system  —  The very short version: It has now become clear that European governments can no longer rely on American clouds …
New York Times:
Since Xi Jinping met DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng in February, Chinese officials have been racing to show they use its tech, like in courthouses and hospitals  —  Government bodies nationwide have been eager to show they are using DeepSeek's A.I. technology since the company's founder met with Xi Jinping, China's leader.
Bluesky: @hargreaves-s

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The Information:
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