Techmeme
March 20, 2018, 11:20 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Brian Acton, who cofounded WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook for $16B, tweeted “It is time. #deletefacebook”  —  Facebook bought his app for $16 billion  —  In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $16 billion, making its co-founders — Jan Koum and Brian Acton — very wealthy men.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Source: Mark Zuckerberg expected to address Facebook employees about Cambridge Analytica scandal at 1pm ET on Friday during the company's regular Q&A session  —  And Sheryl Sandberg is too  —  After nearly four days of silence from top executives on the unfolding controversy around …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
As US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle call for Mark Zuckerberg to testify, he and Sheryl Sandberg remain publicly silent on the Cambridge Analytica scandal  —  The bad thing about making your face synonymous with the company you run: When you go M.I.A., everyone tends to notice.
Bloomberg:
Cambridge Analytica's board suspends CEO Alexander Nix, saying it's with immediate effect, pending a full, independent investigation  —  Board of Cambridge Analytica suspended CEO Alexander Nix with immediate effect, pending a full, independent investigation, according to a statement from the company.
Channel 4 News:
Cambridge Analytica execs boasted of running “all the digital campaign” for Trump, described its comms tactics to avoid paper trail: Proton Mail, deleting email  —  An undercover investigation by Channel 4 News has revealed how Cambridge Analytica claims it ran key parts of the presidential campaign for Donald Trump.
Rani Molla / Recode:
Facebook has lost nearly $50B in market cap since Friday; 129M+ shares of Facebook stock changed hands on Tuesday, its biggest trading day since 2014  —  That's the stock's biggest-ever two-day drop.  —  Facebook's Cambridge Analytica data debacle could be more damaging to the company than any of its other recent missteps.
Bloomberg:
Sources: US FTC is investigating Facebook to determine if it breached a 2011 consent decree over its handling of personal data amid Cambridge Analytica scandal  —  The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is probing Facebook over whether it violated terms of a consent decree over its use of personal data …
Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google says it will spend $300M over the next three years to support journalism and fight disinformation through the newly announced Google News Initiative  —  ‘We need to do more’  —  Google is announcing new efforts today to support the media industry by fighting misinformation and bolstering journalism …
Jim Albrecht / The Keyword:
Google debuts Subscribe with Google, which lets users buy subscriptions to news sites using Google Accounts and access them from apps, sites, and search results  —  If you've ever subscribed to a news site, you know that it can sometimes be an onerous task.  This isn't the publisher's fault, it's just the way websites work.
Johana Bhuiyan / Recode:
Travis Kalanick becoming CEO of City Storage Systems, which focuses on repurposing real estate, and says his new fund is acquiring a $150M controlling interest  —  The company was formerly called CloudKitchens and was led by Diego Berdakin, an early Uber investor.  —  Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has found his new job.
Blair Hanley Frank / VentureBeat:
Microsoft announces Windows Server 2019, the first big update since 2016, with Linux and Kubernetes support  —  Microsoft announced today that it will launch the next major release of Windows Server later this year with better support for hybrid workloads, Linux workloads, and hyper-converged infrastructure.
Samuel Gibbs / The Guardian:
Researchers say ~1.6K files are stored in bitcoin's blockchain; at least one thought to be an image of child abuse; two others contain 274 links to child abuse  —  Researchers discover illegal content within the distributed ledger, making possession of it potentially unlawful in many countries
Dan Primack / Axios:
Salesforce will acquire MuleSoft, a SaaS integration company, for $6.5B, making it Salesforce's largest-ever acquisition  —  Salesforce today announced that it will acquire SaaS integration company MuleSoft for approximately $6.5 billion in cash and stock.  The sale price represents …
TechCrunch:
A look at 60+ startups that launched at Y Combinator's Winter 2018 Demo Day 2, which showcased risky frontier tech and some predictable enterprise companies  —  Microbiome therapeutics, Photoshop for augmented reality, and cancer treatments were some of the ideas presented at Day 2 …
Ilya Khrennikov / Bloomberg:
Telegram plans to appeal after it loses bid in Russia's Supreme Court to block security services such as FSB from getting access to encryption keys of user data  —  Messaging service plans to appeal Supreme Court's decision  —  Regulators could block Telegram service if it fails to comply

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:
How you can grow your business with Zoho One  —  Zoho One is a comprehensive business suite, giving businesses the scalability, stability, security, and features they need for smooth operations.
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:
Thu. 11/14 - The FBI (!) Investigating Polymarket
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 11:20 PM ET, March 20, 2018.

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

Samit Sarkar / Polygon:

Earlier Picks

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Pui-Wing Tam / New York Times: