Techmeme
November 1, 2019, 2:40 PM

Top News

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Google to acquire Fitbit at $7.35 per share in cash, valuing the company at about $2.1B  —  - The acquisition pits Alphabet against fellow tech giant Apple in the wearable fitness tracking space.  —  Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks on stage during the annual Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, California, May 8, 2018.
Alex Heath / The Information:
Source: Facebook held talks to acquire Fitbit but wanted to pay roughly half of the $2.1B that Google eventually agreed to pay  —  Before Google reached a $2.1 billion deal to buy Fitbit, announced on Friday, Facebook held talks to acquire the smartwatch-maker, according to two people familiar with the situation.
Reuters:
Sources: the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States has launched a review of ByteDance's acquisition of Musical.ly  —  NEW YORK/BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance Technology Co's $1 billion acquisition …
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: NBCUniversal is considering making its ad-supported Peacock streaming service free for everyone, with an ad-free tier available for subscribers  —  - NBC is considering giving away the ad-supported version of its streaming service Peacock for free to everyone, sources say.
BBC:
Investigation finds domestic workers in Kuwait are bought and sold online through Instagram, promoted via hashtags, and other apps on Play Store and App Store  —  Drive around the streets of Kuwait and you won't see these women.  They are behind closed doors, deprived of their basic rights …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple TV+ launches with nine original titles in 100+ countries for $4.99/month or $49.99/year with a one year free trial on the purchase of a new Apple device  —  After months of waiting, Apple's TV streaming service Apple TV+ is now live.  You can start watching on any platform that offers …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
In an earnings call, Mark Zuckerberg defends Facebook's political ads policy, estimates ads from politicians will be less than 0.5% of company's revenue in 2020  —  As Jack Dorsey announced his company Twitter would drop all political ads, Facebook CEO Zuckerberg doubled-down on his policy of refusing to fact check politicians' ads.
@jack:
Ryan Christoffel / MacStories:
Adobe updates its Creative Cloud iOS app with 1,300 free fonts that can now be used by any iOS 13 app supporting custom fonts API  —  Today Adobe released an update to its Creative Cloud app on iPhone and iPad which introduced a set of thousands of fonts that can now be installed …
Josh O'Kane / Globe and Mail:
Waterfront Toronto agrees to move forward on Alphabet Sidewalk's smart city proposal but with government control over data collection and limits on scale  —  Waterfront Toronto will move forward with a proposal for Sidewalk Labs to build a high-tech community on the city's waterfront …
Washington Post:
China's three state-backed wireless carriers launch 5G in some cities, ahead of original 2020 date; China Mobile aims to bring 5G to 50+ cities by year's end  —  BEIJING — Chinese cellphone carriers will begin offering super-fast, next-generation 5G service on a commercial basis Friday …

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