Techmeme
November 2, 2019, 6:05 AM

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.
More: Fitbit, Inc., The Keyword, New York Times, The Keyword, VentureBeat, Windows Central, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Android Central, Mashable, AnandTech, TechCrunch, Tech.co, The Register, Phandroid, TalkAndroid.com, Michael Tsai, Ars Technica, The Daily Caller, TechSpot, Techaeris, MacRumors, WebProNews, Bloomberg, AppleInsider, Vox, BetaNews, ExtremeTech, New York Times, Newser, OnMSFT.com, Daring Fireball, CNET, Digital Trends, Variety, Coinspeaker, GeekWire, KnowTechie, WinBuzzer, Crunchbase News, Neowin, Gizchina, Silicon Republic, Pocketnow, Voicebot.ai, ZDNet, Cult of Mac, Search Engine Land, Droid Life, Tom's Guide, iDownloadBlog.com, Thurrott, AndroidGuys, Business Insider, XDA Developers, Macworld, Firstpost Tech, iPhone Hacks, Android Authority, Fast Company, Technology Personalized, Android Police, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, PYMNTS.com, Memeburn, Axios, Computer Business Review, The Daily Dot, and iPhone in Canada Blog
David Ruddock / Android Police:
Google's Fitbit acquisition feels like a top-down decision of executives who found enough yes men to agree to the delusion that Fitbit can revive Wear OS  —  Google announced today that it would purchase Fitbit, the ailing manufacturer of fitness-focused wearables and smartwatches, for $2.1 billion.
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.
Swati Khandelwal / The Hacker News:
Google releases patch for a Chrome zero-day vulnerability being used in the wild that allows hackers to escape sandbox protections via malicious websites  —  Attention readers, if you are using Chrome on your Windows, Mac, and Linux computers, you need to update your web browsing software immediately …
Reuters:
Sources: CFIUS has launched a review of ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of Musical.ly, as TikTok didn't seek clearance from CFIUS during the acquisition  —  NEW YORK/BEIJING/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. government has launched a national security review of TikTok owner Beijing ByteDance …
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Elizabeth Schulze / CNBC:
Russia's “sovereign internet” law, which aims to enable disconnecting the country's internet from the rest of the world, went into effect on Friday  —  - The law tightens Moscow's control over the country's internet infrastructure and aims to provide a way for Russia to disconnect its networks from the rest of the world.
Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
The debate over Facebook's political ads policy has been too US-centric and the company hasn't explained how that policy will work in other countries  —  When Facebook wrote to Joe Biden's campaign to say it would not back down from its decision to exempt politicians from its ban …
Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:
Satya Nadella says Microsoft won Pentagon's JEDI contract by focusing on customer's needs and company's unique tech capabilities, and staying out of politics  —  Microsoft's surprise victory last week in a protracted competition to build the Pentagon's war cloud has some critics asking whether politics played any role in the outcome.

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