Techmeme
November 23, 2021, 3:50 PM

Top News

Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:
Apple sues NSO Group in US federal court, seeking to ban NSO from using Apple products and alleging NSO illegally targeted Apple users with surveillance tools  —  Apple accused NSO Group, the Israeli surveillance company, of “flagrant” violations of its software, as well as federal and state laws.
Apple:
Apple plans to notify targets of state-sponsored spyware attacks like NSO's ForcedEntry and commits $10M to cybersurveillance researchers and advocates  —  Apple also announced a $10 million contribution to support cybersurveillance researchers and advocates
Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Samsung plans to build a ~$17B chip factory in Taylor, Texas, in 2024, with an announcement expected today; Samsung says location is not finalized  —  The announcement is expected at Tuesday event to be attended by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, sources say
Reuters:
Italy's antitrust regulator fines Amazon and Apple a total of $225M+ for alleged anti-competitive cooperation to sell Apple and Beats products  —  Italy's antitrust authority has fined U.S. tech giants Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Apple Inc (AAPL.O) a total of more than 200 million euros …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify debuts Netflix Hub, collecting official soundtracks, playlists, and podcasts for top Netflix content, in seven countries including the US, UK, and India  —  Looking for the soundtrack from your favorite Netflix show?  Now, it will be easier to find thanks to an expanded partnership between Netflix and Spotify.
Jillian Deutsch / Bloomberg:
EU approves Digital Markets Act measures: mandating social app interoperability, banning ad targeting to minors, and fines up to 20% of global annual sales  —  - Competing messaging apps may have to be interoperable  — Companies would have to stop targeting some ads to minors
David Thiel / @elegant_wallaby:
[Thread] A former Facebook employee says Meta announced an “absurdly accelerated timeline” for e2ee messaging to preempt antitrust action and generate good PR  —  Please stop with this. Child safety is not FUD, nor disingenuous. Here is what happened with Facebook's haphazard E2EE plan, from someone who was there and familiar with the underlying systems. 1/
VICE:
ConstitutionDAO faces existential questions as a “core team” makes key decisions; high transaction fees mean ~50% of “investors” may lose the money they put in  —  ConstitutionDAO tried to buy the Constitution.  Now it has a $40 million mess on its hands and entire refunds are being wiped out by high fees.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Location tracking service Life360 acquires Tile, which makes Bluetooth-based tracking accessories that compete with Apple's AirTag, for $205M  —  Tile, known for its range of Bluetooth-based tracking accessories that compete with the AirTag, is being acquired by location tracking service Life360, Tile announced today.
Ronan Shields / Digiday:
Outbrain announces a $55M acquisition of Video Intelligence, an ad tech company that matches video with text content, as it aims to differentiate from Taboola  —  Ad tech's spate of public listings over the last 12 months has helped spur a further round of mergers and acquisitions in the space …
Tweets: @silvermanjacob
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Tidal taps DistroKid and others to offer direct artist payments, where up to 10% of a user's HiFi Plus subscription goes to their most-listened-to artists  —  Tidal and DistroKid, a popular independent music distributor, teamed up last week to introduce a direct artist payments system.
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Budapest-based Bitrise, which helps companies build and operate mobile apps, raises a $60M Series C led by Insight Partners  —  As more of the world shifts to doing everything from their smartphones, the ability to build better iOS and Android apps has to move with it.
More: Tech.eu and VentureBeat
Nick Harris / The Mail on Sunday:
Analysis: 17 of 20 English Premier League clubs have signed commercial deals with cryptocurrency companies, drawing criticism for potentially exploiting fans  —  - A number of top-flight clubs have been criticised for monetising fan interaction  — Fears deals could replace top-flight clubs' relationship with gambling companies

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