Techmeme
December 1, 2018, 11:55 PM

Top News

The Information:
Sources: Uber has recently held talks about possible acquisitions with scooter startups Bird and Lime  —  Uber has held talks recently with electric scooter rental startup Bird to acquire the company in what could be a multibillion-dollar deal, said several people briefed on the discussions.
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Since Satya Nadella became CEO, Microsoft has almost tripled its market cap to $850B+, and on Friday it replaced Apple as the world's most valuable company  —  Just a few years ago, Microsoft was seen as a lumbering has-been of the technology world.  —  It was big and still quite profitable …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram is launching a “Close Friends” list on iOS and Android to let users share Stories with a limited group of friends  —  They're Finstagram Stories  —  No one wants to post silly, racy, or vulnerable Stories if they're worried their boss, parents, and distant acquaintances are watching.
Nick Summers / Engadget:
Profile of Chronicle: a startup incubated at Google X that uses AI and VirusTotal, with experience from Bigtable and MapReduce, to counter cybersecurity threats  —  Fifteen years ago, cybersecurity could be boiled down to a simple strategy: Secure the perimeter.
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Apple approves Indian telecom regulator's “TRAI DND - Do Not Disturb” app that lets users block unwanted phone calls and text messages, avoiding iPhone ban  —  Fed up with years of waiting for Apple to implement anti-spam measures for iPhones, India's telecom regulator TRAI threatened …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Marriott International says 500M records from the guest reservation database of Starwood Hotels were stolen in a massive data breach dating as far back as 2014  —  Starwood Hotels has confirmed its hotel guest database of about 500 million customers has been stolen in a data breach.
Simone Stolzoff / The Atlantic:
PitchBook: VCs invested ~$8B in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, and Pakistan in first 10 months of 2018, 40% more than in all 2017  —  Entrepreneurs such as Sidra Qasim and Waqas Ali exemplify the increasing ease of accessing venture capital from the developing world.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
AT&T plans another, 3-tiered streaming service for Q4 2019 with a movie-focused entry level, a premium level with original programming, and a WarnerMedia bundle  —  AT&T may be ready to sell its stake in Hulu, the company revealed in an analyst presentation on Thursday.
Day One: The Amazon Blog:
Apple Music will be available on Amazon Echo devices beginning the week of December 17  —  Apple Music is coming to Echo devices in the coming weeks.  —  Music has always been one of Alexa's most popular features and today we're excited to announce that Apple Music will be available on Echo devices beginning the week of December 17.
Liz Moyer / CNBC:
SEC settles with Floyd Mayweather and DJ Khaled on charges of promoting ICOs without disclosing payments; Mayweather to pay $600K+ in fees, Khaled to pay $150K+  —  Pro boxer Floyd Mayweather and music producer DJ Khaled pumped up initial coin offerings without telling investors …

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