Techmeme: FCC broadband committee ex-chair sentenced to five years in prison for fraud; as a telecom CEO, she forged contracts to raise $270M+ for a fiber network (Jon Brodkin/Ars Technica)

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Apple says it has acquired autonomous driving startup Drive.ai, hiring dozens of Drive.ai engineers and, per sources, taking over its autonomous cars — Apple bought Drive.ai, an autonomous driving startup once valued at $200 million, Apple confirmed to Axios on Tuesday, and has hired dozens of Drive.ai engineers.

More: San Francisco Chronicle, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Business Insider, The Verge, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, 9to5Mac, SiliconANGLE, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, SlashGear, Cult of Mac, and Crunchbase News

Tweets: @danprimack, @matthewhughes, @inafried, @axios, @inafried, @atulacharya, @techchronicle, and @meliarobin. Thanks:@inafried

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Amid Huawei ban, FedEx sues US over mandate that it monitor all shipments, saying it violates due process and is unfeasible on the scale the government desires — FedEx has already been accused of diverting Huawei's shipments, and it's not keen on dealing with more complaints.

More: Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, The Register, and Android Authority

Tweets: @evadou and @paulpage

New York Times:

Sources: US tech companies, including Intel and Micron, have found ways to sell millions of dollars of products to Huawei despite the Trump administration's ban — SHANGHAI — A number of the United States' biggest chip makers have sold millions of dollars of products to Huawei despite …

More: CNET, SiliconANGLE, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, Nikkei Asian Review, and The Atlantic

Tweets: @msbshoshani and @davidjoachim

Sara Fischer / Axios:

LinkedIn says it will change its algorithm to favor posts that cater to niche professional interests as opposed to elevating viral content — Linkedin will today announce algorithm changes made over the past 12-18 months to favor conversations in its Feed that cater to niche professional interests …

More: Firstpost Tech. Tweets: @stevesi, @bmorrissey, @ashkan, @tomfgoodwin, @joelandren, @ingridlunden, @itsjeffhiggins, @jayrosen_nyu, @zck, @sarafischer, @rafat, and @mikepilarz

See also Mediagazer

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

FTC and DOJ announce their latest crackdown on robocallers, taking 94 actions against several companies and people blamed for a recent wave of spam calls — Federal authorities have announced its latest crackdown on illegal robocallers — taking close to a hundred actions against several companies …

More: Federal Trade Commission, CNN, Digital Trends, SlashGear, TechSpot, Engadget, and The Hill

Tweets: @ftc and @karlbode

Bloomberg:

Airbnb launches Airbnb Luxe, a new luxury tier of 2,000 listings with an average price of $14K a week to as high as $1M a week for a private atoll — Gone are the days of air mattresses on the floor. Airbnb Inc. is now catering to the mega-wealthy with a new tier of luxury rentals.

More: Airbnb Press Room, New York Times, The Verge, CNET, Engadget, CNN, TechCrunch, Mashable, Quartz, and Axios

Tweets: @business and @stshank

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft unveils OneDrive Personal Vault, which protects folders with 2FA and is expected by year end, and ups OneDrive's $1.99/mo plan from 50GB to 100GB — Available to everyone by the end of the year — Microsoft is adding a new secured storage area to OneDrive where users can store more sensitive files.

More: Microsoft 365 Blog, TechCrunch, BleepingComputer, Ars Technica, TechRadar.com, Neowin, MobileSyrup, Engadget, MSPoweruser, Thurrott, Yahoo Finance, PCWorld, GeekWire, SlashGear, Windows Central, VentureBeat, OnMSFT.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, WinBuzzer, ZDNet, and Liliputing

Tweets: @tomwarren, @jaredhaight, and @jsnover

Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:

Executives at seven of Facebook's Libra partners say the companies have only signed nonbinding agreements and have not yet paid to join the Libra Association — SAN FRANCISCO — One of the biggest selling points of Facebook's ambitious plans for its new cryptocurrency, Libra …

More: Reuters, The Block, and Cointelegraph

Tweets: @nathanielpopper, @mayazi, @robaeprice, @nathanielpopper, and @kyletorpey

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

A deep dive on which vendor may be responsible for a supply chain attack that Google said resulted in pre-installed malware on budget Android devices — Earlier this month, Google disclosed that a supply chain attack by one of its vendors resulted in malicious software being pre-installed on millions of new budget Android devices.

Tweets: @briankrebs and @mytechmusings

Kate Clark / TechCrunch:

Cameo, which lets fans pay for personalized videos from celebrities, raises $50M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins, reports suggest at a valuation of $300M — Instead of emailing a term sheet, Ilya Fushman paid $150 to have ‘Deep Blue Sea’ actor Michael Rapaport send the Cameo founders Steven Galanis …

More: PR Newswire, Digital Music News, Tubefilter, FinSMEs, Crunchbase News, and hypebot

Tweets: @robchesney and @kateclarktweets

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

New Silex malware has begun bricking several hundred poorly secured IoT devices per hour, using default credentials to log in and then wipe devices — Over 2,000 devices have been bricked in the span of a few hours. Attacks still ongoing. — A new strain of malware is wiping the firmware …

More: Boing Boing and Tehrani.com. Tweets: @gcluley. Thanks:@campuscodi

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC broadband committee ex-chair sentenced to five years in prison for fraud; as a telecom CEO, she forged contracts to raise $270M+ for a fiber network — Telecom CEO forged contracts in order to raise $270 million from investors. — The former head of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Broadband …

More: The Register. Tweets: @karlbode

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Carbon, a 3D-printing platform used by Ford, Adidas, and others, says it has raised $260M at a $2.4B valuation, following its 2017 Series D at a $1.7B valuation — Digital manufacturer and 3D printing poster child Carbon has raised $260 million in a growth round of funding co-led …

More: CNET, FinSMEs, Carbon, ZDNet, Business Insider, and Silicon Valley Business …

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Uber to buy Seattle-based Mighty AI, which helps train computer vision models, to strengthen its self-driving car unit; Crunchbase: Mighty AI had raised $27.3M — Uber as soon as today expects to close its acquisition of Seattle-based “data annotation” firm Mighty AI in a bid to strengthen …

More: GeekWire

Mathieu Rosemain / Reuters:

French digital affairs minister says Facebook has agreed to share with judges the identity of French users suspected of hate speech, claiming it's a world first — PARIS (Reuters) - Facebook has agreed to hand over the identification data of French users suspected of hate speech on its platform to judges …

More: CNET, The Daily Dot, The Hill, MSPoweruser, and Engadget. Tweets: @reutersworld

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Alienware co-founder Frank Azor says he is leaving Dell's gaming and XPS divisions; report suggests he will likely become AMD's first chief gaming officer — Frank Azor is taking up a new challenge after 21 years at Alienware — Frank Azor, the co-founder and public face of Alienware …

More: Wccftech and PC Gamer

Tweets: @patrickmoorhead, @caro_milanesi, and @benbajarin

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Showpad, a platform that helps salespeople prepare content and collateral for deals, raises $70M Series D co-led by Dawn Capital and Insight Partners — Sales teams have long turned to tech solutions to help improve how they source leads, develop relationships and close deals.

More: SiliconANGLE, PE Hub Blog, VentureBeat, and FinSMEs. Tweets: @ingridlunden. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Orderful, which aims to modernize supply chain management through an API-based cloud service, raises $10M Series A from Andreessen Horowitz — The march of globalization continues unabated, and with it comes a growing demand for companies of all sizes to communicate with and sell to each other …

More: GlobeNewswire News Room, FinSMEs, and PE Hub Blog. Tweets: @ingridlunden

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Cobalt Robotics, which makes indoor security robots designed to work alongside human guards, raises $35M Series B; it raised a $13M Series A in March 2018 — Cobalt Robotics, a three-year-old startup building indoor security robots designed to work alongside human guards …

More: FinSMEs

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Researchers say hackers have been stealing massive amounts of call records from over ten cell network providers worldwide to conduct targeted surveillance — At least 10 cell networks have been hacked over the past seven years — Security researchers say they have uncovered …

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Bangalore-based Open, which operates a “neo-bank” to help businesses automate their finances, raises $30M Series B at, a source says, a $150M valuation — Open, a Bangalore-based startup that operates a “neo-bank” to help businesses automate and run their finances …

More: PYMNTS.com and Crowdfund Insider. Tweets: @unicornindia

Daniel Kuhn / CoinDesk:

Crypto exchange Kraken, a regulated platform for spot and futures trading, raises $13.5M from 2,263 participants in an online round at a $4B+ valuation — Regulated spot and futures crypto exchange Kraken has completed a $13.5 million round of financing on Bnk To The Future (BF), an online investment platform.

More: CryptoGlobe, Coinspeaker, Cointelegraph, Anycoin.news, and The Block

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