Techmeme: Apple partners with Common Sense Media, which specializes in age-based content reviews, to curate collections of podcasts for kids in the US (Ashley Carman/The Verge)

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:

EU approves Microsoft's $7.5B deal to acquire ZeniMax Media, the parent company of Bethesda Softworks, without conditions — Microsoft will have 23 first-party game studios — The European Commission has approved Microsoft's $7.5 billion deal to acquire ZeniMax Media …

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Microsoft took nearly two months to issue a patch after hearing of Exchange Server's flaws, even as a mass-hack unfolded; some of the flaws were 10+ years old — Sometimes when a complex story takes us by surprise or knocks us back on our heels, it pays to revisit the events in a somewhat linear fashion.

More: The Verge, GeekWire, TechRepublic, HackRead, ZDNet, Avast EN, BBC, SlashGear, cloudpro.co.uk, Laptop Mag, BleepingComputer, The Hacker News, Beyond Search, and Silicon Republic

Tweets: @campuscodi, @joetidy, @briankrebs, and @briankrebs

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:

Source: Discord generated $130M in revenue in 2020, up from $45M in 2019, and isn't profitable; CEO Jason Citron says its focus will be subscriptions, not ads — The chat startup is leaning on its millions of passionate users to fuel growth after nearly tripling revenue last year

Tweets: @saraheneedleman, @saraheneedleman, @wsj, @cameroniadeluca, and @blakeir

Jeff John Roberts / Decrypt:

PayPal says it acquired Tel Aviv-based Curv, which facilitates secure storage of cryptocurrency, source says for nearly $200M — PayPal announced on Monday it has acquired Curv, a Tel Aviv-based startup that uses a novel form of cryptography to safeguard customers' stashes of Bitcoin and other digital assets.

More: PayPal Newsroom, CNBC, Cointelegraph, InsideBitcoins.com, PYMNTS.com, TechSpot, Bitcoin News, CryptoGlobe, Silicon Republic, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Bitcoin Magazine, Crypto Briefing, PaymentsSource, The Block, Cryptonews, and Tech News. Tweets: @prestonpysh

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Apple partners with Common Sense Media, which specializes in age-based content reviews, to curate collections of podcasts for kids in the US — Coming to Apple Podcasts in the US — Apple is making it easier for parents to find podcasts to listen to with their kids.

More: Hollywood Reporter, Tubefilter, MUO, TechCrunch, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, AppleInsider, iPhone in Canada Blog, CNET, Engadget, and iMore

See also Mediagazer

Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:

Apple releases iOS 14.4.1 and macOS 11.2.3 to address a WebKit flaw that could allow hackers to run arbitrary code on devices via malicious web content — Apple has released a set of updates it recommends all iPhone, iPad and Mac users download as soon as possible. No, — iOS 14.5 and

More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, Appleosophy, SlashGear, Wccftech, and iPhone Hacks

Nate Lanxon / Bloomberg:

GSMA says Mobile World Congress Barcelona will go ahead in June, with plans for up to 50,000 in-person attendees — - MWC Barcelona is industry body's main source of revenue — Gathering was among first major Covid-related cancelations — The global mobile industry is planning …

More: gsma.com, Light Reading, PCMag, Mobile World Live, AppleInsider, The Mac Observer, MacDailyNews, Pocketnow, Neowin, MacRumors, TechRadar, Trusted Reviews, Telecoms.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Reuters

Tweets: @mikeddano, @gsma, @thekenyeung, and @dannyjpalmer

Marty Swant / Forbes:

Neeva, which is developing an ad-free search engine to be funded by subscriptions, raises $40M, valuing it at $300M and bringing the total raised to $77.5M — It wasn't long ago that Sridhar Ramaswamy was the king of Google advertising. — During his 15-year career at the search startup …

Tweets: @neevaco, @martyswant, @jimgoetz, @greylockvc, @martyswant, and @sarthakgh. Thanks:@martyswant

Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech:

Intel, Microsoft, DARPA announce the DPRIVE program, which aims to make fully homomorphic encryption fast enough for practical use, via custom silicon on Azure — When considering data privacy and protections, there is no data more important than personal data, whether that's medical, financial, or even social.

More: SiliconANGLE, CSO, Intel Newsroom, TechRepublic, Forbes, Neowin, ExtremeTech, HotHardware.com News, insideHPC, SC Media, MSPoweruser, and Engadget. Tweets: @intelnews

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:

Secureworks: a second threat actor targeting SolarWinds flaws, by adding backdoors via Orion bugs, has characteristics that suggest the group is based in China — Back in December 2020, days after the massive SolarWinds supply chain attack came to light, Microsoft warned …

More: Secureworks, CyberScoop, BleepingComputer, ZDNet, and ComputerWeekly.com

Tweets: @campuscodi and @campuscodi

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

The new Google Pay app that came out of beta this week replaces a perfectly fine service for P2P users with a less-functional service that has more fees — For P2P users, the new app has fewer features, is less convenient, and has more fees. — The new Google Pay app came out of beta this week …

More: world.hey.com, Slashdot, 9to5Google, and Beyond Search

Tweets: @dhh, @harper, @carnage4life, @dhh, @swiftonsecurity, @quinnypig, @jackerhack, @monsterbitar, and @joshbloch

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

McAfee announces the sale of its enterprise business to private equity firm Symphony Technology Group in an all-cash deal worth $4B — Join Transform 2021 for the most important themes in enterprise AI & Data. Learn more. — McAfee is selling its enterprise cybersecurity unit …

More: Business Wire, TechCrunch, CRN, SiliconANGLE, SecurityWeek, Channel Futures, TechRadar, ZDNet, and The Economic Times

Tweets: @mcafee and @campuscodi

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