Techmeme: SoftBank-owned Z Holdings, the new parent company of Line and Yahoo Japan after merger closed on March 1, details plan to invest $4.7B to compete with GAFA (Financial Times)

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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: Apple Support, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, MacRumors, Appleosophy, OS X Daily, Wccftech, Trusted Reviews, iPhone Hacks, Cult of Mac, SlashGear, and 9to5Mac

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 …

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

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: Intel Newsroom, CSO, TechRepublic, SiliconANGLE, SC Media, Neowin, GCN, Dark Reading, IT Management, Forbes, ExtremeTech, insideHPC, MSPoweruser, HotHardware.com News, and Engadget. Tweets: @intelnews

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

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

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, Ars Technica, CyberScoop, TechRadar, BleepingComputer, and ZDNet

Tweets: @campuscodi and @campuscodi

Alex Konrad / Forbes:

Interview with Zapier CEO on Sequoia and Steadfast Financial's January investment via secondary market, acquiring no-code education business Makerpad, and more — Zapier CEO Wade Foster avoids thinking about fundraising as much as possible. Profitable for years, his startup …

More: TechCrunch. Tweets: @andrew__reed, @arlanwashere, @aleyda, @wadefoster, @rrhoover, @alexrkonrad, and @alex

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

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

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 Record, The Guardian, BBC, Netcraft News, Gizmodo, The Verge, GCN, Dark Reading, SC Media, ZDNet, TechRepublic, Avast EN, GeekWire, Laptop Mag, HackRead, and BleepingComputer

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

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

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