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March 18, 2025, 12:50 PM
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memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| The Verge: |
Alphabet acquires NYC-based cybersecurity startup Wiz for $32B cash, its largest acquisition yet, pending approval; antitrust fears stalled a $23B deal in 2024 — The acquisition is Alphabet's biggest yet, after a $23 billion takeover attempt stalled last year.
More: The Keyword, Wiz Blog, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Business Insider, 9to5Google, Tech Monitor, Financial Times, The Standard, The Economic Times, Thurrott, PYMNTS.com, Financial Times, SC Media, CSO, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, New York Times, Neowin, Associated Press, UPI, CTech, Pocketables, Analytics India Magazine, The Information, Reuters, TechCrunch, Infosecurity, Wall Street Pit, Security Boulevard, TechCrunch, Constellation Research, TechRadar, TheCable, CNBC, Jerusalem Post, Reuters, Channel NewsAsia, Yahoo Finance, CSO, Proactive, BusinessLIVE, StrictlyVC, Verdict, Patently Apple, TipRanks Financial, The Cyber Express, en.ain.ua, Fortune, Barron's Online, CRN, The Times, Silicon Valley Business …, Capital Brief, Ynetnews, The Verge, Investor's Business Daily, CTech, TipRanks Financial, Tech in Asia, Financial Express, Benzinga, PYMNTS.com, Moneycontrol, Wall Street Journal, JD Supra, and Columbian
Bluesky: @swiftonsecurity.com, @quinnypig.com, @anildash.com, @shmick.bsky.to, @quinnypig.com, and @brijsingh
X: @teddiew, @probyshandilya, @deedydas, @brexhq, @ingridlunden, @danprimack, @ekmokaya, @wiz_io, @jasonlk, @laurenthomas, @julianklymochko, @thomasortk, @eastdakota, @shomikghosh21, @jasonlk, @jumpforjoyce, @dougleone, @frantzfries, @alexrkonrad, @ourielohayon, @katie_roof, @ivanlevingston, @danielnewmanuv, @dougleone, @arashmassoudi, @vxunderground, @marktluszcz, @dougleone, @wiz_io, @benfritz, @rekdt, @romangold, @sequoia, @googlecloud, @pitdesi, @philvenables, @royalhansen, @altcap, and @sundarpichai
LinkedIn: Andy Price, James Berthoty, Pramod Gosavi, Sid Trivedi, and Frank McGovern
Forums: Hacker News, Hacker News, r/cybersecurity, r/StockMarket, r/wallstreetbets, and Slashdot
| Financial Times: |
Sources: Wiz and Alphabet agree to a $3.2B termination fee in the $32B deal, which lets Wiz run like an independent company if a lengthy antitrust trial happens — Large fee comes amid risk that regulators could block the transaction — Cyber security start-up Wiz has agreed a termination fee … | Andrew Martin / Bloomberg: |
More: SC Media, Associated Press, The Information, Help Net Security, CRN, Axios, Benzinga, Business Insider, CTech, The Wrap, The Independent, MediaPost, The Cyber Express, DeviceSecurity.io, Channel Futures, Proactive, Jewish News, Livemint, Channel NewsAsia, Cyber Security News, Barron's Online, WinBuzzer, Finance Magnates, YourStory, Yahoo Finance, Daily Sabah, and Deccan Herald. X: @danprimack
| David Pierce / The Verge: |
Eric Migicovsky unveils two Pebble smartwatches, the $149 Core 2 Duo shipping July 2025 and $225 Core Time 2 shipping December 2025, running its open-source OS — Pebble's creator now runs a company called Core Devices, and it's getting ready to sell two new watches soon.| Rajesh Pandey / Android Police: |
Ahead of the Pixel 9a's rumored March 19 debut, a YouTuber posts a video of the alleged phone, showing a flat rear panel, minimal camera bump, and large bezels — - Detailed Pixel 9a unboxing and hands-on videos have been published on YouTube. — One YouTuber has put the phone through its paces … | New York Times: |
Starlink is now accessible across the White House campus, which already has fiber cables, after SpaceX “donated” the service, as some cite security concerns — Trump administration officials said the company donated the internet service, saying the gift had been vetted …
More: Metacurity, emptywheel, New Republic, The Guardian, Jalopnik, WinBuzzer, Raw Story, and Political Wire
Bluesky: @isaacdovere, @newsjennifer, @karlbode.com, @karlbode.com, @clancyny, @waldo.net, @clancyny, @brewedflames, @dansinker.com, @waldo.net, @democracydied, @maddow.msnbc.com, @stephenjudkins, @bobbyallyn, @yasharali, @davidoatkins, @paleofuture, @thorbenson, and @bcmerchant. Mastodon: @HoustonDog@mastodon.world
X: @sundaedivine and @serobinsonjr
Forums: r/somethingiswrong2024, r/centrist, r/economicCollapse, and r/politics
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Mark Zuckerberg says Meta's Llama models have been downloaded 1B times since their 2023 debut, up from 650M downloads in early December 2024 — In a brief message Tuesday morning on Threads, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company's “open” AI model family, Llama, hit 1 billion downloads.
More: Meta, Seeking Alpha, and Analytics India Magazine
Threads: @zuck, @sebastianraschka, @chriscox, and @yannlecun
| Scharon Harding / Ars Technica: |
Some owners of smart TVs and streaming sticks with Roku OS report seeing autoplaying video ads before they can use the home screen; Roku says it is just a test — Now, Roku is testing what it might look like if it took things a step further and forced people to watch a video ad play before getting to the Roku OS home screen.
More: PCWorld, 9to5Google, Tom's Guide, T3, 9to5Mac, Pocket-lint, Mashable, Android Police, The Streamable, Android Central, TechRadar, Neowin, Android Authority, The Sun, FlatpanelsHD, The Verge, The Desk, Cord Cutters News, and BGR
Bluesky: @spokanerising.com. X: @leahlibresco. Forums: r/Roku, r/Roku, r/hardware, r/enshittification, r/gadgets, r/technology, r/technews, Slashdot, and Ars OpenForum
| Cristina Criddle / Financial Times: |
Anthropic Chief Product Officer Mike Krieger says the company is preparing enterprise features and discussing voice product launches with “a bunch of partners” — AI start-up's product head Mike Krieger says $60bn company is preparing to release features aimed at enterprise market
More: PYMNTS.com, TechCrunch, Analytics India Magazine, and Digital Trends
| Timmy Shen / The Block: |
Solana deletes a social media video ad promoting its NYC conference in May 2025 after the crypto community criticized it for insensitivity towards gender issues — - Solana posted a video ad on social media on Monday to promote its upcoming conference, but it was removed hours later.
More: Protos, CoinDesk, CryptoSlate, CoinGape, Blockonomi, Bitcoin Insider, and Cointelegraph
| Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: |
Attackers are actively exploiting a critical Apache Tomcat RCE flaw to take over servers with a PUT request; Wallarm: the attack “requires no authentication” — A critical remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability in Apache Tomcat tracked as CVE-2025-24813 is actively exploited in the wild … | Reuters: |
Germany's Federal Court of Justice rules against Apple's appeal opposing a 2023 regulatory assessment that opens Apple up to stricter controls in the country — Apple (AAPL.O) lost an appeal on Tuesday against a regulatory assessment that opens the iPhone maker up to stricter controls in Germany …
More: RTÉ, MacRumors, TechCrunch, iClarified, Seeking Alpha, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, and Tech Xplore
Forums: Slashdot and MacRumors Forums
| Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch: |
Google debuts new Search and Android health care features, including medical records APIs, and plans to release open AI models for drug discovery called TxGemma — Google on Tuesday announced new products and features aimed at healthcare use cases, including improved overviews in Google Search …
More: Engadget, 9to5Google, Android Authority, The Keyword, Moneycontrol, ZDNET, TechCrunch, CNBC, Maginative, The Keyword, MediaPost, Tech in Asia, and Wall Street Pit
| Todd Spangler / Variety: |
In an open letter to the OSTP, Ben Stiller and 400+ Hollywood creatives urge President Trump to not let Google, OpenAI, and others “exploit” copyrighted works — More than 400 Hollywood creative leaders signed an open letter to the Trump White House's Office of Science and Technology Policy …
More: The Verge, CBS News, Plagiarism Today, The Wrap, Lawyer Monthly, TechWire Asia, The Guardian, Daily Mail, and MediaPost
Forums: r/aiwars, r/popculture, r/technology, r/Fauxmoi, and Slashdot
| Mike Schmidt / Financial Times: |
The former CHIPS Program Office director says repealing the CHIPS Act risks US national security, and tariffs alone won't revitalize domestic chip manufacturing — Tariffs alone will not achieve the goal of revitalising domestic semiconductor manufacturing
More: Washington Post. Mastodon: @carnage4life@mas.to. LinkedIn: Atissa Ladjevardian. Forums: Hacker News
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: Oracle is weighing a TikTok proposal that would have it provide security assurances and take a small stake while leaving the algorithm in Chinese hands — - Plan emerges as deadline nears for deal to save TikTok in US — Oracle would offer security guarantee if China keeps algorithm| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
Taboola strikes a deal with Microsoft to sell display ads for MSN.com, Outlook, Games, Office products, and more, as it expands beyond native advertising — Taboola struck a deal with Microsoft to sell display ads for MSN.com, Microsoft Outlook, Games and Microsoft's broader Office Suite … | Bloomberg: |
Sources: AI coding assistant Devin developer Cognition raised hundreds of millions led by 8VC at a nearly $4B valuation, up from its $2B valuation in April 2024 — The new funding round is being led by 8VC, the Joe Lonsdale-backed venture capital firm, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private information.
More: Cautious Optimism, The Decoder, Verdict, and Tech in Asia
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
Google updates its Gemini chatbot, adding Canvas, a space for users to create, refine, and share writing and coding projects, and Audio Overview from NotebookLM — They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and Google seems to agree. — On Tuesday, the company added a feature …
More: The Verge, 9to5Google, ZDNET, SiliconANGLE, The Keyword, Neowin, Tom's Guide, PhoneArena, AndroidGuys, and Droid Life
| Bloomberg: |
Tencent releases five AI tools that turn text or images into 3D visuals and graphics, based on Hunyuan3D-2.0, and plans to integrate DeepSeek's R1 into WeChat — Tencent's five new 3D-content generators are built atop its Hunyuan3D-2.0 model, all of which it intends to open-source to users, the company said in a statement.
More: Reuters
| Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: |
AI coding assistant startup Graphite, now used by tens of thousands of staff at 500+ companies, raised an Accel-led $52M Series B; its revenue grew 20x in 2024 — AI coding assistants are becoming wildly popular, with the vast majority of respondents in GitHub's latest poll saying that they've adopted AI tools in some form.
Bluesky: @hunterwalk.com
| New York Times: |
Since Xi Jinping met DeepSeek founder Liang Wenfeng in February, Chinese officials have been racing to show they use its tech, like in courthouses and hospitals — Government bodies nationwide have been eager to show they are using DeepSeek's A.I. technology since the company's founder met with Xi Jinping, China's leader.
Bluesky: @hargreaves-s
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