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February 20, 2014, 6:25 PM

Top News

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Google Was Willing to Beat Facebook's $19B Offer for WhatsApp — Last week, Google CEO Larry Page met with WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum in a last-ditch effort to prevent the rapidly growing messaging app from selling itself to Facebook, according to three people involved in the deal.

More: Re/code, TechHive, Business Insider, The Switch, TechnoBuffalo, Engadget, Guardian, Mobile Marketing Watch and Computerworld

Tweets: @pkafka, @ericnewcomer and @amir

Thanks:@ericnewcomer

Jessi Hempel / Fortune:

Google offered to buy WhatsApp for $10 billion — Facebook is buying WhatsApp for $19 billion, but it wasn't the only suitor. — My colleague Dan Primack has written a smart post on the numbers that weren't in the press release Facebook (FB) issued announcing it will acquire messaging service WhatsApp.

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Before Facebook Deal, WhatsApp Was Helping BuzzFeed and Shazam Go Viral With New Platform Tools — Unlike mobile messaging competitors like Line and WeChat, WhatsApp has taken a resolute stance against becoming a platform that distributes games and other apps.

More: Nieman Journalism Lab, Fortune, Quartz and Gawker

Tweets: @buzzfeedben, @mattbuchanan and @lheron

See also Mediagazer

Tom Warren / The Verge:

More Cortana details: Siri/Google Now-like virtual assistant to replace Bing search feature in Windows Phone 8.1 — Apple has Siri, and Microsoft is about to get Cortana — Microsoft has been in a state of “shut up and ship” with Windows Phone for more than a year now.

More: Gizmodo, Engadget, TechCrunch, WebProNews, SlashGear and TechnoBuffalo

Adam Bryant / New York Times:

Satya Nadella, Chief of Microsoft, on His New Role — This interview with Satya Nadella, the new chief executive of Microsoft, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. — Q. What leadership lessons have you learned from your predecessor, Steve Ballmer?

More: Gigaom, Quartz, The Verge, Digits, Business Insider and WinBeta. Tweets: @nytcorneroffice. Thanks:@petewootton

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Google Launches Project Tango Smartphone To Experiment With Computer Vision And 3D Sensors — Google today announced Project Tango, an Android-based prototype 5″ phone and developer kit with advanced 3D sensors out of its Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) hardware skunkworks group.

More: Movidius, Google ATAP, TechCrunch, Ars Technica, ReadWrite, Slate, Engadget, The Register, VentureBeat, Gigaom, The Next Web, The Verge, BGR, Re/code, Digits, MacRumors, CITEworld, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, eWeek, Android Beat, Gotta Be Mobile, Droid Life, TechnoBuffalo and Android Authority. Tweets: @eghosao

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Groupon Skyrockets After Hours On Q4 Beat With Revenue Of $768.4M, EPS Of $0.04 [Update: Following Enthusiasm, Investors Turn Sour] — Update 1: Investors bid Groupon massively higher following a better than expected financial performance. However, a mere 10 minutes after pushing Groupon up nearly 15 percent, the tone turned.

More: Business Wire, Re/code, Tech Trader Daily, internetretailer.com and ValueWalk

Tim Culpan / Bloomberg:

HTC to preview Qualcomm-based smartwatch to carriers next week, will not demo publicly — HTC Said to Plan Smartwatch Preview Amid Declining Market Share — HTC Corp. (2498), the Taiwanese smartphone maker struggling with sliding sales, plans to demonstrate the first of three wearable devices next week …

Devindra Hardawar / VentureBeat:

Online bank Simple acquired by Spain's BBVA for $117M — will focus on international growth — Nobody expected this Spanish banking acquisition. — Simple, the online bank devoted to offering a more humane alternative to traditional banking, announced today that it's being acquired …

More: Simple Blog, TechCrunch, The Verge, PR Newswire, Webrazzi, Gizmodo, The Next Web, Oregonian, Mashable and Android Community. Tweets: @marshallk

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Fleksy's Predictive Touch Keyboard with Gestures Now Available to All iOS Developers — Back in December, Fleksy announced a toolkit to allow iOS developers to incorporate the company's popular predictive and gesture-based keyboard into their apps. The initial testing period involved …

More: Engadget, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, TechHive, TechCrunch, Gigaom, iPhone in Canada Blog, Ars Technica and MacStories

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Adobe releases emergency Flash update amid new zero-day drive-by attacks — Adobe has released an emergency update for its widely used Flash Player to combat active attacks that exploit a previously unknown security bug that hackers are actively exploiting to surreptitiously install malware on end-user computers.

More: FireEye Blog, helpx.adobe.com, MacRumors, The Register, Digital Trends, 9to5Mac, Computerworld, SC Magazine and MacNN

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Meg Whitman buys more time as HP beats earnings estimates — Caption: Hewlett-Packard chief executive Meg Whitman — Hewlett-Packard reported earnings that beat Wall Street's earnings expectations. — Analysts had expected a big drop in quarterly revenue, but HP exceeded estimates on both profits and revenues.

More: Mercury News and Bloomberg

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Acompli Raises $7.3M Series A From Redpoint & Others To Fix Mobile Email — Acompli, a company building a mobile email application which functions as an all-in-one productivity app for iPhone, has raised $7.3 million in Series A funding - a sizable investment that points to the scale of the problem the startup is aiming to solve.

More: Re/code, Acompli, VentureBeat, Gigaom, CITEworld and Gigaom Research. Thanks:@peter_farago

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Former Motionloft CEO Jon Mills Arrested By The FBI — Jon Mills, the founder and former CEO of real-world analytics startup Motionloft, has been arrested by the FBI, the bureau has confirmed. The arrest follows allegations that Mills lied to investors about an acquisition of his company …

Tim Bray / ongoing:

Tim Bray leaving Google, cites requirement that he end working remotely from Vancouver — Leaving Google — As of March 17th I'll be an ex-employee. It's an amicable separation in the face of irreconcilable differences: I wouldn't move to California and Google wouldn't open a Vancouver office.

More: Re/code and 9to5Google. Tweets: @stevesi, @theromit, @jyarow, @jeresig, @timbray, @qthrul and @dhh

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Dell joins alliance to bring wireless charging to laptops — Wireless charging for laptops is now in the works at one of the top competing standards. The Alliance for Wireless Power has just added Dell as one of its members, and it's announcing today a new wireless charging initiative …

More: PC World, rezence.com, Re/code, Engadget, SlashGear and Ubergizmo

Samit Sarkar / Polygon:

Xbox One Media Remote coming in early March for $24.99 (update) — The Xbox One Media Remote, a standard-looking remote control for Microsoft's latest gaming console, will be available in all Xbox One markets worldwide in early March, the company announced today. — In the U.S., it will retail for $24.99.

More: Xbox Wire, Xbox Live's Major Nelson, The Verge, Gizmodo, WebProNews, Joystiq, Softpedia News, VG247 and CNET

Diane Bartz / Reuters:

U.S. takes steps to bolster patent system, cut frivolous lawsuits — (Reuters) - The White House announced steps on Thursday designed to reduce frivolous patent lawsuits by trying to make it easier to identify who owns patents and by updating review processes to ensure that fewer weak patents are granted.

More: ZDNet, The White House, Computerworld, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Politico, Wall Street Journal, Verizon Public Policy and Yahoo Global Public Policy

Jon Southurst / CoinDesk:

Bitcoin Price Hits $135 on Mt. Gox Following Office Move and Verification Demand — Updates and rumors related to Mt. Gox this week include: a possible company relocation, a requirement for users to hold verified accounts to withdraw bitcoins and a fall in Gox's listed price of bitcoin.

More: Computerworld, Investing.com, ValueWalk, PFhub.com ™, newsBTC, MoneyBeat, Bitcoin Magazine, Business Insider, International Business Times and TechCrunch

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