Techmeme
August 12, 2015, 8:50 PM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
NBCU invests $200M in Vox Media, pre-money valuation of $850M; will invest $200M in BuzzFeed  —  NBCUniversal Buys Big Chunks of Vox Media and BuzzFeed  —  Last week Re/code reported that NBCUniversal was investing in BuzzFeed and Vox Media.  —  Now those deals are done, and NBCU and Vox Media are announcing their deal today.
Jason Del Rey / Re/code:
Apple Pay Competitor CurrentC May Not Launch Until Next Year  —  Google and Samsung are gearing up to join Apple Pay in the battle to replace your wallet later this year, but another payments app backed by big retailers like Walmart may wait a little longer before entering primetime.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft Surface Hub to ship starting January 1, 2016, rather than September 1, 2015, as originally planned  —  Microsoft Surface Hub to ship starting January 1, 2016  —  Microsoft's Surface Hub conferencing system will begin shipping on January 1, 2016, rather than September 1, 2015, as originally planned.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook plans to open Mentions, which houses Periscope competitor Live, to all verified profiles  —  Facebook Confirms Live Broadcasting Will Soon Open To Journalists And Verified Profiles  —  Facebook plans to open up its Periscope livestreaming competitor to more than just celebrities.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google Launches New Site To Showcase Experimental Open Source Apps For Android And Android Wear  —  Google launched Android Experiments today, the mobile apps counterpart to its Chrome Experiments site.  —  Just like with Chrome Experiments, the idea behind Android experiments is to showcase apps …
Owen Williams / The Next Web:
Lenovo shipped laptops with an “anti-theft” rootkit that reinstalled unwanted software, has issued manual, optional patch to remove the functionality  —  Lenovo used a hidden Windows feature to ensure its software could not be deleted  —  A recently uncovered feature …
Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Tinder Founder Sean Rad Returns as CEO, Replacing Chris Payne  —  Sean Rad, the co-founder of Tinder, who was replaced as CEO in March, is returning to the job.  —  As part of the move, Chris Payne — the former eBay and Microsoft exec who was hired in March to give the company more experienced management — is leaving.
Richa Naidu / Reuters:
Fidelity National to buy software maker SunGard in $9.1 billion deal  —  Financial industry software maker Fidelity National Information Services Inc (FIS.N) said it would buy SunGard Data Systems Inc for $9.1 billion including debt, scooping up one of the longest-held investments in private-equity history.
Kellex / Droid Life:
Moto X Pure Edition Will be Available Starting September 3  —  Motorola, via Twitter, just announced that its new flagship phone for 2015, the Moto X Pure Edition, will arrive September 3.  Previously, Motorola would only state that the phone was coming in September, which left a few …
Terry Collins / CNET:
Twitter increases maximum length of direct messages from 140 to 10K characters  —  Chat away: Twitter removes 140-character limit for direct messages  —  The social network now allows users to chat privately without feeling constrained by a space limit.  Blabbermouths, however, will get cut off at 10,000 characters.
Bertel King, Jr / Android Police:
Map Maker Reopens Starting With Bangladesh, Brazil, Canada, India, Philippines, And Ukraine  —  After a controversial edit or two appeared in Map Maker alongside an uptick in spam, Google decided to halt user submissions while it figured out a way to deal with things.
Robert D. Hof / MIT Technology Review:
Why Google's Alphabet Is Nothing like Berkshire Hathaway - and Much Riskier  —  Google's new structure has few historical precedents, in tech or outside it.  —  Before Apple's Steve Jobs died in 2011, he told Google cofounder and CEO Larry Page that his company was trying to do too much.

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