Techmeme
March 21, 2018, 11:55 AM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Brian Acton, who cofounded WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook for $16B, tweeted “It is time. #deletefacebook”  —  Facebook bought his app for $16 billion  —  In 2014, Facebook bought WhatsApp for $16 billion, making its co-founders — Jan Koum and Brian Acton — very wealthy men.
Jason Abbruzzese / NBC News:
Facebook confirms Mark Zuckerberg will speak in the next 24 hours on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, after initially being focused on how to fix the problem  —  #WheresZuck had become a question in the past couple days  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will speak publicly in the next 24 hours with a …
Wired:
With the storm over user data misuse intensifying into a hurricane, Facebook now faces several vexing questions about its opaque privacy practices  —  Two weeks ago, Facebook learned that The New York Times, Guardian, and Observer were working on blockbuster stories based on interviews with a man named Christopher Wylie.
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
As US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle call for Mark Zuckerberg to testify, he and Sheryl Sandberg remain publicly silent on the Cambridge Analytica scandal  —  The bad thing about making your face synonymous with the company you run: When you go M.I.A., everyone tends to notice.
Washington Post:
Chris Wylie says Breitbart's Steve Bannon approved Cambridge Analytica's 2014 work to collect Facebook data; firm used focus groups to test views on Putin, more  —  LONDON — Conservative strategist Stephen K. Bannon oversaw Cambridge Analytica's early efforts to collect troves of Facebook data …
Rani Molla / Recode:
Channel 4 News:
Spencer Ackerman / The Daily Beast:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Sources: Google is buying Lytro, the imaging startup that uses its light field tech in VR, for about $40M; one source describes deal as an “asset sale”  —  Last week, Google showed off a new app to display immersive photography in virtual reality, and a multi-camera technique for capturing it …
Johana Bhuiyan / Recode:
Travis Kalanick becoming CEO of City Storage Systems, which focuses on repurposing real estate, and says his new fund is acquiring a $150M controlling interest  —  The company was formerly called CloudKitchens and was led by Diego Berdakin, an early Uber investor.  —  Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has found his new job.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple executive Jimmy Iovine will transition into a consulting role in August and step back from daily involvement with Apple Music  —  The music executive and Beats co-founder will step back from daily involvement with Apple's streaming-music business
David Meyer / Fortune:
The European Commission proposes a 3% tax on EU revenues of companies with global annual revenues of €750M+, like Google, Facebook, and Amazon  —  The European Commission wants to see big tech firms pay a 3% tax on some of their revenues.  This is a major break from the traditional way of calculating tax based on profits.
Rita El Khoury / Android Police:
Amazon's in-home delivery service app Key adds fingerprint authentication support on Android  —  Amazon's Key in-home delivery service was announced last October and its cameras and smart door locks became available in November.  Since then, Amazon has been able to use Key to place …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
CryptoKitties, a game built on top of the Ethereum blockchain, raises $12M Series A led by a16z and USV, and will be spun out of Axiom Zen game studio  —  CryptoKitties became a sensation after it debuted in November as a collectible game built on top of a blockchain and the Ethereum cryptocurrency.
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Google and Facebook were built to destroy publishers, not help; Google's $300M pledge to journalism won't go directly to publications, who need real checks  —  Guess who's winning?  —  For argument's sake, let's believe that Google believes its newest efforts to boost publishers …
Blair Hanley Frank / VentureBeat:
Microsoft announces Windows Server 2019, the first big update since 2016, with Linux and Kubernetes support  —  Microsoft announced today that it will launch the next major release of Windows Server later this year with better support for hybrid workloads, Linux workloads, and hyper-converged infrastructure.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Pro Tips: 4 tips to overcome data problems in your CRM  —  Most CRM data problems don't look like problems.  At a glance, your CRM looks fine: records exist, fields are filled, and reports run.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Meta's Muse Revival, Frontier AI Under Threat, The Rise Of Dopamine Sites
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Sources:
Satya Nadella on Microsoft's agent bet and AI's trust problem
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Meta's New $1300 Glasses and the Fight to Control AI
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:55 AM ET, March 21, 2018.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Ari Levy / CNBC: