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January 9, 2025, 4:55 PM
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Top News

Financial Times:
Sources: Musk is probing how he and his right-wing allies can go beyond aggressive X posts to destabilize the UK Labour government and remove Keir Starmer as PM  —  Technology billionaire interested in building support for another political party, notably Reform UK
Financial Times:
Analysis: Elon Musk's UK obsession is driven by a few X accounts; an ex-Twitter exec says Musk may be the first tech leader to be radicalized by his own product  —  Tech billionaire's posts about grooming gangs scandal have elevated issue  —  Elon Musk's recent obsession with UK politics …
Ashley Capoot / CNBC:
Google and Microsoft donate $1M to Trump's inauguration; Google says the donation, a YouTube livestream, and a homepage event link align with past inaugurations  —  Google donated $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund, becoming the latest major tech company to try …
Jaiveer Singh Shekhawat / Reuters:
Frank McCourt's Project Liberty says it made a formal bid to ByteDance to buy TikTok's US assets and keep the app alive without its current algorithm  —  Entrepreneur and former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt's Project Liberty and its consortium of partners in The People's Bid …
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Ivanti warns that threat actors exploited a critical-rated zero-day in its widely used Connect Secure VPN tool to compromise its corporate customers' networks  —  U.S. software giant Ivanti has warned that a zero-day vulnerability in its widely-used enterprise VPN appliance has been exploited …
Lillian Rizzo / CNBC:
Disney says it has an estimated 157M global MAUs watching ad-supported content across its streaming services Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+, including 112M US users  —  Disney said Wednesday it has an estimated 157 million global monthly active users watching ad-supported content across its streaming platforms — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+.
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
A US judge rules that Google must face a class action claiming Google collected users' personal data from their phones after switching off Web & App Activity  —  Google failed to persuade a federal judge to dismiss a privacy class action claiming it collected personal data from people's cellphones …
Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
xAI is testing a standalone iOS app for its chatbot Grok in several countries, like the US, Australia, and India; Grok was available only to X users until now  —  Elon Musk's AI company, xAI, is testing out a standalone iOS app for its chatbot, Grok, which was available only to X users until now.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Ubisoft says it is appointing advisers to review and pursue strategic options after an October 2024 report said its majority backers were considering a buyout  —  French video game publisher Ubisoft said Thursday it's appointing advisors to review and pursue strategic options after a report …
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Apple says it “has never used Siri data to build marketing profiles” and never sold it for advertising or other purposes, after paying $95M to settle a lawsuit  —  A Siri lawsuit settlement over privacy issues has dredged up old rumors about iPhone ad targeting …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon launches Amazon Retail Ad Service to let companies show ads in search results, product pages, and other areas of their own websites, initially in the US  —  Amazon has turned into an online ad juggernaut in recent years, with brands paying big bucks for premium placement on the retailer's websites.
Colby Hall / Mediaite:
GOP Senator Markwayne Mullin says Mark Zuckerberg met with Trump the day before announcing that Meta would replace fact-checking with Community Notes  —  Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg met with President-elect Donald Trump the day before announcing his social media platforms would end …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Meta revamping its content moderation systems with Community Notes is good, but Zuckerberg pretending it's about free speech is bad, and the timing is stupid
Stephen Totilo / Game File:
December court filing: Activision revealed that Call of Duty: Black Ops III cost $450M+ to make, Modern Warfare cost $640M+, and Black Ops Cold War cost $700M+  —  The biggest development budgets ever disclosed by a game company, buried in a court filing (but found by Game File), along with updated sales figures.
Vince Dioquino / Decrypt:
Filing: the Northern District Court of California gives the US government final approval to sell 69,370 BTC, worth $6.5B, seized in its Silk Road investigation  —  The ruling does not ensure immediate liquidation of the seized Bitcoin, as federal asset forfeiture requires several administrative processes.
Taylor Nicole Rogers / Financial Times:
Analysts say that contract negotiations between US dockworkers and the shipping industry over automation could help provide a template for agreements nationwide

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:55 PM ET, January 9, 2025.

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.

From Mediagazer

Bloomberg:
Sources: WBD begins exclusive talks with Netflix to sell its film and TV studios and HBO Max; Netflix is offering a $5B breakup fee if the deal isn't approved

The Guardian:
Ireland, Spain, Slovenia, and the Netherlands exit Eurovision after Israel received an all-clear to compete; the BBC and Germany's SWR plan to participate

James Faris / Business Insider:
Kalshi strikes a deal with CNBC that will integrate Kalshi's prediction data into CNBC's channel, site, and app starting in 2026, days after striking a CNN deal

More News

Heather Landi / Fierce Healthcare:
Hippocratic AI, which is building an LLM for health care, raised a $141M Series B, valuing the company at $1.64B, and launches a health care AI agent app store
Marina Temkin / TechCrunch:
Innovaccer, which aggregates medical data and plans to introduce multiple AI co-pilots and agents for the healthcare industry, raised a $275M Series F

Earlier Picks

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Microsoft is reverting to an older DALL-E 3 model version for Bing Image Creator, after the latest version, codenamed PR16, got many complaints on X and Reddit
Mari Yamaguchi / Associated Press:
Japan says Chinese hacking group MirrorFace is linked to 200+ cyberattacks from 2019 to 2024 targeting the country's national security and advanced tech data
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