Techmeme: Arguments start Monday in the FTC's antitrust suit targeting Meta's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, amid reports Zuckerberg asked Trump to intervene (Washington Post)

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April 12, 2025, 3:25 PM

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Bloomberg:

The Trump administration exempts smartphones, laptops, hard drives, processors, memory chips, and machines used to make semiconductors from reciprocal tariffs — President Donald Trump's administration exempted smartphones, computers and other electronics from its so-called reciprocal tariffs …

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Washington Post:

Arguments start Monday in the FTC's antitrust suit targeting Meta's acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp, amid reports Zuckerberg asked Trump to intervene — Arguments start Monday in the FTC's blockbuster antitrust suit targeting Facebook's purchases of Instagram and WhatsApp, as Zuckerberg pleads for the White House to intervene.

More: The Verge, Tech in Asia, Fast Company, CNBC, Tech Policy Press, Cryptopolitan, and Wall Street Pit

Bluesky: @willoremus.com and @colinbowern.com. Forums: r/technology

Bloomberg:

Netflix is testing an OpenAI-powered search engine that lets users find shows via inquiries that go beyond genres or actors' names, like the subscriber's mood — The OpenAI-powered search engine lets customers look for shows using far more specific terms, including the subscriber's mood, for example, the company said.

More: Engadget, The Verge, iDownloadBlog.com, Digital Trends, Financial Express, Tech in Asia, and Trusted Reviews

Bluesky: @carnage4life and @quinnypig.com. X: @jakuuire. Forums: r/technology

See also Mediagazer

Makena Kelly / Wired:

Sources: Palantir is helping DOGE build an API layer above all IRS databases; DOGE wants Palantir's Foundry software to be the “read center of all IRS systems” — For the past three days, DOGE and a handful of Palantir representatives, along with dozens of career IRS engineers …

Bluesky: @krazylars, @wired.com, @wired.com, @emptywheel, @sbyrnes, @techviews, @whodat35, @couts, and @katie-drummond. Mastodon: @JorisMeys@mstdn.social. X: @wired

Forums: r/technology, r/politics, r/feddiscussion, r/fednews, and r/TrueReddit

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Binance asked the US Treasury last month to loosen oversight on its AML compliance, after Binance entered into deal talks with Trump's crypto venture — Executives for the cryptocurrency exchange met with Treasury officials last month after the company entered into talks with a Trump family venture

More: Cryptopolitan, Cointelegraph, CoinGape, DL News, The Crypto Times, Reuters, Crypto Briefing, Coinpedia Fintech News, and Bloomberg

Bluesky: @ilyamarritz and @taraconlan. X: @tier10k

Meaghan Tobin / New York Times:

ByteDance, which spent an estimated $11B in 2024 on infrastructure for AI, is using data from ~1B users of its apps as the linchpin of its growing AI business — A set of popular apps helped China's ByteDance develop a key component of advanced artificial intelligence: information on how a billion people use the internet.

More: Politico

Ryan Weeks / Bloomberg:

Architect Partners: Q1 2025 was a record quarter for crypto M&A with 61 deals and $2.2B in total deal value, including Kraken's $1.5B acquisition of NinjaTrader — A false dawn for M&A? — Is the crypto M&A boom for real? We asked Casper Johansen, partner at The Spartan Group, a digital assets advisory firm.

More: Architect Partners and Architect Partners. X: @business

Gabriela Sá Pessoa / Rest of World:

A look at the battle between Uber and its unlikely ally, Chinese-owned rival 99, against the São Paulo city government, which banned motorcycle taxis in 2023 — The ride-hailing rivals are taking on the government of São Paulo, which banned motorcycle taxis.

Bluesky: @rinachandran. LinkedIn: Gabriela Sá Pessoa

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Appfigures: ChatGPT was the most downloaded app globally in March, excluding games, with 46M downloads across App Store and Google Play, its biggest month ever — ChatGPT became the world's most downloaded app in March, excluding games, topping the usual contenders for the No. 1 spot, Instagram and TikTok.

More: 9to5Mac, Business Today, Nairametrics, The Economic Times, Moneycontrol, and CNET

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:

Asia's startup funding fell 40% YoY to ~$13B in Q1 2025, the lowest funding for a quarter since $12.3B in Q4 2014; AI startup funding fell 50% YoY to just $1.8B — While OpenAI's massive $40 billion funding boosted global and North America's funding totals, Asia was not so lucky.

X: @crunchbasenews

Counterpoint Research:

In Q1 2025, SK Hynix overtook Samsung for the first time to lead global DRAM revenues with a 36% share, driven by its dominant 70% market share in HBM — - SK Hynix takes lead for first time ever in DRAM, grabbing 36% share of revenues in Q1 2025 — In particular, the company dominated in critical HBM with 70% market share

More: SamMobile, KED Global, SammyGuru, DigiTimes, and Tech in Asia. X: @counterpointtr

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From Mediagazer

David Shepardson / Reuters:

US Senator Marsha Blackburn raises concerns about Meta's plan to update its commercial terms, saying the terms grant sweeping scraping authority

Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:

Democratic FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez urges the NAB, the broadcast industry's largest lobbying group, to defend the right of TV newsrooms to report on polls

Esther Addley / The Guardian:

Axel Springer's Telegraph begins layoffs, pledging to become an “AI-powered” global business; sources: up to 100 jobs will go, with culture and sports hit hard

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More News

Connor Jones / The Register:

UK government report: 43% of businesses faced a cyber breach or attack in the past year; phishing was the most common type, affecting 85% of those attacked

More: BetaNews, Tech Monitor, The Stack, and ITPro. LinkedIn: Simon Lang

Kate O'Keeffe / Bloomberg:

US investigators are probing whether the China ties of TP-Link Systems Inc., the US-based business of Wi-Fi router giant TP-Link, pose an “unacceptable risk”

X: @business, @kate_okeeffe, @marksimonhk, @tomcottonar, and @dnvolz. Forums: Slashdot

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

Google says some terms in AI Overviews will link to Google's search results “to help people more easily explore topics and discover relevant websites”

More: 9to5Google and Search Engine Roundtable. Bluesky: @glenngabe

Financial Times:

Bain Capital agrees to buy Blackstone-backed HealthEdge, which offers SaaS for health insurers to modernize their systems, sources say for ~$2.6B including debt

More: Axios and Bain Capital

Reuters:

Source: Alphabet and Nvidia are among investors backing Safe Superintelligence; Google Cloud announced on April 9 that SSI is using its TPUs for AI research

More: Neowin and Financial Times

Bluesky: @nosunkcosts. LinkedIn: James Mawson. Forums: r/singularity

Sophie McEvoy / GamesIndustry.biz:

Newzoo: global consumer spending for PC and console gaming fell 2% YoY to $80.2B in 2024, with console revenues leading market share with $42.8B, down 3.9% YoY

More: Newzoo, TechSpot, ITC.UA, Mezha.Media, Game Rant, Kotaku, Game File, PC Games Insider, and CNET

Bluesky: @gtelephant. X: @gamer_matheusx, @stephentotilo, and @newzoohq. Forums: r/pcmasterrace

Earlier Picks

Natalie Lung / Bloomberg:

YipitData: Waymo's robotaxis made up about 20% of rides offered by Uber in Austin in the last week of March, after launching on March 4

More: Engadget, The Robot Report, TipRanks Financial, and The Driverless Digest

Bluesky: @jf2u. X: @aleximm, @stockmarketnerd, @adamkovac, and @sethdavishoops. Forums: r/waymo

Ari Levy / CNBC:

Filing: Founders Fund has closed a $4.6B late-stage venture fund; source: a substantial amount of the capital was provided by the firm's general partners

More: The Economic Times, Tech in Asia, Bloomberg, and US SEC

Aisha S Gani / Bloomberg:

Revolut plans to add UK stocks to its trading platform as some investors look to diversify away from US equities, and says it has over 800K UK trading customers

More: PYMNTS.com. LinkedIn: Aisha S Gani

Sara Fischer / Axios:

Meta adds Dina Powell McCormick, who served as deputy national security adviser to Trump in his first term, and Stripe CEO Patrick Collison to its board

More: Fortune, Engadget, Mashable, Reuters, Meta, Tech in Asia, RTÉ, CNBC, The Information, TechCrunch, The Hollywood Reporter, and Irish Independent

Bluesky: @karaswisher and @chadbourn

Threads: @mwi.invest and @vishwanathsarangkeller

X: @campbell_brown, @cernovich, @donaldjtrumpjr, @jasonmiller, and @sarafischer. Facebook: Mark Zuckerberg

Erin Woo / The Information:

Source: Google cuts hundreds of employees in its platforms and devices unit, which works on Android, Pixel, and Chrome, after offering buyouts in January 2025

More: Reuters, 9to5Google, Engadget, SiliconANGLE, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cryptopolitan, Android Central, Entrepreneur, PCMag, New York Post, Thurrott, Android Authority, San Francisco Chronicle, MobileSyrup, Phandroid, Silicon UK, International Business Times, Verdict, Cord Cutters News, ITPro, MacDailyNews, AIN, Android Police, PhoneArena, Hindustan Times, City A.M., Moneycontrol, Business Standard, DNA India, and Outlook Business

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Forums: r/technology and r/Android