Microsoft announced plans to buy gaming giant and "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard in a $68.7B all-cash deal. The acquisition is Microsoft’s largest ever since it bought LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2B. More: - The deal will add new and existing Activision Blizzard games to Microsoft’s Game Pass, which just reached 25 million subscribers.
- It will enable Microsoft to publish Activision franchises including Candy Crush, Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch.
- Under the terms, Activision CEO Bobby Kotick will stay on in the role during the transition. Activision Blizzard as a business will report to Microsoft Gaming executive Phil Spencer.
- The acquisition, expected to close in fiscal 2023, will make Microsoft the world's third-largest gaming enterprise by revenue after Tencent and Sony.
- Microsoft previously expanded its gaming portfolio with the purchase of Minecraft maker Mojang for $2.5B in 2014 and game maker Bethesda in 2021 for $7.5B.
Zoom-out: - The announcement comes amid allegations of sexual harassment and gender pay disparity at Activision Blizzard, where Kotick has faced calls to resign.
- On Monday, Activision said it had fired more than three dozen employees and reprimanded another 44 following an investigation into the claims.
CNET 
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 The U.K. government wants to strengthen rules on cryptocurrency advertising to ensure that promotions don't mislead investors. Finance Minister Rishi Sunak said the plan is to regulate crypto ads in the same way as stocks and other financial products. More: - The appearance of crypto ads has surged in London’s underground transport network in recent months as interest in digital currencies skyrockets.
- As a result, the U.K. government said it will introduce legislation to amend existing financial advertising laws to regulate "misleading" crypto ads.
- An estimated 2.3 million people in the country now own some type of crypto asset. However, research suggests that some people don't fully understand what crypto is and may make risky investments as a result, according to the U.K. Treasury.
- Spain's market watchdog made a similar announcement this week to restrict the advertising of cryptocurrency, including a requirement that ads display a warning about crypto's risks.
- Bitcoin is down about 40% from its record high of $69,000 in November.
GOV.UK
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The U.S. Federal Trade Commission and several states are investigating Meta's virtual-reality division for potential anticompetitive behavior. Some third-party developers for the Oculus app have faced questioning by the FTC and state attorneys general in New York, Tennessee, and North Carolina, sources told Bloomberg. More: - The investigation is reportedly exploring whether Meta's VR division, formerly called Oculus, uses its market position to suppress competition.
- Authorities have asked developers if they face disadvantages when competing against Meta's own VR software, including potential discrimination against third-party apps in Meta's VR app store.
- The FTC is also looking into Meta's $299 price point for its Quest 2 headset, which is noticeably lower than similar VR hardware sold by competitors.
- The agency has already been investigating Meta's recent acquisition of VR fitness app maker Within.
- Last week, a federal judge rejected Meta's motion to dismiss another U.S. antitrust case against the company, giving the FTC a second chance to pursue illegal monopolization charges against Meta's Facebook division.
UPLOAD VR
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A cybersecurity group has uncovered security flaws in an Olympics mobile app that athletes at next month's Beijing Games will be required to use for COVID monitoring. The My2022 app has weaknesses that leave users at risk of having their health and other personal data exposed, according to an analysis by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab. More: - Athletes, media, and other Games participants will be required to use My2022 to upload their passport details, travel plans, and health data for daily COVID monitoring.
- The app, from a state-owned company called Beijing Financial Holdings Group, also has file transfer, weather updates, and text, video, and audio chat functions.
- However, the app's encryption protecting voice, audio, and file transfers can be bypassed with little effort, according to the non-profit lab.
- MY2022 also does not validate some SSL certificates, which authenticate a site's identity to ensure a secure connection.
- Hackers could take advantage of this flaw by deceiving users to connect to fake websites in order to steal sensitive data, Citizen Lab found.
- Meanwhile, the cyber security firm Internet 2.0 has also warned of potential Olympics security risks and recommended that attendees use burner phones.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
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 Wayve, a London-based autonomous driving startup, raised $200M to scale its AI technology and pursue pilot projects with commercial fleet partners. The startup differs from other self-driving vehicle companies in that it relies more on machine learning to "teach" cars how to drive. More: - The tech, designed specifically for fleet operators, combines cameras with embedded AI to gradually "learn" over time using driving data from Wayve partner fleets.
- Wayve's technology, called AV 2.0, allows a vehicle to “see the world for itself” through computer vision rather than using traditional coding and digital maps, according to Wayve co-founder Alex Kendall.
- The approach could perform better in complex driving environments, such as large cities, Kendall believes.
- Wayve's test vehicles successfully navigated traffic lights in London and five other U.K. cities without having been at those locations previously.
- Microsoft and other existing investors took part in the Series B round along with new investors D1 Capital Partners, Moore Strategic Ventures, and Linse Capital.
TECHCRUNCH
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Acer, Asus, Lenovo, Dell, and HP have all announced new laptops that run Windows 11 SE, the Microsoft Windows edition designed to compete with Chrome OS in classrooms. The cloud-first OS was designed for low-cost laptops and other devices at K-8 schools, competing directly with Google’s Chromebooks which have dominated the market. More: - The devices with Windows 11 SE are a mix of newly announced and pre-existing hardware.
- They include Acer's TravelMate Spin B3 device, the Asus BR100F laptop, Dell's Latitude 3120 and 3120 2-in-1 for Education, the HP ProBook Fortis 14-inch G9 Notebook, JP.IK's Leap T304, and Lenovo 500w, among others.
- Fujitsu and Positivo also plan to release devices with the OS sometime in 2022.
- Windows 11 SE debuted alongside Microsoft's $249 Surface Laptop SE, which began shipping late last year for students.
THE VERGE
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- Twitter users in Brazil, Spain, and the Philippines can now report misinformation on the platform as part of a new test feature already live in the U.S.
- Samsung unveiled its Exynos 2200 mobile processor for smartphones, which enables ray tracing and other features through an AMD RDNA 2-powered GPU.
- Exotec, a creator of Skypods autonomous industrial robots, raised $335M in funding led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management.
- OnePlus confirmed end-of-software support for the OnePlus 6 and 6T phones after their final update in November.
- Walmart filed several new trademarks with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office noting plans to create and sell virtual items.
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 |  | Beth is an Inside Analyst and a former public policy/investigative reporter. She has covered AI, VR, technology, and e-commerce for Inside. When she's not busy writing, she's hiking in Arizona's desert, playing pickleball, or trying out new Mexican food recipes. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is writing an illustrated book about climate change that will be published by Ten Speed Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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