Comcast executives had a basic theme for investors, during a call that followed the company's $65 billion bid for 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets: Confidence.
Confidence that regulators will approve the deal. Confidence that Comcast shareholders will like the deal. And confidence that the deal will help it expand internationally and compete with streaming giants like Netflix.
Apple is moving ahead with plans to limit the ability to access data from an iPhone via its charging port, a move that has drawn some concern from law enforcement.
Why it matters: A new USB Restricted Mode will change the phone's Lightning port from a data-and-charging port to charging-only an hour after the phone is locked. That severely limits the usefulness of the port as a means to gain access to information on a locked iPhone — but also limits hackers from using the port for malicious purposes.
Comcast on Wednesday offered to buy the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox for $35 per share in cash, representing a $65 billion equity value. This easily tops Fox's agreed-upon deal with Disney, which valued the equity at around $52.4 billion and was mostly in Disney stock.
"We have long admired what the Murdoch family has built at Twenty-First Century Fox. After our meetings last year, we came away convinced that the 21CF businesses to be sold are highly complementary to ours, and that our company would be the right strategic home for them."
— Beginning of Comcast letter to 21st Century Fox board
Uber is seeking to patent a machine-learning system that can predict when a user is acting "unusually." The patent was filed in December 2016, published last week, and first reported by CNN.
Why it matters: Such a system could help keep vulnerable or intoxicated passengers safe by pairing them with specially trained drivers. It could be useful for drivers, who could get a heads up before picking up a passenger who's behaving erratically.
One of the biggest advances in this early stage of working artificial intelligence is facial recognition — the ability of Facebook to pick out individuals across its platform, and the Chinese to nab suspected criminals out of a city crowd.
But last year, engineers working for JD Finance, the financial arm of JD.com, the e-commerce giant, wondered where such capabilities could go next. What about animals? So it was that a contest unfolded: three teams of engineers pitted against one another to adapt facial recognition programs to piglets.
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent data protection watchdog, fined Yahoo £250,000 ($334,000) for its 2014 data breach, which it revealed in 2016, for failing to secure UK customers’ information.
Big picture: Yahoo may be breathing a sigh of relief for two reasons. First, compare that to the fine Yahoo got from the Securities and Exchange Commission for $35 million. Second, this breach was investigated under the UK 1988 Data Protection Act — not under the new General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which became enforceable just last month and which threatens penalties that tower over this ICO fine.
Twitter is revamping its app’s “Explore” tab in the hopes of better serving up relevant and timely news to its users. It’s also rolling out a new feature for the FIFA World Cup, with an individual page of content for each game, just in time for the tournament’s kick off on Thursday.
Why it matters: The company says this is a small piece of a bigger ongoing effort to revamp its product. Over the years, Twitter has struggled to balance user growth with catering to its most active and loyal users, which has sometimes resulted in confusing product updates.
President Trump reacted Wednesday morning to reports on the North Korean summit — which he considers "an interesting and very positive experience — saying the "Fake News" is trying to "downplay the deal."
Note: NBC is an investor in Axios and Andy Lack is a member of the Axios board.
The FCC's dissolution of net neutrality regulations took effect Monday. And a landmark court decision on Tuesday approved AT&T's merger with Time Warner, over the arguments of the Department of Justice.
Why it matters: Together, these events of the last 48 hours could shape the internet for years to come. They open a path to a network that could be quite different from the freewheeling one you grew up with or first got to know in the 1990s or 2000s.
