Retraction Watch: The Retraction Watch Database becomes completely open – and RW becomes far more sustainable. “We’re thrilled to announce that Crossref has acquired The Retraction Watch Database and will make it completely open and freely available.”
Washington Post: Musk may have violated FTC privacy order, new court filing shows. “Elon Musk repeatedly made business decisions after his takeover of Twitter last year that violated the company’s internal policies and likely ran afoul of a 2022 government order that put sweeping restrictions on the company’s data security and privacy practices, according to depositions from former employees that the Justice Department published in a court filing Tuesday.”
PC Gamer: Atari acquires massive Atari archive after revealing a ‘new’ 2600 that takes cartridges. “Atari is to acquire AtariAge, which you could call a retro forum though that would vastly undersell what it is: over time this has grown into the best repository for everything Atari (as well as some other companies), both hardware and software, as well as being a major publisher for homebrew software….On top of this [AtariAge founder Albert] Yarusso is to become Atari’s internal historian, which seems rather a good fit, and the site will get the investment it needs for some long-mooted ecommerce functionality.”
CBS News: Elizabeth Warren calls for SEC to investigate Tesla, Elon Musk’s ‘conflicts of interest’. “Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren asked the SEC to investigate Tesla and its board of directors to determine whether they violated securities laws after CEO Elon Musk took over Twitter last year.”
The Moscow Times: Russian Tech Giant Yandex Seeks New ‘Middlemen’ Buyers for Kremlin Handover – Reports. “The Kremlin is looking for buyers of Russia’s internet giant Yandex who would later sell the company to a Kremlin-linked oligarch sanctioned by the West, independent media reported, citing several anonymous sources familiar with the matter. The Bell business outlet and the news website Meduza said the search follows a breakdown of Yandex’s Dutch-registered holding company’s previous talks to sell its revenue-generating businesses and fully exit Russia.”
Domain Name Wire: Squarespace buys Google Domains for $180 million. “In a surprising announcement today, website building platform Squarespace (NYSE: SQSP) announced that it’s buying Google Domains, Google’s domain name registrar. The purchase price is $180 million, and JPMorgan Chase Bank is providing financing for part of the purchase.”
The Hindu: Snowflake buys ex-Google executives built search engine Neeva . “Snowflake, a cloud data management firm, has purchased ex-Google executives built ad-free search engine Neeva for an undisclosed sum. The details of the transaction have not been spelled out, but the acquisition could give the cloud data management firm a lift as it aims to becomes an AI company.”
PR Newswire: Car Wash M&A Transaction Database Debuts to the Public (PRESS RELEASE). “Car Wash Advisory, a leading investment banking and M&A advisory firm focused exclusively on the car wash industry, has announced the debut of its publicly available and accessible database of historical car wash M&A transactions. This resource, which will be continually updated both on a historical and move-forward basis, provides a window into the largest and most meaningful M&A transactions in the car wash industry.”
Ars Technica: Mozilla acquires review-checking, scammer-spotting service Fakespot for Firefox . “Fakespot, a useful service that explains how products you’ve never heard of could have 12,000 reviews with a 4.6-star average, has been acquired by Firefox-maker Mozilla, and Mozilla plans to integrate it into Firefox.”
Reuters: Parler to shut down temporarily after Starboard buys social media platform. “Parler, a social media app popular with U.S. conservatives, was sold to digital media conglomerate Starboard for an undisclosed sum and will be shut down temporarily to give its new owner time to roll out a revamped version of the platform.”
Axios: DWAC fires its CEO amid stalled deal to buy Trump’s Truth Social . “Digital World Acquisition Corp., the blank check company seeking to buy Truth Social parent company TMTG, on Wednesday disclosed that it has fired chairman and CEO Patrick Orlando.”
Washington Post: U.S. government is not investigating Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase. “Federal authorities have no plans to open an investigation into Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter with help from foreign investors, according to two people aware of the matter, despite concerns from President Biden and the demands of a top Democratic senator worried about the social network’s international financial backers.”
Ars Technica: The flight tracker that powered @ElonJet has taken a left turn. “A major independent flight tracking platform, which has made enemies of the Saudi royal family and Elon Musk, has been sold to a subsidiary of a private equity firm. And its users are furious. ADS-B Exchange has made headlines in recent months for, as AFP put it, irking ‘billionaires and baddies.’ But in a Wednesday morning press release, aviation intelligence firm Jetnet announced it had acquired the scrappy open source operation for an undisclosed sum.”
TV Tech: Fabric Acquires Internet Video Archive. “The media and entertainment catalog management solution provider Fabric has acquired Internet Video Archive (IVA), which has a large inventory of entertainment trailers, as well as a substantial baseline catalog of film and television metadata. Financial terms of the deal for IVA were not disclosed. For the past 18 years, IVA has been providing movie, TV, and game promotional content to some of the largest names in the media industry.”
The Verge: Discord acquires Gas, the popular app for teens to compliment each other. “Gas has polls that ask users to vote for things like the most beautiful person they’ve met or the classmate that isn’t afraid to get in trouble. It has soared in popularity among high schoolers since launching in August. One of the co-creators of TBH, a very similar teenager app acquired and shut down by Facebook, created Gas, which has caught the attention of more than 1 million daily active users and 30,000 new users per hour in October.”
