Month: March 2018

Enlarge / U.S. President Donald Trump hugs Broadcom CEO Hock Tan as Tan announces the repatriation of his company's headquarters to the United States from Singapore during a ceremony in the Oval Office of the White House on November 2, 2017 in Washington, DC. (credit: Martin H. Simon - Pool/Getty Images)

On Monday evening, President Donald Trump officially blocked Broadcom’s efforts to purchase Qualcomm. He issued an executive order saying that there is "credible evidence" to suggest that the deal "threatens to impair the national security of the United States."

Had the proposed deal gone through, it would have allowed the Singapore-based Broadcom to purchase the San Diego-based Qualcomm for $117 billion. The hostile takeover also would have been the biggest deal in the history of the tech industry.

The order, which did not fully explain on what basis the president made this assessment, suggests that the Trump administration is willing to protect American companies against foreign competitors even more than some had realized. Trump recently ordered that tariffs on imported steel and aluminum be put in place, propping up those American industries.

Enlarge (credit: Texture)

Apple announced today that it signed an agreement to acquire the digital magazine service Texture, which serves articles from more than 200 magazines digitally on iOS, Windows, Amazon, and Android devices for a flat monthly fee.

Apple has acquired the entire company, including staff, and has assured users that the Android version of the app will still be supported. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Texture was founded in 2010 and was formerly called Next Issue until it rebranded in 2015. It was chiefly founded and owned by a group of major magazine publishers, but it also raised $50 million from other investors. It launched during a time when the magazine industry harbored some optimism that the iPad and other tablets would be popular platforms for premium subscriptions as an alternative to the Web, which was dominated by tech companies like Google. As digital magazines like News Corporation's The Daily folded, it became clear that future wasn't panning out.

Enlarge (credit: Getty Images | Scott Olson)

Verizon has agreed to fix failing copper networks and boost fiber deployment in New York, two years after state officials began investigating the quality of Verizon landline phone and broadband service.

A settlement with Verizon "will require the company to repair 54 central offices across the state, replace bad cable, defective equipment, faulty back-up batteries, and to take down 64,000 double telephone poles," the Communications Workers of America (CWA) union said last week. "The agreement also includes increased broadband buildout to major apartment buildings in New York City and more than 30,000 homes across the state."

Verizon reached the proposed settlement with the union, staff at the New York State Department of Public Service, and the Public Utility Law Project of New York. The four-party settlement is still subject to approval by the state Public Service Commission (PSC).

AUSTIN, Texas—Following the world premiere of The Director and The Jedi, a comprehensive two-hour documentary about the making of the latest Star Wars film, South By Southwest Film Festival attendees got a Last Jedi double-whammy. After the curtain raised at the Paramount Theater, director Rian Johnson and actor Mark Hamill took the stage for an impromptu Q&A.

Hamill unsurprisingly opted for jokes and openness in his answers, and in particular, he offered his most robust comments yet about that spicy bit of news ahead of Episode VIII's launch: that he didn't much care for how the character of Luke Skywalker had been written.

“A house I didn’t recognize”

Nathan Mattise