Author: Frank Salvato

Netflix has stunned investors and industry watchers by withdrawing from its previously announced plan to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery assets after rival bidder Paramount Skydance raised its offer to what Warner Bros.’ board deemed a “superior proposal.” Netflix initially agreed late last year to buy Warner Bros.’ studios and streaming business, including HBO and HBO Max, for roughly $82.7 billion, but chose not to match Paramount’s latest all-cash bid of about $31 per share, valuing the deal over $110 billion. Netflix executives cited financial discipline and that the higher price no longer made the transaction attractive, leading Warner Bros. to…

Leading technology giants are funneling unprecedented billions into building the computing infrastructure powering artificial intelligence, signing massive capacity and chip supply agreements, expanding data center footprints, and securing strategic partnerships that could reshape the industry’s competitive dynamics. Meta has inked AI chip and computing supply contracts valued at up to $100 billion and signaled plans for substantial capital spending on data center build-outs, while OpenAI recently secured $110 billion in fresh funding from a consortium of Amazon, Nvidia, and SoftBank. Tech sector spending on AI infrastructure is now poised to dwarf previous tech build-outs, with industry forecasts putting total investment…

Amazon has officially overtaken Walmart as the largest company in the United States and the world by annual revenue, posting roughly $717 billion in sales in 2025 compared to Walmart’s $713 billion in its most recent fiscal year, ending a 13-year run at the top for the traditional retailer; the shift reflects Amazon’s continued expansion into cloud computing, advertising, and subscription services alongside its core e-commerce business and highlights how digital platforms now rival and surpass brick-and-mortar dominance in sheer revenue size. Sources https://www.techradar.com/pro/amazon-officially-dethrones-walmart-as-americas-biggest-company-and-its-not-done-yethttps://www.wishtv.com/news/business/amazon-dethrones-walmart-as-biggest-global-company/https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/amazon-finally-dethrones-walmart-as-worlds-largest-retailer/502849 Key Takeaways • Amazon’s reported revenue of approximately $717 billion narrowly eclipsed Walmart’s roughly $713 billion…

Online car research and shopping platform CarGurus is reported to have suffered a significant data breach in which the notorious cybercrime collective known as ShinyHunters allegedly stole approximately 1.7 million corporate records, including personally identifiable information and internal company data after successful vishing (voice phishing) attacks on employees, and then threatened to publish the stolen data on dark-web forums if CarGurus did not comply with the group’s demands by February 20, 2026, with the company yet to publicly confirm the incident or disclose the breach’s full scope. Source reports note that the criminals posted warnings on their leak site and…

Chinese factories are now using TikTok as a global ecommerce platform to advertise and sell anti-drone weapons such as signal jammers, “jamming guns,” detection hardware, and other counter-UAV equipment, packaging these serious tools of modern warfare with the same breezy, consumer-friendly style used to market lifestyle products. Videos reviewed show Chinese sellers demonstrating these devices on rooftops and in open fields, often with captions in Chinese, English, and Russian or Ukrainian, seemingly targeting international buyers involved in active conflicts like Russia’s war against Ukraine. Experts point out that while some of these products are framed for civilian uses like mining…

A recent study examining the rapid evolution of artificial intelligence search tools suggests that traditional search engines may face mounting pressure as AI-driven chatbots become increasingly search-like in how they retrieve and present information, reshaping how brands are discovered and perceived online. Researchers found that large language model–powered tools are now delivering more direct, synthesized answers rather than simply listing website links, reducing click-through traffic and altering the long-standing digital advertising and SEO ecosystem. As AI systems refine their ability to cite sources, summarize content, and personalize results, businesses that once depended heavily on organic search visibility may see diminishing…

Google’s latest Android and Google Play security report reveals that in 2025 the company rejected about 1.75 million policy-violating Android apps from ever reaching the official Play Store and banned more than 80,000 developer accounts tied to harmful or non-compliant submissions, while also blocking hundreds of thousands of apps from gaining excessive access to user data and using advanced AI-powered defenses and automated safety checks to deter malicious activity and protect billions of Android users worldwide. Sources https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/google-rejected-nearly-two-million-android-apps-and-blocked-more-than-80-000-developer-accounts-from-google-play-in-2025https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-google-ai-blocked-1-75-million-apps-2025/https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2026/02/20/google-strengthens-android-safe-app-ecosystem/ Key Takeaways • Google’s 2025 safety report shows about 1.75 million apps were blocked from publication on the Google Play Store for…

A recently discovered unsecured database left publicly accessible on the internet reportedly contained billions of sensitive records, including email addresses, passwords, and approximately 2.7 billion entries with Social Security numbers, raising serious concerns about potential identity theft risks for millions of Americans even though there is no confirmed evidence that criminals have exploited the data before it was taken offline. Security researchers at UpGuard found the massive cache in January and alerted the cloud hosting provider, prompting its removal, and preliminary analysis suggests the information may be cobbled together from multiple historic breaches, highlighting persistent systemic failures in how personal…

A team of astronomers has reported the discovery of an extraordinarily faint galaxy in the Perseus Cluster that appears to be dominated almost entirely by dark matter, with only a tiny fraction of its mass made up of visible stars and gas; dubbed CDG-2 (Candidate Dark Galaxy-2), this object was detected by combining observations from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Euclid telescope, and the Subaru ground-based observatory, with four globular clusters serving as the only bright markers of the underlying system, and research published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters indicates that roughly 99.9 percent of the galaxy’s mass could be…

Poland’s ruling coalition is moving forward with a draft bill that would prohibit children under the age of 15 from accessing social media platforms, require tech companies to implement strict age verification, and impose financial penalties on platforms that fail to comply; the proposal, pushed by Education Minister Barbara Nowacka, is part of a broader European push to address concerns about mental health and online harms among minors and could face resistance from U.S.-based tech giants before possibly taking effect in early 2027. Sources https://www.theepochtimes.com/tech/poland-plans-social-media-ban-for-under-15s-5991774https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/poland-plans-social-media-ban-children-under-15-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-02-27https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-27/poland-plans-social-media-ban-for-kids-in-challenge-to-us-tech Key Takeaways In-Depth Poland is preparing what could be one of the most consequential social…