AT&T is buying CenturyLink's consumer fiber broadband division for $5.75 billion, "giving the internet provider another 1.1 million fiber customers in 11 states," reports Ars Technica. "The all-cash deal is expected to close during the first half of 2026 assuming the companies obtain regulatory approval. AT&T will gain new customers in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Washington." From the report: The deal will give AT&T room to grow its user base by more than the 1.1 million existing CenturyLink customers, as AT&T said the network areas being sold include over 4 million fiber-enabled locations. [...] The company, previously called CenturyLink, is officially named Lumen now but still uses the CenturyLink brand name for home Internet service. AT&T, which has 9.6 million (PDF) fiber customers and 14.1 million broadband customers overall, said the infrastructure it is purchasing will help it expand fiber construction to new locations as well. The deal is also notable for what it doesn't include: Lumen's enterprise fiber customers and the old copper DSL lines that were never upgraded to fiber. [...] The deal seems unlikely to improve matters for CenturyLink copper users. [...] Lumen will retain the CenturyLink consumer copper broadband and voice services, but selling the consumer fiber business makes it clear that the telco isn't focused on residential customers. Lumen said that offloading consumer fiber lines will help sharpen its focus on selling services to large businesses. The company is maintaining its business fiber lines. [Ars notes that there are still nearly 1.4 million CenturyLink copper internet customers that will likely see service continue to degrade under Lumen's ownership.] "The transaction will enable AT&T to significantly expand access to AT&T Fiber in major metro areas like Denver, Las Vegas, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Orlando, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City and Seattle, as well as additional geographies," AT&T said. "AT&T will gain access to Lumen's substantial fiber construction capabilities within its incumbent local exchange carrier (ILEC) footprint and plans to accelerate the pace at which fiber is being built in these territories," AT&T said. "AT&T now expects to reach approximately 60 million total fiber locations by the end of 2030 -- "roughly doubling where AT&T Fiber is available today."

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Broadcom has upped VMware licensing costs by between eight to 15 times since it took over the organization, and a lack of alternatives in the tech industry means trade and end customers have no choice but to play ball. From a report: This is the according to the European Cloud Competition Observatory (ECCO), an independent body formed by customer organizations, and CISPE -- a trade association of 37 cloud providers in the region -- to monitor the behavior of software vendors accused of abusing their monopoly position. The report also calls for regulatory intervention. The current subscription model "creates a material risk for the company and their shareholders should Regulators investigate and challenge the legality of such model," the report adds.

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Si vous n’avez rien compris au titre, c’est normal, n’allez pas consulter.

Après les échecs désastreux des assistants personnels basés sur l’IA qu’ont été l’AI Pin d’Humane et le Rabbit R1, voilà que Sam Altman en pince à son tour pour le développement de produits exploitant l’IA. Au vu du parcours pyrotechnique des précédents produits du genre, on s’attend à un nouveau joli moment de gloire.

Il faut dire que les fondamentaux sont excellents. On part sur du très lourd avec la reprise de IO par OpenAI. IO c’est une startup lancée par Jony Ive, l’ex-designer emblématique d’Apple qui a lancé LoveFrom dans la foulée de son départ de la société à la pomme. IO c’est un studio de développement qui n’a, pour le moment, rien produit. Pas de produit, pas de logiciel, rien. À vrai dire, la start-up n’a pour le moment même pas dégagé un seul dollar de chiffre d’affaires.

Pourtant, OpenAI propose de lâcher 6.5 milliards de dollars pour faire son acquisition. Alors ce ne sont pas des vrais dollars, ce sont des bouts de papier qui transfèrent des actions d’OpenAI d’un actionnaire à un autre. Ce n’est pas tout à fait la même chose, mais tout de même, logiquement, pour une si belle somme, on peut s’attendre à quelque chose de concret de l’autre côté de la balance.

Des gens tout à fait ordinaires sauf qu’ils viennent de s’échanger 6.5 milliards de dollars

Pour le moment, on ne sait rien de ce que propose IO, le boite emploie 55 ingénieurs en développement matériel même si on n’a vu aucun produit. De deux choses l’une. Soit l’IA continue de faire son travail de levure et nous lâche ici un magnifique boursouflement dont les bulles ont le secret. Soit l’équipe de Jony Ive a réussi un tour de passe-passe incroyable, « disruptif » comme disent les Business Angels, et un produit incroyable a été montré au boss d’Open AI. C’est ce que dit la vidéo mise en scène de la discussion ente les deux compères qui font ici joujou de manière très jubilatoire avec l’argent de leurs investisseurs.

Le premier produit de IO est attendu pour 2026 et, comme ils ne sont pas chiens et qu’il y a quand même un petit peu de pognon qui change de mains, les ingénieurs de LoveFrom feront la retape du design de ChatGPT pour être plus sexy.

J’ai hâte.

OpenAI achète IO à LoveFrom pour fabriquer des objets IA © MiniMachines.net. 2025

Il y a quelques semaines, nous apprenions que Cloud Imperium Games s’était rapproché du groupe Lactalis, géant de l’agro-alimentaire français, notamment spécialisé dans les produits laitiers. D’après nos sources, des fermiers mayennais auraient été aperçus dans les locaux de CIG à Manchester ces derniers mois. Ils auraient été sollicités par la direction du studio pour trouver de nouveaux moyens de traire les joueurs de Star Citizen. Il faut croire que cette collaboration incongrue a porté ses fruits, puisque le 15 mai dernier, la commercialisation des Flight blades était lancée. Une opportunité unique d’acheter des composants pour améliorer les performances de certains de ses vaisseaux, avec de la monnaie sonnante et trébuchante. Attention, choisissez bien, car chaque blade est spécifique à son vaisseau. Pas question de l’utiliser sur un autre modèle : il faudra repasser à la caisse. Leur prix ? Seulement de 8,64 € à 37,80 €, selon la catégorie de l’engin de destination. Une aubaine ! Mais profitez-en rapidement, car les prolos pourront y avoir accès avec du crédit in-game à partir de juin prochain, et viendront réduire à néant votre avantage en jeu.

De manière assez surprenante, de nombreux joueurs se sont plaints, estimant qu’il s’agissait de pay-to-win. Très à l’écoute de la communauté, comme à son habitude, CIG a rapidement répondu pour rassurer tout le monde : « Après réflexion, nous avons décidé que les composants les plus petits, tels que les flight blades ou les racks de bombes, auraient dû être disponibles dans le jeu en même temps qu’ils apparaissent dans la boutique ». Ah, la tuile ! Quel dommage que tout soit déjà sur le store en ligne, et qu’il ne soit plus possible de faire machine arrière. Vraiment pas de chance.

Si on prend un peu de recul, on peut aussi considérer que l’achat des nouveaux vaisseaux avec de l’argent réel est du pay-to-win, mais les fans de Star Citizen ne sont pas à une incohérence près. Pour rappel, à l’introduction d’un nouveau modèle, il est impossible de l’avoir sans payer, puisqu’il faut attendre en général deux patchs majeurs, soit trois à six mois pour qu’il soit disponible dans les magasins en jeu et payable avec de la monnaie in-game, comme l’indiquent plusieurs posts sur reddit. Mais il faut croire que c’est la bonne solution, puisque le projet a mobilisé plus de 800 millions de dollars depuis son lancement. À plus de le Verse !

Amazon customers are suddenly getting refunds for products they purchased and returned as far back as 2018, along with apologies from the online retailer after it discovered "unresolved" issues. From a report: The precise scope of the refunds issued isn't clear but executives hinted it may be hundreds of millions of dollars. Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky, speaking on a conference call after the company released earnings May 1, said Amazon took a one-time charge of approximately $1.1 billion in the first quarter related in part to "some historical customer returns" that were unresolved. The charge was also attributable to the cost of stockpiling inventory in anticipation of tariffs.

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Spain has ordered Airbnb to remove over 65,000 listings that violate rental regulations, citing missing license numbers and unclear ownership details. The crackdown is part of a broader government effort to address the country's housing crisis, which many blame on unregulated short-term rentals reducing long-term housing supply. Reuters reports: Most of the Airbnb listings to be blocked do not include their licence number, while others do not specify whether the owner was an individual or a corporation, the Consumer Rights Ministry said in a statement on Monday. Consumer Rights Minister Pablo Bustinduy said his goal was to end the general "lack of control" and "illegality" in the holiday rental business. "No more excuses. Enough with protecting those who make a business out of the right to housing in our country," he told reporters. Bustinduy said Madrid's high court is backing the request to withdraw as many as 5,800 listings. Airbnb will appeal the decision, a spokesperson said on Monday. The company believes the ministry does not have the authority to make rulings over short-term rentals and failed to provide an evidence-based list of non-compliant accommodation. Some of the incriminated listings are non-touristic seasonal ones, the spokesperson said.

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Delta can pursue much of its lawsuit seeking to hold cybersecurity company CrowdStrike liable for a massive computer outage last July that caused the carrier to cancel 7,000 flights, a Georgia state judge ruled. From a report: In a decision on Friday, Judge Kelly Lee Ellerbe of the Fulton County Superior Court said Delta can try to prove CrowdStrike was grossly negligent in pushing a defective update of its Falcon software to customers, crashing more than 8 million Microsoft Windows-based computers worldwide.

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Adobe will rebrand its Creative Cloud All Apps subscription to "Creative Cloud Pro" on June 17 for North American users, making significant price increases while bundling AI features. Individual annual subscribers will see monthly rates jump from $59.99 to $69.99, while monthly non-contracted subscribers face a $15 hike to $104.99. The revamped plan includes unlimited generative AI image credits, 4,000 monthly "premium" AI video and audio credits, access to third-party models like OpenAI's GPT, and the beta Firefly Boards collaborative whiteboard. Adobe will also offer a cheaper "Creative Cloud Standard" option at $54.99 monthly with severely reduced AI capabilities, but this plan remains exclusive to existing subscribers -- forcing new customers into the pricier AI-focused tier.

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The US tech sector shed 214,000 jobs in April amid continuing economic uncertainty, according to CompTIA analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data. Companies are extending hiring timelines to two or three times longer than last year while significantly raising skill requirements, particularly for AI competencies. "It's the great hesitation," said George Denlinger of Robert Half, noting employers now demand 10-12 skills instead of 6-7 previously. Entry-level programming positions are disappearing as AI assumes those functions, with Janco Associates CEO Victor Janulaitis observing that "a job that has been eliminated from almost all IT departments is an entry-level IT programmer."

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Klarna's net loss more than doubled in the first quarter [non-paywalled link] as more consumers failed to repay loans from the Swedish "buy now, pay later" lender as concerns rose about the financial health of US consumers. Financial Times: The fintech, which offers interest-free consumer loans to allow customers to make retail purchases, on Monday reported a net loss of $99 million for the three months to March, up from $47 million a year earlier. The company, which makes money by charging fees to merchants and to consumers who fail to repay on time, said its customer credit losses had risen to $136 million, a 17% year-on-year increase. The increased failure to repay comes on the back of gloomy economic sentiment in the US, where a closely watched measure of consumers' confidence last week fell to its second-lowest level on record. US President Donald Trump's trade war has driven expectations of higher inflation. Further reading: The Klarna Hype Machine.

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Regeneron Pharmaceuticals is acquiring most of 23andMe's assets for $256 million. The sale includes 23andMe's Personal Genome Service, Total Health and Research Services business lines. What's not included is 23andMe's telehealth unit, Lemonaid Health, which the company acquired for around $400 million in 2021. It'll be shut down, but all staffers will remain employed. CNBC reports: The deal is still subject to approval by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. Pending approval, it's expected to close in the third quarter of this year, according to the release. In its bankruptcy proceedings, 23andMe required all bidders to comply with its privacy policies, and a court-appointed, independent "Consumer Privacy Ombudsman" will assess the deal, the companies said. Several lawmakers and officials, including the Federal Trade Commission, had expressed concerns about the safety of consumers' genetic data through 23andMe's sale process. The privacy ombudsman will present a report on the acquisition to the court by June 10. "We are pleased to have reached a transaction that maximizes the value of the business and enables the mission of 23andMe to live on, while maintaining critical protections around customer privacy, choice and consent with respect to their genetic data," Mark Jensen, 23andMe's board chair, said in a statement. "At its peak, 23andMe was valued at around $6 billion," notes the report.

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Revolut a choisi Paris pour son nouveau siège en Europe de l’Ouest. La société annonce aussi plus d’un milliard d’euros d’investissements et des centaines d’emplois à la clé. Mais qu'est-ce que cela change concrètement pour les clients ?

While Amazon won FAA approval to fly beyond an operators' visual line of sight, "the program remains a work in progress," reports Bloomberg: A pair of Amazon.com Inc. package delivery drones were flying through a light rain in mid-December when, within minutes of one another, they both committed robot suicide... [S]ome 217 feet (66 meters) in the air [at a drone testing facility], the aircraft cut power to its six propellers, fell to the ground and was destroyed. Four minutes later and 183 feet over the taxiway, a second Prime Air drone did the same thing. Not long after the incidents, Amazon paused its experimental drone flights to tweak the aircraft software but said the crashes weren't the "primary reason" for halting the program. Now, five months after the twin crashes, a more detailed explanation of what happened is starting to emerge. Faulty readings from lidar sensors made the drones think they had landed, prompting the software to shut down the propellers, according to National Transportation Safety Board documents reviewed by Bloomberg. The sensors failed after a software update made them more susceptible to being confused by rain, the NTSB said. Amazon also removed a backup sensor present that had been present on earlier iterations, according to the article — though an Amazon spokesperson said the company had found ways to replicate the removed sensors. But Bloomberg notes Amazon's drone efforts has faced "technical challenges and crashes, including one in 2021 that set a field ablaze at the company's testing facility in Pendleton, Oregon." Deliveries are currently limited to College Station, Texas, and greater Phoenix, with plans to expand to Kansas City, Missouri, the Dallas area and San Antonio, as well as the UK and Italy. Starting with a craft that looked like a hobbyist drone — and was vulnerable to even modest gusts of wind — Amazon went through dozens of designs to toughen the vehicle and ultimately make it capable of carting about 5 pounds, giving it the capability to transport items typically ordered from its warehouses. Engineers settled on a six-propeller design that takes off vertically before cruising like a plane. The first model to make regular customer deliveries, the MK27, was succeeded last year by the MK30, which flies at about 67 miles an hour and can deliver packages up to 7.5 miles from its launch point. The craft takes off, flies and lands autonomously.

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Broadcom employees have had their personal data compromised following a September 2024 ransomware attack on Business Systems House (BSH), a Middle Eastern subsidiary of payroll company ADP. The breach, claimed by the Russian-speaking El Dorado ransomware group, wasn't fully identified until December when stolen data appeared online, according to The Register. Broadcom only received details of affected employees on May 12, 2025. Compromised information potentially includes national ID numbers, financial account numbers, health insurance details, dates of birth, salary information, and contact details. Five employee accounts were initially compromised, ultimately affecting 560 users. ADP has distanced itself from the incident, stating only "a small subset of ADP clients" in "certain countries in the Middle East" were affected.

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Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase said Thursday it is offering a $20 million reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of criminals who attempted to extort the company for the same amount after stealing customer data. The criminals bribed customer support agents in overseas markets to access records containing addresses, phone numbers, government IDs, and partial bank and Social Security details of more than 80,000 customers. "It sucks but when we see a problem like this we want to own it and make it right," Coinbase Chief Security Officer Philip Martin told Fortune. The company will reimburse customers who fell victim to subsequent social engineering scams. No login credentials or wallet access were compromised in the breach. The extortionists had threatened to publish the stolen information unless paid $20 million in Bitcoin.

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Nvidia-backed CoreWeave plans to spend up to $23 billion this year on AI infrastructure and data center capacity, as it aims to meet the booming demand from clients. Reuters reports: The heavy spending plan weighed on its shares, which fell 5% after surging as much as 11% on better-than-expected revenue in its first results as a public company after debuting on the Nasdaq in March. The company's projected capital expenditure of between $3 billion and $3.5 billion for the second quarter was way above its revenue expectation of $1.06 billion to $1.1 billion. "While the revenue from Microsoft is likely secure for the next three years, CoreWeave represents overflow capacity for Microsoft, which may not need that capacity in the future," D.A. Davidson analyst Gil Luria said. The company's revenue backlog was $25.9 billion as of March 31, with its five-year deal with OpenAI adding $11.2 billion to the pile up. As part of the deal signed in March, CoreWeave will provide AI infrastructure to OpenAI, while the ChatGPT maker will get a stake. CoreWeave expects annual revenue of $4.9 billion to $5.1 billion, above analysts' expectation of $4.61 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG. It reported revenue of $981.6 million for the first quarter, beating the estimate of $852.9 million.

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ENTRETIEN - Première femme à diriger la prestigieuse École polytechnique, cette ingénieure, elle-même ancienne élève de l’X, revient sur son parcours et nous confie sa vision pour l’école ainsi que son combat pour attirer plus de filles vers les sciences.

© JEREMY BARANDE

Alors qu’on vous parlait le mois dernier du licenciement discret de l’intégralité du studio parisien de Starbreeze, nous avons été contactés récemment par une personne ayant accès à leur plateforme de lanceur d’alerte. Nous avons pu consulter l’un des cas remontés (#84829450). Le sujet concerne un membre du conseil d’administration de Starbreeze (qui a discrètement quitté sa fonction depuis) ainsi que le Chief Product Officer. Ils ont tous les deux acquis un nombre conséquent d’actions entre décembre et avril dernier, période pendant laquelle ils devaient être au courant des décisions liées au licenciement d’une partie des développeurs, sans pour autant que l’information ne soit publique. D’autre part, les différents rapports d’alerte remontés en interne sur ces points ont immédiatement été fermés sur la plateforme, sans explication, selon le lanceur d’alerte. À la rédac, nous ne sommes pas experts financiers, donc on ne pourra pas vous faire une analyse détaillée. On peut juste vous dire que d’un point de vue extérieur, ces transferts ressemblent beaucoup à la définition d’un délit d’initié. Ce ne sont néanmoins que des soupçons, et on suppose qu’une enquête va être menée pour tirer cela au clair.

D’autre part, on a appris, le 7 mai dernier via un communiqué, que Starbreeze avait racheté les droits d’édition de PAYDAY 3 à Plaion pour environ 2,7 millions d’euros, afin « d’accélérer de manière significative [leur] feuille de route de développement de contenu et de poursuivre des opportunités stratégiques plus larges pour la franchise PAYDAY dans son ensemble ». Situation plutôt étonnante, quand on sait qu’ils avaient décidé de réduire les investissements sur PAYDAY 3 en novembre dernier en virant une partie de leur personnel. Sur leur site officiel, on peut notamment voir que le studio cherche maintenant à recruter deux développeurs pour PAYDAY à Stockholm. Mais à moins d’un revirement de situation miraculeux, on a du mal à voir comment le jeu pourrait rebondir. Il stagne depuis quelques mois autour de 1000 joueurs simultanés en pic et ne semble toujours pas faire l’unanimité dans les avis Steam.

Si vous voulez aider de pauvres petits investisseurs en faisant rayonner la licence PAYDAY pour que les actions Starbreeze prennent de la valeur, vous pouvez retrouver PAYDAY 3 à 30 € sur Steam.

Workers who secured substantial salary increases during the pandemic hiring frenzy are now confronting a stark reality: they're likely overpaid in today's cooling job market. According to new Korn Ferry data, two-thirds of U.S. workers believe they're compensated at or above their market value. The tech sector has experienced significant wage deflation, with expanding pay transparency laws making market corrections impossible to ignore. Only 60% of recent job switchers received raises in Q1 2025, down from 73% just one quarter earlier.

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An anonymous reader shares a report: U.K. retail giant Marks & Spencer has confirmed hackers stole its customers' personal information during a cyberattack last month. In a brief statement with London's stock exchange on Tuesday, the retailer said an unspecified amount of customer information was taken in the data breach. The BBC, which first reported the company's filing, cited a Marks & Spencer online letter as saying that the stolen data includes customer names, dates of birth, home and email addresses, phone numbers, household information, and online order histories. The company also said it was resetting the online account passwords of its customers. FT adds: Marks and Spencer could claim for losses of as much as $133 million from its cyber insurers following a sustained hack where some customer data was stolen. The UK retailer's cyber policy allows it to claim up to $133 million, according to people familiar with the situation. Allianz is the first insurer on the hook for M&S's losses, the people added, and is expected to pay at least the initial $13.3 million. Cyber specialist Beazley is also among the insurers exposed to losses at the FTSE 100 retailer, according to the people familiar with the situation.

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