Technology

Meta ratchets up Apple rivalry with ads targeting iMessage

Published

3 years ago

October 17, 2022

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How to unsend an iMessage in iOS 16

Todd Haselton | CNBC

Meta is targeting Apple‘s iMessage in a new advertisement that ratchets up the rivalry between the two companies.

On Monday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a picture of an ad in New York’s Penn Station that suggests Meta’s WhatsApp is more secure and private than Apple’s messaging system and traditional text messages.

“WhatsApp is far more private and secure than iMessage, with end-to-end encryption that works across both iPhones and Android, including group chats,” Zuckerberg posted on Instagram.

End-to-end encryption means that the messaging system is built in a way that the provider of the service can’t see the content of the texts and can’t provide them in response to a legal request. Both WhatsApp and iMessage are encrypted. But, messages and device backups on either service might be stored in a way that the company can access them. SMS messages are stored by wireless cellular carriers.

WhatsApp introduced encrypted backups last year, Zuckerberg noted. He also highlighted a feature that allows WhatsApp users to set new messages to automatically delete.

“All of which iMessage still doesn’t have,” Zuckerberg wrote in his post. He added that the company is working on end-to-end encryption for Instagram messages in a comment.

Meta has considered Apple to be a competitor for years, even before the Facebook parent company started moving into computer hardware like its VR headsets. “Our biggest competitor by far is iMessage,” Zuckerberg said in a 2018 earnings call.

The Meta ads come after Google took aim at iMessage’s blue bubbles in a campaign of its own over the summer. Google wants Apple to adopt RCS, a next-generation text messaging system that replaces SMS messages with new features and improved encryption.

Apple’s iMessage is available for iPhones, Macs and iPads. Users who text regularly with Android users say that “green bubbles,” as SMS messages appear on iPhones, is an inferior texting experience.

Cook was asked if Apple would consider adopting RCS at a conference in September. The questioner said that he couldn’t send videos to his mom because of the limitations of SMS messaging.

Cook said that Apple’s users hadn’t been asking for improvements and that the best thing to do to solve the problem is to buy an iPhone.

“Buy your mom an iPhone,” Cook said.

Technology

ServiceNow in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Armis in potential $7 billion deal, Bloomberg reports

Published

5 hours ago

December 14, 2025

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ServiceNow in talks to acquire cybersecurity startup Armis in potential billion deal, Bloomberg reports

Software company ServiceNow is in advanced talks to buy cybersecurity startup Armis, which was last valued at $6.1 billion, Bloomberg reported.

The deal, which could reach $7 billion in value, would be ServiceNow’s largest acquisition, the outlet said, citing people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified because the talks are private.

The acquisition could be announced as soon as this week, but could still fall apart, according to the report.

Armis and ServiceNow did not immediately return a CNBC request for comment.

Armis, which helps companies secure and manage internet-connected devices and protect them against cyber threats, raised $435 million in a funding round just over a month ago and told CNBC about its eventual plans for an IPO.

Armis CEO Yevgeny Dibrov and CTO Nadir Izrael.

Courtesy: Armis

CEO and co-founder Yevgeny Dibrov said Armis was aiming for a public listing at the end of 2026 or early 2027, pending “market conditions.”

Armis’s decision to be acquired rather than wait for a public listing is a common path for startups at the moment. The IPO markets remain choppy and many startups are choosing to remain private for longer instead of risking a muted debut on the public markets.

Founded in 2016, Armis said in August it had surpassed $300 million in annual recurring revenues, a milestone it achieved less than a year after reaching $200 million in ARR.

Its latest funding round was led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives’ growth equity fund, with participation from CapitalG, a venture arm of Alphabet. Previous backers have included Sequoia Capital and Bain Capital Ventures.

Read the complete Bloomberg article here.

Technology

Here are 4 major moments that drove the stock market last week

Published

21 hours ago

December 13, 2025

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Here are 4 major moments that drove the stock market last week

Technology

Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

Published

2 days ago

December 12, 2025

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Oracle says there have been 'no delays' in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide

Oracle CEO Clay Magouyrk appears on a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, on Sept. 23, 2025.

Kyle Grillot | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Oracle on Friday pushed back against a report that said the company will complete data centers for OpenAI, one of its major customers, in 2028, rather than 2027.

The delay is due to a shortage of labor and materials, according to the Friday report from Bloomberg, which cited unnamed people. Oracle shares fell to a session low of $185.98, down 6.5% from Thursday’s close.

“Site selection and delivery timelines were established in close coordination with OpenAI following execution of the agreement and were jointly agreed,” an Oracle spokesperson said in an email to CNBC. “There have been no delays to any sites required to meet our contractual commitments, and all milestones remain on track.”

The Oracle spokesperson did not specify a timeline for turning on cloud computing infrastructure for OpenAI. In September, OpenAI said it had a partnership with Oracle worth more than $300 billion over the next five years.

“We have a good relationship with OpenAI,” Clay Magouyrk, one of Oracle’s two newly appointed CEOs, said at an October analyst meeting.

Doing business with OpenAI is relatively new to 48-year-old Oracle. Historically, Oracle grew through sales of its database software and business applications. Its cloud infrastructure business now contributes over one-fourth of revenue, although Oracle remains a smaller hyperscaler than Amazon, Microsoft and Google.

OpenAI has also made commitments to other companies as it looks to meet expected capacity needs.

In September, Nvidia said it had signed a letter of intent with OpenAI to deploy at least 10 gigawatts of Nvidia equipment for the San Francisco artificial intelligence startup. The first phase of that project is expected in the second half of 2026.

Nvidia and OpenAI said in a September statement that they “look forward to finalizing the details of this new phase of strategic partnership in the coming weeks.”

But no announcement has come yet.

In a November filing, Nvidia said “there is no assurance that we will enter into definitive agreements with respect to the OpenAI opportunity.”

OpenAI has historically relied on Nvidia graphics processing units to operate ChatGPT and other products, and now it’s also looking at designing custom chips in a collaboration with Broadcom.

On Thursday, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan laid out a timeline for the OpenAI work, which was announced in October. Broadcom and OpenAI said they had signed a term sheet.

“It’s more like 2027, 2028, 2029, 10 gigawatts, that was the OpenAI discussion,” Tan said on Broadcom’s earnings call. “And that’s, I call it, an agreement, an alignment of where we’re headed with respect to a very respected and valued customer, OpenAI. But we do not expect much in 2026.”

OpenAI declined to comment.

WATCH: Oracle says there have been ‘no delays’ in OpenAI arrangement after stock slide