On the witness stand, Mark Zuckerberg said Oculus virtual reality products were not based on technology stolen from ZeniMax, as claimed in a $2 billion suit. He also said that Facebook’s purchase of Oculus actually cost $3 billion, not $2 billion; that the deal was vetted in a matter of days; and that it will probably take a $3 billion investment over 10 years to bring VR to the masses. — [Tom Korosec / Bloomberg]
Chelsea Manning will be released from prison in May after President Obama commuted the former soldier’s 35-year sentence for leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks. The administration contrasted her case with that of fugitive NSA leaker Edward Snowden, saying Manning had stood trial and expressed remorse. A lawyer for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said he would stand by a promise to submit to extradition to the U.S. if Manning was given clemency. — [Ellen Nakashima and Sari Horwitz / Washington Post]
Business news site Quartz is planning to supplement its free offerings with a subscription product. It’s also buying Intelligentsia.ai, a small research firm that specializes in artificial intelligence. — [Peter Kafka / Recode]
The FTC filed an antitrust suit against Qualcomm, saying the mobile chip maker abused its market dominance by illegally tying sales to patent licensing. The suit also alleges Qualcomm forced Apple into an exclusivity deal in exchange for lower licensing fees. Qualcomm denied the charges. — [Ina Fried / Recode]
GM announced plans to spend $1 billion dollars to expand its U.S. manufacturing and add thousands of new jobs, and Donald Trump was quick to claim credit, as he has with similar announcements from other automakers. But company officials said the latest moves had been planned long before the election and were not linked to pressure from Trump. — [Paul A. Eisenstein / NBC News]
One of Google’s top ad execs, Google Americas President Margo Georgiadis, is leaving to become CEO of Mattel. Georgiadis has been at Google since 2009, except for a five-month stint as COO of Groupon in 2011. — [Tess Townsend / Recode]
Top Stories From Recode
The FAA just issued the largest fine ever against a company for flying drones illegally
In October, the FAA proposed a $1.9 million fine, but today announced the fine would only be $200,000.
Amazon patented a highway network that controls self-driving cars and trucks
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This Is Cool
Revel in the randomness of YouTube’s least popular videos
Astronaut.io streams snippets of YouTube videos that have almost zero previous views.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.