Javi West Larrañaga / Reuters:
Amadeus IT Group, which operates the world's largest travel booking system, plans to acquire French biometrics company Idemia Public Security, for €1.2B in cash  —  Spanish travel technology firm Amadeus (AMA.MC) on Wednesday announced a plan to acquire French biometrics company Idemia Public Security …

Chase DiBenedetto / Mashable:
Ask.com shutters, as its owner IAC “continues to sharpen its focus”; a dot-com era icon, Ask Jeeves launched in 1997, a year before Google  —  “As IAC continues to sharpen its focus, we have made the decision to discontinue our search business, which includes Ask.com.

Sanya Mansoor / The Guardian:
Maryland becomes the first US state to ban surveillance pricing in grocery stores, as other states including CO, CA, MA, IL, and NJ consider similar bills  —  Critics say Maryland's new law banning rapidly change product costs based on consumer data is full of carveouts

A longtime Magic: The Gathering illustrator claims Wizards of the Coast reused art for The One Ring in its upcoming Hobbit set.

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Analysis: after Trump's World Liberty raised $550M from investors, tokens worth hundreds of millions in USD were privately sold in “white glove” transactions  —  The pitch was straightforward: Invest in the cryptocurrency venture of Donald Trump and his family …