TC Daily Newsletter 07/18/2016

SoftBank might just have bought its way into the hallowed silicon halls of chip design history with an offer for ARM holdings, SpaceX is landing left and right, and Pokemon Go server stress, all in today's top tech news from TechCrunch.

1. ARM's chip business has Softbank as a buyer

Japanese carrier SoftBank has made an official offer of around $32 billion in cash for ARM holdings. ARM might be most famous for its mobile chip reference designs, which are used by Apple, as well as big Android players like Samsung and Qualcomm. SoftBank wants to get the company to cash on the internet of everything trend, since ARM's designs are perfect not only for mobile but also for IoT, but there's some speculation about whether or not others – including Apple – might place competing bids.

2. Are we at the point where SpaceX landing rockets is... boring?

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Listen, I love rockets because I'm not a monster, but SpaceX is landing so many of the damn things that I'm nearing the point where I have to stifle a yawn when I hear about it. Not actually, of course – Musk's space co. successfully landing a first-stage rocket form a Falcon 9 vehicle is still hugely impressive. This is the fifth overall successful touch-down, and the second on land. Let's hope rocket re-use becomes commonplace, because it'll pave the way for hugely exciting things to follow. Like Mars.

3. A Pokemon Go server attack almost ruined my weekend

I was playing Pokemon Go a lot this weekend until all of a sudden I wasn't. There was a major outage, and hacking group OurMine (yep, the same that took over a number of high-profile Twitter accounts recently, including Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai) claimed responsibility. The attack was a standard DDoS hit job, and it made Pokemon Go's typically sketchy server performance far, far worse. I may have lost an Onyx because of it.

4. Google wants to get out the vote

Google has a new feature for U.S. Users that provides guidance on voter registration directly within search results. People who search for "register to vote" get the detailed guidelines, with state-specific guidance based on location. Next step: let's get the voting right there in results, too, and load it up in response to searches that betray voter apathy, like "why even bother to vote at all, man, aren't we just living in a simulation anyway?"

5. Bezos takes a Trek

As many have long suspected, Jeff Bezos is an alien. But only in Star Trek Beyond, the upcoming sequel, and only in a very brief cameo. The Amazon founder apparently "nailed it" during shooting, per director Justin Lin, but ran with a huge crew on set. Maybe they were taking notes for Blue Origin.

6. Is Pokemon Go the next big networking platform?

Location-based networking was a carrot that tempted a lot of startups and VCs into failure, but Pokemon Go seems to have stumbled on success in that area without even really meaning to. People are meeting up in person in droves as a result of Pokemon Go's unprecedented success, and there's a tremendous amount of potential for Nintendo and Niantic to unlock there, should they choose to go down that path.

7. Chinese consortium looks for a bargain on Opera's business

This needs a 'womp womp' sound effect: Opera was looking at a $1.2 billion acquisition deal, but the value has since halved as the buyer (a Chinese consortium led by antivirus firm Qihoo 360) only wants some consumer-facing parts of its business. Still, there's $600 million on the table from the buyer to pick up Opera's browsers, privacy apps and licensing deals. That'll leave Opera with... not much. Opera TV, tho!