Still
Crunchy. Monday, 2 November 2026

Marvell bets $115 billion on optics

Chipmaker Marvell Technology has agreed to acquire Lumentum, a photonics specialist that makes light-based networking components, in an all-stock deal valuing Lumentum at an implied $115 billion. Lumentum holders will receive 4.500 Marvell shares per share, a premium of about 23.9% over both companies' unaffected closing prices on October 28, 2026, and will own roughly 33% of the combined company. The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2028.

The companies cite AI's shift from copper to optical connections, though that rationale is the buyers' own assessment. The physics argument: copper can carry a 400 Gbps signal only about 1.25 metres, and the reach halves each time per-lane speed doubles, while optics carry signals over kilometres and cut rack power and cooling. The acquisition fills gaps in Marvell's photonics portfolio, including laser sources, optical transceivers and indium phosphide manufacturing. Notably, Nvidia invested $2 billion in Lumentum just eight months ago, and Marvell bought Celestial AI for about $3.5 billion in February 2026.

Breaches and exploited flaws

Malicious versions of Anthropic's Claude Code extension appeared in Cursor's VS Code marketplace for roughly 11 hours on October 29, with researcher Kevin Beaumont estimating around 5,000 systems may have downloaded them. The payload collected system details and tried installing SSH access; Anthropic said it did not publish the tampered versions. Cursor has removed the extension, rebuilt its store and released a detection script, but warns uninstalling alone may not remove the dropped persistence scripts.

Ivanti has patched two more zero-day flaws in its Connect Secure VPN appliance, adding to an October 13 authentication bypass fix. Security firm Volexity says attackers chaining all three gained unauthenticated root access on fully patched appliances; CISA has added both new flaws to its exploited vulnerabilities catalogue, with US federal deadlines of November 2 and November 13. Ivanti had shipped the earlier fix without waiting for the privilege escalation patch rather than delay closing the main exploitation route, so organisations that updated in October must upgrade again to versions 25.1.1.3 or 22.8R2.6, which address all the chained flaws exploited in the wild, according to Ivanti. The Florida Department of Education separately says hackers breached its state student financial aid website, potentially exposing data including Social Security numbers for roughly 4.9 million past applicants; the breach was discovered October 19 and is contained, and reportedly follows a September hack of the state's driver database claimed by the ShinyHunters extortion group. NVIDIA, meanwhile, says unauthorised activity on its Brev cloud development platform between 4 and 20 October may have exposed SSH keys, credentials for securely connecting to customers' virtual machines. Affected keys have been rotated and NVIDIA reports no evidence of improper use, but has not explained how attackers got in. Cybersecurity firm Wiz called October 'Black October' for AI developer platforms, identifying at least nine with security incidents during the month.

SUSE cuts staff, citing AI

SUSE, the Linux and open-source software company owned by Swedish private equity firm EQT, is cutting about 190 of its 1,900 staff, roughly 10 percent. In a memo seen by The Register, CEO Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen attributed the restructuring to automation and AI fundamentally shifting how software companies operate, writing that the need for some existing roles has 'greatly diminished'. The specific roles at risk were not outlined, and EQT was reportedly considering selling the company in March.