Tech

Google antitrust trial come to an end in historic legal battle

Published

6 months ago

November 17, 2023

In a landmark legal battle, the United States has concluded its antitrust case against Google, bringing to an end a historic trial that has captured the attention of tech giants and regulators alike.

The trial, which lasted for several months, centered around allegations of Google’s anti-competitive practices in the search engine and online advertising markets.

The U.S. government went back to basics in arguments against Alphabet’s Google on Thursday, wrapping up the evidentiary phase of a court battle in which it has accused the online search leader of breaking antitrust law with its tactics.

In the trial, which started on Sept. 12 and is widely expected to end on Thursday, the Justice Department is seeking to prove that Google is a monopolist and illegally abused its power to favor its bottom line.

“When there’s not a competitive threat, they’re not making that investment. And quality is lower,” Whinston said under questioning from Adam Severt of the Justice Department, one of the lawyers who signed the original 2020 complaint against Google.

Whinston disagreed with Google’s arguments that it had to compete with Microsoft to be exclusively pre-installed on smartphones. Google’s payments to Apple and others, totaling $26.3 billion in 2021, are essentially monopoly profits paid to distributors, he said. “Google made a lot of profit on these contracts.”

Alphabet reported a net profit of $19.69 billion for July to September, up from $13.91 billion in the year-ago period. Revenue totaled $76.69 billion for the quarter.

News

How AI is leveraging Amazon’s fast production

Published

22 hours ago

May 2, 2024

Nathan Langridge

Amazon reported better-than-expected results for the last quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimates.

Amazon reported better-than-expected results for the last quarter, surpassing analysts’ estimates, driven by strong performance in its cloud computing and AI.

Ticker’s Ahron Young & Veronica Dudo discuss.

Tech

Tesla is slashing prices to stay competitive

Published

2 weeks ago

April 21, 2024

Reuters

Tesla cut the U.S. prices of its Model Y, Model X and Model S vehicles by $2,000 each, days after the first-quarter deliveries of the world’s most valuable automaker missed market expectations.

Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle (EV) maker lowered the prices for its Model Y base variant to $42,990, while the long-range and performance variants are now priced at $47,990 and $51,490, respectively, according to its website.

The basic version of the Model S now costs $72,990 and its plaid variant $87,990. The Model X base variant now costs $77,990 and its plaid variant is priced at $92,900.

Tesla North America also said in a post on X said it would end its referral program benefits in all markets after April 30.

Referral program allows buyers to get extra incentives through referrals from existing customers, a strategy long used by traditional automakers to boost sales.

Musk has postponed a planned trip to India where he was to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and announce plans to enter the South Asian market, Reuters reported on Saturday.

On Monday Reuters reported, citing an internal memo, that the EV maker was laying off more than 10% of its global workforce.

Earlier this month Reuters reported the EV maker had canceled a long-promised inexpensive car, expected to cost $25,000, that investors had been counting on to drive mass-market growth.

The EV maker reported this month that its global vehicle deliveries in the first quarter fell for the first time in nearly four years, as price cuts failed to stir demand.

Tesla is to report first-quarter earnings on Tuesday.

Tech

TikTok launches Instagram competitor ‘Notes’

Published

2 weeks ago

April 20, 2024

Nathan Langridge

TikTok Notes has launched in Australia & Canada as a formidable competitor to Instagram, offering a unique platform for content creation, text and sharing.

“TikTok Notes is a lifestyle platform that offers informative photo-text content about people’s lives, where you can see individuals sharing their travel tips and daily recipes,” reads the official App Store description.

Take note

The app allows users to create content by combining short videos with text-based notes, closely resembling that of Meta’s Instagram.

Whether it’s sharing a quick tutorial, a personal anecdote, or a thought-provoking message, TikTok Notes is positioned to be a formidable social media platform.

Currently, the app is only available for download and “limited testing” in Australia and Canada.

As it gains momentum, the platform is poised to contest Instagram’s established reign in the social media landscape.