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[1/2] A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Paresh Dave/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBRUSSELS/STOCKHOLM, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Microsoft and Google will not challenge an EU law requiring them to make it easier for users to move between competing services such as social media platforms and internet browsers. As part of its latest crackdown on Big Tech, the European Union in September picked 22 "gatekeeper" services, run by six of the world's biggest tech companies, to face new rules . The Digital Markets Act (DMA) requires these gatekeepers to inter-operate their messaging apps with competitors and allow users to decide which apps they pre-install on their devices. The DMA will apply to services from Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O), Apple (AAPL.O), Meta (META.O), Microsoft (MSFT.O) and TikTok owner ByteDance.

Persons: Paresh Dave, ByteDance, Meta, WhatsApp, TikTok, Foo Yun Chee, Supantha Mukherjee, Sharon Singleton, Alexander Smith Organizations: REUTERS, Microsoft, Google, Big Tech, European Union, Markets, Apple, Amazon, Digital Services, European Commission, Digital Markets, Windows, LinkedIn, Industry, Reuters, Facebook, Bloomberg, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, BRUSSELS, STOCKHOLM, Luxembourg, Brussels, Stockholm

A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. Among the opportunities is the company's plan to liven its timer-setting, command-fulfilling Google Assistant with Bard's human-directed suggestions. Connecting these products, first via mobile devices in the coming months, will introduce AI to more people, said Krawczyk. Google Search traffic fell 0.4%, the analysts' note said. The surge reminded Krawczyk of what Google Search faced upon news of pop star Michael Jackson's death in 2009, he said.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Bard, Jack Krawczyk, OpenAI, ChatGPT, Krawczyk, Michael Jackson's, Jeffrey Dastin, Daniel Wallis Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters NEXT, Google, YouTube, Bank of America, Gmail, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, New York, ChatGPT

☆ Lendlease, Google end development deals for $15 bln San Francisco Bay Area projects
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-03 | by ( Himanshi Akhand | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

FILE PHOTO: A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. Under the project, Lendlease was to develop up to 15 million square feet of residential, retail and hospitality space and Google would develop office space. As of June-end, 12,900 of the planned housing units were approved for development in San Jose and Mountain View, according to Google. Lendlease said it will remove the San Francisco Bay project, which was expected to commence construction in fiscal 2026, from its development pipeline. Lendlease retained its forecast for fiscal 2024, with core operating return on equity at the lower end of its 8%-10% range.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Lendlease, Himanshi, Ayushman Ojha, Sonia Cheema, Rashmi, Sohini Organizations: REUTERS, Lendlease, Google, San Francisco Bay Area, Francisco's, Alexa Arena, San, UBS, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, San Francisco Bay, Sunnyvale, San Jose, Mountain, Westfield, Bay, Hayes, San Francisco, Americas, Bengaluru

☆ Mega-cap firm valuations fall amid rising rates, tech earnings concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. REUTERS/Paresh Dave/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsNov 1 (Reuters) - Most global mega-cap stocks continued their slide in October, hit by the rise in U.S. interest rates and lacklustre third-quarter earnings growth among some top U.S. tech firms. Reuters Graphics Reuters GraphicsTesla's (TSLA.O) market value tumbled almost 20% to $638 billion last month, largely due to the impact of rising U.S. interest rates on electric vehicle (EV) demand. On the other hand, Microsoft's (MSFT.O) market value jumped 7.1% to $2.5 trillion, buoyed by its strong fiscal first-quarter results in all segments. This growth was attributed to strong performances in cloud computing and PC businesses, bolstered by increased customer interest in its artificial intelligence offerings.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Patturaja Murugaboopathy, Gaurav Dogra, Mark Potter Organizations: REUTERS, Google, Reuters Graphics Reuters, Panasonic Holdings, Nvidia, Oil, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, Japan, China, Saudi, Bengaluru

☆ Google paid $26 bln to be default search engine in 2021 - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. The amount of payments Google made for the default status has more than tripled since 2014, according to senior executive Prabhakar Raghavan who is responsible for both search and advertising, the report added. Google's revenue from search advertising came in at $146.4 billion in 2021, while the payments for the default setting were its biggest cost, Raghavan was mentioned as saying in the Bloomberg report. The company has argued the revenue share agreements are legal and that it has invested to keep its search and advertising businesses competitive. Google had objected to revealing the numbers, saying they would harm the company's ability to negotiate contracts in the future.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Prabhakar Raghavan, Raghavan, Judge Amit Mehta, Jaspreet Singh, Shailesh Organizations: REUTERS, Google, Justice, Bloomberg, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, Bengaluru

Google Cloud generated third-quarter revenue of $8.41 billion, compared with $6.87 billion in the year-ago quarter. By contrast, revenue from Microsoft's Intelligent Cloud unit, which houses the Azure cloud computing platform, grew to $24.3 billion, compared with analysts' estimate of $23.49 billion, LSEG data showed. Azure revenue rose 29%, higher than a 26.2% growth estimate from market research firm Visible Alpha. Within the company's advertising segment, YouTube ads reported revenue of $7.95 billion compared with $7.07 billion last year. Revenue for the quarter ended Sept. 30 stood at $76.69 billion, compared with estimates of $75.97 billion, according to LSEG data.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Jesse Cohen, Akash Sriram, Max A, Anil D'Silva, Aurora Ellis Organizations: REUTERS, Google, Alpha, Microsoft, Revenue, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, , California, Bengaluru, Max, San Francisco

☆ Top Wall Street analysts favor these five dividend stocks during tumultuous times
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-22 | by ( Tipranks.Com Staff | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The company paid a dividend of $1.74 per share in late September, which included a quarterly base dividend of 50 cents per share and a variable dividend of $1.24. The acquisition, anticipated to close in January 2024, is expected to boost CIVI's free cash flow per share by 5% in 2024. In September, the company announced a quarterly dividend of 57 cents per share, payable on Nov. 1. (See Chesapeake Insider Trading Activity on TipRanks)EOG ResourcesLet's look at another energy company: EOG Resources (EOG). Based on this quarterly dividend, the annual dividend rate comes to $3.30 per share, bringing the dividend yield to 2.5%.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Wall, Civitas, Lloyd Byrne, CIVI, Byrne, TipRanks, Bristol Myers, BMY, Goldman Sachs, Chris Shibutani, Shibutani, Umang Choudhary, Choudhary, EOG, Nitin Kumar, Eagle, Kumar Organizations: Cisco Systems Inc, Civitas, Civitas Resources, Vencer Energy, Jefferies, Midland, Bristol, Bristol Myers Squibb, Mirati Therapeutics, Chesapeake Energy, Management, Chesapeake, EOG, Eagle Ford, TipRanks, Cisco Locations: San Jose , California, Denver, Midland, West Texas

A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. KEY QUOTE:Weinberg testified that he had pressed particular companies - he did not name them - to use DuckDuckGo as the default and found some interest but ultimately no success because of Google's contracts with the companies. "We ultimately decided, this was after three years of trying this, that this was a quixotic exercise because of the contracts." *The clout in search then makes Google a heavy hitter in the lucrative advertising market, boosting its profits. *DuckDuckGo has around 2.5% of the online search engine market because it has not been able to win a default position on devices made by big companies.

Persons: Paresh Dave, DuckDuckGo, Gabriel Weinberg, Weinberg, Diane Bartz, Kirsten Donovan Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Google, Apple, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S, Washington

A sign is pictured outside a Google office near the company's headquarters in Mountain View, California, U.S., May 8, 2019. Google turned to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) after the General Court in 2021 threw out its challenge to the fine levied by EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager in 2017. Google lawyer Thomas Graf said the European Commission had failed to show that the company's different treatment of rivals was abusive and that different treatment alone was not anti-competitive. "Qualifying every different treatment, and in particular different treatment of first party and third party businesses, as abusive would undermine competition. Commission lawyer Fernando Castillo de la Torre dismissed Google's arguments, saying the company had used its algorithms to unfairly favour its price comparison shopping service, in breach of EU antitrust laws.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Margrethe Vestager, Thomas Graf, Graf, Fernando Castillo de la Torre, Google's, Foo Yun Chee, David Evans Organizations: REUTERS, Google, Justice, European Union, European Commission, v, Thomson Locations: Mountain View , California, U.S

☆ At Taser maker Axon, ex-staff say loyalty meant being tased, tattooed
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-30 | by ( Scottsdale | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +34 min

Reuters also interviewed 63 current and former Axon employees, including nine former executives. No one with whom Reuters spoke was aware of deaths or lawsuits stemming from tasings of Axon staff. Axon has faced fewer lawsuits since 2009, the year it introduced a new Taser model with a lower charge. Screenshots from an Axon promotional video show CEO Rick Smith taking a Taser hit in 1993, the year he co-founded the business. And that’s off-putting.”Gorman, the former Axon lawyer, said he “vividly” remembers an executive asking him if he was going to be tased.

Persons: Ross Blank, Blank, Steve Tuttle, Shawn Gorman, ”, Jennifer Chatman, Rick Smith, Andrea James, ” James, Axon’s, tasings, ” Blank, Tuttle, Staff tasings, “, Valencia Gibson, Gibson, Reuters –, Axon’s “, Bro, Josh Isner, Isner, James, –, Ann Rosenthal, Rosenthal, ” Rosenthal, Sigma Chi, Smith, ” Smith, ” Michael Church, Hans Marrero, Marrero, ” Marrero, “ I’m, ’ ” Smith, “ It’s, ” Gibson, ” ‘, impressionable, squinting, Keara, Rylan, Mihir Shah, ” Shah, Mario Barth, “ Willing, It’s, Isaiah Fields, Wayne Guay, Lamar Cousins, Cousins, Kevin De Rosa Jr, De Rosa, ” Isner, Smith’s, De Rosa bellowed, They’re, ” Gorman, You’re, Jeffrey Dastin, Paresh Dave Art, John Emerson, Julie Marquis Organizations: Enterprise Inc, Reuters, Haas School of Business, University of California, Staff, Scottsdale, Yorker, U.S . Securities, Exchange Commission, . Occupational Safety, Health Administration, federal, Safety, Health, Labor, Sigma, Harvard, Sigma Chi, Boston Magazine, Harvard’s Sigma Chi, U.S . Marine Corps, YouTube, Employment, Los, Keara Berlin, ” Employees, Los Angeles Police Department, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, strapping, Culture Locations: Berkeley, Rome, United States, Arizona, U.S, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, “, Berlin, Sacramento, San Jose , California, tasings, Mandalay, Scottsdale, wasn’t

☆ Google to block news in Canada over law on paying publishers
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Ismail Shakil | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Paresh Dave/File PhotoOTTAWA, June 29 (Reuters) - Google said on Thursday it plans to block Canadian news on its platform in Canada, joining Facebook in escalating a campaign against a new law requiring payments to local news publishers. Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) Google will remove links to Canadian news from search results and other products in Canada when the law takes effect in about six months. Google will also end a voluntary news program in Canada operated under agreements with 150 news publications across the country. The law forces online platforms to negotiate with news publishers and pay for their content. A similar law passed in Australia in 2021 prompted threats from Google and Facebook to curtail their services.

Persons: Paresh Dave, Bill C, Pablo Rodriguez, Justin Trudeau, Rodriguez, Kent Walker, Walker, Ismail Shakil, Steve Scherer, Richard Chang Organizations: Google, REUTERS, OTTAWA, Facebook, Meta, Inc, Heritage, Thomson Locations: New York City , New York, U.S, Canada, Australia, Europe, Ottawa

Sonos last year won a limited import ban on some Google devices from the ITC, which Google has appealed. Google has countered with its own patent lawsuits in California and at the ITC, accusing Sonos of incorporating the tech company's technology into its smart speakers. The jury found Google infringed one of Sonos' two patents at issue in the trial. A Google spokesperson said on Friday the case was a "narrow dispute about some very specific features that are not commonly used," and that the company was considering its next steps. A Sonos spokesperson said the verdict "re-affirms that Google is a serial infringer of our patent portfolio."

☆ Bipartisan US lawmakers introduce bill aimed at Google, Facebook ad clout
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The bill targets Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and Meta's (META.O) Facebook, as well as Amazon.com (AMZN.O) and Apple (AAPL.O), according to Senator Mike Lee's office. The bill would prohibit big digital advertising companies, with Google the biggest, from owning more than one part of the stack of services that connect advertisers with companies with space for advertisements. The bill would only impact companies that do more than $20 billion in digital ad transactions. Affected companies would have to do more than $20 billion in digital ad transactions. In the last legislative session, Congress passed bills to give enforcers bigger budgets and strengthen state attorneys general but legislation aimed at reining in big tech died.

☆ Twitter research group stall complicates compliance with new EU law
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Twitter signed a voluntary agreement in June with the EU related to the DSA committing to "empowering the research community" through means including sharing datasets about disinformation with researchers. The EU law would require platforms with over 45 million EU users to respond to EU-vetted researcher proposals. THE WORK OF THE CONSORTIUMThe research consortium was formed in response to backlash against Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Twitter had been preparing to disclose at least a dozen new datasets to researchers before then, the former employees said. If the research consortium is eliminated, "we will be returning to the 2017 era of limited shared communication about malicious state actor activity," said Renée DiResta, research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.

☆ Twitter restores suicide prevention feature after Reuters report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Kenneth Li | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc restored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, after coming under pressure from some users and consumer safety groups over its removal. After publication of the story, Twitter head of trust and safety Ella Irwin confirmed the removal and called it temporary. In response to criticism by Twitter users, he also tweeted "Twitter doesn't prevent suicide." loadingloadingThe feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, placed a banner at the top of search results for certain topics. Its elimination had led some consumer safety groups and Twitter users to express concerns about the well-being of vulnerable users of the platform.

Its elimination had led to increased concerns about the well-being of vulnerable users on Twitter. Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who had been on a recently dissolved Twitter content advisory group, said the disappearance of #ThereIsHelp was "extremely disconcerting and profoundly disturbing." AIDS United said a webpage that the Twitter feature linked to attracted about 70 views a day until Dec. 18. In one of its blog posts about the feature, Twitter had said it had responsibility to ensure users could "access and receive support on our service when they need it most." Musk has said he wants to combat child sexual abuse content on Twitter and has criticized the previous ownership's handling of the issue.

Huawei, known for its telecoms equipment and smartphones, signed or renewed over 20 patent licensing deals this year, said Steven Geiszler, the company's U.S. chief intellectual property counsel. "By getting a return on our R&D investment, it allows us to re-invest and re-invent," Geiszler said, referring to research and development. Huawei generated about $1.2 billion globally from licenses over the three years ended 2021, or roughly hundreds of millions of dollars annually, Geiszler said. Its full-year sales figures for 2022 will not be tallied until next year, and the licensing unit's profits or losses are not accounted for independently, he said. As publicly disclosed technology, the patents are not subject to the U.S. restrictions, Geiszler said.

☆ Microsoft tells judges its $69 bln Activision deal would benefit gamers
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) said on Thursday that its $69 billion bid to buy "Call of Duty" maker Activision Blizzard (ATVI.O) would benefit gamers and gaming companies alike. Microsoft made the argument in a filing aimed at convincing a judge at the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to allow the deal to proceed, after FTC commissioners said the merger would hamper competition in the gaming industry in a complaint this month aimed at blocking the deal. Reporting by Diane Bartz and Paresh Dave; Editing by Muralikumar AnantharamanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Sinead McSweeney, global vice president for public policy, has left Twitter, according to two sources. The layoffs and departures of a high-ranking leader comes as regulators around the globe question Twitter's content moderation work and protection of user data after Musk cut the staff from more than 7,000 to under 2,000. The public policy team is responsible for interacting with lawmakers and civil society on issues including free speech, privacy and online safety. Nick Pickles, senior director for global public policy strategy, has taken over McSweeney's role, the two sources said. One source told Reuters that half of the 30 remaining members of Twitter's public policy team were cut on Wednesday, implying 15 people were laid off.

☆ Palantir lands 75 million pound deal with British military
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 21 (Reuters) - Palantir Technologies Inc (PLTR.N) has signed a three-year, 75 million pound ($91.39 million) deal with the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defense, the U.S. software company said Wednesday, expanding its overseas military work months into the Ukraine war, Europe's biggest conflict since World War II. Palantir will aid military operations and intelligence, further widening access to its software across the defense ministry after a narrower pilot with the Royal Navy that started years ago. Abundant satellite imagery lets military analysts in little time detect changes on the battlefield, with artificial intelligence software identifying tanks, artillery or other targets. Despite the war, Palantir shares have tumbled like other tech stocks this year, falling by about half since March. ($1 = 0.8207 pounds)Reporting by Jeffrey Dastin; Additional reporting by Paresh Dave; Editing by Josie KaoOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

OAKLAND, Calif., Dec 19 (Reuters) - Mark Zuckerberg considered saying in a 2017 speech that Facebook was looking into "organizations like Cambridge Analytica," according to details from a deposition of him by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Zuckerberg in the deposition also acknowledges asking colleagues in January 2017 to assess Cambridge's claims about its influence in elections. Media reports in March 2018 suggested that Cambridge kept leveraging Facebook data, prompting government investigations related to data protection practices that Facebook settled in the United States for at least $5.1 billion. In the draft obtained by the SEC, Zuckerberg proposed saying: "We are already looking into foreign actors including Russian intelligence, actors in other former Soviet states and organizations like Cambridge Analytica." Zamaan Qureshi, policy advisor for consumer advocacy group The Real Facebook Oversight Board, said the deposition should increase users' doubts of Meta.

Some 19 of the 50 U.S. states have now at least partially blocked access on government computers to TikTok, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance Ltd. Jamf Holding Corp (JAMF.O), which sells software to organizations to enable filtering and security measures on iPhones and other Apple (AAPL.O) devices, said its government customers have increasingly blocked access to TikTok since the middle of this year. TikTok on Monday reiterated a statement, saying the company was "disappointed that so many states are jumping on the political bandwagon to enact policies based on unfounded falsehoods about TikTok that will do nothing to advance the national security of the United States." West Virginia State Auditor JB McCuskey said he did the same for his agency. U.S. officials and TikTok have been in talks for months about a national security pact that would address the concerns about China's access to data on TikTok's more than 100 million U.S. users.

☆ Twitter suspends accounts of several journalists
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Dec 15 (Reuters) - Twitter on Thursday suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who recently wrote about its new owner Elon Musk, with the billionaire tweeting that rules banning the publishing of personal information applied to all, including journalists. On Wednesday, Twitter suspended @elonjet, an account tracking Musk's private jet in real time using data available in the public domain. Twitter on Thursday showed "account suspended" notices for a clutch of journalists' accounts. A spokesperson for The New York Times said: "Tonight's suspension of the Twitter accounts of a number of prominent journalists, including The New York Times's Ryan Mac, is questionable and unfortunate. We hope that all of the journalists' accounts are reinstated and that Twitter provides a satisfying explanation for this action."

Ahmad Abouammo had been found guilty by a jury in August following a trial in federal court in San Francisco. Abouammo's attorneys had asked U.S. District Judge Edward Chen for a probationary sentence at his home in Seattle with no prison time. The case focused on Abouammo's efforts to look up information on two Twitter users, a $42,000 watch he received from a Saudi official and a pair of $100,000 wire transfers. Twitter, recently acquired by Elon Musk, and the Saudi Embassy in Washington also did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The attorneys also said Abouammo's actions paled in comparison to those of Ali Alzabarah, another ex-Twitter employee, who was accused of accessing thousands of Twitter accounts on behalf of Saudi Arabia.

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