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☆ We're concerned about Alphabet’s ad-based business model due to AI competition and the DOJ's lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

It's Alphabet (GOOGL) versus Microsoft (MSFT) in artificial intelligence — and after decades of owning search, Google finds itself looking over its shoulder. The back-to-back decline last Wednesday and Thursday in Alphabet stock was the biggest two-session losing streak since March 2020. "The quality of large AI models is highly dependent on quality of data," and Google search has a huge lead given usage of Search, Chrome and Android, Jefferies analysts argued. "It is tough when you have the Justice Department saying you have a monopoly and when you have the monopoly being destroyed at the same time by Microsoft," Jim said. Alphabet's business is largely run off ads and there's a growing possibility that the improved capabilities of Bing could attract at least some users away from Google search.

☆ The walls are closing in on Google. Here's what it needs to do to survive.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Paayal Zaveri | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Google needs to focus on building up its AI business while also keeping costs under control. Building up its AI business needs to be a top priorityThe events of the last few days show Microsoft and Google are clearly in an AI arms race — one that Google needs to win for its own sake. Google needs to double down on its own AI prowess right now, given the threat, Wall Street analysts said. However, they emphasize that Google needs to be thoughtful and show why its technology is better than OpenAI rather than being reactive. Maintaining efficiency while retaining an innovative cultureTo win in AI, however, Google needs to maintain its culture of innovation.

☆ Yahoo to lay off more than 20% of staff
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Yahoo said on Thursday it plans to lay off more than 20% of its total workforce as part of a major restructuring of its ad tech division. The cuts will impact nearly 50% of Yahoo's ad tech employees by the end of this year, including nearly 1,000 employees this week, the company said. This comes as many advertisers have pared back their marketing budgets in response to record-high inflation rates and continued uncertainty about a recession. Axios first reported the news of the layoffs at Yahoo. Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva and Shailesh KuberOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Here are Wednesday's biggest analyst calls: Apple, Amazon, Target, AMD, Exxon, Snap, Nike & more
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Michael Bloom | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Morgan Stanley reiterates PayPal as overweight Morgan Stanley said it's standing by shares of PayPal but that Apple Pay is a formidable competitor for the company. Morgan Stanley initiates Rocket Pharmaceuticals as overweight Morgan Stanley said in its initiation of Rocket Pharmaceuticals that it likes the company's pipeline. Morgan Stanley reiterates Amazon as overweight Morgan Stanley said it's bullish on Amazon's Buy with Prime service for merchants. Morgan Stanley reiterates Walmart as overweight Morgan Stanley said growth remains strong for the Walmart's subscription service, Walmart+. " Morgan Stanley reiterates McDonald's as overweight Morgan Stanley said the fast food giant is well positioned for 2023 after it reported strong earnings on Tuesday.

☆ The digital ad recession: What's next for Big Tech companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailThe digital ad recession: What's next for Big Tech companiesMNTN CEO Mark Douglas and Joanna Stern of The Wall Street Journal join 'The Exchange' to discuss a slowdown in in ad spending, ongoing ad tech litigation, and the use of AI for ad targeting.

☆ Bitcoin and other cryptos slump as the Fed gets ready to raise interest rates again
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-31 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Crypto markets are slipping as the two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve kicks off. A blockchain exec broke down how crypto markets are thinking about this week's expected rate hike. Ethereum is flat ahead of the central bank meeting, trading at $1,585. Recent economic data points indicate that high inflation is easing, giving the central bank room to pull back on monetary tightening. "Any movement ahead of the Fed meeting is mere correlation," Jeremy Epstein, CMO of smart contract platform Radix, told Insider.

The difference with TikTok is that the app has kept out of the crosshairs of commercial interests in Europe. "The user base of TikTok is a lot bigger than a lot of people in Europe think," he said. More than half of people aged 16 to 24 in France and Germany use TikTok, according to data.ai. He is worried the platform poses "several unacceptable risks for European users," including "data access by Chinese authorities, censorship, [and] tracking of journalists." Why Europe's tone is changingLast month, ByteDance admitted to using two journalists' TikTok data to locate their physical movements, according to a widely-reported internal memo.

[1/2] The logo for Google LLC is seen at the Google Store Chelsea in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 17, 2021. The complaint filed Tuesday in a Virginia federal court by the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division attempts to compel Google to sell part of its advertising technology unit. The suit mirrors allegations in another antitrust case brought against Google in New York federal court by a Texas-led coalition of 17 states in 2020. In the states' case, a New York federal judge in September rejected Google’s bid to dismiss it entirely. Google also faces two largely parallel antitrust lawsuits by states and the federal government alleging unlawful dominance in online searching.

☆ Bitcoin is headed for its best start to the year since 2013 as risk appetite grows ahead of expected smaller Fed rate hike
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The rally comes ahead of expected smaller rate hikes from the Federal Reserve next week. The rally seems driven by the belief that the Federal Reserve will ease back further on aggressive rate hikes following signs of cooling inflation. "More measured rate hikes globally tilting to stability will reduce the headwinds as BTC edges towards fresh heights. Matrixport's Thielen said supporting the rally is a "clear signal" that US institutions are buying up bitcoin right now. "Institutions are not only buying bitcoin spot; rather, we are also seeing consistently high premiums for perpetual futures," Thielen said.

☆ Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft lay off thousands — but tech jobs are still hot in 2023, Indeed finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Greg Iacurci | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Google announced plans on Friday to lay off 12,000 people, the biggest reduction in the company's 25-year history. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Amazon CEO Andy Jassy alluded to this overextension when explaining the rationale for their respective layoff plans. Tech skills are in 'high demand'Tech skills are in "high demand across the economy," Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, wrote in November. "Had tech companies continued growing at the breakneck 2020-2021 pace, they would have monopolized U.S. tech talent and made it impossible for employers in non-tech industries to hire tech talent," she said. Aside from good news for existing tech workers, high demand for technical skills is also a "big sign" of where opportunities exist for those starting or switching careers, Indeed said.

[1/3] A 3D printed Google logo is placed on the Apple Macbook in this illustration taken April 12, 2020. Apple Inc (AAPL.O), which is steadily growing its nascent advertising business and promoting it as privacy-focused, could be a winner if Google ads become less effective, said Brian Mandelbaum, chief executive of marketing firm Attain. With more options besides Google, publishers will have more transparency over how much they can sell ad space for, and could end up paying less in fees, Mandelbaum said. If Google loses access to data signals, advertisers could see their Google ads become less effective, said Nikhil Lai, senior analyst at research firm Forrester. While the lawsuit settled, the fight is credited with opening the way for other internet innovators, like Google itself.

Jan 25 (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google said on Wednesday it believes the complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice accusing the company of abusing its dominance in digital advertising is "without merit". The company also added it will "defend itself vigorously". Google, which depends on its advertising business for about 80% of its revenue, said the government was "doubling down on a flawed argument that would slow innovation, raise advertising fees and make it harder for thousands of small businesses and publishers to grow." "In contrast with prior cases/investigations against Google's ad tech biz, we view the DOJ complaint as fairly substantive and preempting some potential Google lines of defense," said Wells Fargo analyst Brian Fitzgerald. Reporting by Tiyashi Datta and Nivedita Balu in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Connecticut Attorney General William Tong on DOJ suing Google over ad technology
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

In this videoShare Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailConnecticut Attorney General William Tong on DOJ suing Google over ad technologyConnecticut Attorney General William Tong joins 'Squawk on the Street' to discuss the antitrust suit filed by DOJ against Google.

The lawsuit tackles a business at Google that is responsible for 80 percent of its revenue. The Justice Department asked the court to compel Google to break up its ad technology business. Eight states joined the department in Tuesday's lawsuit, including Google's home state of California. The lawsuit says "Google has thwarted meaningful competition and deterred innovation in the digital advertising industry." In addition to its well-known search, which is free, Google makes revenue through its interlocking ad tech businesses, which connect advertisers with newspapers, websites and other firms looking to host them.

☆ DOJ files second antitrust suit against Google, seeks to break up its ad business
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

The U.S. Justice Department on Tuesday filed its second antitrust lawsuit against Google in just over two years. This lawsuit, focused on Google’s online advertising business, seeks to make Google divest parts of the business and is the first against the company filed under the Biden administration. Google also faces three other antitrust lawsuits from large groups of state attorneys general, including one focused on its advertising business led by Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. The company has long denied that it dominates the online advertising market, pointing to the market share of competitors including Meta’s Facebook. Google and other tech companies have also faced increasing scrutiny from abroad, particularly in Europe, where Google has also fought multiple competition cases and new regulations threaten major changes to tech business models.

☆ DOJ poised to sue Google over digital ad market dominance - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department is poised to sue Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google as soon as Tuesday regarding its dominance over the digital advertising market, Bloomberg News reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. The Justice Department lawsuit filed against Google in 2020 focuses on its monopoly in search and is scheduled to go to trial in September. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment, while Google declined to comment on the report. Google had previously argued that the ad tech ecosystem was competitive with Facebook Inc (META.O), AT&T (T.N), Comcast (CMCSA.O) and others. While Google remains the market leader by a long shot, its share of the U.S. digital ad revenue has been eroding, falling from 36.7% in 2016 to 28.8% last year, according to Insider Intelligence.

☆ DOJ sues Google over its dominance in online advertising market
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The Justice Department and eight states sued Google on Tuesday, accusing the company of harming competition with its dominance in the online advertising market and calling for it to be broken up. The move marks the Biden administration’s first blockbuster antitrust case against a Big Tech company. Having inserted itself into all aspects of the digital advertising marketplace, Google has used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful means to eliminate or severely diminish any threat to its dominance over digital advertising technologies.”The suit was filed in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Tuesday’s suit marks the federal government’s second antitrust complaint against Google since 2020, when the Trump administration sued over Google’s alleged anticompetitive harms in search and search advertising. Third-party estimates suggest that Google and Facebook (now known as Meta) accounted for the majority of US digital ad revenues until about 2017, with Google taking about a third of the market.

All of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were up by early afternoon trading, with a 2.5% rise in tech stocks (.SPLRCT) making them the biggest gainers. "All those names and sectors (chipmakers) in general just got beat up much more than the market in general overall. So now in a lot of those names, there's value," said Jimmy Lee, chief executive officer of Wealth Consulting Group. Xylem Inc (XYL.N) dropped 8.74% on its acquisition of water treatment solutions firm Evoqua Water Technologies Corp (AQUA.N) in a $7.42 billion deal. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.40-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.90-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

☆ Wall Street rises as chipmakers lead tech shares higher
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Shreyashi Sanyal | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Six of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes were up in early trading, with a 1.3% rise in tech stocks (.SPLRCT) making them the biggest gainers. "All those names and sectors (chipmakers) in general just got beat up much more than the market in general overall. Analysts now expect fourth-quarter earnings from S&P 500 companies to fall 2.9%, according to IBES Refinitiv data, compared with a 1.6% drop at the beginning of the year. Investors are also awaiting January manufacturing and fourth-quarter GDP data to assess the impact of the Fed's rate hikes on the economy. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.05-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.60-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

☆ Wall St Week Ahead Tech stock rebound faces doubters with earnings season ahead
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( Lewis Krauskopf | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index (.NDX) has gained over 3% in 2023, double the rise for the S&P 500 (.SPX). The Nasdaq 100 fell 33% in 2022, while the S&P 500 lost 19.4%. Apple, the largest U.S. company by market value, and Google-parent Alphabet report the following week. Fourth-quarter earnings in the tech sector are expected to have declined 9.1% from a year ago, compared to a 2.8% decline for S&P 500 earnings overall, according to Refinitiv IBES. The S&P 500 tech sector still trades at a roughly 19% premium to the broader index, above its 7% average of the past 10 years, according to Refinitiv Datastream.

☆ Apple is looking for a top sales executive to spearhead a giant advertising push in sports and streaming. Here are 16 execs who could score the job.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Netflix also conducted a search before hiring two Snap executives, Jeremi Gorman and Peter Naylor, to lead its new ads business. XandrLesser, a longtime digital ad executive, has extensive experience working on issues around the future of digital marketing. McDonald has a ton of other digital ad sales and publishing experience. She helped launch Modi Media, ad buying giant GroupM's addressable TV business, before joining TV adtech startup Cadent. UnivisionValentino runs Disney's digital ad business as EVP, client and brand solutions.

☆ EY says it hasn't seen 'a rash of talent that's all of a sudden available' despite huge tech layoffs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

But it's not like there's a huge influx of talent now because of the widespread tech layoffs. The CEO of EY told Bloomberg on Wednesday it isn't seeing "a rash of talent" that's suddenly available. The consulting arm is expected to employ as many as 230,000 people, Di Sibio told Bloomberg on Wednesday. Other major tech companies that have cut staff recently include Amazon, Meta, and Salesforce. The rash of layoffs — which started last year — came after tech companies hired and expanded aggressively during the pandemic.

☆ FuboTV insiders describe how its 'doomed' sportsbook collapsed in a year — and what it means for the future of the streaming company
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Colin Salao | Ashley Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +22 min

But despite the MetLife lounge remaining open throughout the 2021-22 NFL season, the Fubo Sportsbook wouldn't launch in New Jersey until the following one, in September 2022. "It was doomed from the start," one former Fubo Gaming staffer told Insider. Meanwhile, Rattner — whom the first former Fubo gaming staffer described as a "good talker" — sustained the startup's more youthful culture. The Fubo Sportsbook launched in New Jersey on September 7, days before the first Jets home game. A promotional image from when the Fubo Sportsbook went live in New Jersey in September 2022.

☆ One of Google's big plans to replace third-party cookies just hit a huge setback that it might not recover from
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Lara O'Reilly | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Google's plan to replace third-party tracking cookies with new tech has hit another snag. A W3C group has rejected Google's Topics API proposal, saying it won't adequately preserve user privacy. The W3C rebuke marks the latest in a series of snags in Google's effort to kill off third-party cookies. However, other browsers like Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox already block third-party cookies as privacy features. The company has its own commercial priorities and the commitment to the CMA that it can't remove third-party cookies until new features provide an adequate replacement.

☆ Startup funding has tanked over the past year—and recession fears are to blame
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Tom Huddleston Jr. | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Startup investors are doing it, too. Venture capital investors are pumping the brakes on aggressive funding of startups, spooked by an uncertain economic picture, plunging tech industry stock prices and growing recession fears. Another prominent factor behind the steep drop: stock market turmoil causing tech startup valuations to plummet, freezing the market for IPOs and resulting in widespread tech layoffs, Crunchbase suggested in a blog post. Many investors expected inflation to be under control sooner, along with a slight rise in interest rates, Grabow notes. As a result, VCs have pulled back significantly on the aggressive funding trends of 2021, Grabow says.

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