An American biz watchdog has stepped up its probe into possible market abuse by Big Tech – Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft – by demanding information on all acquisitions not reported to antitrust authorities in the past decade. The FTC issued “special orders” to the big five on Tuesday requesting “the terms, scope, structure, Read more about FTC finally wakes up: American watchdog to probe decade of Big Tech takeovers[…]

Pricing is being tweaked upwards where software is licensed on a per CPU basis. If the chip has more than 32 cores like, say, a 64 core AMD EPYC, then users will need to fork out for two CPU licences. Both AMD and Intel will cheerfully sell punters chips with more than the requisite 32 Read more about VMWare starts pricing more for CPU with > 32 cores[…]

The Mozilla Foundation announced today that it was moving the Thunderbird email client to a new subsidiary named the MZLA Technologies Corporation. Mozilla said that Thunderbird will continue to remain free and open source, but by moving the project away from its foundation into a corporate entity they will be able to monetize the product Read more about Mozilla moves to monetize Thunderbird, transfers project to new subsidiary[…]

Count GE in on the “screw your customers” bandwagon. Twitter user @ShaneMorris tweeted: “My fridge has an RFID chip in the water filter, which means the generic water filter I ordered for $19 doesn’t work. My fridge will literally not dispense ice, or water. I have to pay General Electric $55 for a water filter Read more about GE Fridges Won’t Dispense Ice Or Water Unless Your Water Filter ‘Authenticates’ Via RFID Chip on their rip off expensive water filter[…]

It’s no secret that Opera isn’t doing so well in the era of Chrome dominance. According to a report published by Hindenburg Research, the company’s losses in browser revenue have apparently led it to create multiple loan apps with short payment windows and interest rates of ~365-876%, which are in violation of new Play Store Read more about Opera reportedly has multiple predatory loan apps in the Play Store with interest rates of up to 876%[…]

Amazon has a “bullying” problem. So insisted PopSockets CEO and inventor David Barnett today while describing his company’s relationship with the e-commerce and logistics giant. Barnett was addressing members of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law and, over the course of the hearing, laid out how the Jeff Bezos-helmed corporate behemoth had Read more about PopSockets CEO calls out Amazon’s ‘bullying with a smile’ tactics, shows how monopolies are bad for competition[…]

In an internal memo, Mozilla chairwoman and interim CEO Mitchell Baker specifically mentions the slow rollout of the organization’s new revenue-generating products as the reason for why it needed to take this action. The overall number may still be higher, though, as Mozilla is still looking into how this decision will affect workers in the Read more about Mozilla (Firefox) lays off 70 as it waits for new products to generate revenue[…]

France’s competition watchdog has slapped Google with a €150 million (~$166 million) fine after finding the tech giant abused its dominant position in the online search advertising market. In a decision announced today — following a lengthy investigation into the online ad sector — the competition authority sanctioned Google for adopting what it describes as Read more about France slaps Google with $166M antitrust fine for opaque and inconsistent ad rules[…]

Airbnb will be breathing a sigh of relief today: Europe’s top court has judged it to be an online platform, which merely connects people looking for short-term accommodation, rather than a full-blown estate agent. The ruling may make it harder for the “home sharing” platform to be forced to comply with local property regulations — Read more about Airbnb is a platform not an estate agent, says Europe’s top court – means they don’t have to collect taxes for counties either[…]

It’s been about a year since users of Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX were informed that the company’s CEO unexpectedly died, taking the password that accessed most the money from their accounts with him to the grave. And now, those clients want to know what’s inside that grave. The majority of QuadrigaCX’s holdings were kept offline Read more about QuadrigaCX Want to Exhume Body of CEO Gerald Cotten who died in India under suspicious circumstances and locked customers out of $163m of BTC – to see if it is really him[…]

Microsoft has once again flipped the switch on small banner ads in the Windows 10 Mail and Calendar UWP app for Windows 10. We last saw these ads in November last year, when Microsoft said they were an experiment. Then the ads only showed for those who were not Office 365 subscribers, but on this Read more about Ads in Mail and Calendar app for Windows 10 are back and not removable[…]

Amazon.com is blocking its third-party sellers from using FedEx’s ground delivery network for Prime shipments, citing a decline in performance heading into the final stretch of the holiday shopping season. The ban on using FedEx’s Ground and Home services starts this week and will last “until the delivery performance of these ship methods improves,” according Read more about Amazon Blocks Sellers From Using FedEx Ground For Prime Shipments – way to have fun using a monopoly![…]

Google CEO Sundar Pichai is adding another responsibility to his job: Pichai will also be the CEO of parent holding company Alphabet going forward, taking the helm from co-founder and longtime CEO Larry Page. Additionally, co-founder Sergey Brin will be resigning from his post as the president of Alphabet. Brin and Page jointly announced the Read more about Sundar Pichai Becomes Alphabet CEO, Larry Page to Step Back[…]

Whether we decide to take out that insurance policy, buy Bitcoin, or switch jobs, many economic decisions boil down to a fundamental gamble about how to maximize our wealth over time. How we understand these decisions is the subject of a new perspective piece in Nature Physics that aims to correct a foundational mistake in Read more about This ‘fix’ for economic theory changes everything from gambles to Ponzi schemes, because people adapt their risks wrt their wealth over time[…]

Eighteen states rang in 2019 with minimum wage increases — some that will ultimately rise as high as $15 an hour — and so far, opponents’ dire predictions of job losses have not come true. What it means: The data paint a clear picture: Higher minimum wage requirements haven’t reduced hiring in low-wage industries or overall. Read more about Job loss predictions over rising minimum wages haven’t come true – Axios[…]