Tag Archives: Business

Qualcomm is reportedly eyeing a takeover of Intel

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It seems that Qualcomm sees Intel’s struggling business as a potential opportunity. The San Diego-based chipmaker has reportedly expressed an interest in taking over Intel “in recent days,” according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal.

Though the report cautions that such a deal is “far from certain,” it would be a major upheaval in the US chip industry. It would also, as The WSJ notes, likely raise antitrust questions. But Qualcomm’s reported interest in a takeover underscores just how much Intel’s business has struggled over the last year.

Intel announced plans to cut 15,000 jobs last month as its quarterly losses climbed to $1.6 billion. Its foundry business is also struggling, with an operating loss of $2.8 billion last quarter. CEO Pat Gelsinger announced plans earlier this week to separate its foundry business into a separate unit from the rest of Intel.

Intel declined to comment on the report. Qualcomm didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/qualcomm-is-reportedly-eyeing-a-takeover-of-intel-210920969.html?src=rss

Nintendo and The Pokémon Company are suing Palworld creator Pocketpair

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Nintendo and The Pokémon Company have filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Pocketpair in Tokyo. Pocketpair is the Japanese video game developer behind Palworld, a game people have been describing as a Pokémon parody, featuring cute gun-toting monsters. The game, released in Early Access form on January 18, was an instant hit, selling 15 million copies on Steam and crossing 25 million players within just a month. 

The Pokémon Company said a few days after Palworld came out that it was going to investigate a game "released in January 2024" and will "take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to Pokémon." Looks like the investigation is over, and it has decided to take legal action. 

"This lawsuit seeks an injunction against infringement and compensation for damages on the grounds that Palworld, a game developed and released by the Defendant, infringes multiple patent rights," Nintendo said in its announcement of the lawsuit. 

Pocketpair previously said that its game is more like Ark Survival Evolved and Valheim than Pokémon. Company CEO Takuro Mizobe claimed that Palworld "cleared legal reviews" and that no lawsuits were filed against Pocketpair regarding its development. While Palworld's monsters would look familiar to Pokémon fans, it takes on a darker tone. You can choose to play as a friend to the monsters known as "Pals" and fight off the poachers trying to kill them. But you can also kill and eat Pals, make them fight to the death and even sell them into slavery.

Shortly after Nintendo announced its lawsuit, Pocketpair responded. "At this moment, we are unaware of the specific patents we are accused of infringing upon, and we have not been notified of such details," the company wrote. "It is truly unfortunate that we will be forced to allocate significant time to matters unrelated to game development due to this lawsuit. However, we will do our utmost for our fans, and to ensure that indie game developers are not hindered or discouraged from pursuing their creative ideas."

Update, September 19 2024, 9:40AM ET: This story has been updated with Pocketpair's response to Nintendo's lawsuit.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/nintendo/nintendo-and-the-pokemon-company-are-suing-palworld-creator-pocketpair-031320550.html?src=rss

Report: Google offered to sell AdX to end EU antitrust suit

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In an effort to quell monopoly concerns in the EU, Google reportedly offered to sell its AdX advertising marketplace. Sources told Reuters that European publishers rejected Google's offer, arguing that the company would have to divest more in order to dismantle the conflicts of interest in its online advertising operations. Lawyers familiar with the antitrust cases said this was the first time Google had offered to sell off an asset in response to this type of lawsuit.

Despite this alleged sale offer, Google is publicly standing firm about its adtech business. "As we have said before, the European Commission's case about our third-party display advertising products rests on flawed interpretations of the ad-tech sector, which is fiercely competitive and rapidly evolving. We remain committed to this business," a Google rep told the publication. We've reached out to Google and will update this story if we receive any additional comment from the company.

Google's control over online advertisements has raised concerns around the globe. Regulators have questioned whether the company's activity in multiple stages of the adtech supply chain allows it to favor its own businesses, creating an unfair advantage that could hurt competition and increase advertising prices.

The European Commission began this push against the company's ad arm last June. The UK's competition watchdog also raised the alarm over a possible Google ad monopoly earlier this month. Google is also currently being sued by the Department of Justice over the same topic in the US.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/report-google-offered-to-sell-adx-to-end-eu-antitrust-suit-203612819.html?src=rss

MrBeast and Amazon are being sued by contestants of their planned competition show

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A lawsuit on behalf of five unnamed contestants who participated in YouTuber MrBeast’s Beast Games was filed on September 16 in Los Angeles against MrBeast as well as Amazon, which plans to distribute the show. It’s also seeking class-action status.

Beast Games is the brainchild of Jimmy Donaldson, also known as MrBeast. This game show had participants go through challenges for a shot at $5 million in cash. There would only be one winner out of 1,000 participants, so the money would only go to the last person standing.

When the five contestants participated in the game show, they each wanted to win the money, but nothing prepared them for the poor conditions, mistreatment and harassment they experienced. Among the 14 complaints are failure to pay minimum wages, sexual harassment, false advertising and failure to provide uninterrupted meal and rest breaks.

The plaintiffs filed this lawsuit on behalf of all Beast Games contestants besides themselves. Much of the lawsuit’s content is hidden, including the contestants’ names and the exact details of their mistreatment. Of note were the female contestants’ experiences. The lawyers claimed that the work environment there “fostered a culture of misogyny and sexism where Production Staff did nothing.”

The contestants were considered employees under California law, but MrBeast and Amazon allegedly misclassified them to obtain a tax credit of around $2 million. They also arrived on set to discover that instead of 1,000 total competitors, there were far more people playing for the prize, thus lowering everyone's chances of coming out a winner. According to the New York Times, the total number of contestants was about 2,000, something MrBeast said was the plan all along. The plaintiffs claimed this significantly reduced anyone’s chances of winning and was considered false advertising. Even worse, the show organizers did not grant them meal and rest breaks as required by California law. According to the lawsuit, some of the show participants developed injuries that “continue to persist and will persist from the future.”

This isn’t the first time MrBeast has been involved in a lawsuit. Last year, he sued Virtual Dining Concepts (VDC) for making subpar MrBeast Burgers, ruining his reputation. VDC countersued MrBeast, seeking $100 million in damages.

According to a report from Variety, MrBeast and Amazon have yet to comment on the lawsuit, with the former refusing to. Beast Games, slated for an Amazon Prime Video release, still has no announced release date.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/mrbeast-and-amazon-are-being-sued-by-contestants-of-their-planned-competition-show-152613641.html?src=rss

Google wins appeal against $1.7 billion EU fine for ‘abusive’ advertising practices

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The amount of fines Google has to pay in Europe may have become just a bit smaller. It has successfully convinced the European Union's General Court to annul the €1.5 billion ($1.7 billion) penalty levied against it back in 2019 for what the European Commission described as "abusive practices in online advertising." According to the Financial Times, the General Court agreed with the commission's assessment that Google did block rival advertisers from its platform. However, it argued that the commission failed to take into account "all the relevant circumstances" when it assessed how long the company had implemented anti-competitive practices. 

The commission, under competition chief Margrethe Vestager, found back in 2019 that Google had prohibited publishers from placing search adverts from competitors on its search results pages from 2006 until 2009. It changed its rules slightly in 2009, but it wasn't until 2016 that it removed the clause pertaining to the restriction in its contracts. The fine for this particular case was larger than expected, because the commission said it took into account "the duration and gravity of the infringement."

"This case is about a very narrow subset of text-only search ads placed on a limited number of publishers' websites," Google said in a statement to the Financial Times. "We made changes to our contracts in 2016 to remove the relevant provisions, even before the commission’s decision. We are pleased that the court has recognized errors in the original decision and annulled the fine. We will review the full decision closely." Meanwhile, the commission told the publication that it "will carefully study the judgment and reflect on possible next steps." It could still appeal the court's decision.

This is just one of the multiple antitrust fines the European Commission has slapped against Google over the past years. Earlier this month, EU's highest court upheld a different $2.7 billion penalty against the company. The commission imposed that fine on Google back in 2017, because it found that the company, as Vestager explained, "abused its market dominance as a search engine by promoting its own comparison shopping service in its search results, and demoting those of competitors." 

Vestager is stepping down from her role as the European Union's commissioner for competition within the next few weeks. She has been tough on big tech companies throughout her run, and the market abuse cases she has filed over the years led to the creation of the Digital Markets Act (DMA), a regulation meant to prevent the largest players in the industry from abusing their market power.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/google-wins-appeal-against-17-billion-eu-fine-for-abusive-advertising-practices-123006698.html?src=rss

Amazon accused of deceptive ‘sales’ of its own products in lawsuit

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Amazon is facing a class-action lawsuit that accuses the company of misleading pricing practices. The suit alleges that Amazon deceived shoppers by showing inflated list prices for Fire TVs, thus making discounts seem more significant than they actually were.

The lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington and claims that the company regularly adopted this practice, calling it a "persistent and uniform scheme." The suit alleges that Amazon created "fake list prices" for its own Fire TVs, making the apparent "discounts" deceptive.

It goes on to accuse the company of tricking its customers into buying Fire TVs by omitting "critical information" concerning the length of the sale and when the list price was actually in use. This allegedly led to Amazon customers spending "more money than they otherwise would have if not for the purported time-limited bargains." The suit claims that "many of the Fire TVs have not been anywhere near the advertised list prices for a year or more."

The lawsuit alleges violations of Washington’s Consumer Protection Act, which bans “unfair methods of competition and unfair or deceptive acts or practices in the conduct of any trade or commerce.” Plaintiff David Ramirez seeks compensatory and punitive damages, in addition to an injunction to stop Amazon from continuing the alleged practices. The suit seeks compensatory damages "in amounts determined by the court and/or jury" and prejudgment interest on everything awarded. 

The lawsuit references a similar case in California from 2021 in which Amazon was barred from using false or misleading list prices in its advertising. The company also agreed to pay around $2 million in penalties and restitution as part of that settlement. As for this case, it’s still early days. 

An Amazon spokesperson declined to comment when approached by Seattle-based news organization KIRO 7. We reached out to the company for our own comment and will report back when we get a response. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amazon-accused-of-deceptive-sales-of-its-own-products-in-lawsuit-193027775.html?src=rss

23andMe will pay $30 million to settle 2023 data breach lawsuit

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23andMe is close to settling a proposed class action lawsuit filed against the company over a data breach that compromised 6.9 million users' information. According to the preliminary settlement filing, the DNA testing company has agreed to pay $30 million to affected customers, as well as to conduct annual computer scans and cybersecurity audits for three years. A website will be built to notify people eligible to a portion of the settlement fund and to facilitate payments. Affected users will also be sent a link where they can delete all their information from the service, and they'll be able to enroll to a three-year Privacy & Medical Shield + Genetic Monitoring program for free. A judge still has to approve those terms. 

In October 2023, the company admitted that the DNA Relatives profile information of roughly 5.5 million customers and the Family Tree profile information of 1.4 million DNA Relative participants had been leaked. It later revealed in a legal filing that the bad actors started breaking into customer accounts in late April 2023 and that they had access to its systems until September that year. It said that the hackers used a technique called credential stuffing, which uses previously compromised login credentials to access customer accounts. 

The breach led to several class action lawsuits filed against the company, including one that accused 23andMe of failing to notify the plaintiffs that they were specifically targeted for having Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish heritage. In the settlement agreement [PDF] for the consolidated lawsuit, 23andMe noted that it "denies the claims and allegations set forth in the Complaint" and that it "denies that it failed to properly protect the Personal Information of its consumers and users." 

According to Reuters, 23andMe describes its financial condition as "extremely uncertain." In its financial report for the 2024 fiscal year, it revealed that it earned a total revenue of $220 million, down 27 percent from a $299 million revenue the year before. A huge chunk of the settlement money will come from cyber insurance, though, which the company expects to cover $25 million out of the $30 million total. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/cybersecurity/23andme-will-pay-30-million-to-settle-2023-data-breach-lawsuit-150058702.html?src=rss

Unity dumps the runtime fee that caused a developer revolt

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Unity has ditched a controversial fee it was charging game developers. The game engine maker says it’s focusing on its seat-based subscription fee (i.e. an annual payment for each person using the software at a studio), though there will be a price increase for Pro and Enterprise users.

The company announced the runtime fee a year ago. Initially, it was going to make developers pay up every single time someone downloaded one of their games after certain thresholds were met. The backlash was swift and intense, with some industry figures suggesting that it would make Unity unviable for indie developers. Many developers (some of whom were years deep into making a game with Unity) were outraged over the sudden change and some threatened to abandon the engine.

Unity apologized a few days later and made some changes to the runtime fee. But the policy was a near-disaster for the company. Unity CEO and president John Riccitiello left through the back door the following month. In November, Unity laid off 265 workers in a move it attributed to its Weta Digital deal, but this occurred amid the company's ill-fated attempts to squeeze more revenue from developers. Two months later, Unity said it would lay off 1,800 people, about a quarter of its total workforce.

Current CEO Matt Bromberg, who took on the role in May, is hoping to rebuild trust (or, perhaps, unity) with developers by abandoning a loathed pricing model. The runtime fee is gone, effective immediately. The Unity Personal plan will remain free for developers with under $200,000 in revenue and funding. They'll also have the option to remove the Made with Unity splash screen from their games starting with Unity 6, which will arrive later this year.

On the flipside, pricing and annual revenue thresholds for Unity Pro and Unity Enterprise subscribers are changing on January 1. Pro users (those with at least $200,000 of total annual revenue and funding have to go with this plan) will need to pay $2,200 per seat per year. That's an eight percent increase. As for Unity Enterprise, which is required for developers with north of $25 million in annual funding and revenue, a 25 percent price increase will apply. Pricing is customized based various factors, such as the products and services Enterprise customers require.

Bromberg says that, going forward, Unity plans to consider possible price increases only on an annual basis. Developers will also be able to continue using an existing version of Unity on existing terms if they're not on board with changes to the Editor software.

"We want to deliver value at a fair price in the right way so that you will continue to feel comfortable building your business over the long term with Unity as your partner. And we’re confident that if we’re good partners and deliver great software and services, we’ve barely scratched the surface of what we can do together," Bromberg wrote in a blog post. "Canceling the Runtime Fee for games and instituting these pricing changes will allow us to continue investing to improve game development for everyone while also being better partners."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/unity-dumps-the-runtime-fee-that-caused-a-developer-revolt-181559332.html?src=rss

An Apple Store in Oklahoma City is close to approving an union agreement for its workers

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Talks between Apple and the union for the Apple Store in Oklahoma City have produced a tentative agreement that includes new benefits and protections for its staff. The Penn Square Mall Apple Store in Oklahoma City announced they’ve reached a “tentative labor agreement” with Apple and the Communication Workers of America (CWA), according to a released statement.

Terms are still being negotiated between both parties but the benefits for the store’s employees would be significant. The three-year agreement reached between the CWA and Apple would give employees a wage increase of up to 11.5 percent. An Apple spokesperson said by email that if the contract is ratified, employees would receive a 4 percent raise in the first year of employment and 3 percent in the second and third year each “based on employee performance.”

The agreement would also offer employees guaranteed paid time off and health and other benefits, allow employees to have a say in scheduling and the establishment of a “safer and more democratic workplace” through a grievance submission process with committees overseeing safety, health and working relations. An Apple spokesperson also noted the scheduling options “were provided to all other US stores in 2022.”

The Oklahoma City Apple Store had been working to form a union since 2022, becoming the second Apple Store in the US to unionize. Employees passed a strike authorization vote in August that passed with unanimous support and started a picket in front of the store ahead of bargaining sessions in early September. Workers will vote to ratify the tentative agreement on September 22.

CWA District 6 Vice President Derrick Osobase called the agreement achievement “a historic day for our members who have now secured a contract at the world’s most profitable company.”

The Apple Store in the Towson Town Center in Towson, Maryland became the first location to unionize. Members approved the union in 2022 with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM). A store in the Cumberland Mall in Atlanta, Georgia tried to form a union in 2022 with the CWA but workers called it off accusing Apple of committing “repeated violations of the National Labor Relations Act.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/an-apple-store-in-oklahoma-city-is-close-to-approving-an-union-agreement-for-its-workers-222605021.html?src=rss

UK watchdog claims Google’s ad tech practices are harming competition

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Google is facing yet more scrutiny over its ad tech practices after the UK’s competition watchdog provisionally found that the company is abusing its dominant market position. In a statement of objections, the Competition and Markets Authority said Google is harming competition in the country “by using its dominance in online display advertising to favor its own ad tech services.”

The watchdog contends that, since 2015, Google has taken advantage of its dominant position in the sector as the operator of the Google Ads and DV260 ad-buying tools and DoubleClick For Publishers, a publisher ad server, to bolster its AdX advertising exchange. The CMA said that AdX is at the heart of the company's ad tech stack and it's the platform on which it charges the highest fees to advertisers — approximately 20 percent of each bid for ad space that's processed there.

The CMA provisionally found that "the vast majority of publishers and advertisers use Google’s ad tech services in order to bid for and sell advertising space" on websites. By preferencing its own services, "Google disadvantages competitors and prevents them competing on a level playing field to provide publishers and advertisers with a better, more competitive service that supports growth in their business," the CMA stated.

The statement of objections gives Google a chance to provide feedback and the CMA will consider those representations before it makes any final decision. A case decision group comprising three people (none of whom were involved in the preliminary investigation or sending the statement of objections). If the CMA ultimately determines that Google has infringed competition rules, it can fine the company up to 10 percent of its global annual revenue and order legally binding changes to the ad tech business.

Google disagrees with the decision and “will respond accordingly,” Dan Taylor, vice president of Google Ads, said. “Our advertising technology tools help websites and apps fund their content, and enable businesses of all sizes to effectively reach new customers,” Taylor told CNBC in a statement. “Google remains committed to creating value for our publisher and advertiser partners in this highly competitive sector. The core of this case rests on flawed interpretations of the ad tech sector.”

Regulators elsewhere have taken aim at Google's position in the ad tech space. The European Commission accused the company of "abusive practices" in the online ad space in June last year. The EC said that a potential order for Google to implement remedies may not be enough to resolve those practices. That could lead to the EU breaking up Google's ad business.

Meanwhile, the Department of Justice and Google are set to go head-to-head in a trial that will start on Monday. The agency has called for the company's ad tech business to be broken up, citing an alleged illegal monopoly Google holds in that market. Google failed in an attempt to have the case dismissed. Last month, a federal judge ruled that Google illegally abused a monopoly over the search industry following a trial that stemmed from a separate DOJ lawsuit.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/uk-watchdog-claims-googles-ad-tech-practices-are-harming-competition-144944451.html?src=rss