Tag Archives: Finance

Apple is reportedly getting ready to replace Tim Cook as early as next year

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According to the Financial Times, Tim Cook may be ready to leave his position as soon as next year, and Apple's board and senior executives have ramped up their preparations to secure his replacement.

Cook, who has been at the helm of Apple for more than 14 years, succeeded Steve Jobs and led the company to a market cap of more than $4 trillion. Cook's tenure since 2011 has overseen the introduction of hardware, including Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro, but also services like Apple Arcade and Apple TV+. According to the Financial Times's sources, Apple's senior vice president of engineering, John Ternus, will most likely take on the CEO role, but this decision hasn't been finalized yet. Ternus has been with Apple since 2001 as part of its Product Design team and eventually stepped into a vice president role within the Hardware Engineering division, where he played a heavy role in the company's transition to Apple silicon.

According to the Financial Times, Apple isn't planning to announce the new CEO before its January earnings report. However, the report also noted that this announcement would come earlier in the year to allow the leadership team to transition smoothly in time for all of Apple's annual events. Earlier this year, Apple also announced Sabih Khan as the new chief operating officer, taking over for Jeff Williams.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/apple-is-reportedly-getting-ready-to-replace-tim-cook-as-early-as-next-year-171407974.html?src=rss

Something funky is going on at Ubisoft

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It's been clear for some time that all is not well at Ubisoft. Between games not meeting the company's sales expectations, studio closures, downsizing elsewhere and sexual misconduct issues, it's been a rocky past several years for the company. 

But now it seems something else may be going on at the publisher. Just before it was set to hold a call with investors on Thursday, Ubisoft said it was delaying its half-year earnings report and halting trading of its shares. It has asked Euronext — the European stock market on which its shares are listed — to halt trading from November 14 until it publishes its earnings results "in the coming days."

This could mean any number of things. Other companies have delayed earnings reports due to things like accounting issues. But halting trading of the company's shares could portend major news, such as a sale or Ubisoft becoming a private entity again. Engadget has contacted Ubisoft for comment. 

It was reported late last year that the founders of Ubisoft were looking to take the company private with the help of Tencent. That hasn't transpired as yet, but Ubisoft (with the help of a Tencent investment) did this year form a new subsidiary called Vantage Studios. That is now overseeing Assassin's Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six — three of Ubisoft's most important franchises.


This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/gaming/something-funky-is-going-on-at-ubisoft-184058990.html?src=rss

Paramount+ is getting a price hike and ending free trials

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Paramount+ is making some changes that will make its streaming service get more to watch. During Paramount's earnings report today, the company announced that it will increase the subscription prices for Paramount+ in the US during the first quarter of 2026. Price hikes were also announced today for viewers in Canada and Australia. The new pricing was not shared, but a dollar or two more per month has become the standard change. Considering most streaming services jack their prices every year or two, the news was probably inevitable; the last increase for Paramount+ was back in June 2024. But today's announcement also revealed that Paramount+ will no longer offer free trials, which is a common practice for most digital entertainment subscriptions. 

The changes appear to be part of a reassessment of the Paramount+ finances. The company's approach to increase long-term profitability "includes shifting away from certain hard bundles and low-margin subscriptions, reducing investment in select international markets without a clear path to sufficient scale, retiring free trials, and reviewing discount practices."

These new moves follow Skydance's acquisition of Paramount over the summer, an $8 billion purchase which received regulatory approval after some pretty scuzzy interactions with FCC Chairman Brendan Carr. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/paramount-is-getting-a-price-hike-and-ending-free-trials-231146302.html?src=rss

Snap and Perplexity sign $400 million deal to put AI search directly in Snapchat

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Snap and Perplexity AI have struck a $400 million deal that will bring the AI search engine directly to Snapchat sometime in "early 2026," the two companies announced. With the partnership, Perplexity's AI search engine will be a prominent part of Snapchat's "chat" interface so users can "ask questions and get clear, conversational answers drawn from verifiable sources, all within Snapchat."

The news was announced alongside the company's third-quarter earnings. The company said that revenue from the deal — Perplexity is paying Snap $400 million for the integration — is "expected to begin contributing" to the company's bottom line in 2026. In a letter to shareholders, CEO Evan Spiegel also hinted that Snap could pursue similar partnerships with other AI companies. "This collaboration makes AI-powered discovery native to Snapchat, enhances personalization, and positions Snap as a leading distribution channel for intelligent agents, laying the groundwork for a broader ecosystem of AI partners to reach our global community," he wrote. 

Snap, like its peers, has been leaning into generative AI in recent years. The company has its own LLM-powered chatbot, called MyAI, which uses models from OpenAI, Google and, soon, Perplexity AI. Snap has also introduced AI-powered lenses and creation tools, which have helped boost its Snapchat+ subscription service.  

Spiegel also teased other AI-powered updates coming to Snapchat. He said the company is working on a new AI video generation feature called "AI Clips" that "will allow creators to generate short, shareable videos from simple prompts." He didn’t say when the feature might launch.

Outside of Snapchat, Snap is also planning on launching a new version of its AR glasses, called Specs, sometime next year. Spiegel didn’t offer any new details about the device, which he has previously promised will be lighter-weight than the current version. He did, however, suggest the company was considering working with potential hardware partners. He said Snap would be “putting Specs into their own standalone, 100% owned subsidiary” to give the company more flexibility to pursue such arrangements.

Update, November 5, 2025, 3:08PM PT: Added more details from Snap’s earnings call.


This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/social-media/snap-and-perplexity-sign-400-million-deal-to-put-ai-search-directly-in-snapchat-221101734.html?src=rss

The IRS’ free tax-filing tool reportedly won’t be offered in 2026

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Direct File, the free, government-provided alternative to services like TurboTax, won't be available for the 2026 tax season, Bloomberg Tax reports. That's based on a letter sent from the Internal Revenue Service to participating states that says that "no launch date has been set for the future."

A Biden administration project, Direct File was designed to be an easy way for eligible taxpayers to file taxes online, without having to pay for a service like TurboTax or H&R Block to do it on their behalf. The IRS began piloting Direct File for the 2024 tax season, and opted to make it a permanent option later that year. Direct File was available for the most recent 2025 tax season in 25 states in the US.

Despite the service's success, the Trump administration appears to opposed to offering Direct File in its current form. The "Big Beautiful Bill" passed in July 2025 includes funding for the IRS to research "the cost to replace any direct e-file programs run by the Internal Revenue Service" and "the cost of developing and running a free direct e-file tax return system." Whatever the results of that research, later in July, former IRS Commissioner Billy Long seemed to suggest the e-filing option had been eliminated. "You've heard of Direct File, that's gone," Long said at a tax professional summit. "Big beautiful Billy wiped that out."

Engadget has contacted the IRS to confirm that Direct File won't be offered in 2026. We'll update this article if we hear back.

While the IRS has yet to formally announce that Direct File is going away outside of Long's comments, the tool is currently unavailable through the IRS website. Additionally, the position to lead the Direct File project inside the IRS is currently vacant under acting IRS Commissioner Scott Bessent.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-irs-free-tax-filing-tool-reportedly-wont-be-offered-in-2026-185430716.html?src=rss

OpenAI signs $38 billion cloud contract with Amazon

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When OpenAI announced last week the end of its drawn-out corporate restructuring, one of the freedoms the company had managed to negotiate for itself was the ability to more easily sign cloud contracts with Microsoft’s competitors. With the new agreement in place, the company waived its first right of refusal to be OpenAI’s compute provider. OpenAI is wasting no time taking advantage of that freedom.

On Monday, Amazon announced a new multi-year, $38 billion cloud partnership with OpenAI. “Starting immediately,” Amazon Web Services will provide the company with access to “thousands” of NVIDIA GB200 and GB300 GPUs for inference and training its next-generation models. Amazon expects to deploy all the capacity OpenAI has agreed to buy by the end of 2026, with the option to purchase additional capacity in 2027 and beyond. Amazon says the partnership “will help millions of users continue to get value from ChatGPT.”

Of course, the question is how OpenAI will pay for all of its cloud commitments. The Information recently reported the company was generating about $12 billion in annualized revenue. As part of just its restructuring agreement, the company agreed to spend $250 billion on Azure services from Microsoft. It also has a revenue-sharing agreement with the tech giant that will continue when and if OpenAI is able to develop artificial general intelligence.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/openai-signs-38-billion-cloud-contract-with-amazon-151821384.html?src=rss

One of our favorite budgeting apps has half off subscriptions for Black Friday

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Those looking for a better way to keep track of their finances should consider a budgeting app. There are dozens of them on the market now, and one of our favorites is running a discount for new subscribers. Monarch Money is offering 50 percent off annual plans right now when you use the code MONARCHVIP at checkout. With the typical yearly price being $100, this will save you $50.

As mentioned before, the discount is only for new users and it can't be combined with other offers. The code only works when you sign up through the web as well. You can't redeem it through the Monarch mobile app.

We feel that Monarch has a steeper learning curve than some other budget trackers and that certain aspects of the app are slightly more complex than they probably need to be. But it offers a great deal of customization and granularity, which outweighs our misgivings.

On the main dashboard, you'll see your net worth along with your latest transactions, spending versus the previous month, your income so far for the month and details about upcoming bills, your investments and goals you've set. There's also a link to a month-in-review page, which offers an in-depth overview of what's been happening with your money that month. You'll also be able to take a peek at how your net worth has changed over time.

Monarch can connect to your bank and track Apple Card, Apple Cash and Savings accounts. It can pull in your transactions and balance history automatically and detect your recurring expenses and income. The app can even keep your car valuation up to date. While it might take a little work to set up Monarch (and you might have to tweak things here and there), it's a detailed budgeting app that can help you keep better track of your income, expenditure and net worth.

If you're a former Mint user (RIP), Monarch Money is a great alternative if you haven't yet found a Mint replacement. But it's worth mentioning that our favorite Mint replacement service, Quicken Simplifi, also has a sale going on right now. It's offering 50 percent off when you sign up for an annual subscription, billed at $3 per month with the discount. That comes out to $36 for the first year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/deals/one-of-our-favorite-budgeting-apps-has-half-off-subscriptions-for-black-friday-174011903.html?src=rss

The UK approves Google’s $2 billion investment in Anthropic

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The UK’s competition regulator has cleared Google's $2 billion investment in Anthropic, according to reporting by Bloomberg and others. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has officially concluded that the company hasn’t acquired “material influence” over the AI startup Anthropic as a result of the investment.

The continuing investigation into the partnership has also been squashed, with the UK antitrust watchdog saying that the investment doesn’t qualify for a full probe under merger rules. This is after phase one of a formal investigation was announced back in October.

“Anthropic is an independent company and our strategic partnerships and investor relationships do not diminish our corporate governance independence or our freedom to partner with others,” a company spokesperson said after the CMA announced its findings.

Google’s investment into Anthropic gives the company non-voting shares and consultation rights on significant business issues. Anthropic is best known for creating the Claude AI assistant, which is in direct competition with Google Gemini. Earlier this year, the CMA expressed concern regarding the “interconnected web” of partnerships and investments in the rapidly advancing world of AI.

The CMA also allowed a similar investment to go through in which Amazon forked over a whopping $4 billion to Anthropic. It didn’t even investigate that one, on the grounds that Anthropic’s UK turnover didn’t exceed £70 million and the two parties didn’t combine to account for 25 percent or more of the region’s supply of AI LLMs and chatbots.

Microsoft’s investment into OpenAI, however, is still under scrutiny by the CMA. The watchdog group did clear Microsoft’s investments with the AI startups Mistral and Inflection.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/the-uk-approves-googles-2-billion-investment-in-anthropic-162226536.html?src=rss

AMD lays off 4 percent of its global workforce

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AMD has confirmed it’s laying off roughly four percent of its global workforce, according to reports by TechCrunch and others. It’s not entirely clear how many people will be impacted by this move, or which divisions the laid off employees will be pulled from.

We can, however, do some math. The company had around 26,000 employees last year, according to an annual filing by AMD. Four percent of 26,000 comes out to just over 1,000 people. That’s a lot.

So that leads us to why. You already know the answer. It’s a bunch of corporate gobbledygook. “As a part of aligning our resources with our largest growth opportunities, we are taking a number of targeted steps,” an AMD spokesperson told CRN.

Don’t worry. The company also said it’s “committed to treating impacted employees with respect and helping them through this transition.” Engadget reached out to AMD for more information as to what that respect and help will look like. We’ll update this story if we find out anything.

This news comes after a fairly mixed Q3 earnings report. The company grew revenue and profit, but the gaming division saw a massive year-over-year decline of 69 percent, according to Wccftech. The company has also struggled to compete with NVIDIA in the world of AI chips.

Experts still predict that AMD will make nearly $33 billion in 2025, thanks to forthcoming next-gen GPUs. This isn’t enough for investors, however, as it’s “just” an increase of around $7 billion when compared to 2024. The company’s stock is down around four percent this year, and dropped further today. Capitalism demands massive and endless growth.

Rival (and occasional bestie) Intel has faced similar headwinds. The company announced over 15,000 layoffs earlier this year.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/big-tech/amd-lays-off-4-percent-of-its-global-workforce-182534044.html?src=rss

AMD’s next-gen GPUs are set to arrive in early 2025, suggesting a CES reveal

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AMD and NVIDIA could be on a collision course for CES. AMD CEO Lisa Su has confirmed for the first time that the company is set to release its next-gen PC GPUs early next year.

"In gaming graphics, revenue declined year-over-year as we prepare for a transition to our next-gen Radeon GPUs based on our RDNA 4 architecture," Su told investors on AMD's third-quarter earnings call. "In addition to a strong increase in gaming performance, RDNA 4 delivers significantly higher ray-tracing performance and adds new AI capabilities. We are on track to launch the first RDNA 4 GPUs in early 2025."

The timing very much suggests that AMD will reveal those RDNA 4-based graphics cards at CES in early January. It's rare for the company to unveil desktop GPUs at the trade show (laptop cards are generally the order of the day for AMD at that event). However, it's widely expected that NVIDIA will use its CES keynote to debut its next-gen 50-series GeForce RTX GPUs. We might get a little more clarity on that front when NVIDIA announces its own Q3 earnings results on November 19.

As PCWorld notes, AMD's first RDNA 4 GPUs are expected to deliver mid-range performance at an equivalent price point in a bid to increase its market share. AMD's gaming business (which includes the company's GPU division) saw a 69 percent year-over-year drop in revenue to $462 million in Q3. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/computing/amds-next-gen-gpus-are-set-to-arrive-in-early-2025-suggesting-a-ces-reveal-192630199.html?src=rss