Net Neutrality may have a second chance thanks to the Senate and the CRA. While this is good news for consumers, it could take a while for the protections to be reinstated.
Oracle informed Australian authorities that Google might be inappropriately capturing and collecting data from the people down under. Meanwhile the New York Times still thinks that Google’s data collection is less creepy than Facebook’s methods.
What is the next thing all the tech companies are going to fight over? It could be access to lithium.
Acquisitions
- Google acquires Cask Data to beef up its tools for building and running big data analytics
In the latest development, Google has picked up Cask Data, a Palo Alto startup that specializes in building solutions to run big data analytics services based on Hadoop.
The news comes less than a week after Google announced the acquisition of Velostrata, a startup from Israel that helps businesses migrate and run data, apps and other IT functions in the cloud and across hybrid environments.
Financial terms are not being disclosed. Cask Data had raised around $40 million in funding to date, according to PitchBook, with a long list of big-name investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, AME Cloud Ventures, Battery Ventures, Cloudera, Data Collective, Ericsson and Ignition Venture Partners. PitchBook’s records indicate that Ignition sold its stake on April 25, which might have been when the deal closed. The most recent valuation noted in PitchBook was for $57 million, back in 2015.
- Giuliani says ‘the president denied’ AT&T-Time Warner deal approval
“The president denied the merger,” Giuliani, a new member of President Trump’s legal team, said in an interview with HuffPost on Friday.
Giuliani was seemingly trying to defend the president against any suggestion that Michael Cohen improperly influenced the administration after the revelation that Cohen, Trump’s longtime personal attorney, was paid large sums of money by AT&T and several other corporate clients. “Whatever lobbying was done didn’t reach the president,” Giuliani said, repeating a claim he made to CNN’s Dana Bash on Thursday.
But then Giuliani went further, telling HuffPost’s S.V. Date that “he did drain the swamp… The president denied the merger. They didn’t get the result they wanted.”
http://money.cnn.com/2018/05/11/media/rudy-giuliani-trump-att-time-warner/index.html
- Xerox pulls out of its Fujifilm merger plans
The printer and copier giant changed its plans after it reached a settlement with two of its largest activist shareholders, Carl Icahn and Darwin Deason, reports the Wall Street Journal. The shareholders felt the merger severely undervalued Xerox. Under the settlement with the activist shareholders, new members were appointed to Xerox’s board, which then voted to sever the Fujifilm merger, which was announced in January. For its part, Fujifilm has announced it is considering legal actions against Xerox.
https://www.fastcompany.com/40571872/xerox-pulls-out-of-its-fujifilm-merger-plans
- PayPal confirms that it is buying payments startup iZettle for $2.2B in an all-cash deal
The company has confirmed that it is buying iZettle — the Stockholm-based payments provider commonly referred to as the “Square of Europe” — for $2.2 billion in an all-cash deal.
The deal — which is expected to close in Q3 2018 — will see iZettle’s co-founder and CEO Jacob de Geer stay on to lead iZettle. He will report to PayPal’s COO Bill Ready. Others in iZettle’s exec team will also stay on to run the business, which will become a “center of excellence” for in-store and offline payments in Europe, PayPal said.
Artificial Intelligence
- AI will spell the end of capitalism
It is the very pervasiveness of AI that will spell the end of market dominance. The market may reasonably if unequally function if industry creates employment opportunities for most people. But when industry only produces joblessness, as robots take over more and more, there is no good alternative but for the state to step in. As AI invades economic and social life, all private law-related issues will soon become public ones. More and more, regulation of private companies will become a necessity to maintain some semblance of stability in societies roiled by constant innovation.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/theworldpost/wp/2018/05/03/end-of-capitalism
Cloud
- The War Over Amazon And A Huge Pentagon Cloud Services Contract Is Just Heating Up
Amazon currently owns 44.2% of the cloud market. Its next closest competitor is Microsoft’s Azure at 7.1%. Google holds just 2.3% of the space, according to 2016 revenue stats from Gartner.
If it’s the sole winner of the Pentagon’s contract, then its piece of the pie stands to get a lot bigger. Smaller companies have lobbied to get the government to choose several providers rather than one, but it won’t budge on the decision.
“I never heard of something like a single cloud and I would challenge anyone to point at a significant commercial customer who has one cloud,” Oracle Chief Executive Sara Catz said to a group of journalists in mid-April.
Security
- Senate votes to reinstate net neutrality — but it has a long way to go
In a 52–47 vote today, senators voted to overturn the Federal Communication Commission’s Restoring Internet Freedom Order, which took net neutrality rules off the books. They were able to do so using the Congressional Review Act, or CRA, which allows Congress to reverse recent decisions by government agencies. Republican control of Congress means that such a measure wouldn’t normally even make it up for a vote; but the CRA allows senators to force a vote by obtaining 30 signatures.
All 49 Democrats voted in favor, as well as Republican Senators Susan Collins, of Maine; John Kennedy, of Louisiana; and Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/5/16/17357592/net-neutrality-senate-vote-cra-reinstate-fcc-rules
- Google caught using $580 million worth of Australians’ phone data to spy on them by monitoring their movements
Claims Google is using up to $580 million worth of user’s phone plan data in Australia to track customer’s movements are being looked into by the ACCC.
Experts from technology corporation Oracle believe Google is taking an estimated one gigabyte of mobile data each month from Android phone accounts.
It is believed the information keeps an eye on user’s whereabouts, and relays the details back to advertisers.
- Google’s File on Me Was Huge. Here’s Why It Wasn’t as Creepy as My Facebook Data.
What I found was that my Google data archive was much larger than my Facebook file — about 12 times larger, in fact — but it was also packed with fewer unpleasant surprises.
Most of what I saw in my Google file was information I already knew I had put in there, like my photos, documents and Google emails, while my Facebook data contained a list of 500 advertisers with my contact information and a permanent record of friends I thought I had “deleted” years ago, among other shockers.
Whenever I was perturbed by parts of my Google data, like a record of the Android apps I had opened over the past several years, I was relieved to find out I could delete the data. In contrast, when I downloaded my Facebook data, I found that a lot of what I saw could not be purged.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/16/technology/personaltech/google-personal-data-facebook.html
Datacenter/Hardware
- Apple invests $10 million in a greener method of aluminum production
Today Apple says it’s partnering with the aluminum producer Alcoa and the smelting tech company Rio Tinto to develop a new way of producing aluminum that releases oxygen, not carbon dioxide. The three companies, along with the governments of Canada and Quebec are investing a combined $144 million in the R&D, which is being done near Alcoa’s headquarters in Pittsburg. Apple’s share is $10.1 million (U.S.). The governments are investing about $47 million (U.S.).
Alcoa and Rio Tinto believe the new method will be done and packaged in 2024. At that point the two will begin licensing the tech to other aluminum producers, and, presumably, Alcoa will begin using it on a wide scale itself.
- What Do Tesla, Apple and SoftBank Have in Common? They’re All Hot for Lithium
Both lithium and cobalt, which is also used in these batteries, face potential shortages in the years ahead as electric-vehicle use increases.
That concern is driving a number of companies like technology firms and car makers reliant on lithium and cobalt to strike deals now, even if it means joining with suppliers that haven’t started producing yet.
Tesla reached a three-year supply agreement with lithium firm Kidman Resources Ltd. , which begins when the Australian company begins producing battery-grade material, Kidman said Thursday. The firm isn’t expected to begin producing lithium compounds before 2021.
Other
- Why Apple, Microsoft Are Focusing on Services
At the moment, Apple leads the pack in providing a complete ecosystem of hardware, software, and services. But if you have been watching Microsoft over the last four years, you know that it’s doing the same, with services like Office 365 and more recently, Microsoft 365.
A dedicated, sand-boxed store in which only approved apps are allowed gives Microsoft more control over security and brings it new revenue streams. But PC partners don’t love it, pushing some to alternative OSes like Google’s Chrome OS.
Still, while there is money to be made in hardware, PC sales continue to shrink and a focus on services is critical to the long-term survival of companies like Apple, Microsoft, and others.
https://www.pcmag.com/commentary/361058/why-apple-microsoft-are-focusing-on-services
- Tim Cook told Trump China tariffs were the wrong move
“I talked about trade and the importance of trade, and how I felt that two countries trading together make the pie larger,” Cook said, adding that while there are existing problems with U.S./China trade policies, Trump’s approach is not the right way forward. “I felt that tariffs were not the right approach there, and I showed him some more analytical kinds of things to demonstrate why.”
The tariffs are largely regarded as one key element in a looming trade war between the two superpowers. Apple, for its part, could easily get caught in the crossfire, as the company relies on China as a key to its international sales.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/15/tim-cook-told-trump-china-tariffs-were-the-wrong-move/
Photo by Jed Owen on Unsplash