Photo by Roberto Nickson on Unsplash
Microsoft continues to make strides in the cloud space inching closer to Amazon’s crown (but not that close…yet). The company is also betting on massive AI investments to continue their success in the future.
Meanwhile, T-Mobile and Sprint are finally allowed to merge and Dish will officially become a telecom company.
Acquisitions/Investments
- T-Mobile and Sprint get DOJ approval for $26 billion merger deal
The U.S. Department of Justice this morning gave the green light to T-Mobile US and Sprint for their proposed $26 billion merger. The deal, which would combine the nation’s third and fourth largest carriers (by subscriber number) has been green lit on the condition that Sprint sell its prepaid assets (including Boost Mobile) to Dish Network.
As part of the deal, some nine million prepaid subscribers will move over to Dish, which will also have access to T-Mobile/Sprint’s network for a period of seven years.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/26/t-mobile-and-sprint-get-doj-approval-for-26-billion-merger-deal/
Experts Say the DOJ Justification for T-Mobile/Sprint Merger Approval Is a Joke“Today’s settlement will provide Dish with the assets and transitional services required to become a facilities-based mobile network operator that can provide a full range of mobile wireless services nationwide,” DOJ Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim said of the deal.
But experts consulted by Motherboard say the proposal isn’t likely to work, and the end result of the merger will still very likely be higher prices and worse service for all.
For one thing, Dish has been promising to build a wireless network for the better part of the last decade with little to show for it. The company has routinely been accused of “spectrum squatting,” or buying spectrum it doesn’t use in a bid to turn around and sell it later when it’s more valuable. Even T-Mobile made this complaint when Dish initially criticized the merger.
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wjvw55/t-mobile-sprint-merger-is-a-joke
Artificial Intelligence
- Microsoft to Invest $1 Billion in Artificial-Intelligence Startup
“This is a big investment for Microsoft, even at their size,” said Stifel analyst Brad Reback. “They’ll do scores of acquisitions annually but most of them tend to be smaller technology tuck-ins.”
OpenAI was launched in 2015 as a nonprofit with a goal of leading efforts to develop artificial general intelligence. It competes with Alphabet Inc. ’s DeepMind Technologies and others. OpenAI is led by CEO Sam Altman, a former president of startup accelerator Y Combinator.
The Microsoft investment signals a vote of confidence in OpenAI’s recent transformation into a private company from a nonprofit. In March, OpenAI revamped its legal structure to raise more money and gain scale, which enabled it to accept the investment from Microsoft.
Cloud
- Google Cloud’s run rate is now over $8B
Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who recently installed former Oracle exec Thomas Kurian as the new head of Google Cloud, announced that this business unit now has an $8 billion annual revenue run rate. That’s up from the $4 billion the company reported in early 2018.
While Google often felt like an also-ran in the cloud wars, it’s clearly starting to make up some ground. “Other cloud providers would have you believe that no one is using Google, which is not true,” Kurian told me when I talked to him earlier this year. Now he can put some numbers behind this claim.
To put that into perspective, AWS’s run rate topped $30 billion last quarter while Microsoft Azure is somewhere around $11 billion, though concrete numbers are hard to come by.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/07/25/google-clouds-run-rate-is-now-over-8b/
- The cloud computing market is closing in on a $100 billion milestone, but half of it is going to either Amazon or Microsoft, according to an analyst report
The cloud market, which covers web-based services for infrastructure, platform and hosted private clouds, totaled about $23 billion in the second quarter, according to Synergy Research Group. That’s up 39% from the year-ago period and $1.6 billion from the previous quarter.
Amazon owned 33% of that market, bigger than the combined share of its four closest rivals: Microsoft, which had 16%, Google, 8%, Alibaba and Tencent. The report also mentioned other key players in the cloud market — IBM, Salesforce, Oracle and Rackspace — which posted lower growth rates and “are more niche-oriented.”
https://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-microsoft-cloud-gap-narrowing-2019-7
- Microsoft, AT&T sign cloud deal worth more than $2 billion
Under the deal, Microsoft and AT&T will also work together on so-called edge computing, which will see Microsoft technology deployed alongside AT&T’s coming 5G network for applications that need extremely small delays in passing data back and forth, such as air traffic control systems for drones. The multi-year deal is worth more than $2 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The agreement is a major win for Microsoft, which will become AT&T’s “preferred” cloud vendor and is fighting to gain market share from Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services, the biggest provider of public cloud services. Cloud service customers run their software applications in data centers managed by the cloud provider.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-microsoft-at-t-cloud/microsoft-att-sign-cloud-deal-worth-more-than-2-billion-idUSKCN1UC1KK?il=0
IBM Lands AT&T as Client in Cloud DealThe partnership builds on IBM’s $34 billion acquisition of open-source software firm Red Hat, which closed last week. Buying Red Hat strengthened IBM’s standing in the hybrid cloud market. Companies use the hybrid cloud to manage software and other systems across different cloud services and their own data centers.
IBM said that Red Hat’s open-source software will give AT&T Business the flexibility to move data and applications among various clouds and data centers. AT&T Business until now has worked with multiple cloud vendors.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/ibm-lands-at-t-as-client-in-cloud-deal-11563317480
Security/Privacy
- An Equifax hack settlement promises a $125 payout. The truth is more complicated.
First, if your information (most importantly, your social security number) was part of the hack, then you should assume it’s out there forever. Even if someone hasn’t stolen your identity yet, it could still happen.
Second, even if you file for reimbursement, there’s a good chance you won’t actually get the full $125 that Equifax and the FTC are talking about. Things are worded carefully in the agreement, but the bottom line is there’s a limited amount of money in the payout pool, and it won’t cover $125 checks for 147 million people.
Given all that, the biggest loophole you should be aware of is that if you do nothing, you will automatically waive your right to take legal action against Equifax in the future.
Infrastructure/Hardware
- Apple’s and Intel’s No-Brainer Deal
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the two are in “advanced talks.” A deal would purportedly involve both the intellectual property and staff related to Intel’s effort to design and build the crucial smartphone component that ultimately landed only Apple as a customer. The reported purchase price under discussion is about $1 billion.
That is less than a week’s worth of free cash flow for Apple. It also is about what Intel has been losing annually on modems. Despite landing the sizable iPhone business, Intel’s modem-chip operation never achieved the necessary scale to compete profitably with market leader Qualcomm . QCOM -0.17% Meanwhile, Apple was effectively locked into the Intel modem during its bruising legal tussle with Qualcomm. The latter’s advancements in 5G technology ultimately spurred a settlement of that dispute, but it is an uneasy peace. Intel now has a modem operation with no customer following this year’s iPhone model, and Apple is back to depending on a supplier with whom it now has a rather tortured history.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/apples-and-intels-no-brainer-deal-11563900798
- Sony’s wearable AC will arrive too late to save you from this year’s heatwave
Sony has announced the Reon Pocket, a small cooling device that you can wear like a portable air conditioner. It’s currently live on Sony’s crowdfunding website, where prices start at ¥12,760 (about $117). SlashGear notes that as well as cooling you during hot days, the device, which slots into the back pocket of a specially designed T-shirt, can also warm you up during the winter.
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/7/27/8931701/sony-reon-pocket-portable-wearable-air-conditioner-heater-heatwave-t-shirt
I need this thing now. Right Now.
Other
- Tesla’s longtime CTO is stepping down
Longtime Tesla executive JB Straubel is leaving his post as chief technology officer after some 15 years, CEO Elon Musk announced Wednesday evening. Straubel will transition to a “senior advisor” role, according to Musk, and is not fully leaving the company. The news comes as Tesla announced a $408 million loss for the second quarter of 2019.
“I’m not disappearing, and I just wanted to make sure that people understand that this was not some, you know, lack of confidence in the company, or the team, or anything like that,” Straubel said on the call.
Straubel is the second C-suite executive to announce a change in his role on one of Tesla’s earnings calls in the last six months. Longtime chief financial officer Deepak Ahuja announced he was retiring on a call in January. Tesla also has a well-documented revolving door when it comes to lower-level executives.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/24/20726728/tesla-jb-straubel-cto-is-stepping-down