consumer services

MicroStrategy Inc.’s new chief financial officer on Wednesday said its strategy to buy and hold bitcoin long term won’t change despite the recent selloff in the digital asset, which has dented the value of the analytics-software company’s holdings.Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have plummeted this month, in part due to investor concerns over persistent high inflation and the collapse of the TerraUSD stablecoin. Bitcoin’s price has slumped by 32% over the past year to $29,128.50 through…

Anthem Inc.’s chief information officer says he is working with Alphabet Inc.’s Google Cloud to create a synthetic data platform that will let the health insurance company better detect fraud and offer personalized care to its members. Anil Bhatt said the plan is to use algorithms and statistical models to generate approximately 1.5 to 2 petabytes of synthetic data, including artificially generated data sets of medical…

China’s Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns have led to a shortage of a dye widely used in medical scans, prompting U.S. hospitals including the Mayo Clinic to ration supplies, postpone procedures or switch to less optimal imaging.The shortage arose in recent weeks for iodinated contrast media products including Omnipaque, made by General Electric Co. ’s GE Healthcare unit at a plant in Shanghai. Omnipaque is given by intravenous injection to patients before imaging procedures to make internal…

Disney+ will carry about four minutes of commercials an hour on the ad-supported version of the platform set to launch later this year, company officials said. The company has also decided not to run any commercials during programming catering to preschool children when the ad-supported version of the service launches, officials said. Preschoolers who use their own profile to watch the ad-supported Disney+ won’t see any advertising no matter what they choose to stream, they said. “We’re never going to collect…

Marriott International Inc. is introducing a media network this month with Yahoo Inc. that will help advertisers target consumers, in part by using the hotel chain’s data on its guests, to bring them ads on places such as the hotel’s websites and, eventually, on the TV sets in their rooms. Marriott Media Network comes as the marketing industry is developing new ways to reach consumers amid a wave of privacy changes, including a plan by Alphabet Inc.’s Google to…

Some of the economy’s most in-demand employees are about to find out how much power they have over where and how they work. After months of return-to-work starts and stops, many tech companies, including Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG 2.96% Google, Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. MSFT 2.26% , are telling remote workers it’s finally time to come back for good, or at least show up part of the week. Employees who fled the Bay Area…

TARANTO, Italy—Chinese wind-turbine makers have grown big on the back of their rapidly growing home market. Now they want to expand abroad, putting further pressure on Western wind-turbine makers, which have been struggling to profit from a renewable-energy boom.The ambitions are visible near this coastal city on the heel of the Italian boot, where Renexia SpA, the renewable-energy arm of Italian infrastructure company Toto Holding SpA, recently inaugurated Beleolico, a 30-megawatt offshore wind farm using…

Miami-based Ryder System Inc. said in a statement it will ‘carefully review and evaluate the indication of interest’ to determine what is in the best interest of its shareholders. Photo: Ryder System…

The U.S. Treasury Department outlined actions it plans to take to address illicit-finance risks, saying Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had underscored the need to close regulatory loopholes and step up the fight against corruption. The national strategy for combating illicit finance, released Friday, is the latest iteration of a report the Treasury produces every two years. But this year’s strategy might be among the most important it has produced, Treasury officials said, given Russia’s…

Some of the economy’s most in-demand employees are about to find out how much power they have over where and how they work. After months of return-to-work starts and stops, many tech companies, including Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG 2.96% Google, Apple Inc. and Microsoft Corp. MSFT 2.26% , are telling remote workers it’s finally time to come back for good, or at least show up part of the week. Employees who fled the Bay Area…