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Even the deepest pockets have their limits. Amazon and Google-parent Alphabet sit on a combined $184 billion in cash and short-term investments. Those two, along with big tech peers Microsoft, Apple and Facebook-parent Meta Platforms, hold the highest such balances among nonbanking companies on the S&P 500, according to data from S&P Global Market Intelligence. Amazon and Alphabet are also currently generating just under $95 billion combined in annual free cash flow. Copyright ©2024Dow Jones & Company, Inc.…

Jan. 10, 2024 11:40 pm ETGoogle laid off hundreds of employees in several areas of the business on Wednesday, a sign of further cost reductions at the search giant as it continues to reverse a pandemic hiring spree.The cuts affected employees in divisions including those working on Google’s Assistant program, hardware and internal software tools, the company said. The exact size and scope of the layoffs couldn’t immediately be determined.Copyright ©2024Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.…

OpenAI’s management chaos in November could have long-lasting effects on its business as some of the company’s customers say it was a wake-up call about the risks of being too reliant on one company’s tech.Executives at companies that use OpenAI’s software say they are increasingly looking to also use others’ technology to protect themselves from the risks of problems at any one. OpenAI’s competitors are using the opportunity to sign up wary customers.Copyright ©2024Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.…

Listen to article(1 minute)Google is going forward with sweeping changes to how companies track users online—moves that have been years in the making. Advertisers still aren’t ready.The changes, among the biggest in the history of the $600 billion-a-year online ad industry, center on the use of cookies, technology that logs the activity of internet users across websites so that advertisers can target them with relevant ads. Copyright ©2024Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8…

By Miles Kruppa | Photographs by Carolyn Fong for The Wall Street Journal Perplexity, a startup going after Google’s dominant position in web search, has won backing from Jeff Bezos and venture capitalists betting that artificial intelligence will upend the way people find information online.Started less than two years ago, Perplexity has fewer than 40 employees and is based out of a San Francisco co-working space. The company’s product, which it calls an answer engine, is used by about 10 million people…

U.S. antitrust cases against tech giants Google and Meta Platforms are expected to come to a head in 2024, likely producing long-awaited rulings that could shape the legacies of top Biden administration regulators.Silicon Valley and its critics have seen their patience tested on some of these cases. A U.S. antitrust case brought against Alphabet’s Google unit in 2020 went to trial in 2023 and now heads to closing arguments in May.Copyright ©2024Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved.…

Videogame boss Tim Sweeney is on a winning streak.His company, closely held Epic Games, defeated tech behemoth Google in court on Monday, and its years-old megahit “Fortnite”—which served as the catalyst for the legal battle—is undergoing a resurgence in popularity. Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8 Videogame boss Tim Sweeneyis on a winning streak.His company, closely held Epic Games, defeated tech behemoth Google in court on Monday, and its years-old…

Shortly after the launch of ChatGPT, the Atlantic drew up a list of the greatest threats to the 166-year-old publication from generative artificial intelligence. At the top: Google’s embrace of the technology.About 40% of the magazine’s web traffic comes from Google searches, which turn up links that users click on. A task force at the Atlantic modeled what could happen if Google integrated AI into search. It found that 75% of the time, the AI-powered search would likely provide a full answer to a user’s query and the…

Journal Reports: LeadershipWhat’s New in the Best Managed Companies Rankings in 2023By Rick Wartzman , and Kelly TangDecember 13, 2023 at 1:02 PM ETThe main difference: a new metric that measures how well companies foster career mobility. Journal Reports: LeadershipWhat’s New in the Best Managed Companies Rankings in 2023By Rick Wartzman , and Kelly TangDecember 13, 2023 at 1:02 PM ETThe main difference: a new metric that measures how well companies foster career mobility. FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE NEWS Read original…

Monday’s court ruling that Google created an antitrust market with its app store threatens to upend the $500-billion-a-year app store economy, which has evolved into a profit machine for Appleand Google that helped define the smartphone era.A jury unanimously sided with Epic Games, saying that Google had harmed the videogame maker by maintaining an illegal monopoly. Google said it plans to appeal the verdict and stands by its business model. In a separate case that concluded in 2021, a federal judge largely ruled against…