Regulators

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority is seeking comments about who controls Microsoft and OpenAI and possible risk of a merger. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority is looking into whether the connections between Microsoft and OpenAI open up the possibility of a merger, which could impact competition. On Dec. 8, the CMA announced it is seeking comments from Microsoft, OpenAI and interested third parties. This is not a formal investigation, the CMA noted, but is rather a standard,…

 The US Federal Trade Commission is examining the nature of Microsoft Corp.'s investment in OpenAI Inc. and whether it may violate antitrust laws, according to a person familiar with the matter.The inquiries are preliminary and the agency hasn't opened a formal investigation, according to the person, who asked not to be named discussing a confidential matter.  Microsoft didn't report the transaction to the agency because the investment in OpenAI doesn't amount to control of the company under US law, the person said.…

While calling Xcel Energy’s proposed blueprint for the next several years transformational, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission is balking at nearly $3 billion in additional transmission costs — “jarring” one member called it — in the proposal. The PUC weighed in during a meeting Wednesday on the second phase of Xcel’s energy resource plan, which will help chart the utility’s spending and mix of resources to generate electricity through the rest of the decade. The company’s preference out of the different scenarios…

Tech leaders have been vocal proponents of the need to regulate artificial intelligence, but they're also lobbying hard to make sure the new rules work in their favor.That's not to say they all want the same thing. Facebook parent Meta and IBM on Tuesday launched a new group called the AI Alliance that's advocating for an “open science” approach to AI development that puts them at odds with rivals Google, Microsoft and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI. These two diverging camps — the open and the closed — disagree about whether to…

Apple said on Wednesday its iPhone 12 model was certified by multiple international bodies as compliant with global radiation standards after a French watchdog ordered it to stop selling the handset on the grounds it breaches European exposure limits.The ANFR radiation watchdog told Apple on Tuesday to halt sales of iPhone 12s in France after tests which it said showed the phone's Specific Absorption Rate (SAR)- a measure of the rate of radiofrequency energy absorbed by the body from a piece of equipment - was higher than…

Zoom Video Communications has met with regulators from the United States, European Union, and other jurisdictions to outline concerns about Microsoft's alleged anti-competitive behavior, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday. The video conferencing platform has spoken with the US Federal Trade Commission, as well as competition enforcers from the EU, UK, and Germany over the past year, the report said, citing a person familiar with the matter.Zoom had expressed its concerns about the way Microsoft has given preference to…

Streamline your email outreach strategy for success  —  This is a guest post by Upwise.  For a successful email outreach, it's crucial to align sales data with the marketing strategy.  However, this alignment is often hindered by siloed systems. Streamline your email outreach strategy for success  —  This is a guest post by Upwise.  For a successful email outreach, it's crucial to align sales data with the marketing strategy.  However, this alignment is often hindered by siloed systems. FOLLOW US ON GOOGLE NEWS…

"Call of Duty" maker Activision will sell its non-European streaming rights to Ubisoft Entertainment to get the biggest deal yet in video gaming past British regulators, potential owner Microsoft said on Tuesday. Britain's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is the only regulator to block Microsoft's $69 billion (roughly Rs. 5,65,480 crore) Activision deal, in a test of its post-Brexit clout.Microsoft said on Tuesday it believed its new proposal was a "substantially different transaction" and that it expected the CMA…

The letter -- signed by tech leaders from Google, Orange, Vodafone, Telefonica, and Deutsche Telekom -- makes the case that Apple's iMessage meets the DMA criteria for core platform services, being used by at least 10,000 active users monthly in the EU and operated by a company with annual revenues above €7.5 billion.Being considered a core platform service under the DMA would make Apple, as the provider of the iMessage service on iPhones, subject to specific obligations to ensure a fair and competitive market or face…

SAN FRANCISCO — Two months ago, Kyle Vogt, the CEO of Cruise, choked up as he recounted how a driver killed a 4-year-old girl in a stroller at a San Francisco intersection. “It barely made the news,” he said, pausing to collect himself. “Sorry. I get emotional.” To make streets safer, he said in an interview, cities should embrace self-driving cars like those designed by Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors. They do not get distracted, drowsy or drunk, he said, and being programmed to put safety first meant they could…