Europes one-two punch
The European Union has just agreed on one of the worlds most far-reaching laws to rein in the power of tech companies.
The Digital Markets Act is aimed at stopping the largest tech platforms from using their interlocking services and considerable resources to box in users and squeeze emerging rivals. It could potentially reshape app stores, online advertising, e-commerce, messaging services and other everyday digital tools, in Europe and beyond.
The law will apply to gatekeeper platforms with a market value of more than 75 billion euros, or about $83 billion, which include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta and Microsoft. Violators of the law, which could take effect later this year, would face significant fines.
The law is part of a one-two punch by European regulators. As early as next month, the E.U. is expected to reach agreement on a law that would force social media companies to police their platforms more aggressively. And these come after the bloc put the worlds strictest rules to protect peoples online data into effect in 2018. (Thats why nearly every website has pop-ups asking you for permission to track your data.)
Here are some of the potential effects of the new law:
Apple would have to allow alternative app stores for the first time, and companies like Spotify and Epic Games would be allowed to use alternative billing systems inside their apps. Google said this week that it would begin to allow this for some apps.
Speaking of Google, it would have to give Android users options to use other email and search services on handsets in Europe (similar to what it has already been doing in response to a previous E.U. antitrust judgment).
Amazon would be barred from using data collected from outside sellers on its services so that it could offer competing products, a practice that is the subject of a separate E.U. antitrust investigation.
WhatsApp, which is owned by Meta, would be required to offer a way for users of rival services like Signal or Telegram to exchange messages with somebody using WhatsApp.
The largest sellers of online ads, Meta and Google, would be limited from offering targeted ads without consent.
Europes new rules are a preview of whats to come elsewhere, since its often easier for companies to apply the standards across their entire operations rather than in one geography. Still, companies are expected to look for ways to diminish the impact of the new law through the courts.
The U.S. charges four Russians with a vast infrastructure cyberattack. The group, which includes three officials in Moscows domestic intelligence agency, is accused of hacking energy companies around the world including a nuclear power plant in Kansas from 2014 to 2018.
China Eastern Airlines grounds hundreds of Boeing jets. The airline temporarily halted the use of 223 737-800 planes, the model involved in the crash of a flight that carried 132 people; no survivors have yet been found. Adding to the mystery surrounding the cause of the crash is that both pilots were among the most experienced in China.
Uber reaches a truce with Big Taxi in New York City. The ride-hailing giant will team up with two taxi companies, Curb and CMT, to let New Yorkers order a yellow cab via the Uber app. The deal will help both sides of a longtime rivalry recover from the pandemic.
Instacart cuts its valuation by nearly 40 percent. The privately held grocery delivery app told employees it now valued itself at $24 billion, down from $39 billion. The move reflects the battering tech companies have faced in the public markets, but could also give employees more upside with newly issued stock-based compensation.
A campaign to let unvaccinated athletes play in New York succeeds. Executives at pro sports teams, including the Mets owner Steve Cohen, paid tens of thousands to lobby city and state officials on changing Covid protocols, The Times reports. Mayor Eric Adams of New York City announced the end of the ban yesterday, though he insisted lobbying played no role.
The U.S. and E.U. announced a deal that would see more American natural gas shipped to Europe, as the Continent tries to reduce its reliance on Russian energy. European officials rejected Russias demand that it pay for gas in rubles.
President Biden said that Russia should be removed from the G20 (and if not, Ukraine should be allowed to attend the groups meetings).
The Russian crew of a $700-million yacht docked in Italy, which U.S. officials say could be owned by Vladimir Putin, abruptly left their jobs. Goldman Sachs paused new business with a private equity firm whose money comes mostly from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, one of whom described to The Financial Times what his life is like under the restrictions.
The U.S. will accept up to 100,000 refugees fleeing Ukraine, but its underresourced immigration system is already struggling to process tens of thousands of Afghans.
For up-to-the-minute news, see The Timess live blog and updated maps.
Last month, Jennifer Sey quit a top job at Levis, giving up a potential shot at C.E.O., via an essay that was widely circulated online. In the post, Sey said the clothing company where she had worked for more than 20 years warned her against expressing her personal views on social media, broadcast media and elsewhere, that closing schools during the pandemic made kids worse off. She quit instead of negotiating an exit package, which attracted even more attention to her situation.
March 25, 2022, 3:52 p.m. ET
Her departure raises issues like whether corporations can control the personal speech of their employees and the politics tied to speaking on certain platforms, like Fox News opinion shows, The Timess Sapna Maheshwari reports.
Seys tweets went beyond just questioning school closings. She criticized guidance from the C.D.C. and accused Dr. Anthony Fauci of fearmongering. This came as Levis was trying to set Covid safety protocols in its stores and manage potential pushback from customers and employees. Outside of the company, Seys comments drew threats of boycotts. Levis said that its social media guidelines allow employees to speak out online, as long as they are mindful of the companys reputation.
Sey said her speech should have been protected, since she was speaking as a concerned mother, not a corporate executive. She argued she was subject to viewpoint discrimination by Levis, and said there hadnt been a problem in the past when she spoke in support of liberal causes.
Complicating matters is that executives are expected to speak out more often on social issues these days. A private employer can impose restrictions on employees speech or conduct, said Sarah Sobieraj, a professor of sociology at Tufts University. The key issue here is where that boundary lies and what about when youre not working.
Adam Silver, the N.B.A. commissioner, on criticism of the leagues stance on human rights in China. The former N.B.A. player Enes Kanter Freedom has taken the league to task for continuing to do business in the country, and said that he is being blackballed by teams as a result.
Mark Sirower has been scrutinizing deals for decades, and finding mostly failures. His 1997 book The Synergy Trap examined the major mergers of the 1980s, deeming two-thirds of them ultimately unsuccessful.
In a new follow-up with his Deloitte colleague Jeffery Weirens, The Synergy Solution, they examine more than 1,000 deals spanning 24 years, worth over $5 trillion with similarly dismal results. Yet dealmaking is hotter than ever. Sirower talked to DealBook about this moment in mergers. The interview has been edited and condensed.
Whats happening in M.&A.?
Its staggering by any historical standard. Were at all-time record highs. In 2021 we had a huge uptick in the value and volume of deals. The value went up roughly 60 percent, to $5.5 trillion. The volume went up 26 percent, to over 60,000 transactions. This is the number that really got me the number of big deals. Deals over $1 billion doubled in 2021, so 2 percent of deals made up over 65 percent of the value.
How should we interpret these numbers?
This is the fourth merger wave Ive seen. When we get to this part of the wave, companies tend to be reactive if theyre unprepared. Companies that werent doing deals start doing them, or companies that have been acquisitive now start doing more or bigger deals, and at near-all-time-high market valuations.
Why such enthusiasm?
One of the things weve learned over time is that M.&A. is highly correlated with rising stock markets. Its partly optimism, thinking it is going to go on forever.
Whats different about this wave?
In the 80s and 90s, it was still pretty much a U.S.-dominated market. Now its very much a global market. U.S. targets last year represented less than half of the total deal value.
Given the pandemic, war and supply chain strains, will the globalization trend end?
The data doesnt bear it out. I thought when Covid hit it was just going to crush our business. And it didnt.
Deals
SoftBank is said to be seeking a valuation of at least $60 billion for the chip maker Arm in its U.S. market debut; Goldman Sachs is likely to lead the I.P.O. (Bloomberg, Reuters)
Bed Bath & Beyond is said to be near a deal with the activist investor Ryan Cohen to add three new directors. (Bloomberg)
Venture capitalists are so eager to invest in crypto companies that theyre willing to forego customary board seats. (FT)
Policy
Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, has reportedly described a much smaller version of President Bidens $3.5 trillion climate and social spending bill that he would accept. (Axios)
Text messages show that Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, pressed President Donald Trumps chief of staff to pursue efforts to overturn the 2020 election. (NYT)
New York State prosecutors charged a former party producer with laundering $2.7 million in Bitcoin for criminals between 2018 and 2021. (NYT)
Best of the rest
Ned Johnson, who transformed Fidelity into an investment-management giant, died on Wednesday. He was 91. (NYT)
Irate Google employees pressed executives about pay and performance reviews at a recent internal town hall. Some also appear particularly unhappy with the company taking away heated bidets at California offices. (CNBC, Protocol)
The podcast host Joe Rogan called activist Big Tech employees lunatics. (NY Post)
As People Go Back to Offices, Competition Heats Up for Parking Spots (WSJ)
Wed like your feedback. Please email thoughts and suggestions to dealbook@nytimes.com.
Go here to read the rest:
A Big Swing at Big Tech - The New York Times
- Report Sounds Alarm Over Growing Role of Big Tech in US Military-Industrial Complex - Common Dreams - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big Tech's ad transparency tools especially X's are failing at their jobs, report finds - Mashable - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big Tech Taps AI Agents to Drive Revenue Growth - PYMNTS.com - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- National privacy standard eyed by Congress for data harvested by big tech companies Nebraska Examiner - Nebraska Examiner - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big Tech is on a generative AI hiring spree - Fast Company - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Disruptive Innovation in the Era of Big Tech - HBR.org Daily - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Betting on US Big Tech? Top Earnings Reports to Watch in the Coming Week - FX Empire - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big Tech Earnings Are Just Around the Corner - Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) - Benzinga - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- WATCH LIVE: Will Cain holds panel to discuss Big Tech and Trump trial - Fox News - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Google fires 28 workers in aftermath of protests over big tech deal with Israeli government - The Bakersfield Californian - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big Tech offices are getting smaller and that spells trouble for landlords - Quartz - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Asking Big Tech to police AI is like turning to 'oil companies to solve climate change,' AI researcher says - Fortune - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big Tech Comes to Small Town: A Bitcoin Mining Story in Spur - CoinDesk - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big Tech loses its appetite for office space, adding to landlords woes - Inman - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Google restructure leads to job cuts - Mobile World Live - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- FTC's Lina Khan talks big tech monopolies on The Daily Show - The Ticker - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Digital public infrastructure will drive the future, not big tech: Amitabh Kant - BusinessLine - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big tech is downsizing work space in another blow to office real estate | Mint - Mint - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- UK Plans Talks With Big Tech to Limit Online Harm for Teens - Bloomberg - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Canada to Start Taxing Tech Giants in 2024 Despite US Complaints - Bloomberg - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- US quarterly earnings to feature big growth in tech-related companies - Reuters - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Our View: Big Tech: Google continues to harm news groups for its own profit - Mankato Free Press - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Deepfake victims must punish Big Tech because Congress wont - The Hill - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Big tech kneecaps anyone researching it. The online harms bill needs to remove barriers to analysis - Policy Options - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Global future will not be driven by big tech but by India's DPI: Amitabh Kant - Moneycontrol - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Kids Code bills prompt epic showdown between regulators, activists and big tech firms - Biometric Update - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Tech Firms Retreating From Office Market - The Real Deal - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- UKs antitrust enforcer sounds the alarm over Big Techs grip on GenAI - TechCrunch - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- Time for government to regulate big tech - ACS - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- UK Markets Authority Warns of AI Market Capture by Big Tech - BankInfoSecurity.com - April 18th, 2024 [April 18th, 2024]
- 2023 Boosts Big Techs AI monopoly? Google, Microsoft, Nvidia, and others wield money power - HT Tech - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- Alphabet (GOOGL) and Meta Shows Power of Ads Over Subscriptions - Bloomberg - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- Looking Beyond The 'Magnificent 7' Analysts Just Upgraded These Three Large-Cap Stocks - Anheuser-Busch - Benzinga - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- Mapping the Biggest Tech Talent Hubs in the U.S. and Canada - Visual Capitalist - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- Google, Meta, other tech giants slash DEI-related jobs, resource groups in 2023: Report - Fox Business - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- South Koreas proposed tech regulations would be a gift to China - The Hill - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- Outlook 2024: Big changes to expect in personal tech - The Indian Express - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- Big Tech Dumped $17 Billion Into AI Companies in 2023 Despite Frozen Market - The Messenger - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- Why OpenAI signals the start of the post-Christensen startup world - Tech.eu - January 2nd, 2024 [January 2nd, 2024]
- Opinion | Lindsey Graham and Elizabeth Warren: When It Comes to Big Tech, Enough Is Enough - The New York Times - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- Globe editorial: Canada can't tackle Big Tech on its own - The Globe and Mail - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- July jobs report and more Big Tech earnings are in the week ahead after markets notch historic run for Dow - CNBC - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- A Setback in the F.T.C.'s Fight Against Big Tech - The New Yorker - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- Be strong in the fight against Big Tech, Canada - Canada's National Observer - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- Decoding volatility: Are big tech stocks as stable as we think? - CryptoSlate - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- Patients think their health data will be leaked and don't trust big tech ... - Contemporary Pediatrics - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Big Tech Earnings Season - Fagen wasanni - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- The problem with Big Tech's voluntary AI safety commitments - Emerging Tech Brew - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- How the Crypto Market Prepares Ahead of Big Tech Earnings ... - BeInCrypto - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- Tony Anscombe: It's Misleading to Ask if Big Tech Wants to Read ... - BroadbandBreakfast.com - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- The Week Ahead: Fed, ECB and BoJ set rates, and Big Tech ... - Financial Times - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- China's Big Tech making a comeback with Beijing offering fresh ... - The Straits Times - July 29th, 2023 [July 29th, 2023]
- Montgomery County school district sues Big Tech over youth mental ... - Washington Times - June 18th, 2023 [June 18th, 2023]
- Big Tech knows most Brits don't know how to protect their online ... - TechRadar - June 18th, 2023 [June 18th, 2023]
- The time for talk is over is time for action on data privacy - The Hill - June 18th, 2023 [June 18th, 2023]
- Meet the man calling out Big Techs climate hypocrisy - Corporate Knights Magazine - June 18th, 2023 [June 18th, 2023]
- Letter: UK watchdog's tough stance on Big Tech should reassure MPs - Financial Times - June 18th, 2023 [June 18th, 2023]
- Peter Thiel on Big Tech: A Throwback Lecture - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence - June 18th, 2023 [June 18th, 2023]
- Big Tech Is Big Tobacco - The Lever - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Graham fires warning shot at Big Tech: Were going to unleash the courtrooms of America on you - Fox News - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Experts weigh the current cost of anticompetitive behavior in Big ... - NYU Law - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Big Tech lobbying on AI regulation as industry races to harness ... - Center for Responsive Politics - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- 'Big Tech is knowingly fueling a mental-health crisis in this country ... - Morningstar - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- EY's Abandoned Split Exposes Obstacles to Big Tech Consulting - Bloomberg Tax - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Apple CEO Tim Cook calls mass layoffs a last resort, as the company avoids the giant job cuts of its Big Tech peers - Yahoo Finance - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Big Tech stocks are flying! Which ones are the best buys today? - Motley Fool UK - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Why Indian start-ups have accused the Internet and Mobile Association of India of spreading Big Tech propaganda - The Indian Express - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Intimate Images Protection Update Big Tech Warned To Be Ready ... - BC INJURY LAW - May 6th, 2023 [May 6th, 2023]
- Apple Stock and Big Tech Are Winners. Why Cathie Wood's ARK Is Still a Loser. - Barron's - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- White House officials will meet Big Tech CEOs as President Biden looks to tackle AI safety concerns - Yahoo Canada Finance - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- The top 10 buzziest companies Gen Z wants to work fornone of them are in Big Tech, says new report - CNBC - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- Apple Reports Earnings Today. What to Expect. - Barron's - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- Big Tech Earnings: Time to Take Another Bite of Apple? - Yahoo Finance - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- Vibe Check: Big Tech Is Losing Its 'Luster' For The Class Of 2023 Amid Mounting Layoffs And An Uncertain Economy - Forbes - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- Lindsey Graham says Big Tech will kill online child safety bill, teases plan with Elizabeth Warren - Washington Times - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- 'Break them open' new EU rules coming for Big Tech - TNW - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- EY's Abandoned Split Exposes Obstacles to Big Tech Consulting - Bloomberg Law - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- Open Source Communities Need More Than Funding From Big Tech - DevOps.com - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- Night School, Class 3: Big Tech vs the insurgents - Financial Times - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]
- MM View: The Big Tech monster is coming for you - but only if you let it - Money Marketing - May 4th, 2023 [May 4th, 2023]