Author: GT

In Meta’s antitrust trial on Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified that TikTok’s success was a risk to Meta’s business, saying the short-form video app was a “top priority” and a “highly urgent” competitive threat when it arrived in 2018, according to Bloomberg and other outlets. The reports come from a packed first week of testimony in the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s trial against the social networking giant. If the FTC’s lawyers prevail, the trial could potentially require Meta to spin out Instagram or WhatsApp as separate companies. Notably, Zuckerberg admitted on Wednesday that TikTok’s arrival had directly impacted Meta,…

By Francisco Rodrigues (All times ET unless indicated otherwise) President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal tariffs” announcement earlier this month drove the economic trade policy uncertainty index to a record high and sent investors away from risk assets, which include bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell fanned the flames late Wednesday, saying the central bank sees unemployment rising with the economy likely to slow and inflation likely to go up as “some part of those tariffs come to be paid by the public.” His comments weighed further on risk assets, bringing the Nasdaq down 1.17% and the S&P…

Want to tap into the energy of 1,000+ startup founders, investors, and tech leaders descending on Boston for TechCrunch All Stage on July 15? Host your own Side Event during “TC All Stage Week,” happening July 13-19! Whether it’s a networking mixer, workshop, morning run, fireside chat, or cocktail hour — you call the shots. Create a moment. Build your community. Increase brand visibility with a Side Event. Why host a Side Event? Along with extending the energy beyond the venue and the actual event, you’ll get: Visibility to the full TechCrunch audience Featured on the official agenda, Side Events…

Lombard Finance, a Bitcoin infrastructure developer, has launched a software development kit (SDK) that allows wallets, exchanges, and other platforms to offer one-click bitcoin (BTC) staking. The release aims to further bring BTC into the decentralized finance (DeFi) economy by tapping into the estimated $154 billion in bitcoin estimated to be sitting idle on centralized exchanges. The new toolkit allows users to stake BTC to mint a liquid staking token called LBTC, which can be automatically deposited into Lombard’s DeFi Vault for a current annual yield of 3%, according to the protocol. “Once viewed solely as a store of value,…

Meta has confirmed plans to utilise content shared by its adult users in the EU (European Union) to train its AI models. The announcement follows the recent launch of Meta AI features in Europe and aims to enhance the capabilities and cultural relevance of its AI systems for the region’s diverse population.    In a statement, Meta wrote: “Today, we’re announcing our plans to train AI at Meta using public content – like public posts and comments – shared by adults on our products in the EU. “People’s interactions with Meta AI – like questions and queries – will also be…

The Global Payments Company logo seen displayed on a smartphone.Igor Golovniov | LightRocket | Getty ImagesGlobal Payments shares tumbled 17% on Thursday after the company said it’s buying Worldpay for more than $24 billion while simultaneously selling its Issuer Solutions business to Fidelity National Information Services. The company said that in acquiring Worldpay, which FIS had purchased in 2019 before later selling a majority stake, it’s expanding its reach and will be able to serve over 6 million customers across more than 175 countries, enabling $3.7 trillion in annual payment volume. In selling its Issuer Solutions unit to FIS for…

Alphabet’s Google illegally dominated two markets for online advertising technology, a federal judge said on Thursday, dealing another blow to the tech titan in an antitrust case brought by the U.S.U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia, ruled that Google unlawfully monopolized markets for publisher ad servers and the market for ad exchanges which sit between buyers and sellers. Antitrust enforcers failed to show the company had a monopoly in advertiser ad networks, she wrote.The ruling could allow prosecutors to argue for a breakup of Google’s advertising products. The U.S. Department of Justice has said that Google should have…

A federal judge has found that Google violated antitrust laws by “willfully acquiring and maintaining monopoly power” in the advertising technology market, rounding out a two-year saga after the U.S. and eight states filed its initial complaints against the Alphabet-owned company. The court will set a briefing schedule and hearing date to determine appropriate remedies for the antitrust violations, per a Thursday filing.  The remedies could include forcing Google to break up its advertising business, like selling its Google Ad Manager, which includes the AdX ad exchange and DFP (DoubleClick for Publishers), the ad server used for publishers.  Or the…

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google has been branded an abusive monopolist by a federal judge for the second time in less than a year, this time for illegally exploiting some of its online marketing technology to boost the profits fueling an internet empire currently worth $1.8 trillion. The ruling issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema in Virginia comes on the heels of a separate decision in August that concluded Google’s namesake search engine has been illegally leveraging its dominance to stifle competition and innovation. After the U.S. Justice Department targeted Google’s ubiquitous search engine during President Donald Trump’s…

Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) has sometimes been referred to as “digital gold,” suggesting that it can be a safe haven type of investment, and that it can help hedge against volatility in the stock market. But is that really the case? Based on how it’s done this year and during the last big market crash, it looks to be the complete opposite. Gold is supposed to offer investors some stability in hard times. It’s generally seen as a good way to store value, and investors normally flock to it when they are worried about the economy or the markets in general.…