Tag: Antitrust Laws and Competition Issues

The Many Challenges Facing Apple

Media Library

For more than a decade, Apple could do almost no wrong. The iPhone made it the world’s most valuable company. The App Store helped launch businesses such as Uber and Airbnb. And the company’s new products made it a player in health, Hollywood and finance. Now, the difficulties are piling up. The Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple on Thursday for giving its own products advantages that it deprived rivals of having. The suit is the latest in a series of actions brought against the company by regulators…

The Big Number: $1,199

Media Library

One of the biggest changes — along with better cameras, smaller borders around the screen and the ability to record 3-D video — is the phone’s new charging ports. Gone are the company’s signature Lightning versions. In their place are USB-C ports, which are nearly ubiquitous in non-Apple devices and are now required by European regulators with the aim of reducing electronic waste and saving customers money. Mark R Cristino/EPA, via Shutterstock NYT

Intel Acquisition of Tower Semiconductor Is Scuttled by China

Media Library

China has effectively scuttled a $5.4 billion deal by Intel, the Silicon Valley semiconductor giant, in the latest sign of the frayed business ties between China and the United States. Intel, which has long had operations in China, said Wednesday that it had “mutually agreed” to terminate a planned merger with Tower Semiconductor, an Israeli chip manufacturer. The announcement came after China’s antitrust regulators failed to rule on the transaction before a deadline set by the companies. The failure of Intel to complete the acquisition of Tower could send a…

The Regulatory Questions Swirling Around Meta’s Threads

Media Library

Taylor Swift re-records her way onto the charts Taylor Swift on Thursday released the re-recorded version of one of her older albums, “Speak Now,” calling the move a “form of rebellion.” The singer is on a mission to re-record the first six albums in her catalog (she has done three) after the rights to the originals were sold in a contentious deal to the superagent Scooter Braun’s Ithaca Holdings in 2019 for north of $300 million. The investment firm Shamrock Capital Advisors bought the masters a year later for about…

TikTok Could Be a Hard Sell to Potential Buyers

Chin@Strategy

TikTok has what many Silicon Valley companies lust after: A culture-making machine beloved by 100 million Americans and deep-pocketed advertisers. That doesn’t mean they will line up to buy it. TikTok said on Wednesday that the Biden administration was pushing the company’s Chinese owners to sell the app or face a possible ban. But there are probably few companies, in the tech industry or elsewhere, willing or able to buy it, analysts and experts say. At a price of $50 billion or more — the value some analysts said TikTok…

China Fines Meituan $530 Million in Second Tech Antitrust Case

Chin@Strategy

China fined the food-delivery giant Meituan $530 million for antitrust violations on Friday, the second major penalty this year in Beijing’s efforts to bring the country’s big internet companies to heel. The government’s campaign has been blessed by the highest levels of the Communist Party leadership. It has involved a wide cast of regulatory agencies and policymaking bodies. And it has wiped out hundreds of billions of dollars in wealth for shareholders of some of China’s — and the world’s — most successful tech businesses. Like regulators and politicians in…

The Rise and Fall of the World’s Ride-Hailing Giant

Chin@Strategy

China’s leading ride-hailing company, Didi, was an operation of dubious legality when it raised its first big bucket of money nearly a decade ago. And in one way or another, it has been testing the authorities ever since. When a venture capital firm invested $3 million in the company in 2012, Didi lacked several of the state-issued licenses it needed to do business, two people familiar with the matter said. When Beijing, Shanghai and other big cities began requiring that drivers for ride-hailing platforms be local residents, Didi protested. Today,…