9 more Headlines from last week

Google promised to split off its advertising business into a separate Alphabet subsidiary to avoid a lawsuit.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Google has proposed to spin off portions of its ad-tech division under its parent firm Alphabet in order to avoid a second anticipated antitrust lawsuit from the Department of Justice.

Such a concession would retain the ad company inside the Alphabet umbrella, but it would still signal a substantial shift in the digital advertising world, where Google is a dominant player on both sides of the market. While Google is best recognized for its search engine, internet advertising is its primary revenue. In 2021, Alphabet generated $257 billion in sales.

However, it is uncertain if the DOJ would accept the offer.

Jonathan Kanter, the department's antitrust head, has been unequivocal that he favors litigation over settlements. Kanter said in a January address to the Antitrust Section of the New York State Bar Association that public court decisions are necessary to advance the law.

"In conclusion, we will seek remedies rather than settlements. "We cannot compromise if there is a legal infraction," Kanter said at the time.

Bloomberg reported in May, citing anonymous sources, that Kanter has been prevented from working on Google monopoly investigations while the DOJ considers whether he should disqualify himself based on his prior work for Google competitors. The Department of Justice has not verified the story. In this scenario, though, it is probable that his colleagues heading the investigation would respect his perspective.

According to sources cited by The Wall Street Journal, a fresh antitrust case against Google's ad-tech company might be filed as early as this summer.

CNBC was informed by a Google official that the company has been engaging authorities in a productive manner to resolve their concerns. As previously said, we have no intentions to sell or leave this company, and we are genuinely dedicated to delivering value to a broad range of publishers and advertising partners in a very competitive industry. However, according to the Journal's story, Google's plan would include maintaining the ad-tech firm with its current owner and not selling it. The representative refused to comment on this particular subject.

Alphabet, which was founded in 2015, is effectively a holding company for Google, which provides the vast majority of its income and earnings. Google has long positioned itself as a tech firm and has invested in a wide range of technologies, including internet search, mobile devices, artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, and health technology.

Google has spun out firms such as Waymo and Verily, but has kept them under the Alphabet umbrella.

Google has dominated the internet advertising business for well over a decade. Over the years, it has developed and acquired a plethora of ad-tech solutions that enable content providers to generate revenue via advertising and allow ad buyers to target specific audiences on Google Search, YouTube, Maps, and other websites.

A new lawsuit would amplify the already formidable legal obstacles Google confronts due to its apparent dominance in various industries.

In 2020, the DOJ filed its long-anticipated antitrust action against Google, marking the first time a substantial federal antitrust prosecution was lodged against Google in its native nation.

Google faces more lawsuits from huge coalitions of state attorneys general, including one headed by the state of Texas that charges unlawful monopolization of the internet advertising industry.

The corporation has also received attention outside of the United States, most notably in Europe, where it has been hit with various competition accusations, including one that was sustained by a European court for its shopping price comparison service.

Bitcoin approaches its best week since October as the crypto market decline stabilizes.

The price of bitcoin had a little relief rally this week as investors assumed the worst of the cryptocurrency liquidity crisis had passed.

According to Coin Metrics, by Friday bitcoin had gained 13.63 percent for the seven-day trading week starting on Sunday and was on track for its highest week since October. The price reached a high of $22,478.37 at one time, rebounding from a June low of about $17,000.

It closed at $21,798.40, up less than 1 percent on the day, at 4:00 p.m. ET, as reported by CoinMetrics.

According to Felix Hartmann, managing partner of Hartmann Capital, the majority of bankruptcies and forced liquidations have occurred. The bankruptcy filing of Three Arrows was the last nail in the coffin.

The crypto-focused hedge fund Three Arrows filed for bankruptcy last week after a precipitous decrease in digital currency values highlighted a liquidity issue at the company.

Hartmann noted that the market contagion might extend to smaller crypto exchanges or funds, but there are no larger, more consequential dominoes remaining to fall. If the crypto business can go a month without negative headlines or bankruptcies, he added, it's "quite probable" that the market would double. However, doing so would merely return the price of bitcoin to April levels. It is now almost 70% below its November record high of $68,982.20.

Titan's chief crypto analyst, Gritt Trakulhoon, referred to bitcoin's weekly increase as a "much needed" short-term relief rally after a big fall dating back to May when Terra's stablecoin project collapsed. In fact, when digital currency values declined and liquidity was restricted, crypto lenders and other businesses also suffered.

Trakulhoon noted that the presence of an unofficial lender of last resort, such as Sam Bankman-Fried, to rescue certain struggling crypto lenders is also reassuring to investors. This week, the CEO of FTX said that his business still has "a few billion" on hand to bolster faltering enterprises that might further upset the digital asset market. Trakulhoon said that the bitcoin resistance level is between $22,500 and $23,000. If it surpasses this mark, he suggested, it should increase "quite fast" to its next destination of $28,000.

Ryan Shea, an economist at Trakx, cited this week's report that Federal Reserve officials anticipate another 50 or 75 basis point interest rate rise at their July meeting. This, along with growing indications that the U.S. economy is slowing faster than anticipated by policymakers, is causing markets to regard the Fed's strong approach "with increased caution," he added.

"In essence, they are ignoring the rate rises and instead focusing on the inevitable Fed surrender, which is a favorable scenario for crypto prices and risk assets in general," Shea said.

Meta's massive VR effort moves farther away from Facebook's legacy.

Meta is offering a new option for users to check in to virtual reality headsets without using their Facebook credentials. This is the latest move by the firm to decouple its future metaverse goals from its main social media business.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of the firm now known as Meta, revealed on Thursday through a Facebook post that Meta accounts will launch in August. Users will be able to access their Meta Quest VR headsets and see a history of their VR app purchases using their new accounts.

 While the majority of Meta's income still comes from its family of Facebook applications, Zuckerberg is attempting to persuade investors and a fraction of consumers that the company is moving on a new path as the metaverse expands.

Zuckerberg's concept of the metaverse includes a variety of virtual worlds accessible via VR and augmented reality technology. Although VR and AR headsets are still niche devices in a world dominated by smartphones, the founder of Facebook has indicated that they represent the future of computing, and he recently stated that he envisions one billion users spending hundreds of dollars each in the metaverse by the middle of the next decade. However, the narrative seems radically different now. In 2021, Reality Labs, the part of Meta responsible for building the metaverse and its underlying technologies, reported a loss of $10 billion.

Meta is also attempting to make peace with its existing user base of Quest VR after requiring people to utilize their Facebook accounts to access headsets. Meta said in October that it will reverse its direction due to the outcry.

"When we announced that users will be required to enter into Meta Quest using a Facebook account, we got a great deal of criticism from the Quest community," the business wrote in a second blog post on Thursday. We considered this input while designing a new Meta account structure that allows users freedom and control.

In addition to eliminating the need to use Facebook credentials, Meta is modifying its marketing strategy to better promote the brand. Users will no longer have Oculus profiles, but rather Meta Horizon profiles. Facebook inherited the moniker after it purchased Oculus in 2014 in order to enter the virtual reality business. The business said that individuals may now utilize their Meta Horizon accounts to create their VR usernames, virtual avatars, and other information. A spokeswoman for Meta told that customers would need both a Meta account and a Meta Horizon profile in order to use the company's VR headsets.

"If you already possess a Meta VR headset, your Oculus buddies will become your followers, and you will immediately follow them back," the article said. At any moment, you may opt to unfollow someone or delete followers.

Meta is also introducing new tools to enable users to control their privacy settings in virtual reality, enabling them to decide whether they want their Meta Horizon profiles to be accessible to everyone, just friends and family, or kept secret.

If customers do not pick a privacy option, the default setting is friends and family, according to a representative. To continue using their headsets, current Quest VR users will be required to pick a privacy option.

How post-Roe web searches and communications may put you in danger and how to defend yourself

After the Supreme Court's decision last month to overturn Roe v. Wade, the historic case preserving the legal right to an abortion, many people went to the early 1970s to determine what life would be like without the precedent. Access to abortions is much different in 2022, due in major part to scientific advancements such as the use of safe medications to induce abortions. There are also new internet platforms that link individuals with medical providers, friends, and other resources, making it simpler to locate information regarding abortion access.

With the reversal of the historic judgment, many individuals are now questioning for the first time whether the digital tools they use may put them or their loved ones in danger. Since the United States and the majority of states lack digital privacy regulations to protect consumer information, it is often up to firms and customers to preserve their privacy online. Here is information regarding how digital technologies gather data, how prosecutors may attempt to utilize such information in abortion and pregnancy-related cases, and how consumers should be more cautious with the data they give.

How digital gadgets gather and utilize your information

There are numerous ways that digital tools can collect your data, which are typically detailed in their privacy policies. This sometimes thick legal paperwork will explain what data a particular tool will gather about you (name, email address, location, etc.) and how it will be used.

The Washington Post has stated in a guide to these agreements that consumers should search for the terms "sell" and "affiliates" to see how and why their information may be shared with services other than the one they are currently using. Cookies are little pieces of code that enable marketers to target you with relevant information based on your prior behavior.

Depending on your settings, apps on your smartphone may potentially gather location data.

How to safeguard your personal data

The greatest strategy to secure any kind of information on the internet is to reduce its availability. Some providers have lately made measures to assist patients in minimizing their digital footprints in relation to reproductive health care.

Google said last week that it will expeditiously remove location data for users who visit abortion clinics and other medical venues. It will also make it easy for Fitbit app users to erase numerous records of menstrual data. The period-tracking software Flo has just developed a mode that allows users to record their menstrual cycles without sharing their names or contact information.

However, customers are mostly responsible for protecting their own information. The following are some advices from digital privacy specialists such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Digital Defense Fund on how consumers may secure the information they disclose online, whether or not it is connected to health care:

• Communicate about sensitive issues using a secure messaging app such as Signal, and configure the app to automatically delete communications after a certain amount of time. This involves recruiting other members of your network to use the same application.

• Turn off or restrict your phone's location services to just the applications that need it while you're using them.

Consider turning off your phone or leaving it at home if you will be visiting a sensitive site.

• When researching sensitive issues online, choose a search engine and web browser that limit data gatherings, such as DuckDuckGo, Firefox, or Brave.

• Use a private browsing tab to prevent the automatic saving of your website history.

• Employ a virtual private network to disguise the IP address of your device.

• Deactivate the mobile ad identification that third-party marketers may use to monitor and profile you. The Electronic Frontier Foundation offers detailed instructions on how to accomplish this on Google's Android and Apple's iOS.

• Set up a separate email and phone number, such as via Google Voice, for sensitive matters.

How data may be used in court

The hazards associated with prosecutors' use of digital technologies in instances involving abortion or pregnancy loss are not hypothetical.

In at least two high-profile instances in recent years, prosecutors have used online searches for abortion drugs and digital communications between loved ones as evidence of the intent of women accused of injuring infants they claimed to have lost.

These instances demonstrate that even resources unrelated to reproductive health care, such as period-tracking apps, may be used as evidence in abortion or miscarriage cases.

Importantly, law enforcement may attempt to get your information without accessing your devices. If they become the subject of legal action, prosecutors may obtain court orders for corporations whose services you use or loved ones with whom you have talked to learn about your digital whereabouts.

The most powerful tidal turbine in the world recently received a substantial financing increase.

Orbital Marine Power said on Monday that it had obtained £8 million ($9.64 million) in financing to "support the continuous operation" of its O2 tidal turbine, marking another step forward for the nascent tidal energy industry. Orbital Marine Power said in a press release that the Scottish National Investment Bank, which was established by the Scottish government in November 2020, contributed £4 million. The remaining £4 million is provided by Abundance Investment through over 1,000 individual investors.

"These loan facilities will be covered by the long-term sale of electricity from the turbine, estimated at about 100-gigawatt hours of clean, reliable energy provided to the UK grid or hydrogen electrolyzers during the life of the project," Orbital said.

According to Orbital Marine Power, the 2-megawatt O2 has a hull length of 74 meters and weighs 680 metric tons. The business identifies the O2 as "the world's most powerful tidal turbine" due to its 10-meter-long blades and grid-connected electricity generation beginning in 2016.

Mark Munro, executive director of the SNIB, said that the organization's investment in Orbital was consistent with its "aim to foster domestic innovation and a fair energy transition."

"The company's innovative and scalable approach to tidal stream energy plays a crucial part in the route to net zero," Munro noted.

Scotland has a long history of oil and gas production in the North Sea, but in recent years it has also become a center for firms and projects focusing on tidal power and marine energy in general.

The European Marine Energy Centre is located in Orkney, an island north of the Scottish mainland. Developers of wave and tidal energy may test and evaluate their technologies in the open sea at EMEC. O2 turbine by Orbital is located at an EMEC location. TechnipFMC, a New York-based energy sector technology supplier, announced a strategic investment in Orbital Marine Power in 2016.

The energy transition in Europe

European installations of tidal and wave energy capacity increased substantially in 2021, as deployments in the ocean energy industry returned to pre-pandemic levels and investment increased substantially.

Ocean Energy Europe said in March that 2,2 megawatts of tidal stream capacity were constructed in Europe in 2018, compared to just 260 kilowatts in 2020. OEE estimates that 681 kW of wave energy will be installed in Europe in 2021, a threefold increase from 2020.

In 2021, 1.38 MW of wave energy and 3.12 MW of tidal stream capacity were added globally.

Despite the enthusiasm around the promise of marine energy, the scale of tidal stream and wave installations remains minuscule in comparison to other renewables.

Europe added 17,4 gigawatts of wind power capacity in 2021 alone, according to data from WindEurope. 

China's manufacturers are feeling the heat as demand from the U.S. and Europe slows.

HiBrew, a coffee machine manufacturer located in Guangdong, has seen a decline in its European sales after a surge last year when pent-up worldwide demand pushed up purchases of Chinese consumer products. According to General Manager Zeng Qiuping, sales have decreased by 30 to 40 percent so far this year, a stark contrast to the 70 percent increase in business that occurred in the previous year.

Zeng said that rising living expenses in the United States and Europe, as well as importers anticipating prospective U.S.-China tariff reductions, contributed to the economic decline. However, he is convinced that the present slump is a temporary blip and that international demand will resume.

While HiBrew does not sell much to the United States, Zeng heard from other exporters that U.S. orders have decreased.

Separately, freight costs are beginning to decline after reaching record highs during the pandemic, indicating that demand for delivery logistics is cooling, according to analysts.

 This is excellent news for exporters and importers, but there is another warning sign.

Previously, merchants had to deal with supply chain bottlenecks and disruptions. Now, they may have to contend with diminishing demand, particularly in wealthy markets. Analysts warned that these dynamics point to recessionary pressure. In fact, spot maritime freight costs between China and the east and west coasts of the United States have decreased, according to Shabsie Levy, creator of the digital supply chain platform Shifl. He attributed the decreases to a decline in U.S. consumer demand and stated that many U.S. retailers are sitting on excess inventory.

He noted that ocean freight prices are intimately linked to the retail business since ocean freight accounts for more than half of all imports entering the nation.

This decline in demand is not yet a recession, but the economy seems to be headed towards stormy seas.

"Declining retail demand has and will continue to depress ocean spot freight costs," said Levy. "I wouldn't call this decrease in demand a recession just yet, but things appear to be headed for trouble."

Some clients are noticing a decline in sales, particularly for high-priced and non-essential products, according to anecdotal evidence. As a result of supply chain disruptions and lockdowns, shipping expenses soared during the pandemic. Shifl said that spot maritime freight prices between China and the United States were roughly three-and-a-half times higher between January 2020 and May of this year.

The increased logistical costs have been absorbed by producers or passed on to consumers, causing inflation to rise.

According to Shifl statistics, corporations such as Samsung U.S., the seventh-largest U.S. importer, have decreased their scheduled inventory purchase for July.

According to Shifl, Target, the second-largest American importer, has indicated its plan to reduce inventory purchases in response to soaring inventories. Even when Shanghai's blockade was eased, importers provided a tepid reaction to carriers, according to Levy.

Following Elon Musk's termination of a $44 billion transaction, Twitter's stock price falls.

Monday's premarket trading saw a decline in Twitter shares after Elon Musk's announcement that he intends to cancel his $44 billion purchase of the firm.

The market capitalization of the social media network decreased by roughly $1.8 billion as its shares dropped more than 6 percent. Musk is the CEO of Tesla, which fell nearly 4 percent.

Friday, Musk's lawyers informed Twitter's board that he wishes to terminate the agreement. The billionaire has criticized the number of bots and false accounts on Twitter, claiming that the firm is being dishonest about how much activity on the site is genuine.

Twitter, on the other hand, asserts that it has provided Musk with all the data he needs to evaluate its assertion that spam accounts account for just 5% of monetizable daily active users, including its so-called firehose, an unfiltered, real-time stream of daily tweets.

Bret Taylor, the chairman of Twitter's board of directors, said that the business will file suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery to enforce the agreement.

Musk replied on Monday with a meme making fun of Twitter's management for the bungled acquisition. It includes photographs of Musk smiling and text saying the business is attempting to "force" him to purchase the stock. A Twitter representative refused to comment on the meme.

According to attorneys, the two sides will certainly engage in a lengthy legal struggle. Musk might be required to pay a $1 billion breakup fee for leaving the partnership.

Musk is among the most popular Twitter users, having over 100 million followers. He has utilized the social media site for anything from corporate communications for his different businesses to criticizing the same platform he once wanted to purchase due to his displeasure with its content policies and bogus accounts. Richard Windsor, the founder of the research firm Radio Free Mobile, said that Musk's intention to "significantly renegotiate" the $54.20 price he agreed to pay for Twitter was likely the cause of his withdrawal from the transaction.

Friday, Twitter shares were worth 32% less than Musk's agreed-upon purchase price. Windsor, who is not a Twitter shareholder, stated that if he were, he would sell now.

On Monday, Windsor said "Squawk Box Europe" that "there is still a gap between the fundamentals and the share price." Considering the direction of the technology sector over the past few months, Twitter's valuation could be anywhere between $13 billion and $15 billion, or roughly 50 percent less than its current share price.

Uber's losing streak may be coming to an end, but the path to long-term success remains uncertain.

The creation of Uber in response to the financial crisis of 2008 can be compared to a previous disruptive innovation: the supermarket.

In 1930, during the early months of the Great Depression, Michael J. Cullen leased a vacant garage in Queens, New York, and constructed King Kullen, widely regarded as the world's first supermarket and an example of the "resource integration" model that has created the Uber ecosystem. Similar to King Kullen, Uber is the result of "clever resource integration" by its serial entrepreneur founders, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp.

At the time of Cullen's invention, none of the existing large dry grocery chains, including Cullen's old employers Kroger and A&P, had considered doing what he accomplished. However, its merits were undeniable, and the concept spread rapidly; this is the textbook definition of disruptive innovation.

Unfortunately, the comparison does not end there for Uber. The King Kullen business model proved to be simple to replicate, and the major chains eventually did so. Today, Kroger is the largest supermarket chain in the United States, with a 16.1% share of the national market; King Kullen remains a local chain. Since Uber’s founding, a number of rivals have developed in what we now know as the gig economy, whether it’s Disruptor 50 firms like Lyft in ride-hailing, DoorDash in food delivery, or Convoy in freight and trucking. Over the last decade, Uber has encountered a litany of difficulties, both internal and external. These include allegations of sexual harassment, a slew of firings related to an investigation into workplace culture, the alleged distribution of a rape victim's medical records, and unflattering videos and emails from former CEO and co-founder Kalanick. In addition, there were political pressures and conflicts with regulators, union disputes, a legal struggle with Alphabet, significant losses, and investor infighting.

Dara Khosrowshahi, who has led Expedia since 2005 and was credited with increasing its worldwide footprint via multiple online travel booking brands, including Expedia.com, Hotels.com, and Hotwire, was appointed CEO in 2017. This decision ended Uber's extensive hunt for a replacement for Travis Kalanick, who resigned after a shareholder rebellion and became one of the most renowned and infamous Silicon Valley company founders. Similar to Elizabeth Holmes and Adam Neumann of Theranos and WeWork, his rise and fall at Uber became the subject of a television drama. Late in 2021, the company posted its first-ever quarterly profit, but investments led to a massive loss in the first quarter of this year.

 During Khosrowshahi's tenure, the company has heavily invested in its grocery, beverage, and convenience delivery segment via acquisitions, such as alcohol-delivery service Drizly in February 2018 and Postmates after failed talks to acquire food delivery service Grubhub. Amazon has agreed to acquire a stake in the meal delivery business Grubhub. As part of the transaction, Amazon Prime members will get a one-year subscription to the food delivery service.

 Despite a decline in travel, the corporation was able to maintain a portion of its revenue by concentrating its acquisition efforts on the Eats market during the epidemic. Investors believe it will also continue to propel the stock forward.

Another essential issue moving ahead is the regulatory climate for the organization.

 Legislators have sought to reclassify gig workers as full-time employees in an attempt to guarantee minimum wages and benefits. However, categorizing drivers as independent contractors help corporations to avoid the expense of full-time employee benefits like as unemployment insurance. Voters in California voted Proposition 22 by a plurality in 2020, granting a temporary victory to gig economy corporations, including Uber. This referendum proposition exempted a number of gig economy enterprises from the newly approved state legislation, Assembly Bill 5, which sought to classify its workers as full-time employees.

 There is, however, one overarching objective for Uber in terms of the market, and it has become an urgent one: to generate "meaningful positive cash flows" for the entire year of 2022, which would be a first for the company.

Video game sales are projected to decline for the first time in years as the industry prepares for a recession.

Sales of video games are expected to fall yearly for the first time in years, as another sector that flourished during the coronavirus period confronts the bleak possibility of a recession. According to market research conducted by Ampere Analysis, the global games and services market is expected to contract by 1.2% annually to $188 billion in 2022.

From 2019 to 2021, the industry grew by 26 percent, reaching a record $191 billion in size. Since at least 2015, video game sales have continually increased, according to statistics from Ampere.

As individuals spent more time inside as a result of the Covid-19 shutdowns in 2020, the gaming industry received a substantial boost. Microsoft and Sony's release of next-generation systems in the same year also boosted the industry's fortunes.

However, the release of Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S consoles and Sony's PlayStation 5 proved to be somewhat of a double-edged sword, since logistical problems and component shortages have made it impossible for consumers to locate any of the new consoles in stores or online.

Along with supply chain constraints and increasing prices, Russia's invasion of Ukraine hampered the gaming industry's prospects. Numerous gaming software and hardware manufacturers opted to cease their activities in Russia, including Microsoft and Sony.

According to Ampere, Russia was the tenth biggest gaming market in the world in 2021. The company predicts that it will fall to No. 14 in the worldwide rankings this year and lose $1.2 billion in value.

Piers Harding-Rolls, director of research at Ampere, stated that the figures demonstrate that the video game industry is not "recession-proof," as higher prices are likely to weigh on consumer spending.

"After two years of tremendous expansion, the games market is expected to give back a portion of that growth in 2022 as multiple factors conspire to hinder performance," said Harding-Rolls.

"However, the year will conclude far ahead of the pre-pandemic performance, and the prognosis for the industry as a whole remains optimistic, with growth expected to resume in 2023," he said.

According to Ampere, the market is anticipated to return to growth in 2023, with sales reaching $195 billion.

Apple's privacy changes, which make it more difficult for mobile game developers to track iPhone users, and delays to blockbuster releases such as Microsoft's Starfield and Redfall are additional obstacles facing the industry.