The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has initiated an investigation into Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) proposed multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Juniper Networks. This initial phase of the probe, announced on Wednesday, aims to determine if the merger could lead to a significant reduction in competition within the UK market for goods or services.
Ofcom delves into an investigation concerning BT’s recent 999 emergency call service outage. BT’s back-up system reportedly failed in providing efficient location data, intensifying the emergency identification process. This significant service disruption stirred discussions in Parliament, with technology minister Lord Camrose emphasizing the company’s delayed communication to the government about the issue. While BT extended an apology planned a full internal investigation, Ofcom’s survey will spotlight possible breaches of regulatory norms mandating constant network access to emergency organizations. The potential consequences are yet unclear.
Following a year-long investigation that indicated the two corporations had a tight grip on the industry, the UK competition authority is launching an investigation into Apple and Google’s market clout in phone browsers and cloud gaming. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is seeking feedback on opening a market probe that would give it broad powers to address Google and Apple’s monopoly in mobile phone systems. The CMA might use a market investigation to intervene in Apple and Google’s provision of mobile browsers and distribution of cloud gaming services via their app stores and devices. The regulator has decided after a year of investigation that Apple and Google had an effective duopoly on mobile ecosystems, allowing them to exert an unfair grip on these markets, which include operating systems, app stores, and mobile web browsers. According to the CMA, the organization has examined where it may take…
The ongoing rivalry between Microsoft and Slack has intensified after the latest complaint filed by Slack Technologies against Microsoft regarding the integration of the Teams app with their ubiquitous Office suite. According to Slack, such bundled products allow companies to gain an unfair advantage over other collaboration tool providers. Following the complaint, the EU antitrust commission has issued a questionnaire for Microsoft competitors (seen by Reuters) asking if the Teams app integration with the Microsoft Office product gives the software giant greater clout. The rival companies have been asked to provide information about their customers who have switched to Teams or the bundled Microsoft Office, along with the percentage of revenue that has been lost as a result. While it is obvious that the EU commission aims to assess the impact that such integrations have on the products and investments of the workplace collaboration tool providers, it remains…
The problems for the social networking giant Facebook continue to mount as yet another data-sharing scandal has exploded. The New York Times (NYT) has published a thorough investigation detailing Facebook’s data sharing practices, and reported that the social network provided some well-known tech companies with access to hundreds of millions of users’ data without their consent. Interviews with former Facebook employees and its corporate partners, as well as hundreds of pages of documents obtained by the NYT, confirmed that Facebook made the questionable arrangements with partners such as Amazon, Spotify, Netflix and Microsoft. These alliances enabled the companies to “read, write and delete users’ private messages, and to see all participants on a thread”. The records revealed, that “Facebook allowed Microsoft’s Bing search engine to see the names of virtually all Facebook users’ friends without consent. The social network permitted Amazon to obtain users’ names and contact information…
On Monday 24th September, Apple announced that it has finally completed the acquisition of Shazam, an application that helps users identify songs, TV shows, commercials and movies. The takeover of one of the highest rating music apps by the technology giant is said to be valued at 400 million US dollars. “Apple and Shazam have a long history together. Shazam was one of the first apps available when we launched the App Store and has become a favorite app for music fans everywhere. With a shared love of music and innovation, we are thrilled to bring our teams together to provide users even more great ways to discover, experience and enjoy music,” commented the vice president of Apple Music, Oliver Schusser. The application has already been downloaded more than 1 billion times, and remains one of the most popular places to interact with peers by discovering and sharing favorite songs,…
