Archives for August 2021

LONDON (AP) — Facebook’s ownership of Giphy will hurt competition for animated images, U.K. regulators said Thursday, meaning the social network could ultimately be forced to unwind the deal if the provisional findings are confirmed.

The Competition and Markets Authority said its investigation found the acquisition would hurt competition among social media platforms because there’s only one other big provider of GIFs, Google’s Tenor.

Giphy’s library of short looping videos, or GIFs, are a popular tool for internet users sending messages or posting on social media.

The deal will also reduce digital advertising competition by removing a potential rival from the market, the watchdog said. It started looking into the acquisition last year, shortly after Facebook announced its plan to acquire Giphy in a deal reportedly worth $400 million.

The acquisition also faces scrutiny from regulators in Australia and Austria, underlining concerns about how such acquisitions can affect competition in local markets.

Facebook said it disagreed with the preliminary findings, which it didn’t believe to be supported by the evidence.

“As we have demonstrated, this merger is in the best interest of people and businesses in the U.K. – and around the world – who use GIPHY and our services,” Facebook said. “We will continue to work with the CMA to address the misconception that the deal harms competition.”

Prior to the deal, Giphy had been considering expanding its paid advertising services to other countries including the U.K. That would have added a new player to the market and encouraged more innovation from social media sites and advertisers, the CMA said.

But Facebook terminated Giphy’s paid advertising partnerships after the deal, it said.

“Giphy’s takeover could see Facebook withdrawing GIFs from competing platforms or requiring more user data in order to access them. It also removes a potential challenger to Facebook,” which dominates the U.K.’s 5.5 billion pound ($7.6 billion) display advertising market, inquiry chair Stuart McIntosh said. “None of this would be good news for customers.”

McIntosh said the watchdog would now seek feedback on the provisional findings before issuing its final report on Oct. 6.

“Should we conclude that the merger is detrimental to the market and social media users, we will take the necessary actions to make sure people are protected,” he said.

When it announced the deal, Facebook said about half of Giphy’s traffic came from Facebook apps, which also include Messenger and WhatsApp. It had planned to integrate Giphy into Instagram but the authority ordered the companies to keep the businesses separate during the investigation.

Facebook is facing increased scrutiny over acquisitions that might have previously escaped notice amid rising concern that the digital giants are amassing greater market power. The CMA and European Union and German regulators are all looking into the company’s plan to buy Kustomer, a customer management platform.

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For all of AP’s tech coverage, visit https://apnews.com/apf-technology

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Follow Kelvin Chan at https://www.twitter.com/chanman

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NEW YORK (AP) — Rachel Maddow is contributing a foreword to “Pegasus,” a book by two Paris-based investigative reporters on the phone malware allegedly used by governments to monitor and sometimes attack journalists, human rights activists and lawyers among others.

Authors Laurent Richard and Sandrine Rigaud run Forbidden Stories, a nonprofit journalism organization which last month issued an extensive report on the global scale of Pegasus.

“In the book they will reveal the full extent of this unprecedented surveillance operation through the stories of the people whose lives have been turned upside down by it, and takes readers behind the scenes of one of the most resounding investigations of the last 20 years,” publisher Henry Holt announced Thursday.

Holt has not set a release date for “Pegasus.”

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SANDSUKY, Ohio (AP) — A NASA research facility in Ohio has been renamed after astronaut Neil Armstrong, who was born in the state and returned shortly after he became the first man to walk on the moon.

Ohio’s U.S. senators led the efforts to change the name of the NASA Plum Brook Station in Sandusky to the Neil A. Armstrong Test Facility.

Republican Rob Portman said he raised the idea with Armstrong in 2012, shortly before Armstrong’s death, but he wasn’t comfortable with the attention it would bring.

“It was never about him. It was about the mission,” Portman said Wednesday at a ceremony marking the name change.

NASA and Armstrong’s family supported renaming the research center, Portman said.

Armstrong’s son, Mark Armstrong, said the early space missions showed people across the world that they could do things they could never imagine.

“That is more empowering than any scientific advancement,” he said. “It’s more empowering than the transistor. It’s more empowering than the computer. Because it’s unlimited. And that’s what we have to remind people.”

Armstrong was born just outside Wapakoneta in 1930, took flying lessons at a nearby airstrip and made his first solo flight at age 16. After the moon landing in 1969, he taught at the University of Cincinnati.

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BERLIN (AP) — Victims of communism in East Germany on Thursday criticized the decision to grant electric automaker Tesla a subsidy of 8.1 million euros (almost $10 million) from a trust fund managing what’s left of the regime’s fortune.

German media reported that the state of Brandenburg is allocating the funds to pay for infrastructure costs related to the Tesla Gigafactory being built on the outskirts of Berlin. Tesla’s founder Elon Musk met with state officials at the site this week.

UOKG, an association representing victims of communism in East Germany, said it welcomed the construction of the factory, but questioned “why the state government of Brandenburg is helping the third-richest man in the world” with money seized from former regime entities.

The group’s chairman, Dieter Dombrowski, said the money could also have gone toward helping build schools, elderly care homes, daycare centers for children or memorials for victims of the communist dictatorship.

He noted that Friday marks the 60th anniversary of the day when construction began on the Berlin Wall, where dozens of fleeing East Germans were killed until 1989.

Katharina Slanina of the opposition Left party in Brandenburg state likewise criticized the decision.

“It’s not right that multi-billionaire Musk should put the risks and side effects of his project onto the public’s shoulders, but keep all the profits for himself,” she said. Her party is effectively the successor to East Germany’s Socialist Unity Party.

Tesla didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

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FINANCIAL MARKETS

Stocks waver between small gains and losses

NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are wobbling between small gains and losses as gains by big technology companies countered weakness in other sectors including industrial companies.

Investors were working through a mixed picture of economic data. The Labor Department said that jobless claims fell from the previous week, another sign that the job market is healing from the pandemic. However, a report on inflation showed prices rose quickly last month, giving investors another reason to be worried.

Earnings season is winding down. Companies that will report their results later Thursday include Walt Disney, Airbnb and DoorDash.

PRODUCER PRICES

Back-to-back price hikes, wholesale costs up 1% in July

WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation at the wholesale level jumped a higher-than-expected 1% in July, disappointing hopes for a slowdown in price increases.

The Labor Department reports that the July gain in its producer price index, which measures price pressures before they reach consumers, matched the June increase with both months advancing by the highest amount since a 1.2% rise in January.

Over the past 12 months, prices at the wholesale level are up a record 7.8%, surpassing the old record of a 7.3% gain set for the 12 months ending in June.

VIRUS OUTBREAK-UNEMPLOYMENT

US jobless claims near pandemic low as economy strengthens

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell for a third straight time last week, the latest sign that employers are laying off fewer people as they struggle to fill a record number of open jobs and meet a surge in consumer demand.

The report from the Labor Department showed that jobless claims fell for a third straight week to 375,000 from 387,000 the previous week. The number of applications has fallen steadily since topping 900,000 in early January as the economy has increasingly reopened in the aftermath of the pandemic recession.

MORTGAGE RATES

US mortgage rates up after 6-week decline; 30-year at 2.87%

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage rates rose this week for the first time after six weeks of declines amid signs of strong economic recovery. Average rates for home loans remain historically low, however, at under 3%.

Mortgage buyer Freddie Mac reports that the average for the 30-year mortgage jumped to 2.87% from 2.77% last week. The rate for a 15-year loan increased to 2.15% from 2.10%.

Last Friday the government reported that U.S employers added 943,000 jobs in July and drove the unemployment rate down to 5.4%. That was another sign that the economy is bouncing back with surprising vigor from COVID-19.

CONGRESS-STOCK TRADING-PAUL

Kentucky Sen. Paul failed to disclose wife’s stock trade

WASHINGTON (AP) — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul waited more than a year to disclose that his wife bought stock in a company that makes a COVID-19 treatment. It’s an investment that was made after Congress was briefed on the threat of the virus but before the public was largely aware of its danger.

The Republican filed a disclosure Wednesday revealing that Kelley Paul purchased as much as $15,000 in Gilead stock in February 2020. Trades are supposed to be reported within 45 days.

A spokeswoman says Kelley Paul used her own earnings to make the investment and said the failure to disclose it was an oversight.

UN-HUMAN RIGHTS-SPYWARE

UN experts call for more rules on countries’ use of spyware

GENEVA (AP) — Human rights experts working with the United Nations have called on countries to pause the sale and transfer of spyware and other surveillance technology until they set rules governing its use, to ensure it won’t impinge upon human rights.

The eight experts spoke out following further Pegasus spyware revelations from an international media consortium last month. It found the military-grade Pegasus malware from Israel-based NSO Group, a hacker-for-hire outfit, has been used to spy on journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents.

OPIOID CRISIS-PURDUE-BANKRUPTCY

OxyContin maker’s settlement goes to judge for confirmation

UNDATED (AP) — Purdue Pharma’s quest to settle thousands of lawsuits over OxyContin’s toll is entering its final phase with the grudging acceptance of most of those who have claims against the company.

A confirmation hearing is getting under way in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for a deal that removes control of the company from members of the wealthy Sackler family and requires them to contribute $4.5 billion to opioid abatement.

While most states and others with claims have signed on, there’s still deep anger that Sackler family members would receive protection from lawsuits under the deal.

BRITAIN-ECONOMY

UK economy grows again but still below pre-pandemic level

LONDON (AP) — Official figures show the British economy grew by 4.8% in the second quarter of 2021 as lockdown restrictions were lifted. The Office for National Statistics also said that the British economy grew by 1% in June alone, the fifth straight month of growth.

The lifting of pandemic restrictions following the rapid rollout of vaccines in the U.K. has buoyed growth in recent months. All legal limits on contact, such as social distancing rules and caps on the number of people allowed to gather together, were lifted in July.

Economists expect further growth in the months to come even though confirmed virus cases have risen as a result of greater social contact.

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