#Vodafone and Three’s B merger cleared by UK regulators — with conditions

#Vodafone and Three’s $19B merger cleared by UK regulators — with conditions

The U.K.’s antitrust regulator has greenlighted the longstanding planned merger between two of the country’s biggest telecommunication operators. Vodafone and Three constitute two of the U.K.’s four infrastructure-owning mobile network operators (MNOs), alongside O2 and EE. As such, when the duo revealed plans to merge in a $19 billion transaction last June, it was always likely…

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#Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale, and all the other VCs reportedly in the running for new Trump committees

#Marc Andreessen, Joe Lonsdale, and all the other VCs reportedly in the running for new Trump committees

With Elon Musk playing such a high-profile role in Donald Trump’s transition team, Musk’s buddies, many of them Silicon Valley venture capitalists, are reportedly being tapped to help out. For instance, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz, and in particular co-founder Marc Andreessen, is repeatedly being mentioned. He, along with Antonio Gracias and Joe Lonsdale, are reportedly…

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#Apple’s mobile browser policies and Google pact are ‘holding back innovation,’ UK regulator says

#Apple’s mobile browser policies and Google pact are ‘holding back innovation,’ UK regulator says

An inquiry group setup by the U.K.’s antitrust authority has provisionally found that Apple’s policies are “holding back innovation in the browsers we use to access the web on mobile phones.” While the report focuses substantively on Apple, it also highlighted a revenue-sharing agreement with Google, noting that the duo “earn significant revenue” when Google…

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#Texas AG opens investigation into advertising group that Elon Musk sued for ‘boycotting’ X

#Texas AG opens investigation into advertising group that Elon Musk sued for ‘boycotting’ X

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced on Thursday he is opening an investigation into the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) to determine whether the trade group’s members conspired to boycott “certain social media platforms.” While the press release doesn’t name social media platforms by name, one of them is likely Elon Musk’s X, which filed…

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#DOJ: Google must sell Chrome to end monopoly

#DOJ: Google must sell Chrome to end monopoly

The United States Department of Justice argued Wednesday that Google should divest its Chrome browser as part of a remedy to break up the company’s illegal monopoly in online search, according to a filing with the U.S District Court of the District of Columbia. Google would not be allowed to re-enter the search market for…

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#X sues to block California anti-deepfakes bill

#X sues to block California anti-deepfakes bill

Per Bloomberg, X, Elon Musk’s social media company, has sued to block California law AB 2655, which requires large online platforms to remove or label AI deepfakes related to elections. X argues that the law, also known as the “Defending Democracy From Deepfake Deception Act of 2024,” will lead to widespread censorship of political speech….

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