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Nov 19, 2024
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The Department of Justice will ask a federal judge to force Google to sell its Chrome browser to address its illegal search monopoly, Bloomberg reported on Monday. The Justice Department will also ask the judge, Amit Mehta, to force Google to license its search engine data and stop bundling its Android operating system with products including search and its Google Play mobile app store, according to Bloomberg. The Justice Department intends to ask for the Chrome sale because it is a key access point via which people use Google’s search engine, Bloomberg
reported, adding that details of the remedy could still change. The Justice Department had previously flagged that it could ask for the sale of Chrome or Android as possible remedies. In August, Mehta ruled that Google had used its exclusive distribution contracts with companies such as Apple and Samsung to create an illegal search monopoly. The Justice Department is expected to formally issue its remedies framework this week, but Mehta is not expected to issue a ruling on remedies until August 2025. Google has said it will appeal the case.
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ServiceTitan, which sells software to help tradespeople such as plumbers, electricians and landscapers run their businesses, filed paperwork for an initial public offering. The filing showed that the company’s revenue grew 31% to $614 million in the 12 months to January 2024 but lost $195 million during the same period. Its top-line growth rate slowed to 24% in the six months ending in July. Founded in 2007, ServiceTitan had planned to go public at a $20 billion valuation in 2021, according to a Reuters report, but the offering was called off as interest
rates rose and the number of new listings overall contracted. The company garnered a $9.5 billion valuation in a mid-2021 fundraising from investors including Thoma Bravo and Tiger Global Management. It then raised another $250 million in debt-like financing from Coatue Management in 2023, by which time its valuation had fallen sharply, The Information previously reported. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley are among the banks leading the offering. Investors Bessemer Venture Partners and ICONIQ Growth each hold more than 5% of ServiceTitan’s common stock.
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Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA have resolved their legal dispute over the league’s new TV and streaming live sports rights. As part of the settlement, WBD and NBA agreed to a new 11-year deal where WBD will get access to NBA game highlights and other content for its digital platforms, and live sports rights in some overseas markets. The new 11-year agreement is the same length as the league’s new rights contracts, which were awarded to Disney’s ESPN, Comcast’s NBCUniversal and Amazon. As part of the overall arrangement, WBD has also agreed to a new licensing deal with ESPN, which will air WBD’s critically-acclaimed NBA studio show “Inside the NBA” on ESPN’s TV networks. WBD had filed a lawsuit against the NBA in July, arguing that the league had violated its existing media rights contract with WBD by rejecting the media company’s proposal to match the rights that were awarded to Amazon. The league argued that the Amazon deal was for a new package that WBD did not have the option to match. WBD’s new deal with the NBA gives it live sports rights in the Nordics (Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden), along with Poland and Latin America (except for Brazil and Mexico). Meanwhile, content from WBD’s digital media sports properties, Bleacher Report and House of Highlights, will be available in a new section on the NBA.com and the league’s app.
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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman will serve as a co-chair for San Francisco Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie’s transition team, campaign officials said Monday. Altman will be one of seven co-chairs and three advisors who make up the 10-person team, and Altman’s presence is the latest indicator from Lurie that the new mayor means to follow through on his promise to get San Francisco tech leaders like Altman to more closely engage in city affairs. Joining Altman as co-chairs are Ned Segal, the former CFO of Twitter; Michael Tubbs, a former
mayor of Stockton whose work on universal basic income earned him national recognition; Joanne Hayes-White, a former San Francisco fire chief; Paul Yep, a retired police commander; José A. Quiñonez, a longtime nonprofit executive; and Nancy Tung, the local Democratic Party chair. The transition team also includes three advisors: Ann O’Leary, a former chief of staff to Gov. Gavin Newsom and senior advisor to Hillary Clinton; Ben Rosenfield, the former controller for San Francisco; and Sara Fenske Bahat, the transition team’s director who has worked in top roles in government and non-profits. Lurie’s goals for the transition team: build relationships with over 50 city agencies and shape a 100-day action plan for when he takes office on Jan. 8.
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Goldman Sachs announced that it plans to spin off its digital-asset platform so that it will be “industry-owned” in order to drive adoption. The platform, called GS DAP, which went live in early 2023, allows financial firms to create, trade and settle traditional assets such as bonds on permissioned blockchain. Blockchain efforts by Wall Street banks have often struggled to gain scale because competitors are reluctant to join a platform owned by a rival. Goldman also said the platform will partner with Tradeweb, an electronic marketplace operator, on potential bond trading
applications. Goldman is also seeking to resume its bitcoin-backed lending activities, its global head of digital assets Mathew McDermott told Bloomberg. The bank in 2022 made a loan backed by bitcoin to Coinbase. That comes as Wall Street investment bankers across the board have started warming back up to taking on crypto-related clients for capital markets and other business.
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President-elect Donald Trump’s Trump Media & Technology Group is in advanced talks to buy Bakkt, the crypto marketplace backed by the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, in an all-share deal, the Financial Times reported. Shares of Bakkt surged 162% on Monday after the report, while TMTG, which operates Truth Social, rose 17%. NYSE parent Intercontinental Exchange launched Bakkt in 2018, which went public in 2021. Bakkt has been exploring options including a sales after disclosing in February that it may not be able to continue as a going concern. Kelly Loeffler, former CEO of Bakkt who served as U.S. Senator from Georgia, is a co-chair on Trump’s inauguration committee.
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