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Speaking to Politico, Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) president Brad Smith says antitrust regulators in the U.S. and Europe should discuss app stores that take advantage of developers.
Smith: “They impose requirements that increasingly say there is only one way to get on to our platform and that is to go through the gate that we ourselves have created. In some cases they create a very high price per toll — in some cases 30% of your revenue has to go to the toll keeper.”
Smith notes that some app stores today have a higher barrier to access than Windows did when found guilty of antitrust violations two decades ago.
Microsoft confirmed to Bloomberg that Smith was referring to Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Developers on the App Store must give Apple a 15-30% cut of any app subscription.
Earlier this week, the EU opened antitrust investigations into Apple’s App Store and Apple Pay practices following complaints from Spotify and Rakuten.
Next week, Apple kicks off its annual WWDC developer conference.
Apple (AAPL -0.5%) may announce as soon as Monday that it will replace Intel’s (INTC -0.7%) chips in Macs with its own silicon, The New York Times reports.
That would bring a long-expected breakup between the two companies, who have been engaged in a 15-year team-up that has marked one of Silicon Valley’s most influential partnerships.
Apple has been working on the replacement for years and could use a company developer conference Monday to announce it, according to the report.
That would mean Macs based on Apple chips could start arriving next year.
Apple’s move to use its own chips in Macs would be another data point in an industry that’s increasingly focus-built; tech-giant peers like Amazon.com and Google also already design some of their own chips, especially as they specialize into areas like AI and 3-D rendering that call for purpose-built silicon rather than Intel’s generalist chips.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) will close its retail stores in Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and South Carolina due to spiking coronavirus infection rates.
The tech giant began to reopen its U.S. stores last month. As of this week, 154 of the 271 stores were open.
Apple will close 11 of the 27 retail stores in the listed states out of “an abundance of caution.”
Apple shares are down 0.5% to $349.86.
Comcast (CMCSA -0.4%) is guiding to substantial video subscriber losses for the current quarter – part of a secular trend that may have sped up considerably alongside the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated recession.
Chief Financial Officer Mike Cavanagh is saying to expect a similar year-over-year spread for subscriber losses in Q2 as in Q1. And Comcast’s residential suscriber losses nearly quadrupled in Q1: to 388,000 from a prior-year decline of 107,000.
The company lost 209,000 subs in Q2 2019, and a similar spread could point to declines of 490,000 subs this time around, Fierce Video notes.
Comcast is “not wedded to being necessarily the seller of a bundle,” Cavanagh says, but it still appreciates that many customers still want its X1 or a platform approach.
Moody’s Investor Service cuts Wirecard’s (OTCPK:WCAGY) (OTCPK:WRCDF) €500M senior unsecured rating to B3 from Baa3, below investment-grade level and reflecting the company’s accounting irregularities.
Assigns a B3 corporate family rating and a B3-PD probability of default rating, all below investment grade.
Ratings remain on review for further downgrade.
Moody’s notes that the postponement of its audited statement could trigger an event of default, leading to high and immediate refinancing needs.
