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| Here are today's top stories: - Spotify to launch in-app purchases in EU.
- eBay to lay off roughly 1,000 employees.
- Zee Entertainment is suing Sony for canceling their $10B merger.
Beth
p/beth-duckett | |
| 1 | | Spotify's iPhone users in Europe will be able to purchase audiobooks and subscriptions directly in the app, bypassing Apple's 30% commission in the App Store. The company is making the change as a result of the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA), a new law targeting anticompetitive practices by tech giants. More: - The DMA, which takes effect March 7, requires large tech companies to open up their online services and closed ecosystems to competitors.
- As a result, Spotify is launching its own in-app payment in the EU, avoiding Apple's 30% commission.
- The company will be able to communicate in its app about subscription offerings, upgrades, product prices, deals, and promotions.
- iPhone users will be able to directly download Spotify apps, like Spotify for Artists, from its website.
Zoom out: - The EU represents only around 7% of total App Store spending, according to Morgan Stanley analyst Erik Woodring.
- The move is not expected to significantly impact Apple's services business, which generated $85B in 2023.
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| 2 | | eBay announced plans to lay off about 1,000 full-time employees, or roughly 9% of its workforce. In a corporate blog post, CEO Jamie Iannone said the cuts are necessary because eBay's "overall headcount and expenses have outpaced the growth of our business." More: - In addition to the job cuts, eBay plans to lay off an unspecified number of contractors in the coming months, Iannone said.
- The organizational changes will "align and consolidate certain teams to improve the end-to-end experience, and better meet the needs of our customers around the world," he wrote.
- eBay's global workforce grew from roughly 10,800 employees at the end of 2021 to about 11,600 in late 2022.
- It previously laid off 500 employees last February.
- Over the past year, eBay's stock has fallen 13% while the S&P 500 has risen 21%.
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| 3 | | India's Zee Entertainment is suing Sony for canceling their $10B merger agreement. The Mumbai-based entertainment conglomerate is urging the Japanese tech giant to revive the deal. More: - The merger of Zee and Sony's India subsidiaries could have created an entertainment powerhouse in South Asia.
- However, Sony terminated the merger on Monday, saying that certain closing conditions weren't met by Zee.
- Sony is seeking $90M in termination fees for alleged merger agreement breaches.
- Zee argues that Sony's termination fees are legally baseless, and is urging Sony to retract its termination and fulfill its obligations to complete the deal.
- Zee filed its case at the Singapore International Arbitration Center.
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| 4 | | Nintendo is shutting down online services for the 3DS and Wii U on April 8. Single-player games and offline mode will still work on both consoles. More: - Online play features, including cooperative play and internet rankings, will end at 1 p.m. PT on April 8.
- The eShop for both consoles will also close on March 27, after which purchases and free content downloads, like game demos, will be unavailable.
- Users have until 10 p.m. PT on March 11 to link their wallets and transfer eShop funds.
Zoom out: - As Nintendo shutters services for its older consoles, it could launch a Switch successor in September of this year.
- According to an internal email, the next-gen Switch's performance will rival that of the PS4 and Xbox One.
- The "Switch 2" may have an LCD screen instead of OLED to bring down costs. Nintendo has reportedly already sent out development kits to partner studios.
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| 5 | | Apple could launch a scaled-down version of its first self-driving electric vehicle as early as 2028, according to Bloomberg. Apple has reportedly scaled back its "Titan" electric car project from Level 4 (full automation in certain scenarios) to Level 2+ (partial automation). More: - The downgrade would make Apple's EV more like Tesla's Autopilot-equipped cars.
- Apple's car could have basic self-driving features like braking/accelerating assistance but would still require the driver to pay attention at all times.
- The company could still sell a car with Level 4 autonomy sometime in the future, according to Bloomberg.
Zoom out: - Over a year ago, Bloomberg reported that Apple originally wanted to introduce its future car with no steering wheel or pedals, but decided that level of technology wasn't feasible yet.
- At the time, it was reported that the consumer model was expected to sell for under $100,000 and feature an Apple custom processor for AI capabilities.
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| 6 | | Google announced it will settle a $1.7B patent infringement lawsuit brought by Singular Computing LLC. Singular accused Google of copying inventor Joseph Bates' technology to improve its Artificial Intelligence in services like Google Search, Gmail, and Google Translate. Details of the settlement were not disclosed. More: - Singular, founded by Bates, claimed that Google illegally used its technology to develop its Tensor Processing Units (TPUs).
- Google launched the application-specific integrated circuits to power its AI for tasks like speech recognition and text generation.
- Singular, however, claimed that the second and third versions of the units, released in 2017 and 2018, infringed on its patents.
- The company was seeking $1.67B in damages for Google's purported misuse of the technology.
- While Google denied the claims, it reached a settlement on the same day closing arguments were set to start in the trial.
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 | AI and technology writer | | Beth is a contributing editor and writer of Inside's AI and Tech newsletters. She has written for notable publications like USA Today and the Arizona Business Gazette. During her time as a public policy reporter at The Arizona Republic, she received recognition with a Pulitzer Prize nomination and a First Amendment Award for her collaborative reporting on pension cost increases. Beth also authored a book on the solar photovoltaic industry in 2016. You can reach her at Beth.Duckett@yahoo.com. | | This newsletter was edited by Eduardo Garcia | |
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