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Fortnite maker Epic Games takes Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) to court over antitrust claims. (00:23) Palo Alto Networks (PANW) close to buying Talon Cyber Security for $600M-$700m – report. (01:54) Elon Musk unveils Grok AI bot with real-time access to X data to rival ChatGPT. (02:36)
This is an abridged transcript of the podcast.
Epic Games, the maker of the video game Fortnite, will take Alphabet’s (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google to court over antitrust claims.
The lawsuit is related to the Play Store’s in-house payment system.
The gaming company claimed that through the payment system, Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) has been illegally driving up fees and restricting rivals from distributing their apps directly.
Wilson White, VP of government affairs & public policy at Google said, “These claims are baseless. Android enables developers to distribute through multiple app stores or directly to users through the web.”
The jury trial begins today. Epic is not seeking financial compensation, but wants changes to Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) practices. The CEO’s of both companies are expected to testify.
Epic had filed a similar case against Apple (AAPL) in 2021, but a California court found that its iPhone App Store policies didn’t violate antitrust laws. However, it was determined that Apple should allow apps to provide other payment option links. Both Apple (AAPL) and Epic reached out to the Supreme Court to review the ruling.
Providing such links could threaten Apple (AAPL) and Google’s (GOOG) (GOOGL) 15%-30% commissions charged on purchases made within an app.
Google (GOOG) (GOOGL) is already facing a landmark antitrust case from the Department of Justice over its alleged monopolistic practices in the search business. Barclays had warned it was growing increasingly concerned about the strength of the case.
Palo Alto Networks (NASDAQ:PANW) is near a deal to purchase an Israeli cyber security startup for $600 million to $700 million.
According to a report in The Information, which cited people familiar with the matter, Palo Alto (PANW) is close to acquiring Talon Cyber Security in an agreement that may be announced as soon as today.
Palo Alto (PANW) last Tuesday announced it was buying cloud security start-up Dig Security for a reported $400 million.
Tel-Aviv based Talon has raised $126 million from backers including Lightspeed Venture Partners and Team8, including $100 million in a Series A fundraising round it announced in August of last year.
Palo Alto (PANW) is scheduled to report Q1 results on Nov. 15.
The AI startup founded by Elon Musk has released its first AI model.
It has real-time access to information through his social media platform X, which he said is a “massive advantage” over other models such as ChatGPT.
“Grok is an AI modeled after the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, so intended to answer almost anything and, far harder, even suggest what questions to ask!” xAI’s website read.
The prototype of the chatbot, which Musk said was “designed to have a little more humor in its responses,” is being tested among a limited group of verified users in the U.S. to improve its capabilities before a wider release.
New features will be released in the coming months. Musk said Grok will be available to all X Premium+ subscribers once early beta testing is complete.
Recall that in March, Musk called for a six-month pause in AI development to establish safety standards to address AI risks. “I 80% suspect his (Musk) call to slow down AI development was so he could catch up,” Vinod Khosla, an early OpenAI investor, had told Bloomberg.
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On our catalyst watch for the day,
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VMWare (VMW) will hold its VMWare Explore event in Barcelona, Spain.
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The Baird Global Industrial Conference will include presentations from dozens of companies including Knight-Swift Transportation (KNX), Ryder (R), Gentherm (THRM), Graphic Packaging Holding Company (GPK), and BorgWarner (BWA).
Wall Street’s S&P 500 (SP500) index on Friday posted its best week of the year.
The S&P (SP500) advanced 0.94%. For the week, it surged 5.85%. The Nasdaq (COMP.IND) rose 1.38%, while the Dow (DJI) added 0.66%.
For the week, the Nasdaq was up 6.61% and the Dow was up 5.07%.
Of the 11 S&P sectors, ten ended in positive territory, with the exception of Energy.
Now let’s take a look at the markets as of 6 am. Ahead of the opening bell today, Dow, S&P and Nasdaq futures are in the green. The Dow is up 0.05%, the S&P 500 is up 0.15% and the Nasdaq is up 0.2%. Crude oil is down 2%.
In the world markets, the FTSE 100 is down 0.1% and the DAX is down 0.2%.
On today’s economic calendar:
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