European Union slams Google with a $2.7 bn antitrust fine
The Dollar Business Bureau Antitrust regulators of the European Union have come down heavily on Google by imposing a whopping $2.7 bn antitrust fine and warning the search engine leader it will take a tough line on two other cases too. The European Union Commission in a press release said, ‘the world's most popular internet search engine has 90 days to stop favouring its own shopping service or face a further penalty of up to 5% of Alphabet's average daily global turnover.’ This is one of the biggest fine that the EU has imposed on a single company after the $1.06bn antitrust fine that was handed to Intel in 2009. The release said that the Commission found during its investigations that the search engine ...
Verizon concludes the $4.5 bn takeover deal of Yahoo
The Dollar Business Bureau Telecommunication conglomerate Verizon concluded the $4.5 billion deal of Yahoo’s takeover on Tuesday, ending the web company’s 21-year history as an independent entity. The deal also brings to an end the 5-year rule of Yahoo’s CEO Marissa Mayer, who is not joining the new company. She will take a compensation package presently worth around $127 million that includes severance pay and stock awards which will be fully conferred with the completion of deal. The properties of Yahoo including its email, finance and Tumblr will be joined with AOL, which Verizon purchased in 2015. The joint corporate entity covering over 50 media, advertising and technology brands will now be called Oath. The new entity will be led by Tim Armstrong, the former ...
Indian industry leaders discuss trade, e-commerce with WTO DG
The Dollar Business Bureau Representatives of industry, including technology and online retail companies in India, on Wednesday discussed matters related to e-commerce and global trade with Roberto Azevedo, Director General of World Trade Organisation (WTO). The roundtable meeting, held in New Delhi, was organised by the industry representative body International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and attended by Sunil Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises and representatives of various companies such as Google, Paytm and Snapdeal. The issues discussed related to setting up standards for e-commerce industry, challenges pertaining to businesses dealings due to differences in national or regional norms, facilitating services trade and future of the world trading system. The meeting holds significance as developed member countries are pushing the trade body to initiate negotiations on an agreement on e-commerce in the ...
US tech industry condemns Trump's immigration ban
PTI Silicon Valley's top executives, including India-born CEOs Google's Sundar Pichai and Microsoft's Satya Nadella, condemned President Donald Trump's immigration ban on people from seven Muslim-majority countries, voicing concern that the move could directly hit their own staffers and stop bringing great talent to the US.Executives from Microsoft, Google, Apple, Netflix, Tesla, Facebook, Uber and other top American companies slammed Trump's immigration order that sparked widespread protests across the US.Trump yesterday signed a sweeping executive order to suspend the arrival of refugees and impose tough new controls on travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen, as part of new measures to "keep radical Islamic terrorists" out of America.Condemning the move, Nadella, in a post on LinkedIn, said "As an ...
Smartphones prices should come down to $30 in India: Pichai
The Dollar Business BureauGoogle CEO Sundar Pichai on Thursday underlined that entry-level smartphones in India need to be priced around $30 to facilitate people with the Internet and digital services. Speaking at IIT-Kharagpur, Pichai said the focus should also be given to local language support and improving connectivity in India. “I would love to see cheaper smartphones, entry-level smartphones. I think really we need to bring the prices down even more, maybe at $30 level. He said Google was in continuous talks with Indian stakeholders to roll out many projects under the government’s Digital India scheme. It already has forged a partnership with RailTel for offering Wi-Fi services at railway stations and with the NPCI for enabling digital payments across the country. Mr. Pichai said he ...
Google launches digital programme in India for SMBs
The Dollar Business Bureau Google’s Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai has launched 'Digital Unlocked', a training programme meant for empowering India’s small and medium businesses (SMBs) to support them to get their businesses online. Currently, India has around 51 million SMBs that contribute 37% to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Out of these, just 32% businesses are online or are leveraging the benefits of internet. It is the remaining 68% that Google India wants to empower digitally in 2017, stated Pichai. Google Chief Executive, who is on a short visit to India, reaffirmed Google’s commitment while addressing a gathering of SMBs at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday. “The internet and digital technology will be an engine of growth for the Indian economy. Today, anyone ...
Yahoo inks $4.8bn deal with Verizon for core business
PTI Yahoo will be bought by American telecom giant Verizon Communications for nearly $5 billion (about Rs.32,358 crore) in cash, ending a two-decade run as an independent company for the Internet pioneer.Yahoo will be combined with AOL, another faded Internet star that Verizon bought last year. Verizon chief executive Lowell McAdam said this will create "a top global mobile media company, and help accelerate our revenue stream in digital advertising."The acquisition, expected to close in early 2017, pending shareholder and regulatory approval will exclude Yahoo's cash, certain patent holdings, as well as its share in China's Alibaba Group and stake in Yahoo Japan.Yahoo, which was the entry door to the Internet for an early generation of web users, has been coping with years of ...
TerraNet targets India to market new tethering app
Sharath Chowdary Sweden based proximity aware solution provider TerraNet Lund is targeting India to market its offline tethering app — Meshmedia. This proximal connectivity app will be officially launched in January 2017. Recently, the company completed a survey on the product and is now planning to deploy Meshmedia in the country, TerraNet India Managing Director Y R Rao told the Dollar Business Bureau. As per the survey done by market research firm YouGov, there is a huge response in India for both premium and free version of Meshmedia. Meshmedia enables sharing of content freely to unlimited number of users without any internet connection. This unique feature has garnered tremendous interest in the market, to download or buy the app. “Around 2 billion people use ...