Comcast announced a $65 billion bid for Twenty-First Century Fox units that are currently in an agreement to be acquired by Walt Disney Co. The bid, announced Wednesday, represents a 19 percent premium to Disney’s offer. Comcast, the parent of CNBC, offered $35 a share in cash. In a letter to Fox’s board, and members […]
Read moreThe Mars rover Opportunity has pushed its limits for more than a decade but NASA fears the worst as the exploration vehicle tries to survive an intense dust storm. “[The rover] has fallen asleep and is waiting out the storm,” John Callas, Opportunity’s project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told reporters Wednesday. “It’s completely […]
Read moreFor slightly more than a year, 400 volunteers have tested out Waymo’s self-driving car service in Phoenix, Arizona, for free, letting the driverless vehicles whisk them to work, shopping centers, the bar, or anywhere else within a 100-square-mile radius. In that time, these riders have been filing the non-technical equivalent of bug reports, using the […]
Read moreThe court’s ruling in favor of AT&T‘s acquisition of Time Warner on Tuesday gave affirmation for dealmakers that the court is willing to factor in the impact of new technology into its view of the regulatory landscape. For the media giants and their peers, that ruling acknowledged the effect of new competition from TV streaming […]
Read moreWhole Foods CEO John Mackey on Tuesday held a company town hall in which he assured employees he continues to stand his ground against the grocer’s new corporate parent, according to Business Insider, which said it obtained a recording of that meeting. “I ultimately am not afraid to get fired so — not that I […]
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May to Brexit rebels: The UK Parliament can’t ‘tie the hands’ of my government
The prime minister of the United Kingdom told CNBC that Parliament can’t “tie the hands” of her government when it comes to Brexit negotiations. The prime minister managed to avert a rebellion among some parliamentarians Tuesday, who were calling for a decisive say if the U.K. ends up walking away from the European Union without […]
Read moreAmazon may be expanding its insurance game: After working on a project to disrupt health insurance, the tech giant is considering offering home insurance as a complement to its growing line of smart home devices powered by Alexa, according to tech news website The Information. Smart homes are becoming more common in general. At the […]
Read moreBitcoin dropped 5 percent, to its lowest level since February following reports of price manipulation Wednesday. The digital currency fell to a low of $6,133.31 as of 1 p.m. ET, according to data from CoinDesk. Bitcoin has lost half of its value this year after skyrocketing to almost $20,000 in December. Prices began stumbling after […]
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UK government says it’s on the path to creating a tech giant to rival Google or Facebook
The U.K.’s top policymakers have said they want to produce tech companies to rival Silicon Valley giants such as Google or Facebook. On Wednesday, the government announced that technology firms are to invest nearly £2.3 billion ($3 billion) into the country, creating an estimated 1,600 new jobs. The cash injection, the bulk of which came […]
Read moreApple’s artificial intelligence strategy continues to be focused on running workloads locally on devices, rather than relying heavily on cloud-based resources, as competitors Google, Amazon, and Microsoft do. While this fits in with Apple’s core business — selling devices — and the company’s emphasis on user privacy, it could put it at a competitive disadvantage […]
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