Business

Microsoft stated on December 22 that its $69 billion offer to acquire Call of Duty developer Activision Blizzard will benefit both gamers and gaming firms. Microsoft made the claim in a document intended at persuading a court at the US Federal Trade Commission to approve the acquisition, after FTC commissioners warned the merger would impede competition in the gaming sector …

A plan to prohibit federal employees from using the Chinese app TikTok on government devices was likely to become law, threatening to damage the company’s brand and frighten away advertisers despite the fact that it would not effect a large number of users, according to analysts. As originally reported by Reuters, early on Tuesday, December 20, US legislators put the …

Epic Games will pay $520 million to resolve charges that it improperly gathered the personal information of children and deceived consumers into completing purchases, the Federal Trade Commission and the business said on Monday, December 19. It will pay a record $275 million fine for breaking a children’s privacy legislation, and it will implement strict default privacy settings for youngsters. …

Twitter announced on Sunday that it will deactivate accounts that were created exclusively for the aim of promoting other social platforms and content that contains links or usernames. This action will take place in the coming days. According to a tweet from Twitter support, the change would have an effect on the content of social media platforms such as Mastodon, …

On Friday, December 16, Twitter’s unprecedented suspension of at least five journalists on allegations that they disclosed Elon Musk’s real-time location attracted quick outrage from government officials, advocacy groups, and press organizations throughout the world. Officials from France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the European Union criticized the suspensions, with some claiming that the platform threatened journalistic freedom. Critics saw …

Twitter banned the accounts of numerous notable journalists who recently wrote about its new owner Elon Musk on Thursday, December 15, with Musk stating that regulations against the publication of personal information apply to everyone, including journalists. In response to a Tweet on the account suspensions, Musk replied, “The same doxxing rules apply to ‘journalists’ as to everyone else,” referencing …

A new complaint accuses Meta Platforms of facilitating the proliferation of violent and abusive remarks from Ethiopia on Facebook, thereby inflaming the country’s deadly civil conflict. The complaint was launched in Kenya on Tuesday, December 13, by two Ethiopian scholars and the Katiba Institute, a Kenyan rights organization. It is claimed that Facebook’s recommendation systems amplified violent posts in Ethiopia, …

The Sy family-owned China Banking Corp. has chosen Romeo Uyan Jr. president and CEO, replacing William Whang, who will retire in March of next year. The succession plan was adopted by the bank’s board of directors on Wednesday, as recommended by the Nominations and Corporate Governance Committees. Uyan, who is now senior executive vice president and chief operating officer, is …

A former chief financial officer of Agritrade International deceived 16 financial institutions around the world into providing her company with millions of dollars in trade financing, resulting in losses of US$469 million (S$631 million). The losses were incurred by the financial institutions, which included major banks in Japan, South Korea, India, and Taiwan, between January 2016 and November 2019. This …

Shaping the Future of the Digital Economy for 2022 is the first Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) Impact study published by the leading eCommerce platform Lazada. The study describes the company’s efforts to use eCommerce as a force for good through uplifting communities, promoting responsible and sustainable business practices, and mitigating its environmental effect. “What we have begun lays the …