Tag: amazon

Startup Digest | Amazon to help 50 Indian startups go global, Karan Johar’s MyGlamm POUT now on Blinkit & more

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon’s startup accelerator “Propel” aims to help 50 Indian Startups go global in 2024

E-commerce giant Amazon has announced the fourth season of Propel–an accelerator program which aims to launch 50 early-stage Indian startups in the consumer products space, expand globally and become international brands in 2024.

The entries for the Propel Global Business Accelerator Season-4 will remain open from May 14 to June 9, 2024. Participating startups stand to win total rewards worth over $1.5 million including AWS Activate credits, six months of free logistics and account management support, as well as a combined $100,000 in grant from Amazon for the top-3 winners. 

In addition to financial support from Amazon, startups will also get a shot at funding from venture capital partners, including Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund, Peak XV Partners, Fireside Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, Accel, V3 Ventures and Elevation Capital, who will all feature on a panel to evaluate the winners of Propel Season 4.

Amazon will also help participating startups connect with Indian revenue-based financing firms namely Klub, Velocity and GetVantag, who will provide curated offers to the participating startups to expand their business at scale.

9Unicorns launches Fund II with a target of $200 million and rebrands itself to 100Unicorns

Venture Catalysts-backed 9Unicorns rebrands itself to 100Unicorns and launches its second accelerator fund with a target size of $200 million including a green-shoe option of $100 million with a plan to back 200 outlier startups.

The accelerator fund provides funding ranging from $300,000 to $1 million in the first round, along with product, business & fundraising support. This is followed by $500,000 to $2 million in subsequent rounds with co-investors.

100Unicorns (formerly 9unicorns), which reviewed over 14,000 startups and invested in 140 startup funding deals through its first fund, has backed the likes of Shiprocket, BluSmart, ZyppElectric and LeverageEdu, among others. 

PhonePe resolves trademark infringement dispute with Aniket Food via out-of-court settlement

Digital payment platform PhonePe has reached an out-of-court settlement with Aniket Food regarding a trademark infringement case. The resolution comes after a series of legal proceedings initiated by PhonePe against Aniket Food for the unauthorised use of its trademarks.

The dispute, which was brought before the Calcutta High Court, saw PhonePe seeking legal recourse against Aniket Food for the illicit use of its trademarks, including “PhonePe”.

The High Court, in its order dated April 10, 2024, had granted an ex-parte injunction in favour of PhonePe, prohibiting Aniket Food from manufacturing and selling products bearing the infringed trademarks.

Additionally, a Special Officer appointed by the Court conducted an inventory of the infringing goods at Aniket Food’s premises on April 19, 2024. Following the Court’s intervention, Aniket Food approached PhonePe for an out-of-court settlement.

Shiprocket aims to upskill 100,000 Indian MSMEs through eCommerce learning

Shiprocket has launched an e-commerce learning platform to empower 100,000 merchants over the next 2-3 years, with the aim of boosting their “contribution to India’s GDP and succeed in the anticipated $300 billion Indian eCommerce market”.

Shiprocket Growth Academy will offer learning, community, consultancy, and analytics, “designed to empower eCommerce sellers at every stage of their journey”. The platform offers a suite of offerings, including courses, tutorials, webinars, podcasts, and expert-led master classes by the leadership of Shiprocket.

Launched in 2017, Shiprocket is a logistics data platform that connects retailers, carriers, and consumers across national and international locations. Shiprocket provides a technology stack to help retailers integrate their shopping websites on Shopify, Magento, WooCommerce, Zoho, and others with the platform’s multi-carrier API to manage orders, prints, and shipping labels.

Shiprocket also offers fulfillment solutions with more than 45 warehouses located across India. With 25+ courier partners on board, the brand offers pan-India as well as international shipping deliveries. Its shipping solutions are available across 24,000+ pin codes within India and 220 countries. 

The Good Glamm Group Partners with Blinkit bringing Karan Johar’s MyGlamm POUT in 10 minutes

Beauty and personal care conglomerate Good Glamm Group has partnered with quick commerce platform Blinkit to offer MyGlamm POUT by Karan Johar on the hyperlocal platform for delivery in about 10 minutes. 

MyGlamm POUT’s range of products, including lipsticks, lip liners, and lip glosses, will be available for delivery on Blinkit. 

As Blinkit seeks to expands usecases and SKUs on its platform, “listing such luxury, celebrity-led makeup products is bound to bring unparalleled convenience & experience to customers,” said Anish Shrivastava, Category Head, Blinkit. 

“In today’s fast-paced world, convenience is key, and with Blinkit’s lightning-fast delivery, we’re bringing luxury beauty directly to our customers’ doorsteps in just 10 minutes,” Ketan Bhatia, Group Brand Director, Good Glamm Group. 

redBus launches women-specific interface on app to enhance experience of travel for women

redBus, an online bus ticketing platform, has created a separate booking flow for women on the app, aimed at “revolutionizing the bus travel experience specifically for female passengers”. 

Users can now toggle to the women-specific app experience, which shows top-rated buses, highly recommended by other women travelers. This new interface provides a more transparent, secure experience and fosters a sense of community, allowing women users to make informed choices based on authentic user experiences.

The interface highlights popular boarding points based on user traffic and offers exclusive deals specifically offered for women by bus operators, which can be as high as 25%. Moreover, the women-centric features incorporate user-generated tags that illuminate why certain services are highly regarded by women, focusing on aspects such as punctuality and hygiene and how many other women are traveling in the same bus. 

redBus is also introducing a priority helpline that ensures immediate assistance with zero wait time for any query. This is designed to address anxiety and enhance the overall travel experience.

OpenAI launches GPT-4o with faster, more versatlie capabilities

OpenAI has announced GPT-4o, a model enhancing GPT-4 capabilities across voice, text, and vision, promising faster, cheaper, and broader language support in a phased global rollout.

 GPT-4o, where “o” stands for “omni,” introduces a new era of human-computer interaction by accepting and generating combinations of text, audio, and image inputs and outputs.

This model represents a leap towards more natural interaction capabilities, boasting response times to audio inputs as swift as 232 milliseconds, rivalling human conversational response times, OpenAI CTO Mira Murati said during the presentation.

GPT-4o not only matches the performance of its predecessor, GPT-4 Turbo, in processing English text and code but also shows marked improvements in understanding non-English languages. It outperforms existing models in vision and audio comprehension, all while being twice as fast, 50% more cost-effective, and supporting five times higher rate limits in the API.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon’s startup accelerator ‘Propel’ aims to help 50 Indian startups go global in 2024

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

E-commerce giant Amazon has announced the fourth season of Propel–an accelerator program which aims to launch 50 Indian startups in global markets in 2024.

Amazon Global Selling Propel Accelerator is designed to help early-stage startups in the consumer products space expand globally and become international brands. The entries for the Propel Global Business Accelerator Season-4 will remain open from May 14 to June 14, 2024.

Participating startups stand to win total rewards worth over $1.5 million including AWS Activate credits, six months of free logistics and account management support, as well as a combined $100,000 in grant from Amazon for the top-3 winners.

“This program is a key part of our commitment to enable $20 billion in e-commerce exports from India by 2025,” said Bhupen Wakankar, Director – Global Trade, Amazon India.

In addition to financial support from Amazon, startups will also get a shot at funding from venture capital partners, including Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund, Peak XV Partners, Fireside Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, Accel, V3 Ventures and Elevation Capital, who will all feature on a panel to evaluate the winners of Propel Season 4.

Amazon will also help participating startups connect with Indian revenue-based financing firms namely Klub, Velocity and GetVantag, who will provide curated offers to the participating startups to expand their business at scale.

Since launching the program in 2021, Amazon claims to have helped over 70 Indian startups scale globally. The list includes brands such as Minimalist, Sirona, Slurrp Farm, Sirona Hygiene, Wellbeing Nutrition, Solethreads, Ecoright, GoDesi, Mirana Toys, Avimee Herbal and Perfora, among others.

“By participating in this program, we ended up expediting our market launch, connecting with the right peers to learn from their experiences and engaging with VC firms and other industry leaders to gain relevant insights,” said Tushar Khurana, Co-founder, Perfora—an oral care brand, which was part of Amazon Propel Season-3.

“The Amazon team supported us from set up to launch and the program has played the role of a catalyst for our global ambitions,” added Khurana.

Following initial screening, the top-250 startup applicants will be inducted into a two-month bootcamp, where they will receive marketplace insights as well as compliance and logistics support to launch in global markets. 50 applicants will be shortlisted as the finalist cohort and inducted into the program.

This cohort will receive 1:1 account management support from Amazon including guidance on identifying key products and categories to sell globally, inventory planning and demand forecasting, ads optimization strategies, preparing for global sale events, and more.

They will also get to interact with senior leaders from Amazon and the industry in areas like ‘Go to Market’ approach, finding the right ‘Product Market Fit’ etc. The program will culminate with a Demo Day, top-10 startups from the finalist cohort will pitch their business propositions to a panel comprising of leaders from Amazon, VC partners and others.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon’s Zoox under investigation after robotaxi crashes involving motorcyclists

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon’s self-driving robotaxi unit is being investigated by the U.S. government’s highway safety agency after two of its vehicles braked suddenly and were rear-ended by motorcyclists.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said in documents posted on its website Monday it will evaluate the automated driving system developed by Zoox.

Both crashes happened during the daytime hours, and the motorcyclists suffered minor injuries. In both cases, the agency confirmed that each of the Amazon vehicles was operating in autonomous mode leading up to the crashes.

The agency said the probe will focus on the performance of the company’s automated driving system during the crashes, as well as how it behaves in crosswalks around pedestrians and other vulnerable road users.

A message was left early Monday seeking comment from Zoox.

Zoox reported the crashes under an order to automated vehicle companies issued in 2021.

Amazon acquired Zoox in June of 2020 for a price that analysts pegged at over $1 billion. In 2023 the Foster City, California, company said one of its funky-looking four-person shuttles autonomously carried employees on public roads on a mile-long (1.6 kilometer) route between two Zoox buildings.

The company later planned to launch a shuttle service exclusively for its employees. Analysts say they expect Amazon to use the Zoox system for autonomous deliveries.

Zoox vehicles don’t have a steering wheel or pedals. The carriage-style interior of the vehicle has two benches that face each other. It measures just under 12 feet (3.7 meters) long, about a foot (a third of a meter) shorter than a standard Mini Cooper and can travel up to 35 miles per hour (56 kph).

Zoox already was under investigation by NHTSA. In March of 2022 the agency began looking into the company’s certification that its vehicle met federal safety standards for motor vehicles.

The agency said at the time that it would look into whether Zoox used its own test procedures to determine that certain federal standards weren’t applicable because of the robotaxi’s unique configuration.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Microsoft, Amazon announce investments of over $5 billion in France

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Microsoft Corp plans to spend €4 billion ($4.3 billion) building cloud and AI infrastructure in France, announcing its latest major outlay on artificial intelligence technology. Meanwhile, Amazon said on Monday it would invest more than 1.2 billion euros ($1.3 billion) in its French operations and create more than 3,000 permanent jobs in the country.

Microsoft is aiming help train a million people and support 2,500 startups by 2027 in the European country, it said in a statement. Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled a partnership and €15 million investment into Mistral AI, a Parisian startup competing with OpenAI. The French presidency had said on Sunday that Amazon and other companies, including GSK and Accenture, would announce investments worth billions as part of the country’s annual “Choose France” event, which begins on Monday.

France has made developing AI a key area of focus, with national funds and local billionaires backing Mistral and Kyutai, an AI research nonprofit, which both formed last year. Microsoft’s announcement is part of President Emmanuel Macron’s “Choose France” summit, which aims to attract foreign companies and make France a financial hub for the European Union. Another US tech giant, Amazon.com Inc. has committed to spending €1.2 billion on infrastructure and computing, and in all 56 projects across a range of industries will be announced as part of the event, the Elysee said.

Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) investment would increase cloud infrastructure in the Paris area to support France’s flourishing generative AI opportunity, and logistics infrastructure in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the company said in a statement.

Increased popularity of GenAI has been fuelling demand for cloud services, and France has become a hub for AI, with promising startups such as Mistral and Poolside. Companies such as Meta and Google have set up AI research centres in the country.

Amazon has invested more than 20 billion euros in its French operations since 2010 and employs more than 22,000 permanent employees across its cloud and online retail businesses.

“These jobs are in addition to the 2,000 jobs we announced for 2024,” said Frédéric Duval, country manager at Amazon France.

A part of the investment would also be used to expand its logistics network to increase speed of delivery and reduce carbon emissions. It has more than 35 logistics facilities in France.

Microsoft, meanwhile, is making splashy investments across the globe as the company accelerates spending on its Azure cloud and related AI tools. In February, Microsoft announced a similar €3.2 billion investment into Germany. In April, the company invested $1.5 billion into the Abu Dhabi AI firm G42.

Microsoft is also facing increasing antitrust scrutiny over its cloud business and its AI investments, including the more than $10 billion the company has placed into OpenAI.

Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) investment would increase cloud infrastructure in the Paris area to support France’s flourishing generative AI opportunity, and logistics infrastructure in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, the company said in a statement.

With inputs from Bloomberg and Reuters

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon to spend nearly $9 billion to expand cloud infra in Singapore

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com plans to spend S$12 billion ($8.88 billion) over the next four years to expand its cloud computing infrastructure in Singapore, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said on Tuesday.

The investment adds to the S$11.5 billion the company has already invested in the Asia Pacific Region till 2023, bringing its total planned spend to more than S$23 billion by 2028, AWS said in a statement.

Southeast Asia’s top leaders are scrambling for a bigger slice of the global tech pie, with Malaysia, Vietnam and Singapore hosting Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang in December, and Apple CEO Tim Cook visiting Singapore, Vietnam and Indonesia last month.

Recent investments in the region include Apple’s plan to invest over $250 million into its operations in Singapore.

AWS also announced a collaboration with the Singapore government, public sector organisations and enterprises to help accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI in Singapore, the statement said.

“AWS is doubling down on its cloud infrastructure investments in Singapore from 2024 to 2028 to support customer demand, and help reinforce Singapore’s status as an attractive regional innovation launchpad,” AWS Country Manager Priscilla Chong said.

The announcement at the AWS ASEAN Summit in Singapore marks Amazon’s latest move in its plan to build AWS infrastructure across Southeast Asia. The company had previously announced a $5 billion investment in Thailand and a $6 billion spend in Malaysia.

Amazon’s announcement comes days after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced cloud services investments worth $2.2 billion in Malaysia and $1.7 billion in Indonesia during a visit to the region.

With a young tech-savvy population of 670 million, Southeast Asia has seen increasing interest from technology giants.

Reuters reported in December that Malaysian conglomerate YTL’s utilities unit would partner with Nvidia to develop AI infrastructure in a $4.3 billion investment deal.

On Monday, Malaysia’s trade minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said Google was also planning to invest in the country with an announcement expected “in the near future”, according to a report by the state news agency.

Meanwhile, Indonesia is keen to have Nvidia’s Huang visit again, with communications minister Budi Arie Setiadi saying last month that they had invited him.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s comments on unionisation violated labour law, rules judge

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com Inc. Chief Executive Officer Andy Jassy made comments to the media in 2022 that violated federal labor law, a US National Labor Relations Board judge ruled Wednesday.

Remarks that Jassy made to reporters about the downsides of unionization told “employees that, if they selected a union, they would become less empowered and would find it harder to get things done quickly,” NLRB administrative law judge Brian Gee wrote.

Gee cited various comments Jassy made, including telling CNBC that making workplace improvements is “much slower” with a union and saying at a New York Times conference that employees without a union are “better off” because “it’s not bureaucratic.”

Gee also cited Jassy for telling the Bloomberg Technology Summit that in a union shop, “if you see something on the line that you think could be better for your team or you or your customers, you can’t just go to your manager and say, ‘Let’s change it.’”

While precedent establishes that a manager can make factually based predictions about “demonstrably probable consequences beyond his control,” Gee wrote that Jassy “offered no objective basis” for his assertions.

The judge said Amazon should be forced to post a notice at its US facilities informing employees of their rights and committing not to threaten them.

Amazon said it strongly disagrees with the ruling and plans to appeal. “The decision reflects poorly on the state of free speech rights today, and we remain optimistic that we will be able to continue to engage in a reasonable discussion on these issues where all perspectives have an opportunity to be heard,” spokesperson Mary Kate Paradis said in an email.

The Amazon Labor Union, which brought the case to the NLRB, celebrated the ruling. “It sends a clear message that attempts to dissuade workers from exercising their right to organize and bargain collectively will not be tolerated,” the union’s attorney, Seth Goldstein, said in a text message.

US law allows companies to oppose and argue against unionization, but not to threaten to punish workers if they organize.

Rulings by NLRB judges can be appealed to labor board members in Washington, and from there into federal court. The agency lacks the authority to hold executives personally liable for violations or make companies pay punitive damages.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon’s Great Summer Sale and Flipkart’s Big Saving Days begin on May 2; Offers, discounts and more

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Get ready for some shopping as Amazon and Flipkart have announced their much-awaited e-commerce sale starting May 2, 2024. The sale is expected to offer a wide range of products — from electronics to fashion — at discounted prices, attracting millions of shoppers looking for deals and discounts.

Amazon Great Summer Sale: Dates

Amazon Great Summer Sale starts May 2 at noon for regular customers, while the sale will be live at midnight for the Prime members.

The e-commerce site is offering additional discounts via ICICI Bank, Bank of Baroda Bank, and One Card offers during the sale period only.

The microsite offers 20% cashback (T&C apply) for the new customers. It also offers discounts on a wide range of products including, up to 40% off on smartphones, accessories and laptops, up to 75% off on headphones and electronics, up to 70% off on smartwatches, tablets, kitchenware and home appliances, up to 55% discount on air conditioners and refrigerators, no-cost EMIs on TVs, up to 65% off on top-rated TVs and 45% off on Alexa and Fire TV devices.

It will also host pocket-friendly stores, including products ranging from ₹99 and additional deals and discounts in the form of Amazon Coupons, Sample Mania, Cashback rewards, Pre-book, Buy More Save More and Amazon combos.

The e-commerce site will offer a 10% instant discount with ICICI Bank, BoB and OneCard credit and debit cards during the upcoming sale.

Flipkart Big Saving Days: Dates

The Flipkart Big Saving Days sale is scheduled to begin on May 2 for the Flipkart Plus and VIP members. For non-members, the sale begins on May 3 and ends on May 9. The sale price is live and customers can select products from today i.e., May 1, 2024.

During the upcoming Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale, there will be a 10% instant discount for SBI Credit Card & Credit EMI transactions on select products, flat ₹500 off on a net cart value of ₹24,990 and above and flat ₹500 off on a net cart value of ₹49,990 and above.

According to the upcoming Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale, the Apple iPhone 15 will be available at ₹63,999, the Samsung Galaxy S23 will be available at ₹44,999, Samsung Galaxy S22 will be available at ₹34,999 whereas the Apple iPhone 14 will be available at ₹₹54,999 during the event.

Smartphones from Motorola, Nothing, Vivo and others will also be available at discounted prices during the upcoming Flipkart Big Saving Days Sale.

Motorola Edge 50 Pro will cost ₹27,999, Moto Edge 40 Neo will be available at ₹19,999, Moto G64 to ₹12,999, and Moto G34 at ₹9,999.

The Poco M6 will cost at a lower price of ₹7,999 in the sale. The Poco X6 Pro, Poco M6 Pro, Vivo T3, and more will also be on sale.

Apart from this, the platform also mentioned the minimum transaction value and maximum discount per card offered to the customers during the sale.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Amazon snuffs out investor hopes for dividend or share buybacks

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Amazon.com Inc.’s growing cash pile had some investors betting the e-commerce and cloud computing giant would pay a dividend or buy back stock like Meta Platforms Inc. and Alphabet Inc. did earlier this year.

It didn’t happen.

During a post-earnings call with analysts on Tuesday, Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky reiterated Amazon’s long-standing philosophy of re-investing in its business. He mentioned paying down debt and building the data centers required to reap the benefits of the boom in artificial intelligence.

“Our first priority is to invest in, to support the growth opportunities and long-term investments within our businesses, and generally we still have many opportunities for that capital to use that would generate meaningful returns,” Olsavsky said.

The board has long authorised Amazon to repurchase its own shares, but executives have done so only sporadically. Amazon in 2022 announced a program of up to $10 billion in buybacks, but the Seattle-based company hasn’t executed any since the second quarter of that year.

Meta and Alphabet both announced their first dividends this year. Amazon remains by far the largest company by market cap in the S&P 500 that hasn’t made a regular payout to investors.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Microsoft, Amazon AI deals get UK antitrust scrutiny

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

Listen to the Article (6 Minutes)

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Italy fines Amazon 10 million euros for alleged unfair commercial practices

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Italy’s antitrust authority has fined two subsidiaries of Amazon 10 million euros ($10.70 million) for alleged unfair commercial practices, the regulator said on Wednesday.

According to the watchdog, Amazon has “significantly restricted consumers freedom of choice” by automatically pre-setting the ‘Subscribe&Save’ option, for regular scheduled deliveries rather than one-off purchases, for a wide selection of products.

“The pre-ticking of recurring purchase induces one to periodically buy a product — even without the effective need — thus limiting one’s freedom of choice,” the antitrust said in a statement.

Amazon was not immediately available for comment.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

3 Mins Read

Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow