In a shocking turn of events, Jamie Spears has filed to end his pop star daughter’s controversial 13-year conservatorship, moving to resolve a polarizing legal battle that’s drawn massive public scrutiny.  In court filings late Tuesday, the elder Spears stated that Britney “is entitled to have this Court now seriously consider whether this conservatorship is no longer required.” The document read that Britney Spears’ circumstances have changed “to such an extent that grounds for… Source link

Every year, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) pays for the placement of Google as the default search engine in web browsers. It files those payments under “traffic acquisition costs,” or TAC, on its income statement. Last year, Alphabet paid nearly $33 billion in TAC, and one company benefited greatly from those payments: Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL). Apple collected around $10 billion in TAC payments last year, according to estimates from Bernstein… Source link

Amazon and Microsoft have taken on much of the same work Google was scheduled to do for the DOD in providing analysis tools for aerial footage, contract records show. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Getty Images After Google decided to quit working on Project Maven in 2018 thanks to staff protests, rivals Amazon and Microsoft quietly took on Department of Defense contracts worth $50 million to help the military identify objects from drone and other aerial footage,… Source link

By Dhirendra Tripathi Investing.com – Nio ADRs (NYSE:NIO) traded 3% weaker in Wednesday’s premarket in response to the Chinese electric vehicle maker’s plans to sell up to $2 billion in new American depositary shares to fund its expansion. The deal will represent an increase of around 3% in the company’s share count. Each ADS, each representing one Class A ordinary share of the company, will be issued through an at-the-market offering program. The ADSs will be offered through Credit Suisse… Source link

Technology sector updates Sign up to myFT Daily Digest to be the first to know about Technology sector news. Apple often portrays the App Store as the democratisation of software. Since 2008, developers everywhere have been able to use Apple’s code to create new smartphone applications, and users can find and try them there, knowing that the company has vetted the offerings. Now both the App Store and its rival Google Play are under attack as cut-throat monopolies that… Source link

This article first appeared in the Morning Brief. Get the Morning Brief sent directly to your inbox every Monday to Friday by 6:30 a.m. ET. Subscribe Wednesday, September 8, 2021 A country’s embrace of bitcoin puts 2 competing crypto visions on display Tuesday marked what one observer called the “start of a new world,” as El Salvador officially became the first country to accept bitcoin as legal tender.  The eagerly anticipated move is a big test of cryptocurrency’s staying power, and… Source link

Stocks weakened on Wednesday in directionless trade, poised to extend the previous day’s declines as rising COVID-19 infections momentarily upending expectations about growth. In Tuesday’s regular session, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 Index lost ground, but the technology-laced Nasdaq bucked the trend by posting a marginal gain. The market has mostly taken disappointing news in stride, but August’s jobs data falling far short of market expectations last week tempered hopes for… Source link

Warren Buffett says these are the very best businesses to own Never forget the basics. While we’re constantly bombarded with confusing investment mumbo jumbo, we should never forget that companies largely exist for one main reason: to take capital from investors and earn a return on it. That’s why it makes sense for investors to look for businesses, with durable competitive advantages, that are able to consistently deliver high returns on capital. As Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett… Source link

Hedge fund manager Mark Spitznagel, the founder of $11 billion “Black Swan” hedge fund Universa Investments, says investors have been getting risk mitigation wrong from the start. “Our goals are even wrong. And really, we have Modern Portfolio Theory to thank us for this. But it’s just kind of a heuristic of investing that you need to take more risk in order to get higher returns, in order to get more wealth at the end of the day. And as you take less risk, your returns are going to go down,”… Source link

Apple and Google hired a bevy of lobbyists in Arizona in early 2021 to kill legislation that would have slashed the profits the companies make through their app stores.  Rep. Regina Cobb was subjected to a flood of text messages and phone calls from those lobbyists in February when she authored an amendment that would have barred Apple and Google from forcing developers to route all in-app payments through their platforms — a policy that lets the tech… Source link