General Motors is selling its stake in the nearly completed Ultium Cells battery cell plant in Lansing, Michigan to its joint venture partner LG Energy Solution. GM’s step back from the factory comes amid weakening electric vehicle demand and the potential rollback of Biden administration incentives to produce clean energy domestically. GM and LGES initially teamed up in 2019 to form a joint venture to mass produce battery cells for electric vehicles. Since then, the two have poured billions into three fact ...

In Brief An Apple ad-tech employee filed a lawsuit against his employer on Sunday over how the company monitors its employees, reports Semafor.Apple wants its employees to use Apple devices for work but work-issued devices are so restricted that many employees use personal devices, or tie their work devices to their personal iCloud. To do so, the suit says, employees must allow Apple to install software that grants Apple access to search anything stored on the device or iCloud. The suit claims Apple’s polic ...

Company Valuation - Blackrock has reduced the value of its stake in Automattic by 10%, valuing its investment at $37.5 per share, down from $41.7 per share earlier this year [1] - The valuation reduction follows Automattic's publicized legal battle with WP Engine [1] Legal Dispute - Automattic and WP Engine are engaged in a legal battle after Automattic's CEO blocked WP Engine from accessing WordPress org [2] - WP Engine is seeking a preliminary injunction to regain access to WordPress org [2] Ownership Details - Blackrock owns only 0 6% of Automattic and holds no voting rights in the company [2]

Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is the second-biggest driver of internet usage globally. Its properties — and their billions of users — account for 10% of all fixed and 22% of all mobile traffic. Meta’s investments into artificial intelligence stand to boost that usage even further. So to make sure it will have reliable infrastructure to support that business, Meta is taking the pipes into its own hands.TechCrunch has confirmed with sources close to the company that Meta plans to buil ...

In Brief Amazon can finally close the book on a long-running state aid saga in the European Union. The Commission confirmed Thursday it’s shuttered an investigation into whether Luxembourg, the Member State where Amazon has its EU HQ, had granted it “selective tax advantages.” The upshot is Amazon has no unpaid taxes to pay.The case dates back almost a decade at this point. A major development came in 2017 when the Commission concluded Luxembourg had given Amazon illegal tax benefits worth €250 million. How ...

U.S. phone giant T-Mobile said Wednesday that hackers had “no access” to its customers’ calls, text messages, and voicemails during an ongoing industry-wide cyberattack targeting internet and phone companies.T-Mobile’s chief security officer, Jeff Simon, said in a statement that the company detected in recent weeks “attempts to infiltrate our systems,” which Simon said originated from another telecoms company connected to T-Mobile’s network. That company wasn’t named.  “We quickly severed connectivity to t ...

In Brief Chinese autonomous driving technology company Pony AI will start trading on the Nasdaq on Wednesday at an offering price of $13 per share, the higher end of its expected range.With an initial public offering of 20 million American depositary shares, Pony stands to gain at least $260 million at a $4.55 billion from its debut. The proceeds will likely exceed that. Strategic investors are expected to buy around $153 million worth of Pony AI shares in private placements, and the underwriters — Goldman ...

Amazon Japan has said it will collaborate with Japan’s Fair Trade Commission (JFTC) after the watchdog conducted an on-site inspection related to suspected violations of anti-monopoly laws.The e-commerce giant is under suspicion of inappropriately urging vendors to lower their prices on its online shopping platform in return for better product placement, as first reported by Reuters, citing a source. “We are cooperating fully with the [Japanese] authorities,” Amazon Japan spokesperson, Tomoko Inoue, told T ...

In Brief Brazil’s antitrust regulator Cade has ruled that Apple must lift restrictions on in-app purchases within 20 days, Reuters reports. Otherwise, if the iPhone maker doesn’t comply, it faces fines of $43,000 per day.This decision is the result of a complaint filed by e-commerce merchant Mercado Libre in 2022. If you’ve been following recent changes to the App Store around the world, the list of complaints isn’t really surprising. The Brazilian regulator has determined that Apple should allow app devel ...

As Tesla gears up to launch a robotaxi service in the coming years, the automaker looks like it’s building out a teleoperations team. According to a recent job listing, Tesla is hiring a software engineer to help develop a teleoperations system that will allow human operators to remotely access and control the company’s upcoming robotaxis and humanoid robots.The software engineer for the Palo Alto-based role would “drive requirements, make design decisions, and implement software integration for this custom ...