Media mogul Barry Diller ripped Apple over the fees it charges companies that have apps in iPhone maker’s App Store. “[Our apps are] overcharged in a disgusting manner,” the chairman of IAC and Expedia said in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box on Friday. Diller, whose companies have apps in the App Store slammed Apple...Read More

Office-leasing company WeWork lost over $2 billion in the first quarter of 2021, as it prepares to go public through a SPAC deal more than a year after it initially sought to IPO.  The company reported a net loss of $2.06 billion on sales of $598 million. Occupancy rose to 50 percent, up slightly from...Read More

As the pandemic wanes, US retailers are frantically moving to clear excess hand sanitizer. After frantically stocking up on disinfectants last year, consumers have largely stopped buying them, partly because the CDC now says that there is minimal risk of getting COVID-19 by touching surfaces. That’s a big headache for stores that have anti-germ products...Read More

Apple CEO Tim Cook described the company’s ironclad control over its mobile app store as a way to keep things simple for customers while protecting them against security threats and privacy intrusions during Friday testimony denying allegations he has been running an illegal monopoly. The rare courtroom appearance by one of the world’s best-known executives...Read More

 Snap Inc said Friday it will acquire WaveOptics, a British augmented reality technology company, for over $500 million. The deal, first reported by The Verge and confirmed by a Snap spokesman, will help the owner of photo messaging app Snapchat push its way into a future where AR eyewear could be ubiquitous. Snap, along with other tech giants like Facebook and...Read More

Microsoft’s CEO has finally weighed in on reports that the tech giant’s co-founder Bill Gates had an affair with an employee two decades ago — and insists that the company’s culture has changed. “The Microsoft of 2021 is very different from the Microsoft of 2000,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told CNBC on Friday, noting that...Read More

The price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped Friday after Chinese authorities called for a crackdown on “mining” and trading. The Chinese government said in a statement that greater reform and regulation is needed to protect the country’s financial system and economy. Among the recommendations listed, the authorities said it is necessary to “crack down...Read More

Shareholders of Tribune Publishing, parent company of the New York Daily News and one of the country’s largest newspaper chains, voted Friday on a takeover bid by hedge fund Alden Global Capital. In a statement, Alden appeared to say the deal was approved, an assertion questioned by the union representing Tribune journalists. Alden, which already...Read More

Uber and Lyft drivers in California will be forced to shift plans to go electric into high gear under a new rule from the state’s clean-air regulator.  By 2030, at least 90 percent of both ride-hailing companies’ miles driven must be through plug-in vehicles, California’s Air Resources Board decreed on Thursday.  The edict will help...Read More

Tesla is once again jacking up prices on its most popular electric cars, tacking on thousands of dollars as microchip shortages continue to spark production hiccups. The electric carmaker helmed by Elon Musk has hiked prices of its Model 3, its least expensive model and the world’s best-selling plug-in car, by $3,000 so far this...Read More