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Microsoft President Brad Smith says it's a 'good day for gamers' after Nintendo, Nvidia deals

BRUSSELS — Microsoft said Tuesday it will bring its Xbox PC games to Nvidia’s cloud gaming service, after the chipmaker had reportedly expressed opposition to a major Microsoft gaming deal.

The announcement comes after Microsoft President Brad Smith met with European Union officials on Tuesday in a bid to convince them that its planned $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard will be good for competition.

Microsoft is offering the olive branch to stop the takeover from being blocked and thereby expand its gaming unit, which represents 9% of its total revenue. While sales of Microsoft’s Xbox consoles are slowing down, the company has been drawing on its cash pile to expand the collection of games it can sell and allow people to play through its cloud data centers.

Microsoft President Brad Smith said at a press conference that, effective immediately, its Xbox games will be available on Nvidia’s GeForce Now cloud games service. Smith said if the Activision deal closes, it will bring all Activision Blizzard titles to GeForce Now.

Nvidia is now on board with Microsoft’s pending deal for regulatory purposes, the two companies said in a joint statement confirming the two companies 10-year deal. In January Bloomberg reported that Nvidia had gone to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission with complaints about the Activision deal.

“Combining the incredibly rich catalog of Xbox first party games with GeForce Now’s high-performance streaming capabilities will propel cloud gaming into a mainstream offering that appeals to gamers at all levels of interest and experience,” Jeff Fisher, Nvidia’s senior vice president for GeForce, was quoted as saying. “Through this partnership, more of the world’s most popular titles will now be available from the cloud with just a click, playable by millions more gamers.”

Microsoft proposed its Activision Blizzard acquisition in January 2022, but since then, the buyer has faced pushback from regulators in the U.S., European Union and U.K.

The Nvidia arrangement is meaningful because “now we’re addressing the full range of issues that have been raised by regulators as topics of not just interest but in some cases concern,” Smith said at the press conference.

In November, the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, opened an in-depth investigation into the deal citing concerns that it could reduce competition in the video games market.

Activision Blizzard is the company behind popular game franchise Call of Duty. The EU commission said last year it is concerned that Microsoft could block access to the game on other platforms if the deal goes through.

The commission is also concerned that it could give Microsoft an unfair edge in the nascent area of cloud gaming. Microsoft has a service called Game Pass through which it charges gamers $9.99 per month to access a library of games. The Activision takeover would add some high-profile titles to Game Pass.

Nvidia’s GeForce Now has over 25 million members, while Microsoft said last year that 25 million people subscribe to Game Pass. Nvidia offers free and paid GeForce Now tiers, although high resolution is only available to those who pay. Members of GeForce Now will be able to stream through the cloud the games they buy through Microsoft’s app store, along with games listed in Epic Games and Steam’s app stores.

In December, Microsoft said it had “entered into a 10-year commitment” to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo when the Activision acquisition closes. The announcement was seen as a move to assuage regulators’ antitrust concerns. On Tuesday, Smith tweeted that the two signs have now signed a “binding 10-year legal agreement” to bring Call of Duty to Nintendo players on the same day as Microsoft’s Xbox, “with full feature and content parity.”

Smith declined to comment on the views of the European Commission in the hearing, but said the Nintendo and Nvidia deals are good for competition in the gaming market.

“I think if you’re a competition regulator, and you’re focused on the interests of consumers and competition, today was a good day,” Smith told CNBC.

Microsoft hopes for Sony deal

Smith on Tuesday led a delegation that included Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer and Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick, Reuters reported, citing a European Commission document that the news agency had seen. Sony’s gaming chief Jim Ryan was also in attendance, Reuters added. Sony, Microsoft’s biggest rival, opposes the Activision takeover.

Microsoft logo is seen on a smartphone placed on displayed Activision Blizzard logo in this illustration taken January 18, 2022.

Dado Ruvic | Reuters

Sony was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Smith held up a piece of paper saying it is an agreement he is ready to send to Sony.

Smith told CNBC that Microsoft is offering Sony the same agreement as Nintendo — to have Call of Duty available on the PlayStation the same time as Xbox with the same features. However, Sony still remains opposed to the deal.

“I live with the hope that we’ll come to terms with Sony,” Smith told CNBC.

“We’re not there yet. But I do think as we make progress with others, if we can get a deal done with Nintendo, if we can get an agreement with Nvidia, it should provide a path forward that others like Sony can build on as well.”

U.K., U.S. regulators take aim at deal

It’s not only European regulators that have concerns about the deal.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority said this month that the takeover raises competition concerns and may result in higher prices, fewer choices and less innovation. The regulator said it could move to block the deal and suggested several remedies Microsoft could take. One of those involved Microsoft divesting the business responsible for Call of Duty.

Smith said that Microsoft doesn’t see a “feasible path” to sell off the Call of Duty game.

“It just isn’t something that seems to be lining up,” Smith told CNBC.

“The only reason to sell it off is the CMA’s potential concern that if we buy it, we won’t provide it to others as broadly. I think that concern should be dispelled by the two agreements we’ve signed today.”

In December, the FTC filed an antitrust case against Microsoft attempting to block the Activision deal.

Google parent Alphabet also went to the FTC with dissatisfaction about Microsoft’s deal, Bloomberg reported.

“The European Commission asked for our views in the course of their inquiries into this issue. We will continue to cooperate in any processes, when requested, to ensure all views are considered,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC in an email.

Smith declined to comment on Alphabet’s exact concerns with the Activision deal but recognized the company’s potential misgivings.

“It’s easy to understand that Google might have questions about whether something like Call of Duty would be available in the future on say Chromebooks and the Chrome operating system,” Smith said.

The Nvidia agreement addresses that as the GeForce Now cloud gaming service is available on ChromeOS, Smith said. Microsoft is able to maintain compliance with the sorts agreements with European regulators that might require it to keep Call of Duty on Chrome OS, he said during the press conference.

“With the agreement we’ve done with Nvidia, we’ve just ensured Google will benefit as well,” Smith said.

Microsoft has maintained that its takeover of Activision Blizzard would not harm competition in video gaming and instead increase competition against large players like Sony and Chinese giant Tencent.

Microsoft has remained behind the likes of Sony and Nintendo in the video-gaming business. Microsoft’s Xboxes have lagged Sony’s PlayStation 5 and Nintendo’s Switch. Sony and Nintendo’s popularity has come from its large number of successful first-party games. Microsoft is looking to boost its games library with the Activision acquisition.

Activision Blizzard shares edged up during Tuesday’s U.S. trading session following the announcement.

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Amazon was questioned by House China committee over ‘dangerous and unwise’ TikTok partnership

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Amazon was questioned by House China committee over 'dangerous and unwise' TikTok partnership

Amazon logo on a brick building exterior, San Francisco, California, August 20, 2024.

Smith Collection | Gado | Archive Photos | Getty Images

Amazon representatives met with the House China committee in recent months to discuss lawmaker concerns over the company’s partnership with TikTok, CNBC confirmed.

A spokesperson for the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party confirmed the meeting, which centered on a shopping deal between Amazon and TikTok announced in August. The agreement allows users of TikTok, owned by China’s ByteDance, to link their account with Amazon and make purchases from the site without leaving TikTok.

“The Select Committee conveyed to Amazon that it is dangerous and unwise for Amazon to partner with TikTok given the grave national security threat the app poses,” the spokesperson said. The parties met in September, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the news.

Representatives from Amazon and TikTok did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment.

TikTok’s future viability in the U.S. is uncertain. In April, President Joe Biden signed a law that requires ByteDance to sell TikTok by Jan. 19. If TikTok fails to cut ties with its parent company, app stores and internet hosting services would be prohibited from offering the app.

President-elect Donald Trump could rescue TikTok from a potential U.S. ban. He promised on the campaign trail that he would “save” TikTok, and said in a March interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box” that “there’s a lot of good and there’s a lot of bad” with the app.

In his first administration, Trump had tried to implement a TikTok ban. He changed his stance around the time he met with billionaire Jeff Yass. The Republican megadonor’s trading firm, Susquehanna International Group, owns a 15% stake in ByteDance, while Yass has a 7% stake in the company, NBC and CNBC reported in March.

— CNBC’s Jonathan Vanian contributed to this report.

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Amazon launches fixed pricing for treatment of conditions such as hair loss. Hims & Hers stock drops 15%

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Amazon launches fixed pricing for treatment of conditions such as hair loss. Hims & Hers stock drops 15%

A worker delivers Amazon packages in San Francisco on Oct. 24, 2024.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Amazon on Thursday announced Prime members can access new fixed pricing for treatment of conditions like erectile dysfunction and men’s hair loss, its latest effort to compete with other direct-to-consumer marketplaces such as Hims & Hers Health and Ro.

Shares of Hims & Hers fell as much as 17% on Thursday, on pace for its worst day.

Amazon said in a blog post that Prime members can see the cost of a telehealth visit and their desired treatment before they decide to proceed with care for five common issues. Patients can access treatment for anti-aging skin care starting at $10 a month; motion sickness for $2 per use; erectile dysfunction at $19 a month; eyelash growth at $43 a month, and men’s hair loss for $16 a month by using Amazon’s savings benefit Prime Rx at checkout.

Amazon acquired primary care provider One Medical for roughly $3.9 billion in July 2022, and Thursday’s announcement builds on its existing pay-per-visit telehealth offering. Video visits through the service cost $49, and messaging visits cost $29 where available. Users can get treatment for more than 30 common conditions, including sinus infection and pink eye.

Medications filled through Amazon Pharmacy are eligible for discounted pricing and will be delivered to patients’ doors in standard Amazon packaging. Prime members will pay for the consultation and medication, but there are no additional fees, the blog post said.

Amazon has been trying to break into the lucrative health-care sector for years. The company launched its own online pharmacy in 2020 following its acquisition of PillPack in 2018. Amazon introduced, and later shuttered, a telehealth service called Amazon Care, as well as a line of health and wellness devices.

The company has also discontinued a secretive effort to develop an at-home fertility tracker, CNBC reported Wednesday.

— CNBC’s Annie Palmer contributed to this report.

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WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning says censorship is still ‘a dominant threat’

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WikiLeaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning says censorship is still 'a dominant threat'

Chelsea Manning: Censorship still a dominant threat

Former U.S. Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning says censorship is still “a dominant threat,” advocating for a more decentralized internet to help better protect individuals online.

Her comments come amid ongoing tension linked to online safety rules, with some tech executives recently seeking to push back over content moderation concerns.

Speaking to CNBC’s Karen Tso at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on Wednesday, Manning said that one way to ensure online privacy could be “decentralized identification,” which gives individuals the ability to control their own data.

“Censorship is a dominant threat. I think that it is a question of who’s doing the censoring, and what the purpose is — and also censorship in the 21st century is more about whether or not you’re boosted through like an algorithm, and how the fine-tuning of that seems to work,” Manning said.

“I think that social media and the monopolies of social media have sort of gotten us used to the fact that certain things that drive engagement will be attractive,” she added.

“One of the ways that we can sort of countervail that is to go back to the more decentralized and distribute the internet of the early ’90s, but make that available to more people.”

Nym Technologies Chief Security Officer Chelsea Manning at a press conference held with Nym Technologies CEO Harry Halpin in the Media Village to present NymVPN during the second day of Web Summit on November 13, 2024 in Lisbon, Portugal. 

Horacio Villalobos | Getty Images News | Getty Images

Asked how tech companies could make money in such a scenario, Manning said there would have to be “a better social contract” put in place to determine how information is shared and accessed.

“One of the things about distributed or decentralized identification is that through encryption you’re able to sort of check the box yourself, instead of having to depend on the company to provide you with a check box or an accept here, you’re making that decision from a technical perspective,” Manning said.

‘No longer secrecy versus transparency’

Manning, who works as a security consultant at Nym Technologies, a company that specializes in online privacy and security, was convicted of espionage and other charges at a court-martial in 2013 for leaking a trove of secret military files to online media publisher WikiLeaks.

She was sentenced to 35 years in prison, but was later released in 2017, when former U.S. President Barack Obama commuted her sentence.

Asked to what extent the environment has changed for whistleblowers today, Manning said, “We’re at an interesting time because information is everywhere. We have more information than ever.”

She added, “Countries and governments no longer seem to invest the same amount of time and effort in hiding information and keeping secrets. What countries seem to be doing now is they seem to be spending more time and energy spreading misinformation and disinformation.”

Manning said the challenge for whistleblowers now is to sort through the information to understand what is verifiable and authentic.

“It’s no longer secrecy versus transparency,” she added.

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