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David Wadhwani, senior vice president of digital media for Adobe, speaks during the launch of Adobe Creative Cloud and CS6 in San Francisco, April 23, 2012.

David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Britain’s top competition watchdog said Tuesday that Adobe‘s proposed $20 billion acquisition of Figma could harm the U.K.’s digital design sector, findings that could mean a major setback for the merger.

The Competition and Markets Authority said the deal could “eliminate competition,” “reduce innovation” and “remove Figma as a threat to Adobe’s flagship Photoshop and Illustrator products,” according to a release. The findings are provisional, but the regulator said it will investigate potential remedies, “which could include blocking the deal outright.”

Adobe announced plans to buy Figma, which allows users to collaborate on app and website design, for $20 billion in September last year. In addition to regulatory probes in the U.K., the deal has been under scrutiny from the U.S. Department of Justice and the European Union.

“Our provisional conclusion is therefore that the Merger would remove competition between close competitors and an important competitive constraint on Figma, in a market in which Figma is already the strongest player by far and there are few other competitive constraints,” the CMA wrote in the release.

A representative for Figma told CNBC the company is “disappointed” by the CMA’s findings and that they “strongly disagree” with the idea that Figma competes with Adobe or will do so in the future.

“The facts are Figma operates in a dynamic and highly-competitive market for product design and development, and Figma has not spent a single dollar or hired a single engineer to build creative tools,” the spokesperson said. “We remain committed to the deal, confident in the facts, and convinced our proposed combination with Adobe is a win for consumers and should be approved.”

Adobe said it is “disappointed” and disagrees with the CMA’s perspective.

“Adobe and Figma will deliver significant value to customers,” Adobe told CNBC in a statement. “We are reviewing the provisional findings and will reengage with the CMA on the facts and merits of the case.”

David Wadhwani, a key Adobe executive behind the Figma deal, expressed frustration in October over the slow pace of regulatory approval. The company has previously said it expects to close the deal this year, and Adobe has agreed to pay Figma $1 billion if either the merger is not completed by March 2024 or it is rejected by regulators.

The CMA requested responses from Adobe and Figma by Dec. 19. The regulator said a final decision will be issued by Feb. 25 next year.

–CNBC’s Jordan Novet contributed to this report.

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Marvell plunges 19% as outlook falls short of high expectations

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Marvell plunges 19% as outlook falls short of high expectations

Matt Murphy, CEO of Marvell Technology.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Marvell Technology shares plummeted more than 19% after the chipmaker’s guidance fell short of some elevated buyside estimates.

For the first fiscal quarter, the chipmaker said it expects sales of about $1.88 billion. That was just ahead of the $1.87 billion expected by analysts polled by LSEG. However, the outlook fell short of some buyside expectations calling for around $2 billion in revenue, disappointing investors after the stock soared 83% in 2024.

The results fueled some concerns about Marvell’s partnership with Amazon Web Services on its Trainium AI chip, and the potential lack of upside for Marvell’s custom application-specific integrated circuits business.

“Solid numbers missed the high watermark set by the rest of the AMZN supply chain,” wrote Barclays analyst Tom O’Malley in a note after the report. “While the company continues to sound good re: the future of their ASIC prospects, the AMZN numbers near term are a bit lower, which is the real sticking point for a market punishing anything not perfect in AI.”

Marvell is known for creating customized chips and hardware used in data centers, networking and infrastructure. The company has benefited from the artificial intelligence boon that has lifted the sector, but chipmakers now face elevated expectations for financial performance.

For the fourth quarter, Marvell reported adjusted earnings per share of 60 cents and revenue of $1.82 billion. That was slightly ahead of the earnings per share estimate of 59 cents and $1.80 billion revenue prediction, according to LSEG.

Data centers revenue came in at $1.37 billion, beating the $1.36 billion average estimate.

Other semiconductor stocks slumped alongside Marvell, with the VanEck Semiconductor ETF last down 4%. AI chip leader Nvidia and Broadcom dropped more than 5% each. Taiwan Semiconductor fell nearly 4%.

— CNBC’s Kristina Partsinevelos contributed reporting.

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Amazon cloud launches service for helping game companies with streaming

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Amazon cloud launches service for helping game companies with streaming

Attendees walk through an exposition hall at AWS re:Invent, a conference hosted by Amazon Web Services, in Las Vegas on Dec. 3, 2024.

Noah Berger | Getty Images

Amazon’s cloud unit said Thursday that it’s launching a service to allow video game publishers to stream their games online.

GameLift Streams will deliver games to any device with a browser that supports the WebRTC standard, Amazon said in a blog post. That includes smart TVs, phones, tablets and PCs. One way the service can be used is to rapidly distribute titles in development to testers, and then securely remove access later.

“Lots of AAA games are using the service in that regard,” Chris Lee, general manager and head of immersive technologies at Amazon Web Services, told CNBC. A handful of companies, such as Electronic Arts and Take-Two Interactive, invest heavily in top-flight games with high production quality.

AWS generates a considerable amount of its revenue from core services such as renting out access to server and storage space, with data centers located around the world. But the company has hundreds of other services available to software developers. For the past decade, AWS has served as Amazon’s main profit engine.

Jackbox Games, a developer of casual games such as “Quiplash” and “Fibbage,” plans to rely on GameLift Streams to release a game-streaming service that will provide access to many of its titles. Jackbox’s games are currenlty available for an upfront fee.

Evan Jacover, Jackbox’s technology chief, said his company looked into building its own technology for streaming but decided to go with AWS after learning of its plans.

“It’s not a core competency at Jackbox Games,” Jacover said, adding the startup had a proof of concept, or POC. “We got a POC up, but it wasn’t efficient to get it really working well.”

Jackbox’s goal is to release an early ad-supported version of its service in the first half of the year, with more games and a subscription option to follow. Because the company’s games aren’t heavy on graphics, they don’t have major latency concerns and can work well on streaming.

Amazon GameLift Streams supports 1080p resolution at 60 frames per second.

“That’s kind of the sweet spot when we talk to customers,” Lee said.

Microsoft’s Xbox Series X and Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro can go up to 4K resolution and 120 frames per second, accommodating more advanced video. But modern game consoles cost hundreds of dollars.

The cost of GameLift Streams is based on which Nvidia graphics processing units customers use, along with consumption of storage for game data. Games can run on Windows or Linux. No modifications are required to integrate the service, the blog post said.

WATCH: Growth in AWS is key to Amazon’s earnings story, says Truist Securities’ Youssef Squali

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More trifold smartphones are popping up after Huawei’s $3,600 splash

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More trifold smartphones are popping up after Huawei's ,600 splash

BARCELONA — China’s Huawei isn’t the only smartphone maker adding a third display to its devices.

At the Mobile World Congress (MWC) trade show in Barcelona, a number of firms were showing off their display technology innovations.

The South Korean tech giant Samsung revealed its new “trifold” concept devices at the event: the Flex G and Flex S.

The Flex G has three screens and folds flat inwards and outwards, a bit like a book. The Flex S, on the other hand, has a more zigzag-like shape. It’s meant to resemble an “S” — hence the name.

The Flex S is another concept device Samsung showed off at MWC. It folds in a more zigzag-like way to make an “S” shape.

Ryan Browne | CNBC

It comes after Chinese tech giant Huawei last month launched its new Mate XT, a 3,499 euro ($3,678.56) smartphone with three screens, in international markets.

Samsung stressed that its Flex G and S models were only concept devices — so don’t expect to find them on shelves anytime soon.

Still, it’s a sign of where smartphone makers are seeing the next wave of innovation.

‘Sea of sameness’

The smartphone market has hit something of a plateau over recent years, with many models not straying far from the standard form factor of a bar-shaped device.

'Sea of sameness': Are smartphone makers out of ideas?

Apple set the tone for what the devices in our pockets would look like when it launched the first iPhone in 2008. But smartphone makers are now trying to pull the market out of this so-called “sea of sameness.”

On Tuesday, British consumer tech startup Nothing launched its new Phone (3a), a 329-euro ($356.28) budget model with a quirky design and LED light system that lights up when you get calls or notifications.

Nothing co-founder Akis Evangelidis — who is planning a move to India as the startup plans an aggressive expansion push in the country — told CNBC the company is trying to shake up the smartphone market with something more fun and unique.

Using the Indian market as an example, Evangelidis said: “People are walking away from pure functional needs when it comes to product. They aspire to brands that have more of an emotional benefit, and I think that’s where the opportunity is.”

Innovating on display

However, although smartphone makers have been aggressively working to release new folding devices, the category remains a relatively niche area of the market.

Plus, folding phones can represent a big jump for the average consumer.

For one, they tend to be bulkier than non-folding phones because of the additional screen. And they’re not cheap, either. According to data from market research firm IDC, the average selling price of folding phones is nearly three times higher than that of normal smartphones — roughly $1,218 vs. $421 for non-folding phones.

While the foldable phone market grew 6.4% year-over-year to 19.3 million units, the category “represents only 1.6% of total global shipments,” according to Francisco Jeronimo, vice president EMEA for devices at IDC.

Nevertheless, this year at MWC, phone companies showed they’re getting better at developing folding phones that can better cater to everyday users.

For example, Oppo showed off its new Find N5 device this week. It only has two screens, but it’s a lot thinner than competing folding phones, such as Samsung’s Galaxy Fold 6.

Samsung currently holds the leading position in the global foldables segment. In 2024, it commanded a 32.9% share of the market. Huawei was close behind, with 23.1%, while Motorola was the third-biggest folding phone manufacturer with 17% market share. 

And despite the punchy prices, these companies are betting consumers will be willing to pay for a more premium-grade experience.

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