The ads, which ran Wednesday in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, carried the headline “We’re standing up to Apple for small businesses everywhere.” They home in on upcoming changes to Apple’s iOS 14 operating system that will curb the ability of companies like Facebook to gather data about users and ply them with targeted advertising.
Facebook previously told investors that Apple’s changes, scheduled to go live early next year, will lead to significant headwinds because most of its advertisers are small businesses. Apple has pushed back, accusing Facebook in November of showing a “disregard for user privacy.”
EU Reporter
Published 3 months ago
The European Commission has approved the acquisition of Fitbit by Google. The approval is conditional on full compliance with concessions offered by Google to the European Commission.
Executive Vice President Margrethe Vestager, with responsibility for competition policy, said: “We can approve the proposed acquisition of Fitbit by Google because the commitments will ensure that the market for wearables and the nascent digital health space will remain open and competitive. The commitments will determine how Google can use the data collected for ad purposes, how interoperability between competing wearables and Android will be safeguarded and how users can continue to share health and fitness data, if they choose to.”
The EU Commission Approves Google s Acquisition of Fitbit though Subject to Strict Conditions
In November 2019 Patently Apple posted a report titled Google s Parent Company Announces Acquisition of Fitbit. The acquisition was announced after the company had a big Q3 2019 earnings miss. The $2.1 billion price tag bought Google a dedicated team to advance their Pixel Watch plans which have been rumored for years. With Fitbit and Alphabet s finances, they may be able to put together a product line that might be able to challenge Apple Watch down the road.
Today, Google finally won European Union approval for its US$2.1 billion takeover of health tracker Fitbit Inc., days after regulators proposed tougher rules to curb powerful technology firms’ push into new services.
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Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) fired a salvo at
Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL), saying it hopes the latest European Union draft rules on reigning in powers of tech giants sets limits for the latter, Reuters reported Tuesday.
What Happened: The Mark Zuckerberg-led social media giant reportedly pointed to the draft Digital Markets Act, which targets large companies and is aimed at forcing them to stop favoring their own services on their platforms, in its attack on Apple.
“We hope the DMA will also set boundaries for Apple,” a Facebook spokesman said, adding that the Cupertino, California-based tech giant “controls an entire ecosystem from device to app store and apps,” Reuters reported.