Tech Giants Operate Under the Radar to Buy Market Power

Since February 2020, staff members at the Federal Trade Commission have been studying past acquisitions by Google, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft – several years’ worth of deals that did not require reporting to antitrust authorities because the deal sizes fell below regulatory requirements. FTC Chair Lina M. Khan says the study reveals “the extent to which these firms have devoted tremendous resources to acquiring start-ups, patent portfolios, and entire teams of technologists—and how they were able to do so largely outside of our purview.” She said the Commission’s enforcement actions have focused on how these companies “buy their way out of competing.” READ MORE

Think remote meetings are hard? Hybrid meetings are much more complicated

Think all-remote meetings are difficult? Running an effective and productive meeting is going to be even harder in a hybrid office...at least at first.

When everyone is in person in the same room or when they are squished into the same small virtual boxes, the playing field is even for everyone participating in the meeting. But that dynamic changes with a hybrid workforce, in which some meeting participants are in the office and others are remote. READ MORE

A billionaire wants to build a utopia in the US desert. Seems like this could go wrong

Welcome to Telosa, a $400bn “city of the future,” according to its founder, the billionaire Marc Lore. The city doesn’t exist yet, nor is it clear which state will house the experiment, but the architects of the proposed 150,000-acre project are scouting the American south-west. They’re already predicting the first residents can move in by 2030.

Telosa will eventually house 5 million people, according to its website, and benefit from a halo of utopian promises: avant-garde architecture, drought resistance, minimal environmental impact, communal resources. This hypothetical metropolis promises to take some of the most cutting-edge ideas about sustainability and urban design and make them reality. READ MORE

FTC Releases Study of Big-Tech Mergers

In another sign that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is seeking to beef up antitrust enforcement, the agency has released a study of Big Tech mergers that fly “under the radar” of reporting requirements.

The FTC has been studying Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Microsoft since February 2020. On Wednesday, it announced that the review found the companies made 616 nonreportable transactions of more than $1 million between the beginning of 2010 and end of 2019. READ MORE

Laws that deter companies from going public cost our economy dearly

Over the past 20 years, the U.S. has made it much more costly for public corporations to comply with the array of regulations that govern their behavior. Unsurprisingly, this has led to fewer companies choosing to become publicly traded, and that development has hurt the U.S. economy. 

That we are continuing to add to the burdensome reporting requirements for public companies means this trend likely will accelerate and the U.S. economy will pay a price with fewer jobs created, lower productivity and wages, and greater wealth inequality. READ MORE

High steel prices have manufacturers scrounging for supplies

Manufacturers are facing the highest steel and aluminum prices in years, another hurdle for U.S. companies already struggling to make enough cars, cans and other products.

Rapidly increasing metal costs are pushing manufacturers to take what steel they can get and hire more people to seek out available supplies, company executives said. The rising costs are flowing through to some producers of consumer goods: Campbell Soup Co. CPB +1.43% is paying more to get the cans it fills with tomato soup; Peloton Interactive Inc. PTON -2.57% is seeing prices rise for parts that go into its stationary bikes; and Steelcase Inc. SCS +1.20% is paying more to make metal desks and filing cabinets. Car makers like Ford Motor Co. F +2.14% and General Motors Co. are also dealing with rising metal prices. READ MORE

FCC Commissioner reacts to blistering Facebook report: Time to 'engage' in Section 230 reform

FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr joined "Cavuto: Coast to Coast" Thursday to discuss reports that revealed the damaging consequences from Facebook’s decision-making and the possibility of revisiting Section 230 reform.

"I think what this really bombshell reporting exposes is that the so-called self-regulation efforts by social media companies have been little more than a smokescreen," said the FCC Commissioner. "As these reports come out, more and more people are seeing through it," he added. READ MORE

Labor shortage poses biggest threat to US economy, most CFOs say

The  U.S. economy is poised for a strong recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, but faces fresh risks from a widespread labor shortage and rising infections among the unvaccinated, according to a survey of American CFOs.

Although 78% of CFOs surveyed by the Deloitte Global CFO Program said that economic conditions in North America are "good" or "very good" – an increase from the previous quarter – only 54% think the outlook is set to improve over the course of the next year. READ MORE

A Closer Look At Theranos’ Big-Name Investors, Partners And Board As Elizabeth Holmes’ Criminal Trial Begins

Theranos was once a Silicon Valley golden child, expanding rapidly, partnering with a major pharmacy, and raising over a billion dollars in funding.

But all of that came crashing down after a series of explosive reports, starting in 2015, by The Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou called into question the efficacy of Theranos’ technology. The company claimed its technology could run blood tests with just a prick of a finger, but it was later revealed that Theranos used traditional blood testing machines for the majority of its tests, and that its own technology could produce inaccurate test results. READ MORE

Biology Starts to Get a Technological Makeover

Two white-coated lab technicians, seated at work stations in a corner, are vastly outnumbered by the machines. Robotic arms calibrate liquids in microdrops. Small trays, with 96 tiny wells each, shuttle around the lab on magnetic tracks. Centrifuges whir. Gene sequencers hum.

The highly mechanized lab — operated by Ginkgo Bioworks, a fast-growing start-up in Boston — is an engine room of synthetic biology, an emerging field that applies the tools of engineering and computing to make entirely new organisms or genetically turbocharge existing ones. READ MORE

For many workers, the return to offices has become ‘The Great Wait.’ It’s costing employers millions

On Tuesday, Google became the latest major company to announce another delay in its return-to-office plan, pushing its reopening date to January 2022. Most recently, the tech giant planned its return for October, which was a delay from September, which was a delay from July 2021.

Companies including Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Starbucks already announced postponements with similar timelines, and more employers are expected to follow as the U.S. heads into the fall with the delta variant spreading throughout much of the country. READ MORE

Lead Qualification Process: A Step-by-Step Guide

Sales lead qualification has always been a time-consuming and intensive process. Generating leads is a challenge in itself, then you must determine if that lead can be qualified as a sales prospect, which takes time, research and often connecting with leads directly. 

The good news is there are a number of strategies, techniques and frameworks that can make the lead qualification process a bit less daunting and help you score, qualify and move leads through the sales cycle more efficiently. READ MORE

For the Office, the Future Is Now

Throughout the past year, countless conversations have been prompted by the question “What will the post-COVID-19 office look like?” Understandably so, as the pandemic has rapidly changed the built environment in unparalleled ways.

But at ThinkLab, we’ve been wondering whether that’s even the right question to ask. The “future” of the workplace makes it sound as though we’re headed toward a fixed, monolithic destination. In reality, aren’t we all on the metaphorical job site together, hammers in hand, building and defining our individual realities in real time? With this in mind, our team is challenging the concept of “normal,” but probably not in the way you might think. Here’s how—and why. READ MORE

Who’s Raking Off All Your Awful Office Meetings?

This year’s Labor Day finds millions of Americans — those who labor in offices — almost bubbling about the prospects for an epic transformation of their workspaces. Within Corporate America, working remotely may soon become a permanent standard operating practice.

Imagine that. No more horrific daily commutes. No more stressing in cramped cubicles. And, maybe most of all, no more hours spent trapped in corporate meeting rooms that deaden the soul. READ MORE