Plus, Fortnite maker Epic Games says it’s suing Google and Samsung over alleged app-store scheme. And DirectTV agrees to merge with rival Dish. Zoe Thomas hosts.
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[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_01]: Here's your TNB Tech Minute for Monday, September 30th. I'm Zoe Thomas for the Wall Street Journal.
[00:00:38] [SPEAKER_01]: German antitrust officials say they're placing Microsoft under closer surveillance to prevent
[00:00:43] [SPEAKER_01]: the company from engaging in any anti-competitive practices. Germany's Federal Cartel Office
[00:00:49] [SPEAKER_01]: said Microsoft was of paramount significance for cross-border competition, citing the
[00:00:55] [SPEAKER_01]: dominance of Microsoft's products across governments, businesses and households to justify
[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_01]: its decision. Officials say the company will be subject to so-called special abuse control
[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_01]: for five years. A Microsoft spokesperson said it would work with antitrust officials.
[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_01]: Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, says it filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google
[00:01:17] [SPEAKER_01]: and Samsung, claiming the pair secretly colluded and imposed onerous restrictions on new
[00:01:22] [SPEAKER_01]: third-party app stores. According to Epic's complaint, a feature called AutoBlocker is active
[00:01:28] [SPEAKER_01]: by default on Samsung's newest smartphones, which prevents users from downloading alternative
[00:01:34] [SPEAKER_01]: app stores. Turning off the feature and installing a third-party app store requires 21 steps.
[00:01:40] [SPEAKER_01]: That effectively makes Google Play the only viable app store on those devices. A spokesman
[00:01:45] [SPEAKER_01]: for Samsung said the company conducts its operations fairly and that features integrated into its
[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_01]: devices are designed in accordance with its core principles of security, privacy and user
[00:01:55] [SPEAKER_01]: control. A spokesman for Google said the lawsuit is quote, meritless.
[00:02:00] [SPEAKER_01]: And private equity firm TPG agreed to purchase AT&T's remaining stake in Direct TV and then
[00:02:07] [SPEAKER_01]: merged the satellite company with rival Dish. The pair of deals is designed to keep the
[00:02:12] [SPEAKER_01]: PayTV provider competitive in the streaming era. TPG, which already owns 30% of Direct
[00:02:18] [SPEAKER_01]: TV, will pay AT&T roughly $7.6 billion for the remainder of the company. In a separate
[00:02:25] [SPEAKER_01]: transaction announced today, Direct TV agreed to buy Dish from owner EchoStart for just
[00:02:30] [SPEAKER_01]: $1, plus the assumption of roughly $9.8 billion in debt. For the merger to go through, it
[00:02:37] [SPEAKER_01]: will need approval from bondholders and regulators. For a deeper dive into what's
[00:02:42] [SPEAKER_01]: happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing podcast.