Latest news with #Meta Platforms
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta strengthens portfolio with PlayAI acquisition
Facebook-parent Meta Platforms has reportedly acquired PlayAI, a startup specialising in AI-powered voice technology. The PlayAI team is scheduled to integrate into Meta week commencing 13 July 2025, Bloomberg reported citing an internal memo. They will report to Johan Schalkwyk, who joined Meta from another voice AI startup Sesame AI. Financial details of the acquisition were not divulged. However, a Meta spokesperson confirmed the deal to the publication without providing further details. PlayAI's AI Agent platform is designed to create conversational agents capable of understanding and responding to user inputs in a natural manner. The platform combines advanced language models with high-quality text-to-speech technology to facilitate human-like interactions. According to the internal memo, PlayAI's expertise in natural voice creation aligns well with Meta's objectives in AI Characters, Meta AI, Wearables, and audio content creation. The acquisition is also aligned with Meta's broader strategy to prioritise AI. The company is investing significantly in infrastructure, including chips and data centres, and is actively recruiting talent to develop AI models and features. Recently, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, announced a restructuring of the company's AI division. The new unit, called Meta Superintelligence Labs led by former Scale AI CEO Alexandr Wang, will work to accelerate the development of artificial general intelligence and enhance Meta's revenue through AI applications, image-to-video advertising, and smart glasses. Meta also invested around €3bn ($3.5bn) earlier in July 2025 to acquire a nearly 3% stake in EssilorLuxottica, the eyewear manufacturer known for the Ray-Ban brand. The investment strengthened the ongoing collaboration between Meta and EssilorLuxottica on AI-enabled smart glasses. "Meta strengthens portfolio with PlayAI acquisition" was originally created and published by Verdict, a GlobalData owned brand. The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Tax Law Quietly Takes Aim at Popular Perk: Office Snacks
(Bloomberg) -- The SkinnyPop in the break room may not last. Donald Trump is targeting the office snack. Singer Akon's Failed Futuristic City in Senegal Ends Up a $1 Billion Resort Why Did Cars Get So Hard to See Out Of? Can Americans Just Stop Building New Highways? How German Cities Are Rethinking Women's Safety — With Taxis Philadelphia Trash Piles Up as Garbage Workers' Strike Drags On The president's signature tax law allows a long-standing business deduction for the cost of food provided to employees to expire, imperiling a workplace perk popularized during Silicon Valley's dot-com boom that is now an emblem of modern office culture. A well-stocked pantry is now a staple at Wall Street banks, among other places. US companies that continue to provide office snacks, coffee or on-site lunches will see them taxed after Dec. 31, when the deduction will be eliminated. The tax change gained little attention as the sprawling, nearly 1,000-page legislation moved through Congress and it isn't yet clear how companies will respond. A spokesperson for Goldman Sachs Group Inc., which provides employees $30 stipends for 'out of hours' meals and a pantry stocked with complementary coffee and snacks, declined to comment on what the company will do when the tax deduction ends. So did a spokesperson for Meta Platforms Inc., another company known for employees' ready access to free food and coffee. Spokespeople for for Alphabet Inc.'s Google didn't respond to requests for comment. Far from Wall Street and Silicon Valley, Alaska's fishing industry was spared from higher-cost noshes. The state's fishermen earned a carve-out in a bid to keep Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski's support for the overall bill, which squeaked by only with Vice President JD Vance casting a tie-breaking vote. No such luck for Maine's lobstermen, whose senator, Republican Susan Collins, didn't vote for the legislation. Restaurants will also be able to deduct the cost of employee meals, a long-standing tradition for kitchen and wait staff. But that will no longer be the case for most other employers, including factories and hospitals, many of which also offer workers free or subsidized meals or snacks. Eliminating the deduction is projected to raise $32 billion in additional taxes on employers through 2034, according to Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation. Free food has become broadly entrenched in workplaces, with 44% of US employers now providing free snacks, double the rate a decade ago, according to surveys conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management. Free office pantries and cafes have been celebrated in recent decades for encouraging employees to work longer hours, boosting morale and sparking creative collaboration through chance encounters. Google co-founder Sergey Brin has been widely quoted as instructing his office designers to assure no employee was more than 200 feet away from food. Trump's 2017 tax law halved the deduction for employer-provided food and scheduled it for elimination at the end of this year, as the administration sought to lower that law's budget impact when a host of breaks expired Dec. 31. The new tax legislation Trump signed on July 4 rolled back most of the year-end scheduled tax increases but maintained elimination of office snack-deduction, except for the Alaska and restaurant carveouts. Still, Ali Sabeti, chief executive officer of ZeroCater Inc., a San Francisco-based corporate catering company whose more than 1,000 clients include major banks and tech companies such as Roku Inc. — said he doesn't expect to lose business as a result. The catering company didn't lose clients in 2017, when the deduction was reduced to 50%, he said. 'It's pretty inelastic,' Sabeti said. 'When you take a tax deduction away, the cost is going to go up, but companies will continue to spend, just like if you took away a deduction on a laptop.' Trump's Cuts Are Making Federal Data Disappear 'Our Goal Is to Get Their Money': Inside a Firm Charged With Scamming Writers for Millions Will Trade War Make South India the Next Manufacturing Hub? Soccer Players Are Being Seriously Overworked Trade War? No Problem—If You Run a Trade School ©2025 Bloomberg L.P. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CNA
3 days ago
- Business
- CNA
S&P 500 recedes from record highs as tariffs sour sentiment
NEW YORK: Wall Street ended lower on Friday (July 11), with Meta Platforms META.O weighing on the S&P 500 after President Donald Trump intensified his tariff offensive against Canada, amplifying the uncertainty swirling around US trade policy. Trump late on Thursday ramped up his tariff assault on Canada, saying the US would impose a 35% tariff on imports next month and planned to impose blanket tariffs of 15% or 20% on most other trading partners. The S&P 500 eased from a record high the day before, with caution prevailing after Trump on Thursday imposed 50% tariffs on Brazil and as the European Union braced for a possible letter from Trump with details on fresh tariffs. "The increased rhetoric around tariffs, what we've seen this week regarding Brazil and Canada, is certainly elevating the anxiety level," said Michael James, an equity sales trader at Rosenblatt Securities. "People had become a little more accustomed to the lack of negative tariff headlines, and we've kind of been reminded that the tariff picture is still there." Shares of Nvidia NVDA.O hit an intraday record high. Drone makers AeroVironment AVAV.O and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions KTOS.O jumped after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered a surge in drone production and deployment. TARIFFS AFFECTING MAJOR US COMPANIES Investors will soon turn their attention to the second-quarter reporting season, with a focus on how Trump's on-again, off-again tariffs are affecting major US companies. Analysts on average expect S&P 500 companies to increase their second-quarter earnings by 5.7%, year over year, with big gains from tech companies and declining profits in energy, consumer staples and consumer discretionary, according to LSEG I/B/E/S. "We believe expectations are a bit low for S&P 500 earnings. Much of the second quarter was marked with tariff and trade issues, and that may have caused some dislocations in earnings," said Michael Landsberg, chief investment officer, Landsberg Bennett Private Wealth Management. Levi Strauss & Co. LEVI.N jumped after the apparel seller raised its annual revenue and profit forecasts and beat quarterly estimates. Meta Platforms fell after Reuters reported that the company is very unlikely to offer more changes to its pay-or-consent model, increasing the risk of fresh EU antitrust charges and hefty daily fines. Kraft Heinz KHC.O closed higher after the Wall Street Journal reported the company is preparing to break itself up as the packaged food maker grapples with persistent weakness in demand for its higher-priced brands.
Reuters
4 days ago
- Politics
- Reuters
Kremlin says wartime censorship is justified
MOSCOW, July 11 (Reuters) - Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday that wartime censorship in Russia is justified amid the conflict with Ukraine and the closure of opposition-minded media. Russian authorities swiftly blocked Russian-language media outlets in February 2022 to quash dissenting voices as Russia invaded Ukraine, and they introduced laws threatening many years in prison for those "discrediting" the army. Speaking to a Russian magazine called Expert, Peskov said that many media outlets have been closed, while some reporters have emigrated from the country in the past three years. "But don't forget the situation we are in. Now is the time of military censorship, unprecedented for our country. After all, the war is going on in the information space too," Peskov is quoted as saying by the magazine. Russian authorities also blocked Twitter, now X, and Meta Platforms' (META.O), opens new tab Facebook and Instagram followed by YouTube, the most popular foreign video platform in the country at the time. "It would be wrong to turn a blind eye to the media that are deliberately engaged in discrediting Russia. Therefore, I believe that this regime (censorship) is justified now," Peskov told the magazine.
