Tag: business brokerages

The principal value of a business broker is to act as a buffer between the buyer and the seller

In Epic case, Apple might win the battle and lose the war

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No matter who prevails in the Epic Games v. Apple app store antitrust trial, history may see it as just one skirmish in a wider war. Apple has a good chance of winning. Current antitrust laws—which are ancient—as well as decades of jurisprudence in U.S. courts make it very hard for plaintiffs to win antitrust cases. But Congress is now considering reigning in the monopoly power of companies like Apple through changes to antitrust laws or even through direct regulation of app marketplaces. Indeed, my sources in Congress say lawmakers are watching Epic v. Apple , which is expected to wrap up this week in a federal court in Oakland, California, with great interest. Both the House antitrust subcommittee (led by Democratic Congressman David Cicilline of Rhode Island) and the Senate antitrust subcommittee (led by Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota), have held hearings on app distribution through Apple’s App Store and Google Play. During those hearings, app developers complained about the strict rules they must abide by in order to be listed in the App Store, which is virtually the only way developers can access the huge worldwide market of iOS device users. In the U.S., more than half of all mobile devices run iOS, and studies show iOS users spend far more money on apps and in-app purchases than other mobile users. Apple requires that apps use the App Store’s in-house payment system to sell goods or services within their apps, and it charges developers a commission of up to 30%. App developers are prohibited from selling their apps and many forms of digital services to iOS users any other way. Here’s the language from Apple’s own developer guidelines document: “Apps may not use their own mechanisms to unlock content or functionality, such as license keys, augmented reality markers, QR codes, etc. Apps and their metadata may not include buttons, external links, or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms other than in-app purchase.” Apple, of course, makes its own apps, such as Apple Music, and can give them better visibility within the App Store than competing apps from third-party developers. (Search for “Music” in the App Store, and Apple Music, not Spotify, is the top result.) Developers are urging Congress to pass a law that limits the “gatekeeper” power of companies running app stores. Epic complained of all of these things in the courtroom in Oakland but, at least in light of past court decisions, Apple has a compelling defense. Read More …

Haven is dead, but JPMorgan still wants to transform healthcare

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In February, JPMorgan, Amazon, and Berkshire Hathaway ended Haven, a buzzy joint venture that sought to improve patient outcomes through better primary care and that shook up the entire healthcare world. Now, the banking giant is launching its own version of Haven: Morgan Health. Dan Mendelson, a healthcare consultant who previously served as the associate director for health at the Office of Management and Budget under the Clinton administration, will head up JPMorgan’s new health company. He says that Morgan Health will have the same goals as Haven did, in terms of improving quality, access, and cost, but differ in its approach. “The Haven experience focused us on primary care, digital medicine, and specific populations. . . . You can see this as a continuation of the work that was started at Haven,” he said in an interview with healthcare industry publication Becker’s Hospital Review . Haven was attempting to build a system from the ground up, he says. Instead of taking that approach, Morgan Health will focus on collaborating with outside partners to create a new health program for the bank’s 165,000 employees and their families. The goal of the new venture is to reinvent how employees receive their healthcare Read More …

From teen wizards to Harry Styles romances: How Wattpad created a user-generated media empire

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In the world of Wattpad, no genre is too niche. The user-generated publishing platform, founded in 2006 and boasting 90 million monthly readers, has spent the past few years turning its most online popular stories into both print books and movies and TV shows. In 2021, the multimedia powerhouse was acquired by the Korean tech giant Naver for $600 million—a price buoyed by Wattpad’s ability to analyze content down to which lines of a story readers like best (and absolutely must appear in a movie adaptation). “We have what is possibly the largest library of fiction that’s ever been created,” says Aron Levitz, General Manager of Wattpad Studios, the film and TV arm. “Our audience data allows us to really explore that.” The company’s insights have catapulted dozens of untraditional stories to box office and bestseller success.  Click to expand [Data Visualization: Chelsea Schiff] Wattpad estimates it has 90 projects currently in development (see above), with more titles being surfaced every day by users and algorithms. Some prime examples of the company’s success: Anna Todd’s After series began as Harry Styles fanfiction, selling millions of books. The first After feature film, released in 2019, made $70 million, and a third ( After We Collided ) will come out later this year. Young adult novel I’m A Gay Wizard was one of Wattpad Books’ first print releases in 2019, and is currently being developed into a TV series by the Wattpad Development Fund, which identifies and elevates underrepresented stories for film and TV. The company also has a massive presence in Asia: Indonesian romance novel Turn On garnered more than 17 million reads on Wattpad, and debuted as an eight part TV series in January. With 10 million views so far, it’s the most successful Wattpad project of 2021. Read More …

How Sears and Standard Oil paved the way for the age of Amazon

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Despite Amazon’s undisputed centrality in the contemporary digital economy, a close look at its core business model reveals it to be surprisingly conventional. Before the invention of e-commerce, mail-order catalog companies such as Sears, Roebuck had accustomed American consumers to purchasing goods sight unseen from vendors with whom they communicated solely via information technology. Like Amazon, Sears, Roebuck neither manufactured goods nor owned inventory but functioned solely as information intermediary. Read More …

Here’s what’s new in Android 12, from big changes to subtle tweaks

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With a personalized color scheme on the outside and a reinforced app-privacy structure on the inside, the next version of Android should at least avoid a common fate of some previous Android updates: being mistaken for one of its predecessors. Android 12 , previewed in detail on Tuesday at Google’s I/O developer conference, leads off with those changes to form and function. But the next edition of its mobile operating system bundles many less obvious—but still notable—changes, including some that didn’t get mentioned during the two-hour keynote that opened the online event. Material You While many operating systems have offered personalization features, Google’s concept aims to make customization an automatic feature, not a distraction for interface nerds. Android 12 will derive highlight and contrast colors for its interface by analyzing your screen wallpaper. If your own screen decor already matches the current Android palette, you should still notice how many onscreen elements will be less rectilinear. For example, Google has already advised developers of onscreen widgets to get ready for rounded corners . [Photo: courtesy of Google] New visual effects will extend to animations to convey more clearly what’s going on. For instance, scrolling to the end of an onscreen list will cause it to stretch up and down the screen, and pressing the power button to wake the screen will send light rippling across the display. Quick Settings The set of toggles for such functions as airplane mode (remember that?) that you can invoke by swiping deeply down from the top of the screen should look a lot different in Android 12. The tiles you see today will be replaced by larger panes that show more detail about the state of each function. Android 12’s Quick Settings will also fold in new features. Read More …