Google has quietly acquired a startup that was working on using AI to generate avatars for social media users and brands. According to TechCrunch, the company recently paid about $100 million to buy Alter. The acquisition went through about two months ago without Google publicly announcing it. On Thursday, the search giant confirmed the purchase but did not disclose the financial terms of the deal. According to TechCrunch, Google bought Alter to better compete against TikTok.

Alter began life as Facemoji, offering a platform that other developers could use to add avatar creation systems to their apps and games. Alter chief co-founder and operating officer Jonathan Slimak recently took to LinkedIn to share he was starting a position “building Avatars at Google.” How Alter’s team and technology could help Google better compete against TikTok is unclear. YouTube Shorts, Google’s take on the short-form video format, is already a success for the company. Following a global rollout in the summer of 2021, Google announced this past June the platform had 1.5 billion monthly active users.

The Federal Trade Commission will call on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify in its upcoming case against the company. The FTC sued the social media giant in July in an attempt to block it from buying Within Unlimited, the creator of the popular VR workout app Supernatural.

Reuters reports that the agency listed 18 witnesses, including Zuckerberg and Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth, in a court document filed with California’s Northern District Court on Friday. In addition to answering questions about the potential acquisition, the FTC plans to ask Zuckerberg about Meta’s VR strategy and how the company intends to support third-party developers, according to court documents seen by Reuters.

In July, the FTC accused the company and Zuckerberg of attempting to “illegally acquire” Within. “Instead of competing on the merits, Meta is trying to buy its way to the top,” John Newman, deputy director of the FTC’s Bureau of Competition, said at the time.

Meta has dismissed the FTC’s lawsuit, claiming it is based on “idealogy and speculation, not evidence.” The case could be another costly setback for a company struggling to convince the public and Wall Street of its vision for the future. Earlier this week, Meta disclosed in its latest earnings report that its Reality Labs VR and AR division is losing more money than ever. In Q3 2022, the unit lost $3.7 billion. That’s a trend David Wehner, the company’s outgoing chief financial officer, told investors would continue through 2023.

Apple seems to be weathering the financial storm, albeit with a few hitches. The company reported a record high revenue of $90.1 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter, with a net profit of $20.7 billion. While those were only slight increases versus the same period last year (revenue was up 'just' 8 percent), they came despite a rough economic climate and near-flat revenue growth in the previous quarter.

The issues mainly stem from mixed performance across Apple's lineup. It won't surprise you to hear that the iPhone 14 debut helped fuel the company's mobile revenue ($42.6 billion versus last summer's $38.9 billion), but other segments were volatile. While the MacBook Air M2 helped Mac revenue jump 25 percent to $11.5 billion, iPad sales dropped sharply — they fell to just under $7.2 billion versus nearly $8.3 billion a year earlier. And while services like Apple Music and TV+ set a new record of $19.2 billion, that's only a mediocre bump versus the $18.3 billion from a year ago. Sales for the Apple Watch and smart home devices grew solidly from $8.8 billion to $9.7 billion.

The customer base appears to be strong, at least. During Apple's earnings call, CFO Luca Maestri noted that roughly half of Mac and iPad buyers were new to the platform. The company also touted an all-time (but unspecified) high for the number of active devices. CEO Tim Cook added that phone sales were strong despite tight supply constraints for the iPhone 14 Pro and Pro Max.

The fall (Apple's first fiscal quarter of 2023) could be rosier. Apple introduced new iPads in October this year where it released updated models in September last year, so we'd expect a bump in sales for the tablet lineup. Cook added that last year was "unusually strong" thanks to the iPad Pro M1 launch. The iPhone 14 family had also been available for just eight days during the fourth quarter, so overall iPhone sales should improve.

Apple isn't out of trouble yet. It's still hiring more cautiously, and supply issues (including for the Apple Watch Ultra, Cook says) may dog the company for a while. It's also unclear how people will take to devices like the iPhone 14 Plus, which didn't ship until this month. All the same, Apple may be happy. The computer market tanked 19.5 percent during the quarter, according to Gartner estimates, while Canalys believes smartphone shipments dropped 9 percent. If those figures are reasonably accurate, Apple is thriving simply by avoiding sharp declines in most categories.

Samsung has reported a record consolidated revenue of 76.78 trillion Korean won (US$54 billion) for the third quarter of 2022, but it has also posted a decline in profit from the previous quarter and year-over-year. The tech giant's operating profit (KRW 10.85 trillion or US$7.6 billion) has declined 23 percent from the second quarter and around 31.4 percent from the same period last year. Samsung's operating profit from July to September 2021 was KRW 15.82 trillion, which was 26 percent higher than the quarter prior to that. In its earnings report, the company said its various divisions have been grappling with weak demand in the midst of global economic instability. 

Weak demand for consumer products and customers' inventory adjustments caused its Memory business' earnings to shrink. Its LSI business' earnings fell due to weak demand for phones and TVs, as well, though revenue from SoCs grew due to an increased portion of 5G. Samsung's Visual Display Business was also affected by low demand and increased costs.

Samsung's Mobile eXperience (MX) business was its bright spot last quarter. Together with the company's Networks business, it posted KRW 32.21 trillion (US$22.6 billion) in consolidated revenue and KRW 3.24 trillion (US$2.27 billion) in operating profit, which are both higher than the previous quarter's. The company attributes the MX business' success to sales of the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Z Flip 4, both of which showed stronger growth than their predecessors. Further, the Galaxy S22 series was able to maintain "solid sales momentum." 

The tech giant expects its mobile business to perform even better in the fourth quarter as demand for smartphones and wearables increases due to year-end seasonality. And since the smartphone and wearable markets are expected to grow as a whole next year, Samsung's mobile business might continue bringing in solid profits. Another division that did well in the third quarter is the tech giant's Foundry business, which delivered record earnings (KRW 23.02 trillion or US$16 billion in consolidated revenue and KRW 5.12 trillion or US$3.6 billion in operating profit) thanks to solid demand from global customers.

On the same day that it released its third quarter earnings, Samsung has also formally named Jay Y. Lee as its executive chairman. It's mostly a symbolic move, seeing as Lee is the company's de-facto leader anyway. But as Bloomberg notes, the title could help make things smoother for Lee as he closes deals with other companies around the world in an effort to expand Samsung's semiconductor and biotechnology businesses. Lee, who was sentenced to five years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of bribing public officials, received a presidential pardon in August so he could help South Korea overcome the economic crisis. 

A year later, Meta’s pivot to the metaverse is proving even more expensive. Reality Labs is losing more money than ever, Facebook’s parent company disclosed in its latest earnings report.

Reality Labs, the unit that oversees the company’s virtual and augmented reality projects, lost $3.7 billion in the third-quarter of 2022, a jump from a $2.6 billion loss a year ago and $2.8 billion last quarter. Reality Labs has lost more than $9 billion so far in 2022. And the company’s finance chief said the trend is unlikely to reverse anytime soon. “We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year,” outgoing CFO Dave Whener said in a statement.

That’s significant because Meta’s massive investment in Reality labs has already proved costly for the company. Meta reported earlier this year that it lost $10 billion on Reality labs in 2021. The company also confirmed that the “next generation of our consumer Quest headset” is expected to launch “later next year,” an apparent reference to a Meta Quest 3.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg also warned that the company could face “near-term challenges on revenue.” The company reported $28 billion in revenue for the quarter, which was in line with analyst expectations, but “still behind where I think we should be,” according to Zuckerberg.

Zuckerberg also confirmed that Meta would continue to slash hiring as it deals with slowing revenue growth. “Some teams will grow meaningfully but most other teams will stay flat or shrink over the next year,” he said. “In aggregate, we expect to end 2023 as either roughly the same size or even a slightly smaller organization than we are today.”

Developing…

In 2018, fledgling EV maker Arrival partnered with UPS to build a new generation of electric delivery vans, beginning with a pilot fleet of 35 vehicles, for use in both the US and Europe. The company quickly expanded its scope from there, working on plans for an electrified bus, an EV rideshare vehicle for Uber and an $11.5 million battery plant. However, on Thursday the company abruptly announced that it has decided to shutter its bus and automotive projects to instead "refocus its resources on the US market while further advancing its enabling technologies."

In a press release Thursday, the company stated that "scaling production in the Bicester [UK] microfactory requires significant further investment in hard tooling and working capital and the Company has determined that the benefits of such an investment would be best directed to the US market." As such, the company will restructure and focus its efforts on the Van and the underlying tech that makes it run.

Arrival cites the US EV tax credit as a major influence on its decision, noting that the Inflation Reduction Act is, "expected to offer between $7,500 to $40,000 for commercial vehicles, [a] large addressable market size, and substantially better margins." Unfortunately, the company will have to (ugh, their words) "right size" the UK workforce, as in layoffs. 

Tesla faced increasing transportation costs paired with "raw material cost inflation," continued component shortages and a strengthening dollar in Q3, all of which which ate into its quarterly revenue ($21.45 billion vs $21.96 billion expected). Yet the EV automaker still managed to set production records at each of its factories. According to the company's quarterly production report published at the start of the month, Tesla built 365,923 vehicles in Q3 and delivered just 343,830. 

Revenue from automotive sales reached $18.69 billion this past quarter, a 55 percent increase year-over-year. Values in Tesla stock have dropped more than 17 percent since that report's publication, CNBC reports, and have fallen more than 5 percent since the close of market Wednesday when Tesla's earnings were released. Despite these most recent losses, Tesla did see its profits double over the past year to $3.29 billion and "it looks like we'll have an epic end of year," CEO Elon Musk said during the investor call.

Tesla had previously targeted a 50 percent annual vehicle sales growth over the next few years. In 2021, Tesla delivered some 936,000 vehicles and has delivered delivered 908,573 vehicle to date in 2022. So in order to meet the 50 percent growth goal, the company will need to sell roughly 1.4 million vehicles in total, this year, as Autoblog notes, with 490,000 of those coming in Q4. Tesla also recommitted to beginning deliveries of its Semi starting in December.  

Developing...

It's a big day for huge EV investments in the US. The Biden admin announced it's awarding $2.8 billion to companies developing EV battery materials earlier today, and now BMW says it'll be investing another $1.7 billion towards building electric vehicles in America. $1 billion will go towards expanding its Spartanburg, South Carolina manufacturing plant to build EVs, while the remaining $700 million is earmarked to build a high-voltage battery facility in a nearby town called Woodruff.

Plant Spartanburg, as the company calls the manufacturing facility, is the home of the company's popular "X" vehicles. Now, according to BMW's US group chairman Oliver Zipse, it's going to become the home of BMW's electrification strategy. He announced the company intends to build at least six electric BMW X vehicles by 2030, which is also when the Biden administration is aiming to make EVs half of new US car sales. 

BMW also plans to build sixth-generation battery cells using technology from Envision AESC, which will build the aforementioned battery plant. The company claims the new batteries offer 20 percent more energy density than its current technology, as well as 30 percent faster charging and longer range. Additionally, they'll involve around 60 percent less CO2 emissions by using secondary minerals and renewable energy during production.

Your Apple Card is now more of a full-fledged banking service. Apple has introduced a "high-yield" savings account from Goldman Sachs that will soon let you grow your funds. You can have your card's Daily Cash automatically deposited if you like, but you can also transfer money from a linked bank account or your Apple Cash balance. You can withdraw at any time, and there are no fees, balance requirements or minimum deposit amounts.

The savings account will be available to Americans sometime in the "coming months," Apple said. We've asked the company about the exact yield rate and will let you know if we hear back — needless to say, this could play a major role in your decision to sign up.

If this sounds somewhat familiar, it should. Goldman Sachs already offers a "Marcus" savings account that you can quickly open online and link to other banks. It's built for mobile users with a dedicated app, touts a relatively high 2.15 percent annual yield and doesn't carry any fees or minimum deposits. Apple's offering mainly stands out through its daily reward deposits and, of course, tight integration with iPhones and other Apple products.

The Apple Card savings account isn't quite the company's answer to Google's defunct Plex banking service, though. Where that was ultimately a bid to modernize banking for companies that didn't have their own apps, Apple is providing a savings account dedicated to its cardholders. This is an incentive to use your card and stick to the Apple ecosystem.

Intel had long been expecting a decline in PC sales after a period of heightened demand due to work-and-study-from-home arrangements brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In July, it admitted to Nikkei that it was going to raise the prices of its processors and other chips due to "inflationary pressures" later this year. Turns out that may not be the only move Intel is making to weather the declining PC market. According to Bloomberg, Intel is planning to cut thousands of jobs and could make the announcement around the same time it's releasing its third quarter earnings report on October 27th. 

The company slashed its sales and profit forecasts for 2022 back in July, when it said that it expects revenue for the year to be $11 billion less than previously projected. Chief Executive Officer Pat Gelsinger said during its earnings call for the second quarter that the company "will look to take additional actions in the second half of the year" to improve profits. Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Mandeep Singh said the layoffs could reduce the costs Intel incurs to keep the company running by around 10 to 15 percent. Singh also said that those costs could be worth at least $25 to $30 billion.

Mobileye, the the self-driving tech firm that Intel had purchased for $15.3 billion back in 2017, recently filed for an IPO. Intel intends to keep most of what it earns from the IPO for itself and to help finance the chip factories it's planning to build. But projected earnings from the offering may not be enough to prevent the mass layoffs, which will affect various divisions within the company. Certain groups, such as the sale and marketing department, will reportedly see their numbers reduced by up to 20 percent. 

Over the past year, Intel took steps to achieve its goal of expanding its foundry business. It earmarked $20 billion to build a massive chip-making facility in Ohio, which it intends to turn into the biggest "silicon manufacturing location on the planet." The company also purchased Tower Semiconductor, a chipmaker catering to clients across industries, for $5.4 billion. There seems to be no indication that those expansion plans are changing, and Bloomberg said that Intel intends to pursue the goals it set for itself as a leaner company.