TNB Tech Minute: FTC Targets Amazon’s Advertising Sales Practices in New Lawsuit

[00:00:01] Here's your afternoon TNB Tech Minute for Monday, August 31st. I'm Imani Moise for The Wall Street Journal. The Federal Trade Commission plans to file a lawsuit against Amazon.com today, alleging that the e-commerce giant deceived advertisers. Agency officials say Amazon manipulated prices businesses paid to advertise on its retail platform, reaping tens of billions of dollars for itself over seven years.

[00:00:25] The FTC's claims include that Amazon's strategy of placing its own bid during merchant auctions raised the pay-per-click ad costs by 50% on major shopping days. The lawsuit, joined by a bipartisan group of more than 20 state attorneys general, will become the Consumer Protection Agency's third major case against Amazon. Nvidia says it plans to buy $3.5 billion in convertible bonds issued by Taiwanese chipmaker Mediatek.

[00:00:54] The companies will work together on local AI computing and develop platforms for AI-powered vehicles. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said the two companies are building platforms that bring Nvidia's accelerated computing to new markets and give customers the ability to create new AI systems on a larger scale. And Bitcoin accumulation firm Strategy says it bought about $370 million worth of the digital currency last week, its first purchase since June.

[00:01:23] The company paused its Bitcoin purchases and sold Bitcoin in recent weeks, despite its founder Michael Saylor's reputation for urging investors to never sell their Bitcoins. Strategy said it acquired about 4,600 Bitcoin at an average price of $80,318 using proceeds from the sale of the company's common shares. The company now holds 845,050 Bitcoin worth roughly $66 billion.

[00:01:51] And that's it for your TNB Tech Minutes. For a deeper dive into what's happening in tech, check out Tuesday's Tech News Briefing podcast. For more information, visit our website at www.msbubвержaving.com for more information on the