Vodafone and Three merger could lead to higher prices, Chinese robot breaks speed record

The proposed merger of Vodafone and Three could lead to “higher prices” and “reduced quality” for customers, the UK’s competition watchdog says. The proposed £15bn deal could now be subject to an in-depth investigation. The combined group would be the UK’s biggest mobile network with about 27 million customers. The firms said the deal would result in an additional investment of £11bn in the UK. But the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) deputy chief economic adviser Julie Bon said she had “identified concerns which could lead to higher prices for customers and lower investment in UK mobile networks. BBC 

The US Department of Justice is suing Apple, accusing the tech giant of maintaining an illegal monopoly on smartphones. The 88-page lawsuit alleges the California-based company is making its products worse for consumers so it can block out competitors. Attorney General Merrick Garland described the firm’s behaviour as “exclusionary, anti-competitive conduct that hurts both consumers and developers”. Mr Garland said: “Monopolies like Apple’s threaten the free and fair markets upon which our economy is based. Sky News 

In a downtown Manhattan courtroom on the morning of 28 March, tech wunderkind turned fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried, unrepentant even after trial and conviction, will finally learn his fate. Bankman-Fried, who founded the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, was found guilty on 2 November 2023 of seven counts of wire fraud and conspiracy to launder money. The fallen bitcoin booster was found to have siphoned billions in customer funds into FTX’s sister hedge fund, Alameda Research, to keep it solvent – and lined his pockets with hapless clients’ money, spurring the entities’ collapse. The Guardian