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FILE – The Microsoft company logo is displayed at their offices in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2021. The Competition and Markets Authority said in a brief statement Monday, Dec. 13, 2021 that British antitrust regulators are opening an investigation into Microsoft’s $16 billion acquisition of speech recognition company Nuance in the latest sign they’re tightening scrutiny of big technology deals. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft, File)
LONDON (AP) — British antitrust regulators are opening an investigation into Microsoft’s $16 billion acquisition of speech recognition company Nuance in the latest sign they’re tightening scrutiny of big technology deals.
The Competition and Markets Authority said in abrief statement Monday that it’s looking into the purchase because of concerns that it could result in a “substantial lessening of competition” in the U.K. market.
Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp. declined to comment. The company said in April that it was buying Nuance Communications Inc., a pioneer in voice-based artificial intelligence technology. Nuance was instrumental in helping power Apple’s digital assistant Siri but later shifted to focus on health care with widely used medical dictation and transcription tools.
The transaction, which was expected to close this year, would be Microsoft’s second-largest deal, following the software giant’s $26 billion purchase of LinkedIn in 2016. Burlington, Massachusetts-based Nuance has about 7,100 employees, more than half of whom are outside the U.S.
British regulators have stepped up scrutiny of tech-related acquisitions. Last month, the competition authority ordered Facebook to undo its purchase of Giphy and sell off the GIF-sharing platform because it found the deal stifles competition for animated images and hurts social media users and advertisers.
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NEW YORK (AP) — A New York state judge was convicted Monday of obstructing a federal probe into one of the nation’s oldest and largest credit unions for over a half million New York City workers, including hospital employees, as well as state and federal workers.
At the end of a two-week trial, State Supreme Court Justice Sylvia Ash, 64, of Brooklyn, was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making a false statement to a federal agent. She was acquitted of another obstruction count.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Ronald Greene’s mother chastised Louisiana lawmakers Monday for not acting quickly enough to hold state troopers accountable for her son’s deadly 2019 arrest, saying the Black motorist’s death at the end of a high-speed chase was a “murder” that’s been covered up, sugarcoated and mired in bureaucracy.
“I’m so damn mad at the fact that I’m talking to people who have it in their power to make things happen,” Mona Hardin said through tears. “I’ve been wandering around in a cloud of confusion just wondering: What does it take for the state of Louisiana to recognize the murder of a man? What does it take to get answers?”
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Attorneys in the Boy Scouts of America bankruptcy case have reached a tentative settlement under which one of the organization’s largest insurers would contribute $800 million into a fund for victims of child sexual abuse.
The agreement announced Monday calls for Century Indemnity Co. and affiliated companies to contribute $800 million into the fund in return for being released from further liability for abuse claims. The payment would bring the amount of money in the proposed trust to more than $2.6 billion, which would be the largest sexual abuse settlement in U.S. history.
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