Biden sues to stop publishing merger
The Biden administration on Tuesday sued to stop Penguin Random House, the largest publisher in the United States, from acquiring its rival Simon & Schuster, a major antitrust lawsuit and a sign of a different view of corporate consolidation than the one that has prevailed for decades in Washington.
In a publishing landscape dominated by a handful of mega corporations, Penguin Random House towers over the others. It operates more than 300 imprints worldwide and has 15,000 new releases a year, far more than the other four major U.S. publishers. With its $2.18 billion proposed acquisition of Simon & Schuster, Penguin Random House stood to become substantially larger.
The deal, announced a year ago, has been under review by the government, which is increasingly scrutinizing the power wielded by big companies like Amazon and Facebook.
Text Request adds locations feature
Text Request, the Chattanooga-based texting platform built to ignite customer engagement, announced Tuesday it has added a new locations feature as the company continues to build its offering portfolio.
With the new feature, users users are now able to select a map icon to request that contact's location when texting a contact from inside the Text Request platform,. The message appears on the contact's cell phone, like a normal text, indicating the company is requesting their location and including a link to share the team member's precise whereabouts. Workers then click the link to open a location sharing function, which allows Text Request one-time access to their location through their phone's GPS.
"Businesses are sending employees, drivers, and contractors into the field every day, and those workers often aren't visiting an office first," said Brian Elrod, CEO of Text Request. "We're giving them a better way to stay connected while they're apart. These virtual touch points have only become more important over the past eighteen months, and we're helping businesses large and small continue navigating that transition."
Tesla recalls 12,000 vehicles for software
Tesla has issued a recall that automatically sent a software update fixing a safety problem in its electric vehicles, apparently heading off a looming confrontation with U.S. safety regulators.
But recall documents posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration website Tuesday don't address another safety issue specified by the agency when it demanded that Tesla explain why it wasn't doing recalls for safety-related software updates done over the internet.
The recall covers nearly 12,000 Teslas with a glitch in the "Full Self-Driving" software that can make the cars stop for no good reason. The company's paperwork says the problems with automatic emergency braking can increase the risk of other vehicles hitting Teslas from behind.
A public recall allows owners to ensure repairs are done and that people buying cars know of potential safety problems. It also allows the NHTSA to make sure the recall addresses the safety issue. The agency can fine automakers if they don't issue recalls quickly enough or if they don't fix all of the problems.
The recall covers all four Tesla models - the S, X, 3 and Y. Tesla documents say a software update sent on Oct. 23 introduced the glitch.
- Compiled by Dave Flessner