Microsoft's CFO sees AI agents as 'glimpse of what's ahead'

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Following the report of its third-quarter earnings, Microsoft's Chief Financial Officer Amy Hood sent out a quarterly internal message reflecting on the company's 50th anniversary while also talking about its recently released artificial intelligence agents.

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Google pays Samsung an 'enormous sum' for preinstalling Gemini

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The Google Gemini push on the Samsung Galaxy S25 series you've seen comes with a significant payday for the South Korean smartphone maker. Testimony from Google's ongoing antitrust trial in the US revealed that the search giant is paying an "enormous sum" as fixed monthly payments as part of a two-year deal between Google and Samsung. The latter also gets a share of Gemini subscription revenue.

For this unspecified amount, Samsung has sidelined its Bixby assistant to make Gemini the default artificial intelligence assistant in its flagship series. Internal documents from Google also revealed that it was considering more restrictive agreements with its partners, requiring them to preinstall Gemini alongside Search and Chrome.

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Meta lays off Reality Labs employees even with many openings in the division

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Meta laid off an unspecified number of employees within its Reality Labs division, which focuses on hardware and virtual reality. The layoffs impacted teams within its Oculus Studio, a.k.a. virtual reality gaming division, and Supernatural, a.k.a. the VR fitness app it acquired. The move is part of the company's broader restructuring effort within the division. It also follows a larger round of job cuts earlier this year, which also affected the Reality Labs team.

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Yahoo is keen to buy Google's Chrome browser

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If the US Justice Department forces Google to sell its Chrome browser to remedy its search monopoly, Yahoo will be one of the companies in line looking to buy it. (The others include OpenAI and Perplexity.) In the meantime, the legacy search brand is developing a browser prototype. The company believes the browser could boost its search market share. And if it acquires Chrome, it estimates a jump to double digits from its current 3% share, since it believes that around 60% of search queries are done through web browsers, directly from the address bar. Buying the browser also means it cuts development time, which Yahoo Search General Manager Brian Provost believes takes six to nine months to develop its own.

Provost estimates the deal could cost tens of billions of dollars, but he believes that Yahoo's owner, Apollo Global Management, can help it secure funding. As The Verge pointed out, Apollo actually owns a browser brand, but Provost said it isn't an active browser. And you may know this brand, given it was embroiled in its own antitrust case. It's NetScape.

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