Here is a rundown of Cheddar News' top market stories of the day.
DOJ SUES GOOGLE
The Biden administration on Tuesday marked another milestone in its efforts to challenge Big Tech's monopoly practices. The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Google parent Alphabet, alleging that it "used anticompetitive, exclusionary, and unlawful conduct" to reduce competition in the digital advertising technology space. The DOJ said the company's dominance over the last 15 years has harmed online publishers, advertisers, and consumers who heavily rely on digital ad tech. The lawsuit comes three years after the federal government filed a civil suit aimed at Google's search and search advertising business.
TESLA TRIAL UPDATE
Elon Musk defended himself in federal court on Tuesday in a trial over tweets. The class-action lawsuit alleges that Musk misled Tesla shareholders when he tweeted about the possibility of taking the company private. The billionaire executive spent roughly three hours on the stand and exchanged heated remarks with the prosecutor before being excused by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen. It's likely that it will be Musk's last appearance on the witness stand for this trial.
MURDOCH MERGER HALTED
Rupert Murdoch has squashed plans to combine two parts of his empire, the Fox Corporation and News Corp, saying the merger was “not optimal" for shareholders. Murdoch reportedly proposed the merger back in October and then established independent committees to evaluate its pros and cons. The merger would have reunited companies that split a decade ago, such as Fox News, TMZ, and the Wall Street Journal, under one corporate umbrella.
Oracle soars as it cashes in on the AI boom, Plus: Starbucks shares continue to fall under its new CEO, and does anybody actually want a new iPhone Air?
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
