1. IBM: – Palantir has hired its first U.S. government chief medical officer, a former executive from IBM’s Watson Health business, as the data analytics company doubles down on its life sciences business.
While the company made its name in software used by government defense agencies, sales to health-related agencies in the federal government have doubled over the last year.
The company announced Monday its has hired former IBM Watson Health Deputy Chief Health Officer Bill Kassler to lead public health and life sciences teams across Palantir’s domestic and global businesses.
Kassler said in an exclusive interview with CNBC that he would bring his expertise in clinical care and public health to the role, helping to connect the software to researchers who could benefit from it.
2. MICROSOFT: – Microsoft Corp. last week announced steps it plans to take in the next five years to improve accessibility to people with disabilities, promising to ramp up its development of related technology, create opportunities for more of them to enter the workforce and make its own workplace more inclusive for them.
The company declined to disclose financial figures or targets related to the initiative, but said it aims to improve on previous efforts that focused separately on products and the employee experience with a more systematic approach.
Microsoft is known as one of the more inclusive companies in the technology industry, with products including an adaptive Xbox controller and initiatives such as hiring people with autism and funding startups that use artificial intelligence to help people with disabilities. The company is also one of the few that has a chief accessibility officer, having created the role in 2010.
3. APPLE: – A trial is slated to begin Monday between the maker of the popular videogame “Fortnite” and Apple Inc. that could help determine the future of how apps generate revenue through mobile devices.
Opening statements are expected to begin about 8:30 a.m. PDT (11:30 a.m. EDT).
U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers is presiding over the planned three-week bench trial in Oakland, Calif.
Epic Games Inc. sued both Apple and Alphabet Inc.’s Google in August after the companies removed “Fortnite” from their mobile app stores. The companies say their moves were justified because Epic broke their rules by inserting its own system for processing payments made inside the game, a move that would potentially circumvent the 30% slice of revenue they collect from in-app purchases.
4. BP: – BP (NYSE:BP) Plc is preparing to bid for the rights to build wind farms off Scotland, The Times reported https:// early on Monday.
BP Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney told The Times the firm was looking at bidding in the forthcoming Crown Estate Scotland auction to lease the seabed off Scotland for offshore wind projects.
Bids for the ScotWind process, offering 17 areas spanning 8,600 square km (3,320 square miles) of seabed, are yet to be finalised with a deadline of July 16, The Times reported.
BP is working on bidding jointly for the Scottish leases with EnBW Energie Baden Wuerttemberg AG, the German regional utility it partnered with on its first move into Britain’s offshore wind market in February in the Irish Sea, The Times report said.
5. INTEL: – Intel Corp (NASDAQ:INTC) said on Sunday it will invest another $600 million in Israel to expand its research and development (R&D) and confirmed it was spending $10 billion on a new chip plant.
The announcement was made during a one-day visit to Israel by Intel Chief Executive Pat Gelsinger as part of a European tour that included Germany and Belgium last week.
Intel is investing $400 million to turn its Mobileye (F:0ME) unit headquartered in Jerusalem into an R&D campus for developing self-driving car technologies.
Another $200 million will be invested in building an R&D centre, called IDC12, in the northern port city of Haifa next to its current development centre.
