FTC Suit vs Meta Moves Forward; PC Shipments Way Up in 2021; Sony to Keep Making PS4s; Maserati Will Race in Formula E

In case you missed, it, a federal judge yesterday ruled that the Federal Trade Commission can move forward with its antitrust suit against Meta (Facebook), after the suit was dismissed last year. According to theverge.com, the judge said the facts alleged by the FTC were ‘far more robust and detailed than before.’ He did note that the fed agency ‘may well face a tall task down the road in proving its allegations.’ The case revolves around Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram and WhatsApp. “In stark contrast with its predecessor, this complaint provides reinforcing, specific allegations that all point toward the same conclusion: Facebook has maintained a dominant market share during the relevant time period,” the opinion says. If you accept the market definition and the reliability of the FTC’s data, “Facebook’s market share comfortably exceeds the levels that courts ordinarily find sufficient to establish monopoly power.”

With all the chip shortages last year, it would seem that PC deliveries would have dropped like a rock. Nope. Actually, they were up nicely. Techcrunch.com reports that an analysis by Canalys has PC shipments up 15% year over year in 2021, and they were up 27% over 2019! 2021 is the best year for PCs since 2012, with 341 million sold. The 3 top dogs were Lenovo, HP, and Dell…with Apple coming in 4th. Apple actually had the best growth year over year at 28.3%. Fifth place Acer had the 2nd highest growth at 21.8%. 

Previously, it had been reported that Sony would be slowing or closing down PS4 production in 2021 with the success of the PS5. Now…despite chip shortages and supply chain hassles, Sony appears poised to keep pumping out PS4s through the rest of 2022…to the tune of a million per year Androidcentral.com says that the majority of the 1st player games out for the PS5 are also playable on the PS4. This includes Horizon Forbidden West, which previously had been slated just for the 5. 

Another legendary brand is jumping into the electric vehicle racing series Formula E next year. Maserati will race in the EV series. Arstechnica.com notes that this is as several German makers have left in recent seasons…including the 2021 championship winning Mercedes-EQ team. Ferrari still hasn’t committed to running in the E series, but Maserati is a pretty big feather in the cap of electric vehicle racing. The last time the marque fielded a single seater racer was in 1957…with the amazing Juan Manuel Fangio driving in that year’s Formula 1 season. The Argentine driver is widely considered to be one of the best….if not the best of that generation of drivers. He later was the distributor for Mercedes-Benz (who he had also raced for) in his home country of Argentina.