Microsoft looks to leapfrog Big Tech competitors with major acquisitions
13 April 2021
Data: CB Insights; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios
Microsoft is trying to leapfrog competitors like Google and Amazon as they face record antitrust scrutiny.
The big picture: The deals Microsoft has been eyeing are larger than its usual targets and bigger than those of its competitors.
Driving the news: Microsoft announced Monday it would buy Nuance Communications, a software company that focuses on speech recognition through artificial intelligence, in an all-cash transaction valued at $19.7 billion (including debt assumption).
- This is Microsoft's second-largest acquisition, behind the $26.2 billion deal for LinkedIn in 2016.
Microsoft tried to buy TikTok's U.S. operations last year in a deal reportedly valued between $10 billion to $30 billion. Reports suggest it's in advanced talks with gaming chat app Discord for a deal worth more than $10 billion.
- A report in February suggested Microsoft was eyeing a takeover of Pinterest, worth $51 billion on the public market. Last September, it bought gaming giant ZeniMax Media for $7.5 billion.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.