Facebook is walloped with $5 billion fine (The Daily Charge, 7/24/2019)

Today on the Daily Charge. Dish scoops up prepaid division from T-mobile, A new crazy cheap Netflix. Apple buying Intel's mobile business and Facebook walloped with a massive 5 billion dollar fine. [MUSIC] Good morning. Welcome to C-Nets Daily Charge. It's Wednesday, July 24th. I'm Roger Cheng. I'm [UNKNOWN]. Let's take a look at today's headlines. [MUSIC] Dish has reportedly agreed to pay 5 billion dollars for Spectrum and prepaid mobile businesses from T-Mobile and Sprint, clear the way for its own 26.5 billion dollar mega mobile merger. Now, guys, this has been like a long time coming, it's been more than a year at this point. I feel like it's actually happening, and I can't believe it. The Sprint and T-Mobile finally getting together, those two star-crossed lovers? Yes. I'm more interested in seeing what Dish is gonna do with their spectrum, there were all these rumors Earlier this this month that somebody at Google was talking to them right about that, but then Google vehemently denied it. So we'll see if something comes with it.>> What's interesting about this deal and it is right now it's still based on a Bloomberg report so we haven't confirmed it yet. But the interesting hook there is the the sale has a no resale clauses for three years. So dish has to keep this for three years. So they Did you kind of have to start their own business in earnest dishes was sitting on a pile of wireless spectrum and this is largely what this deals about is getting spectrum. And they haven't done anything with it. They could lease it right if they can keep it. So this is the problem. They've got They got spectrum that the SCC is mandated that they need to use for a network by next year. That's amazing. They haven't even built anything yet. [UNKNOWN] a new carrier. Maybe. Competition [UNKNOWN] What the report have talked about Dish getting a resell agreement with Sprint and T-Mobile. So potentially yes, we could see a number for a while as carrier, a new number for a while as carrier. Potentially with cheaper wireless plans. Impressive. Next up, Netflix launched a crazy low $3 monthly plan, but sadly, this option is only available in India. It's only standard definition and runs on your phone, but I imagine there'd be a lot of folks who'd wanna jump on this plan here in the US. Yeah, right now there's no plans to bring this plan outside of India. It definitely seems like it moved because Netflix has such a large subscriber base, how do you make it larger? They did report a slowing user base. Right, first time ever they had subscriber losses, which is a big deal for a growth company like Netflix. So yes, tapping into the population of India, which definitely probably can't afford the more expensive plans that we're used to But doing it in this kind of limited way. I still think this is an option that would be great everywhere. Three bucks a month for one device? Sounds about right. Alright. Also today the Wall Street Journal reports that Apple is close to buying intel's mobile business for a billion dollars. Our own Sharp Tipken breaks down why Apple would even be interested in this deal. Largely, it comes down to making their own modems and getting into 5G in their own way. Right? Yeah, right now Apple makes their own processors, but they don't make their own modems. So they have to have both components in the phones. In theory, if you can integrate both of them then you should have a more battery efficient device. And iPhones are pretty well known for their good battery life. Right. Changing this up, if they do buy Intel's modem technology Perhaps they could have a new thing to be bragging about. And look all Android phones now most Android phones use a integrated processor a modem, Qualcomm Snapdragon chips all have both modems of processors. That's why they tend to run pretty efficiently but an Apple really Uses, Episil uses Qualcomm for its modem. I think they'd really want to have a second supplier, second source for that modem business. Yeah, after their, the fracas between Qualcomm and Apple perhaps they would be like, hey by the way we happen to own these patents, maybe we can work a deal out better. All right, lastly, our main story Today's all about Facebook. Facebook will be paying the price for its lax treatment of our data. The company has settled with the Federal Trade Commission for a record $5 billion. For the [INAUDIBLE] CEO Mark Zuckerberg will be personally responsible for certifying the company's following the terms of the settlement each quarter. What do you think? $5 billion, is that enough? It seems like a big number, but is it enough? On its own, right? So you were looking into some context, what did Facebook earn in the last quarter? So it pulled in $15 billion in revenue. In full revenue. So $5 billion. That sounds like a lot on its face, but when you compare it to revenue in a quarter, this doesn't seem like that big of a deal. The question is whether Facebook is truly gonna change their privacy plans because of this, what is this gonna mean for Facebook products. I know Mark Zuckerberg had his own post explaining if we're trying to comply with this kind of. Privacy, it might take us a little longer to come out with products, which isn't a bad thing in any way. Yeah, which is okay. We're fine with that. I think that speaks to the mentality of the companies. They're famous for sort of a move fast, break things mentality and they're starting to realize that maybe that's not the best idea when you're dealing with so much of our personal information. As this company gets bigger and bigger and bigger there's gonna be all kinds of ways to try to get apps out, so The idea of growth versus responsibility, is a huge thing here. So Facebook already has I don't even know if it's a critical mass of people yet, so the fact is the more we keep seeing bad news about them, I'm curious about whether this is going to lead to people going, I'm not using the service anymore I'm afraid. Do you think this will have any stigmatizing effect any further on Facebook? So so far there hasn't actually been an effect. But their users continue to grow, and we'll actually get more insight into this later today. Facebook reports its quarterly earning results after the bell. So we'll see if the growth is continued. But for whatever reason, it seems like they've been relatively controversy-proof. There's been a lot of talk. They're receiving all this pressure from government, from regulators. All around the world. But in terms of their actual user base it continues to grow. Is kind of a fascinating contradiction. It is that people aren't noticing this or they just don't care. It's over both for sure. I think people generally get that maybe they're giving too much information on Facebook. It's often times the only way to connect with folks around the world, relatives, friends. And it's become almost too important to give up. Yeah, it seems like Facebook, some people has become the Internet. And they don't want to lose it at all. Yeah. Because it's how they stay in touch with everybody. The idea that there's a Internet outside of Facebook. It's like the old AOL days, where we feel like you can go outside of this. Right. But then again Facebook could be for some people as it's everything to some people. So it's interesting what I found out she was this the hook that they basically made they put Zuckerberg on the hook personally for certifying these that these privacy policies that the FTC is mandating are actually being put in place every single quarter that potentially leaves him up to personal liability which is unusual. For these kinds of settlements. Usually executives are insulated from personal liability. That explains why on Zuckerberg's post on facebook, he said that he's setting up a new privacy committee on the board. Yep. They're also going to get an experienced product leader to take on the chief privacy officer. So what he's going to do is he's going to make sure that everybody around him is privacy conscious. Because if something goes wrong, he's in a lot of trouble. So he's building these layers Hopefully, well, intelligent people that are willing to slow production down to make sure privacy's important, so that would keep Zuckerberg out of the line of fire. Yep, thank you again for joining us. Tag us online and let us know what you wanna see more or less of here on the show. For Daily Charge, I'm Roger Cheng. I'm [UNKNOWN] Thanks for listening. [MUSIC] [MUSIC]