Bitcoin drops below $90,000 for the first time since April then rebounds

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TECH

Roblox is stepping up its age verification system for users who want to privately message other players and implementing age-based chats so kids, teens, and adults will only be able to message people around their own age. The moves come as the popular gaming platform continues to face criticism and lawsuits over child safety and a growing number of states and countries are implementing age verification laws. The company had previously announced the age estimation tool, which is provided by a company called Persona, in July. It requires players to take a video selfie that will be used to estimate their age. Roblox says the videos are deleted after the age check is processed. Users are not required to submit a face scan to use the platform, only if they want to chat with other users. Roblox doesn’t allow kids under 13 to chat with other users outside of games unless they have explicit parental permission — and unlike different platforms, it does not encrypt private chat conversations, so it can monitor and moderate them. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

SOCIAL MEDIA

Meta did not break the law when it bought its nascent rivals Instagram and WhatsApp, a federal judge said Tuesday, handing a major win to the $1.51 trillion company and dealing a blow to the government’s efforts to rein in the power of tech giants. Judge James E. Boasberg of the US District Court of the District of Columbia said in an 89-page ruling that Meta did not create a monopoly in social networking through the acquisitions. The Federal Trade Commission had sued Meta, accusing it of breaking antitrust law by acquiring Instagram and WhatsApp in a “buy or bury” strategy to cement its social networking dominance. The FTC “continues to insist that Meta competes with the same old rivals it has for the last decade, that the company holds a monopoly among that small set, and that it maintained that monopoly through anticompetitive acquisitions,” Boasberg said, adding that the agency needed to prove that argument. “The court’s verdict today determines that the FTC has not done so.” The win clears the way for Meta to continue to pursue its business ambitions, including its expansion into artificial intelligence. But the ruling is a setback for federal regulators, who have sought to curb tech companies’ power in the modern internet age through a series of antitrust lawsuits. — NEW YORK TIMES

GAMBLING

DraftKings Inc. and FanDuel are leaving the American Gaming Association, the casino industry’s trade group, on the eve of launching their own prediction market-based betting products. “In discussion with DraftKings and FanDuel, the AGA has accepted their request to relinquish their membership, effective immediately,” the association said in a statement. “We wish them the best, and we expect to maintain close ties in our mission to promote and protect legal, regulated gaming.” The trade association has opposed prediction market bets, which are regulated by the federal government and not states, like most other forms of gambling. “As we expand into prediction markets, we recognize this direction is not aligned with the American Gaming Association’s current priorities for its member operators,” FanDuel, a division of Flutter Entertainment Plc., said in a statement. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Microsoft said Tuesday it is partnering with artificial intelligence company Anthropic and chipmaker Nvidia as part of an AI infrastructure deal that moves the software giant further away from its longtime alliance with OpenAI. Anthropic, maker of the chatbot Claude that competes with OpenAI’s ChatGPT, said it is committed to buying $30 billion in computing capacity from Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform. As part of the partnership, Nvidia will also invest up to $10 billion in Anthropic, and Microsoft will invest up to $5 billion in the San Francisco-based startup. The joint announcements by CEOs Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, and Jensen Huang of Nvidia came just ahead of the opening of Microsoft’s annual Ignite developer conference. “This is all about deepening our commitment to bringing the best infrastructure, model choice and applications to our customers,” Nadella said on a video call with the other two executives, adding that it builds on the “critical” partnership Microsoft still has with OpenAI. — ASSOCIATED PRESS

REAL ESTATE

Two heavyweights in the US residential real estate market, Compass Inc. and Zillow Inc., are facing off in a New York courtroom in a legal battle that could reshape the future of how homes are marketed and sold in the country. Compass, the largest residential brokerage, sued Zillow in June claiming the real estate site acts anticompetitively by banning listings that were publicly marketed elsewhere first. A four-day hearing began Tuesday before a federal judge who will decide whether to temporarily block Zillow’s policy while the lawsuit proceeds. The dispute is the latest in a long-running fight over who controls the most valuable asset in real estate: information. Compass has built a private listings network allowing sellers to quietly market homes with its own agents before posting on public multiple listing services (MLS). It argues the strategy lets sellers test demand and pricing without leaving a record on the MLS that could hurt future sales. But Seattle-based Zillow, which relies on MLS data to power its popular website, says private marketing makes the housing market less transparent. The company in April implemented the Zillow Listings Access Standards — a rule blocking any listings that aren’t made available to the MLS within a certain timeframe. Zillow’s new standards have had “no impact” whatsoever on competition in the home search market, Bonnie Lau, a lawyer for the company, said in her opening statement. — BLOOMBERG NEWS

RETAIL

Home Depot said on Tuesday that it cut its full-year profit forecast and missed analysts’ earnings targets last quarter, citing consumers’ reluctance to spend on housing amid economic uncertainty and elevated mortgage rates. The big-box retailer, a bellwether for the housing market, said it expected adjusted earnings for the year would decline about 5 percent, a downgrade from its previous forecast of a 2 percent decline. The company also said sales at its US stores open for at least one year rose only 0.2 percent last quarter, and the number of transactions fell 1.4 percent. The company said on Tuesday it had observed a general slowdown as consumers cut back on remodeling projects and major upgrades. The whiplash of tariffs and mortgage rates, which have hovered above 6 percent, have kept people from buying and selling homes despite anticipation that the Federal Reserve would continue to lower interest rates. Despite the slowdown, the home retailer expects consumer demand will increase next year. That’s because as homes get older and owners gain more equity in their properties, the company’s executives said, spending on renovations will eventually take off. “Can the Home Depot grow? The answer is yes,” Ted Decker, CEO of Home Depot, said on an earnings call Tuesday morning. “Will the industry have some shorter term pressures with turnover in home price? Yes, as well.” — NEW YORK TIMES