Microsoft ends its week on a high – after a trying time with tax bills and Copilot costs

Kettle It has been a engaged week for Microsoft, pinch a $29B measure for backmost taxes from nan IRS, revelations astir nan costs of its Copilot AI service, and nan news that nan UK has dropped its objections to nan Activision merger deal.

Just hours earlier we recorded this week's Kettle connected Friday, British regulators grumpily dropped their objections to Microsoft's takeover of nan gaming elephantine Activision Blizzard, pinch conditions. Redmond has to support its platforms mostly unfastened for a fewer years, committedness not beryllium a monopolist, and - unusually for specified deals - let unit to shape unions. Given nan outrageous tales of "frat boy" behaviour astatine Activision, they mightiness request one.

The move will let Microsoft to adjacent its takeover of nan publishing house.

Meanwhile, nan IT elephantine is apparently losing money connected its Copilot code-generating service. We excavation into that and much successful nan 13-minute vid below.

From near to correct successful nan thumbnail, we person Register journos Brandon Vigliarolo, Tobias Mann, and Iain Thomson, pinch editing by Nicole Hemsoth Prickett.

Microsoft's week began pinch a financial headache, aft nan IRS announced that Redmond owes Uncle Sam an estimated $29 cardinal successful backmost taxes from 2004 to 2013. Microsoft said it has nan money but will title nan charge. We fto you cognize what those billions could person been spent connected by nan government. ®

PS: Speaking of Microsoft, anyone other announcement that StatCounter says Windows' desktop marketplace stock in nan USA is down to 57 percent, macOS up astatine 32 percent, and Linux (including Chrome OS) astatine 10 percent? In the UK, Windows is trending down to 71 percent.