SEC Adds Crypto Offices, Google’s Antitrust Appeal Rejected, State Farm Invests in ADT

September 15, 2022 –The Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Corporate Finance will add industry offices that are focused on crypto assets, and industrial applications and services, the agency announced on September 9.

These two offices will be added to the Division of Corporate Finance’s Disclosure Review Program. These offices will join the seven existing offices that provide focused review of issuer filings and grouped by industry expertise.

While the new Office of Crypto Assets will review crypto filings, the Office of Industrial Applications and Services will be responsible for the non-pharma, non-biotech, and non-medicinal products companies.

The former chairman of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in January said that the U.S.’s neglect of regulating cryptocurrencies meant the U.S. was falling behind rival nations.

Record antitrust fine against Google by EU stands

Google’s appeal of a record antitrust fine with the European Union was rejected by a top court this past Wednesday.

The EU’s executive commission fined Google $4.125 billion euros, which is equivalent to $3.99 billion US dollars. Google originally appealed the fine although the European Court of Justice rejected it and upheld the penalty amount. This is higher than the antitrust fine in 2021 with the EU.

In November 2021, Google challenged a $2.8 billion antitrust fine because of allegations that Google favored their in-house price comparison tools over smaller European rivals. The court said Google broke antitrust rules when they chose to favor their shopping results over other competitors.

State Farm to make smart home investment in ADT

Last week, State Farm said it would make a $1.2 billion equity investment in smart home provider ADT.

The insurance company has also committed to invest up to $300 million in an opportunity fund to support product innovation for homeowners.

State Farm says they want to apply smart home technology to home ownership with customer benefits to lower costs and smart home security devices. The goal is to mitigating insurance loss caused by fire, water or intrusion.

Instead of repairing and replace lost and damaged items, State Farm aims to predict and prevent loss.

State Farm says they’ll better equip their customers against home ownership risk. State Farm will acquire over 133 million shares of ADT’s common stock at $9 per share with their $1.2 billion investment.