Google pays Apple so that it remains the default search engine on the iPhone’s Safari browser.

Although neither Google nor Apple discuss the terms of the agreement, most analysts believe the payments are billions of dollars per year.

In fact, the so-called “traffic acquisition cost” payments may be bigger than anyone on Wall Street thinks, Goldman Sachs analyst Rod Hall wrote in a note distributed to clients on Friday.

Google could pay Apple $9 billion in 2018, and $12 billion in 2019, according to the Goldman estimate.

“We believe this revenue is charged ratably based on the number of searches that users on Apple’s platform originate from Siri or within the Safari browser,” Hall wrote.

“We believe Apple is one of the biggest channels of traffic acquisition for Google,” he continued.

Goldman’s report models Google’s payments to Apple as a fraction of the money it makes on iOS through paid searches, and worked backwards from iOS market share, added a premium, and used a rate based on previous Google disclosures.

Goldman also noted that Google said last year that it had renegotiated TAC terms, which some guessed meant that Apple’s rate had increased.

In 2017, Bernstein analyst Toni Sacconaghi estimated that Google was paying Apple $3 billion per year. The only hard number we know for sure is that Google paid Apple $1 billion in 2014, thanks to court filings.

Apple has recently been drawing investor focus to its growing “services” line item, which accounted for 13% of total revenue in Apple’s fiscal 2017. “We believe the transformation to services, led by growth in both installed devices and service revenue per device, is tracking better than investor expectation,” JPMorgan analyst Samik Chatterjee wrote in a note on Thursday.

When Apple executives talk about Services, they like to focus on the fee Apple collects from software sold on the App Store or the money the company makes through subscriptions like Apple Music and iCloud.

But according to the Goldman model, TAC fees account for 24% of the services business, and AppleCare, Apple’s repair and warranty program, accounts for 17% of the $31.3 billion in services revenue that Apple collected last year.

“We don’t believe Apple Services should be valued standalone at a higher multiple than the combined company,” Hall concludes. Goldman Sachs has a 12-month price target of $240 on Apple.

At least 48 people have been killed after a powerful earthquake triggered a tsunami that hit Indonesia‘s central Sulawesi island.

Palu, the capital of Central Sulawesi province, was strewn with debris from collapsed buildings on Saturday.

Seawater pooled inland and a mosque heavily damaged by the quake was half submerged. A shopping mall in the paralysed city of more than 380,000 people had been reduced to a crumpled hulk.

The city is built around a narrow bay that apparently magnified the force of the tsunami waters as they raced into the tight inlet.

Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, spokesperson of Indonesia’s disaster agency BNPB, said on that four hospitals in Palu reported hundreds of injured.

“Many bodies were found along the shoreline because of the tsunami, but the numbers are still unknown,” said Nugroho in a news briefing in Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta.

Dawn revealed a devastated coastline in central Sulawesi where the 3-metre high tsunami triggered by the magnitude 7.5 earthquake on Friday smashed into two cities and several settlements.

If you don’t know, a 7.7 SR with a 1-2.5M Tsunami hit Donggala, Indonesia earlier this afternoon. pic.twitter.com/q3U5bjRaPU#PrayForDonggala

— natasha (@xiuminusone) September 28, 2018

Nugroho described the damage as “extensive” and said bodies of some victims were found trapped between rubble of collapsing buildings. More than 350 people were injured, he said.

Hospitals were overwhelmed by the influx of the injured, with many people being treated in the open air, while other survivors helped to retrieve the remains of those who died.

In the nearby city of Donggala, a large bridge with yellow arches that spanned a coastal river had collapsed.

‘I just ran’

Dramatic video footage filmed from the top floor of a parking ramp in Palu, nearly 80km from the quake’s epicentre, showed waves of water bring down several buildings and inundate a large mosque.

“I just ran when I saw the waves hitting homes on the coastline,” said Palu resident Rusidanto. 

The quake and tsunami caused a major power outage that cut communications around Palu and on Saturday authorities were still having difficulties coordinating rescue efforts.

Road access to Palu from the east and the south were also disconnected.

The city’s airport remained closed after its runway and air traffic control tower was damaged in the quake but officials said they were preparing to reopen to allow aid to come in.

Indonesian president Joko Widodo said the military was being called in to the disaster-struck region to help search-and-rescue teams get to victims and find bodies. 

Tomi Soetjipto, a journalist based in Jakarta, said it was the earthquake that caused most of the casualties.

“We are receiving reports of widespread damage to buildings because of the earthquake. A lot of houses in the area do not meet international safety standards,” Soetjipto told Al Jazeera.

Emergency supplies have been dispatched from Jakarta and other cities near Palu, he said, but the aid has not reached affected areas because of “bad roads”.

“Makeshift shelters are being erected in the cities nearby. For now, the majority of 380,000 people there are staying outside their buildings,” he added.

Indonesia’s meteorological and geophysics agency BMKG issued a tsunami warning after the quake, but lifted it 34 minutes later.

The agency was widely criticised for not informing a tsunami had hit Palu on Saturday, though officials said waves had come within the time the warning was issued.

The Palu area was hit by a less powerful quake earlier on Friday, which destroyed some houses, killed one person and injured at least 10 in the fishing town of Donggala, closest to the epicentre, authorities said.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire and is regularly hit by earthquakes. In August, a series of major quakes killed over 500 people in the tourist island of Lombok and destroyed dozens of villages along its northern coast.

Palu was hit by tsunami in 1927 and 1968, according to the disaster agency.

SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies

Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court seemed like a foregone conclusion on Friday morning.

Only 24 hours earlier, members of the Senate Judiciary Committee heard compelling testimony from Christine Blasey Ford, the California university professor who accused Kavanaugh of sexually assaulting her when they were teenagers in the 1980s.

Kavanaugh had delivered a tearful rebuttal himself that included an extended attack on Democrats he accused of trying to ruin his life.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

The fallout was immense, but despite this, Kavanaugh’s confirmation appeared all but certain.

That changed after Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona released a statement announcing that he would vote in favor of moving Kavanaugh’s nomination out of committee and onto the Senate floor.

Shortly after, he was cornered in a Senate elevator by two women who shared their own stories as victims of sexual abuse.

They said his vote for Kavanaugh would send a message to women and girls that “assault doesn’t matter.”

The entire emotional exchange was captured on live television.

Later, as Flake returned to the committee room, the mood shifted and nearly two hours of hushed bipartisan discussion began, led by Flake and his close Democratic counterpart, Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware, among others.

Flake offered his vote to move Kavanaugh’s nomination out of committee if the leadership agreed to push for an additional FBI investigation of the nominee’s background as it relates to Ford’s sexual assault allegations and separate claims of misconduct from two other women.

“I’ve had a number of conversations with people on the other side related to doing our due diligence,” Flake said. “I think it would be proper to delay the floor vote for up to, but no more than, one week in order to let the FBI continue to do an investigation limited in time and scope.”

The Judiciary Committee leadership agreed, and later so did Senate leaders, giving federal investigators one week to reexamine Kavanaugh’s background.

By Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump gave the order.

Correction: An earlier version of this story included the wrong spelling of a rally attendee’s name.

CORAL GABLES – Michelle Obama brought her voter registration campaign to the University of Miami on Friday, rallying thousands of students and residents to “have a say in the issues we care about.”

It was the final stop of her Week of Action tour for When We All Vote at the University of Miami’s Watsco Center, before a crowd of about 6,000. The former first lady co-chairs the nonpartisan organization, which aims to encourage voting.

In front of an audience whose shirts read “Register to vote,” “#MSDStrong,” “Andrew Gillum for Governor,” and “I support Planned Parenthood,” Obama stressed that voting is the way to make sure citizens’ voices are heard.

Previous coverage: Michelle Obama announces September week of action to register, rally voters

More: Andrew Gillum wields star power; Ron DeSantis dismisses it as an elite distraction

“It’s time for us to move out of the way and let you lead,” Obama told the young people in the audience, many of whom flashed the university’s U hand sign as she addressed them directly. “This is no longer about me, it’s not about Barack, it’s about you.”

Obama stressed she was “not stumping for any one candidate,” and did not mention the names of any elected officials. But she said she is frustrated by the “daily chaos,” “pettiness,” and “meanness” of politics, adding that whenever she feels like shutting it all out, she thinks of her dad, who made sure he voted in every election.

“He went to vote for the same reason he went to work — to provide for his family,” Obama said.

She stressed that every vote counts, saying “you all know a thing or two about that here in Florida.” In addition to the infamous 2000 presidential election recount, Obama cited a Cocoa Beach City Commission election in 2016 in which Commissioner Karalyn Woulas won by eight votes.

“If a candidate gets elected with a less than 37 percent turnout rate, and we assume the opponents get some of those votes, then that means the percentage of people who actually voted for that candidate is even smaller,” Obama said. “So if you’re an elected official who wins on those margins, who are you looking out for once you’re in office? … If a storm hits and the lights go out, which neighborhood are you going to make sure gets its power back on first?”

More: Michelle Obama helps a Chicago couple say ‘I do’ by officiating (!) at the wedding

More: Michelle Obama’s ‘Becoming’ book tour launches Nov. 13, here’s how to get tickets

The lineup preceding Obama included actor Keegan-Michael Key, singer Kelly Rowland, attorney and political advocate Angela Rye and gospel artist Erica Campbell. When We All Vote co-chair Faith Hill was expected to speak, but missed the event due to flight issues.

Local speakers included Karla Hernandez-Mats, president of the United Teachers of Dade County and Gabriella Ruiz, a Miami Dade College student who works for the Florida Immigrant Coalition.

Rye told the audience the Week of Action included 2,000 voter registration events across 49 states, before firing up the audience for “our forever First Lady.” Dozens of University of Miami students standing in front of the stage raised their hands when Rye asked how many people were first-time voters.

“When we all vote, we reclaim our power,” Rye said. “Don’t let anyone tell you that your vote doesn’t matter, that your voice doesn’t matter … when we all vote, we are unstoppable.”

An animated Key was emphatic about young people using their voices.

“Grasp your power! Grasp your might!” Key shouted. “Make a change in this world. Period.”

Rally attendee Britney Marie Harris, a 27-year-old professor and motivational speaker in South Florida, said she was excited after hearing Obama’s speech.

“I was telling my friends that I think in the presidential elections, we all come out in numbers, but with the local elections, not so much,” Harris said. “So I think it was great to get us energized and just excited about the upcoming election, and I think that’s what I personally needed just to spark that fire under me.”

She said the speakers made her feel proud to have the right to vote.

“It’s such a privilege that many of us take for granted that a lot of people might not have, or they don’t cherish it,” she said. “So I am beyond excited to go out and vote. I’m ready.”

Connect with this reporter @SarahJarvisNP on Twitter and Facebook or at sjarvis@news-press.com.

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For the first time in club history, the Colorado Rockies will make back-to-back postseason appearances.

The Rockies booked a ticket to the playoffs with a 5-2 victory over the Washington Nationals on Friday night, their eighth win in a row. 

Colorado lost in the National League wild-card game against the Diamondbacks last year, but will be hoping for a better result either in that game or in the NLDS. The Rockies have never won their division in their 25-year history. 

“This is just the first step,” veteran Carlos Gonzalez said of clinching a playoff spot.

“We understand we have a big chance in front of us.”

Pitching has of course always been an issue for the Rockies playing at Coors Field and while the team does ranks near the bottom of the NL in ERA, it’s one of the best marks in the club’s 26 seasons.Lefty Kyle Freeland has been dominant with a 2.85 ERA, finishing just behind the 2.80 ERA for Marvin Freeman in 1994 for the club record.

Friday night Freeland, who grew up a Rockies fan in Denver, went six innings while giving up 11 hits but just two earned runs.

“It’s just incredible,” Freeland said. “I dreamt of this as a little kid and never thought I’d be in this position to do it. But the work is not done.”

Freeland was backed by David Dahl, who homered for the fifth consecutive game, and Ian Desmond, who hit a two-run homer against his former team. Charlie Blackmon and Chris Iannetta also added solo home runs. 

The Rockies’ eight-game winning streak is their longest since they also won eight straight in April 2013. 

Third baseman Nolan Arenado has been terrific as per usual, putting together his fifth consecutive season with at least 30 homers and 100 RBI. Shortstop Trevor Story was an All-Star and bounced back from a disappointing 2017 season with 35 homers and 105 RBI, to go with 26 steals.

The Rockies upgraded the bullpen over the winter, signing Wade Davis and Bryan Shaw. While Davis has set a career-high in saves this year (now at 43 after Friday), Shaw has struggled with an ERA above six.

Prior to last season’s trip to the NL wild-card game, manager Bud Black had never taken a team to the postseason. He had spent nine seasons as the skipper of the San Diego Padres from 2007-2015.

Contributing: Associated Press

 

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Salesforce executives met with investors on Wednesday at Dreamforce, the company’s massive tech conference taking place in San Francisco this week.

At that meeting, management outlined the company’s plan to grow revenues 20 percent a year over the next four years: from the $13.17 billion it expects to generate in its current fiscal year (2019) to the $21-$23 billion goal for fiscal 2022.

The plan to get there has a fancy new name: Customer 360, but it’s a pretty basic concept that tech companies have used since the beginning of time: Provide a way to connect all the apps a customer uses so that data stored in one app can be accessed by another, giving customers a more holistic view of their business. That, in turn, will encourage customers to buy more and more of Salesforce’s apps and services.

Salesforce has eight major cloud products these days (plus a scattering of others), although its flagship Sales cloud (which helps salespeople track customers) and its Service clouds (which helps with customer service) are still its two biggest by a mile, representing 34% and 30% respectively of its revenues.

Clearly the company hopes to get those customers who use only its Sales cloud or Service cloud to branch out a little. During that investor meeting, CFO Mark Hawkins told investors that out of the company’s 150,000-plus paying customers, 38% are “multi-cloud” meaning users of more than one cloud. That means that just under two-thirds do not use multiple Salesforce cloud products yet.

Follow the Mule

Obviously, when customers uses more than one cloud, they spend way more money on Salesforce, as much as 10-times as much, Hawkins said.

This ability to connect its clouds together to share one single view of all the data underneath is why Salesforce spent $6.5 billion to buy a company called called MuleSoft earlier this year, even though Salesforce faced criticism that it overpaid on that deal.

MuleSoft offers a cloud service that allows programmers and IT professionals to connect different applications together. Salesforce didn’t just want to sell MuleSoft’s technology to its customers as a new cloud service, it also wanted to use that tech internally to link its own clouds together as part of this master plan, the company told investors on Thursday.

A Salesforce slide attack

While much of the information imparted to investors centered on Salesforce’s own plans, it did include a bit about its competitors. And if you look closely, you can see that one slide included in the presentation the company publicly shared includes a kick-in-the-shins at two of the company’s biggest rivals: Oracle and Microsoft.

The slide suggests that Oracle doesn’t really have a “cloud platform.” But Oracle does offer cloud services that allow companies to bring their own applications and host them in Oracle’s data centers. Those clouds are known in the industry as infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS).

Oracle is currently spending billions to beef up these clouds to take on giant Amazon, as well other players like Salesforce. And Oracle executives are constantly talking about their cloud efforts and how fast their cloud revenues are growing. However, within the enterprise tech industry it is also widely acknowledged that Oracle is far behind the market leaders on its clouds in many ways, including features and market share.

Salesforce

That seems to be Salesforce’s point with this chart.

Meanwhile, Salesforce has indicated that its other big competitor — Microsoft —lacks even more cloud options. Salesforce has always competed against Microsoft, which offers its own sales and marketing clouds that compete with Salesforces’s bread-and-butter product. It considers Microsoft its true arch nemesis ever since Microsoft swept in and bought LinkedIn out from under Salesforce, according to one Salesforce exec.

In the slide, Salesforce implies that Microsoft doesn’t have cloud services for marketing automation, ecommerce, communications. Microsoft would, of course, disagree, pointing to its offerings in all those areas.

Microsoft is also largely considered to be the No. 2 cloud services provider behind Amazon when it comes to hosting its customers’ apps. And it’s also selling a lot of its own applications as cloud services, same as Salesforce’s business.

So this is a not-so-subtle way for Salesforce to indicate how it feels about Microsoft’s offerings as well.