Fplus neuroaccelerators, social contributions for the self-employed: the main thing on October 17

World

• The Financial Times has learned of Uber’s plans to buy travel company Expedia. According to the newspaper, the taxi aggregator is looking to expand its super application.
• In a meeting on October 17, the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Türkiye decided to keep the key interest rate at 50%.
• Meta* Corporation has fired more than 20 people for abusing the $25 benefits employees receive to pay for meals. Those laid off spent the money on household items such as wine glasses, laundry detergent and acne treatment.
• Bloomberg learned about Apple’s secret work on its electric car with Chinese automaker BYD. The American company abandoned the project in February.
• Raiffeisenbank and UniCredit have encountered difficulties trying to exit the Russian market, sources told Bloomberg. According to them, the Russian authorities intend to block attempts to sell the banking business in the country to anyone who may be subject to Western sanctions.
• The gold exchange price on Thursday, October 17 updated its historical record. The December contract price surpassed $2,711 per ounce, trading data shows.
• The European Central Bank (ECB) cut the three main interest rates by 25 percentage points, its third rate cut in the last year. The updated rates will come into effect on October 23, 2024, the regulator said in a statement.
• The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has introduced a provision to cancel subscriptions to one-click services. If the document is adopted, its rules will come into effect in April 2025, ABC News reports.

Russia

• RBC found that the country’s most popular analogue, Ozempic, for the treatment of diabetes and weight loss, is lacking in several regions. We are talking about the drug “Semavik” produced by the company “Geropharm”.
• The Central Bank proposed collecting biometric data from Russians through requests from credit institutions. The Center for Biometric Technologies has already declared that it is prepared to implement such a function.
• The State Duma approved in the first reading a bill prohibiting childless propaganda. Fines for citizens will amount to 400 thousand rubles, for officials – up to 800 thousand rubles, for companies – up to 5 million rubles.
• The State Council of Tatarstan called for the confiscation of the property of those relocated for administrative violations committed outside Russia and against their interests. The corresponding bill was submitted to the State Duma.
• Military investigators opened a criminal case for the theft of 130 million rubles against the executive director of the OJSC Radiotechnical Institute named after academician AL Mints” Vyacheslav Lobuzko and deputy chief designer Vladimir Finkelshtein.
• The Bank of Russia is willing to communicate with disgruntled Hamster Kombat players and discuss investment risks. But there have been no complaints to the regulator yet.
• In the case of blowing up the truck of the co-owner of the Coyote Ugly bar, his business partner was detained until December 15; According to investigators, the accused placed explosives on the hood of the car “for reasons of personal hostility.”

Business

• In 2025, the Russian company Fplus will launch the production of servers with domestic neuroaccelerators from the Scientific and Technical Center of the Module. To begin with, it is planned to launch about 100 devices on the market.
• The Ministry of Labor proposed to introduce social contributions for the self-employed from 2026. The monthly payment can be 1,344 or 1,920 rubles.

• Most likely, Rospatent will refuse singer Yaroslav Dronov (creative pseudonym Shaman) to register his trademark “I am Russian” for vodka. This opinion was expressed to RB.RU by the founder of the Isibrand patent office, patent attorney No. 2104 Olga Bondareva.

• Sber has closed a deal to buy online schools Netology and Foxford. The purchase amount could be 4 to 6 billion rubles.
• The statement of the company VB Development, Vladislav Bakalchuk, about the interruption of the construction of the Wildberries logistics complex in Shushary, St. Petersburg, does not correspond to reality.
• Yandex began delivering commercial cargo from Moscow to Tula along the M-4 Don highway using unmanned trucks. They are manufactured on the platform of the Chinese Shacman X6000.
• Sminex closed the deal to buy the developer Ingrad from the Rossium consortium. It included 19 projects at the construction and design stage in Moscow and the Moscow region with a total area of ​​7.1 million square meters. metro.
• The minimum discount for transactions involving the sale of assets by foreigners in Russia will increase from 50% to 60%. Finance Minister Anton Siluanov also announced that the contribution to the budget for transactions involving the sale of Russian companies by foreigners will increase from 15% to 35%.
• The costs of inspections for Russian companies, despite the current moratorium, increased by a quarter, up to 44 billion rubles in 2023. This is shown by a study by the Center for Strategic Research.
• “Opora Rossii” proposed that the Ministry of Finance establish a minimum retail price for beer and beer-based beverages due to the increase in excise taxes. The organization warns that otherwise manufacturers could reduce product quality to offset costs.
• Generic drug maker Ozon Pharmaceuticals raised 3.45 billion rubles during an initial public offering on the Moscow Stock Exchange, including a base amount of 3 billion rubles and a stabilization package of 450 million rubles.
• The amount of fines for violating the advertising law in 2024 exceeded 21 million rubles, said Roskomnadzor representative Maria Smelyanskaya. Most rulings were issued for distributing integrations without proper labeling.
• The investment company Invellect bought the Coffee Like coffee chain and all legal entities of the chain came under its full management, a representative of Invellect told RB.RU.
• Softline plans to buy back 5% of the company’s shares from investors. The board of directors will make a decision on this at its meeting on October 22, Softline’s press service reported.

Services and technologies

• Sber and the National Payment Card System (NSCP) plan to combine bioprocurement services. The project is in the roadmap stage and is scheduled for completion by the end of October.
• Russia intends to ban Russian providers from using the SpeedTest Internet speed measurement service from the American company Ookla. The latter can collect information for possible cyberattacks, according to the International Academy of Communications.
• Sberbank, T-Bank and other credit organizations have started pilot testing of Open API technology, which will allow customers to manage accounts in different banks through a single application.
• NSPK has developed a technology prototype that will allow iOS users to pay for their purchases by touching the terminal with their smartphone. The development was called “Ola”.
• VK Tech will create a universal platform for managing production and sales processes in the oil and gas industry.
• T-Bank launched a special robot platform “Cybershkval” to proactively combat investment fraud.