Daily Tech Snippet: Friday, March 24

• YouTube Hate Videos Haunt Advertisers on Google: Major advertisers across Europe are still appearing alongside extremist YouTube videos days after technology giant Google said it was taking steps to protect its clients from inadvertently supporting hate. An anti-semitic clip claiming the existence of a “Jewish World Order” was featured alongside advertisements in Germany from insurer AXA SA, oil company Total SA in France, Range Rover vehicles in South Africa, footwear retailer Skopunkten and website Tradera in Sweden, Bloomberg searches of YouTube from each country found on Thursday.Separately, a sermon by preacher Ahmad Musa Jibril, who according to U.S. prosecutors once took credit for a terrorist bombing in Saudi Arabia, can be viewed alongside advertisements from Nissan in Sweden and wireless carrier MTN Group in South Africa. Meanwhile, the Islamophobic English Defence League gathers support from advertisers Total, Netflix Inc., IBM and watchmaker Tag Heuer International in France. The controversy over ad placement, now in its second week, is expanding at a pace Alphabet Inc.’s Google has struggled to match in its response. On Thursday, as Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt said Google could “get pretty close” to guaranteeing companies’ ads won’t be placed near hateful material, advertisers throughout Europe were confronting more than a dozen new examples and scrambling to protect their brands. The latest examples show the scope of the Google’s problem isn’t confined to two large markets. It’s global, affecting major advertisers in big European markets including Germany, France and Sweden, as well as South Africa.

• Theranos is offering investors Elizabeth Holmes’ shares if they promise not to sue: One way Theranos is hoping to stay afloat is by offering double the shares — including some of founder Elizabeth Holmes’ own shares — to investors if they promise not to sue. Theranos is knee-deep in an avalanche of lawsuits from investors and consumers of its blood-testing products after it was discovered last year the tests had an accuracy problem and didn’t meet with the company’s own standards. Its main partner, Walgreens, has since pulled out and is also suing the company. According to The Wall Street Journal, Theranos’ board approved a move in February to shuffle shares, including from founder Elizabeth Holmes, to investors as a way to appease them. It’s not clear how many shares Holmes is offering up herself, but at least a couple of investors aren’t taking the deal. Theranos has reached a separate agreement with Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corp and 21st Century Fox Inc., who refused to agree to the same deal as other investors — possibly for tax reasons. Theranos will instead buy back his shares for $1, according to the Journal’s sources. Another investor, San Francisco-based hedge fund Partner Fund Management LP, which sued Theranos in October and participated in the $198 Series C round attributed to have driven Theranos to its former $9 billion valuation, also refused the agreement.

• Amazon.com wins $1.5 billion tax dispute over IRS:  Amazon.com Inc on Thursday won a more than $1.5 billion tax dispute with the Internal Revenue Service over transactions involving a Luxembourg unit more than a decade ago. Judge Albert Lauber of the U.S. Tax Court rejected a variety of IRS arguments, and found that on several occasions the agency abused its discretion, or acted arbitrarily or capriciously. Amazon's ultimate tax liability from the decision was not immediately clear. The world's largest online retailer has said the case involved transactions in 2005 and 2006, and could boost its federal tax bill by $1.5 billion plus interest. It also said a loss could add "significant" tax liabilities in later years. Amazon made just $2.37 billion of profit in 2016, four times what it made in the four prior years combined, on revenue of $136 billion.

• Uber stalls India leasing scheme as driver incomes drop: sources: Global ride-hailing firm Uber Technologies is rethinking its car leasing strategy in India, its second-biggest market, as drivers have returned dozens of leased cars early after the company cut incentives, people familiar with the matter told Reuters. Uber had planned to buy 15,000 new cars last year and lease them out in a bid to attract more drivers - a strategy it has used in other markets - but it suspended the scheme for a while in December after leasing just a third of that total. After burning through millions of dollars over three years in a battle for market share with local rival Ola, backed by Japan's Softbank, Uber has cut the incentives it gives to drivers and raised the fares it charges passengers.Two people with knowledge of the matter said Uber miscalculated the impact that the reduced incentives would have on drivers' earnings, especially those making lease payments.To lease a new small car through Uber's scheme, drivers pay a 33,000 rupee ($499) deposit - less than what they would pay to buy a car from a dealer with a bank loan. But weekly payments of about 5,500 rupees over three years add up to nearly double what drivers would pay to service a car loan.That wasn't an issue when incentives were high. Several Uber drivers said they feel trapped as a surge in the number of cars on Uber's platform has led to fewer rides, at a time when incentives have been cut, making it harder to keep up lease payments.