Three Fox News hosts — Maria Bartiromo, Lou Dobbs and Jeanine Pirro — are seeking the dismissal of claims against them and their employer as part of a $2.7 billion libel lawsuit brought by the voting technology company Smartmatic.

Bartiromo, Dobbs and Pirro, as well as Donald Trump lawyers Rudolph Giuliani and Sidney Powell, were sued this month for the eye-popping amount by Smartmatic, which accused them of conspiring to spread false claims that the company was involved in an effort to steal the presidential election from Trump.

In its motions, lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis, which is also defending Fox, argue Bartiromo, Dobbs and Pirro were doing their job in covering the biggest story of the day: unprecedented allegations by the president that the integrity of the electoral process was marred by fraud.

Smartmatic in its 285-page complaint filed Feb. 4 in state court in New York had cited at least 13 reports on Fox News in which guests or personalities falsely stated or implied that the company had somehow helped steal the election through easily tampered technology or in cahoots with Venezuela’s socialist government.

Microsoft to expand in Atlanta, turn city into major hub

ATLANTA — Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company plans to make metro Atlanta a major hub as it embarks on a significant expansion.

The tech giant is adding two regional data centers and could bring thousands of jobs to 90 acres of land it bought in recent months at the stalled Quarry Yards development on the city’s Westside.

“You don’t buy 90 acres if you don’t have plans to grow substantially,” Smith told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution in an interview.

He declined to provide specific details or a timetable for Quarry Yards, one of the largest undeveloped tracts of greenspace near the city center, beyond saying it would set aside a quarter of the development for affordable housing before building any offices.

But Smith placed Microsoft’s potential growth here in the context of its two largest locations - metro Seattle, where about 62,000 Microsoft employees are based, and Silicon Valley and San Francisco, which have a combined 7,000 employees.

All of Microsoft’s business divisions will have workers assigned to Atlanta, Smith said. The company’s businesses range from cloud computing to consumer products like Word and Excel.

“It will be one of our important hubs,” he said.

Microsoft declined to say how many workers it currently employs in metro Atlanta, but it’s likely around 1,000. It operates a corporate sales office in Alpharetta and an innovation center downtown, which provides a “comprehensive set of technology, tools and services to startups, governments, students and faculty,” according to the company.

Disney beats 1Q expectations due to Disney+

NEW YORK — The Walt Disney Co.’s net income fell sharply in its most-recent quarter, as the coronavirus pandemic still weighs heavily on many of its businesses, from theme parks to movies.

But results surpassed Wall Street’s expectations thanks to subscribers flocking to Disney+ and other of the entertainment giant’s streaming services.

Disney’s parks and resorts have been closed or operating at significantly reduced capacity since shortly after the pandemic forced lockdowns across the U.S. in March of last year. Its cruise ships have also been suspended during that time, live sporting events have been canceled, and film and TV projects have been disrupted.

Disney said it expects coronavirus disruption to cost about $1 billion in fiscal 2021. The biggest hit to the company in the quarter that ended Jan. 2 was the closure and limited reopening of its theme parks, which cost the company about $2.6 billion.

Disney has been focusing on its steaming services — Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu — to drive growth.

From combined wire services