Business, Financial & Legal News - Page 47

Netflix is now pushing out its password-sharing hand slap to customers in 5 different Latin American countries, which will see them paying between $1.70 and $2.99 per month.

The company will be requesting customers pay a fee to use their Netflix accounts in an additional house, with Netflix customers from Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and the Dominican Republic needing to cough more money up per month. If users are using their Netflix account for more than 2 weeks outside of their primary residence (the address of your Netflix billing account).

Netflix announced the news on their website, with Netflix apps on smartphones, tablets, and laptops won't be affected if you're on vacation. It's just for those using it for over 2 weeks, outside of your primary residence... in a bid for Netflix to claw back more money after bleeding on the stock market (and a tiny 200,000+ customers lost in Q1 2022, and an expected 2M+ in Q2 2022).

Russia has fined Google hundreds of millions of dollars for refusing to censor Ukraine war content on its platform.

A Russian court has ruled that Google will be fined $377 million for failing to remove content about the Ukraine war that Russia considers to be "fake" or "prohibited content". This isn't the first time Russia has fined Google for the content on its platform, as the nation fined Google in December 2021 for what it claimed to be a "systematic failure to remove banned content." Notably, Facebook and Instagram were also fined approximately $27 million.

According to Russian media regulator Roskomnadzor's press release regarding the fine, the Russian court pointed to YouTube being the platform where the "fake" news is being spread and how Google failed to stop the spread of misinformation or restrict access to the "prohibited content". At the moment, Google is available in Russia, but judging by the nation's past decisions to ban platforms that don't agree with Russian principles (Facebook was banned in March), it may not be long before Google is also banned.

A court has ruled in favor of Twitter for expediting the trial date for the social media company's lawsuit against Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk moved to terminate his merger agreement with Twitter, and in response, the world's second-largest social media company is taking Musk to court. Twitter filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Court of Chancery that claimed Musk must follow through with the merger agreement at the stated price of $54.20 a share, or $44 billion. Twitter's lawsuit also stated that the court should expedite the trial given its nature and how merger agreements being in limbo can impact the company negatively.

Musk fired back at Twitter with a filing that pushed for the court to reject Twitter's request to expedite the trial date, citing the need for a substantial amount of time to analyze and interpret the treasure trove of user data that Twitter provided Musk's team - to review the company's process for identifying bot/spam accounts. The filing requested that the trial get pushed back to on or after February 13, 2023. That request has now been denied by the Delaware Court of Chancery Judge Kathaleen McCormick.

Elon Musk is once again tweeting about the world not being overpopulated, with the SpaceX and Tesla CEO tweeting: "Earth is basically empty of humans".

In a reply to a tweet from Tim Urban, which explains: "Population density thread because you and I both know you have nothing better to do. Let's start with this cool way to visualize population density, by @undertheraedar. The height of each spike displays the population density in that location".

Musk replied, tweeting: "Earth is basically empty of humans".

Netflix reports its second quarter of subscriber losses in a row for its Q2 period.

Netflix subscriber losses have more than quadrupled over Q1, new earnings reports have confirmed. The streaming giant lost 969,000 subscribers in its Q2 period, its largest reduction in subscribers to date. From January - June 2022, Netflix subscribers have dropped by over 1.1 million across the globe.

The company also says that its ad-based plans may be years away, and that it will continue experimenting with its paid sharing plans which require users to pay an extra fee to share their Netflix subscriptions with users in other households.

The New York City (NYC) Emergency Management Department has released a new public service announcement (PSA) regarding "nuclear preparedness."

The Department notes the likelihood of a nuclear weapon being used to attack NYC or a nearby incident involving such a weapon is low. However, its citizens should be prepared in the event of one. Eric Adams, the mayor of NYC, commended the Office of Emergency Management for the PSA and called himself "a big believer in better safe than sorry." He also referred to NYC as "one of the top terrorist threats," and thus that New Yorkers should always be prepared.

The new PSA advises citizens to enter a building quickly and avoid windows, and they should shut all doors and windows and head for the middle of the building. Removing clothing and showering with soap or shampoo is also advised to clean off radioactive material as quickly as possible. Citizens are then advised to stay tuned to news sources, sign up for Notify NYC, and be alert for Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEAs).

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has backed out of his deal to purchase Twitter, and now the second largest social media company is taking Musk to court.

Musk offered to purchase Twitter for $54.20 a share, or $44 billion in April 2022. This offer was accepted by Twitter less than two weeks after it was announced, which was quickly followed by Musk pointing to Twitter's claim that less than 5% of its total users are bot accounts. As a result of this, the Tesla CEO said the deal was "temporarily on hold" until Twitter provided his team with the correct data to verify the claims.

Twitter responded by providing Musk with the full "fire hose" of Twitter, which was followed by Musk accusing Twitter of a "material breach" by withholding vital information. Fast forwarding to July 8, Musk's legal team informed the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) that he was backing out of the deal and wished to terminate the merger agreement.

Apple designer Jony Ive is officially finished with the company, after leaving back in 2019 to form his own design firm... Apple became one of his biggest clients, until now.

Jony Ive's own design firm is called LoveFrom, with clients that include Ferrari -- and until now, Apple -- but sources close to The New York Times say that Apple and Ive have agreed to end their partnership. The two companies had a multi-year contract, where LoveFrom reportedly made over $100 million.

The contract was up for renewal but it seems both parties didn't want to move on, with The New York Times sources saying that there were executives inside of Apple that were concerned with how much money they were handing over to Ive and his design firm. On top of that, other Apple staffers were pissed that designers were defecting from Apple to LoveFrom, not a good thing for Ive, or Apple.

Four former executives from the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) have been ordered by a Tokyo court to pay damages in a recent lawsuit.

A civil lawsuit was brought against the company by shareholders for failing to prevent the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, when the now-defunct nuclear power plant was struck by a massive tsunami. The executives have been ordered to pay a combined 13.32 trillion yen ($97 billion) in what is estimated to be the largest compensation payout for a civil lawsuit in Japanese history.

"Nuclear power plants can cause irreparable damage to human lives and the environment. Executives for firms that operate such nuclear plants bear enormous responsibility, which cannot compare with that of other companies," the plaintiffs said in a separate statement after the ruling.

Reports indicate that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a text message to Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal about Twitter's lawyers.

Elon Musk has decided to back of his deal to purchase Twitter for $44 billion, and now the world's second largest social media company is moving to initiate legal action against Musk in the Delaware court as of Tuesday. Following the pull back from Musk and the lawsuit from Twitter reports are surfacing about text messages between Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Musk regarding lawyers.

According to reports from BusinessInsider, Musk sent text messages to Agrawal and Twitter CFO Ned Segal on June 28 where he stated, "Your lawyers are using these conversations to cause trouble. That needs to stop." Notably, these text messages were in response to Twitter wanting to find out how Musk was planning on financing the $44 billion for the merger. If you are interested in reading more about the recent events between Twitter and Musk, check out the below links.