Business, Financial & Legal - Page 38

A new report claims that Twitter has laid off at least fifty workers over the weekend, with some discovering their firing by being locked out of their email accounts.

The report comes from The Information, which recently published claims that Twitter fired "dozens" of employees on Saturday, with some of those affected employees being engineers that were responsible for keeping Twitter's underlying systems up and running. Other employees affected by the layoffs were those responsible for advertising technology, the main app of Twitter, and technical infrastructure.

These job cuts are now the eighth round of layoffs since Elon Musk took over the company in October and are a response to Twitter's overall dip in revenue caused by advertisers pulling out ad expenditure on the platform. Advertisers began slowing down or halting advertising on Twitter shortly after Elon Musk took over the company and revised the platform's content moderation policy. Many brands were hesitant about Musk's new vision for Twitter and, as a result, thought it would be safer to reduce spending or stop altogether.

With revenues falling and the big tech companies cutting thousands of jobs to tighten their fiscal belts, today comes a surprising announcement from Google. It looks like the Google Cloud division will be asking its employees (referred to internally as Googlers) to share desks, with the measure described as a way for Google to continue to invest in the Cloud. Sounds like there's not much of a need for physical desk space up in the cloud.

This is, of course, surprising because we often think of tech giants like Google offering modern cutting-edge workspaces where employees do all of their coding and device business amid a tech playground of food, drinks, comfy office spaces, and rooms dedicated for those that want to take a mid-afternoon nap. CNBC's Jennifer Elias acquired an internal memo about the new Cloud Office Evolution desk-share policy which states, "most Googlers will now share a desk with one other Googler."

The document adds that employees will head to work on alternate days so that they won't be using the same desk simultaneously. "Through the matching process, they will agree on a basic desk setup and establish norms with their desk partner and teams to ensure a positive experience in the new shared environment," the document says.

An Apple iPhone from 2007 was put up for auction over the weekend and has been sold for more than $60,000.

The first-generation iPhone was listed for auction with LCG Auctions, which started bidding for the untouched relic of the technology industry at just $2,500. Notably, the 2007 iPhone retailed for $599, meaning it sold for more than 100 times its original value at Sunday's auction. According to reports, the previous owner didn't open the iPhone box after purchasing it in 2007, leaving the first-generation iPhone completely sealed in its original packaging.

This isn't the first time an original iPhone has sold for a ridiculous amount of money at an auction, as it was only last October that LCG Auctions listed a completely sealed first-generation 8GB iPhone that was described as "completely flawless". Bidding started at $2,500 for that iPhone and got up to $39,339, just over 65 times its original 2007 retail price. The most recent 2007 iPhone sale sold for $63,356.40.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has taken to his personal social media channels to announce a new paid subscription plan for Facebook and Instagram users.

Zuckerberg took to his Instagram and Facebook accounts to introduce users to 'Meta Verified', Meta's new paid subscription service that will give buyers more features on both platforms as well as protection. Zuckerberg explains that Meta Verified will allow users to verify their account with a government ID, and once the verification process is complete, that now-verified account will be given a blue badge.

The Meta CEO also claims that accounts with Meta Verified will get "extra impersonation protection" against any account that is attempting to impersonate your own account and direct access to customer support. Zuckerberg continued by writing that Meta Verified is designed to bring more authenticity and security across Facebook and Instagram, with prices for the new paid subscription beginning at $11.99 / month on the web or $14.99 / month on iOS.

The CEO of the world's second-largest social media platform, Twitter, has decided to hand over his title as CEO to his dog.

That, of course, is SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who took to his personal Twitter account on February 15 to humorously announce that Floki, his Shiba Inu dog, is the new amazing CEO of Twitter. Musk posted an image of Floki at his desk, which shows a piece of paper with the Twitter logo, a black spot for a signature, Floki's name, and title "chief executive officer" (CEO). Musk replied to his own image, writing, "so much better than that other guy!" and "He is perfect for the job!".

The humorous posting continued from Musk with the Twitter CEO snapping another image of Floki wearing glasses, writing, "He's great with numbers!". This post was followed by another shortly after, with Musk snapping a close-up of Floki to show off his "style". Obviously, Musk hasn't officially made his dog CEO of the world's second-largest social media platform, the Twitter CEO is just having a bit of fun with his platform as everyone else does.

The recent fiasco with unknown objects being detected in North American airspace has driven up stock prices for defense companies.

Over the weekend, the US military was very active, shooting down three unknown objects being detected in North American and Canadian airspace. The first object appeared near Alaska and was detected by North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) radars and resulted in, in all instances, a US fighter jet being dispatched and instructed to bring down the object.

The unknown objects were operating between 20,000 and 40,000 feet and were deemed a threat to civilian air traffic. There was also the element of potential intelligence operations being conducted by an unknown foreign party following the destruction of a Chinese spy balloon a week prior. If you include the removal of the Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina the previous weekend, the US military has brought down four objects in US airspace within the last two weeks.

Elon Musk is planning on bringing more than one-hundred brand new homes to employees at one of his companies, as the Tesla CEO wants his staff living close to their place of work.

Reports from the Austin Business Journal revealed that The Boring Company, a company founded by Elon Musk in 2016, will be bringing a large influx of housing to Austin's Bastrop County. The new housing developments are being conducted through The Boring Company's "Project Amazing", which involves Florida-based home builder Lennar which reportedly will be constructing 110 homes near The Boring Company's headquarters.

According to County documents, street names around these homes will be Boring Boulevard, Cutterhead Crossing, Waterjet Way, and Porpoise Place. The company that owns the land where the homes will be constructed is Gappes Bass LLC, which is a company affiliated with The Boring Company. So, why is Musk looking to build homes for his workers? Simple. Tesla has a gigafactory in Texas that is expected to have up to 20,000 workers, and SpaceX is expected to expand further with its own factory that will likely need more employees.

A new report revealed that Elon Musk is struggling with some health concerns, which the Tesla CEO has since responded to on Twitter.

It's no surprise that Elon Musk has a tendency to be a workaholic, especially since he's the CEO of Twitter, Tesla, and SpaceX, which is quite a tall order in terms of the total amount of work that needs to be done. While Musk is simultaneously running three of the most prominent companies in the world right now, the CEO has revealed the struggles he is facing with a piling workload. According to a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Musk is suffering from severe back and neck pain, along with insomnia.

This isn't the first time that Musk has mentioned his health problems, with the Twitter CEO saying to a lawyer during his trial over his "funding secured" tweet to take Tesla private, "I had trouble sleeping last night, so unfortunately, I'm not at my best. I'm sorry for squirming around. I have quite severe back pain." The report states that Musk has experienced back and neck pain for many years now and has even gone through two surgeries aimed at alleviating the pain.

The US government has successfully shot down a Chinese "spy balloon" that was passing over strategic American military facilities.

American military fired missiles at the balloon on Saturday as it was flying approximately 60,000 feet above sea level six nautical miles off the shore in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Reports indicate that the balloon measured about three school buses in length and that US President Joe Biden gave the approval to bring the balloon down above water and not land to avoid any potential danger to Americans.

Notably, the Federal Aviation Administration (FDA) and Coast Guard cleared the potential landing site for the destroyed balloon before it was brought down. An F22 pilot was given the all-clear to fire a missile at the balloon. Many spectators saw the collision, and according to reports, the beaches in the surrounding region significantly increased in activity as people attempted to piece together what was going on.

The jury has given their verdict on the lawsuit filed by Tesla shareholders that claimed Tesla CEO Elon Musk misled shareholders with his infamous 2018 tweet that said he'd secured funding to take Tesla private.

The lawsuit points to two tweets from Musk that were posted on August 7, 2018, where the Tesla CEO wrote he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private, which was shortly followed up by another tweet that stated the deal was imminent. In response to these tweets, Tesla's stock price increased over a 10-day period before it fell back to normal prices after Musk indicated the deal was abandoned. The lawsuit pushed for Musk to pay potentially billions of dollars for any damages caused to shareholders during this period.

Musk spent approximately eight hours on the stand answering questions about the context of the tweets and his motivation for posting them. According to the Tesla CEO, a deal was lined up with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, which at first expressed large amounts of interest in taking Tesla private and verbally confirmed the deal was set to happen. Musk defended his tweets following this verbal confirmation by saying that he had no "ill motive" and that his intent behind the tweets was to keep Tesla shareholders in the loop.

Elon Musk took to his personal Twitter account to announce new features for the platform. These features are aimed at encouraging users to sign up for Twitter Blue.

The Twitter CEO announced on February 4 that, effective immediately, Twitter will begin sharing advertising revenue with creators for ads that appear in their reply threads. This ad-revenue-sharing feature is only eligible for accounts that have purchased Twitter Blue. While that feature is certainly welcomed by creators, one YouTuber asked Musk a question regarding accounts that received a verification checkmark before Musk took over the company and overhauled Twitter Blue.

Previously, Twitter accounts that were given the verified checkmark indicated the account was a public person, or a notable figure. Now, Musk has changed the system and hands out a verification checkmark to accounts paying for Twitter Blue. The YouTuber asked, "I'm curious, if an account was verified before Twitter Blue, then signs up for Blue, then eventually unsubscribes down the road, does that account keep its previous verified status? I suspect this unknown scares older accounts from jumping into Blue."

Michael Burry is known for being one of the few investors to predict and profit from the subprime mortgage crisis that resulted in the 2008 global financial crisis.

Burry made his name as an investor through his hedge fund Scion Capital which was formed in 2000. From its November 1, 2000 inception to June 2008, Scion Capital recorded returns of 489.34% net of fees and expenses. The majority of these gains were through Burry's prediction of the collapse of subprime mortgages that profited him personally approximately $100 million. In 2008 Burry closed down Scion Capital to focus on personal investments, which he has been sparingly vocal about on his Twitter account.

However, those predictions have seemingly come to an end as Burry has deactivated his Twitter account following an ominous one-word tweet, "sell". Since Burry has been focusing on personal investments his tweets, which can sometimes cause division, attract the attention of the mainstream media. For instance, Burry left Twitter in June 2021 after predicting the "greatest speculative bubble of all time in all things", warning cryptocurrency and meme stockholders of the "mother of all crashes".

In an interview with Fox News, Dave Rubin, a conservative journalist, and Fox commentator described his experience while taking a 48-hour tour of Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco.

Rubin appeared on Fox News and discussed various aspects of Twitter and what happens behind closed doors at the company. According to the interview Twitter CEO and owner Elon Musk invited Rubin to the headquarters, and Rubin discussed various topics with Musk, such as what makes Twitter shadow-ban accounts, the current state of the underlying code, and how much work needs to be done to get Twitter where Musk wants it to be.

Throughout the interview, Rubin said that Musk was pretty much aware of every issue the company has, and he maybe thinks that the "entire code has to be torn down and start from scratch". Additionally, Rubin said at the end of the night, Musk described Twitter as a "flaming dumpster rolling down the street".

With PC sales declining at levels that haven't been seen in a long time, prices for new and existing products have remained relatively consistent, especially regarding CPUs and GPUs. As part of a new financial report that outlined how AMD managed to maintain profitability in the closing months of 2022 due to sales in the server sector, consumer CPU and GPU sales have dropped.

PC sales dropped by 51%, with gaming sales dipping by 7%.

For those wondering why we haven't seen any significant price drops or more aggressive pricing to compete with other suppliers, it turns out that AMD has been limiting the supply of its chips - which we assume was done to not flood markets and keep prices stable. This isn't new, and the odds are that companies like Intel and NVIDIA have been doing the same thing as the industry experiences a downturn.

Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, the most-subscribed YouTube channel, has posted a new video where he cures blindness in more than 1,000 people.

The video was posted two days ago and has already gained more than 56 million views. While certainly being a success in MrBeast's books, according to his Twitter account, the video has caused some division - at least on Twitter. In the video, MrBeast pays for a simple 10-minute procedure that cures the blindness experienced by 1,000 people, and according to the surgeon in the video, half of the people that are experiencing blindness can cure it by doing this procedure.

As with all things MrBeast, the YouTuber doesn't stop there and pays for the surgery in multiple different countries, gives a Tesla to one of the patients, gives $10,000 to another patient, and donates more money for follow-up procedures beyond his 1,000-person quota. Unfortunately, all of this goodwill has been viewed by some individuals as disingenuous since MrBeast asked all of the patients to be in his YouTube video that he then monetizes. Essentially, some people claim that MrBeast used curing blindness as a way to profit.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has defended his 2018 tweets in court about having secured funding for taking Tesla private.

Tesla shareholders filed a lawsuit against Musk over his 2018 tweet where he wrote he was considering taking Tesla private at $420, followed by the now-infamous text "funding secured". Additionally, Musk replied to the initial tweet by writing that Tesla shareholders could either sell at $420 or hold shares and go private. These tweets caused extreme volatility in Tesla's share prices, which was followed by a lawsuit from Tesla shareholders that believe Musk should be held accountable for any damages caused by the tweets.

Now, Musk is appearing in a San Francisco courtroom to defend his tweets and provide the reasoning behind them. The Tesla CEO explained the tweets weren't a gag or a joke, as he had received verbal confirmation that Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the governor of Saudi Arabia's Private Investment Fund, backed the idea. Additionally, Musk claimed that Al-Rumayyan also spoke to then-Tesla Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Sam Teller and said that Saudi investors were "committed" and would do "whatever it took" to take Tesla private.

Twitter owner Elon Musk has been slapped with another lawsuit, but this time it isn't over any controversial tweets.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO has been accused of failing to pay rent for Twitter's headquarters in San Francisco since December 2021, and the total amount owed has reached the multiple million mark. The lawsuit, which was filed this month in San Francisco state court by SRI Nine Market Square LLC, a company associated with the real estate company Shorenstein, claimed that Twitter has reduced its rent payments over the last two months. Twitter's HQ is located at 13555 Market Street and takes up multiple floors.

Notably, reports state that Twitter owes approximately $3.4 million in rent for December and another $3.4 million for January. Furthermore, the San Francisco Business Times claims the social media company has provided a letter of credit that allowed the real estate firm to cover some of the unpaid rent, but Twitter as a company still has $3.2 million in outstanding rent payments. Additionally, the owners of the building have said that Twitter has failed to fulfill its promise of increasing the size of the letter of credit after Musk took over the company in late October.

Elon Musk has taken to his Twitter to publicly name the entities that he believes have far too much sway over the stock market.

The Tesla and SpaceX CEO took to his personal Twitter account on Monday to reply to a post by Vivek Ramaswamy, who said he had traveled the country to meet with state pension funds and found that investment companies such as BlackRock and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) have a "staggering" amount of influence over investors and companies. Ramaswamy then called for "new alternatives" to be brought to the table to even the playing field.

Musk replied to the tweet and agreed that "far too much power" is given to shareholder services such as ISS and Glass Lewis. The Twitter owner then explained that companies such as ISS and Glass Lewis have too much power because "so much of the market is passive/index funds, which outsource shareholder voting decisions to them." In conclusion, Musk wrote that both the ISS and Glass Lewis" effectively control the stock market".

Researchers are suggesting that the mysterious iron ball at the center of Earth may have just stopped spinning and did a flip.

A new study published on Monday in the journal Nature Geoscience details research about the inner core of Earth and how it may experience several changes in its rotation every several decades. While researchers are unable to look directly into Earth's inner core, they can measure the impact of powerful earthquakes and nuclear-weapon strikes through the seismic waves they cause. These waves reverberate through the center of Earth and inform researchers that the inner core is comprised of mostly iron and nickel.

Notably, researchers say that Earth's inner core spins slightly faster than the rotation of Earth and that if the inner core was spinning in line with the planet's outer layers, these seismic waves created by earthquakes or large weapon strikes should pass through the core through a similar path. However, researchers have noticed that these wave paths are changing over time, which some attribute to the spinning motion of the inner.

Google parent company Alphabet is facing an anti-trust lawsuit for allegedly dominating the advertisement market with its search engine.

The Department of Justice and eight U.S. states including California, Virginia, Colorado, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Tennessee today filed an anti-competition lawsuit alleging that Google is not only largely in control over the digital advertising space but taking active steps to maintain control over the $280 billion-dollar market. For reference, Google made $209.49 billion from advertising in 2021.

The 153-page lawsuit makes scathing accusations against Alphabet's Google while outlining methodologies and practices that are used to damage and reduce competition in the advertisement world. The document has rather illuminating section titles including: