Business, Financial & Legal - Page 44

Only a day after taking the helm at Twitter, Elon Musk has seemingly reinstated Kanye West's Twitter account after the rapper posted antisemitic comments.

For those who have been out of the loop, Kanye West, now officially known as Ye, was recently temporarily banned from Twitter after he posted antisemitic comments online where he said he was "going death con 3 [sic] On JEWISH PEOPLE". These comments from the rapper caused a major backlash that resulted in many prominent brands that were working with Ye cutting ties with him.

The latest of those big brands and a major hit to Ye's Yeezy is Adidas which severed its relationship with West in a relationship break-up estimated to be worth anywhere between $150 - $200 million per year for Yeezy.

Elon Musk recently took over Twitter, and the Tesla CEO is already rolling out changes to the platform, the first being forming what he calls a "Twitter council".

Musk has taken to his personal Twitter account only a few hours ago to announce the formation of a Twitter content moderation council, which will include a group of individuals that have a wide range of viewpoints dedicated to reviewing content, moderating it, and reinstating accounts. Musk explains that no accounts will be reinstated until this council convenes.

Musk's plan to form a Twitter council to review content posted to the platform is part of his wider plan to open up Twitter's content policy, giving users more leeway with the content they can post to the platform. Musk has outlined this plan numerous times leading up to the acquisition, throughout the many months of the deal forming, and even once the purchase was finalized in a direct address to advertisers.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave a public comment on Wednesday following massive criticism over Meta's tanking stock price and push into the Metaverse.

The Facebook founder and now Meta CEO spoke in call with analysts about Meta missing its financial targets as outlined in its third-quarter earnings report, which caused its stock price to fall by a staggering 20% - its lowest since 2016. Zuckerberg said, "We've been through a couple of these cycles before already, and I'm pretty confident this is going in a good direction."

The Facebook founder added that the company is suffering from "a volatile macroeconomy, increasing competition, ads signal loss, and growing costs from our long-term investments". Despite the apparent struggling, Zuckerberg believes that the company is still continuing to navigate challenging dynamics and that he believes "our product trends look better from what I see than some of the commentary I've seen suggests."

Elon Musk has finalized the deal to purchase the world's second-largest social media company, Twitter, and now the SpaceX CEO has revealed his motivation behind the acquisition.

Musk took to his personal Twitter account on the same day as he was made the official owner of Twitter, writing in a direct message to advertisers that he knows there has been much speculation surrounding his motivations for buying Twitter, and that majority of this online speculation has been incorrect. Musk explained that he purchased Twitter for $44 billion because he believes it's important "for the future of civilization" to have a common "town square" that allows for multiple points of view to be expressed and debated among individuals.

The now-Twitter-owner continued and said that there is currently "great danger that social media will splinter into far right-wing and far left-wing echo chambers" that result in more hate and divide throughout society. Musk went on to say that this divide has been fueled by the incentivization of "clicks" from the traditional media, which he believes has fueled both ends of the spectrum (right/left). Through this division and the traditional media push to generate as much money as possible by fueling the polarizing fire, the "opportunity for dialogue is lost", says Musk.

It has become official, and the rollercoaster of a ride has finally come to an end. SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk is now the owner of the world's second-largest social media platform, Twitter.

Musk first announced his interest in buying Twitter back in April earlier this year, proposing that he took to the company private for $54.20 a share, or a $44 billion acquisition. It wasn't smooth sailing between now and April as the SpaceX CEO attempted to back out of the deal, which led to accusations being fired from both Musk's side as well as Twitters, resulting in lawsuits and further complications.

Leading up to the trial, Musk backpedaled on his stance to get out of the Twitter deal, saying that he intends to follow through with the purchase at the originally proposed price, $54.20 a share, $44 billion. The Delaware Court of Chancery, which was dealing with the Musk-Twitter case, gave both parties until October 28 at 5:00 pm to close the deal, or the case would go to trial, which seemingly both parties wanted to avoid.

Elon Musk walked into the San Francisco headquarters of Twitter yesterday carrying an actual sink... and now CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal have left the company, and they won't be coming back.

CNBC is reporting the news, with CNBC journalist David Faber tweeted the news that Elon Musk was now in charge of Twitter, where he's "told" that former CEO Parag Agrawal and CFO Ned Segal have left, and aren't coming back "as the Musk era begins".

It seems that the story is only going to get bigger from here on out, given that Elon Musk is now in control of the second-largest social networking site in the world... just as Meta is burning. Meta shares are down a stark 24.5% overnight, down from $130+ to just $98 at the time of writing.

The absolute rollercoaster of Elon Musk purchasing Twitter is finally coming to an end, and it seems the SpaceX CEO didn't need to sell any more of his Tesla stock to get the financing he needs to make the closure.

Firstly, Elon Musk proposed buying Twitter back in early April, which, at the time, he showed extreme excitement for. That excitement changed after he entered into the acquisition deal and began digging through Twitter's analytics that supposedly revealed to Musk that the world's second-biggest social media platform that he was about to purchase was underreporting the number of bot/spam accounts. Musk then tried to back out of the $44 billion deal, which sparked lawsuits being filed by both Twitter and Musk.

The dispute ended up in the Delaware Court of Chancery, and without getting bogged down in the many details and accusations thrown from both sides, Musk seemingly conceded his position, back peddled, and decided to fulfill his original deal of purchasing Twitter for $44 billion at $54.20 a share. The Delaware Court of Chancery gave a deadline of October 28 at 5:00 pm for the deal to be closed, or Musk would have to go to trial.

Tesla is facing a federal criminal investigation over its claims its vehicles have "self-driving" capabilities, with reports now indicating that the US Department of Justice is getting involved.

The long-standing debate on whether Tesla's "self-driving" capabilities have been appropriately named has sparked interest from prosecutors with the US Department of Justice, according to a recent exclusive report from Reuters. The problem doesn't necessarily lay with Tesla's claim that its vehicles have "self-driving" capabilities, but with the naming/feature of its optional version of Autopilot called "Full Self-Driving", or FSD. Tesla specifically claims this optional feature provides buyers with "full self-driving capabilities".

The problem with these claims is that Tesla still requires drivers to have their hands-on the wheel at all times while using this feature. Reuters reports that three anonymous sources close to the matter informed the publication that prosecutors with the US Department of Justice are looking into the matter, and if found to be guilty, criminal charges could be laid against Tesla executives for defrauding consumers.

Elon Musk has certainly had an eventful 2022 with the SpaceX and Tesla CEO announcing that he's interested in purchasing Twitter, entering into a deal, attempting to pull out of the deal, then seemingly now following through with it, releasing his own fragrance, and oh, losing $100 billion.

In fact, Musk has lost more than $100 billion over the course of a year, according to Forbes, his massive fortune has fallen by about 35% from its peak of $320.3 billion on November 4, 2021, to approximately $209.4 billion as of October 20, 2022. Notably, throughout just October, Musk's total wealth has reduced by $28 billion.

This massive reduction in Musk's wealth throughout 2022 can be attributed to many factors, such as looming concerns of a recession causing investors to hold onto their money, factory troubles related to COVID-19 shutdowns, and the Twitter fiasco that began in March. Musk has actually lost $110 billion in just 11.5 months, according to Forbes, which means that his total net worth has reduced by $301 million every day during that period.

Elon Musk has officially entered the Twitter HQ and he's done it in his usual troll way: holding a kitchen sink, yeah... an actual, real sink.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO and very soon boss of Twitter walked into the San Francisco-based HQ holding a sink, tweeting out "Entering Twitter HQ - let that sink in!" following it with another tweet saying that he met a lot of cool people at Twitter today.

There's absolutely no reason for the richest man in the world to walk into the second-largest social networking site in the world, carrying a sink... but he knows this will make headlines, and that's Elon's point. Why the hell not at this point... the media hates him, one side of the political spectrum is melting down, and most Twitter staff are shaking in their boots at being laid off.

Mark Zuckerberg's decision to pivot his entire company toward the Metaverse was met with skepticism at first, but then the public saw what he was working on and became even more skeptical. Now, big-name investors in Meta are voicing their concerns publicly.

Meta has already invested more than $10 billion into creating Zuckerberg's vision of the Metaverse, which so far has received heavy criticism from users following its first public reveal, as well as a dwindling player base. Recently leaked internal documents from Meta revealed that Meta's Metaverse is essentially failing in slow motion, with the company's original player active user/player target being 500,000 monthly users, which was quickly reigned back in to 280,000 monthly active users. Unfortunately, Meta is struggling even to reach 200,000 monthly active users.

Now, Brad Gerstner, the Founder and CEO of Altimeter Capital, an investment firm that owns hundreds of millions of dollars worth of Meta shares, has penned an open letter that explains Zuckerberg and Meta's board of directors have "lost the confidence of investors". Gerstner says that the company's core business hit a wall last fall, which resulted in the "team hastily pivoted the company toward the metaverse", followed by missed financial marks and underwhelming performance throughout 2022.

The bombarding saga of Kanye West, now officially known as Ye, is continuing with another major world-leading brand cutting ties with the rapper.

Following Ye's antisemitic remarks made on his now-locked Instagram and Twitter accounts, the rapper is experiencing world-leading brands distancing themselves from him, resulting in multi-million deals falling through and an overall drop in his net worth.

The latest company to cut ties with the famed rapper is Adidas, which recently stated on Tuesday that Ye's recent comments on Jewish people along with his actions have been "unacceptable, hateful and dangerous". Adidas further explained that these comments "violate the company's values of diversity and inclusion, mutual respect and fairness."

Kanye West officially changed his name to Ye, and following the public comments made by the rapper, companies have made stark decisions to back away from him.

The parent company behind one of the largest fashion brands in the world, Balenciaga, has officially cut ties with Ye. This news was recently confirmed by Balenciaga's parent company, Kering, which stated that the prestigious fashion brand no longer has a relationship with Ye or has any future projects in the pipeline that are related to him. Balenciaga isn't the only prominent brand backing away from the esteemed artist as Mark Breitbard, the president and CEO of Gap Brand, wrote in an email that it has made the decision to "wind down the partnership" because their "vision is not aligned."

Notably, Vogue has dropped Ye, and now the latest companies to reveal their newfound distance to the rapper are film and TV studio MRC as well as famed talent agency CAA. According to MRC studio executives Modi Wiczyk, Asif Satchu, and Scott Tenley, who announced the news via a memo, the recently completed documentary on Ye will officially be shelved as the company has decided not to "support any content that amplifies his platform".

Days before the deadline of deal between Twitter and Elon Musk, Twitter employees have penned an open letter aimed toward Twitter's board and Musk.

The open letter comes after The Washington Post obtained internal documents that revealed SpaceX CEO Elon Musk was looking to get rid of at least 75% of the current staff at Twitter when he officially takes control of the company. A layoff of this size equates to about 7,500 employees and would be a staggering blow to the company that throws into question how it would function with such little staff that would be picking up the slack as well as training new employees. Notably, these claims from WAPOs report weren't confirmed by Musk or Twitter.

Fast forward to a few days later, TIME reports that an unknown number of Twitter employees have penned an open letter to Twitter's board as well as Musk brings forth a rebuttal to Musk's purported decision to lay off 75% of current employees at the social media company. According to the open letter, which was read by TIME in draft form, if Musk's plan is followed through, it "will hurt Twitter's ability to serve the public conversation" and is viewed as a "threat" to "our users' and customers' trust in our platform, and is a transparent act of worker intimidation."

Elon Musk first announced he was interested in buying Twitter back in early April, and since then, it has been a bumpy ride getting to the point where the Tesla CEO will officially become the owner of Twitter.

At first Musk was seemingly excited to purchase Twitter entering into an acquisition to purchase the world's second largest social media company for $44 billion, $54.20 a share. That excitement quickly turned to concern as the SpaceX CEO began to delve into Twitter's analytics which resulted in him claiming the social media platform contained more bot accounts than it had revealed to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), an important factor that would drastically affect Twitter's total value.

Fast forwarding to a few months ago, Musk attempted to back out of the deal, which resulted in lawsuits being fired from both parties, with Twitter wanting Musk to follow through with the deal and Musk wanting to back out of the acquisition entirely. In a strange turn of events leading up to the trial date, Musk back-peddled and said he wished to carry out the acquisition for the originally proposed price, which resulted in a judge ruling that the deal must be closed by October 28 or a trial will be held.

Users are already bombarded with advertisements every day in almost every area of their phones, and now according to an email obtained by MacRumors, Apple is preparing to roll out even more ads.

In an email sent out to developers this week from Apple, the company is planning on rolling out more app-related advertisements throughout the App Store. These new advertisements will be featured in the 'Today Tab as well as the 'You Might Also Like' section. According to the email, these new advertising increases will begin rolling out to the App Store on October 25 in every country except for China.

Notably, Apple's website states the following, "With a Today tab ad, your app can appear prominently on the front page of the App Store - making it some of the first content users see when they begin their App Store visit." These changes from Apple mark the very first time advertisers will be able to run ads for their apps within the Today tab as well as the 'You Might Also Like' section. Previously, ads were restricted to the "Suggested" section of the Search tab.

The parent company behind one of the biggest fashion brands in the world has decided to cut ties with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, following several comments the rapper made on social media.

The news broke when Kering, Balenciaga's parent company, released its third-quarter results on Thursday, where it stated that Balenciaga would no longer be working on any new or current projects with Ye. The news was confirmed by Kering, who said in response to a question by WWD that "Balenciaga has no longer any relationship nor any plans for future projects related to this artist". Notably, Ye only recently collaborated with Balenciaga for a Yeezy Gap line earlier this year.

Furthermore, Gap announced a 10-year deal with Ye for the Yeezy Gap brand in 2020, but that deal has seemingly been thrown out the window after Ye announced that the partnership between him and Gap would end over "substantial noncompliance." Mark Breitbard, president and CEO of Gap Brand, wrote in an email that it decided to "wind down the partnership" because their "vision is not aligned." Gap and Balenciaga aren't the only two prominent brands moving away from Ye, as Adidas has also said that it's reviewing its partnership with the rapper.

TikTok's parent company ByteDance has been busted for using TikTok's location data to plan to spy on US citizens' physical locations.

According to newly surfaced documents obtained by Forbes, a team of Chinese-based members of ByteDance have been caught planning to spy on American citizens using TikTok's location data, which the company claims is only used to show relevant content and necessary advertising to users of the app.

Forbes reports that the team was going to use TikTok's location data to monitor the personal locations of specific Americans and that the team behind the project is ByteDance's Internal Audit and Risk Control department, which is led by Beijing-based executive Song Ye, who reports directly to ByteDance's cofounder and CEO Rubo Liang. Notably, the Internal Audit team primarily conducts investigations into former employees that have potentially performed misconduct at the company.

A SpaceX worker has had his skull fractured after an accident that occurred while he was testing a part of the company's rocket.

The SpaceX worker was Francisco Cabada, a father of three children from Los Angeles, according to a former SpaceX intern that spoke with BusinessInsider. Cabada, an integration engineer, suffered a head injury on January 18, and according to the Occupation Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) accident investigation summary, Cabada was conducting checks on SpaceX's Raptor V2 engine when a valve exceeded its maximum pressure and snapped off the plate it was attached to, smacking the integration engineer in the head, knocking him to the ground.

The OHSA accident report details two violations, the first was over SpaceX's accident prevention program, the second was servicing multi-piece and single-piece rim wheels on large vehicles, which was deemed category 10 on the summary. SpaceX was fined $18,475 for the violations. Cabada "suffered a skull fracture and head trauma and was hospitalized in a coma for months."

Royal Caribbean International has unveiled what is now considered to be the world's largest cruise ship that is expected to set sail soon.

The announcement found on the Royal Caribbean International website showcases a set of renders of the new cruise ship called 'Icon of the Seas'. The cruise ship measures in at a staggering 1,198 foot-long and is capable of accommodating 7,600 guests across its 2,805 staterooms. The Royal Caribbean has also taken to its YouTube channel to upload a series of videos that showcase the different areas of the cruise ship, such as Thrill Island, Surfside, Chill Island, AquaDome, and much more.

The Icon of the Seas features seven pools, three of which are on the Chill Island, which is a three-deck "slice of paradise", with each deck being curated for different needs. One of the decks contains the Royal Bay Pool, the largest pool at sea, per Royal Caribbean International. The 20-deck cruise ship began construction in 2021 and is expected to begin sailing sometime in 2024, with bookings from Miami to the Caribbeans to open soon.