Business, Financial & Legal - Page 79

Ericsson is in the hot seat right now, with the telco giant settling with the US Justice Department and SEC with charges of over $1.1 billion over some massive corruption with countries like China and Saudi Arabia.

Ericsson has been accused of violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act between the years of 2000 and 2016, where the company reportedly bribed officials to lure customers, falsified records and failed to use "reasonable" accounting controls. The SEC charged Ericsson with bribery, which the company did between 2011-2017.

$520.6 million will be paid to the Department of Justice, while Ericsson will cough up $539.9 million to the SEC. Ericsson boss Borje Ekholm took over running operations in January 2017, and when asked about the corruption charges he said it was "completely unacceptable". But don't worry, even after close to 20 years of corruption and a $1 billion fine -- that'll come from "available funds" says Ericsson.

Elon Musk has won the lawsuit against Vernon Unsworth, where the Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO was being sued for $190 million in damages over his tweets calling Unsworth "pedo guy".

Musk said in court that his "faith in humanity is restored" when the judge ruled in his favor, with the jury deliberating for just an hour before giving its verdict. Unsworth began his lawsuit against Musk in September 2018 after the Tesla Motors CEO called him a "pedo guy" on Twitter.

Unsworth was involved in the huge rescue of a young soccer team and their coach who was trapped in a cave in Thailand. At the time, Musk sent a small submarine to Thailand to help in the efforts to save the kids and their coach. But Unsworth said the submarine would've been ineffective in the rescue, and was just a publicity stunt by Musk.

A massive new story has just broken over at the Financial Times, which reports that Beijing has ordered all of its government offices and public institutions to remove all foreign PC equipment in software in the next 3 years.

China wants to see its government and public institutions using brand made on home soil including Huawei, OPPO, and others -- and is a retaliatory knee-jerk reaction to recent troubles with its relations with the Trump administration and US government. The US government banned businesses in the US from dealing with Huawei, and now we have Beijing ordering its officials to stop using foreign hardware and software. Gee.

A heap of this US-China controversy is coming from multiple areas -- the upcoming 5G deployment worldwide coming from US-based Qualcomm, and China-based Huawei. Earlier this year the Trump administration wanted 5G hardware designed and manufactured outside of China, on top of that we have the trade wars between the Trump administration and China (even affecting PC hardware prices by up to 25%), and then the cherry on top of that was the recent spying accusations from China putting spy chips onto Super Micro motherboards.

A United States congressman has pleaded guilty to knowingly stealing campaign funds and spending it on his personal enjoyment.

Duncan Hunter, Republican representative from California, known for his vaping antics while on the job, has pleaded guilty to stealing campaign funds. These funds were used to pay for leisure activities for his own personal benefit. These activities included; buying video games, buying plane tickets for his pet rabbits (what...), and maintaining a lavish lifestyle with his wife. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California said that Hunter admitted to this act.

Here's what they said, "[Hunter] knowingly and willfully stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign funds that he and his wife used to maintain their lifestyle." Hunter said that between the years of 2010 and 2016 more than $150,000 of campaign funds were used for him and his families "personal use and enjoyment." Hunter has been charged with conspiracy to steal campaign funds, which has a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing has been scheduled for March 17th, 2020.

Black Friday has just rolled around, and while some specific sales might be over, a lot of people used Friday to purchase many amounts of goodies for not only themselves but others. So, how much money was spent in total?

According to Adobe shopping data, 39% of Black Friday purchases were made using smartphones, which is a huge increase when compared to last years, 33%. Adobe says that about $2.9 billion dollars were spent from people's phones, which is an $800 million dollar increase from last year's $2.1 billion.

Looking to Black Friday as a whole now, Adobe says that about $7.4 billion was spent on internet-based sales, which is $1.2 billion more than last year's $6.2 billion. The average spending order also increased; with people being a little bit more lenient on their wallets, the average 'spending' per person was around $168. If you happened to miss the Black Friday sales, don't worry, Cyber Monday is about to be here, and we already have some sales for you to check out, more on that here.

We are right on the brink of the holiday shopping season being kicked off, which means big companies are going to start releasing new ads to entice buyers into purchasing their products.

The ad is from Facebook, and it's for their not-so-popular Portal TV device. What's surprising, though, is the two stars that are featured in the video, Kim Kardashian West and Jennifer Lopez. The video begins with Kim and Jennifer talking to each other via video call on their Portal TV device and discussing "top secret" party ideas.

What's weird about this ad is how awkward everything is, and also how both Kim, Jennifer, and Jennifer's partner, Alex Rodriguez all seem to be wearing face-masks for no apparent reason. There is also the question of why Jennifer and Alex are wearing the same shirt? I'm not quite sure what the aim is here for Facebook's, or who they are targeting specifically, but if they were going for super awkward and strange, so people remember it for that, then they have hit the nail right on its head.

Usually, free stuff is great, but Amazon's free stuff might come across as a little bit invasive, which is why they are shutting it down.

CNBC has reported that Amazon will be shutting down their free Product Sampling program sometime next year. If you aren't aware of the free sample program, Amazon was running a program that sent out users free samples of products that were based on users' purchase history.

While this might sound like a great idea at first, people have become more aware of personal data collection by big companies such as Facebook and Amazon. So, having free products sent out to buyers' doors based on purchase history could serve as a physical reminder to buyers that Amazon knows everything about them and their wants. This would seem like a slippery slope to walk on, so Amazon is instead going to rely on more traditional ways of marketing.

Sure, there are plenty of tech-focused Black Friday sales but what about a new Star Wars-themed Instant Pot pressure cooker? You can buy the new Star Wars themed Instant Pot directly from Williams Sonoma here.

Williams Sonoma teamed with Instant Pot for the exclusive Star Wars collection, with 5 designs ranging from $80-$120 in price. There are different sized Instant Pots on offer, as well as multiple designs depending on the character you love from Star Wars the most.

The new BB-8 Instant Pot Duo Mini is a 3-quart pressure cooker with the BB-8's signature orange/grey/white theme, it has 11 built-in food programs that include slow cooking, soup/broth, and a warmer. The BB-8 Instant Pot Duo Mini costs $80.

Amazon lost a rather huge $10 billion cloud computing contract to Microsoft and is really upset about it, with the company filing a federal lawsuit on November 22 fighting for the Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI) contract.

The retail giant is red-faced at the Defense Department and its choice of Microsoft over Amazon for the $10 billion JEDI contract and while the Jeff Bezos-owned company hasn't explained its reasoning behind the lawsuit, it has claimed that there has been "unmistakable bias" and even suggested "political influence" in the JEDI decision.

We won't be finding out the inner workings of the JEDI lawsuit from Amazon, as they filed the suit under seal and it is seeking a protective order as there is some very sensitive information that could see "severe competitive harm" to both Microsoft, Amazon and the US government.

Disney has set another record in 2019 at the box office, with Frozen 2 becoming the largest debut of an animated movie ever with $350 million in its opening weekend.

Frozen 2 has already dethroned Toy Story 4 and its global record haul of $240 million back in June, and far exceeds expectations of the opening weekend sitting at around the same $240-$250 million mark. I think people underestimate the power of Frozen and how badly people wanted a sequel given how much the original movie went mega viral.

The domestic opening weekend of Frozen 2 was a big one, with around $130 million in box office sales in the US so far. This means that Disney sees Frozen 2 becoming the fifth highest opening of a movie in November of all time, behind Hunger Games: Catching Fire ($158M), Twilight Saga: New Moon ($142.8M), Twilight Breaking Dawn 2 ($141M), Breaking Dawn 1 ($138.1M) and ahead of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 ($125M).

Elon Musk, the CEO of both Tesla and SpaceX has written an email to all of his SpaceX employee's regarding drug use in the workplace.

While on The Joe Rogan Podcast back in September last year, Elon Musk decided to take a load off and have a puff a blunt containing cannabis and tobacco. Musk also mentioned that smoking the cannabis on the JRE Podcast "was not wise", and that the way that he smoked the drugs is a clear demonstration of his unfamiliarity of it. Musk also reinforced that the JRE Podcast is located in California where cannabis is recreational legal.

Since that time, Musk has emailed SpaceX employees regarding drug use at work, saying "SpaceX personnel may not use or possess any controlled substance while in the workplace, and also may not be under the influence of legal or illegal drugs while at work". This information was acquired by The Washington Post and it reads, "Anyone who appears to be inebriated or under the influence while at work is subject to drug testing and potentially other employment actions".

Elon Musk is well-known for his commitment to the public forum Twitter. His comments to fans are his way of addressing supporters and the public. Sometimes those comments can get out of hand, though, or at least they are alleged to be out of hand.

Back in 2018, Musk gave a comment that left the public in distaste and especially the person/s who were on the receiving end. Tesla's CEO allegedly abused a British diver, Vernon Unsworth, calling him a 'pedo guy' and also abused a BuzzFeed reporter. Unsworth is now taking Musk to court, and the US District Court has said that they will hear his suit.

Unsworth said that Musk's efforts to rescue children in Thailand were a mere "PR stunt" and Musk's intelligence of the caves the children were trapped in was below par. In response to Unsworth's critics of Musk's methods, Musk called Unsworth a "pedo-guy" and Unsworth followed up with the response "stick his submarine where it hurts." The United States District Court in Los Angeles will commence hearing the suit on December 3rd.

Qualcomm has been at the forefront of 5G for years now, with the Snapdragon giant set to unleash 5G onto the world in a big way over the coming years -- with plans of seeing over 750 million 5G-capable smartphones in the wild by 2022.

The company recently made the prediction during its recent Analyst Day 2019, providing an idea of what to expect over the next few years when it comes to 5G. Qualcomm talked about 5G growth during the event, where it said it expects to see 175-225 million 5G handsets deployed in 2020, over 450 million by 2021, and a huge 750 million by 2022.

Qualcomm notes that 5G adoption will be faster than 4G due to the "timing of China commercialization and availability of chipsets across tiers". The company will have three different tiers of its Snapdragon processors with 5G capabilities in 2020, with the Snapdragon 600 and 700 series to both pack 5G while its flagship Snapdragon 800 series will continue on with its 5G powers.

Bill Gates certainly has some dollars in the bank, and since he stopped working full-time at Microsoft back in 2008, most of those dollars have been going to charity and his philanthropy ventures. Despite that, Gates has reclaimed his seat as the world's richest person.

According to Bloomberg, as of November 16th, Gates has de-thrones Amazon head Jeff Bezos for the world's richest person seat. Gates, who is worth around $110 billion, took the lead ahead of Bezos, who is worth approximately $109 billion. Over the course of the years, Gates has distanced himself from Microsoft while still maintaining a hefty amount of the companies stock. Throughout his distancing, he has been replaced as the world's richest person on numerous occasions by; Warren Buffet, Carlos Slim, and Jeff Bezos.

Bloomberg says that Gates now 1st position is due to Microsoft earning $10 billion from a Pentagon contract, which ultimately raised their stock price. The contract was for cloud computing services for the Defense Department's Joint Enterprise Defense Infrastructure (JEDI). Back in June, the Microsoft stock price was at $136, now the current price for the stock is sitting at a solid $150. Microsoft are also planning on releasing their next-gen Xbox soon, so they could increase stock prices further, which would then give Gates a more sturdy lead.

Tesla will build its new Gigafactory in Germany rather than the UK, with Tesla and SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk saying that the on-going battle of Brexit in the UK was the deciding force for Germany being the location of Gigafactory 4.

Musk spoke with an English car enthusiast publication about the matter, telling Auto Express that Brexit is the reason he and his executive team decided to not build Gigafactory 4 in the UK. Musk explained: "Brexit's [uncertain future] made it too risky to put a Gigafactory in the UK".

He added that Tesla will be building a new research and development center in Europe, meaning that both Gigafactory 4 and the new R&D center will not be built in the UK because of Brexit. This means the UK misses out on billions of dollars, and the creation of thousands of high-skilled jobs with the Gigafactory 4 and R&D center being built in Germany instead.

Google has updated the terms of service (ToS) to YouTube, and it has content creators and YouTubers very, very concerned -- and rightfully so.

YouTube's new ToS states in a section titled "Account Suspension & Termination" under the subheading of "Terminations by YouTube for Service Changes" that "YouTube may terminate your access, or your Google account's access to all or part of the Service if YouTube believes, in its sole discretion, that provision of the Service to you is no longer commercially viable".

Yeah, you read that right -- if YouTube isn't making money from your content, it can remove you from its platform at a whim. The new terms of service kick in on December 10, with the current ToS not stating this right now.

Since we first broke the story about the possible upcoming fate of Silicon Valley-based retail chain Fry's Electronics, not much has changed within the stores. Shelves are still empty with what limited product they have in stock being spread out across as many isles as possible.

After our story, numerous other news outlets including CBS, San Jose Mercury News, and PC Gamer have begun to speculate, as well as obtain denials from Fry's Electronics spokesperson Manuel Valerio that the company has no immediate plans to go out of business. Even though it is closing its Palo Alto store, the company insists it has no plans to close its other 33 stores in nine states.

One store manager commented to us that they are clearing out the existing product to make room for new vendors. We specifically asked what vendor was replacing copies of Microsoft Windows, which at that point, the manager refused to make any additional comments. On recent store visits to Bay Area and Southern California stores, not only have we seen little to no new products arriving, but employees have told us that what new products we are seeing are mostly inter-store transfers.

AT&T is giving customers some bonus data to enjoy, but what kind of 'bonus' would this be if a company didn't make you pay for it?

Yes, I know that sentence is a strange one to read, but its factually correct. AT&T has recently decided to offer Mobile Share plan customers a 'bonus' 15GB of data, which applies to all Share Value plans. Examples of this are the $130 plan that originally gave 30GB of data, now give 45GB and the $225 a month plan that gave 60GB of data, now gives 75GB.

The catch? Well, AT&T is not giving these 'bonuses' out for free. Instead, they will be adding an additional $10 to customers' monthly bills. It should also be noted that these 'bonuses' are not optional and are completely intentional by AT&T. "Starting with your October 2019 bill, you'll get an additional 15GB of data on your Mobile Share plan. This bonus data comes with a $10 price increase." said AT&T in an article.

If you have ever been on a flight of any kind, you know there are rigorous security checks to ensure passengers aren't carrying anything suspicious, let alone something illegal. Gun-shaped objects (not surprisingly) fall into those categories.

Recently, the Transportation Security Administration agents at the Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey came across something in someone's carry-on luggage that was quite strange. The object was gun-shaped and appeared to be a revolver, but before things got really serious, the TSA agents realized it was just a toilet paper roller.

The toilet paper roller looked remarkably similar to a revolver, and as you would imagine, bringing anything on a plane that even resembles a gun is not allowed at all. The TSA agents gave the passenger three options: give it to someone who wasn't boarding the plane, check it into the cargo luggage, or let them confiscate it. The passenger didn't have any attachment to the item and decided to let the TSA agents keep it.

Netflix is going to be deploying a special 'skip Trump joke' button to Seth Meyers' upcoming stand-up comedy special for Netflix, Lobby Baby. If you don't want to hear the barrage of Trump jokes from Meyers, you can easily press a button.

A button like this isn't strange to Netflix as they have a very similar if not identical button when a TV show theme is playing, giving streamers the option to skip the intro -- something that comes in handy when you're binge watching a new show on Netflix. This time, it's all for Trump.

First, it sounds strange to implement a 'skip Trump joke' button in a stand-up comedy special on Netflix that will have jokes about President Trump... but the button is a joke in itself. Meyers explained to CNN: "It dawned on me that because it was on Netflix, there would be this opportunity to put in technology that would allow people to skip it. It was a way to build in the response to anyone who would say, 'Oh, let me guess there's going to be jokes about the president.'".