Tag: twitter

Judge Dismisses Lawsuit That Alleges Elon Musk Cheated Shareholders Several Times During Twitter Buyout

A judge dismissed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Elon Musk that claimed he cheated Twitter shareholders several times last year in the course of buying the social media company for $44 billion (roughly Rs. 3,61,687 crore).

In a decision on Monday, US District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco said plaintiff William Heresniak lacked standing to sue because he challenged “wrongs associated with” Musk’s buyout, not the fairness of the buyout itself.

Breyer said Heresniak did not show harm from Musk’s belated disclosure of a 9.2 percent Twitter stake, which the suit said let him buy more shares at lower prices before the buyout was announced, or from the closing’s taking place 1 1/2 months later than planned.

The judge also found no proof that Musk helped two friends then on Twitter’s board, co-founder Jack Dorsey and Silver Lake private equity firm managing partner Egon Durban, breach their fiduciary duties by favoring their own and Musk’s interests. 

Breyer said letting Dorsey roll over his approximately $1 billion (roughly Rs. 8,210 crore) of Twitter shares into an equity stake in the new company merely reduced how much Musk had to pay at closing, and did not “improperly divert” money from other shareholders.

Heresniak’s lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment outside of business hours.

Musk also runs the electric car company Tesla and is the world’s second-richest person, according to Forbes magazine.

Lawyers for Musk, two of his holding companies, and Twitter did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a March 3 court filing, they called Heresniak’s claims “a disjointed laundry list of – often irrelevant – grievances against Elon Musk.”

Heresniak sued on May 25, 2022, one month after Twitter accepted Musk’s $54.20 (roughly Rs. 4,488) per share buyout offer. The transaction closed on October 27.

Twitter has since struggled to maintain ad revenue, with some advertisers expressing concern that loosened content rules could leave their ads associated with hate speech or other “wrong messages.”

On May 12, Musk named former NBCUniversal advertising chief Linda Yaccarino as Twitter’s new chief executive.

The case is Heresniak v Musk et al, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 22-03074. 

© Thomson Reuters 2023 

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Instagram Could Release Text-Based App to Rival Against Twitter by June 2023: Report

Meta Platforms‘ Instagram is planning to release a text-based app that will compete with Twitter and may debut as soon as June, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

The Facebook parent is testing the product with influencers and some creators, according to the report.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Meta has been contacting talent agencies and celebrities to gauge their interest in trying an early version of the app, which will be integrated with Instagram, said Alex Heath in a newsletter.

“The decentralized app is built on the back of Instagram but will be compatible with some other apps like Mastodon,” according to a newsletter by Lia Haberman, who teaches social and influencer marketing at UCLA in California.

The report also mentions that the parent company Meta has made the new app secretly available to select creators for months. It is said to be separate from Instagram yet allow people to connect accounts. 

As per Lia Haberman’s screenshot, the app will let people connect with their friends using texts, shared links, photos as well as videos. Moreover, fans will be allowed to join the accounts of the influencers and creators they follow on Instagram with just one tap. 

The app is also being update for security measures. To ensure the privacy of accounts, the users blocked on Instagram may soon be carried over to the new app. To add, this new app is also working on compatibility with Twitter’s rival Mastodon.  

© Thomson Reuters 2023 

Google I/O 2023 saw the search giant repeatedly tell us that it cares about AI, alongside the launch of its first foldable phone and Pixel-branded tablet. This year, the company is going to supercharge its apps, services, and Android operating system with AI technology. We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Elon Musk to Continue Tweeting Unfiltered Thoughts Even at the Cost of Business

Elon Musk on Tuesday said a new Twitter chief executive will let him devote more time to Tesla, but that he will continue to tweet his unfiltered thoughts even if it hurts his businesses.

“I don’t care,” the billionaire said during a CNBC interview when asked what he thought of his controversial tweets potentially hurting Tesla shares or making it harder to sell ads on Twitter.

“I’ll say what I want to say and if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.”

Named as Musk’s successor as Twitter CEO, Linda Yaccarino is a respected media and advertising executive considered a visionary by some.

“Twitter is very much an advertising business; Linda is obviously incredible at that and she’s just a great executive in general,” Musk said.

“Linda will operate a company and I will build products.”

Since taking over Twitter in late October, Musk has repeatedly courted controversy, sacking most of its staff, readmitting banned accounts to the platform, suspending journalists and charging for previously free services.

Those moves have spooked advertisers, many of whom left the platform due to concerns over their products being associated with troubling content.

Musk has also cleared the way for Donald Trump to return to Twitter, but the former US president has yet to restart using the platform, choosing to post on his own social media site instead.

Were Trump to return and post unfounded claims about the 2020 election, a “community notes” feature would let Twitter users point out the misinformation, Musk told CNBC, adding that he did not personally think the election was “stolen” as Trump alleges.

Despite Musk’s stated positions on free speech, as well as his fierce criticism of content moderation around the 2020 election, Twitter recently admitted it yielded to Turkish government pressure to take down content ahead of last weekend’s elections.

“We received what we believed to be a final threat to throttle the service — after several such warnings,” the company said Monday, amid outcry over the apparent hypocrisy.

“And so in order to keep Twitter available over the election weekend, took action on four accounts and 409 Tweets identified by court order.”

Musk told CNBC he will be focusing especially on artificial intelligence back at Tesla, which already uses such technology for self-driving capabilities.

“I think Tesla will have a ChatGPT moment; I’d say no later than next year,” Musk said of Tesla AI used for autonomous driving.

ChatGPT bots from startup OpenAI, which Musk helped create, have captured imaginations and provoked fears regarding powerful artificial intelligence.

“I am the reason OpenAI exists,” Musk claimed, noting he invested some $50 million (roughly Rs. 400 crore) in the startup at the outset.

“I came up with the name.”

Google I/O 2023 saw the search giant repeatedly tell us that it cares about AI, alongside the launch of its first foldable phone and Pixel-branded tablet. This year, the company is going to supercharge its apps, services, and Android operating system with AI technology. We discuss this and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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Elon Musk Announces NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino to Become New CEO of Twitter

Elon Musk on Friday took to Twitter to announce the name of the new Twitter CEO. As his tweets confirmed, NBCUniversal’s Linda Yaccarino has been hired to take over Musk’s role as the CEO of the social media company. Sharing about her job responsibilities at Twitter, Musk mentioned that her she will look after business operations, while working on transforming the social media platform into X, the everything app. The billionaire, on the other hand, will look after the product design and new technology. 

 

Yaccarino is the former NBCUniversal advertising chief, who modernized the Comcast entertainment and media division’s advertising business and had been in talks for the job before NBC announced her departure Friday morning.

Since Musk acquired Twitter in October, advertisers have fled the platform, worried that their ads could appear next to inappropriate content after the company lost nearly 80 percent of staff. Musk earlier this year acknowledged that Twitter suffered a massive decline in ad revenue.

Twitter’s “trajectory will immediately take a 180-degree turn” under her leadership, said Lou Paskalis, a long-time ad industry executive and CEO of AJL Advisory, a marketing consultancy.

Musk axed thousands of employees, rushed the launch of a subscription product that allowed scammers to impersonate major brands and suspended users with whom he disagreed.

“I think (Yaccarino) has climbed every mountain she could at NBCU and did it impeccably well. And there’s no greater challenge than restoring order at Twitter,” he said.

Yaccarino could not be reached for comment.

Her exit is another big blow to NBCUniversal. Last month, NBC parent Comcast said NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell was leaving after acknowledging an inappropriate relationship with a woman in the company, following a complaint that prompted an investigation.

Advertising President Mark Marshall will step in as interim chairman of NBCUniversal’s advertising and partnerships group. Marshall was named president of ad sales and partnerships in 2018, overseeing NBC’s broadcast entertainment, sports and advanced advertising sales.

Yaccarino’s exit comes at a difficult time for NBCUniversal, which is preparing for its annual upfront presentation to advertisers on Monday at Radio City Music Hall.

Yaccarino joined NBCU in 2011, after 15 years at Turner Entertainment, and has been credited with taking the network’s ad sales operation into the digital era.

As broadcast television audiences migrated to streaming, she took to the stage at Radio City Music Hall last year to tell advertisers their brand messages were not an afterthought. She said NBCUniversal incorporated ads in its Peacock streaming service from the outset.

“Twitter needs credibility with the advertising community,” said Greg Kahn, chief executive of GK Digital Ventures media consultancy. “Linda has demonstrated her trust, her innovative nature of bringing new partners to the table and a deep bench of relationships.”

Musk, the CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla, completed his purchase of Twitter in October. He said in December that he would step aside as CEO once he found “someone foolish enough to take the job.”

On Thursday, Musk tweeted that he had found a CEO without naming Yaccarino. One person close to Yaccarino said Musk’s tweet may well have accelerated the timetable for her to join Twitter, which would be a balm to Tesla shareholders.

Shares of Tesla were down 1.3 percent on Friday, as analysts commented that a CEO hire would allow Musk to concentrate on the EV business. Comcast shares were little changed.

© Thomson Reuters 2023
 

Xiaomi launched its camera focussed flagship Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone, while Apple opened it’s first stores in India this week. We discuss these developments, as well as other reports on smartphone-related rumours and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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New Twitter CEO Appointment May Allow Elon Musk to Focus on Tesla, Remove Distraction

Elon Musk‘s selection of a new CEO for Twitter may remove a big distraction for the billionaire and allow him to focus more on Tesla, which has been struggling with a drop in demand for its electric vehicles, analysts said.

Shares of the world’s most valuable electric vehicle maker, which have gained 40 percent this year, rose about 2 percent in trading before the bell on Friday. The stock had its worst year in 2022, losing 65 percent, amid Musk’s on-again, off-again offer for Twitter.

Ever since Musk bought Twitter in a $44 billion (nearly Rs. 3,61,490 crore) deal, Tesla investors have been worried that he may not be able to give his full attention to the company, which is in a price war with upstarts and legacy automakers.

“This is a fractional positive for Tesla shareholders because he will likely spend a little bit more time on Tesla,” said Gene Munster, Managing Partner at Deepwater Asset Management. “However, there are other things that are competing for his time.”

Musk said on Thursday he had found a new CEO for Twitter, without naming the person. The Wall Street Journal reported that Comcast NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino was in talks for the top role at the social media platform.

The billionaire said he would take on the role of chief technology officer at Twitter.

“Tesla investors are likely to celebrate this move too, with Musk’s very hands-on approach at Twitter leading to concerns he had taken his eye off the ball at this EV giant,” Hargreaves Lansdown analyst Sophie Lund-Yates said.

Although Twitter has taken much of Musk’s time since its takeover, he still actively manages several other businesses such as SpaceX and Neuralink. Musk recently formed an AI company called TruthGPT to take on OpenAI‘s ChatGPT and Alphabet‘s Bard.

Musk’s involvement with Twitter has been quite chaotic. He has slashed thousands of jobs at the social media company, fired its top executive team, including its CEO, and has made many changes to its policies and strategy to rely less on ads and more on subscription money.

© Thomson Reuters 2023
 

Xiaomi launched its camera focussed flagship Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone, while Apple opened it’s first stores in India this week. We discuss these developments, as well as other reports on smartphone-related rumours and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Elon Musk Hires New Twitter CEO as He Announces to Take Executive Chair, CTO Position

Twitter CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday that he has found a new chief executive for the social media platform without naming his replacement.

“Excited to announce that I’ve a new CEO for X/Twitter. She will be starting in ~6 weeks!,” Musk said in a tweet.

Musk said he will transition to being “exec chair & CTO, overseeing product, software & sysops”.

The move is likely to allay Tesla investors’ concerns, who have been increasingly worried about the time that Musk is devoting to turning around Twitter. Musk also runs rocket company SpaceX.

Tesla shares jumped 2.4 percent in volume spike on the news.

Musk, who said in November he expected to reduce his time at Twitter and eventually find a new leader to run the social media company, has previously not named any prospective candidates.

The billionaire’s first two weeks as the new Twitter owner in October were marked by rapid change. He quickly fired Twitter’s previous CEO Parag Agrawal and other senior leaders and then laid off half its staff in November.

Musk, a self-proclaimed free speech absolutist, has said he took over Twitter to prevent the platform from becoming an echo chamber for hate and division.

He also said he would “defeat” spam bots on Twitter, a key area of his tussle with Twitter’s board over his back and forth on the $54 billion (nearly Rs. 4,43,550 crore) buyout of the company.

© Thomson Reuters 2023 

Xiaomi launched its camera focussed flagship Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone, while Apple opened it’s first stores in India this week. We discuss these developments, as well as other reports on smartphone-related rumours and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Ola Electric Says It Will Reimburse Charger Cost to EV Scooter Buyers; No Details on Refund Amount

Ola Electric on Thursday said it will reimburse its buyers of electric scooters the cost of chargers.

In a statement on Twitter, the company said the electric vehicle industry has witnessed unprecedented success in the last couple of years despite attempts from vested interest groups, like the recent narrative on charger pricing.

“As a leader of the industry we remain committed to putting our customers first. Therefore, setting aside the technicalities and as an example for others to follow, we have decided to reimburse the charger monies to all eligible customers,” it stated.

This move will not only demonstrate the company’s commitment to the EV revolution but also serve to strengthen trust and add more value for the customers, the company noted.

Ola did not provide the details regarding the amount it planned to reimburse.

Earlier reports, citing government officials, had pegged the amount to be around Rs 130 crore.

On Wednesday, TVS Motor Company announced that it will refund around Rs 20 crore as a goodwill benefit scheme to customers who have paid over and above the threshold limit fixed under the FAME scheme.

Last week, the government sent notices to Okinawa Autotech and Hero Electric for debarment from the FAME-II Scheme and sought the recovery of incentives claimed since FY20 after the two companies were found to be violating localisation norms under the scheme.

Based on anonymous emails, the government has recently re-opened audits for 2020 and 2021 where all companies were importing certain components which weren’t manufactured in India.

The FAME II (Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India) scheme commenced on April 1, 2019, for a period of three years, which was further extended for a period of two years up to March 31, 2024.

The total outlay for FAME Scheme Phase II is Rs 10,000 crore. The scheme is exclusively for public and commercial transport in the segments of electric three-wheelers (e-3W), electric four-wheelers (e-4W), and electric buses. 

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Jack Dorsey’s Bluesky Emerges as Another Twitter-Like Service, Gaining Traction Among Power Users

Jack Dorsey is taking another whack at a Twitter-like service with a new social media platform called Bluesky.

The service is gaining traction among Twitter power users, attracting prominent personalities including US Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. 

Bluesky, which bears similarities to the blue bird platform, is the latest in a long list of apps that are looking to steal Twitter’s thunder after Elon Musk‘s chaotic takeover of the company. 

Here are some details on the service:

What is Bluesky?

It’s a text-focused social media service launched for select users in February. Users can post short messages of up to 300 characters, and pictures. There is no support for videos and direct messages, or DMs, so far.

Bluesky runs on a decentralized framework, similar to social network Mastodon. It allows users to build independent social media experiences and users can join a specific “server”, which has its own unique set of rules, interests and participants.

How does it compare to Twitter?

Bluesky offers a similar experience to Twitter — people create profiles and post short messages with text and images. On the timeline, Bluesky has “What’s hot” and “Following” feed, similar to the curated “For You” and the chronological “Following” feeds on Twitter. 

Unlike Twitter, Bluesky’s core framework allows for various customizations. “Instead of one site running the network, you can have many sites. It means you get a choice of provider, and individuals and businesses can self-host if they want,” it said in a blog post in October.

Who is behind Bluesky?

It was started by Dorsey as a project within Twitter in 2019 and was set up as an independent company in 2022. As of April 2022, it had raised $13 million (nearly Rs. 105 crore) from Twitter.

Dorsey, Jeremie Miller, the inventor of communication protocol Jabber/XMPP, and Jay Graber, CEO of Bluesky, are its board members.

Is Bluesky taking on Twitter?

Too soon to say. The company told Bloomberg News it had over 40,000 users. 

The company began to sign up users on the wait-list early this year and announced its biggest single-day jump last week.  

While its user base is still small, Bluesky has attracted many power users including writer and comedian Dril, following frustrations with Musk’s management of Twitter and the recent changes to the platform.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

Xiaomi launched its camera focussed flagship Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone, while Apple opened it’s first stores in India this week. We discuss these developments, as well as other reports on smartphone-related rumours and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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WhatsApp Banned Over 4.7 Million Accounts in March in India, Complied With All 3 GAC Orders

Meta-owned WhatsApp banned over 4.7 million accounts in March, higher than the number of accounts it barred in the preceding month, and it received and complied with three orders from the Grievance Appellate Committee during March.

WhatsApp banned over 4.5 million accounts in February, 2.9 million accounts in January, 3.6 million accounts in December and 3.7 million accounts in November.

The platform disclosed it complied with all three orders received from the newly-constituted Grievance Appellate Committee, between March 1 and March 31, 2023. It, however, did not give further details on this.

The monthly user-safety report contains details of the user complaints received and the corresponding action taken by WhatsApp, as well as WhatsApp’s own preventive actions to combat abuse on the platform.

“As captured in the latest Monthly Report, WhatsApp banned over 4.7 million accounts in the month of March,” according to a WhatsApp spokesperson.

An Indian account is identified via a +91 phone number.

“Between March 1, 2023 and March 31, 2023, 4,715,906 WhatsApp accounts were banned. 1,659,385 of these accounts were proactively banned, before any reports from users,” the report said.

According to the latest report, as many as 4,720 grievance reports were received, and 585 accounts were “actioned” during March.

Of the total reports received, 4316 pertained to ‘ban appeal’ while others were in the categories of account support, product support and safety, among others.

“We respond to all grievances received except in cases where a grievance is deemed to be a duplicate of a previous ticket. An account is ‘actioned’ when an account is banned or a previously banned account is restored, as a result of a complaint,” the report said.

The IT rules mandate large digital platforms (with over 50 lakh users) to publish compliance reports every month, mentioning the details of complaints received and action taken.

Big social media firms have come under fire in the past over hate speech, misinformation, and fake news circulating on their platforms.

Concerns have been flagged by some quarters time and again over digital platforms acting arbitrarily in pulling down content, and ‘de-platforming’ users.

The government has launched the much-awaited Grievance Appellate Committee (GAC) mechanism, which allows users to appeal against decisions of social media platforms by filing their complaints on a new portal.

The GAC, in effect, is an online dispute resolution mechanism, and users aggrieved by a decision of the Grievance Officer of an intermediary, say Meta or Twitter, can file their appeal or complaint through the new portal.

Smartphone companies have launched many compelling devices over the first quarter of 2023. What are some of the best phones launched in 2023 you can buy today? We discuss this on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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Elon Musk Says Twitter Will Roll Out Per-Article Payment Plan for Media Publishers

Elon Musk on Saturday announced a plan for his Twitter platform to allow media publishers to charge users on a per-article basis with a single click.

“This enables users who would not sign up for a monthly subscription to pay a higher per article price for when they want to read an occasional article,” the billionaire entrepreneur said on Twitter, adding, “Should be a major win-win for both media orgs & the public.”

He said the plan would begin next month, but provided no details on exact pricing or what cut Twitter would take.

The announcement came as Musk has been struggling, amid frequent controversy, to make Twitter profitable.

Media organizations have wrestled for years with how to formulate subscription plans that pay their operating costs even as readers have grown accustomed to getting news free on the internet.

The Musk plan raises questions about how exactly he hopes to make the micro-payment approach work when others have failed.

British journalist James Ball listed several problems with micro-payment — an idea, he wrote in the Columbia Journalism Review, that has “definitely occurred to major publishers across the planet.”

Many readers will simply click away when encountering a paywall, he noted. And publishers “vastly” prefer to sign up full-time subscribers, which bring far more in ad revenue than the 20 cents or so from the sale of a single article.

Several people posting on Twitter raised other objections. The per-article approach, they said, could encourage a flourishing of “click bait,” it might favour big publishers over small ones, and it is unclear that authors — not just news groups — would see any profits.

But some on Twitter reacted positively.

“Great idea,” tweeted user Greg Autry. “As a frequent author in publications like Forbes, Foreign Policy, and Ad Astra I’m often frustrated when my work ends up behind a paywall that my followers aren’t willing to subscribe to. This is the right solution.”

And Carlos Gil, author of a book on marketing, tweeted: “Finally, a pay-per-view for news that won’t make you feel like you’re buying an overpriced stadium beer. Get your articles à la carte and keep your wallet happy.”

Xiaomi launched its camera focussed flagship Xiaomi 13 Ultra smartphone, while Apple opened it’s first stores in India this week. We discuss these developments, as well as other reports on smartphone-related rumours and more on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Spotify, Gaana, JioSaavn, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.
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