DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ The only thing Elon Musk understands about Twitter is how to kill it
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Adam Rogers | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

Biologists, anthropologists, and information theorists do think that social networks, like Musk's bird app, show at least some signs of being flocks. "Elon's tweet is basically espousing the invisible hand of social behavior," Bak-Coleman says. In this construction, a social network might have become a collective superintelligence, had capitalists left it to its — our? Under Musk, Twitter has entered the dance-off phase. I'll be sad if the Twitter superintelligence starts singing a Kubrickian cover of "Daisy" and implodes into a pile of melting isolinear chips.

☆ Georgia woman’s death that authorities said appeared ‘personal and targeted’ was a suicide, autopsy reveals
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-19 | by ( Tim Stelloh | Tim Stelloh Is A Breaking News Reporter For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

A Georgia woman whose mysterious death was initially described by authorities as a "personal and targeted" killing was found to have died by suicide, officials said Friday. A spokeswoman for the state law enforcement agency said it provided the autopsy results to the sheriff’s office Thursday. The sheriff’s office also said it found no evidence linking her death to suicide. “At this time, the investigation is leading us to the proposition that Mrs. Collier’s death was personal and targeted,” the sheriff’s office said on Sept. 30. "This was the consensus of all of the agencies involved in the initial and ongoing investigation into Mrs. Collier’s death," he said.

☆ Premarket stocks: Fed officials crushed investors' hopes this week
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

But messaging from Fed officials this week has brought Wall Street back down to earth. Tech layoffs don’t mean impending recessionA series of high-profile layoffs have rattled Big Tech this month. The series of high-profile layoff announcements prompted fears that the labor market was weakening and that a recession could be around the corner. Those fears aren’t unwarranted: The Federal Reserve is actively working to slow economic growth and tighten financial conditions to rebalance the white-hot labor market. “The main problem in the labor market is still that labor demand is too strong, not too weak,” they concluded.

☆ A few big-time FedEx contractors have a new plan to boost struggling delivery outfits. Here's why it could work where the last one fizzled.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( Emma Cosgrove | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The 6,000 contractors who deliver for FedEx Ground have been having a tough year. ThinkISP is a think tank launched in October by eight large FedEx contractors. FedEx Ground, the division that handles the majority of the giant's e-commerce business, contracts with 6,000 small businesses for doorstep deliveries. FedEx contractors have had a tough year navigating fuel costs, and operational changes. Moreover, the think tank chose its top issues "collaboratively" with FedEx Ground, Johnson said.

☆ Worried About Being Locked Out of Facebook or Instagram? Here Are Options
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Robert Mcmillan | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Locked out of Facebook or Instagram? It happens to a surprising number of people, often with maddening results. The reality, though, is that there aren’t many great options for getting an account restored once a user is locked out. Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc., doesn’t have a customer-service line where any user can speak with representatives. The company, which has said it is committing to building out more customer-service options, advises people to use their guided tools, Facebook.com/hacked and Instagram.com/hacked, which ask a series of questions and then recommend various actions to secure the account.

☆ Meet Hakeem Jeffries, the New York congressman likely to succeed Nancy Pelosi as House Democratic leader
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( John L. Dorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: 1 min

Hakeem Jeffries was born and raised in Brooklyn. Hakeem Jeffries. FacebookUS Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, 52, was born in Brooklyn and grew up in the Crown Heights neighborhood of the borough. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the State University of New York at Binghamton, as well as a master's degree in public policy from Georgetown University. He then earned a law degree from the New York University School of Law, where he served on the Law Review.

☆ Airbnb CEO on the tech downturn: ‘It’s like we’re all in a nightclub and the lights just came on’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —After years of seemingly unstoppable growth, the tech industry is now facing the “ultimate reality check” as it confronts broader economic uncertainty and waves of layoffs, Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky told CNN on Thursday. Facebook-parent Meta said last week it was cutting 11,000 jobs after nearly doubling its staff during the pandemic. And Twitter recently cut approximately 50% of its staff as new owner Elon Musk races to bolster its bottom line. Chesky said the company is not undergoing layoffs at this time, and in fact is hiring. “We need more diversity in Silicon Valley, but that diversity should not just be demographic diversity.

☆ Tech stocks have been crushed. What’s next for the FAANGs?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

New York CNN Business —The great bull run for tech stocks may finally be over. The tech sector has been a market leader for years, but there are growing concerns about the future. Todd Sohn, director and technical strategist at Strategas, noted in a report late last week that when tech stocks imploded in 2000 as the dot-com bubble burst, it wasn’t until after the 2008 financial crisis before tech resumed a role as a market leader. But cybersecurity stocks such as Palo Alto Networks (PANW), as well as semiconductors, are more reasonable. In other words, tech investors should be looking tor more boring parts of the sector, not assets like crypto that are more about hype than substance.

☆ Analysis: Silicon Valley's greatest minds misread pandemic demand. Now their employees are paying for it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN Business —In the early months of the pandemic, Facebook only grew bigger and more central to our lives. On Wednesday, however, Zuckerberg reversed course and laid off more than 11,000 employees, marking the most significant cuts in the company’s history. In a memo to staff, Zuckerberg coughed up some of the hardest words in the English language. The Federal Reserve maintained near-zero interest rates at the time, giving tech companies easier access to capital. And private and public market valuations for tech companies only seemed to go higher.

☆ Zuckerberg Didn’t Move Fast, Still Broke Things
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-09 | by ( Dan Gallagher | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Some problems at Meta Platforms—including investors’ lack of enthusiasm for CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse—have been evident since early this year. The company once known as Facebook announced broad layoffs Wednesday morning, in a letter to employees from Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. The action will cut the size of Meta Platforms ‘ workforce by 13%—about 11,000 employees. Facebook has never done a major retrenchment in its 18-year history, since the bulk of that history has involved double-digit growth and sky-high operating margins. They enabled the company to draw workers by the thousands every year, even in an industry marked by generous salaries and lavish perks.

Meta said Wednesday it plans to lay off more than 11,000 employees, or 13% of its workforce. Meta had 87,314 employees on September 30, 2022, according to its third-quarter earnings report. Such a move has been expected by employees for months, as Insider previously reported. FacebookZuckerberg said that affected US employees would get 16 weeks of severance plus an extra two weeks for every year of service. Affected employees would also still get their restricted stock unit vesting on November 15, he said.

The states filed their friend-of-the-court brief in San Jose, California, federal court, where the FTC in July asked a federal judge to bar Meta's acquisition of Los Angeles-based Within. The states, joined by the District of Columbia and Guam, said the deal threatens to "harm competition in the emerging virtual reality space." Circuit to revive the states' claims after a U.S. district court judge dismissed the case. Utah, which also signed the amicus brief, is leading a group of states in an antitrust lawsuit challenging how Google runs its app store. The case is Federal Trade Commission v. Meta Platforms Inc, U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, No.

☆ Facebook layoffs will likely hit most departments, including Mark Zuckerberg's beloved metaverse division
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Kali Hays | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Facebook employees have been told for weeks to expect layoffs, as Insider previously reported. Even Reality Labs is expected to be impacted, despite it building out Zuckerberg's metaverse vision. 'Investors are demanding more action'One of the people said Reality Labs is "Mark's baby" and could be somewhat insulated from cuts, compared with other divisions. Facebook disclosed it has already this year lost more than $9 billion on Reality Labs, including nearly $4 billion in the third quarter alone. The division lost $10 billion over the whole of 2021, yet the company said spending on Reality Labs is only going to keep growing.

For the most part, Mastodon looks like Twitter, with hashtags, political back-and-forth and tech banter jostling for space with cat pictures. People swap posts and links with others on their own server - or Mastodon "instance" - and also, almost as easily, with users on other servers across the growing network. But the jump in Mastodon users in a matter of days has still been startling. loadingBefore Musk completed the Twitter acquisition on Oct. 27, Mastodon's growth averaged 60-80 new users an hour, according to the widely-cited Mastodon Users account. Rochko started Mastodon in 2017, when rumours were spreading that PayPal founder and Musk ally Peter Thiel wanted to buy Twitter.

☆ Why technology spending will rise even as tech stocks tank and layoffs mount
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Tim Mullaney | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The path of tech demand has been one of the key questions as markets try to handicap the odds of a 2023 recession. "CEOs and CFOs have no intention of cutting tech spending," said Gartner chief forecaster John-David Lovelock. On the bright side, the GDP report painted a picture of fairly strong technology demand, said Bank of America Merrill Lynch economist Michael Gapen. The shortfall in investment spending was driven by a sharp decline in residential investment, he said. In percentage terms, cloud spending will rise by about 20 percent for the next two to three years, according to Gartner's forecast.

☆ How social media platforms plan to fight Election Day misinformation
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +12 min

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty ImagesSocial media platforms including Meta's Facebook and Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Google's YouTube are readying themselves for another heated Election Day this week. The company is once again banning new political ads in the week before the election, as it did in 2020. Political ads, including information on how much money was behind them and how much they were viewed, are included in the company's transparency report. The NYU and Global Witness study found YouTube performed the best out of the platforms it tested in blocking ads with election misinformation. WATCH: The messy business of content moderation on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube

☆ Influencers debate leaving Twitter, but where would they go?
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-06 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

PHILADELPHIA — Pariss Chandler built a community for Black tech workers on Twitter that eventually became the foundation for her own recruitment company. I have lost hope in that,” said Chandler, 31, founder of Black Tech Pipeline, a jobs board and recruitment website. She now has more than 60,000 followers and her own company connecting Black tech workers with companies large and small. “This is the exact reason that Musk bought Twitter and didn’t just build his own social network,” Donovan said. “I’m personally going to stay on Twitter until there is really not a reason to stay anymore.

But none of that explains why political campaigns have been turning away from Facebook. Political ads have always been a small part of Facebook's overall business. The pandemic accelerated that trend since so many consumers turned to streaming platforms while stuck at home, and content for cord-cutters proliferated. Ad tracking firm AdImpact projected that of the $9.7 billion spent on political ads this cycle, $1.4 billion would go to connected TVs. Apple's crackdown has indeed diminished Facebook's position in political advertising.

☆ Facebook likely has your contact info — even if you never signed up for its services. Here's how to remove it.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Speaking of Instagram: We reported that its parent company, Meta, likely has your contact information, even if you never shared it yourself — and even if you never signed up to use any of its services, including Instagram, Facebook, or Messenger. Facebook probably has your phone number, even if you never shared it. Facebook quietly rolled out the service, which lets people check whether the firm holds their contact information (such as their phone number or email address), and delete and block it. How to wipe your phone number from Facebook. In a separate leaked memo, engineers were told to work with "maniacal" urgency and bring their ideas to Musk directly.

☆ Stocks: Dow on track for best month in more than 45 years
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Paul R. La Monica | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN Business —The Dow fell slightly midday Monday but is still up 14% this month, putting it on track for its best monthly gain since January 1976. Still, it’s fitting that on Halloween, candy maker Hershey (HSY) is trading at an all-time high, Shares are up nearly 25% this year. That’s nearly half of the Dow stocks. Oil stocks and health care companies are leading the market, with Chevron (CVX), Merck (MRK) and Amgen (AMGN) topping the Dow leaders list. This list of well known, brand-name stocks trading at record highs is further proof of that point.

☆ Elon Musk owning Twitter should give everyone pause
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-29 | by ( Seth Fiegerman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk, the mercurial billionaire, had agreed to buy Twitter for $44 billion the month before only to begin raising doubts about the deal soon after. Now, Musk joins the list of rich, white men who single-handedly control social platforms that collectively reach and shape the lives of billions of people around the world. And Musk, who will reportedly have “absolute control over Twitter” according to a shareholders’ agreement, promises to be uniquely disruptive. To those in the first camp, Musk serving as the sole decider at Twitter may be cause for celebration. Elon Musk is a conglomerate, and each arm of his empire potentially gives him more leverage, real or imagined, in advocating for the others.

☆ Big Tech falters on dreary earnings and forecasts for Q4— Meta has worst week ever, Amazon tumbles 13%
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Other than Apple , it was a brutal earnings week for Big Tech. Alphabet , Amazon , Meta and Microsoft combined lost over $350 billion in market cap after offering concerning commentary for the third quarter and the remainder of the year. Between slowing revenue growth — or declines in Meta's case — and efforts to control costs, the tech giants have found themselves in an unfamiliar position after unbridled growth in the past decade. In Amazon's ad business, revenue growth accelerated to 30% from 21%, topping analysts' estimates. Analyst Aaron Kessler at Raymond James lowered his price target on Amazon stock to $130 from $164 after the results.

☆ Anxious Twitter users find few alternatives to platform after Musk deal closes
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Jennifer Korn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

But with few obvious alternatives, Twitter users may be left with nowhere else to go. Other platforms, like Mastodon, have promised a more decentralized social media experience. “Excited to see what you accomplish here,” retired basketball star Shaquille O’Neill tweeted at Musk on Wednesday ahead of the deal closing. Musk has said he would restore Trump’s Twitter account, though Trump has previously said he would remain on Truth Social. By unbanning users and unwinding content moderation efforts, Musk could make Twitter less palatable for its most vulnerable users, typically women, members of the LGBTQ community, and people of color, according to safety experts.

☆ Meta fined $24.7M for campaign finance disclosure violations
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +3 min

SEATTLE — A Washington state judge on Wednesday fined Facebook parent company Meta nearly $25 million for repeatedly and intentionally violating campaign finance disclosure law, in what is believed to be the largest campaign finance penalty in U.S. history. Where’s the corporate responsibility?”In 2018, following Ferguson’s first lawsuit, Facebook agreed to pay $238,000 and committed to transparency in campaign finance and political advertising. It subsequently said it would stop selling political ads in the state rather than comply with the requirements. “Meta was aware that its announced ‘ban’ would not, and did not, stop all such advertising from continuing to be displayed on its platform,” North wrote last month in finding that Meta violation’s were intentional. North fined Meta $30,000 for each of its 822 violations — about $24.7 million.

☆ Amazon set to report third-quarter earnings after the bell
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Annie Palmer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Andy Jassy, CEO of Amazon and then CEO of web services at Amazon.com Inc., speaks during the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Summit in San Francisco, California, U.S., on Wednesday, April 19, 2017. Amazon reports third-quarter earnings after the bell on Thursday. Those challenges have coincided with a slowdown in Amazon's core retail business, as consumers returned to shopping in stores. The forecast could signal how much demand Amazon expects to see during the holiday shopping period. Amazon shares have slid 31% so far this year, while the S&P 500 index has dropped nearly 20% over the same period.

Search resuls for: ". Facebook"

25 mentions found