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☆ Snap has many workers operating under 'code red' conditions in a drastic new effort to improve advertising and user growth on Snapchat
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-28 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Adding older users to Snapchat is also a renewed focus, people told Insider. As Snap struggles to reverse slowing growth and improve its advertising business, parts of the company are operating with a "code red" mentality and more aggressively working to entice older users to join Snapchat. Snap wants Snapchat to 'Age Up'Still, workers are feeling pressure to deliver more revenue growth by the end of the year. For the second quarter, Snap posted revenue growth of 13%. During the fourth quarter of 2021, the company boasted user growth of 20% or more "for five consecutive quarters."

☆ Elon Musk's own data scientists couldn't find many bots on Twitter, and he hid that crucial information, the company says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Grace Kay | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The firm Cyabra told Musk it estimated Twitter to possibly have 11% bots or fake accounts. That's very different from Musk's estimates. "None of these analyses remotely supported what Mr. Musk told the Twitter parties and told the world in the termination letter he served up on July 8." Musk claims this amounts to fraud and allows him to walk away from the acquisition cost-free. Legal experts are unconvinced that any of Musk's claims are strong enough to win this case.

☆ MLB roundup: Jays keep Aaron Judge in park, top Yanks in 10
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The hit off Clarke Schmidt (5-5) scored automatic runner Cavan Biggio from second base after right fielder Aaron Judge had prolonged the inning with a catch at the right field wall. Judge went 1-for-3 with two walks as he stayed at 60 homers, one shy of the American League record set by New York's Roger Maris in 1961. Register now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com RegisterThe Blue Jays opted to intentionally walk Judge with two outs and runners on first and second in the top of the 10th. Braves 8, Nationals 0Rookie Bryce Elder pitched a six-hitter and visiting Atlanta smacked three home runs to defeat host Washington. Martinez and Rob Refsnyder homered for the Red Sox, and Enrique Hernandez had two run-producing singles for three RBIs.

☆ Groups seeking voter ‘anomalies’ 2 years after Trump’s loss raise concerns ahead of midterm elections
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Andrew Davis | Dasha Burns | Dasha Burns Is An Nbc News Now Correspondent Who Covers Politics | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +12 min

Glen Morgan speaks about his canvassing organization, the Washington Voter Research Project. The Washington Voter Research Project maintains that these claims have no basis in fact. In January, the Washington Voter Research Project began releasing some of its canvassing efforts’ findings online, claiming it had found several anomalies in voter rolls. The resident said that, upon being pressed, the canvassers eventually said they were with the Washington Voter Research Project. “We have these volunteer badges that just say volunteer and they say Washington voter research project on them.

☆ Elon Musk's legal team is frustrated after Twitter's CEO cancels his deal deposition on short notice
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Parag Agrawal canceled an interview with Elon Musk's lawyer the day before it was set to take place. Musk is expected to be interviewed later this week as part of the ongoing lawsuit. The Twitter CEO was set to be interviewed for 10 hours in San Francisco on Monday in a deposition scheduled to start at 9 am local time. Agrawal was to be questioned at length by Musk's New York-based lawyer Alex Spiro, a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan. On Sunday, lawyers for Twitter emailed Musk's side to cancel Agrawal's deposition, citing "personal reasons."

☆ Elon Musk's vision for Twitter has freaked out employees so much that they are leaving the social media company in droves
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Kali Hays | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hundreds of Twitter employees have fled since June, two people with knowledge of the matter said. Two months after Elon Musk declared his intent to acquire Twitter in a $44 billion deal, the billionaire spoke directly with Twitter employees. At that virtual meeting in June, Musk spoke to Twitter employees about topics ranging from aliens to layoffs being needed to ensure the health of the company. In the last week, Twitter has posted scores of open positions on LinkedIn, from brand strategists and engineering managers to privacy experts. "The general morale is so low," a worker who recently left Twitter previously told Insider.

☆ Snap is so worried about falling Snapchat Stories engagement that it launched a secret internal project to fix the problem
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Kali Hays | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Broader trends, along with the rise of TikTok, are said to have dragged down usage of Snap. With the rise of TikTok, Snap has seen overall engagement and posting of Stories dragged down, the people said. As of the second quarter, daily active users of Snapchat had grown 18% to 347 million. The company "massively over hired" during the pandemic as usage of Snapchat hit new highs. Usage growth rates have slowed as the pandemic wanes and people spend less time at home.

☆ Elon Musk will be forced to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, says a top M&A legal expert who warns that the billionaire is 'in trouble' as he heads to court
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-26 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk has spent the past few months trying to get out of his agreement to acquire Twitter. Musk needs only to convince Judge Kathaleen McCormick of one of his claims, while Twitter needs to convince her of all of its claims. Musk can appeal the ruling, and likely will, but he will almost certainly still be forced to buy Twitter, Miller said. Musk knew Twitter has some "bots" and even stated in the press release announcing the deal that he would "defeat" them. "Musk could probably go to Mars and try do this under Martian law and have a better chance than going to Texas law," Miller said.

Earlier this summer, Snap executives told managers they should put at least 10% of their teams on performance improvement plans. In a few weeks, Snap employees have gone from feeling relatively stable to joking that they now work at "Snapazon," a reference to the sometimes grueling, metric-heavy approach of Amazon. Snap is chopping the Snap Pixy mini drone, its accelerator program, Snap Originals, Snap Minis and its Games vertical. Other Snap workers expressed similar doubts about the company's acquisition strategy. AR likely will not be a major success story, despite Snap's leadership in the area.

☆ Twitter hunts for documents showing possible connection between Elon Musk and former executive turned whistleblower Peiter 'Mudge' Zatko
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Zatko accused Twitter of lax security and other missteps during his time as a top executive. He also sided with Elon Musk in claiming "bots" are improperly quantified on the platform. Twitter now wants to know if Zatko has had prior dealings with Musk or those on his side of the deal. He also openly sided with Musk and his claims that Twitter hosts more "bots" or fake accounts that it publicly discloses. A section of Zatko's disclosure is titled "Lying about Bots to Elon Musk" and accuses Twitter of misrepresenting how it counts and combats spam accounts, saying "Elon Musk is correct."

☆ Twitter is facing an exodus of hundreds of workers since Elon Musk pitched them on his vision for the company three months ago
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Kali Hays | Hugh Langley | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Hundreds of Twitter employees have fled since June, say two people with knowledge of the matter. Two months after Elon Musk declared his intent to acquire Twitter in a $44 billion deal, the billionaire spoke directly with workers at Twitter. Nothing he said seemed to reassure workers, and since then, waves of Twitter employees have left the company. This trend of increased attrition has only continued as Musk and Twitter entered an ongoing legal saga after Musk said he no longer wanted to buy Twitter. In the last week, Twitter has posted scores of open positions on LinkedIn, from brand strategists to engineering managers to privacy experts.

☆ Meta is reportedly putting some workers onto a '30-day list' that gives them a month to find a new role at the company — or leave
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-21 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta reportedly puts some workers on a "30-day list" that leaves them a month to find a new role at the company. In July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company plans to shrink several teams over the next year. Many teams are going to shrink so we can shift energy to other areas inside the company," Zuckerberg said during the company's quarterly earnings call in July. Last week, the tech company gave dozens of employees a 90-day window to find a new role or leave Google, the publication reported, citing sources familiar with the issue. Have you experienced the 30-day list?

☆ Elon Musk takes another loss in Twitter battle as his request to delay trial is denied — but judge says he can add whistleblower allegations to his suit
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-07 | by ( Grace Kay | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Twitter has already seen negative effects on its business during the case so far, the judge said. Musk's team cannot do any kind of extensive additional discovery that will delay the case, with the judge only allowing "incremental" and "targeted" requests for more document production from Twitter. She rejected the billionaire's request to delay the trial, his second attempt to do so, reiterating that any further delay poses an outsized risk to Twitter as a business. "I am convinced that even four weeks' delay would risk further harm to Twitter too great to justify." While Zatko's whistleblower claims mainly revolve around security issues at Twitter, Musk seized on them to prove his allegations of fraud.

☆ Elon Musk cited a Putin speech in private texts with a banker saying the Twitter deal wouldn't make sense 'if we're heading into World War 3'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-06 | by ( Grace Kay | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Elon Musk in a private text said it might not "make sense" to buy Twitter amid the war in Ukraine. A Twitter lawyer on Tuesday argued texts showed Musk was motivated by concern over his finances. The text messages were sent May 8 to a banker at Morgan Stanley, which is financing part of Musk's deal. It won't make sense to buy Twitter if we're heading into World War 3." Musk signed an agreement in April to buy Twitter and take it private.

☆ Elon Musk scores court win in attempt to get Twitter to produce more data on fake accounts
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-25 | by ( Grace Kay | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A judge partially granted Elon Musk's demand for more data from Twitter on "bots." Twitter now has to give Musk's legal team information on an additional 9,000 Twitter accounts reviewed in the final quarter of last year, according to the order. Alex Spiro, a lead lawyer for Musk, said, "We look forward to reviewing the data Twitter has been hiding for many months." In his counterclaims against Twitter, Musk said the platform intentionally mislead investors regarding the company's prospects by "miscounting" the number of spam accounts on the site. In one, she rejected his position that the independent data analysts he used to analyze the previous Twitter data he had should be protected from discovery.

☆ Elon Musk scores a rare win in Twitter-acquisition lawsuit as the company is ordered to hand over documents from fired general manager
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-15 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Last week Musk's attorneys demanded that documents from 22 Twitter employees be handed over. Judge Kathleen St. Jude McCormick on Monday ordered Twitter to comply in part with a motion to compel from Musk's attorneys. They requested documents from 22 additional Twitter employees they said had information on the company's process of analyzing spam or "bot" accounts. Musk's motion to compel for the additional documentation was filed last week confidentially, which means it doesn't appear on the court's docket. While Musk's attorneys pushed for document production from many additional Twitter employees, McCormick relented only on Beykpour.

☆ The new head of Wells Fargo's massive wealth arm explains why human financial advisors should embrace roboadvisers, not fear them
▼ + stars: | 2019-12-20 | by ( Rebecca Ungarino | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

In his first interview as president and head of Wells Fargo Advisors, Jim Hays shared with Business Insider his view on the wealth management industry's future. He joined the unit's parent firm Wells Fargo in 2005, and was previously head of its Private Wealth Financial Advisors group. Wells Fargo Advisors has 13,723 financial advisors that oversaw some $1.6 trillion in retail clients' assets as of September 30. That being said, the predominance of technology and its impact on the financial advice industry can't be understated. Additionally, through Wells Fargo Advisors' Intuitive Investor, we've found users actually prefer a hybrid model: pairing powerful portfolios with advice from financial advisors.

Persons: Jim Hays, Hays, —, Wells, Charles Schwab, Wells Fargo, we've Organizations: Wells Fargo Advisors, Business, Wealth Financial, Wells, Advisors, Analysts Locations: Wells Fargo

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