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☆ Being ready for anything is top priority for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Peter Thal Larsen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

In the past three years, the world has been rocked by a string of unexpected and epoch-defining events. Anyone trying to think about what 2023 will bring is confronted by a staggering array of possibilities. Watch whether the United Arab Emirates, which hosts the COP28 climate conference in November 2023, distances itself from the OPEC oil cartel. Encumbered by lower stock prices and pricier financing, merger activity will remain subdued in 2023. Follow @peter_tl on Twitterloading(This is a Breakingviews prediction for 2023.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg will split Meta, take the 'verse
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

NEW YORK, Dec 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Meta Platforms (META.O) is the tale of two companies, tied together only by their potential to sell advertising and their owner Mark Zuckerberg. But cash flow from Meta’s operations alone – mostly the business without spending on the metaverse – would represent a yield of 15%. That’s three times the free cash flow yield of consumer giant Procter & Gamble (PG.N), and more than oil major Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), which had a banner 2022. Rather than make Meta shareholders collectively pay for Zuckerberg’s ambitions, he could fund them himself through dividends from the parent company. If Meta were smaller, or the metaverse were a separate company, it might not attract the same attention.

☆ Zuckerberg weighed naming Cambridge Analytica as a concern in 2017, months before data leak was revealed
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The data leak prompted a global outcry that led to hearings, an apology tour from Zuckerberg and Facebook’s $5 billion privacy settlement with the US government. Zuckerberg’s remarks in the deposition offer the clearest picture yet of what Zuckerberg knew about Cambridge Analytica, and when. But according to the court documents, Zuckerberg had originally proposed naming Russian foreign intelligence and Cambridge Analytica in the same breath. Zuckerberg testified that the reference to Cambridge Analytica was removed after a staffer recommended against naming specific organizations. But the improper sharing of Facebook data triggered a cascade of events that has culminated in numerous investigations and lawsuits.

☆ The ghost of Instagram haunts Microsoft’s future
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The FTC’s leader Lina Khan might be making up for regulators who waved through Mark Zuckerberg’s $1 billion purchase of Instagram. Though Microsoft’s deal is different, punishment under Khan’s regime seemed inevitable. Microsoft could try to corner the market by forcing consumers to not only buy the Activision games from Microsoft, but the platform as well. Microsoft’s rationale for buying Activision is to better compete in the gaming market against the likes of Tencent (0700.HK) and others. Streaming is the future, and in that way, Microsoft could easily be sidelined in the business if it doesn’t innovate.

☆ Released Twitter emails show how employees debated how to handle 2020 New York Post Hunter Biden story
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

It showed employees on Twitter’s legal, policy and communications teams debating – and at times disagreeing – over whether to restrict the article under the company’s hacked materials policy, weeks before the 2020 election, where Joe Biden, Hunter Biden’s father, ran against then-President Donald Trump. The Taibbi posts undercut a top claim by Musk and Republicans, who have accused the FBI of leaning on social media companies to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop stories. The tweet thread also highlighted how officials from both political parties routinely wrote to Twitter asking for specific tweets to be removed. A CNN review of those tweets on an archive site showed some purported photos of Hunter Biden, including nudity, that may have violated Twitter policy. He also did not say that Democrats requested that Twitter suppress the Post story, and his account did not suggest that the US government had ever pressured Twitter to suppress the story.

☆ Twitter gives big advertisers the excuse they need
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Nov 11 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is making it too easy to hit the pause on ad spending. loadingSocial media companies are no stranger to ad boycotts. That’s because Facebook and Instagram rely more on small business advertising, which is a diverse scattered group. Twitter reaps almost all its revenue from big brands, and those big advertisers are already looking for an excuse to put the brakes on spending. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ 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.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg offered words of appreciation and encouragement to outgoing employees as he eliminated their jobs Wednesday, according to a recording of a video call he held to explain his decision. NBC News obtained a portion of the call in which Zuckerberg praised their work and said it was difficult to cut so many jobs. The layoffs affected about 11,000 people, or 13% of the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. A Meta employee affected by Wednesday’s mass layoffs provided the video to NBC News. Though he accepted responsibility for the layoffs, Zuckerberg’s authority over Meta has never been in question.

☆ 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.

☆ Tech firms can’t swing the axe equally
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But mass layoffs in other industries suggests that firms should be careful not to over-fire. Mark Zuckerberg’s $253 billion outfit is preparing to slash thousands of workers this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is blaming a massive drop in revenue as the reason to cull half of the social network’s 7,500 employees. These tech firms, though established, are also largely untested through a downturn. Twitter on Nov. 4 laid off half of its staff, or around 3,700 people, Reuters reported.

Web Summit, the sector’s annual bash held in Lisbon, is doing the opposite. And the usual welter of tech companies, investors and celebrities are still milling around. That new strain of reality-based tech investing has a lot further to go, though. The relative lack of investor focus at Web Summit on new technologies that could really move the dial, such as ways to ease climate change, is striking. The sector, Smith told Breakingviews, will increasingly “influence what people talk about and who comes to Web Summit”.

☆ Meta’s Reverse Darkens Mark Zuckerberg’s Dream
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Mark Zuckerberg wants to sell the world on his “amazing” $1,500 virtual-reality headset. Meta Platforms said Wednesday that its revenue fell 4% year on year in the third quarter—its second consecutive quarter of annual declines—while net income fell 52%. For the fourth quarter, the company formerly known as Facebook is forecasting revenue to fall ever further annually with the midpoint of its outlook implying a drop of about 7%. Meanwhile, although Meta claims to be making changes across the board to operate more efficiently, its expense projection for the full year remains little changed. Beyond that, the company said it expects operating losses for its Reality Labs division, which houses its metaverse ambitions, to grow significantly next year.

☆ Meta’s spending splurge starts to look troubling
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Lauren Silva Laughlin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Last year, existing operations generated enough cash to justify the spending spree. If results slip – and the third quarter suggests they could – spending will become a problem. Mark Zuckerberg’s company posted operating income of $5.6 billion, almost half of what it was in the third quarter of 2021, as margins also declined considerably. Last year’s $59 billion in operating cash flow underpinned Zuckerberg’s bold initiative. The company said that daily active users grew to nearly 2 billion, a 3% increase year-on-year.

☆ Adidas is on the hot seat to cut ties with Kanye West
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Jon Sarlin | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Balenciaga and Vogue publicly cut ties last week, and on Monday talent agency CAA dropped West as a client, and production company MRC said that it’s shelving a documentary on West. Celebrities including Kat Dennings, Josh Gad and Meg Stalter condemned Adidas for sticking by West. We are waiting @adidas,” read Shannon Watts’ tweet in response to the incident that received more than 100,000 likes. Earlier this month after West wore a “White Lives Matter” shirt in public, Adidas said that it was reviewing its lucrative partnership with his Yeezy brand. With pressure mounting and West’s hate campaign against Jewish people continuing, it seems the question is when, not if, Adidas will cut ties.

☆ Meta unveils its much-hyped Quest Pro mixed reality headset
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-11 | by ( ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

Meta Platforms unveiled its Quest Pro virtual and mixed reality headset on Tuesday, marking a milestone for Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg’s break into the higher-end market for extended reality computing devices. The Quest Pro features several upgrades over Meta’s existing Quest 2 headset, which overwhelmingly dominates the consumer virtual reality market. For fully immersive virtual reality, Meta has added tracking sensors to the Quest Pro that can replicate users’ eye movements and facial expressions, creating a sense that avatars are making eye contact. Meta is pitching the Quest Pro as a productivity device, aimed at designers, architects and other creative professionals. For now, that means the Quest Pro stops short of enabling the complex commercial applications Meta has suggested it wants its metaverse tech to support.

☆ Meta's problem is that the metaverse is supremely uncool
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-25 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

The biggest problem: It just doesn’t look cool. To get into the metaverse in the first place, you first have to strap on a bulky headset like Meta’s $400 Quest device. VR avatars also need to respond in real time to the ways we move our faces and bodies, which requires powerful computing and graphics processing. Still, FedEx Ground is refusing to offer the kind of across-the-board financial relief to its contractors that Patton and others are seeking. “We recognize that current economic conditions are posing new challenges,” FedEx Ground said in a statement.

☆ Opinion: The metaverse holds great promise — and great risk
▼ + stars: | 2022-04-12 | by ( Opinion Scott Galloway For Cnn Business Perspectives | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

But the metaverse could be so much more than one man’s quest for control over our virtual lives. Like the real world (at least in any capitalist society), it has to incentivize individuals to participate in and grow the economy. The metaverse needs to be a reasonable facsimile of the real world, where I can spend my money and wear my Adidas where I want. Just as in the physical world, freedom is easily lost and our lives easily manipulated. No metaverse built by humans is going to be void of the human instinct to want power, and that power could be enormous.

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