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Feb 1 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) stricter cost controls this year and a new $40 billion share buyback sent shares soaring on Wednesday, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the "Year of Efficiency." The parent of Instagram and Facebook cut its cost outlook for 2023 by $5 billion to a range of $89 billion-95 billion, and projected first-quarter sales that could beat Wall Street estimates. Shares of peer Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) were up 3.3% and Snap Inc (SNAP.N) stock rose 1% in after-hours trade on Wednesday. "Despite all the challenges Meta must deal with, there are signs the business is still doing well," Cohen said. The company forecast first-quarter revenue between $26 billion and $28.5 billion, compared with analysts' average estimates of $27.14 billion, according to Refinitiv.

Feb 1 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc's (META.O) stricter cost controls this year and a new $40 billion share buyback sent shares soaring on Wednesday, as CEO Mark Zuckerberg called 2023 the "Year of Efficiency." The parent of Instagram and Facebook cut its cost outlook for 2023 by $5 billion and projected first-quarter sales that could beat Wall Street estimates. The company forecast first-quarter revenue between $26 billion and $28.5 billion, compared with analysts' average estimates of $27.14 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. Meta stock was up 18.3% in after-hours trade. The company reported adjusted earnings of $1.76 per share, missing the average analysts' estimate of $2.22 per share.

Despite a rich stable of characters from Batman to Wonder Woman, the DC film and television studio has failed to match the success of Walt Disney Co's (DIS.N) Marvel hit factory. Also in 2025, DC Studios will release "Batman - Part II," a sequel starring Robert Pattison, a darker, more adult tale that is not part of Gunn's newly envisioned "DC Universe." While Marvel has become the highest-grossing film franchise in history, DC Studios has had mixed results. Four DC film projects that were completed before Gunn and Safran took over the studio will be released to theaters this year, "Shazam! Zaslav cut some costs by scrapping a third "Wonder Woman" film and a "Batgirl" movie that was headed to streaming.

☆ Twitter research group stall complicates compliance with new EU law
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

Twitter signed a voluntary agreement in June with the EU related to the DSA committing to "empowering the research community" through means including sharing datasets about disinformation with researchers. The EU law would require platforms with over 45 million EU users to respond to EU-vetted researcher proposals. THE WORK OF THE CONSORTIUMThe research consortium was formed in response to backlash against Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Twitter had been preparing to disclose at least a dozen new datasets to researchers before then, the former employees said. If the research consortium is eliminated, "we will be returning to the 2017 era of limited shared communication about malicious state actor activity," said Renée DiResta, research manager at Stanford Internet Observatory.

Jan 25 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) said Wednesday it will reinstate former U.S. President Donald Trump's Facebook and Instagram accounts in the coming weeks, following a two-year suspension after the deadly Capitol Hill riot on January 6, 2021. He has 34 million followers on Facebook and 23 million on Instagram, platforms that are key vehicles for political outreach and fundraising. "I worry about Facebook's capacity to understand the real world harm that Trump poses: Facebook has been too slow to act." Whether, and how, Trump will seize upon the opportunity to return to Facebook and Instagram is unclear. He did not indicate if or when he would begin posting on Meta platforms again.

[1/3] Reed Hastings, Co-CEO, Netflix speaks at the 2021 Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, U.S. October 18, 2021. "It was a baptism by fire, given Covid and recent challenges within our business," Hastings said in a statement. To kick-start growth, Netflix introduced a cheaper, ad-supported option last November in 12 countries. We believe we have a clear path to reaccelerate our revenue growth," Netflix said in its quarterly letter to shareholders. That 2011 initiative cost the company 800,000 subscribers and sent the stock plunging.

☆ Davos 2023: CEOs buzz about ChatGPT-style AI at World Economic Forum
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Jeffrey Dastin | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Business titans trudging through Alpine snow can't stop talking about a chatbot from San Francisco. Businesses including CarMax Inc (KMX.N) have already used Microsoft and OpenAI's tech, such as to generate thousands of customer review summaries when marketing used vehicles. Such buzz carried through gatherings at Davos, like talk about a slide-generating bot dubbed ChatBCG after the management consulting firm. loadingGenerative AI is "a game-changer that society and industry need to be ready for," stated an article on the World Economic Forum's website. Reporting By Jeffrey Dastin in Davos, Switzerland; Editing by Kenneth Li and Gerry DoyleOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Thomson Reuters Corp and London Stock Exchange Group expand partnership
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] A Thomson Reuters logo is pictured on a building during the World Economic Forum (WEF) annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland January 25, 2018. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse/File PhotoJan 17 (Reuters) - The London Stock Exchange Group(LSEG.L) and Thomson Reuters Corp(TRI.TO) will expand a long-term partnership that will include investments in the newsroom and an agreement to launch consumer subscription products, the companies said on Tuesday. The agreement resolves a dispute over plans by Reuters News in 2021 to launch a subscription paywall for the Reuters.com website. The agreement will include an investment in 100 editorial roles in the Reuters newsroom focused on financial and markets coverage. Reporting by Kenneth Li in New York; Editing by Howard GollerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ 411 is going out of service for millions of Americans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

Starting in January, AT&T customers with digital landlines won’t be able to dial 411 or 0 to reach an operator or get directory assistance. The human telephone operator, a job that came to be dominated by White women during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In 2021, there were fewer than 4,000 telephone operators, down from a peak of around 420,000 in the 1970s, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data. “0” became universal for operator assistance and “411” was the number for directory assistance. By 2004, at the dawn of the smartphone age, 56,000 people were employed as telephone operators.

☆ At CES 2023, Sony's 'Gran Turismo' flags new entertainment strategy
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Dawn Chmielewski | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

It also represents a significant bridging of the divides between Sony Pictures Entertainment, Sony PlayStation and Sony Music, according to a dozen current and former senior executives interviewed by Reuters. “I defined our identity as a creative entertainment company with a solid foundation on technology,” Sony chief executive Kenichiro Yoshida said. Sony’s “creative entertainment” company approach extends beyond content. A Sony-Honda electric vehicle, scheduled to reach consumers by 2026, is being framed as a rolling showcase of Sony’s entertainment, gaming and camera sensor prowess. This August will bring another test of Sony’s strategy when “Gran Turismo” hits theaters after languishing for 12 years.

☆ I made the biggest decision of my career when I sold Credit Karma. Here are the 4 most important lessons I learned.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Kenneth Lin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Kenneth Lin is the founder and CEO of Credit Karma, a personal-finance company that was sold to Intuit for a whopping $8.1 billion in one of the biggest fintech deals of 2020. Lin says it took months to decide on the acquisition and it was the biggest decision of his career. After countless Starbucks conversations and dozens of "duds," the idea for Credit Karma hit. This decision wasn't made overnight and neither was the success of Credit Karma. There's no blueprint for the perfect CEOLike others who start to ascend in their careers, I spent much of my early years at Credit Karma feeling a bit like an imposter.

☆ Twitter restores suicide prevention feature after Reuters report
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Kenneth Li | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

NEW YORK, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Twitter Inc restored a feature that promoted suicide prevention hotlines and other safety resources to users looking up certain content, after coming under pressure from some users and consumer safety groups over its removal. After publication of the story, Twitter head of trust and safety Ella Irwin confirmed the removal and called it temporary. In response to criticism by Twitter users, he also tweeted "Twitter doesn't prevent suicide." loadingloadingThe feature, known as #ThereIsHelp, placed a banner at the top of search results for certain topics. Its elimination had led some consumer safety groups and Twitter users to express concerns about the well-being of vulnerable users of the platform.

Its elimination had led to increased concerns about the well-being of vulnerable users on Twitter. Eirliani Abdul Rahman, who had been on a recently dissolved Twitter content advisory group, said the disappearance of #ThereIsHelp was "extremely disconcerting and profoundly disturbing." AIDS United said a webpage that the Twitter feature linked to attracted about 70 views a day until Dec. 18. In one of its blog posts about the feature, Twitter had said it had responsibility to ensure users could "access and receive support on our service when they need it most." Musk has said he wants to combat child sexual abuse content on Twitter and has criticized the previous ownership's handling of the issue.

Dec 22 (Reuters) - Tesla (TSLA.O) Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk said on Thursday he will not sell any more Tesla stock for about two years. His comments came after a Tesla stock sell-off deepened on Thursday over worries about softening demand for electric cars and Musk's distraction with Twitter and his stock sales. "I won't sell stock until I don't know probably two years from now. Musk has previously made promises about not selling Tesla stock before subsequently selling it. "(Twitter) is maybe 10% of the complexity of Tesla," Musk said.

Sinead McSweeney, global vice president for public policy, has left Twitter, according to two sources. The layoffs and departures of a high-ranking leader comes as regulators around the globe question Twitter's content moderation work and protection of user data after Musk cut the staff from more than 7,000 to under 2,000. The public policy team is responsible for interacting with lawmakers and civil society on issues including free speech, privacy and online safety. Nick Pickles, senior director for global public policy strategy, has taken over McSweeney's role, the two sources said. One source told Reuters that half of the 30 remaining members of Twitter's public policy team were cut on Wednesday, implying 15 people were laid off.

☆ Elon Musk, 'Chief Twit'
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Kenneth Li | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

He solicited the view of the public before restoring banned accounts belonging to former U.S. President Donald Trump and other prominent U.S. election deniers. Most declined to return and work under “hardcore” conditions that entailed sleeping at the office as one employee demonstrated on Twitter. He has floated ideas ranging from building a version of China’s WeChat, a super app that would include everything from shopping to banking to social media. It has always punched above its weight and remains the preferred social media megaphone for world and industry leaders, revolutionaries and the media. Look to Musk to stoke political outrage in 2023 as he backs Florida Governor Ron DeSantis for a 2024 U.S. presidential bid while enticing Trump to start tweeting again.

Nokia CEO Pekka Lundmark echoed that sentiment in a interview: "Our exit will be complete. "This will allow us to organise modern production of telecoms equipment in Russia," he said, without naming the operators or producers. Government programs to promote Russian equipment have helped telecoms operators become less reliant on Nokia and Ericsson over the past several years and Russian producers have increased their market share this year to 25.2% from 11.6% in 2021. Russian telecom operators stockpiled foreign-made parts in February and March ahead of sanctions, two of the industry sources said, but inventory will drop after Nokia and Ericsson pull the plug Dec. 31. Consolidation between Russian operators at the behest of the government might also allow them to share equipment and resources to make the networks last longer, industry sources added.

☆ Elon Musk restores Twitter accounts of journalists but concerns persist
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-17 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Dec 17 (Reuters) - Elon Musk reinstated the Twitter accounts of several journalists that were suspended for a day over a controversy on publishing public data about the billionaire's plane. A Twitter poll that Musk conducted later also showed that a majority of the respondents wanted the accounts restored immediately. Accounts who doxxed my location will have their suspension lifted now," Musk said in a tweet on Saturday. A Reuters check showed the suspended accounts, which included journalists from the New York Times, CNN and the Washington Post, have been reinstated. Musk accused the journalists of posting his real-time location, saying it amounted to providing "basically assassination coordinates" for his family.

Three sources briefed on OpenAI's recent pitch to investors said the organization expects $200 million in revenue next year and $1 billion by 2024. OpenAI was most recently valued at $20 billion in a secondary share sale, one of the sources said. The startup has already inspired rivals and companies building applications atop its generative AI software, which includes the image maker DALL-E 2. OpenAI has also attracted attention as an AI provider and potential Google search competitor, with ChatGPT answering queries for more than 1 million users so far. OpenAI warns users, ChatGPT "may occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content."

It’s quite remarkable.”In his first five-year term on the Standing Committee, Wang ran the party's secretariat, an organ responsible for day-to-day affairs. In Xi's third leadership term, Wang is on track to be in charge of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body. "All the major slogans, from Jiang Zemin to Hu Jintao to Xi Jinping, seem to have come from Wang Huning," Lam said. 'AMERICA VS. AMERICA'Where most Standing Committee members have experience such as running a major city or province, Wang is an academic. During 1989's pro-democracy student protests, Wang told Xia not to stand with the students, a warning Xia did not heed.

On Friday, Musk vowed "significant reinforcement of content moderation and protection of freedom of speech" in a meeting with France President Emmanuel Macron. She said layoffs did not significantly impact full-time employees or contractors working on what the company referred to as its "Health" divisions, including in "critical areas" like child safety and content moderation. She added that the number of people working on child safety had not changed since the acquisition, and that the product manager for the team was still there. On child safety, for instance, Irwin said Twitter had shifted toward automatically taking down tweets reported by trusted figures with a track record of accurately flagging harmful posts. In the interview on Thursday, Irwin said Twitter took down about 44,000 accounts involved in child safety violations, in collaboration with cybersecurity group Ghost Data.

[1/3] FILEPHOTO: Executive Chairman of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger arrives at the world premiere for the film 'The King's Man' at Leicester Square in London, Britain December 6, 2021. In his 15 years as Disney chief executive, Iger postponed his retirement four times, sidelining would-be successors. read more Part of his mandate, according to Disney, is to work with the board to develop a successor to lead the company. Chapek was among a shortlist of internal candidates vying for Iger's job, according to a source familiar with discussions. Another seen as a top contender was Kevin Mayer, Disney's longtime head of strategic planning who had shepherded the successful launch of Disney+, according to sources.

He will replace Bob Chapek, who took over as Disney CEO in February 2020 just as the COVID-19 pandemic led to park closures and visitor restrictions. Disney disappointed investors this month with an earnings report that showed mounting losses at its streaming media unit that includes Disney+. [1/2] Executive Chairman of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger arrives at the world premiere for the film 'The King's Man' at Leicester Square in London, Britain December 6, 2021. Disney did not respond to a request for comment on Trian and Trian did not respond to a request for comment. During his tenure, Disney made several key acquisitions, including Pixar Animation Studios, Marvel Entertainment and 21st Century Fox, and boosted its market capitalization five-fold.

☆ 'Toxic Twitter' activists ramp up pressure on brands after Trump account reinstated
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-21 | by ( Sheila Dang | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The groups in the Stop Toxic Twitter coalition complained that Musk had vowed to advertisers that Twitter would take a considered approach to reinstating banned accounts and convene a new content moderation council. Twitter began reinstating banned or suspended accounts late last week including the comedian Kathy Griffin as well as Trump. The platform also reinstated the personal Twitter account of U.S. House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Monday. Major brands HBO and Mondelez were Twitter's top two advertisers in the week before the acquisition, according to data from Pathmatics. Pathmatics data showed that the top 100 advertisers between Nov. 10 to Nov. 16 spent an estimated $23.6 million on Twitter, down from $24.

[1/2] Executive Chairman of the Walt Disney Company, Bob Iger arrives at the world premiere for the film 'The King's Man' at Leicester Square in London, Britain December 6, 2021. REUTERS/Hannah McKayLOS ANGELES, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Former Walt Disney Co (DIS.N) Chief Executive Bob Iger is returning to the media company as CEO less than a year after he retired, a surprise appointment that comes as the entertainment company struggles to turn its streaming TV services into a profitable business. Iger, who retired last year after 15 years as chief executive, has agreed to serve as CEO for two more years, Disney said in a statement late on Sunday. He will replace Bob Chapek, who took over as Disney CEO in February 2020. Iger exited Disney on a high note as the company led the entertainment industry's battle against Netflix (NFLX.O) in the streaming wars.

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