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☆ U.S. threatens TikTok ban if Chinese owners don't sell stake - WSJ
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 15 (Reuters) - The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) is asking TikTok's Chinese owners to sell their stakes in the short-form video app or face a possible ban in the United States, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Branson's Virgin Orbit to pause ops, furlough nearly all employees - source
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-15 | by ( Joey Roulette | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 15 (Reuters) - Richard Branson's Virgin Orbit (VORB.O) on Wednesday said it was pausing all operations from March 16 and a source familiar with the matter told Reuters that the satellite launch company was also furloughing nearly all of its employees. Chief Executive Dan Hart told staff in a meeting that the furlough was intended to buy Virgin Orbit time to finalize a new investment plan to help pull the company out of its financial woes, according to the source, who attended the meeting. The duration of the furlough was unclear, but Hart said he would provide employees an update by the middle of next week on when they could return, the source said. In a statement to Reuters, the company confirmed the operational pause but it did not give details on the furloughs. Last month, Virgin Orbit said it was investigating the failure of its mission in January to deploy nine small satellites into lower Earth orbit (LEO) from the coastal town of Newquay in southwest England.

☆ NASA awards Firefly Aerospace $112 mln contract for far-side moon lander
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 14 (Reuters) - NASA on Tuesday said it had picked U.S. rocket builder Firefly Aerospace to put a lander on the moon's far side in 2026, under a nearly $112 million contract. "The commercial lander will deliver two agency payloads, as well as communication and data relay satellite for lunar orbit, which is an ESA (European Space Agency) collaboration with NASA," the U.S. space agency said. NASA handed a similar award of $73 million to spacecraft software firm Draper last year to deliver science and technology payloads to the far side of the moon in 2025. NASA awarded Cedar Park, Texas-based Firefly $93.3 million in 2021 to carry a suite of 10 science investigations and technology demonstrations to the moon in 2023. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ French regulators lift ban on online marketplace Wish
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 14 (Reuters) - ContextLogic Inc (WISH.O) said on Tuesday that France had lifted the ban on its e-commerce marketplace, Wish, after it was delisted from search engines and app stores over concerns about product safety. France's General Directorate for Competition Policy, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) banned the U.S.-based firm's listings in November 2021 on grounds that it had found a large proportion of products on the Wish site to be dangerous. "France is an important market to us, and we look forward to a continued partnership with DGCCRF in the future," Wish's compliance chief, Joanna Forster, said in a statement. The company said users will now be able to download the Wish app from Google's Play Store while it will be restored on Apple's App Store in the coming days. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ TikTok mulls splitting from ByteDance if proposal with U.S. fails - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 14 (Reuters) - Short video app TikTok's management is considering the possibility of separating from parent firm, China's ByteDance, to help address U.S. concerns about national security risks, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. A divestiture, which could result in a sale or initial public offering, is considered a last resort, and to be pursued only if the company's existing proposal with U.S. national security officials does not get approved, Bloomberg reported. TikTok is undergoing a national security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States and it agreed last year to implement a number of measures to address U.S. officials' security concerns. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika SyamnathOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Meta to wind down NFTs on platforms amid crypto bust
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 13 (Reuters) - Meta Platforms Inc (META.O) is cutting off support for digital collectibles or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) on its platforms less than a year after rolling it out, as the crypto market continues to spiral. "We're winding down digital collectibles (NFTs) for now to focus on other ways to support creators, people, and businesses," the social media firm's fintech head, Stephane Kasriel, tweeted on Monday. But bitcoin and other tokens took a beating in late 2022 after major exchange FTX crashed into sudden bankruptcy. "We'll continue investing in fintech tools that people and businesses will need for the future. We're streamlining payments w/ Meta Pay, making checkout and payouts easier, and investing in messaging payments across Meta," Kasriel said.

☆ BuzzFeed says most of cash and cash equivalents held at SVB
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 13 (Reuters) - BuzzFeed Inc (BZFD.O) said on Monday that most of its cash and cash equivalents were held at Silicon Valley Bank (SIVB.O), which was shut down last week. The digital media firm said it had about $56 million in cash and cash equivalents at the end of 2022. It expects first-quarter overall revenue in the range of $61 million to $67 million. BuzzFeed reported revenue of $91.6 million for the same period last year. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Devika Syamnath and Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Oracle misses third-quarter revenue estimates as cloud demand staggers
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 9 (Reuters) - Oracle Corp (ORCL.N) missed quarterly revenue estimates on Thursday, as businesses slowed down IT spending against the backdrop of a sobering economic outlook. Back-to-office and hybrid work have pushed up demand for the company's suite of cloud software, especially from large businesses. However, Oracle has yet to find its footing in the booming cloud services market dominated by tech heavyweights Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) and Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O). A stronger dollar and rising costs have prompted companies to be more cautious about their spending, further slowing demand for Oracle's software. Oracle's net income fell to $1.89 billion, or 68 cents per share, in the quarter, from $2.32 billion, or 84 cents per share, a year earlier.

☆ US FTC asked Twitter for details on Musk's internal communications -House report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The FTC has sent more than a dozen letters to Twitter and its lawyers since Musk's takeover in October. The FTC also wants Musk to testify in connection with the probe, the Wall Street Journal reported. "There is no logical reason why the FTC, on the basis of user privacy, needs to analyze all of Twitter's personnel decisions. And there is no logical reason why the FTC needs every single internal Twitter communication about Elon Musk," the report said. Twitter in May agreed to pay a fine of $150 million to settle allegations that it misused private information, and also improve its compliance practices.

☆ Uber explores logistics unit sale, IPO - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 8 (Reuters) - Uber Technologies Inc (UBER.N) is exploring whether to spin off its Uber Freight logistics unit in a sale or as a separate publicly traded firm, Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. If the company lands on an IPO, it may not happen until next year and will depend on market conditions, the report added. Uber launched the freight division in 2017 and acquired logistics firm Transplace in 2021 for $2.25 billion. Uber Freight connects truckers with shippers, acting as a middle-man in the long-haul trucking business. In January, the division said it would lay off roughly 150 employees, or about 3% of its workforce.

☆ Spotify listeners cross half a billion mark
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 8 (Reuters) - Spotify Technology SA (SPOT.N) said on Wednesday it would roll out new features like smart shuffle and previews of podcasts and music playlists on its audio streaming platform, as it crossed 500 million in monthly active listeners. Spotify also shared an update to its annual music royalties report, noting that the number of artists making over $1 million as well as those generating over $10,000 had more than doubled in the past five years. Earlier this year, Spotify said it would tighten spending and work to become efficient given the tough macroeconomic backdrop and projected the number of listeners would reach 500 million in the current quarter. Features like autoplay for podcasts, personalized visual and audio previews of podcast episodes and audiobooks or music playlists, and new feeds for discovery will be rolled out in waves starting Wednesday, Spotify said. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju SamuelOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Recession worries used to be bad for bank stocks. Not anymore
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Anna Cooban | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

London CNN —Investors are bucking tradition this year by piling into big bank stocks just as major economies are expected to either slow down or fall into recession. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that interest rates would rise more than people anticipated. European bank stocks have risen particularly sharply in the past six months. “As those worries have unwound, European banks have done particularly well.”No ‘hidden skeletons’But European economies are still fragile. When economic activity slows down, bank stocks are typically among those hit hardest.

☆ U.S. FTC asked Twitter for details on Musk's internal communications - House report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The FTC sent more than a dozen letters to Twitter and its lawyers since Musk's takeover in October. The FTC is also looking to get Musk to testify in connection with the probe, the Wall Street Journal reported. "There is no logical reason why the FTC, on the basis of user privacy, needs to analyze all of Twitter's personnel decisions. And there is no logical reason why the FTC needs every single internal Twitter communication about Elon Musk," the report said. Twitter in May agreed to pay a fine of $150 million to settle allegations that it misused private information, and also improve its compliance practices.

☆ U.S. FTC asks Twitter for details on Musk's internal communications, layoffs - WSJ
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The FTC sent 12 letters to Twitter and its lawyers since Musk's takeover in October. It also asked the company to "identify all journalists" who were granted access to company records and to provide information about the launch of the revamped Twitter Blue subscription service, the report said. The FTC is also looking to get Musk to testify in connection with the probe, the WSJ reported. Twitter, the FTC and Musk did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Tesla's next generation smaller car to operate mostly autonomously-Musk
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 7 (Reuters) - Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk on Tuesday said that the next generation small car the company is working on would operate mostly in autonomous mode, similar to a promise he made in 2020. On Tuesday he said there was a clear path to delivering a car that cost half as much to build as Tesla's Model 3 sedan, but he offered no details about timing or models. At the 2020 event, Musk said he was "confident" that Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) would make a small, compelling $25,000 electric car that was fully autonomous, within about three years. Reporting By Hyunjoo Jin, Sheila Dang, Krystal Hu and Eva Mathews; writing by Peter HendersonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Intel wants $5 bln more in German subsidies for chip plant - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 7 (Reuters) - Intel Corp (INTC.O) is seeking an additional 4 billion to 5 billion euros ($5.28 billion) in subsidies from the German government to build a chip manufacturing complex in the country, Bloomberg News reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The initial spending was then estimated to total 33 billion euros, including 17 billion euros in Germany. However, Bloomberg News reported Intel now expects to spend 30 billion euros on its project in Germany. Intel was expecting roughly 40% of its Germany project to be subsidized, under the EU's Chips Act, but is now also open to other sources of government aid including tax breaks or energy subsidies, the report added. The expansion in Ireland and France, meanwhile, remains largely on track, the people told Bloomberg News.

☆ Embark shares tank as autonomous trucking firm mulls 'shutting down completely'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Investors and industry watchers have also been concerned about billions of dollars that have been poured into the self-driving technology sector in a short span of time to commercialize it. "Over the next handful of weeks, we will work closely with the Embark Board of Directors to evaluate our options, including selling assets, restructuring the company or shutting down completely." Embark went public in 2021 through a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) deal and is backed by Mubadala Capital, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global Management. The company expects to incur charges of $7 million to $11 million related to the workforce reduction, which spans about 230 employees. Shares of Embark closed down 32.8% lower at $2.56 on Monday, giving the firm a market capitalization of $60 million, compared with the over $5 billion in market value when it went public.

☆ Rivian stands by 2023 production target despite media report
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The 62,000 figure was said in an internal meeting and was taken out of context, the Rivian spokesperson said. Bloomberg later said that the figure was given at an all- hands meeting as part of a "production master plan" for the year. The Rivian spokesperson declined to comment on the context in which the number was given or about a company master plan. The company cited persistent supply-chain snarls sparked by the pandemic and bad weather that hampered production, adding it expected the issues to continue through 2023. Shares of Rivian closed up 7.6% at $16.92 on Friday after rising more than 11% on the Bloomberg report.

☆ Rivian sticks to 50,000 vehicle production target for 2023
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Rivian Automotive Inc (RIVN.O) on Friday said it was sticking to its official production forecast of 50,000 vehicles in 2023. A company spokesperson said that comments about 62,000 vehicles, reported by Bloomberg, were from an internal meeting and taken out of context. Earlier this week, Rivian said it aimed to produce 50,000 cars this year, below analysts' estimate of 67,170 units, according to Visible Alpha. Reporting by Abhirup Roy in San Francisco and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli and Bill BerkrotOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Moody's downgrades Silvergate's rating after going concern warning
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Global ratings agency Moody's downgraded Silvergate Capital Corp's (SI.N) deposit rating to 'Caa1' from 'Ba3' on Friday, after the crypto-focused bank raised going concern doubts earlier this week. Cryptocurrency heavyweights including Coinbase Global Inc (COIN.O) and Galaxy Digital have subsequently dropped Silvergate as their banking partner. Moody's said the Silvergate rating change reflects its "expectation that the company will continue to experience further declines in deposits, forcing it to continue selling securities, potentially at further losses." The bank's ratings were also placed on review for downgrade, Moody's said. Reporting by Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Shinjini GanguliOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Amazon delays construction of second phase of Virginia headquarters
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Amazon had earlier said the Virginia headquarters, a multi-year investment dubbed 'HQ2', would create 25,000 jobs. John Schoettler, Amazon's real estate chief, said in a statement on Friday the company was pushing out the date for groundbreaking of PenPlace, the second phase of the northern Virginia campus. Met Park comprises of two 22-story office buildings with 2.1 million square feet of office space, and a two-acre public park. Earlier this year, Amazon announced it would eliminate more than 18,000 roles, in one of its largest layoffs in history. However, the delay in construction would not mean any elimination in jobs, Amazon said.

☆ Apple cloud chief Abbott to step down in April - Bloomberg News
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Apple Inc's (AAPL.O) head of cloud services Michael Abbott is leaving the company in April, Bloomberg News reported on Friday citing people familiar with the matter. The iPhone maker did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Abbott, who joined Apple in 2018, is in charge of the iCloud service and the platform that powers features such as Emergency SOS and Find My on iPhones. Reporting by Leroy Leo and Eva Mathews in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra EluriOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Health Insurers Square Off With Biden Administration Over Medicare Payments
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Anna Wilde Mathews | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Health insurers are tussling with the Biden administration over a proposal that could curtail federal payments for some private Medicare plans, a high-stakes issue for the industry because the business represents a growth engine. In a continuing effort that included a Super Bowl ad, insurers and their allies argue that the administration plans a payment cut next year for the popular health plans, which are known as Medicare Advantage. The tagline for the commercial, from the industry-backed Better Medicare Alliance, was “Tell the White House: Don’t cut Medicare Advantage.” The group has also rallied Medicare Advantage enrollees to call members of Congress, and it has set up a site at dontcutmedicareadvantage.com.

☆ Dell's tepid outlook casts pall over strong quarter
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] A Dell laptop is seen for sale in a store in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., November 24, 2021. Meanwhile, revenue from the commercial and consumer units, which indicate PC demand, was down 17% and 40%, respectively. Dell forecast first-quarter revenue to decline between 17% and 21%. Dell's full-year profit and revenue forecast also disappointed Wall Street even as the lifting of lockdowns in China was expected to ease supply chain pressures and reduce component and freight costs. Separately, Dell said Chief Financial Officer Tom Sweet would retire by the end of its fiscal second quarter, and named company veteran Yvonne McGill as his successor.

☆ Factbox: TikTok's Chinese ownership, security concerns spark bans across nations
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/IllustrationFeb 28 (Reuters) - The White House has set a 30-day deadline for U.S. government agencies to remove Chinese-owned social media app TikTok from all federal devices and systems. AfghanistanIs in talks to ban TikTok and video game PUBG, with the Taliban claiming those were leading Afghan youths "astray." U.S. Congress passed a bill in December 2022 to ban TikTok on federal devices. U.S. Educational InstitutionsBoise State University, University of Oklahoma, University of Texas-Austin, and West Texas A&M University are some of the schools to ban TikTok on university devices and Wi-Fi networks. European CommissionThe European Union's executive arm, the European Commission, has issued an order to ban the use of popular Chinese app TikTok on its staff's phones due to cybersecurity concerns.

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