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☆ UK man pleads guilty to Twitter hack that compromised accounts of Joe Biden, Elon Musk
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

An image of new Twitter owner Elon Musk is seen surrounded by Twitter logos in this photo illustration in Warsaw, Poland on 08 November, 2022. LONDON — A U.K. man pleaded guilty to helping orchestrate a high-profile hack on the Twitter accounts of numerous celebrities and politicians including Elon Musk, Joe Biden and Kanye West. Combined, the charges carry a maximum sentence of 77 years, the Justice Department said. "O'Connor communicated with others regarding purchasing unauthorized access to a variety of Twitter accounts, including accounts associated with public figures around the world," the Justice Department said Wednesday. "A number of Twitter accounts targeted by O'Connor were subsequently transferred away from their rightful owners.

O'Connor pleaded guilty to charges including conspiring to commit computer intrusions, to commit wire fraud and to commit money laundering. O'Connor, who was extradited to the U.S. on April 26, will also forfeit more than $794,000 and pay restitution to victims, prosecutors said. Prosecutors said the schemes included gaining unauthorized access to social media accounts on Twitter in July 2020 as well as a TikTok account in August 2020. The July 2020 Twitter attack hijacked a variety of verified accounts, including those of then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) CEO Elon Musk, who now owns Twitter. The alleged hacker used the accounts to solicit digital currency, prompting Twitter to prevent some verified accounts from publishing messages for several hours until security could be restored.

☆ A major Adidas shareholder is demanding answers over the company's tumultuous relationship with Kanye West
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-09 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Adidas cut ties with Kanye West after his antisemitic rant last October. The company began an investigation into his behavior towards Yeezy staff last November. And now a top investor will urge Adidas to reveal the results in an annual meeting, the FT reported. According to Rolling Stone, West would scream and throw books across a room in 2020 as Yeezy staff said they feared for their wellbeing. Werning will urge Adidas to share the investigation's results "here and now" and demand the company "transparently clean up the scandal," the FT reported.

☆ Adidas’s New CEO Shows Good Form
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Jinjoo Lee | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Adidas Chief Executive Bjørn Gulden joined in January after the company suffered some major injuries. Photo: Marco Rosi/Getty ImagesAdidas ’s new chief executive officer, Bjørn Gulden , can’t quite hit the ground running yet, but his first move—setting a low bar—is turning out to be a pretty solid strategy for the company’s stock. These are still early days for the new CEO, who joined in January after the company suffered some major injuries: The fallout with Chinese consumers in 2021 from a dust-up over Xinjiang forced-labor allegations, and then a breakup with Kanye West last year. Mr. Gulden called 2023 a year of transition before the company can hit its stride again. One key goal is to reduce inventories—especially the piles of Yeezy products that Adidas has left over from its terminated partnership with Mr. West—and to lower discounts.

☆ Adidas shares gain on earnings but CEO warns of ‘bumpy year’ after end of Yeezy deal
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Losing the highly profitable Yeezy line hit sales in the quarter by around 400 million euros ($441 million), Adidas said, mainly denting revenue across North America, Greater China and Europe, Middle East and Africa. CEO Bjorn Gulden told reporters Adidas has narrowed down the options for the shoes, and it is getting closer to a decision. Quarterly operating profit of 60 million euros ($66 million) beat analyst expectations of 15 million euros. North America was the worst hit by the loss of Yeezy, with currency-neutral sales down 20% from last year. The “terrace” shoe style is doing well in all markets, and Adidas has started to make more Samba, Gazelle, and Campus shoes, Gulden said.

☆ Adidas still doesn't know what to do with its $1.3 billion mountain of unsold Yeezy stock, 6 months after cutting ties with Kanye West
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Mary Hanbury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Adidas doesn't know what to do with its mountain of Yeezy stock. The company cut ties with Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, in October after a string of controversies, including numerous antisemitic comments. Adidas said it has already factored a 1.2 billion euro ($1.3 billion), sales loss into its annual guidance if it were not to sell the stock. "You cannot sell Yeezy for reputational risk reasons. Experts say that way around this could be to deface these products before donation to curb their resale value, though it would cost Adidas more.

☆ Adidas runs harder, but also stands still
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

That beat analyst expectations of 15 million euros, and was aided by double digit sales growth in Latin America and Asia. The good cheer partly reflects the low expectations of Adidas’s investors. They hold shares worth about half their mid-2021 level, and while sales globally didn’t fall 4% as forecast, they still dipped 1% year-on-year. Meanwhile, CEO Bjorn Gulden has to decide what to do with stacks of Yeezy trainers in storage ever since the company severed ties with the musician. Although certain products like Gazelle and Sambo are doing well, the 40% margins on Yeezy sales were ten times Adidas’s overall level.

☆ Adidas quarterly sales beat expectations despite Yeezy crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Yeezy crisis hit sales in the reported quarter by around 400 million euros ($441.56 million), Adidas said, mainly affecting revenue across the North America, Greater China and EMEA regions. North America was the worst hit by the Yeezy debacle, with currency-neutral sales down 20% from last year. Sales in Greater China fell by 9%, while EMEA sales increased 4%. Adidas reported an operating profit of 60 million euros, beating analysts' expectations of 15 million euros. Its gross margin fell to 44.8% due to the loss of Yeezy sales, higher supply chain costs and discounts.

☆ Adidas expects bumpy year despite sales beating forecast
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-05 | by ( Helen Reid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Shannon StapletonLONDON, May 5 (Reuters) - Adidas (ADSGn.DE) on Friday forecast "a bumpy year with disappointing numbers" ahead after a dip in first quarter sales for the German sportswear giant. Despite the 1% sales drop, operating profit of 60 million euros ($66 million) beat analyst expectations of 15 million euros for the company, which last year ended a partnership with Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Losing the highly profitable Yeezy line hit sales in the quarter by around 400 million euros, Adidas said, mainly hitting revenue across North America, Greater China and EMEA. Sales were 5.274 billion euros, down from 5.302 billion euros in the first quarter of 2022. Adidas' gross margin fell to 44.8% due to the loss of Yeezy sales, higher supply chain costs and discounts.

☆ As sales decline, Adidas faces pressure to find Yeezy fix
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Helen Reid | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Gulden in March said the company could donate the proceeds of the Yeezy sale to charities, but Adidas has given no updates since. The Anti-Defamation League, an international Jewish non-governmental organisation based in New York, told Reuters it "stands ready and prepared to work with Adidas". The American Jewish Committee met with Adidas executives in December to discuss their commitment to reject antisemitism. Shareholders want Adidas to draw a line under the Yeezy episode and develop ways to reboot the brand. "Being successful with Yeezy probably made Adidas lazy on finding other growth drivers," said Cedric Rossi, nextgen consumer analyst at Bryan Garnier in Paris.

☆ The creator of a viral AI-generated Drake song says it's scary how easy it was to make the music sound real
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

A student behind some popular AI-generated music says it was easy to make the songs sound real. A student behind some of the popular AI-generated music on TikTok discussed how easy it was to make the songs sound real. Chavez has been going viral on TikTok for his AI-generated music over the last few months. Chavez runs acapella versions of songs through AI models that are trained to sound like famous musicians, The Verge reported. Another viral AI-generated song, "Heart on My Sleeve," which mimicked Drake and The Weeknd, went viral last month.

☆ Investors Sue Adidas Over Kanye West Collaboration
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Joseph De Avila | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Kanye West had produced the popular Yeezy collection for Adidas. Photo: Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for AdidasA group of shareholders is suing Adidas AG, alleging the sportswear company failed to warn investors it was aware of Kanye West’s antisemitic remarks and “extreme behavior.”The proposed class-action lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Oregon on Friday, alleges former CEO Kasper Rorsted and Harm Ohlmeyer , the company’s chief financial officer, were involved in disseminating false and misleading statements about Adidas’s relationship with Mr. West, who legally changed his name to Ye.

☆ Adidas sued by shareholders over its failed Ye partnership
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Jordan Valinsky | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

In the lawsuit, filed Friday in a federal court, shareholders allege that Adidas “routinely ignored” his behavior as early as 2018. They claim that senior executives “ignored serious issues” affecting the Yeezy partnership, namely his antisemitic remarks and troubling public comments about slavery. The lawsuit said that Adidas was aware of his behavior and that the company “failed to take meaningful precautionary measures to limit negative financial exposure” if the partnership ended. Adidas (ADDDF) ended its almost decade-long partnership in October 2022 after Ye wore a “White Lives Matter” T-shirt in public. Days later, Ye said “I can say antisemitic s*** and Adidas (ADDDF) cannot drop me” during a podcast taping.

☆ Adidas wants to move on from the Kanye West scandal, but investors are angry and suing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Matthew Kish | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Investors sued Adidas over its failed Kanye West deal, arguing it didn't properly manage the risk. In the lawsuit, investors claimed Adidas "ignored serious issues" with regard to Ye's "extreme behavior," and didn't properly manage the resulting risks, including with inventory. If certified, the lawsuit would proceed on behalf of investors who purchased shares of Adidas between May 3, 2018, and February 21, 2023. In the wake of splitting with Ye, Adidas, under new CEO Bjørn Gulden, is focusing more on sports, including basketball and soccer, as Gulden works to reset the brand. The organization purchased 2,837 shares of Adidas stock in early 2022 for more than $350,000, according to an exhibit attached to the lawsuit.

☆ Adidas wants to 'double down' on U.S. market, regional head tells Wall Street Journal
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

FRANKFURT, April 30 (Reuters) - Adidas (ADSGn.DE), which has come under pressure after ending its lucrative Yeezy shoe partnership with Kanye West, is trying to grab a bigger slice of the U.S. sports market, the group's regional head told the Wall Street Journal. "We want to double down on all of the things that are U.S.-centric, particularly around sport," Rupert Campbell, the company's North America president, was quoted as saying in an interview. Apart from ending the Yeezy collaboration, Adidas has also stopped its Ivy Park collaboration with pop star Beyoncé according to media reports, with the contract set to expire at the end of this year. Talking on the overall U.S. sporting-goods market, the world's biggest, Campbell said: "We have to show our credentials in this space." Reporting by Christoph Steitz; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ A fake AI-generated Travis Scott album was taken off YouTube as the fight against AI music continues
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Will Gendron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

AI Hub is a Discord server housing over 36,000 members making AI music. Members from the group created "UTOP-AI," an AI album featuring the voices of Travis Scott and other artists. "I ain't talking Uber, come take a trip into my mind," croons Travis Scott on a song called "Winter Snow." Warner Music Group and representatives for Travis Scott did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment. The alarm bells sounding off in response to AI music have already been rung by the power players in the industry.

☆ Gap will cut 1,800 corporate jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN —Gap said Thursday that it will lay off 1,800 employees as the struggling retailer looks to cut costs. As of January, Gap had around 95,000 employees globally, and 9% of them were corporate staff. In September, Gap slashed roughly 500 corporate jobs. Dozens of major companies have cut jobs in recent months, including Tyson Foods (TSN), 3M (MMM) and Lyft (LYFT) in April. The slew of widely publicized layoffs comes as the job market begins to slow, following months of historic post-pandemic growth.

☆ Meek Mill: Rapper vows to 'spread the word' against antisemitism after Auschwitz visit
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-23 | by ( Dana Bash | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

One of the most famous marchers was Meek Mill, a 35-year-old African American rapper from Philadelphia without any prior connection to the atrocities that happened there. But at a time of rising antisemitism in the US, his presence spoke volumes, and that was the point. Mill is a friend of New England Patriots owner and philanthropist Robert Kraft, whose Foundation to Combat Antisemitism is in the midst of a $25 million national campaign, #StandUpToJewishHate. When Meek was incarcerated, Kraft visited him in prison, and the two stayed in touch and have remained friends. “But I think it’s also important for me to support Robert, all my Jewish friends, everyone that always supported me.

☆ This reseller's side hustle started as a way to get his family out of debt. Now he's made over $1.4 million on StockX by working around 10 hours a month.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Danni Santana | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Ray Cao began reselling sneakers and apparel at 17 to help get his family out of debt. As a teen, Cao's parents racked up gambling debt and invested in penny stocks that backfired, he told Insider. "What got me into reselling was just being desperate to improve the financial situation for my family," Cao said. Ray CaoReselling on StockX costs more but saves timeA turning point for Cao's business came when StockX asked for a meeting a few years ago. "It's true that you don't make the best money on StockX," Cao said, referring to fees the marketplace charges for orchestrating a sale.

☆ The viral new ‘Drake’ and ‘Weeknd’ song is not what it seems
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —One of the buzziest songs recently circulating on TikTok and climbing the Spotify charts featured the familiar voices of best-selling artists Drake and the Weeknd. But there’s a twist: Drake and the Weeknd appear to have had nothing to do with it. The viral track, “Heart on my Sleeve,” comes from an anonymous TikTok user named Ghostwriter977, who claims to have used artificial intelligence to generate the voices of Drake and the Weeknd for the track. The original TikTok video has seemingly been taken down, and the song has since been removed from streaming services including YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify. Taryn Southern’s debut song “Break Free,” which was composed and produced with AI, hit the Top 100 radio charts back in 2018, and VAVA, an AI music artist (i.e.

☆ Parler Set to Be Shut Down Temporarily by New Owner
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( Sarah E. Needleman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Parler, founded in 2018 and pitched as an alternative to Twitter, has grown in popularity among conservatives. Parler , a social network that was popularized by supporters of former President Donald Trump, has been sold to a buyer that plans to temporarily shut it down. Parent company Parlement Technologies Inc. said Friday it has agreed to sell Parler to digital media company Starboard , months after an acquisition agreement with rapper Kanye West fell apart. The platform will go offline while Starboard, which recently changed its name from Olympic Media, develops a plan to eventually relaunch a revamped version of the site.

☆ Conglomerate Starboard buys Parler, to shut down social media app temporarily
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 14 (Reuters) - Digital media conglomerate Starboard said on Friday it has bought Parler for an undisclosed sum and will temporarily shut down the social media app popular with U.S. conservatives to give itself time to roll out a revamped version of the platform. Starboard, formerly Olympic Media, founded in 2018 houses conservative-leaning platforms American Wire and BizPac Review. The Arlington, Virginia-based conglomerate did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for details on terms of the deal. Parler is one of several social media platforms, from among Gettr, Gab and Truth Social, that have positioned themselves as free-speech alternatives to Twitter Inc prior to its $44 billion acquisition by billionaire and Tesla CEO Elon Musk. "No reasonable person believes that a Twitter clone just for conservatives is a viable business any more," Starboard added.

☆ Elon Musk says he gets 'swarmed' at parties by people wanting to discuss work, and struggles to trust people, reporter who secured rare interview says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Sawdah Bhaimiya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk gave an unexpected interview to the BBC late Tuesday. According to James Clayton, the reporter who spoke to Musk, the billionaire opened up about his personal life. Musk said he's often "swarmed" by people at parties wanting to discuss work, Clayton wrote. Sign up for our newsletter for the latest tech news and scoops — delivered daily to your inbox. Musk spoke with BBC correspondent James Clayton about his $44 billion takeover of Twitter in October and the six months that have followed including the layoffs.

☆ Jordan's 'Last Dance' sneakers sell for record $2.2 mln
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

April 12 (Reuters) - A pair of signed, game-worn Michael Jordan sneakers from the 1998 NBA Finals fetched a record $2.2 million on Tuesday, making them the most valuable sneakers ever sold, auction house Sotheby's said. He went on to win his sixth and final NBA Championship and was named the Finals MVP. Sotheby's said Jordan gifted the sneakers to a Jazz ball boy after the game as thanks for finding a lost jacket. They were the final pair of Breds that Jordan wore in a game. The previous record for a pair of sneakers was held by a pair of Kanye West's Nike Air Yeezy 1s, which Sotheby's sold for $1.8 million in 2021.

☆ Elon Musk says he wouldn't sell Twitter for the amount he paid unless a buyer would 'rigorously pursue the truth'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Elon Musk says he wouldn't sell Twitter unless a buyer was committed to pursuing the truth. In an interview with BBC News, Musk originally said he wouldn't sell the company for $44 billion. He later clarified, saying he would sell to someone who would "rigorously pursue the truth." Even if Musk was willing to sell the platform, Twitter may not still be worth the billions he paid for it. Representatives for Twitter did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment, made outside normal working hours.

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