(Brands & Consumers)
It feels as if every day brings new price changes from Tesla TSLA –0.65% . Investors are getting used to them. The bigger deal now is the electric-vehicle company’s first-quarter gross profit margins are due to be reported in just a few days. Reuters reported that Tesla cut prices for its electric vehicles in Europe…
Analysts believe that the recent ban and Google restrictions on loan apps’ ability to access customers’ data will have a significant impact on digital lending platforms that rely on accessing customers’ contacts and photos to determine creditworthiness and recover loans. As reported on Independent, the affected platforms will now have to explore alternative ways of…
Amazon wants investors to know it won’t be left behind in the latest Big Tech arms race over artificial intelligence. In a letter to shareholders Thursday, Amazon (AMZN) CEO Andy Jassy said the company is “investing heavily” in large language models (LLMs) and generative AI, the same technology that underpins ChatGPT and other similar AI…
Police have arrested a self-described tech entrepreneur over the fatal stabbing in San Francisco of Cash App founder Bob Lee. As reported on BBC, the suspect is 38-year-old Nima Momeni from Emeryville, California. Mr Lee and Mr Momeni knew each other, police said. According to a LinkedIn profile for Momeni, he is a technology consultant…
Olalekan Jacob Ponle, known as Woodberry, has pleaded guilty to wire fraud. He also agreed to forfeit $8 million in proceeds of wire fraud as well as luxury cars and watches to the foreign government. Woodberry, a known associate of the now-imprisoned internet fraudster, Ramon Abbas, better known as Hushpuppi, recently in a plea declaration…
Walmart plans to close half its stores in Chicago, a reversal of the retail giant’s high-profile commitment in 2020 to expand in the city as part of its corporate racial justice initiative in the wake of George Floyd’s murder by police. Walmart announced that next week it will close four poor-performing stores out of the…
The Kenyan authorities have penalised an online lender $3,700 (£3,400) over allegations of intruding and sharing customers’ personal data. It followed complaints lodged against it by users over personal data breaches. The Office of Data Protection said it received close to 150 complaints against Whitepath Ltd, alleging the lender’s mobile app was mining phone contacts…
PepsiCo fully launched its Tesla Semi fleet recently, giving the world a sneak peek at its sustainable class-8 trucks. PepsiCo recently unveiled its Tesla Semi fleet for its Sacramento facility, taking a step closer to reaching its sustainability goals. PepsiCo stated that its Tesla Semi fleet was made possible through a grant by Sacramento’s air…
Twitter Inc is no longer an independent company after it was merged with a shell company called X Corp. A court filing revealed that Twitter no longer exists legally and billionaire Elon Musk’s X Corp has absorbed it. As reported on Independent, a court document submitted in a California court on April 4 suggested that…
Vince McMahon has sold WWE to Endeavor, but he’s still set to earn big money from his role within the company. As reported on Give Me Sport, McMahon is remaining with WWE, despite the merger with UFC, and will continue to serve as the Executive Chairman of the wrestling giant. Vince’s new salary with WWE…
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of popular microblogging company Twitter, Elon Musk, has changed the company’s logo from “doge” meme back to its former classic blue bird logo. The company also removed the “w” in the company’s name at its headquarters in San Francisco.Confirming the changes, Musk on his Twitter account said he would like…
Elon Musk’s electric car maker Tesla says it is expanding in China as it builds a new factory to make its large-scale batteries. The plant in Shanghai will be able to produce 10,000 of its “Megapack” energy storage units a year, the firm says. A Megapack is a very large battery that can be used…
A California Tesla owner on Friday sued the electric carmaker in a prospective class action lawsuit accusing it of violating the privacy of customers. The lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California came after Reuters reported on Thursday that groups of Tesla employees privately shared via an internal messaging system…
The State University System of Florida Board of Governors has banned the social media app TikTok, along with some other software, applications, and developers, from use on university-owned devices “due to the continued and increasing landscape of cyber threats.” In a memo sent to state university system presidents on Wednesday, Chancellor Ray Rodrigues said, “This…
Tesla cut prices in the United States between 2% and nearly 6%, its website showed on Thursday, as the company extends a discount drive on its electric vehicles that analysts caution could hurt profitability. As reported on CNN, the fifth such cut in Tesla’s largest market since the start of the year comes as the…
No one at Donda Academy was allowed to wear Adidas or Nike, two former staff members of the school alleged in a new lawsuit. Teachers and students were “required to wear all black from head to toe,” the former staffers allege, adding that the black clothing must have been issued or designed by Ye, the…
Food and beverage giant PepsiCo is incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) into its processes for tracking consumer demand and new product development, helping the company boost its sales and bring new products to consumers faster. PepsiCo Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer Athina Kanioura joined the company in 2020 and began integrating AI into the company’s various…
The U.S. Internal Revenue Service plans to hire nearly 30,000 new employees and deploy new technology over the next two years as it ramps up an $80 billion investment plan to improve tax enforcement and customer service. The tax agency, in its long-awaited Strategic Operating Plan, said it will obligate about $8.64 billion of the…
Shares of Airbnb Inc fell as much as 6% on Thursday after an online independent publication released a report that probed unpleasant experiences that customers had during stays booked through the short-term rental platform. According to The Bear Cave report, horror incidents of guests staying at individually managed Airbnbs abound on the internet, including surprise…
Jennifer Lopez has launched her new low-calorie alcohol line called Delola. The famous singer and entrepreneur took to social media to post a video promoting her new product. According to Delola’s portfolio, the brand will feature Bella Berry Spritz, Paloma Rosa Spritz and L’Orange Spritz flavors “I just wanted to create something better tasting, better…
The fortune of Bernard Arnault, the world’s richest person, has topped $200bn for the first time as shares in his French LVMH luxury goods empire hit a record high. The 74-year-old has become only the third person in history to amass an estimated fortune above the $200bn (£160bn) threshold. Tesla’s Elon Musk and Amazon’s Jeff…
Things are cooking for Apple CEO Tim Cook. Emerging from a slow fiscal quarter due to slowing tech product demand and a sluggish economy, Apple is continuing to push for cost-cutting measures. The latest: eliminating jobs across its development and preservation teams, the corporate retail division that oversees the maintenance and construction of Apple stores….
Seven Nigerians have been named among Forbes’s 30 Under 30 newest self-made young African innovators. Forbes is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family, with a particular focus on business, technology, communications, science, politics, and law. The 2023 thirty young African innovators’ names were published on the Forbes…
Bob Lee, founder of mobile payment service Cash App, has been stabbed to death in San Francisco on Tuesday morning, according to reports. Lee, 43, was reported to have been attacked in the city’s downtown Rincon Hill neighborhood at 2:35 a.m., according to San Francisco police. Officers arrived to find the tech mogul with multiple…
Australia has joined other Western countries in banning the use of TikTok on government devices as the Chinese-owned video app comes under increasing pressure over claims it presents a security concern. Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus announced the ban on Tuesday after receiving advice from intelligence and security agencies, saying the directive would be imposed “as soon…
A jury ordered Tesla to pay over $3 million Monday in a racial discrimination case brought by a former employee of its assembly plant in Fremont, California. As reported on CNN, the case was brought by Owen Diaz, who worked as an elevator operator at the plant. He reported he regularly heard racial slurs, including…
Gris Dior, a gender-neutral fragrance launched a decade ago under the La Collection Privée for Christian Dior, has unveiled a new campaign featuring a diverse ensemble of artists. The perfume now bears a new celebrity face – South African actor and two-time International Emmy nominee Thuso Mbedu. View this post on Instagram A post shared…
Twitter’s traditional bird icon was booted and replaced with an image of a Shiba Inu, an apparent nod to dogecoin, the joke cryptocurrency that CEO Elon Musk is being sued over. As reported on CNN, Musk addressed the change, tweeting, “as promised” above an image of a year-old conversation in which another user suggested that…
The New York Times has lost its blue tick on Twitter after it said it would not pay to remain verified. As reported on BBC, Twitter has started removing verification badges from accounts which already had a blue tick, after announcing they would be part of a paid subscription from 1 April. The New York…
McDonald’s is closing its U.S. offices and telling U.S. and some international staff to work remotely between Monday and Wednesday as the fast food giant prepares for layoffs. As reported on Fortune, the company made the request in an internal email last week, reports the Wall Street Journal. It also asked employees to cancel all…
Despite the world’s love of olive oil, people have been leery of Starbucks’ Oleato line from the start. When the olive oil drinks were only available in Italy, many people were already complaining of an appalling top layer of oil. So, naturally, Starbucks bringing its olive oil coffee to the U.S. just made matters worse….
World Wrestling Entertainment has been sold to Endeavor Group, the parent company of competitor UFC, to form a new publicly traded company. The newly combined company has a value of $21 billion. Endeavor shareholders will own 51% of the newly combined company, while WWE shareholders are getting 49%. WWE (WWE) and UFC (EDR) will be…
It is one of China’s most popular shopping apps, selling clothing, groceries and just about everything else under the sun to more than 750 million users a month. But according to cybersecurity researchers, it can also bypass users’ cell phone security to monitor activities on other apps, check notifications, read private messages and change settings….
Tesla reported a modest 4% rise in sales in the first quarter compared to the final three months of last year, despite a series of price cuts on its lower priced vehicles and talk by CEO Elon Musk about strong demand at those lower prices. As reported on CNN, the first quarter also marked the…
Technology stocks are perennially one of the hottest areas of the stock market. Investors closely follow this sector because of its track record of scorching returns and the potential for more in the future. So it can be worth keeping an eye on tech stocks and tracking the hot performers. While a list of best…
Twitter has been bleeding advertisers since Elon Musk took over, with several high-profile companies pausing promotions on the platform. According to a report by Bloomberg, last year, from September to October, the top advertisers on Twitter spent $71 million on ads. However, during the previous two months, that figure dropped to $7.6 million, a decline…
Half of Americans support a US government ban on TikTok, while 22% oppose the idea and more than a quarter are unsure, according to a Pew Research Center survey released. The survey results — collected in the days before and after TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified before Congress on March 23 — highlight the company’s…
Spikes in car thefts of certain Hyundai and Kia models, a trend that began in the American midwest and was spread by how-to videos on social media, has reached America’s biggest city. As reported on CNN, about 100 of these particularly vulnerable Hyundai and Kia vehicles were stolen in the month of December alone in…
Virgin Orbit — the rocket company founded by British billionaire Richard Branson — is laying off the vast majority of its workforce as company leadership struggles to secure additional funding. As reported on CNN, about 675 employees will be terminated by April 3, according to a public document filed Thursday, amounting to around 85% of…
An oil and chemical tanker hijacked in the Gulf of Guinea has been located off the coast of Sao Tome and Principe, but part of the crew has been kidnapped, its owners said on Friday. The Danish-owned Liberian-flagged Monjasa Reformer disappeared after pirates boarded it over the weekend. The ship was 140 nautical miles off…
A pink diamond of “unparalleled color and brightness” is expected to fetch over $35 million when it goes on sale in New York, auction house Sotheby’s announced Wednesday. Weighing 10.57 carats and named The Eternal Pink, the “ultra-rare” gemstone will go under the hammer this June, four years after South African firm De Beers discovered…
As many as 300 million full-time jobs around the world could be automated in some way by the newest wave of artificial intelligence that has spawned platforms like ChatGPT, according to Goldman Sachs economists. They predicted in a report Sunday that 18% of work globally could be computerized, with the effects felt more deeply in…
China and Brazil have reached a deal to trade in their own currencies, ditching the United States dollar as an intermediary, the Brazilian government said on Wednesday. As reported on The Straits Times, the deal, Beijing’s latest salvo against the almighty greenback, will enable China, the top rival to US economic hegemony, and Brazil, the…
Sportswear maker Adidas on Wednesday reversed course 48 hours after asking the U.S. Trademark Office to reject a Black Lives Matter application for a trademark featuring three parallel stripes. “Adidas will withdraw its opposition to the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation’s trademark application as soon as possible,” the company said in a statement, without…
While Disney may be the happiest place on earth in the hearts and minds of many people, the business itself is not having such a happy week. As reported on THE STREET, CEO Bob Iger sent an email to employees on March 27 to let them know that the planned layoffs (previously announced in February)…
Amazon is reportedly weighing the purchase of AMC Entertainment and its nationwide chain of movie theaters as a means of promoting Amazon’s content and other services. The Intersect reported that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has tasked his team of investment advisers and entertainment chiefs with exploring plans to acquire AMC and its chain of nearly…
As the days pass, the production start date of the Cybertruck approaches. As reported on The Street, this futuristic pickup truck developed by Tesla (TSLA) is undoubtedly the most anticipated vehicle of the last decade. No vehicle had generated so much excitement, fueled in part by thundering statements from Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, and…
Marking 36 years since the release of the Tinker Hatfield-designed Air Max 1, Nike (NYSE:NKE +0.05%) continues to curate memorable cultural moments for its global Air Max Day celebrations. In hand with being the world’s tallest tower, Dubai’s iconic Burj Khalifa doubles up as a supersize billboard — year-after-year hosting prolific experiences. This time the…
Investors withdrew $1.6 billion of cryptocurrency from crypto exchange Binance since it was sued by the U.S. CFTC on Monday, blockchain data tracker Nansen said on Wednesday. The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) sued Binance – the world’s biggest crypto exchange – along with its CEO and former top compliance executive, alleging that they…
Elon Musk and a group of artificial intelligence experts and industry executives are calling for a six-month pause in developing systems more powerful than OpenAI’s newly launched GPT-4, in an open letter citing potential risks to society and humanity. Earlier this month, Microsoft-backed OpenAI unveiled the fourth iteration of its GPT (Generative Pre-trained Transformer) AI…
