Plus, Jan. 6 Committee refers former President Donald Trump to DOJ for criminal investigation.
| Part of  Network | |
 |
Elon Musk ran a Twitter poll on Sunday asking his more than 120 million followers on the platform if he should step down from the CEO role. Musk added that he would abide by the result of the poll. In a later tweet, Musk told his followers they should be careful of what they wish as they might get it. More: - More than 17 million users participated in the Twitter poll, with 57.5% voting “yes” that Musk should step down as CEO and 42.5% voting “no.”
- The poll came following pushback on a now reversed Twitter policy where the social media platform said it would ban users and accounts that share the links of rival platforms on Twitter.
- Under the policy, users would be banned from Twitter if they share links to rival platforms like Mastodon, Post, Jack Dorsey’s new venture Nostr, and even Linktree or if they share their usernames for these platforms.
- Musk later apologized for the policy, adding that future major policy changes would be decided through a vote.
- In a later Tweet, Musk said no one who could keep Twitter alive wanted to be CEO of the platform, noting there would be no successor if he stepped down from the role.
- Musk said Twitter has been on a fast lane to bankruptcy since May.
- On Friday, it was reported that Musk is seeking additional funds for Twitter.
- Musk was pictured in Qatar on Sunday at the World Cup finals game between Argentina and France.
| |
Epic Games, the developer of the Fortnite video game, has agreed to pay $520M to settle with the FTC over allegations that the company violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). Epic Games is also accused of tricking users into making unintended purchases. More: - Epic Games will pay two fines: a $245M fine against Fortnite’s in-game store and refund systems and a $275M fine to address the child privacy allegations.
- The FTC claims that Epic Games made efforts to appeal to children using music, celebrities, and brand partnerships.
- The FTC said it took Epic Games two years after the launch of Fortnite to introduce parental controls on the game.
- The agency claims children were bullied, threatened, and harassed, including sexually, through Fortnite.
- In a statement on Monday, Epic Games said it has addressed many of the FTC concerns, including eliminating its pay-to-win and play-to-progress features.
| |
EU energy ministers have agreed to put a cap on natural gas prices if they rise above €180 ($191) per megawatt hour for three days. The policy aims to protect EU citizens from surging energy prices as winter comes. The price is expected to take effect starting Feb. 15. More: - Should natural gas prices go above €180 ($191) per megawatt hour for three consecutive days, a market correction mechanism will kick in to limit prices for certain natural-gas contracts for a period of 20 working days.
- The agreement will apply to month-ahead, three-month-ahead, and year-ahead derivative contracts.
- The policy is expected to get pushback from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which runs the largest market in European natural-gas futures from the Netherlands.
- Last week ICE said it would move its natural gas market outside of the EU if the bloc pursues the policy.
- On Monday, an ICE spokeswoman said the exchange was reviewing the details of the announced price cap to see if the firm can continue operating a fair and orderly market in the region.
| |
The European Commission said it found Meta breached EU antitrust law by distorting competition in the markets for online classified ads. If found guilty, Meta faces a fine of up to $11.8B, or 10% of the company’s global annual revenue. More: - The commission began probing Meta in June 2021 over Facebook’s possible anticompetitive conduct.
- The commission claims that Facebook pairing its Marketplace service with its social media platform gave the company a significant distribution advantage.
- The commission argues that the tie-up gave users no choice but to utilize Facebook Marketplace.
- According to the commission’s vice president in charge of competition policy Margrethe Vestager, Meta’s practices would be illegal under EU competition rules.
| |
Defense contractor L3Harris Technologies is buying Aerojet Rocketdyne in a deal valued at $4.7B. Aerojet manufactures engines used in missiles like the Javelin. The company also develops products that power NASA’s rockets and the U.S. military’s hypersonic systems. More: - Earlier this year, federal regulators blocked Lockheed Martin’s proposed $4.4B acquisition of Aerojet over antitrust concerns.
- According to sources, L3Harris will pay $58 a share for Aerojet, beating out other bids from General Electric and Textron.
- L3Harris makes various products, including military radios, top-secret space hardware, and air-traffic control systems.
- Aerojet has experienced several delays in its missile production, including a recent fire at a supplier’s facility.
- Earlier this year, the Pentagon raised concerns about the shrinking number of suppliers within the rocket motor sector, noting this could stifle innovation and price competition and leave the military vulnerable to supply disruptions.
| |
Binance's U.S. operations, Binance.US, has agreed to buy the crypto assets and customer deposits of bankrupt crypto lender Voyager Digital for $1.02B. FTX had initially planned to acquire Voyager's assets after winning an auction for them. FTX's bid was valued at roughly $1.42B. The deal was part of a bailout effort for Voyager. More: - Voyager filed for bankruptcy in July following the collapse of crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC).
- 3AC owed Voyager more than $650M at the time of its collapse.
- Voyager had more than 1.7 million users at the time of its bankruptcy filing.
- Binance.US operates as an independent legal entity and has a licensing agreement with Binance.com.
- The crypto industry has lost more than $2T in value since the start of this year.
| |
Quick Hits - No more waiting weeks to find a therapist. Sign up with BetterHelp, and you can get matched with a therapist in less than 48 hours. *
- Disney’s shares fell nearly 5% on Monday, hitting a 52-week low after James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” fell short of box office expectations during its opening weekend. The film generated $134M at the domestic box office; analysts had expected $175M.
- The Jan. 6 House committee voted unanimously to refer former President Donald Trump to the DOJ for criminal investigation and potential prosecution for trying to overturn the 2020 election.
- Argentina won the 2022 World Cup in Qatar on Sunday after defeating France in a penalty shootout. The game ended with a final score of 3-3 and Argentina leading 4-2 in penalties. It is estimated Qatar spent more than $200B on the World Cup.
- Activist group Follow This has called on BP, Shell, ExxonMobil, and Chevron to cut down their carbon emissions more aggressively by the end of the decade.
*This is sponsored content.
| |
Upcoming Events - January 07 - AMA with TripActions - Corporate Travel and Expense Management Solutions w/ Ram Bartov (Watch Here)
- January 07 - AMA with Security Compass - Building Secure Compliant Software for the Public Sector w/ Jay Ryan (Watch On Demand)
- January 07 - AMA with Smallstep - Secured Distributed Systems of the Future w/ Mike Malone (Watch On Demand)
- January 07 - AMA with Synthesis AI - Synthetic data for more efficient and ethical model development w/ Yashar Behzadi (Watch On Demand)
- January 07 - AMA with Teamflow - Sales Development Representative Management + Career Development w/ Joshua Garrison (Watch On Demand)
- January 07 - AMA with Gun.io - Building and managing software development teams w/ Deividi Silva (Watch On Demand)
- January 07 - AMA with LinearB - Improving workflow for developers w/ Ori Keren (Watch On Demand)
- January 10 - Inside Startups Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 17 - Inside Marketing Coffee Break (Register Here)
- January 31 - Growth Summit 2023 (Register Here)
| |
 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a writer for Inside.com; she writes the daily Inside Business newsletter. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, traveling, and exploring. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
| 767 Bryant St. #203, San Francisco, CA 94107
Copyright © 2022 Inside.com | |
| |
