Tag: Tesla

  • SpaceX fires employees involved in letter criticising CEO Elon Musk

    SpaceX fires employees involved in letter criticising CEO Elon Musk

    Elon Musk’s SpaceX has fired several employees as a result of a letter criticising the vocal billionaire’s public behaviour, according to a message to employees confirmed by AFP on Friday.

    SpaceX chief operating officer Gwynne Shotwell wrote in an email late Thursday that a “small group” of employees sought signatures from their coworkers as a show of support for the letter and participation in a survey.

    The mercurial billionaire uses Twitter on a regular basis to provoke, speak directly to customers and fans, and occasionally offend with unfiltered or crude remarks.

    According to Shotwell’s message, some employees felt “uncomfortable, intimidated, and bullied, and/or angry” because the letter pushed them to sign something that didn’t reflect their beliefs.

    “We have too much important work to do,” she continued, “and we don’t need this kind of overreaching activism”.

    The company “terminated a number of employees involved” after conducting an investigation, Shotwell said, without specifying how many.

    Musk’s public behaviour, as well as recent allegations of sexual harassment against him, were cited in the workers’ letter as “a frequent source of distraction and embarrassment for us,” according to The Verge.

    “Elon is seen as the face of SpaceX as our CEO and most visible spokesperson – every Tweet Elon sends is a de facto public statement by the company,” the letter continued.

    Musk, who also runs Tesla, is in the middle of a roller-coaster $44 billion bid to buy Twitter, which has heightened interest in the investor.

  • Musk says no Twitter deal without clarity on bot accounts

    Musk says no Twitter deal without clarity on bot accounts

    The tech mogul Elon Musk and Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal are arguing about bots, which Musk has made a core issue in his acquisition of the microblogging site.

    On the other hand, Agrawal outlined Twitter’s approach to spam accounts and the obstacles it faces in dealing with them in a series of tweets on May 16.

    Every day, Twitter suspends almost half a million spam accounts, according to Agrawal. He reaffirmed Twitter’s long-held estimate that less than 5 per cent of its daily active users are spam accounts, which Musk mentioned on Friday when declaring that his $44 billion proposal to buy Twitter was temporarily on pause.

    That estimate, according to Agrawal, is based on ‘many human reviews of thousands of users’ picked at random, but it’s impossible to know which accounts are counted on any given day.

    While Twitter feels its estimations are realistic, the measures were not independently validated, and the actual number of bogus or spam accounts could be greater.

    Believe it or not, Musk responded to Agrawal’s first 13 tweets with a ‘faeces emoji’.

    Musk then asked a more thought-provoking inquiry about how can advertisers know what they’re getting for their money as this is essential Twitter’s financial health.

    Tesla’s CEO has been vocal about bots and spam accounts on Twitter, describing bitcoin spam and bots as the most aggravating issue on the network.

    Read more: Musk postpones Twitter acquisition after discovering number of fake accounts

    Anyone who has seen the answers to Musk’s tweets knows that they are full of such con artists, many of whom try to profit from Musk’s fame.

    However, other analysts believe that the world’s richest man is leveraging the bot issue to lower the price at which he would purchase the platform, whether as an unusual bargaining ploy or out of necessity.

  • Musk, Twitter sued by Florida pension fund to prevent acquisition

    Musk, Twitter sued by Florida pension fund to prevent acquisition

    Elon Musk and Twitter are back in the spotlight after a Florida pension fund filed a lawsuit on Friday to restrict the Tesla CEO’s $44 billion takeover of the microblogging site.

    The Orlando Police Pension Fund filed a complaint in Delaware Chancery Court, claiming that under Delaware law, Musk cannot entirely take over the company until at least 2025 unless two-thirds of the company’s shares are owned by Musk.

    Musk became an “interesting investor” when he acquired over 9 per cent of the Twitter share, according to the complaint, forcing the delay.

    According to CNN, the whole Twitter board of directors is a defendant in the case, including CEO Parag Agrawal. The current application aims to push the merger’s completion date back to at least 2025.

    The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is investigating SpaceX’s creator for antitrust violations, which might postpone the deal’s completion.

    Musk’s initial purchase of the 9 per cent interest is being investigated by the FTC, which is questioning whether he fulfilled an antitrust filing obligation when the stocks were first purchased in April.

    Read more: Elon Musk plans to fire Twitter employees to save money

    The Republican Party strongly supports the Twitter agreement, hoping that conservatives banned from the site, such as former President Donald J Trump, will be allowed to return. Neither Twitter nor Musk has responded to the recent news.

  • Elon Musk plans to fire Twitter employees to save money

    Elon Musk plans to fire Twitter employees to save money

    Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is putting his plans into action after acquiring Twitter for $44 billion. In an attempt to obtain money for the takeover, he told banks that he wanted to cut the salaries of board members and executives and also pitched ideas for monetizing tweets.

    Musk presented the pitch to the financiers just days after making his bid on Twitter on April 14. He previously stated that if the offer was accepted, board members’ wages will be cut to zero, saving Twitter $3 million per year. It seems clear that Musk plans to lay off people to save money.

    The tech mogul also remarked that Twitter has a considerably smaller gross margin than similar sites like Facebook and Pinterest. He claimed that this freed up a lot of room for the corporation to run more cost-effectively.

    Musk detailed his ambitions to create features that will help his company generate more money from tweets that contain essential information or become viral.

    Read more: Instagram is testing ‘pin’ feature for posts

    In the near future, a fee could be charged if a third-party website quotes or incorporates a tweet from verified individuals or organisations.

  • Elon Musk may takeover Twitter for $46.5 billion within this week

    Elon Musk may takeover Twitter for $46.5 billion within this week

    Twitter is in final talks to sell itself to Elon Musk, and a deal may be finalised within this week, according to insiders familiar with the situation, a startling turn of events just 11 days after the billionaire unveiled his $43 billion bid for the social-media business.

    According to the sources, the two parties negotiated through the night to reach an agreement worth $54.20 per share. There’s still no promise they will get to that.

    Twitter was anticipated to reject Mr. Musk’s bid, which he made on April 14 without specifying how he would pay for it, and to implement a “poison pill” to prevent him from raising his stake. However, after Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk revealed that he has $46.5 billion in financing and the share market plummeted, Twitter reversed its stance and opened the door to discussions.

    Read more: Twitter officially declares adding an edit button

    According to insiders, the recent move would bring the world’s richest man together with the popular social networking platform. The final agreement might be revealed within few days. As of April 25, Twitter shares were up more than 5 per cent in early trade.

  • Elon Musk offers $43 billion to acquire Twitter

    Elon Musk offers $43 billion to acquire Twitter

    Elon Musk has submitted a takeover bid for Twitter, offering $54.20 per share, days after becoming the group’s largest shareholder. This is an offer worth more than $43 billion.

    According to a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filing, Mr. Musk described this as a “best and last offer,” reflecting a 54 per cent premium over the day before he commenced investing in the business in late January 2022.

    Musk stated in the filing that “I don’t have faith in the management” and that he could not make the adjustments he desired in the public market.

    As per a letter written to CEO Salesforce and chairman of Twitter, Bret Taylor, Musk stated that if the proposal is not accepted, he will reassess his status as a shareholder as Twitter has a lot of potential which needs to be unlocked.

    The billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the world’s richest man, purchased a 9.2 per cent share in Twitter on April 4, according to a regulatory filing. The tech mogul was invited to join Twitter’s board of directors the next day, but he denied the offer by the end of the week.

    Musk wrote to Mr. Taylor on April 13: “I invested in Twitter because I believe it has the potential to be the global platform for free speech, and I believe free speech is a societal requirement for a healthy democracy”.

    Read more: Elon Musk is no longer joining Twitter board as the microblogging network is “dying”

    “However, after making my investment, I’ve come to recognize that the company, in its current form, can neither thrive nor serve this societal need,” he wrote. “Twitter should be turned into a private firm”.

    Considering the tweeted document, Musk’s financial adviser for the proposal is Morgan Stanley.

  • Elon Musk is no longer joining Twitter board as the microblogging network is “dying”

    Elon Musk is no longer joining Twitter board as the microblogging network is “dying”

    The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, Elon Musk will not be joining the Twitter board of directors, according to Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal. Musk’s appointment on the board was supposed to start on April 9, however, he announced that he would no longer be joining.

    Agrawal posted a statement on April 10, saying Musk’s appointment to the board would be subject to a background investigation and that once nominated, he would have to operate in the company’s best interests. “Elon is our biggest shareholder and we will remain open to his input,” he added.

    What Happened Earlier?

    Earlier, the tech mogul tweeted the list of the top ten most followed personalities, which included celebrities and politicians such as former US President Barack Obama, Rihanna, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber, and Lady Gaga.

    The world’s wealthiest man had a complaint: many of the top Twitter accounts do not upload anything.

    Former US President Barack Obama (131.4 million followers), singer Justin Bieber (114.3 million), Katy Perry (108.8 million), and other top accounts belonging to popular artists Rihanna and Taylor Swift were among the names on the list from the Twitter account of World of Statistics, which Musk posted.

    Interestingly, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is ranked ninth on the list, with a popularity of 77.1 million followers, one notch below Musk, who has 81 million followers on the social network.

    Whereas Modi is an avid Twitter user who publishes everything from his daily schedule to welcoming foreign leaders, Musk laments that celebrities like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber rarely post. Taylor hasn’t posted anything in three months, and the ‘yummy’ singer Justin Bieber only tweeted once in 2022.

    Musk, who just purchased a 9.2 per cent interest in Twitter for roughly $3 billion in his controversial style, asked his followers another question: Is Twitter dying? 

    In an ‘April fool’ message, Twitter said that it is testing some new features, one of which is a long-awaited ‘edit’ button. The platform later explained that the change to the edit button was not an April Fool’s prank and that it was truly being tested by the company.

    It is worth noting that Musk also proposed a number of improvements to Twitter’s Blue premium subscription service, including lowering the price, limiting adverts, and allowing users to pay in the crypto. Many internet users were surprised by the recent announcement, as they had been expecting Tesla’s CEO to join the board of microblogging site and witness what changes he would make.

  • Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk to join Twitter board after investing $2.9 billion in the platform

    Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk to join Twitter board after investing $2.9 billion in the platform

    Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, has been chosen for Twitter’s board of directors, just one day after it was confirmed that he is the social media platform’s largest shareholder, holding a 9.2 per cent stake.

    On April 5, Twitter’s CEO Parag Agrawal said he was excited to announce Musk’s membership to the company’s board of directors. 

    Tesla’s CEO, whose personal wealth is assessed to be $289 billion, about $100 billion greater than the second richest person on the planet, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, has a history of publishing controversial tweets.

    Musk was a “passionate believer and intense critic” of the platform, according to Agrawal, and it was exactly what Twitter needed to render it stronger in the long run.

    Surprisingly, Musk has a Twitter following of more than 80 million, and he was already looking forward to collaborating with the company “to make big improvements” to the social media platform in the near future.

    Twitter on Tuesday stated that Musk had agreed to serve as a class two director with a term terminating at the company’s annual meeting of shareholders in 2024.

    Musk bought a nearly $3 billion (£2.3 billion) share in Twitter on Monday, which is more than four times the 2.25 per cent share held by the platform’s co-founder, Jack Dorsey.

    However, Musk would not be able to own more than 14.9 per cent of Twitter’s outstanding shares, either alone or as part of a group, for as long as he was a board member and for 90 days later, according to the firm.

    The CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who ranks among the Top 10 most popular users on Twitter with 80.4 million followers, paid $2.89 billion for the stake on Friday at Twitter’s closing share price.

    Twitter shares rose another 5 per cent Tuesday morning after soaring more than 27 per cent on Monday after reports of Musk’s stock purchase.

  • Toddler spends Rs1.7 million upgrading car while playing on mother’s iPad

    Toddler spends Rs1.7 million upgrading car while playing on mother’s iPad

    A 10-month-old boy spent over Rs 1.7 million to purchase the full self-driving capability package for Tesla while playing on his mother’s iPad.

    Her mother was shocked when she found out over Rs1.7 million on her bank statement. The woman claimed that her 10-month-old son managed to purchase the full self-driving capability package for her Tesla after tapping onto the car’s app.

    The woman said that she had no idea about it until the Rs1.7 million fee appeared on her bank statement.

    TikTok user @Stayfitstaylit shared screenshots to show the receipt, including the warning message that it would be non-refundable 48 hours after purchase, adding that the clever Tesla would automatically update while parked.

    She told that her son had bought a package that allows her car to navigate on autopilot, automatically change lanes and park, upgrade to a full self-driving computer and recognise traffic lights – with autosteer on city streets coming later in the year.

    The mother said that she and her partner had been discussing the upgrade themselves and their little boy simply took matters into his own hands to give them the final push.