Anything but the R.O.C.

• Apple reportedly told suppliers today that products from Taiwan must be labeled as made in "Taiwan, China" or "Chinese Taipei."
• Products made in Taiwan are often labeled as being made in the Republic of China, which China does not support since it implies Taiwanese independence.
• Taiwan is a leading global supplier of semiconductor chips that companies like Apple use in their products.

Give and take

• China is Taiwan's leading trading partner. Exports from Taiwan exceed imports to the island from China, placing them in an economic problem where they need China to continue to buy their products.
• China could decide to leverage the import to export surplus by sanctioning and restricting exporters from Taiwan.
• China relies on Taiwan for semiconductor chips and the supplies needed to manufacture the chips domestically.
• China prodded at Apple's supply chain today as the campus of their supplier Pegatron Corporation was searched by economic authorities to check for labeling violations.

Theft linked

• Solana's entire ecosystem of holdings was drained by hackers who stole the platform's currency and USD coins.
• After an investigation into the hack, Solana revealed that hackers gained access through the mobile wallet app, Slope.
• Slope Finance is a mobile wallet that allows users to complete transactions and store cryptocurrency. It is believed that hackers accessed Solana's holdings through users' Slope wallets.
• Over $4 million in assets were stolen in the attack.

Here we go

• BlackRock is a massive asset management firm, and they announced today that they will partner with the crypto wallet, Coinbase to allow institutional investors to access cryptocurrencies directly.
• Users of Aladdin, BlackRock's investment management platform, who also use Coinbase, will now be able to use the platform for crypto trading, storage, prime brokerage, and reporting capabilities.
• Instead of managing assets on different platforms, investors can manage their crypto and traditional investments on the same platform.

Signaling something

• BlackRock's and Coinbase's shares rose in value after news of the partnership was released.
• Aladdin and Coinbase Prime users will only be able to manage Bitcoin on the platform.
• The deal is a much needed infusion for Coinbase, which has been struggling through the crypto winter and was forced to lay off staff a month ago.
• It is also facing an investigation by the SEC over whether it allowed Americans to trade crypto assets which should have been defined as securities.

Creators say no thanks

• Twitch is a live-video game streaming service where users can tune into their favorite player's streams and watch them play. Users can also stream games they are playing with friends.
• Twitch is hosting a convention in San Diego at the same convention center where San Diego Comic-Con was hosted. Several attendees reported contracting Covid-19 from Comic Con despite mask mandates that were in place.
• The streaming platform decided to forgo mask and vaccine mandates, making some creators reconsider their attendance as Covid-19 numbers are on the rise again and monkeypox cases spread in California.

Pandemic ongoing

• While the state of California doesn't currently mandate indoor masking, Twitch could enforce its masking policy at the convention.
• While a convention on the side of TwitchCon is going to be 100% safe, attendees feel more comfortable with masking and vaccine mandates in place.
• The conference takes place in October, so the organizers have plenty of time to change their minds.

Slimming down

• The CEO of Robinhood, Vlad Tenev, said that company will cut its staff by 23%. The layoffs are expected to mostly impact employees in operations, marketing, and program management.
• Tenev cited a broad crypto-market crash and the deterioration of the online investing world with a looming recession and rising inflation.
• Robinhood released its second-quarter earnings, and they were disappointing. Their results showed a decline in the number of active users and stored assets on the platform.
• Robinhood's earnings in the second quarter totaled $318 million and increased from the first quarter's earnings of $299 million.
• Robinhood previously laid off 9% of its staff in April.

New York breaks ground

• The New York State Department of Financial Services has taken its first regulatory action against a crypto firm by fining Robinhood for $30 million.
• Robinhood employed some shoddy business practices to operate its crypto trading arms, including understaffing the division, violations of anti-money laundering, and cybersecurity regulations.
• According to financial regulators, Robinhood was not compliant with crypto-trading regulations when they were granted and started operating under a New York state license.

Too high

• The developers are suing Apple in a California court, alleging that the company is overcharging developers to use the app store and that those high fees are unlawful because developers have no choice but to pay them to use the store to sell their apps.
• This isn't the first time Apple has faced an antitrust suit from developers over its dominating app store. This particular suit seeks damages for violations of federal and California antitrust laws and a reprieve from anti-competitive practices.

iOS or bust

• The suit accuses Apple of only allowing iOS devices to be sold on the App Store to force developers to pay unlawfully high fees.
• The plaintiffs will be represented by Hagen Berman, a law firm that successfully sued Apple last year over their App Store policies. They won a $100 million settlement in the suit. Berman also recently sued Apple for antitrust practices with Apple Pay.
• The suit wants Apple to reimburse developers for overcharging and allow for competition in iOS app distribution.

Stolen coins

• The crypto firm, Nomad, was hit by a massive hack which resulted in the theft of $190 million in cryptocurrency assets.
• Nomad is a bridge allowing users to send coins or assets across blockchains like Avalanche, Ethereum, Evmos, Moonbeam, and Milkomeda C1.
• Before the hack, Nomad raised $22 million from investors last week. The investors included Coinbase.

Not much left

• The hackers drained Nomad of almost all of its stored assets.
• They accessed the coins by exploiting a security update that allowed them to mimic legitimate transactions. When users sent assets through the bridge, Nomad never checked the exact amount, which allowed the hackers to request sums of money that didn't belong to them.
• Nomad's announcement of the hack revealed they had hired a blockchain intelligence and forensics agency and were working to return the coins to the rightful owner.

Nuisance for small scale cities

• The Miami-based e-bike and scooter sharing company Bolt Mobility is co-owned and co-founded by Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt.
• Bolt had contracts in several smaller-scale cities like Burlington, Vermont, and Richmond, California.
• Bolt was rapidly climbing the start-up ladder after acquiring the assets of Last Mile Holdings, which opened up contracts with 48 new cities.
• They also recently secured a massive funding boost from Ram Charan in May.
• Now, they seem to have vanished or gone out of business. Attempts by the press or city officials to contact the company have gone unanswered.

Bikes with no home

• Following the news that the start-up may have folded, the stock price has dropped from $10 to just 50 cents.
• While some cities had advanced notice that the company was shutting down, some have been completely unable to reach the company.
• The company left behind scooters and bikes, with no clear plan in place for cities to get rid of the equipment and no way to contact the company about the leftover inventory.

From home

• Prime members in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Miami, Phoenix, Scottsdale, Seattle, and Washington D.C. will be able to shop from select retail stores with same-day delivery.
• An Amazon delivery partner will pick up the items from the retail store's location and bring them to the shopper's door instead of Amazon carrying them in their warehouses.
• The current offering of stores will expand to include 100% Pure and Sur La Table, according to Amazon.

Trip to the mall

• Prime members can also opt for same-day pick up from stores if they don't want delivery.
• Non-prime members will also be able to access same-day-pick up from the retail stores but will need to spend a minimum of $25.
• The move is likely a play to enhance Amazon's growing fulfillment business without needing to expand its warehouses.

Committee hearing

• House Judiciary Committee Chair Jerrold Nadler revealed that the DOJ is investigating a security system failure that occurred in early 2020 at a committee oversight hearing on the Justice Department's National Security Division.
• Nadler revealed that three hostile foreign actors had attacked the federal court's filing system, which resulted in a data breach and a system failure.
• He also said the committee learned about the hack in March of 2021.

Data breach

• Members of the committee expressed concern that they were just being alerted to the hack.
• In early 2021, the federal court system announced they would be going low-tech and opting out of using digital case management and electronic case files system. At the time, they claimed it was a result of the Solar Winds hack, but now it seems like their own hack could prompt the decision.
• The details of the hack and which countries could be involved are not publicly available.

Popular opinion

• Instagram has been increasingly pushing Reels and Ai-recommended content onto users' accounts, and people are frustrated.
• Kylie Jenner and her sister, Kim Kardashian, are some of the most followed stars on the platform, and both shared messages on their accounts lamenting the direction Instagram is taking.
• Users are frustrated that they are being shown mostly ad content or content from people they don't follow when they really just want to see their friends.
• Adam Mosseri responded to the backlash, saying that while Instagram will continue to support photo-sharing, they are looking to transition to a video-based platform.

Twice as much

• Mark Zuckerberg seemed unconcerned by the backlash, saying that the platform will double the amount of Ai-generated content users see on their accounts.
• Currently, 15% of content on Instagram is Ai-recommended. Zuckerberg says he wants to double that percentage by the end of 2023 to compete with Tik Tok, whose content recommending algorithm is their golden goose.

Nevermind!

• Adam Mosseri has changed his tune, saying that Instagram will reverse its test, turning users' feeds into mostly recommended posts and videos.
• He also announced that the internal data from the test reflected the backlash expressed on social media.
• Instagram still plans to transition to prioritizing videos/reels, but Mosseri said they would find a better way to do it.

Judge decides

• The judge ruled that Uber was not violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by not providing wheelchair users with accommodating rides.
• The two plaintiffs in the case use motorized wheelchairs and live in New Orleans and Jackson, Mississippi. They contend that Uber violated the ADA by not providing them with rides that could accommodate motorized wheelchairs.

Not every city

• The ruling means that it is up to Uber which cities they offer wheelchair accommodations in.
• Uber settled a lawsuit with the US Department of Justice that claimed that Uber discriminates against disabled passengers. As part of the settlement, Uber will issue credits to disabled passengers that had to pay wait fees.

First ever

• The revenue decline is Meta's first ever since it went public in 2012.
• The decline has some experts speculating whether Facebook/Meta's long-lasting and strong growth period is behind them.
• Meta also projected weak third-quarter revenue, expecting between $26 billion and $28.5 billion, less than the $30 billion expected by analysts.

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C-suite changes

• David Wehner will transition from his role as CFO to chief security officer.
• Susan Li, who is currently the VP of finance, will become CFO.
• Meta also announced they would be cutting costs to increase revenue.

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Unicorn status

• Unstoppable Domains is a platform that allows users to create and mint a unique digital identity that is stored as an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain.
• The company has registered 2.5 million domains/identities to date.
• Pantera Capital led the investment round. Other investors include Mayfield, Gaingels, Alchemy Ventures, Redbeard Ventures, Spartan Group, OKG Investments, Polygon, CoinDCX, CoinGecko, We3 syndicate, Rainfall Capital, Broadhaven, EI Ventures, Hardyaka, Alt Tab Capital, Boost VC, and Draper Associates.

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Big bet

• The platform has integrations that allow users to use their unique digital identity, which is tied to the blockchain, to log purchases, trade crypto, or even prove their identity to log into services like email.
• The unique domain also makes sending or selling crypto easier since it can replace a lengthy wallet address that users might mess up.
• The founders believe that people should be able to own their own digital identity, and investors apparently agree.

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Meta's looking for revenue

• The steep price hike is remarkable, considering the headset was one of the best deals in the virtual reality gaming world for years.
• Meta does not profit from the Quest headset sales because of the high cost of manufacturing and shipping the headsets. Supply chain shortages and inflation have made them even more expensive to manufacture.
• Antitrust regulators may sue Meta for selling the product for such a low price that they forced out competitors and then raised the price, effectively forcing users to pay more for the dominant product.

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More to come

• Meta announced a new headset edition, the 256G version, will come out on September 1st.
• Meta also said that it has a whole slate of VR goodies to come, which may start with the launch of the Quest Pro, a full-color, hyper-realistic headset with depth sensors.

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Until 2024

• The new chief of Russia's space agency, Roscosmos, announced that the country would be opting out of the International Space Station program after 2024 to focus on building its own Russian outpost.
• The design of the ISS means that the Russian and US sections are interdependent.
• President Joe Biden has directed the International Space Agency to remain in operation until 2023.
• The announcement comes about two weeks after a deal was finally reached between the US and Russia to trade seats aboard Russian and American spacecraft traveling to and from the ISS.

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End of an era

• Russia intends to fulfill its commitments to the other partners in the ISS before withdrawing from the project.
• The ISS is run by Russia, the U.S., Europe, Japan, and Canada. Instead of investing in repairs on the existing ISS or pitching in to build a new one together, Russia will opt to build its own station.
• The ISS is used to conduct research in zero gravity and test technologies for future space travel.

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Terms of engagement

• In the 2021 cyberattack, data about T-Mobile users was stolen by hackers.
• As per the settlement terms, they will pay a total of $350 million to users whose data was stolen and spend an additional $150 million to improve their cybersecurity.

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$5 dollars

• If you are a T-Mobile user, you may be entitled to a whopping $5 if your data was stolen in the hack.
• It may take users several months to be notified that they are entitled to settlement money from the class action lawsuit.

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Chips on the mind

• Intel is pushing to increase chip-making capability, both domestically and internationally. Intel is developing a large chip production plant in Columbus, Ohio.
• Last year, Intel launched its foundry service to take advantage of a global chip shortage.
• MediaTek is a Taiwanese smartphone chip designer and the partnership means that Intel Foundry Service will produce chips for the company.
• The CEO of MediaTek called the deal a part of a push to diversify its supply chain and said the partnership was an opportunity to expand on an already robust relationship between the two companies.

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Big boost

• The deal will bolster the domestic production of chips.
• Intel was outperformed in the chip-making market because of internal manufacturing problems and fierce competition in Taiwan by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung.
• The partnership could be a huge boost for the domestic production of chips. Intel is lobbying for the passage of a domestic chip production bill in Congress, and this deal could help pass that legislation

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Fueling expansion

• Ford split into Ford Blue and Ford Model E. Ford Blue is the company's legacy combustion engine manufacturing business. Ford Model E is their electric vehicle manufacturing arm.
• The cuts will happen at Ford Blue as it aims to reduce operating costs to spend more on manufacturing electric vehicles.

Delicate balance

• Ford is gearing up to spend $50 billion to make two million electric vehicles annually by 2026.
• Automakers like Ford are spending big bucks on manufacturing electric vehicles.

Bad day to be a stock

• Snap stocks are having a meltdown after the company posted disappointing Q2 earnings yesterday.
• The report showed that the company did not meet revenue forecasts. Due to ongoing market uncertainty, they did not provide guidance on revenue or performance in future quarters.

Unfortunate outcome

• On Friday morning, the shares of Snap had fallen 35% in value.
• Snap pointed to market uncertainty, slowing demand for its ad platform, and competition from apps like Tik Tok when they justified the disappointing results.
• Snap plans to slow hiring to account for the lost revenue.

Details of the scheme

• The US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York has indicted a former Coinbase employee for his role in a crypto trading scheme.
• The employee, Ishan Wahi, worked on a team at Coinbase with access to a channel where employees talked about which tokens would be listed and when upcoming projects would launch.
• Wahi then told his brother and friend when and which tokens and assets to buy right before they were listed, which they could resell at astronomically higher prices. The pair allegedly bought at least 25 tokens/assets before they were listed on Coinbase.
• The charges allege that the three schemers made over $1.1 million in about a year by leveraging non-public information.

Blockchain sleuth

• The scheme was uncovered by a Twitter user who goes by Colbie on the site. In April, Colbie tweeted that he'd found an Ethereum address that had bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of tokens exclusively listed by Coinbase hours before the listing was posted.
• Coinbase's chief security officer saw and responded to the tweet, prompting an investigation into the Ethereum address, which was eventually linked all the way back to Ishan Wahi.

Prime access

• Amazon will acquire One Medial, which went public in 2020 and operates a network of primary care practices and telehealth services.
• Neil Lindsay, the senior vice president of Amazon Health Services, said that Amazon was prioritizing expanding into healthcare and called the industry "high on the list of experiences that need reinvention."
• One Medical CEO, Amir Dan Rubin, said that being bought by Amazon and integrating with the giant is "an immense opportunity to make the health care experience more accessible, affordable, and even enjoyable for patients, providers, and payers."

Books to healthcare

• This deal is Andy Jassy's, who took over from Jeff Bezos, first deal as CEO.
• One Medical has a huge network of patients; more than 8,500 employers are customers.
• In 2019, Amazon began running a service similar to One Medical's designed to treat Amazon employees, which they tried to get other employers to adopt. The acquisition of One Medical might allow them to expand their Amazon Care program with the well-established network that One Medical will bring along.
• Amazon also purchased PillPack in 2018, which saw them expand into the pharmaceutical world, so the acquisition of One Medical will equip them to tackle the healthcare world with full force.

First look

• Starting today, Xbox insiders will be able to test our Discord on the platform to chat with friends and other players through the console, as long as the user has Discord's and Xbox's mobile apps.
• The rollout is limited to Discord voice calls and not text channels.

Go to

• Discord is the go-to platform for gamers who want to chat with their friends while playing games, so the integration is incredibly exciting for gamers to be able to play and talk on the same platform.
• In addition to integrating with Xbox, Discord will partner with Sony to bring the voice calling service onto PlayStation.

Open Sesame!

• OpenAI's DALL-E 2 allows users to input a prompt to generate original images, which they can then edit or refine.
• The company announced they are allowing more users onto the platform and hope to allow access to about 1 million people off their waitlist within the next few weeks.

Images at a click

• The tool is one of the most advanced AI image generators out there.
• OpenAI has kept access extremely limited, so testers, researchers, and academics could help to establish guardrails for the technology so bad actors don't use it to create or spread misinformation.

Future plans

• The Yuga Labs team hopes that Otherside will become a platform for game developers to release and build games on which they and users can monetize by buying ownership of the virtual universe.
• It will compete with platforms like Epic Games, Roblox, and Meta. The key difference will be the component of virtual land ownership which they hope will draw people by the thousands into the virtual world.

First voyages

• The app is open to a select group of "voyagers" who can explore the fully virtual gaming universe.
• The requirements for access are that you hold an "otherdeed," which is essentially a token of virtual land ownership, or that you are a third-party developer.
• The exclusivity of the platform, driven by the high price of "otherdeeds" and the cost of NFT ownership, has garnered criticism from advocates for an "open metaverse."

Our turn!

• Workers at Raven Software, a subsidiary of Activision Blizzard in Wisconsin, voted to unionize in May.
• Activision Blizzard is set to be acquired by Microsoft and has a history of poor working conditions and a toxic work environment.
• QA testers in Albany, who are responsible for testing and clearing bugs before the launch of a game, decided to unionize.

QA's the way

• The QA department said that their work conditions have been untenable. Because QA testers address bugs in the games, they are often subjected to "crunch conditions" before the launch of a game, where they are forced to work long hours with no overtime pay.
• The workers said they are unionizing to address issues of lack of fair pay and adequate healthcare and establish better working conditions during "crunch times."

Russia goes for the fines

• Russia is cracking down on Google for showing content that the Russian government decided is illegal. The "illegal content" is allegedly content about the war in Ukraine, which Russia wants to censor.
• Russia and other social media platforms have also been at war over illegal content. However, according to Russia, YouTube is the main culprit for not deleting "fakes" of military action in Ukraine.

Long time coming

• Russia threatened to fine Google for failing to remove content showing "extremism and terrorism" in March.
• Google's Russian subsidiary filed for bankruptcy last month, and Google stated it would cease operations in Russia in May.
• It is unclear whether Google will pay the fine.

Big time boost

• The National Space Fund will help focus UAE's economy on diversifying its reach outside of oil/gas. The development of the space economy is part of a big bet that the NSF will make on a future driven by the stars.
• The first investment will be a network of satellites with high-resolution image capability.

Exploration inbound

• In addition to building a satellite network they aim to launch in the next three years, they also seek to explore Venus.
• The UAE has already sent a satellite into orbit and an orbiter to Mars. They also hope to send a probe to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter sometime in the early 2030s.

Bungie and Sony, sitting in a tree

• Sony announced today that the deal to buy video game developer Bungie, which began in January, is officially closed.
• Sony acquired Bungie in a $3.6 billion deal.
• Bungie will continue to produce and release games while Sony will amp up its live service gaming capabilities on the PlayStation.

After buying Bungie, Sony goes all-in on live service games

• The acquisition represents Sony's desire to go all in on live service games. Sony announced that it will release ten new live service games by March 2026.
• Sony will use Bungie's expertise in live service game development to give some classic titles like Uncharted and Spider-Man the live service treatment.

Cloutier is out

• Ronald Cloutier is stepping down as chief security officer on September 2nd.
• The dance and video sharing app has faced intense scrutiny over whether the Chinese government has access to and has accessed U.S. users' data.
• Tik Tok is working on a new program to address concerns called "Project Texas," where they will route and store American users' data through Oracle servers in Texas.

New role

• Cloutier will take on an advisory role serving as a strategic advisor for the business impact of security and trust programs.
• Tik Tok has also created a dedicated U.S.-based data security team who will act as gatekeepers for user information and hopefully minimize China's access to data.

Celsius Network falls through the ice

• Celsius has filed for bankruptcy protection just one month after freezing customers' assets and pausing withdrawals from the site.
• The company has somewhere between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets and more than 100,000 creditors.

Worsening winter

• Celsius allowed users to deposit Bitcoin and Ethereum coins and earn interest on their assets. They promised yields north of 18% on assets stored with the platform.
• Users who deposit coins onto the platform are worried they may never see their money again since retail investors are usually a low priority in bankruptcy dealings prioritizing secured creditors.

Latest layoff

• OpenSea, which suffered a massive hack in June, announced they are letting go of 20% of their staff.
• Those laid off will receive severance and can keep their healthcare through the company until 2023.
• The CEO called the decision a mechanism for extending the company's ability to coast through the crypto-winter. "We need to prepare the company for the possibility of a prolonged downturn. The changes we're making today put us in a position to maintain multiple years of runway under various crypto winter scenarios (5 years at current volume)."

It's getting cold in here

• OpenSea has had a difficult year. They were hacked through Customer.io, and virtually anyone who had logged an email with the platform's information was leaked. A top executive at the company was also fired after he was convicted of insider trading of NFTs.
• The layoffs again call OpenSea's company policies into question after pursuing such aggressive growth.
• The CEO shared the note he sent to employees on Twitter. In the note, he writes, "We've been though winter before and we built this company with the cyclicality of crypto in mind."

Consolidation play

• Unity, a video gaming and content development platform is merging with Ironsource, an app monetization platform.
• The two bring together expertise in their fields which could propel the video game platform into higher profitability.
• Ironsource acquired Tapjoy in January for $400 million. Unity acquired Diva Dynamics in the same month.

Deal details

• Unity is buying Ironsource for $4.4 billion in an effort to beef up its digital advertising capabilities.
• Consumer spending on video games is expected to rise this year, and revenue from mobile games is becoming increasingly important.

Record amount

• Ring, acquired by Amazon for $1 billion, has given a record amount of footage to the government and police in the past year.
• Ring provided the footage to police departments conducting investigations. In more than 85% of cases, the demand for the footage was issued through a court warrant, allowing the company to turn the footage over to the authorities without the owners' knowledge.
• The company says it turned over footage in four out of ten requests from law enforcement.

Privacy problem

• The news comes during Amazon's Prime Day event.
• The footage was sent in response to emergency requests where the case is made that harm or death will result from a failure to view or obtain the information.
• Amazon's ability to send over footage comes from a lack of robust privacy protection legislation, which would protect Ring users' privacy and prevent their private footage from being sent to law enforcement without their knowledge.

New life

• The new marketplace focuses on music, providing NFT formats of original songs, album or visual artwork, passes, or in-person experiences.
• The platform features artists like Travis Barket of Blink-182 and Brandy.
• They also released a limited collection of tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, which, if bought, allows owners access to invite-only events and early access to NFT drops.

Internet responds

• LimeWire also launched a series of original NFTs.
• According to the original CEO, the new marketplace is unaffiliated with the original company.
• Twitter and Reddit users were quick to laugh at LimeWire's expense, joking about the platform's notoriety for being associated with theft and rampant viruses.
• The new LimeWire is leveraging early 2000s nostalgia by using the same name and URL.

Donald Trump tweets incited Capitol violence, Twitter employee tells January 6th Committee

• The former Twitter employee testified that tweets from Donald Trump directly sparked the violent march on the Capitol building.
• The employee specifically directed the committee to a tweet from December 19th in which Trump encouraged supporters to join him in protesting the certification of election results on January 6th.
• According to the employee, many at Twitter directly saw the December 19th tweet calling for supporters to "be there. Will be wild" as responsible for the violence.

Go easy on POTUS

• The former employee told the committee, "Twitter relished in the knowledge that they were also the favorite and most used service of the former president and enjoyed having that sort of power within the social media ecosystem."
• The committee presented evidence that Twitter and other social media platforms were complicit in helping Trump, his advisors, and supporters organize the Capitol riot.

Into the ether

• The founders of Three Arrows Capital, Su Zhu and Kyle Davies are nowhere to be found.
• The crypto-based hedge fund filed for Chapter 15 bankruptcy last month.
• Now, officials charged with liquidating the company to pay out their creditors can't find the founders and haven't received any meaningful communication from them.

Where in the world?

• The management company, Teneo, has been appointed to liquidate the company, and in a court filing, they revealed they have been unable to contact the founders.
• Russell Crumpler and Christopher Farmer are two of the team undertaking the task. When they tried to set up a meeting with the founders, and the law firm representing them, the firm and the founders ghosted them after agreeing to a date.
• The pair also tried to visit the Three Arrows Capital office but found it vacant with a pile of old mail waiting outside the locked door.
• Both Crumpler and Farmer expressed the fear that the founders could be pocketing the company's assets while they avoid investigators and liquidators.

Difficulty investigating

• The collapse of 3AC caused a massive meltdown in the crypto world and led Voyager Digital to file for bankruptcy after 3AC defaulted on a loan they owed.
• Crumpler and Farmer allege that the founders of 3AC have yet to participate in the liquidation process in any meaningful way and have gone so far as to prevent access to company information.

Exposed via leak

• Uber's global ridesharing app didn't rise to the top without some dodgy business practices being employed. Now, those tactics have been leaked to the public.
• The Guardian obtained thousands of leaked documents that show that the company used technology to prevent law enforcement from conducting investigations, courted high-ranking government officials for favorable policies, and even tried to find a silver lining in violence between drivers and taxi drivers.
• The conduct happened under former CEO Travis Kalanick, who left the company in 2017.
• In response to the leak, Uber said, "We have not and will not make excuses for past behavior that is clearly not in line with our present values." According to Uber spokesperson Jill Hazelbaker, 90% of current Uber employees started with the company after Kalanick left.

F***ing illegal

• The so-called "Uber files" consist of 124,000 documents from 2013-2017.
• Some emails reveal that Uber used a "kill switch" to prevent police from accessing company computer systems during investigations.
• Another chain of emails shows the extensive efforts made by Uber's CEO to engender himself with high-ranking government officials like French president Emmanuel Macron who told the Uber CEO he could help the company with new reforms.
• Uber also courted Russian Oligarchs to try and get permission to operate in Russia.
• In a message from 2014 from Uber's former head of global communications, Nairi Hourdajian, writes, "Sometimes we have problems because, well, we're just f***ing illegal."

Thanks to the International Consortium of Journalists

• One of the more disturbing revelations is that the former CEO suggested that violence toward Uber drivers by taxi drivers was an opportunity to garner public support and regulatory support for Uber.
• The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists revealed that lobbyists financed by Uber pushed for favorable legislation in multiple countries and used tax havens in Bermuda to skirt millions in taxes.

Access denied

• Twitter and gamers were up in arms over Ubisoft announcing they would remove access to their older titles on Steam, starting September 1st.
• Ubisoft announced last week that it would be removing 15 titles from Steam. Essentially, if you are not an owner of the titles in jeopardy, it will be impossible to access the games.

Digital ownership issues

• The Ubisoft mess is calling into question the concept of digital ownership of games in contrast with the developer's ability to take a game offline.
• Users who paid for the games which will be taken down will still be able to access them, according to an update from Ubisoft after users were outraged that they might lose access to a game they had paid good money for.
• Some games will have downgraded features, even though they remain playable for current owners.

Deal gone sour?

• The Washington Post broke a piece today which reveals that Elon Musk's deal to buy Twitter is in jeapordy as members of his inner circle reveal Musk is trying to find a way out.
• While Twitter has remained adamant that they intend to see the deal through, Musk's camp has raised concerns about the number of spam accounts on the Twitter platform.

Jump overboard

• It has been about a month since Twitter gave Musk and his team access to the data firehose to conduct their own investigation into the number of spam accounts on the platform.
• Now, it looks like Musk could use the bot excuse to wiggle his way out of the $44 billion deal.

Legal battle for the ages

• If Musk does indeed back out of the deal to buy Twitter, he is in for a legal firestorm.
• Musk could sue Twitter for misleading user data over the number of accounts that are spam or bots.
• Twitter is in serious trouble if Musk backs out. They have recently laid off staffers and frozen hiring. But, Twitter could sue Musk for backing out of the deal and violating the terms of the agreement between the company and the billionaire.

Elon Musk walks away from Twitter deal

• According to an SEC filing, Elon Musk has pulled out of the Twitter deal.
• Musk is refusing to complete the $44 billion deal to buy the social media platform.
• Musk's team claims that Twitter's unwillingness to provide them with crucial information has made it impossible to proceed with the deal. He also argued that Twitter's CEO's decision to fire two top executives breached the merger agreement.
• Twitter will likely sue Musk for breach of contract and damages in a Delaware court.

Special probe

• The NHTSA is already investigating Tesla's use of Autopilot systems and their role in fatal car accidents.
• They are opening a special probe into two fatal crashes. The first happened in California, where a Tesla driver struck and killed a pedestrian. The second was in Florida, where the driver and passenger of a Tesla that struck a tractor-trailer were killed.

Autopilot or culprit

• In both crashes that prompted the special probe, the Teslas being driven were equipped with Tesla's Autopilot driving assistance.
• The system is under investigation for its efficacy and role in crashes where drivers relied on its safety features to prevent accidents.

Woman for the job

• Before being tapped as Binance.US CFO, Jasmine Lee served as CFO and COO at the fintech app Acorns for about three years. She also worked at PayPal for eight years as CFO and COO for its consumer product group.
• Jasmine Lee will replace the interim CFO, Eric Segal, who has been in the position since last October.

Plan for the future

• Even in the crypto winter, Binance.US is committed to forging ahead and believes it is in a good position to do so.
• Last month, they launched a zero-fee Bitcoin trading initiative and are increasingly focusing on amplifying their consumer reach going forward.
• The company is looking to add another $50 million in funding after raising $200 million in its April seed round.

Going public

• Jasmine Lee's experience positioned her as a fantastic candidate for Binance.US, which is looking to go public within the next two or three years.
• Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder said that the decision to hire Jasmine was easy in the company's announcement today, writing, "Jasmine is a rare talent who possesses more than 20 years of deep knowledge in both fintech and high growth startup environments. Her experience at Paypal, a public Fortune 500 company, in particular, will be invaluable as we chart our path to an IPO in the coming years."

Not just for Teslas

• Tesla will begin producing new equipment for Superchargers to be used by non-Tesla vehicles.
• Tesla has not confirmed these plans, but the White House released them on June 28th.
• The Tesla charging network is already extensive but is only available to Tesla drivers. Expanding the network to non-Tesla cars is a huge step forward in activating the electrical grid for electric vehicles.

Charging network

• Tesla has been piloting allowing all electric vehicles access to Superchargers in Europe.
• The initiative is part of a White House push to accelerate the number of electric vehicles on the roads in the U.S.
• The White House initiative makes $7.5 billion availble to improve electric vehicle charging infastructure domestically. If Tesla wants access to any of that money, they will have to open the superchargers to the electric-vehicle public.

Spy your hardest

• Lockdown Mode will be an alternate mode of IOS that limits the tools that bad actors use to hack or spy on iPhones with.
• The mode is designed to protect the security and privacy of activists, journalists, dissidents, and political figures who might be the target of government interference or spying.
• Some apps like Safari will be slower in the new mode because of the vulnerability of speed and efficiency features used to render webpages.

Cyber safety first

• According to Apple, the tool will be accessible to a very small number of users.
• Users can turn on lockdown mode within the privacy menu in the iPhone settings.
• The new feature will impact how the iPhone functions. Some apps and websites may be entirely unavailable, and browsing speeds will also be reduced.
• The tool is designed to block physical and digital attempts to hack, replicate or access someone's device.

Puff but don't pass

• The FDA decided to let Juul continue to sell its e-cigarette products while the company appealed a ban that prohibited them from distributing or selling in the U.S.
• The ban cited confusing data and potentially hazardous chemicals as reasons for banning Juul products, but the FDA has not released the exact reasoning.
• Juul largely receives the blame for the teenage vaping and nicotine addiction epidemic after it released fruity flavors, which the company marketed toward adolescents.
• Juul filed the appeal on the grounds that the FDA's ban was discriminatory and unfairly targeted the e-cigarette maker.

Additional review

• The temporary lifting of the ban will last until at least July 12th.
• Juul's appeal was successful because the FDA agreed that additional scientific issues with Juul's application warranted further review. One such issue was the alleged presence of chemicals not disclosed by Juul in the application in their products.
• This is the first time the FDA temporarily lifted a ban after ruling on a drug application.

Down they go

• The broker cited ongoing market volatility and the collapse of Three Arrows Capital as the two primary reasons for filing for bankruptcy.
• The collapse of Three Arrows Capital, which owed Voyager Digital more than $650 million, destabilized the Crypto broker. Three Arrows Capital filed for bankruptcy last week.
• At the time of the filing, Voyager revealed the firm has 100,000 creditors and between $1 billion and $10 billion in assets.

Impact of Three Arrows Capital

• Last week, Voyager suspended all transactions after Three Arrows Capital defaulted on a loan Voyager Digital had provided them when they filed for bankruptcy.
• Voyager listed Sam Bankman-Fried's Alameda Research firm as its largest creditor with a $75 million loan.
• While transactions remain suspended, the company will still continue operations during the reorganization.

New chapter

• Voyager Digital used a Chapter 11 filing to allow them to reorganize their debts while continuing operations.
• Voyager will pay out customers through the crypto held in their accounts, money recovered from Three Arrows Capital, company shares, and Voyager tokens. Customers with cash deposits in their accounts will regain access after the court approves the plan and Metropolitan Commercial Bank approves the transactions.
• The crypto-crash reveals how interconnected the different crypto-firms are after the failure of Three Arrows Capital and wreaked havoc on other firms.

First to do so

• Twitter is the first tech giant to sue the Indian government in a lawsuit filed in Karnataka High Court.
• The suit alleges that the government has abused its power by ordering Twitter to remove tweets from the platform or asking Twitter to ban users who are critical of the current Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.
• New IT rules which took effect last year have left Twitter with virtually no room to contend or challenge takedown orders issued by New Delhi.

Twitter pushes back

• The lawsuit alleges that India's Information and Technology Ministry told Twitter they had to take down tweets and accounts that interfered with national security.
• In practice, India's IT ministry has asked Twitter to ban users who tweet content opposing the current prime minister Modi's administration.
• India asked Twitter, most notably, to ban the account of journalist Rana Ayyub, who posts criticisms of prime minister Modi.

Censorship gone too far?

• WhatsApp has sued the Indian government before after being told they would have to make people's private messages available to Indian government agencies if they request it.
• Prime minister Modi and his party have spent a considerable about of time and effort to try and corral Tech companies to police content related to protests, freedom of the press, and discussions criticizing the governments' handling of the pandemic or civil liberties.

AI watching the players

• FIFA will use an AI-powered system to track players' movements to assist referees in making offside calls at the upcoming World Cup.
• The AI system consists of a sensor in the ball that relays its postion on the field and twelve tracking cameras that track the movements of 29 points in the player's bodies.
• Software will take the data from the ball and the cameras to create automatic alerts when a player commits an offside offense.
• The alerts will be sent to officials in the control room, who will feed the information to referees.

Still a need for referees

• The World Cup will be held in Qatar in November.
• FIFA says that the new system will take only seconds to generate offside calls. They also reassured fans that referees are still ultimately making the final call.

Deliveries down

• In the second quarter, Tesla delivered 254,695 electric vehicles worldwide.
• The number of delivered vehicles is an 18% drop from the first quarter.
• The number reflects ongoing supply chain disruptions, which caused Tesla to close down one of its China-based factories.

Historic number

• The drop in deliveries is the first of its kind in two years where Tesla deliveries have fallen from quarter to quarter.
• In addition to a critical closure in China, Tesla's factories in Germany and Texas are losing billions due to supply chain issues limiting battery-cell production.
• The fall in deliveries will likely impact Tesla's second-quarter earnings, which are released on July 20th.

Pause button

• Tesla intends to halt most of the production of its Model Y electric vehicle in Shanghai at the beginning of July and hit a pause on the production of the Model 3 electric vehicle starting July 18th.
• Tesla's Shanghai factory previously shut down for an extended period for Covid-19 regulations, which impacted Tesla's stocks, sending them plunging 38% over April, May, and June.
• Tesla has laid off hundreds of workers in the last month due to concerns about an impending recession and poor market conditions.

Huge bust

• The charges allege that MTI and its CEO ran a fraudulent commodity pool of Bitcoin by soliciting the coin from thousands of bitcoin holders, including 23,000 Americans.
• MTI had promised users it would invest the coins in the pool but instead embezzled the funds and misled users of the platform by using a fake broker and fronting false documents about profits.
• The case is the largest cryptocurrency Ponzi scheme the CFTC has ever tackled.

Steynberg's scheme

• The CEO of MTI, Cornelius Johannes Steynberg, amassed 29,421 bitcoin from thousands of people. All of which the CFTC claims were misappropriated.
• He claimed that MTI used an AI trading bot that allowed users to earn income on their Bitcoin passively. In reality, the bot did not exist, and the company was not properly licensed to be wheeling and dealing Bitcoin.

Already underwater

• The scheme ran from May 2018 to March 2021, when MTI filed for bankruptcy and started the liquidation process.
• The CEO of MTI was detained in Brazil on an existing Interpol warrant, and the company has yet to make any statement about the charges.

Brutal for BlockFi

• Reports allege that FTX is close to buying the struggling crypto lender BlockFi for just $25 million in a deal expected to be closed by the end of the week.
• $25 million is way below BlockFi's last private valuation. According to Pitchbook, BlockFi was last valued at $4.8 billion.

Reports are in

• Are the reports true? The BlockFi CEO tweeted, "I can 100% confirm that we aren't being sold for $25M. I encourage everyone to trust only details that you hear directly from @BlockFi. We will share more [with] you as soon as we can."
• The Crypto crash has dramatically impacted the lender, they laid off 20% of staff earlier this month, and FTX lent a $250 million credit facility to BlockFi on June 21st.

Dramatic slide

• Neither the CEO of FTX or BlockFi have confirmed the rumors, but investors are unlikely to be happy with the deal which will wipe out the value of their shares.
• The cryptocurrency market has taken massive hits recently with companies like Coinbase and Celcius pausing customer withdrawals.
• If the deal goes through, BlockFi will have fallen dramatically from once soaring heights which saw the lender valued at nearly $1 billion earlier this month.

Massive breach

• The company announced Wednesday night that a staff member at Customer.io that hosts OpenSea's email's used their access to transfer the email addresses of OpenSea users to an unauthorized third party.
• OpenSea warned users and newsletter subscribers that if they have shared their email with the company in the past, it was safe to say their email had been shared in the breach.

Getting more common?

• OpenSea and Customer.io are engaged in an investigation and the employee who shared the emails has been suspended without access to any company data.
• Email newsletter management platforms and CRM software are proving to be a weak spot for crypto firms, especially after this latest hack.
• OpenSea users are complaining about getting spam calls and phising emails from the hack.

That's a lot of emails

• More than 1.8 million people have made at least one purchase with OpenSea, so the scale of the breach is enormous.
• Similar hacks have happened at Hubspot, which is a CRM platform.
• OpenSea uses Ethereum to operate a marketplace where users can buy and sell NFTs.
• The company warned users to be vigilant and look out for phishing emails, spam calls, and texts.

Surprise!

• Tesla laid off the workers in a surprise sweep, the employees expected to be transferred to the company's headquarters in Palo Alto, not laid off. They were given 60 days of severance pay and told their last day of work would be June 28th.
• The employees were tasked with viewing videos from Teslas and then labeling objects in the videos and describing them to help improve Tesla's Autopilot feature.
• Tesla is in the process of cutting about 10% of its employees as a cost-saving measure in response to supply chain disruptions.

AI can handle this

• As the company relies increasingly on Artificial Intelligence technology, it is cutting more and more positions that no longer need to be done by a human.
• The labeling work done by the laid-off employees may be assigned to Tesla's AI engines, automating their former job.
• As the AI gets more intelligent, there will be less need for human annotators to guide and streamline its learning.

Cut anyways

• The remaining 150 employees will be transferred to the Palo Alto office.
• The layoffs come after Musk announced that Tesla would cut 10% of its staff over the next three months and that he had a "super bad feeling" about the current state of the economy.
• The company also came under fire recently for threatening workers who didn't return to the office full time with termination.

Three more years

• The Disney CEO began his tenure at the height of the Covid-19 Pandemic and faced a rocky first few years with low attendance at parks and an explosion in the online streaming of content.
• His next three years will begin on July 1st, 2022.
• The company lost critical revenue from park closures and movie theaters shutting down due to Covid-19 concerns.

Another surprise

• Chairman of the Board of Directors Susan Arnold said of the decision, "Disney was dealt a tough hand by the pandemic, yet with Bob at the helm, our businesses - from parks to streaming - not only weathered the storm but emerged in a position of strength."
• Chapek was a surprise pick for CEO since he was relatively unknown on Wallstreet and Hollywood, but he had worked for Disney for almost 30 years.
• Chapek has had a rocky tenure, from battling Ron Desantis of Florida over Florida's Don't Say Gay Bill to a lawsuit with Scarlet Johanson.

Honor of a lifetime

• Disney stocks rose slightly after the Board announced their support for Chapek.
• Employees criticized Chapek for trying to remain silent after Florida passed the "Don't Say Gay" bill and, when he spoke out against it, entangled Disney in a nasty fight with Governor Ron Desantis, resulting in Disney losing its special economic status for the resort Disney World.
• Chapek is happy to be staying on, saying, "Leading this great company is the honor of a lifetime, and I am grateful to the Board for their support. I started at Disney almost 30 years ago, and today have the privilege of leading one of the world's greatest, most dynamic companies, bringing joy to millions around the world."

Pay to snap

• Snapchat's new subscription is called Snapchat+ and offers exclusive features like a changing app icon and the ability to see who has rewatched your stories.
• The launch is part of a push by Snapchat to increase revenue as the pandemic social-media boom falters and people are spending less time on apps like Snapchat.

Power users

• The subscription is geared toward users who use primarily the platform to communicate with friends and family.
• The subscription essentially upgrades the visual appeal of the platform with new features and more options to personalize the user experience.
• The platform is being released in the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

Make way for revenue

• While Snapchat has said that the new subscription service is unlikely to become a material source of revenue, it's the first time they have tested a subscription-based model.
• Snapchat makes the bulk of its revenue from ads, so the new subscription model could be a test for the company to try and bolster its falling revenue.
• The new platform was released after the company enacted a hiring freeze and a lower-than-anticipated earnings report, which caused its stock to plunge substantially.

Silbermann for Ready

• Bill Ready has held roles at Paypal and has helmed Google's parent company Alphabet's commerce and payment operations for the last two years.
• The transition will facilitate moving from an advertising-based business model to an e-commerce-based model.
• Silbermann has been CEO since the company was founded in 2010 and will transition to the newly created role of Executive Chairman and keep a seat on the company board.

Buy here

• Pinterest has 433 million monthly active users, representing a considerable base for the company to monetize by allowing users to sell goods on the platform.
• The news of the CEO swap sent Pinterest shares 9% higher as investors became excited about the platform's move to e-commerce.

Pin to buy later

• In the announcement, Silbermann told the Wall Street Journal, Bill's actually going to be a better CEO than I am for this next chapter."
• Pinterest has long seemed like a missed opportunity for investors who were frustrated that the platform hadn't made money off the millions of users who pin items they want to buy but go elsewhere to do so.
• In a Linkedin post, Bill Ready wrote: "In the next phase of our journey, we will help people engage more deeply with all the inspiring products and services they find on our platform so they can build their best lives. As someone who has spent most of my career in commerce and payments, it's so clear to me that Pinterest has the opportunity to build something unique—something special."
• Ready will have to hit the ground running to catch up with competitors who invested in e-commerce capability early on.

No conversation here

• According to The New York Times, Meta told their employees not to discuss the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade and has even gone so far as to delete messages on internal communication boards that mention abortion or Roe.
• Meta has said that they would reimburse travel expenses of employees who need to travel out of state to access reproductive care.

Misoprostol or mifepristone who?

• Posts about the FDA-approved at-home abortion pill have circulated on social media through private posts and ad formats from companies who distribute the pill.
• In response, Facebook and Instagram have begun to remove posts that offer the pills to users or attempt to educate them about it. The posts are aimed at women living in states who can no longer access abortions at clinics and who might need to use the at-home pill.
• The spokesperson for Meta, Andy Stone, confirmed via tweet that company policy will not allow individuals to gift or sell pharmaceuticals on its platform but will allow content that educates users on how to access at-home abortion pills on Facebook and Instagram.

Can't post that

• Posts by users that offer to mail at-home abortion pills to people living in states where abortion is now banned are being deleted by Meta.
• Abortion Finder, a site that patients can use to search for reproductive care providers in their area, was suspended by Instagram on Sunday because it offered "restricted goods."
• A post by a Verge reporter offering at-home abortion pills was deleted in just two minutes on Instagram, while a post about guns and weed (also restricted) was not removed.

Oops!

• Meta spokesperson Andy Stone attempted to clarify that the posts were removed by accident as examples of "incorrect enforcement" of their company policy about advertising pharmaceuticals.
• Meta is much more relaxed about posts containing references to drugs or guns, while phrasing like "I will send you abortion pills" got users' posts deleted in mere minutes. Meta now claims they took enforcing their policy too far and will aim to correct the instances where posts were deleted.

Delete your apps

• One of the posts which circulated online after Roe v. Wade was overturned was a call for women to delete their period-tracking apps as states moved to ban abortions.
• Activists and data privacy experts are worried that data from period tracking apps could be used as evidence to show that a woman had an abortion or sought access to one.
• Companies will have to adapt their data sharing policies for users who use the apps the track their periods. Apps have regularly complied with police requests for data, and in states where abortions are criminalized, apps must decide whether they comply with potential investigations.

Protecting privacy

• In states where abortions have been banned, there will also be criminal consequences for obtaining or accessing an abortion. Some states are even looking to criminalize miscarriages.
• Evidence in criminal cases might include period tracking apps, search engine data, and location data.
• Democrats are quickly moving to protect user data on the federal level by allowing tech companies to refuse requests from law enforcement to access individuals' data.
• Lawmakers are also going after platforms like Meta for tracking users' traffic from Facebook to sites of crisis pregnancy centers or anti-abortion clinics.
• Senator Elizabeth Warren introduced the Health and Location Protection Act, which would be enforced by the Federal Trade Commission and state's attorney generals and would ban companies from selling or releasing users' location and health data. It would also provide a pathway for individuals to sue companies that transfer or sell their health data.

Developer's dilemma

• Developers at companies like Flo are rapidly working on ways to anonymize user data.
• Women use the apps to not only track and predict periods but to predict fertility or ovulation. If data shows time without a menstrual cycle, that can be used as evidence of pregnancy.
• Women are also worried that tracking data shows they traveled out of state while not logging a monthly period on the app can be used as evidence of abortion.
• Information from health tracking apps is sometimes already sold to Facebook and Google.

Grand jury suspicions

• Plans for a merger between Donald Trump's media company and the SPAC Digital World Acquisition Corp may have come to a grinding halt now that New York prosecutors have issued subpoenaed board members of the SPAC for financial disclosures and communications.
• The SEC made inquiries into the deal in December when the SPAC snapped up Truth Social, Trump's social media platform, which has had a rocky launch.

Blank check accountability

• Digital world is a so-called "blank check" company which means they are a publically traded company created to merge with or acquire other companies.
• Digital World agreed to take Truth Social public, despite the platform struggling to onboard new users and a relatively low follower count for the former President.
• The SPAC disclosed they were subpoenaed for information regarding Rocket One Capital, which is based in Miami and allegedly courting companies they wanted to acquire before going through an IPO, which is illegal.

Up in the air

• The grand jury's actions throw the financial future of the merger between Digital World and Truth Social up in the air if the SPAC cannot follow through with the merger.
• The investigation is also a blow to the former President's desire to take his media company public.
• In response to the filing, Digital World said that the filings by the grand jury and the SEC "can be expected to delay effectiveness of the registration statement, which could materially delay, materially impede, or prevent the consummation."

Acquired at last

• Zendesk is a software development company, and activist investors have hounded it for the last few months.
• They turned down an acquisition offer in February for $17 billion, believing they were worth more.
• A group of private equity firms, helmed by Permira and Hellman & Friedman, bought the company for $10.2 billion.

What's the deal

• The firms that bought Zendesk plan to take the company private after the acquisition is complete.
• They will give shareholders $77.50 per share, which is a 34% premium over the company's stock price as of yesterday. Zendesk's board unanimously approved the deal.

At long last

• The Zendesk acquisition is slated to be one of the biggest private-equity takeovers of the year.
• The deal was driven by investors frustrated by the company's decision to stay independent. Stocks for the company have rebounded significantly since the news was announced that they were being acquired.

Is there a class for this?

• MasterClass is a platform that features educational videos from mega stars like Steph Curry or Mariah Carey.
• The company experienced rapid growth during the pandemic as many people spent more time online and sought to learn new skills during lockdown-induced bouts of boredom.
• The company announced they have laid off approximately 20% of their staff, 120 employees. The MasterClass CEO called the layoffs a mechanism "to adapt to the worsening macro environment and get to self sustainability faster."

More from Netflix

• Netflix announced they have laid off another 300 employees in the latest round of high-profile layoffs to hit the streaming giant.
• The company let go of 150 employees in May and laid off staff from Netflix's new editorial arm, Tudum, in April.
• The layoffs were in response to an increasingly dark economic forecast for the company, which is struggling to build revenue and rebuild its subscriber base.

Impact on employees

• Since the beginning of 2022, more than 21,500 U.S. tech workers have lost their jobs in a disturbingly steep escalation as the market worsens.
• Hiring freezes or withdrawn job offers significantly impact recent college graduates, many of whom saw job offers and plans to move to new cities evaporate seemingly overnight.
• The layoffs are also impacting the Great Resignation cohort members who are struggling to find new jobs and secure offers.

FDA gets serious

• The Food and Drug Administration ordered the e-cigarette/vape company Juul to remove its products from the US market.
• Juul spun off from the vape maker Pax and caught the attention of the FDA for its marketing and products like mango-flavored nicotine pods directed toward teens and young adults.

Long time coming

• Juul became a target of public health experts for its role in getting teenagers addicted to nicotine vapes in 2018 and 19. So much so that they were forced to discontinue sales of fruity flavors that were popular amongst young adults.
• Juul now only markets menthol and tobacco flavored products.

Application details

• Juul submitted their application to the FDA two years ago, hoping to continue selling its menthol and tobacco flavored products after being shut down from selling the fruity pods.
• The FDA said that Juul's data about the products' toxicity was lacking and confusing, which hindered its ability to evaluate the application.

Betting on NFTs

• eBay is acquiring the marketplace, KnownOrigin for an undisclosed amount. But, KnownOrigin has facilitated about $7.8 million in transactions of NFTs since its inception in 2018.
• CEO Jaime Iannone said the decision was informed by the community of users who want to use the site to sell digital collectibles.

Bid on this

• KnownOrigin is based in the U.K. and lets artists create, buy and sell NFTs.
• eBay launched its own collection of NFTs in partnership with OneOf. Apparently, the success of the collaboration inspired eBay to add functionality to its marketplace.

Next step

• eBay will have to compete with other marketplaces like OpenSea but is relying on the already large community of regular eBay users.
• They started allowing NFT sales and transfers on their site last year. Sellers can list NFTs as physical items, but sellers have requirements they must meet before they can sell the collectible for security reasons.
• Adding KnownOrigin's capability will allow eBay to authenticate and protect transactions further.

Goodbye character count

• Twitter announced they are rolling out a new feature called "Notes," which will allow users to break free from 200-sum characters and share longer write-ups on the platform.
• A select group of writers is testing the feature, and the company hasn't yet released details about the rollout to all users.

When can we use it?

• The new feature will dramatically change the platform, eliminating the need for long-winded threads or tweeted screenshots from the notes app.
• The feature will support content written directly on Twitter and other platforms but linked to Twitter.

Here we go!

• Twitter users will be able to create articles on the platform, complete with formatting and an option to upload media. The content can be liked, shared, and retweeted.
• The company is also launching a new team called the Twitter Write team, which will focus on improving the platform for writers, many of whom rely on the platform for sourcing, sharing their work, and developing their following.