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Tag: Internet

  • U.S. stock futures give up early gains after Wall Street’s best week since June

    U.S. stock futures give up early gains after Wall Street’s best week since June

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    U.S. stock futures gave up strong early-session gains overnight after Wall Street notched its best week since June.

    After initially surging about 300 points, or 1% on Sunday evening, Dow Jones Industrial Average futures
    YM00,
    -0.02%
    were last about flat at midnight Eastern, while S&P 500 futures
    ES00,
    +0.05%
    and Nasdaq-100 futures
    NQ00,
    +0.16%
    similarly gave up sharp early gains.

    The U.S. Dollar Index
    DXY,
    +0.19%
    nudged higher, while the British pound
    GBPUSD,
    +0.12%
    surrendered much of an afternoon rally fueled by the possibility that Rishi Sunak will be Britain’s next prime minister, after Boris Johnson bowed out of the running. Crude prices
    CL.1,
    -0.55%
    ticked slightly higher Sunday.

    On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average
    DJIA,
    +2.47%
     gained 748.97 points, or 2.5%, to close at 31,082.56. The S&P 500
    SPX,
    +2.37%
     climbed 86.97 points, or 2.4%, to finish at 3,752.75, and the Nasdaq Composite
    COMP,
    -0.81%
     rose 244.87 points, or 2.3%, to end at 10,859.72.

    The three major indexes scored their biggest weekly percentage gains since June last week. For the week, the Dow rose 4.9%, the S&P 500 gained 4.7% and the Nasdaq advanced 5.2%.  Yields on 10-year Treasury notes
    TMUBMUSD10Y,
    4.156%
    ended Friday at 4.228%.

    Investors were heartened by reports that the Fed may back off slightly from its aggressive rate-hiking policy later this year.

    The upcoming week is the busiest of the third-quarter earnings season, with 165 S&P 500 companies, including 12 Dow components reporting. That includes earnings from Big Tech companies Alphabet
    GOOGL,
    +1.16%    ,
    Amazon
    AMZN,
    +3.53%    ,
    Apple
    AAPL,
    +2.71%    ,
    Meta
    META,
    -1.16%
    and Microsoft
    MSFT,
    +2.53%    .

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  • Massive Zelda Wiki Reclaims Independence Six Months Before Tears of the Kingdom

    Massive Zelda Wiki Reclaims Independence Six Months Before Tears of the Kingdom

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    Link holds his ground against a ferocious monster in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild's DLC, The Master Trials.

    Earlier this month, the wiki-hosting company Fandom scooped up several games sites, including Giant Bomb and GameSpot, in an acquisition worth $50 million. And that exorbitant price of the sale, coupled with what the website calls “questionable staffing decisions” at the company, has led the Zelda Wiki to break free from “corporate consolidation” and claim its independence from Fandom.

    Opened in 2005 and independent up until its transfer over to Gamepedia hosting in 2017, the Zelda Wiki is one of the biggest fan-run games wikis around. With thousands of entries from games across the entire franchise, you could spend days or weeks scrolling through the digital encyclopedia and probably still not finish it in its entirety. It’s my go-to resource when looking up information on a specific enemy or weapon in Nintendo’s popular franchise, and it hosts 11,199 articles. However, now you’re gonna have to visit a brand-new website if you have bookmarked and/or frequented the old Zelda Wiki.

    Staff at the website announced on Twitter this week that, “after many months of preparation,” the website is now totally independent from Fandom or any other entity.

    “For over a decade, from its creation in 2005 to its transfer to Gamepedia in 2017, the Zelda Wiki was a fully independent site,” the wiki’s EIC wrote. “Even after the transfer, and Gamepedia’s subsequent acquisition by Fandom, Inc., the site sought to continue its mission of curating an editorially independent, high-quality wiki operated by fans. However, we have come to believe that these ideals are incompatible with Fandom.”

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    There was a reason for such a scathing statement. Citing Fandom’s “recent buyouts and questionable staffing decisions,” the Zelda Wiki staff said it wants to “keep the internet free from corporate consolidation” and “hegemonic control.” As such, the team moved the wiki to a new home, though the Fandom one is still up and running.

    Responses to the news have been overwhelmingly positive online. Multiple folks have called this a big win for the Zelda Wiki, while others are looking forward to fewer ads and a better layout on the site. Even the Twitter account for the Fallout Wiki, one of the few publicly feuding with Fandom over intrusive videos and ads on the site, congratulated the Zelda Wiki team for breaking from the company. Generally, there’s some public wariness about Fandom’s growing influence over fan-led Wikis that have provided useful free resources to the community about big franchises. As such, there are now even resources shared for alternatives to Fandom Wikis, and some encouragement in the comments from this announcement to get more Wikis to do the same. While independent Wikis do exist, over the years Fandom has become the more dominant website when people Google for certain topics.

    In Discord messages with Kotaku, community staff member ModdedInkling said the old Fandom wiki will “continue to be updated” by a few volunteers that have chosen to remain there. Just about everyone else, however, will move to the website’s new domain. ModdedInkling also explained what this independence means for the staff.

    “Being ‘editorially independent’ means having full creative control over the wiki’s content under its own policies as opposed to Fandom’s policies,” ModdedInkling said. “This also includes the wiki’s overall appearance (user interface, templates, etc.), which has been one of the main subjects discussed by many independent wikis splitting away from Fandom. Another topic of interest involves avoiding mandated censorship. Certain wikis also have content that involves socio-politics and ethics that are often restricted by Fandom, but are deemed relevant by the community.”

    ModdedInkling extrapolated on the nature of Fandom’s alleged censorship. He said that while nothing has been blocked on the Zelda Wikia (to his knowledge, anyway), there have been some alterations made to entries post-publication on other wikis.

    “Basically, Fandom’s policies may invoke a level of censorship on certain sensitive topics, even if it is relevant towards a work of fiction, if it is deemed to go against their policy,” ModdedInkling said. “Sometimes it may involve altering one’s information as well even if it is less accurate. This can happen through a variety of topics, such as discussions involving the retroactive change of a character’s traits, even if it was historically inaccurate to change it.”

    ModdedInkling brought up one instance where Fandom’s policies got in the way of making what they consider accurate information available. On Wookieepedia, the digital encyclopedia for Star Wars, there were allegedly complications around changing the name of someone who later came out as trans.

    “There was debate involving the naming conventions of someone identifying later as trans,” ModdedInkling said. “The mandate was to retroactively change any of the names displayed for the person or character, even though that was not how they were referred to at the time. I don’t remember if it was a real-life person or a fictional character. It did not cause them to fork, but it was one concern that NIWA had in potential examples involving character pronouns like Vivian from Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, Sheik from Ocarina of Time, or Vilia from Breath of the Wild.”

    ModdedInkling clarified the example to Kotaku, saying it isn’t representative of his or the rest of the Zelda Wiki team’s beliefs. He noted the Nintendo Independent Wiki Alliance, a network of other wikis for Nintendo games, has a goal to “handle sensitive topics with care to prevent any sort of misrepresentation.” This, he noted, aligns with the Zelda Wiki teams’ ideals.

    Kotaku has reached out to Fandom for comment.

    The Zelda Wiki is just the most recent digital encyclopedia to split from its parent company and the third to break away from Fandom specifically in recent memory. Earlier this year, the team behind the Terraria Wiki announced on Steam that it’ll host a new site separate from Fandom. Meanwhile, the Runescape Wiki went indie years ago in response to corporate mandates forcing autoplaying videos in posts. The Zelda Wiki can now be found in the NIWA database, which includes other independent, volunteer-run websites like Bulbapedia (the digital encyclopedia dedicated to all things Pokémon) and SmashWiki.

    Update, 10/21/22, 6:30 p.m. ET: Added a clarifying statement from ModdedInkling.

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    Levi Winslow

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  • Twitter shares slump after report that the U.S. mulls national-security reviews for some of Elon Musk’s ventures

    Twitter shares slump after report that the U.S. mulls national-security reviews for some of Elon Musk’s ventures

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    Shares of Twitter plunged in premarket trade on Friday after a report Biden administration officials are considering subjecting some of Elon Musk’s ventures to national-security reviews.

    Twitter
    TWTR,
    +1.18%
    shares plunged 9% to $47.64 in premarket trade, below the $54.20 per share buyout price.

    Bloomberg News reported late Thursday that some U.S. officials have become concerned in recent weeks by Musk’s Russia-friendly tweets and his threat to cut off Starlink satellite internet service to Ukraine. The Tesla
    TSLA,
    -6.65%
    and SpaceX CEO’s pending $44 billion acquisition of Twitter has also reportedly drawn concerns because of its foreign investors, including a Saudi prince, Binance Holdings — a crypto exchange that was initially based in China — and Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

    Citing anonymous sources familiar with the matter, Bloomberg said discussions are still in the early stages and officials are trying to figure out what regulatory tools are available to them. One option could be a national-security review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, the report said.

    Separately, Bloomberg also reported late Thursday that Musk’s lawyers and bankers are preparing paperwork for the Twitter deal to be completed ahead of a Oct. 28 deadline, and that relations between Musk and Twitter have turned cordial rather than adversarial.

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  • Instacart reportedly puts off its long-anticipated IPO

    Instacart reportedly puts off its long-anticipated IPO

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    Grocery-delivery company Instacart Inc. is delaying its long-awaited initial public offering because of poor market conditions, according to news reports Thursday.

    The New York Times first reported Thursday that the San Francisco-based company has halted its IPO plans, and is awaiting more favorable conditions. Later Thursday night, the Wall Street Journal confirmed the report, citing a memo from Instagram CEO Fidji Simo saying an IPO will be “highly unlikely” this year.

    The IPO market has been severely curtailed this year following a record-setting 2021, as the stock market has slid amid high inflation and recession fears. As of September, the number of U.S. IPOs was down 79% year over year, with total proceeds down 95%, according to Renaissance data.

    According to the Times, Instacart had intended to start the IPO process this week by releasing some financial information, but decided not to, for now, due to market volatility.

    The Journal reported that the IPO had received positive feedback from potential investors, but executives came away with the message that the market will not support a tech IPO at this time.

    “Our business has never been stronger,” Instacart said in a statement Thursday. “In Q3, our revenue grew more than 40% year-over-year, and our net income and adjusted EBITDA more than doubled from Q2. We remain focused on building for the long term, and we are excited about the opportunity ahead.” 

    Instacart confidentially filed for its IPO in May. The company has been one of the more anticipated potential IPOs for years. In July, Instacart cut its estimated valuation for the second time in four months, to $15 billion, nearly 40% less than its previous valuation of $24 billion.

    Last month, the Wall Street Journal reported Instacart didn’t plan on raising much capital in its IPO, instead having most of its listing come from the sale of employees’ shares — a move that could greatly benefit current employees.

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  • Snap investors, do you still trust Evan Spiegel?

    Snap investors, do you still trust Evan Spiegel?

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    When Snap Inc. went public in 2017, this column boiled down the entire investment opportunity to one, simple question: Do you trust Evan Spiegel?

    As Snap
    SNAP,
    -0.64%
    stock heads toward its lowest prices since March 2020, and potentially even lower, that question is even more important, and answering “yes” should be even harder.

    Three months ago, amid the beginning of a huge slowdown in the ad business, Snap initiated a unique dividend meant to ensure that the founders maintained control of the company, even if they sold their stock — protecting themselves. Then in August, news came that Snap was laying off one in five employees. As Snap again reported disappointing results Thursday and saw the stock plunge again, the company decided now was the time to initiate a stock buyback plan, promising to spend up to $500 million to offset the dilution from employee stock plans — in the past nine months, Snap has spent $937 million on stock-based compensation.

    On the face of it, this seems like an investor-friendly approach — Barron’s pointed out earlier this year that investors were suffering while employees were faring better with the hefty stock-comp plans. But it’s also worth pointing out who the biggest investors in Snap are: Spiegel and his co-founder Bobby Murphy.

    As the company’s largest individual shareholders, Spiegel and Murphy are among the key beneficiaries of Snap’s plans to buy back stock, which usually leads to a boost in the stock price. Those two still control over 99% of the voting power of the company’s capital stock, and as the parent of Snapchat reminded investors in its annual report, “Mr. Spiegel alone can exercise voting control over a majority of our outstanding capital stock.”

    Shares of Snap tumbled an additional 25% to just under $8 in after-hours trading, putting them near the lowest prices since March 2020. On Thursday, the company ended regular trading hours with a market capitalization of around $17.91 billion, but that was headed toward $13 billion with the after-hours collapse.

    Besides protecting themselves and their investment, Snap’s executives have shown little ability to head off big issues, nor offer any worthwhile solutions to the current ad downturn. In the third quarter, its revenue grew a paltry 6%, down from the most recent second-quarter revenue growth of 13%. Snap appears to be in a steady revenue slowdown, from its peak growth of 116% in the June 2021 quarter.

    Snap has blamed both privacy changes that Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    -0.33%
    made to the iPhone that affected ad tracking, and more recently, the macroeconomic advertising climate, while avoiding one of the biggest factors — the rise of TikTok. Top executives didn’t seem to see any of those challenges coming early enough, and did not do enough about them once they did.

    “The company was slow to react — or acknowledge — the significant headwinds faced by privacy initiatives, compounded by competition, and more recently macro headwinds,” Colin Sebastian, an analyst at Baird Equity Research, wrote in a note.

    The competition factor, mostly from China’s TikTok, was addressed briefly on the company’s call with analysts, but was not really acknowledged by Snap leaders.

    “We believe that the differentiated nature of our service is what’s contributing to the daily active-user growth, which grew 19% year-over-year to 363 million daily active users,” Spiegel said. “In terms of the content specifically, I think there’s a lot of headroom, of course, to continue to grow content engagement.”

    In the company’s shareholder letter, Spiegel acknowledged that the results were “far from our aspirations,” and that Snap would use this time of reduced demand “to pull forward and accelerate changes to our advertising platform and auction dynamics that we believe will deliver better results for our advertising partner.”

    Spiegel is known for going by his own instincts and not listening to other executives, employees or even market forces, as was noted in a Wall Street Journal report that detailed his push for an unsuccessful product redesign in 2018. While the company appeared to have snapped back from that debacle last year, it is now facing a fiercer rival for young people on social media in the form of TikTok.

    Investors who still have patience to wait and see if this stock ever recovers will also have to stick around with Spiegel — and as our IPO column noted — Snap is unapologetically founder-controlled. No change at the top can ever come unless it is initiated by Spiegel himself. Investors have to make a leap of faith that Spiegel can turn things around, but they need to remember that Spiegel usually thinks about himself first.

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  • Facebook shuttle bus drivers are losing their jobs as Meta slashes costs and employees stay home

    Facebook shuttle bus drivers are losing their jobs as Meta slashes costs and employees stay home

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    A car passes by Facebook’s corporate headquarters location in Menlo Park, California, on March 21, 2018. 

    Josh Edelson | AFP | Getty Images

    Facebook’s plans to cut costs combined with the company’s relaxed remote work policies set the stage for a bunch of shuttle bus staffers to lose their jobs.

    WeDriveU, a key vendor that Meta uses for its commuter shuttles, said it will be reducing staff in and around the social media company’s Silicon Valley headquarters by nearly 100 people beginning in November, according to an employment filing viewed by CNBC. Most are drivers, and some are dispatchers, operations managers and supervisors.

    Meta shuttle vendor Hallcon Corporation, meanwhile, said it’s laying off 63 staffers from its San Francisco location around Nov. 25, due to a “significant draw down of client services,” according to a separate filing.

    “Some employees may be maintained or recalled to work,” a human resources director at Hallcon wrote in the filing. “However, no Hallcon Company employee who is being laid off should count on being recalled.”

    Meta has cut shuttle staffers from other contractor firms as well, according to Stacy Murphy, vice president of Teamsters Bay Area Local 853, a union with over 15,000 members in industries including transportation. Murphy said all of the layoffs are coming from one company: Meta.

    Meta janitorial staff protests job cuts.

    Silicon Valley Rising

    “All four vendors are losing people,” Murphy said, referring to the companies that work with Meta.

    The layoffs are landing as Meta looks to cut costs by 10% or more over the coming months in response to macroeconomic challenges and the company’s general underperformance. Meta reported its first-ever revenue decline in the second quarter and is expected to record another drop when third-quarter numbers land next week.

    The stock is trading near its lowest since early 2019 and is one of the worst performers this year in the S&P 500.

    Bus drivers who shuttled Facebook employees around the Bay Area as the company expanded at a rapid clip over the past decade are in a particularly precarious position. Not only is the company now pulling back on costs but it’s also maintaining more flexibility than its tech peers in allowing employees to work from wherever they want.

    The company opened its office back up to employees in March but gave staffers the option to work remote permanently or in a hybrid model. Many of San Francisco’s small businesses are struggling to stay afloat because of the changes in the workplace.

    Murphy, along with union members, plan to protest Facebook’s cuts, saying it’s “the worst time” to reduce staff as blue-collar workers face rising costs in a market that remains among the priciest in the country. “It’s crazy,” she said of the rising prices.

    Hallcon and WeDriveU did not return requests for comment.

    In July, CNBC reported that Meta had canceled a contract with custodial workers at its headquarters, resulting in job cuts. Earlier this month, janitorial service workers rallied outside of Meta Shop, a retail space in Burlingame, California, to protest working conditions as well as the cuts. The rally was organized by a labor coalition called Silicon Valley Rising and South Bay coalition. Workers held up signs that read “Justice for Janitors” and alleged the company isn’t treating its essential workers fairly.

    Meta janitorial staff protests job cuts.

    Silicon Valley Rising

    Murphy said Meta has cut dozens of shuttle staff over the last three months but that the latest notification of layoffs represents “the biggest we’ve ever seen.”

    Teamsters organized a rally for Thursday afternoon at the busiest intersection around Facebook’s headquarters to protest Meta’s cutbacks. Murphy said one of the union’s efforts is to put pressure on the company to ask employees to return to offices.

    “Other tech companies are demanding they come back — why haven’t they?” Murphy said. “They want to stay at home and that impacts all of the people that support the company’s overall performance.”

    WATCH: Big Tech faces concerning headwinds

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  • Snap stock plummets more than 25% as online advertising continues to struggle

    Snap stock plummets more than 25% as online advertising continues to struggle

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    A bruising year for Snap Inc.’s shares worsened Thursday, as the stock plummeted more than 20% in after-hours trading as executives launched the company’s first major share-repurchase program amid revenue issues in a poor environment for online advertising.

    Snap
    SNAP,
    -0.64%
    executives revealed that revenue increased less than 6% year-over-year in the quarter — its slowest quarterly grow ever recorded — and said that the holiday season is shaping up similarly, with sales increasing 9% so far in the quarter. The social-media company, which laid off roughly 20% of its staff this summer in response to the issues, also declined to provide a full forecast for the important fourth quarter.

    “Our revenue growth continued to decelerate in Q3 and continues to be impacted by a number of factors we have noted throughout the past year, including platform policy changes, macroeconomic headwinds, and increased competition,” executives said in a letter to shareholders, outlining the results. “We are finding that our advertising partners across many industries are decreasing their marketing budgets, especially in the face of operating environment headwinds, inflation-driven cost pressures, and rising costs of capital.”

    “Forward-looking revenue visibility remains incredibly challenging, and this is compounded by the fact that revenue in Q4 is typically disproportionately generated in the back half of the quarter, which further reduces our visibility,” executives explained about the lack of guidance in a letter to investors.

    The board did approve a $500 million share repurchase, a first for the young company. In a news release, executives said that the move was meant “to opportunistically offset a portion of the dilution related to the issuance of restricted stock units to employees as part of the overall compensation program designed to foster an ownership culture.”

    Snap’s results — the first among the major tech companies who rely heavily on digital advertising — likely portend even more turbulent times ahead for Alphabet Inc.’s 
    GOOGL,
    +0.34%
     
    GOOG,
    +0.24%
    Google, Facebook parent company Meta Platforms Inc. 
    META,
    -1.28%    ,
     Twitter Inc. 
    TWTR,
    +1.18%    ,
     Pinterest Inc. 
    PINS,
    -0.30%
    and others in the grip of inflation, a war in Ukraine, foreign-exchange worries and a widening recession.

    Snap’s desultory news sent shares tumbling in extended trading for Pinterest (-8%), Trade Desk Inc.
    TTD,
    +2.26%
    (-5), Meta (-4%) and Google (-3%).

    Deteriorating macroeconomic conditions have left advertisers with little choice but to delay or cancel buys. At the same time, intensifying competition from the likes of TikTok and others has deepened headwinds.

    “As a smaller player, Snap is more susceptible but no platform is immune,” Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg told MarketWatch. “I expect more of the same results next week” when Google and Meta report, she added.

    Snap reported a third-quarter net loss of $359.5 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a loss of 5 cents a share a year ago. Analysts on average were expecting a loss of 24 cents a share.

    Snap’s sales increased less than 6% to $1.13 billion, barely falling short of Street estimates of $1.14 billion. Daily active users rose 19% to 363 million. FactSet analysts had modeled 358.2 million.

    Snap shares initially fell more than 20% in after-hours trading. They closed the regular trading session down 0.6% to $10.79. Shares of Snap have nosedived 77% this year, while the S&P 500 index 
    SPX,
    -0.80%
    is down 23%.

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  • IBM stock rallies on third-quarter results, upbeat forecast

    IBM stock rallies on third-quarter results, upbeat forecast

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    Shares of International Business Machines Corp. rallied in extended trading Wednesday, after the tech software, consulting and infrastructure giant reported third-quarter results that beat expectations and offered up a more upbeat full-year sales forecast.

    IBM
    IBM,
    -0.35%
    reported earnings as Wall Street tries to gauge the impact of a tough foreign-exchange environment, and the state of business spending on tech services amid worries over a downturn. But the company saw gains in hybrid cloud services, products like open-source software platform Red Hat, its consulting services and its zSystems servers and software.

    “Globally, clients view technology as an opportunity to enhance their business, which is evident in the results across our portfolio,” Chief Executive Arvind Krishna said in a statement. He added that he now expects full-year sales growth “above our mid-single-digit model.”

    That’s a bit more optimistic than the forecast he gave over the summer, when IBM reported second-quarter results. Krishna, at that time, said he continued “to expect full-year revenue growth at the high end of our mid-single-digit model.”

    Wall Street expects IBM’s full-year sales to come in at $59.667 billion, according to FactSet. Analysts expect 2022 earnings per share of $9.28. IBM also said it continued to expect around $10 billion in consolidated free cash flow for the year.

    For the third quarter, the company reported a net loss of $3.2 billion, or $3.54 per share, compared with a $1.1 billion profit, or $1.25 per share, in the year-earlier period. On an adjusted basis, IBM earned $1.81 per share.

    Sales came in at $14.1 billion, compared with $13.3 billion a year ago.

    Analysts polled by FactSet expected adjusted earnings per share of $1.79, on revenue of $13.517 billion.

    Revenue in the company’s software segment grew 7.5%. Consulting revenue rose 5.4%, while the company’s infrastructure segment jumped 14.8%.

    Shares gained 4.8% after hours on Wednesday.

    Prior to the results, analysts had zeroed in on the impact of the strong dollar and what Morgan Stanley, in a recent note, described as “continued wage pressure in consulting.” IBM has also been trying to lean more into cloud and AI technology, unloading some businesses in an effort to narrow its focus.

    Last year, in a move toward that goal, IBM spun off its infrastructure services business into Kyndryl Holdings
    KD,
    -2.85%    .
    But afterward, some analysts raised questions about IBM’s ability to grow sales and compete in the cloud-services industry. Francisco Partners, an investment firm, this year also acquired health-care data and analytics assets that were part of IBM’s Watson Health segment.

    In January, IBM declined to provide an earnings-per-share forecast. The company also changed how it organizes its business segments at the beginning of this year.

    But during the spring, Krishna said he saw “demand staying strong” even if economic growth flattens or enters into a brief recession, with the decision to halt business in Russia, following its invasion of Ukraine, the only drag on results.

    IBM stock is down 8% year to date. By comparison, the S&P 500 Index
    SPX,
    -0.67%
    is down 22%.

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  • Red Dead Redemption’s PS Plus Delisting Is Another Bad Omen For Digital Libraries

    Red Dead Redemption’s PS Plus Delisting Is Another Bad Omen For Digital Libraries

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    The protagonist of Red Dead Redemption aims a revolver.

    Image: Rockstar / Kotaku

    If you’ve held off on building up a digital library of games, the original Red Dead Redemption is here to remind you that you might not be missing out after all. Rockstar’s 2010 open world Western was just removed from PS Now/Plus after six years. And as the industry moves to include more subscription and streaming services, it’s not likely to get any better.

    As first spotted by Twitter news account @videotech_, the original Red Dead Redemption evaporated from Sony’s PlayStation streaming titles under PS Plus. First included in 2016 as part of the formerly-named PS Now service, Red Dead is notable for having never received a remaster, despite the celebration it and its zombified expansion earned. Sony’s streaming service remained the only way to play the game on PlayStation consoles after the PS3. Gamers will now have to hunt down a disc for a compatible Xbox console or dive into the waters of emulation to enjoy John Marston’s debut story.

    Playing the original Red Dead Redemption via backwards compatibility on Xbox is perhaps the most direct and best way to play it currently. The game received an enhanced update on Microsoft’s console a few years ago, upping the resolution to 4K on Xbox Series X and 1440p on Series S. That said, hopefully you’ve got access to a good physical copy if you don’t want the digital version, which is still only available in Xbox’s storefront (who could blame you at this point?). With an initial release date of 2010, scratches might be the least of your concern given how susceptible aging DVDs are to disc rot.

    GTA Series Videos

    For those willing to roll up their sleeves with a totally legal copy of the game, RPCS3 offers a path to emulating the experience on PC. For everyone else, this is a reminder that hanging onto the games you like is sometimes worth it. While we’d like to hope these digital services we pay into every month will keep these games accessible, today iss a reminder that such hopes can be dashed real fast.

    G/O Media may get a commission

    It’s almost as if these services are more about ongoing profit streams than legacy preservation. Hmm.

     

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    Claire Jackson

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  • Netflix snaps streak of subscriber declines and beats on earnings, stock jumps 15%

    Netflix snaps streak of subscriber declines and beats on earnings, stock jumps 15%

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    Netflix Inc. added more than 2 million subscribers in the third quarter after stumbling into 2022 with two consecutive quarterly declines, a rebound that sent shares more than 15% higher in after-hours trading Tuesday.

    Netflix 
    NFLX,
    -1.73%
    reported a net gain of 2.41 million subscribers in the third quarter, while analysts on average were forecasting 1.1 million net additions, according to FactSet. That follows a decline of roughly 200,000 subscribers in the first quarter and nearly a million in the second quarter, which has led the company to plan massive changes, including a cheaper, ad-supported streaming tier set to arrive in the fourth quarter.

    In a letter to shareholders, Netflix executives said they expect 4.5 million new subscribers to join in the fourth quarter, with revenue forecast to grow to $7.78 billion from $7.71 billion a year ago. Analysts on average were estimating revenue of $7.97 billion and a net subscriber gain of 4 million for the fourth quarter, according to FactSet.

    “After a challenging first half, we believe we’re on a path to reaccelerate growth,” executives wrote in the letter.

    The news sent Netflix shares up about 15% in after-hours trading following the release of the results, after closing with a 1.7% drop at $240.86. The stretch of subscriber declines has filleted Netflix shares, which have swooned 60% so far this year while the broader S&P 500 index
    SPX,
    +1.14%
    has declined 22.8%.

    The streaming-video giant’s downturn after a pandemic-boosted surge has only intensified pressure from rival streaming services at Walt Disney Co. 
    DIS,
    +1.18%    ,
     Apple Inc. 
    AAPL,
    +0.94%    ,
    Amazon.com Inc. 
    AMZN,
    +2.26%    ,
    Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. 
    WBD,
    +4.55%    ,
    Comcast Corp. 
    CMCSA,
    -0.23%
    and Paramount Global 
    PARA,
    +1.56%    .

    That didn’t stop Netflix executives from taking a pot shot at streaming rivals over profitability. “Our competitors are investing heavily to drive subscribers and engagement, but building a large, successful streaming business is hard — we estimate they are all losing money, with combined 2022 operating losses well over $10 billion, vs. Netflix’s $5 to $6 billion annual operating profit,” Netflix executives said in the shareholder letter.

    A dramatic shift in the video-streaming climate, one in which Disney surpassed Netflix as market leader in July, has prompted a radical makeover at Netflix. Last week, the company announced its long-awaited advertising-supported tier, which debuts Nov. 3 in the U.S. for $6.99 a month. Another 11 countries, including Canada and Mexico, will get the service by Nov. 10. The company has also vowed a crackdown on shared accounts, and is pushing forward on gaming.

    The advertising-supported tier directly acknowledges competition and the necessity of Netflix “adapting to the streaming landscape’s new normal,” Insider Intelligence analyst Ross Benes said in a note late Tuesday.

    For more: Netflix lost its streaming crown to Disney. Here’s how execs expect to win it back.

    Netflix announced third-quarter earnings of $1.4 billion, or $3.10 a share, down from $3.16 a share a year ago. Netflix revenue improved to $7.93 billion in the quarter from $7.48 billion in the same period a year ago, but missed diminished expectations. Analysts polled by FactSet expected earnings of $2.14 a share on sales of $7.84 billion, estimates that had dipped in recent days.

    Tuesday’s results follow some serious self-reflection among Netflix executives on how to stanch a decline in visits among subscribers that has led to cancellations. Co-CEO Reed Hastings has consulted with staff to find ways to make subscribers visit the platform more frequently, according to reports by The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.

    One such strategy is cracking down on multiple users sharing the same account. In the shareholder letter, Netflix said it has “landed on a thoughtful approach to monetize account sharing and we’ll begin rolling this out more broadly starting in early 2023.”

    “After listening to consumer feedback, we are going to offer the ability for borrowers to transfer their Netflix profile into their own account, and for sharers to manage their devices more easily and to create sub-accounts (‘extra member’), if they want to pay for family or friends,” the letter said. “In countries with our lower-priced ad-supported plan, we expect the profile transfer option for borrowers to be especially popular.”

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  • Apple to launch a foldable iPad rather than iPhone in 2024, analyst predicts

    Apple to launch a foldable iPad rather than iPhone in 2024, analyst predicts

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    Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks at an event at the Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, on Sept. 7, 2022. At a presentation dubbed Far Out, Apple is set to unveil the iPhone 14 line, a fresh slate of smartwatches and new AirPods.

    Nic Coury | Bloomberg | Getty Images

    Apple will likely launch an iPad with a folding screen in 2024, analyst firm CCS Insight said on Tuesday, forecasting the U.S. technology giant will begin experimenting with foldable technology soon.

    CCS Insight published its annual predictions report on Tuesday in which the group’ analysts make forecasts about future products and trends.

    In the latest report, CCS Insight predicted Apple would launch a foldable iPad in two years’ time rather than start with a foldable iPhone.

    This is contrary to other smartphone makers like Samsung which have launched foldable smartphones rather than tablets.

    “Right now it doesn’t make sense for Apple to make a foldable iPhone. We think they will shun that trend and probably dip a toe in the water with a foldable iPad,” Ben Wood, chief of research at CCS Insight, told CNBC in an interview.

    “A folding iPhone will be super high risk for Apple. Firstly, it would have to be incredibly expensive in order to not cannibalize the existing iPhones,” Wood added.

    Read more about tech and crypto from CNBC Pro

    The analyst said that a foldable iPhone would likely need to cost around $2,500. Apple’s iPhone 14 Pro Max with the largest storage, which is the most expensive model currently, costs around $1,599.

    Wood also said that if Apple had any technical issues with the foldable phone, then it would be a “feeding frenzy” with critics attacking Apple for the problems.

    Still, Apple has “no option but to react because the trend toward foldables is gathering momentum,” Wood said, hence the company will begin with an iPad.

    He said it would give Apple a chance to learn how to implement and scale foldable screen technology as well as “breathe new life” into the iPad range.

    Apple was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

    There have been a number of rumblings about Apple’s intentions with foldable screen products. Earlier this year, market research firm Display Supply Chain Consultants said Apple is unlikely to enter the foldable smartphone market until 2025 at the earliest. However, the company said that Apple is exploring foldable technology for displays of around 20 inches in size. That could be focused on a new foldable notebook product, the market research company said.

    Predictions about a foldable iPhone meanwhile have been around for at least four years. Last year, Ming-Chi Kuo of TF International Securities, a prominent Apple analyst known for his credible predictions, said the company could release an iPhone with a folding screen in 2024.

    Apple to combine 5G and processor in chip

    CCS Insight also predicts that Apple will continue investing in its own chip design.

    Currently, the Cupertino giant designs its own custom chips for iPhone and iPad. It relies on U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm for modems that allow these devices to connect to mobile internet networks for 5G connectivity.

    However, CCS Insight said that Apple is likely to integrate its own 5G modem into the A series of processor for a “single-chip” solution for iPhones in 2025.

    Apple acquired Intel’s modem business in 2019. That led to speculation that the tech giant would very quickly ditch Qualcomm and use its own modems in its devices. However, that hasn’t happened yet.

    Kuo of TF International Securities said in June he expects the company to continue to use Qualcomm chips for iPhones released in 2023.

    Wood said that Apple has been “ramping up in-house capabilities” so it can use its own modems in iPhones.

    “They (Apple) have been shooting for this target for years. They acquired the assets from Intel of the modem unit, they have been working hard to ramp that up, they are very keen to make sure they keep growing their control points they have,” Wood said.

    “They don’t want to have to keep paying a third party supplier for their technology.”

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  • These 11 stocks can lead your portfolio’s rebound after the S&P 500 ‘earnings recession’ and a market bottom next year

    These 11 stocks can lead your portfolio’s rebound after the S&P 500 ‘earnings recession’ and a market bottom next year

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    This may surprise you: Wall Street analysts expect earnings for the S&P 500 to increase 8% during 2023, despite all the buzz about a possible recession as the Federal Reserve tightens monetary policy to quell inflation.

    Ken Laudan, a portfolio manager at Kornitzer Capital Management in Mission, Kan., isn’t buying it. He expects an “earnings recession” for the S&P 500
    SPX,
    +2.78%
    — that is, a decline in profits of around 10%. But he also expects that decline to set up a bottom for the stock market.

    Laudan’s predictions for the S&P 500 ‘earnings recession’ and bottom

    Laudan, who manages the $83 million Buffalo Large Cap Fund
    BUFEX,
    -2.86%
    and co-manages the $905 million Buffalo Discovery Fund
    BUFTX,
    -2.82%    ,
    said during an interview: “It is not unusual to see a 20% hit [to earnings] in a modest recession. Margins have peaked.”

    The consensus among analysts polled by FactSet is for weighted aggregate earnings for the S&P 500 to total $238.23 a share in 2023, which would be an 8% increase from the current 2022 EPS estimate of $220.63.

    Laudan said his base case for 2023 is for earnings of about $195 to $200 a share and for that decline in earnings (about 9% to 12% from the current consensus estimate for 2022) to be “coupled with an economic recession of some sort.”

    He expects the Wall Street estimates to come down, and said that “once Street estimates get to $205 or $210, I think stocks will take off.”

    He went further, saying “things get really interesting at 3200 or 3300 on the S&P.” The S&P 500 closed at 3583.07 on Oct. 14, a decline of 24.8% for 2022, excluding dividends.

    Laudan said the Buffalo Large Cap Fund was about 7% in cash, as he was keeping some powder dry for stock purchases at lower prices, adding that he has been “fairly defensive” since October 2021 and was continuing to focus on “steady dividend-paying companies with strong balance sheets.”

    Leaders for the stock market’s recovery

    After the market hits bottom, Laudan expects a recovery for stocks to begin next year, as “valuations will discount and respond more quickly than the earnings will.”

    He expects “long-duration technology growth stocks” to lead the rally, because “they got hit first.” When asked if Nvidia Corp.
    NVDA,
    +6.14%
    and Advanced Micro Devices Inc.
    AMD,
    +3.69%
    were good examples, in light of the broad decline for semiconductor stocks and because both are held by the Buffalo Large Cap Fund, Laudan said: “They led us down and they will bounce first.”

    Laudan said his “largest tech holding” is ASML Holding N.V.
    ASML,
    +3.79%    ,
    which provides equipment and systems used to fabricate computer chips.

    Among the largest tech-oriented companies, the Buffalo Large Cap fund also holds shares of Apple Inc.
    AAPL,
    +3.09%    ,
    Microsoft Corp.
    MSFT,
    +3.88%    ,
    Amazon.com Inc.
    AMZN,
    +6.63%
    and Alphabet Inc.
    GOOG,
    +3.91%

    GOOGL,
    +3.73%    .

    Laudan also said he had been “overweight’ in UnitedHealth Group Inc.
    UNH,
    +1.77%    ,
    Danaher Corp.
    DHR,
    +2.64%
    and Linde PLC
    LIN,
    +2.25%
    recently and had taken advantage of the decline in Adobe Inc.’s
    ADBE,
    +2.32%
    price following the announcement of its $20 billion acquisition of Figma, by scooping up more shares.

    Summarizing the declines

    To illustrate what a brutal year it has been for semiconductor stocks, the iShares Semiconductor ETF
    SOXX,
    +2.12%    ,
    which tracks the PHLX Semiconductor Index
    SOX,
    +2.29%
    of 30 U.S.-listed chip makers and related equipment manufacturers, has dropped 44% this year. Then again, SOXX had risen 38% over the past three years and 81% for five years, underlining the importance of long-term thinking for stock investors, even during this terrible bear market for this particular tech space.

    Here’s a summary of changes in stock prices (again, excluding dividends) and forward price-to-forward-earnings valuations during 2022 through Oct. 14 for every stock mentioned in this article. The stocks are sorted alphabetically:

    Company

    		 Ticker

    		 2022 price change

    		 Forward P/E

    		 Forward P/E as of Dec. 31, 2021
    Apple Inc.

    		 AAPL,
    +3.09%         		-22%

    		 22.2

    		 30.2
    Adobe Inc.

    		 ADBE,
    +2.32%         		-49%

    		 19.4

    		 40.5
    Amazon.com Inc.

    		 AMZN,
    +6.63%         		-36%

    		 62.1

    		 64.9
    Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

    		 AMD,
    +3.69%         		-61%

    		 14.7

    		 43.1
    ASML Holding N.V. ADR

    		 ASML,
    +3.79%         		-52%

    		 22.7

    		 41.2
    Danaher Corp.

    		 DHR,
    +2.64%         		-23%

    		 24.3

    		 32.1
    Alphabet Inc. Class C

    		 GOOG,
    +3.91%         		-33%

    		 17.5

    		 25.3
    Linde PLC

    		 LIN,
    +2.25%         		-21%

    		 22.2

    		 29.6
    Microsoft Corp.

    		 MSFT,
    +3.88%         		-32%

    		 22.5

    		 34.0
    Nvidia Corp.

    		 NVDA,
    +6.14%         		-62%

    		 28.9

    		 58.0
    UnitedHealth Group Inc.

    		 UNH,
    +1.77%         		2%

    		 21.5

    		 23.2
    Source: FactSet

    You can click on the tickers for more about each company. Click here for Tomi Kilgore’s detailed guide to the wealth of information available free on the MarketWatch quote page.

    The forward P/E ratio for the S&P 500 declined to 16.9 as of the close on Oct. 14 from 24.5 at the end of 2021, while the forward P/E for SOXX declined to 13.2 from 27.1.

    Don’t miss: This is how high interest rates might rise, and what could scare the Federal Reserve into a policy pivot

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  • UK gives telco firms more time to remove Huawei 5G equipment from their networks

    UK gives telco firms more time to remove Huawei 5G equipment from their networks

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    An image of a woman holding a cell phone in front of a Huawei logo displayed on a computer screen. Canada on Thursday said it plans to ban the use of China’s Huawei Technologies and ZTE 5G gearto protect national security, joining the rest of the so-called Five Eyes intelligence-sharing network.

    Artur Widak | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    LONDON — The U.K. government extended a deadline for telecom companies to remove equipment from Chinese tech giant Huawei from their 5G mobile networks.

    Telcos will now have until December 2023 to remove Huawei equipment, such as that used at phone mast sites and telephone exchanges, from their network “cores” — where some of the most sensitive data is processed. The government had originally ordered them to do so by January.

    Meanwhile, a requirement for firms to reduce the level of Huawei equipment in their non-core networks to 35% has been delayed to October 31 2023 — later than an initial July ultimatum.

    They will still need to ban new Huawei 5G installments and completely eliminate it from their networks by the end of 2027. The order was enshrined in law last year with a piece of legislation called the Telecoms Security Act.

    Prime Minister Liz Truss’s government has sent legal notices to 35 U.K. telecoms network operators to officially enforce the move.

    Britain had initially said it would allow Huawei in its rollout of 5G networks. But in 2020, the government opted to ban Huawei over data security concerns. The Shenzhen-based firm was classed as a “high risk” vendor, meaning it posed possible risks to national security.

    Officials on either side of the Atlantic are worried Huawei’s technology could allow China to spy on sensitive communications and other data. Huawei has long denied the claims and said moves to block it are “politically motivated.”

    That decision was a result of the National Cyber Security Centre’s emergency review of Huawei shortly after the U.S. imposed sanctions on the Chinese giant cutting it off from key semiconductor supplies. The move also came amid an intense trade battle between China and the U.S. — a close ally to the U.K.

    Previously, telecoms groups like BT and Vodafone had been told to remove Huawei 5G equipment from their “core” by January 2023. However, some companies took issue with the measures, concerned this didn’t give them enough time to strip out the equipment from their infrastructure, a costly exercise.

    In June, BT requested an extension beyond the government’s January 2023 for removal of Huawei from core 5G infrastructure, saying it might not meet the deadline due to delays caused by Covid-19 lockdowns. BT CEO Philip Jansen had even warned the ban may result network outages for customers.

    Vodafone has already removed Huawei from its core.

    In a press release Thursday, the government said it extended the January 2023 deadline to “balance the need to remove Huawei as swiftly as possible while avoiding unnecessary instability in networks.”

    A BT spokesperson wasn’t immediately available when contacted for comment by CNBC.

    U.K. Digital Minister Michelle Donelan said: “We must have confidence in the security of our phone and internet networks which underpin so much about our economy and everyday lives.”

    She added: “Thanks to this government’s tough new laws we can drive up the security of telecoms infrastructure and control the use of high-risk equipment. Today I’m using these powers and making it a legal requirement for Huawei to be removed from 5G networks by 2027.”

    Ian Levy, technical director of the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre, said: “Society increasingly relies on telecoms and the NCSC, government and industry partners work closely to help ensure that these networks are secure and resilient in the long term.”

     “The Telecoms Security Act ensures we can be confident in the resilience of the everyday services on which we rely, and the legal requirements in this Designated Vendor Direction are a key part of the security journey,” he added.

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  • Trump social-media SPAC jumps on report Google allows Truth Social

    Trump social-media SPAC jumps on report Google allows Truth Social

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    Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp.,
    DWAC,
    -1.12%
    the special-purpose acquisition company planning to take former President Donald Trump’s media-ventures company public, jumped 10% after Axios reported that Truth Social, Trump’s social media platform, received approval from Google for distribution on its Google Play Store. Axios noted that nearly half of smartphone users in the U.S. use Google’s Android platform, and said Truth Social “had to commit to enforcing its own website policies that forbid things like inciting violence.” The approval follows a launch of a platform that has run into technical glitches, legal issues and challenges related financial matters and user engagement.

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  • Infowars host Alex Jones ordered by Connecticut jury to pay $965 million over Sandy Hook ‘hoax’ claims

    Infowars host Alex Jones ordered by Connecticut jury to pay $965 million over Sandy Hook ‘hoax’ claims

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    WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — The conspiracy theorist Alex Jones should pay $965 million to people who suffered from his false claim that the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a hoax, a jury in Connecticut decided Wednesday.

    The verdict is the second big judgment against the Infowars host over his relentless promotion of the lie that the 2012 massacre never happened, and that the grieving families seen in news coverage were actors hired as part of a plot to take away people’s guns.

    It came in a lawsuit filed by the relatives of five children and three educators killed in the mass shooting, plus an FBI agent who was among the first responders to the scene. A Texas jury in August awarded nearly $50 million to the parents of another slain child.

    “ Experts testified that Jones’s audience swelled when he made Sandy Hook a topic on the show, as did his revenue from product sales. ”

    The Connecticut trial featured tearful testimony from parents and siblings of the victims, who told about how they were threatened and harassed for years by people who believed the lies told on Jones’s show.

    Strangers showed up at their homes to record them. People hurled abusive comments on social media. Erica Lafferty, the daughter of slain Sandy Hook principal Dawn Hochsprung, testified that people mailed rape threats to her house.

    Mark Barden told of how conspiracy theorists had urinated on the grave of his 7-year-old son, Daniel, and threatened to dig up the coffin.

    Superior Court Judge Barbara Bellis discusses a question from the jury with attorneys on Tuesday.


    H. John Voorhees III/Hearst Connecticut Media/AP

    Testifying during the trial, Jones acknowledged he had been wrong about Sandy Hook. The shooting was real, he said. But both in the courtroom and on his show, he was defiant.

    He called the proceedings a “kangaroo court,” mocked the judge, called the plaintiffs’ lawyer an ambulance chaser and labeled the case an affront to free speech rights. He claimed it was a conspiracy by Democrats and the media to silence him and put him out of business. “I’ve already said ‘I’m sorry’ hundreds of times, and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” he said during his testimony.

    Twenty children and six adults died in the shooting on Dec. 14, 2012. The defamation trial was held at a courthouse in Waterbury, about 20 miles from Newtown, where the attack took place.

    The lawsuit accused Jones and Infowars’ private parent company, Free Speech Systems, of using the mass killing to build his audience and make millions of dollars.

    Experts testified that Jones’s audience swelled when he made Sandy Hook a topic on the show, as did his revenue from product sales.

    Don’t miss: Alex Jones’s audience and Infowars’ revenue grew as Jones alleged Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax

    Also: Alex Jones has created a ‘living hell’ of harassment and death threats, testify Sandy Hook school parents

    In both the Texas lawsuit and the one in Connecticut, judges found the company liable for damages by default after Jones failed to cooperate with court rules on sharing evidence, including failing to turn over records that might have showed whether Infowars had profited from knowingly spreading misinformation about mass killings.

    See: Texas jury orders Alex Jones to pay more than $49 million in damages in Sandy Hook case

    Because he was already found liable, Jones was barred from mentioning free-speech rights and other topics during his testimony.

    Jones now faces a third trial, in Texas around the end of the year, in a lawsuit filed by the parents of another child killed in the shooting.

    It is unclear how much of the verdicts Jones can afford to pay.

    During the trial in Texas, he testified he couldn’t afford any judgment over $2 million. Free Speech Systems has filed for bankruptcy protection. But an economist testified in the Texas proceeding that Jones and his company were worth as much as $270 million.

    Read on: Alex Jones’s Infowars picks new CRO for bankruptcy

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  • Elon Musk’s Private Messages with Billionaire Pals

    Elon Musk’s Private Messages with Billionaire Pals

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    In Musk v. Twitter, a part of the business life of the richest man in the world is revealed. 

    Private messages exchanged with his inner circle immerse us into his process when he conceives an idea.

    The messages were released by the Delaware Chancery Court as part of the proceedings between the two parties. 

    The revelation of these private messages is undoubtedly one of the reasons which led the billionaire to put back on the table his offer to acquire the platform for $44 billion. And to demand that Twitter  (TWTR)  drop its legal action in exchange.

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  • $570 million worth of Binance’s BNB token stolen in another major crypto hack

    $570 million worth of Binance’s BNB token stolen in another major crypto hack

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    Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

    Jakub Porzycki | Nurphoto | Getty Images

    Cryptocurrency exchange Binance temporarily suspended its blockchain network late Thursday after hackers made off with around $570 million worth of its BNB token.

    Binance said a cross-chain bridge linking with its BNB Chain was targeted, enabling hackers to move BNB tokens off the network. So-called cross-chain bridges are tools that allow the transfer of tokens from one blockchain to another.

    The company said it had worked with transaction validators to pause creation of new blocks on BSC, suspending all transaction processing while a team of developers investigates the breach.

    Binance is the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume.

    “An exploit on a cross-chain bridge, BSC Token Hub, resulted in extra BNB. We have asked all validators to temporarily suspend BSC,” Changpeng Zhao, Binance’s CEO, said in a tweet Thursday evening.

    “The issue is contained now. Your funds are safe. We apologize for the inconvenience and will provide further updates accordingly.”

    BNB Chain has since resumed operations.

    In total, hackers drained 2 million BNB tokens — about $570 million at current prices — from the network, Binance’s BNB Chain said in a blog post on Friday.

    The exploit was enabled “through a sophisticated forging of the low level proof into one common library,” BNB Chain said.

    An earlier estimate from the company placed the total amount withdrawn in a range of $100 million to $110 million.

    The company said it managed to freeze $7 million of funds with the help of its security partners..

    The value of BNB sank more than 3% Friday morning to $285.36 a coin, according to CoinMarketCap data.

    BNB Chain, originally known as Binance Chain, was first developed by Binance in 2019. Like other blockchains, it features a native token, called BNB, that can be traded or used in games and other applications.

    It is the latest in a series of major hacks targeting cross-chain bridges, with instances of sloppy engineering making them a prime target for cybercriminals.

    A total of around $1.4 billion has been lost to breaches on cross-chain bridges since the start of 2022, according to data from blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis.

    The crypto industry has had a rough year, with roughly $2 trillion in value being erased since the peak of a blistering rally from 2020 to 2021. The implosion of $60 billion blockchain venture Terra and a worsening macroeconomic environment have severely impacted market sentiment.

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  • Judge delays Twitter v. Elon Musk trial to allow deal to close

    Judge delays Twitter v. Elon Musk trial to allow deal to close

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    The judge in a legal battle between Twitter Inc.
    TWTR,
    -3.72%
    and Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    -1.11%
    Chief Executive Elon Musk on Thursday delayed their trial, previously set for Oct. 17, to give the sides time to close the $44 billion acquisition at the heart of the beef. Trial was set to begin Oct. 17 in Delaware Chancery Court, but Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick ruled Thursday afternoon that the two sides would have until Oct. 28 to close the transaction. If Musk has not closed on his deal to buy Twitter by then, a trial date will be set for November, the judge ruled.

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  • Elon Musk would lose 13.5 million Twitter followers if he scraps most spam accounts; Justin Bieber would lose 27.6 million, data finds

    Elon Musk would lose 13.5 million Twitter followers if he scraps most spam accounts; Justin Bieber would lose 27.6 million, data finds

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    Elon Musk would lose about 13.5 million Twitter followers, if he pushes through his plan to get rid of most spam accounts, according to data crunched by CodeClan, a Scottish digital skills academy.

    The Tesla Inc.
    TSLA,
    -3.84%
    CEO on Tuesday gave up a legal battle and agreed to pay $44 billion to take over the social-media company. Musk has said he wants less than 5% of Twitter
    TWTR,
    -2.35%
    accounts to be spam.

    But Musk’s losses pale in comparison with singer Justin Bieber, who would lose 27.6 million of his 114.2 million followers, according to the data.

    Britney Spears would lose the highest percentage of fake followers out of the top 20 with some 48% of her 55.8 million followers being classified as fakes.

    See also: Elon Musk says Twitter will eventually be part of ‘X, the everything app’

    Former President Barack Obama would lose 19.3 million of his 131.9 million followers, the data shows.

    Among other high profile names; Katy Perry has about 23.3 million fakes among her 108.9 million followers, or 21.4% of the total; Rihanna has about 26.5 million fakes, or 24.9% of her 106.5 million followers; Lady Gaga has 10.9 million fakes in her roster of 84.7 million followers, for 12.9% of the total; Kim Kardashian has about 14 million fakes, or 19.4% of her 72.4 million followers, and Ellen DeGeneres has about 24.4 million fakes, equal to 31.5% of her 77.5 million followers.

    See now: Elon Musk’s legal battle with Twitter may be over, but his war with the SEC continues

    In the world of politics, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has about 17.5 million fakes in his 78.8 million followers, equal to 22.2% of the total.

    CNN Breaking News has about 7.7 million fakes, or 12.2% of its 63.1 million followers. Bill Gates has about 14.3 million fakes, or 24.2% of his 58.9 million followers. And NASA has some 14.7 million fakes, or 26.8% of its 57.1 million followers.

    Twitter shares were slightly lower premarket, while Tesla was down 1.1%.

    Shares of Digital World Acquisition Corp.
    DWAC,
    +0.03%    ,
    the special-purpose acquisition company, or SPAC, buying the company behind former President Donald Trump’s Truth Social social-media company, was slightly higher premarket after falling more than 5% Tuesday in the wake of the Musk/Twitter news.

    The SPAC has fallen 67% in the year to date, while the S&P 500
    SPX,
    -1.28%
    has fallen 20%.

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  • Amazon freezes corporate hiring in its retail business

    Amazon freezes corporate hiring in its retail business

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    Amazon is pausing hiring for corporate roles in its retail business, according to a report published Tuesday by The New York Times.

    The company confirmed the accuracy of the report to CNBC.

    Amazon instructed recruiters to close all open job postings for those roles in the coming days, and recommended they cancel some recruiting activities, such as phone calls to screen new candidates, the Times reported, citing internal communications.

    Amazon spokesperson Brad Glasser said the retail giant continues to have a significant number of open roles across the company.

    “We have many different businesses at various stages of evolution, and we expect to keep adjusting our hiring strategies in each of these businesses at various junctures,” Glasser said in a statement.

    The Amazon headquarters sits virtually empty on March 10, 2020 in downtown Seattle, Washington. In response to the coronavirus outbreak, Amazon recommended all employees in its Seattle office to work from home, leaving much of downtown nearly void of people.

    John Moore | Getty Images

    Amazon is the latest company to reevaluate its hiring plans amid concerns of an economic downturn. Several companies including Google, Apple and Meta have announced they will slow or temporarily pause hiring altogether. Companies are also looking for ways to cut costs to gird for potential headwinds.

    Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has worked swiftly to rein in costs as the company grapples with slowing growth in its core retail business, which still accounts for the lion’s share of Amazon’s revenue.

    The retail business enjoyed breakneck growth during the Covid-19 pandemic as consumers avoided trips to physical stores and flocked to online retailers. By early 2022, e-commerce spending began to decelerate, and Amazon in the first quarter reported its slowest rate of revenue growth since the dot-com bust in 2001.

    Jassy has assured investors he’s focused on returning to a “healthy level of profitability” after slowing retail sales and rising costs ate into Amazon’s earnings. In recent months, Amazon has closed or cancelled the launch of new facilities, and it’s delaying the opening of some new buildings after its pandemic-driven expansion left it with too much warehouse space.

    It has also closed nearly all of its U.S. call centers in a bid to save on real estate, Bloomberg reported.

    The company is also contending with too many workers after it went on a pandemic hiring spree. In the second quarter, Amazon shaved its headcount by 99,000 people to 1.52 million employees.

    WATCH: Watch CNBC’s full interview with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on first annual letter to shareholders

    Watch CNBC's full interview with Amazon CEO Andy Jassy on first annual letter to shareholders

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