Silicon Valley Tech News Roundup – October 9th
Elon Musk wants to complete the Twitter deal, but Twitter doesn’t trust the deal will come through – 9/9
In a court filing on Thursday, Musk and his legal team claim he wants to complete the Twitter deal by the end of the month. However, the company “will not take yes for an answer.”
The judge responsible for the case postponed the legal proceedings until October 28 at the request of Elon Musk to give the two sides time to agree on the deal. Based on Musk’s filing, Twitter has reservations about the “theoretical possibility of a future failure to obtain debt financing.” Furthermore, the court filing reads: “Yet, Twitter will not take yes for an answer. Astonishingly they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests.”
Meanwhile, in Twitter’s filing with the Delaware Chancery Court, the company states it is against suspending litigation. Also, the filing claims Twitter does not believe Musk citing one of the banks that is supposed to help finance the deal. The bank’s representatives claim it has not received any notice that Musk plans to move forward with the deal.
On Friday, Tesla shares traded at $223.07, a drop of almost 16%. Analysts attribute the slump to several factors that include Tesla’s failure to provide the expected number of vehicle deliveries, a lackluster 2022 Tesla AI Day event, and Musk’s stance on the Ukraine – Russia conflict he posted on Twitter.
President Biden signs an executive order protecting the EU – US personal data transfers – 9/7
President Biden signed an executive order that directs the government’s efforts to implement the EU – US Data Privacy Framework. It requires various intelligence agencies to “take into consideration” civil and privacy liberties before seeking data. Likewise, the agencies are required to conduct surveillance only when there is a clearly defined need to address national security concerns.
The executive order also outlines a “multi-layer” review process for EU residents’ privacy violation complaints. Civic liberties officer within The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) will be responsible for investigating potential lawbreaking. Meanwhile, Attorney General will review these findings and issue binding rulings via the newly established Data Protection Review Court. Intelligence agencies are required to update their policies on data handling. These will be subject to reviews to keep them in line.
The European Commission needs to examine the framework and decide whether it offers enough protection.
Samsung expects a 32% drop in profits due to the economic slowdown – 9/7
Samsung published its estimates that cover three months (until the end of September) and stated it expects its profit to drop 32%.
The company attributes the slump to several factors. Reasons include shrinking demand for electronic devices and consequently less demand for microchips that power them. Customers are cutting down on purchases as the cost of living rises globally. As a result, Samsung’s microprocessor production suffered as the price of microchips weakened. Samsung’s estimates denote the company’s first year-on-year decline in quarterly profits in three years.
Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), the US-based chip maker, also suffered losses due to lower demand for computers. AMD’s estimates for the third quarter are $1 billion less than previously forecast. Lisa Su (Chief Executive of AMD) stated: “The PC market weakened significantly in the quarter.” She further added weak economic conditions drove the demand lower than expected. AMD shares were down 4.5% after the announcement.
Industry analysts predict the prices of memory chips will continue to go down. They also do not expect the demand to recover until early next year.
Amazon to hire 150.000 workers to handle the holiday rush – 9/6
On Thursday, Amazon announced its plans to hire 150.000 in the United States to handle the holiday rush. The company is hiring full-time, part-time, and seasonal workers for its warehouses. To attract new workers, Amazon raised the starting salary for its warehouse and delivery workers from $18 per hour to over $19 per hour. The company also offers sign-up bonuses that range from $1000 to $3000.
On October 11 and 12, Amazon will host the “Prime Early Access Sale.” It is the first time the company is hosting two such events in one year. The event will serve as an early kickoff for the holiday season, which analysts expect will be much slower this year due to inflation and recession.
Due to the economic downturn and pandemic-driven expansion, Amazon had to trim expenses across the company. In the second quarter of the year, the company went down to 1.52 million employees (it let go of 99.000 people). Likewise, Amazon had to delay opening new buildings (pandemic-driven expansion left the company with too much warehouse space) and closed the launch of new facilities.
