Twitter: Musk wants new CEO by end of year, as he warns of AI regulation and insists there are no aliens February 15, 2023 Billionaire Elon Musk has said he anticipates finding a chief executive for Twitter “probably toward the end of this year”. Speaking via a video call to the World Government Summit in Dubai, Musk said making sure the platform can function remained the most important thing for him. “I think I need to stabilise the organisation [...]
Betfair owner Flutter gambles on US market with plans to embark on secondary listing February 14, 2023 Flutter, the UK betting group that owns Betfair and Paddy Power, is contemplating a secondary listing in the US to tap into the American gambling market. The world’s largest online betting group plans to consult shareholders “extensively” on the matter and prioritise it over plans to list a stake in its US business, FanDuel, which [...]
Watch: BBC chair Richard Sharp must ‘fall on his sword’ and quit honourably, veteran broadcaster Jonathan Dimbleby says February 14, 2023 Richard Sharp is facing growing calls to “fall on his sword” and resign as BBC chairman over the cronyism row caused by him helping Boris Johnson secure an £800,000 loan facility. Rishi Sunak was standing by the embattled former banker despite a highly-critical cross-party report by MPs finding Sharp chairman made “significant errors of judgment”. [...]
BBC ‘fully co-operating’ as offices raided by India tax officials after documentary on PM Narendra Modi February 14, 2023 Officials from India’s Income Tax department began conducting searches on Tuesday at the BBC’s offices in the capital, New Delhi. It comes weeks after the British broadcaster released a controversial documentary that examined prime minister Narendra Modi’s role during 2002 anti-Muslim riots. Teams from the tax department surveyed the BBC’s Delhi and Mumbai offices, the [...]
Tech rout continues as Yahoo staff cull adds to over 30,000 job losses in sector this year February 10, 2023 Yahoo has become the latest tech giant to announce huge job losses, as the cost of living crisis forces digital advertisers to reign back on their spending. The American web provider said it was axing over 20 per cent of its entire workforce, with the cuts expected to make 1,600 current workers redundant, including 1,000 [...]
News Corp: Rupert Murdoch titan to cut 1,250 jobs citing interest rate and inflation surge February 10, 2023 Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp has said it will cut 1,250 jobs, around 5% of its workforce, after inflation cut into profits at the media giant. The publishing company, which owns The Times and Sun newspapers in the UK, missed earnings expectations for the latest quarter. Robert Thomson, chief executive of News Corp, said: “Obviously, a [...]
Google: Alphabet’s shares tank eight per cent after video blunder involving its version of ChatGPT February 9, 2023 Google’s parent company Alphabet’s shares plummeted yesterday after its brand new AI chatbot answered a question wrong during a promotional video. The owner of Google saw shares crash almost eight per cent on Wednesday, causing a $100bn (£82bn) loss to its value. This comes after Alphabet announced that Google would be launching an integrating its [...]
Taking the Mickey: Disney to slash 7,000 jobs in bid to save £4.5bn as part of ‘significant transformation’ February 9, 2023 The Walt Disney Co has said it will cut about 7,000 jobs as part of a “significant transformation” announced by CEO Bob Iger. The job cuts amount to about three per cent of the entertainment giant’s global workforce and were announced after Disney reported quarterly results that topped Wall Street’s forecasts. Mr Iger returned as [...]
Fox scores strong results as World Cup broadcasts draw in advertisers February 8, 2023 Last year’s men’s world cup helped Murdoch-owned media giant Fox increase revenues by four per cent. The broadcaster said revenue in the final quarter of 2022 was up to $4.61bn (£3.82bn) from $4.44bn (£3.68bn) in the same quarter in 2021. The FIFA World Cup which took place in Doha in December pulled the majority of [...]
Disney: Episode of The Simpsons referencing China’s ‘forced labour camps’ removed in Hong Kong February 8, 2023 Disney has removed an episode of The Simpsons referencing “forced labour camps” in China from its streaming service in Hong Kong. The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why the episode, One Angry Lisa from The Simpsons’ 34th series, is not available to stream on Disney+ in the semi-autonomous Chinese [...]