Tesla Inc. must face a proposed class-action lawsuit alleging that it misled consumers about its cars’ self-driving capabilities, a fresh setback for the electric-car maker just as Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk has staked the company’s future on autonomy.

Tesla has been accused of overstating in 2016 that all its upcoming cars would have the “hardware needed for full self-driving capability” and would be able to drive themselves from Los Angeles to New York City by the end of 2017.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-05-15/tesla-must-face-suit-alleging-buyers-were-misled-about-autopilot

I believe paypal stock is extremely undervalued at its current price. Trading at just a 13-14 forward PE and a ~6% cash flow yield, $PYPL is essentially being priced for no future growth , and is well below the S&P 500 average.

Despite concerns of competition from Apple and Square, PayPal posted 9% revenue growth , 27% EPS growth and 76% free cash flow growth (Y/Y) in their most recent quarter. Additionally , they reiterated their stock buyback program of at least $5B. My basic thesis is that PayPal will experience accelerated EPS growth due to cost cutting measures and stock buybacks. Because PayPal is already trading so cheaply i believe the risk reward is very attractive.

With such respectable brand value , double digit EPS and cash flow growth , PayPal should be trading at a MINIMUM of a 20 fwd pe. A 20 PE would put the market cap at around $100B based on net income of $5B (projected for 2024 full year)

This is my first analysis and it happens to be in a market I'm familiar with, so let's take a deep dive into EOS Energy (EOSE). I started looking at this company after another thread https://www.reddit.com/r/wallstreetbets/s/U3CPHwXDRW

piqued my interest, so I took a look at the company.

First of all, it looks like EOS started off with pretty low end PbA (lead acid) type batteries in the past and got into their core IP zinc hybrid battery the past few years. Why is this important and how does this separate EOS from other types of batteries for their specific niche (BESS - battery energy storage system), let's take a bit of a lesson on battery technologies.

There are a few dominant battery technologies in the world today. Most of you know about lithium type batteries which we'll talk about in a minute, but prior to the ubiquity of lithium powered batteries, lead acid (PbA), nickel cadmium (NiCd), and nickel metal hydride (NiMh) batteries dominated the world's rechargeable energy storage market. There are of course drawbacks to all of these which I won't go into details here, but in essence is all about energy density.

Lithium on the other hand, provides much higher energy density both in terms of gravimetric (Wh/kg) and volumetric (Wh/L), and as you can see over the last two decades, lithium powered batteries became cheap enough to replace just about every imaginable rechargeable battery applications.

There are different lithium cathode chemistries but the two that dominates the world today are lithium ion (including lithium polymer) and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries. Lithium ion batteries can be seen in your laptop, drones, mobile phones, cars, and airplanes, and LFP batteries are mainly in cars (Tesla Model 3 and Y base) and more commonly in portable and stationery energy storage for homes and grid.

Lithium batteries offer high levels of dependability, cost effectiveness, reliability (mostly), and portability. There are two major issues though: biggest issue is lithium is highly reactive and if shorted can cause thermal runaway events and fires - Boeing 787 for example caught on fire multiple times. The incidents of exploding personal devices are countless.

The second issue is more of a political issue: the Chinese government made a strategic decision more than 20 years ago to dominate the world's lithium battery production and technology. They invested heavily in domestic capabilities, and both the Japanese and American businesses were more than happy to teach the Chinese how to make great lithium batteries while moving production and know-how to China. Fast forward to today, China owns more than 85% of the global lithium battery output, CATL and its former parent ATL are the 800lb gorillas in the battery space. It's really not an issue if our government didn't decide that China is now more of a threat to our global hegemony, but we've always made the rules and if the rules didn't work in our favor, we'll just change the rules.

So here comes Biden's signature IRA with billions of dollars of funding to foster and rebuild domestic energy storage production capabilities, the decree that no Chinese batteries are allowed on federal spending both civilian and military, and now the huge tariffs that will be slapped on Chinese batteries.

What does that have to do with EOSE? Well first of all EOS has a technology that, while not unique, is way better than legacy techs, is way safer than lithium batteries, has a much longer life, and has the backing of the DOE and access to the loan programs that, if you ever read the fine print you'll realize it's not only non-dilutive, you don't really need to pay it back at all. Basically the loan allows only CapEx - meaning the government theoretically owns the equipment you borrowed money to buy for the factory, but after a few years of depreciation it becomes written off the books.

Second, if you really looked around, we really don't have advanced battery production capabilities in this country. Giga factory is for Tesla, Ultium is for GM, and the rest are PbA or exotic primary battery makers (East Penn, Enersys, etc)

So that really leaves EOSE in a pretty unique position if what they claim recently are true, that FAT is complete on their new factory, that they'll be profitable this year, and that they have a huge backlog. I believe they're true because Duke Energy has been frantically looking for domestic supplier of batteries for government and military installations, other regional power players like PGE, Constellation, etc are all looking for ways to take a slice of that sweet IRA pie and get muchos dineros from Uncle Jose Biden.

Knowing the industry, knowing how desperate DOE is to get wins and dish out money, and knowing where billions of sweet tax dollars will be going to in the next few years, I'm very bullish on EOSE.

My position: 10k shares of EOSE at an average of $0.71/share

"A staggering 98 percent of Tesla owners decide not to keep using their self-driving technology after their trial period, data shows.

Tesla charges customers $8,000 for the full self-driving technology, which has divided opinion since being unveiled by the company.

Statistics from YipitData found that only two percent of new Tesla owners continue using the technology after the trial period."

https://www.the-express.com/finance/business/137709/tesla-self-driving-elon-musk-china

Hi everyone, what is going on with CVS Health iam down 26% at the moment and it keep doing down every day. Is the company going under? Should I averaging down or cut my losses at 26%? I’m from the UK so don’t really know what’s going on with the company.

Hey everyone! I bought 230 shares of Schwab at $56 when the banking crisis happened last year, and now it’s up to $79. Anyone else buy SCHW, and if so, are you planning to hold or is this probably a good time to sell? Thanks!

https://www.marijuanamoment.net/biden-makes-historic-marijuana-rescheduling-announcement-applauding-monumental-move-to-reverse-longstanding-inequities/

President Joe Biden has announced that his administration is officially moving to reschedule marijuana under federal law, applauding the “monumental” action that follows an extensive administrative review that he directed.

The Justice Department will soon post its proposed rule to move cannabis from Schedule I to Schedule III under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) in the Federal Register, a senior administration official said on Thursday. There will then be a 60-day public comment period before the rule is potentially finalized.

“This is monumental,” Biden said in a video announcing the rescheduling news. “Today my administration took a major step to reclassify marijuana from a Schedule I to a Schedule III drug. It’s an important move towards reversing longstanding inequities.”

this is a major tax change with 280e removed for equities. Secondly - new paradigm shift in america as cannabis is classified as a medicine

SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 13, 2024--Super Micro Computer, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMCI), a Total IT Solution Provider for AI, Cloud, Storage and 5G/Edge, today announced its participation in the upcoming investor conferences:

Event: J.P. Morgan 52nd Annual Global Technology, Media and Communications Conference Date: May 20, 2024 Fireside chat: 4:30 pm ET Location: Boston, MA

I bought a few hundred shares when it was around $17 last year. At the time I thought it got great potential because 1) the book value was greater than market value. 2) eye care business will be booming with aging population. There seem to be no demands for the stock. The price is around $15 forever. What do you think of its future? Thank you.

Matterport (MTTR) announced it was to be acquired by CoStar Group in April for $5.5 a share. It’s currently trading for $4.5 a share.

Would this not be a free $1 per share? Correct me if I’m wrong, but the spread of $1 from market to acquisition price is to represent the risk of the acquisition not going through?

Everytime someone mentions a stock that isn't doing well for whatever reason it seemingly gets destroyed in the comments and there will be hundreds of reasons not to buy it. I notice this every time I go do research on stocks that to me seem undervalued, are not doing well in regards to their competiton, or recently had a falloff.

Some examples I researched recently: Paypal, Intel, Boeing, Adobe (let the hate begin :)

It seems to me the majority of people just suggest to keep buying the most popular stocks at ATH and hope the current general trend continues?

https://openai.com/index/openai-and-reddit-partnership/

OpenAI will bring enhanced Reddit content to ChatGPT and new products, helping users discover and engage with Reddit communities. To do so, OpenAI will access Reddit’s Data API, which provides real-time, structured, and unique content from Reddit.

As an employee I being offered CVS stock at 10% discount. How it works is, say I contribute 5% of my paycheck every month starting from July 1st till December 31st. I will get “X” amount of stocks at 10% off lowest stock either on the first or last day. Example : lowest stock price either of July 1st or December 31st is $50. I’ll get all the shares at $45 on December 31st. I can sell them on Jan 1st if I wish at the real market value. Is it worth it? Looking at current situation I am not confident about CVS. Thoughts?

Edit : There is no holding period to sell the stock.

Hi there, I’ve just started investing about 2 months ago on the US stock market so I’m pretty much new to investing, I’ve done some research online and came across the Sofi stocks that’s profits and financials have been performing really well, year on year. I wanted to gain a broader opinion from more seasoned investors whether this is a good stock to purchase? Any advice would help, thanks.

Under Armour announced a broad restructuring plan on Thursday as it said sales in its largest market, North America, plunged 10% and predicted the trend will get worse throughout its current fiscal year.

The athletic apparel retailer also saw profits sink by more than 96% during its fiscal fourth quarter, compared with the year-ago period.

It’s unclear how many employees Under Armour will lay off as part of the restructuring, but the plan is expected to cost between $70 million and $90 million, a portion of which will be used for employee severance and benefits costs. The company declined to share more information with CNBC about its restructuring.

The company’s shares were down more than 2% in morning trading.

Here’s how the athletic apparel retailer did in its fiscal fourth quarter compared with what Wall Street was anticipating, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 11 cents adjusted vs. 8 cents expected Revenue: $1.33 billion vs. $1.33 billion expected The company’s reported net income for the three-month period that ended March 31 was $6.6 million, or 2 cents per share, compared with $170.6 million, or 38 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, the company reported earnings of 11 cents per share.

Sales dropped to $1.33 billion, down about 5% from $1.4 billion a year earlier.

During the quarter, sales in North America declined 10% to $772 million, worse than the $780 million that analysts had expected, according to StreetAccount.

Under Armour said it expects sales to continue to worsen in North America. The company anticipates they will drop between 15% and 17% in its current fiscal year.

“Due to a confluence of factors, including lower wholesale channel demand and inconsistent execution across our business, we are seizing this critical moment to make proactive decisions to build a premium positioning for our brand, which will pressure our top and bottom line in the near term,” founder and CEO Kevin Plank said in a statement.

“Over the next 18 months, there is a significant opportunity to reconstitute Under Armour’s brand strength through achieving more, by doing less and focusing on our core fundamentals,” he added.

Across Under Armour’s business, the company is expecting revenue to be down “at a low-double-digit percentage rate” in its current fiscal year, while analysts had expected sales to grow by 2.1%, according to LSEG.

The company is planning to cut down on promotions and discounting, which it expects will lead its gross margin to rise between 0.75 and 1 percentage point for the fiscal year.

It’s expecting diluted earnings per share to be between 2 cents and 5 cents and adjusted diluted earnings per share to be between 18 cents and 21 cents for the year. Analysts had expected earnings per share of 52 cents, according to LSEG.

Under Armour’s rough quarter comes about two months after the retailer announced former Marriott executive Stephanie Linnartz would be stepping down from her role as CEO after barely a year on the job and Plank would once again take the helm of the company he founded in 1996.

Linnartz was the second CEO the company has cycled through in less than two years.

She was hired on a bet that her experience building out Marriott’s renowned Bonvoy loyalty program and driving digital revenue for the hotel giant would offset her lack of experience in the retail industry. Before her departure, she managed to overhaul Under Armour’s C-suite and build out its loyalty program. She was attempting to pivot the brand’s assortment to a more athleisure-focused offering that had more stylish options for women.

Ultimately, she was ousted before those plans could become a reality. Following the announcement of Linnartz’s departure, a number of analysts downgraded Under Armour and lowered their price targets. Shares of the company were down about 23% year to date, as of Wednesday’s close.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/16/under-armour-uaa-earnings-q4-2024.html

Walmart on Thursday topped quarterly revenue and earnings expectations, as the discounter made significant e-commerce gains, drove profits with newer businesses like advertising and won over more high-income shoppers.

The big-box retailer said it now expects to hit the high-end or slightly top its previous full-year guidance. Walmart had expected net sales growth of 3% to 4% and adjusted earnings per share of between $2.23 and $2.37.

In an interview with CNBC, Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said one of the factors boosting Walmart’s grocery business is the widening gap between the price of cooking at home and buying food at restaurants.

Plus, he added, shoppers – especially with higher-incomes – appreciate the convenience that Walmart offers. For the first time, its delivery business surpassed its store pickup in terms of volume, Rainey said.

“We’ve got customers that are coming to us more frequently than they have before and newer customers that we haven’t traditionally had, and they’re coming into a Walmart whether it’s a virtual store online, or whether it’s one of our physical stores,” he said.

Here’s what the discounter reported for the three-month period that ended April 30 compared with what Wall Street expected, according to a survey of analysts by LSEG:

Earnings per share: 60 cents adjusted vs. 52 cents expected

Revenue: $161.51 billion vs. $159.50 billion

Walmart’s net income jumped to $5.10 billion, or 63 cents per share, compared with $1.67 billion, or 21 cents per share, in the year-ago period.

Revenue climbed 6% from $152.30 billion in the year-ago quarter. That increase includes a benefit of roughly 1% from an additional selling day in the period.

As the nation’s largest retailer and private employer, Walmart is often viewed as a bellwether for the U.S. economy. Yet it has generally fared better during an inflationary period than other retailers because it sells staples like groceries and has a value-oriented reputation. That trend continued in the quarter, as the company

Same-store sales for Walmart U.S. climbed by 3.8%, excluding fuel. The industry metric includes sales from stores and clubs open for at least a year. At Sam’s Club, same-store sales rose 4.4% year over year, excluding fuel.

E-commerce sales shot up by 22% year over year for Walmart U.S., fueled by store pickup and delivery of online orders, as well as the company’s growing third-party marketplace.

The company also grew high-margin businesses like advertising as it pushes to increase its earnings faster than its sales.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/16/walmart-wmt-q1-2025-earnings-.html

My plans are to NVDA to sell before earning's on the 22nd, playing the run-up safely and not getting greedy. Will repeat this with Costco, selling just before earning's release on 30th.

Beginning of June, I believe PLTR hype will begin for SP500 inclusion which will play that run-up. Playing the rumor, not the news scenarios basically.

I'd like to know what other companies have big hype behind them for SP500 inclusion? Haven't seen any mentioned aside from SMCI last time and PLTR. Any leads??

Baidu’s robotaxi unit expects to turn profitable next year

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/15/baidus-robotaxi-unit-expects-to-turn-profitable-next-year.html

​

KEY POINTS

• Chinese tech company Baidu said Wednesday its Apollo Go robotaxi arm expects to turn profitable next year.
• Baidu is one of the major players in China’s nascent robotaxi market and received permission from a Beijing city district to begin charging fares in November 2021.
• Apollo Go operated about 839,000 rides in the last three months of 2023, according to Baidu’s latest earnings report. The company is due to release quarterly results Thursday.

​

Chinese tech company Baidu said Wednesday its Apollo Go robotaxi arm expects to turn profitable next year.

The projection comes as Elon Musk has emphasized his plans to build up Tesla’s robotaxi efforts amid a decline in revenue.

Baidu is one of the major players in China’s nascent robotaxi market and received permission from a Beijing city district to begin charging fares in November 2021.

While most of the cars still have a human staff worker inside for safety, the same Beijing district officially let Baidu and start-up Pony.ai charge fares for robotaxi rides with no staff in the vehicle in September 2023.

Apollo Go operated about 839,000 rides in the last three months of 2023, according to Baidu’s latest earnings report. The company is due to release quarterly results Thursday.

About 45% of the orders in the fourth quarter in Wuhan were fully driverless, up from 40% the prior quarter, the company said.

In addition to growing usage and reducing labor costs per ride, Baidu is making the cars cheaper.

Baidu on Wednesday announced Apollo’s 6th generation robotaxi will cost around 200,000 yuan ($28,169) — or less than half that of the prior generation, the company said.

This year, Baidu plans to deploy 1,000 of those 6th generation robotaxis in the city of Wuhan, where the company already operates a number of vehicles without any human staff inside.

“With decreasing costs and increasing orders, Apollo Go’s unit economics (UE) is nearing break-even, expected to achieve balance in the fourth quarter of 2024 and turn profitable by 2025,” Baidu said in a press release.

Rival robotaxi operator Pony.ai is preparing for a listing outside mainland China, according to the China Securities Regulatory Commission website in late April.

Others in the auto industry remain more skeptical about fully driverless cars, which require broad regulatory approval in order to operate.

Xpeng Vice Chairman Brian Gu told reporters last month he didn’t expect robotaxis to be a real business for at least five years.

The joint venture of Disney/ESPN, Fox Corp. and Warner Bros. Discovery to package together a sports streaming bundle has a name — Venu Sports.

“We are excited to officially introduce Venu Sports, a brand that we feel captures the spirit of an all-new streaming home where sports fans outside of the traditional pay TV ecosystem can experience an incredible collection of live sports, all in one place,” Pete Distad, CEO of Venu Sports, said in a statement. “As preparations for the platform continue to accelerate, we are singularly focused on delivering a best-in-class product for our target audience, built from the ground up using the latest technologies to engage and entertain discerning sports fans wanting one-stop access to live games.”

Disney, Fox and WBD unveiled their partnership in February, positioning the new streaming bundle as a way to reach consumers who don’t subscribe to pay TV. It’s pegged to debut in the fall of 2024. The trio in March announced the hiring of Distad, who worked for a decade at Apple and most recently was responsible for Apple TV+ business, operations and global distribution. Distad is based out of the Venu Sports offices in L.A.

Pricing and a specific launch date haven’t been announced for Venu, which will combine ESPN+ with the three companies’ linear TV networks that carry sports programming (ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, SECN, ACCN, ESPNews, Fox, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network, TNT, TBS and truTV).

When the joint venture was announced, some had jokingly dubbed it “Spulu,” a mash-up of “sports” and “Hulu,” which had originally been formed as a JV among TV broadcasters.

The venture also launched a new website at venu.com. A notice at the bottom of the landing page says, “Launch is conditional on receiving regulatory approval and is expected for Fall 2024.” The site’s terms of service indicate that it’s operated by “Rookie Enterprises, LLC,” a subsidiary of Fox Corp. In announcing the new name, the three companies also noted that the JV is still pending the “finalization of definitive agreements amongst the parties.”

The Justice Department reportedly has planned to review the three-way venture to look at anticompetitive implications, and last month two leading congressional Democrats expressed concerns that the JV may “result in higher prices for consumers and less fair licensing terms for upstream sports leagues and downstream video distributors.” Meanwhile, streaming TV provider Fubo filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block the JV service’s launch, alleging the venture violates antitrust laws. On May 2, Fubo, DirecTV, Dish Network, Newsmax and others sent a letter to members of Congress calling for hearings on the state of competition in the pay-TV market, specifically calling out the Disney-Fox-WBD joint venture as “rais[ing] serious competition concerns that call for Congress’s immediate oversight.”

Venu (pronounced “venue”) will be made available directly to consumers via a new app, the companies said. Subscribers will also have the ability to purchase it in a bundle, including with Disney+, Hulu or Max.

The JV’s new name and brand identity were developed in partnership with R/GA, a global design and advertising firm. According to a spokesperson for the company, the Venu Sports name “takes inspiration from where live sports lives: the stadiums, arenas, speedways, octagons, courts, rinks, ballparks and more, where fans come to watch and connect with the action.”

Source: https://variety.com/2024/digital/news/venu-sports-streaming-disney-fox-warner-bros-discovery-1236006111/

If you believe that inflation will remain sticky and interest rates are getting at most 1-2 cuts in the next twelve to twenty-four months, how do you see that effecting sectors like industrials and financials? I have modest investments in vanguard ETFs in those sectors (VIS & VFH) and wonder if now is the time to add to them or just hold.

I believe Powell and think we won’t be returning to previous levels for quite awhile. If this happens, what macro effect would that have?

SEA Limited (NYSE: SE) has recently announced its Q1 2024 earnings, presenting a mixed bag of significant revenue growth but also noticeable profitability challenges. Below is an in-depth analysis of the key highlights from the earnings call.

Revenue Growth

• Total GAAP Revenue: SEA Limited reported a robust total GAAP revenue of $3.7 billion, marking a 23% year-on-year increase.
• E-commerce Segment: The e-commerce segment continues to be the primary growth driver, generating $2.7 billion in GAAP revenue. Notably, marketplace revenue rose by 33% year-on-year to $2.4 billion.
• Digital Financial Services (DFS): The DFS segment saw a 21% year-on-year growth, reaching a GAAP revenue of $499 million.
• Digital Entertainment: Driven by the popular Free Fire game, the digital entertainment segment reported $512 million in bookings and $458 million in GAAP revenue.

Profitability Challenges

• Net Loss: Despite revenue growth, SEA Limited experienced a net loss of $23 million in Q1 2024, a downturn from a net income of $87 million in Q1 2023.
• E-commerce Adjusted EBITDA: The e-commerce segment's adjusted EBITDA saw a significant decline, recording a loss of $22 million compared to a positive $208 million in the previous year.

Segment Performance

• E-commerce Details:
  • Core marketplace revenue grew by 47% to $1.7 billion.
  • Value-added services revenue increased by 8% to $0.7 billion.
• DFS Segment: Adjusted EBITDA for the DFS segment increased by 50% to $149 million, showcasing improved operational efficiency.
• Digital Entertainment: The adjusted EBITDA for this segment stood at $292 million, reflecting the strong performance of their flagship game, Free Fire.

Operational Highlights

• SPX Express Integration: The integration of SPX Express into the Shopee ecosystem has improved delivery times and operational efficiency.
• Digital Entertainment Development: Ongoing development in digital entertainment, particularly around Free Fire, continues to bolster the segment's global popularity.

Analyst Q&A Session

When being asked about the key drivers of SEA Limited's 21% growth in digital financial services (DFS) revenue, and how the management would see the growth momentum sustaining in the coming quarters, CEO Forrest Li thinks that their efforts on user acquisition have produced significant growth in both user numbers and the loan book size while maintaining prudent risk management.

Source: https://earnings-summary.streamlit.app/?c=reddit&t=SE

Given the impressive revenue growth but ongoing profitability issues, could SEA Limited balance its expansion strategies with cost management to achieve sustainable profitability?

Boeing has violated a 2021 agreement that shielded it from criminal prosecution after two 737 Max disasters left 346 people dead overseas, the Department of Justice told a federal judge in a court filing Tuesday.

According to the DOJ, Boeing failed to "design, implement, and enforce a compliance and ethics program to prevent and detect violations of the U.S. fraud laws throughout its operations."

The government has not yet decided if it will pursue prosecution of Boeing, but lawyers representing families of the victims who died in the crash said they hope to see further action in the case.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/05/14/boeing-department-of-justice-criminal-liability/73692655007/

Facebook parent company Meta on Thursday was hit with a major investigation from the European Union into alleged breaches of the bloc’s strict online content law over child safety risks.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive body, said in a statement that it is investigating whether the social media giant’s Facebook and Instagram platforms “may stimulate behavioural addictions in children, as well as create so-called ‘rabbit-hole effects’.”

The Commission added that it is concerned about age verifications on Meta’s platforms, as well as privacy risks linked to the company’s recommendation algorithms.

“We want young people to have safe, age-appropriate experiences online and have spent a decade developing more than 50 tools and policies designed to protect them,” a Meta spokesperson told CNBC by email.

“This is a challenge the whole industry is facing, and we look forward to sharing details of our work with the European Commission.”

The Commission said that its decision to initiate an investigation comes of the back of a preliminary analysis of risk assessment report provided by Meta in September 2023.

Thierry Breton, the EU’s commissioner for internal market, said in a statement that the regulator is “not convinced [that Meta] has done enough to comply with the DSA obligations to mitigate the risks of negative effects to the physical and mental health of young Europeans on its platforms.”

The EU said it will carry out an in-depth investigation into Meta’s child protection measures “as a matter of priority.” The bloc can continue to gather evidence via requests for information, interviews, or inspections.

The initiation of a DSA probe allows the EU to take further enforcement steps, including interim measures and non-compliance decisions, the Commission said. The Commission added it can also consider commitments made by Meta to remedy its concerns.

Meta and fellow U.S. tech giants have been increasingly finding themselves in the spotlight of EU scrutiny since the introduction of the bloc’s landmark Digital Services Act, a ground-breaking law from the European Commission seeking to tackle harmful content.

Under the EU’s DSA, companies can be fined up to 6% of their global annual revenues for violations. The bloc is yet to issue fines to any tech giants under its new law.

In December 2023, the EU opened infringement proceedings into X, the company previously known as Twitter, over suspected failure to combat content disinformation and manipulation.

The Commission is also investigating Meta over alleged infringements of the DSA related to its handling of election disinformation.

In April, the bloc launched a probe into the firm and said it’s concerned Meta hasn’t done enough to combat disinformation ahead of upcoming European Parliament elections.

The EU is not the only authority taking action against Meta over child safety concerns.

In the U.S., the attorney general of New Mexico is suing the firm over allegations that Facebook and Instagram enabled child sexual abuse, solicitation, and trafficking.

A Meta spokesperson at the time said that the company deploys “sophisticated technology” and takes other preventive steps to root out predators.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/05/16/meta-slapped-with-formal-eu-probe-over-child-safety-risks.html

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/inside-story-elon-musks-mass-firings-tesla-supercharger-staff-2024-05-15/

The meeting could not have gone worse. Musk, the employees said, was not pleased with Tinucci’s presentation and wanted more layoffs. When she balked, saying deeper cuts would undermine charging-business fundamentals, he responded by firing her and her entire 500-member team....