Tesla shareholders are set to approve Elon Musk’s $56 billion remuneration package by a significant margin before the company’s important annual general meeting later today. The compensation package, the largest ever granted to a CEO of a U.S. company, will be subject to an investor vote after being previously rejected by a U.S. court this year. Shareholders will also vote on Musk’s proposal to relocate Tesla’s legal base to Texas.
Several investors, including Norway’s sovereign wealth fund and the California State Teachers Retirement System, have indicated their intent to oppose the compensation package. Proxy advisory firms Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services have also advised shareholders to reject the pay.
On the eve of the meeting, Musk suggested on X (formerly Twitter) that investors overwhelmingly supported both the compensation package and the Texas relocation: “Both Tesla shareholder resolutions have now passed by large margins! Thank you for your support!!”
The results will be disclosed at Tesla’s headquarters in Texas at 4:30pm ET (9:30pm UK time).
Even if the remuneration package is approved, Musk may encounter further obstacles, including potential litigation. Legal experts doubt that the Delaware court that rejected the initial package would accept a new, nonbinding vote to reinstate it.
Originally approved by Tesla’s board in 2018, the compensation has faced legal challenges from shareholders. Judge Kathleen McCormick of Delaware raised concerns about the size and necessity of the package in her January ruling.
In her ruling, McCormick questioned the necessity of the compensation plan, stating, “Perhaps swayed by the ‘all-positive’ rhetoric or enthralled by Musk’s superstardom, the board never asked the $55.8 billion question: Was this plan truly necessary for Tesla to retain Musk and achieve its goals?”
A building damaged by a drone strike in Kiev in October 2022
Roman Fritzina/Associated Press/Alamy
A group of climate experts estimates that the first two years of Russia's war in Ukraine will result in greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to about 175 million tonnes of carbon dioxide.
The extra warming caused by these emissions will lead to extreme weather events around the world, with impacts estimated at $32 billion.
Ukraine intends to add these climate-related costs to the list of damages for which Russia is responsible and for which it seeks compensation.
“This will be an important pillar in the compensation case we are building against Russia,” Ukrainian Minister of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources Ruslan Strylets said in a statement.
“These are the costs to economies and societies caused by extreme weather events due to emissions-driven climate change,” said Leonard de Klerk, a climate businessman and founder of the War Greenhouse Gas Accounting Initiative.
The group today Fourth evaluation The report estimated the impact of the war from February 2022 to February 2024. It found that rebuilding bombed-out buildings, roads and other infrastructure was the biggest source of emissions, accounting for almost a third of the 175 million tonnes – a figure that also includes reconstruction that has yet to take place.
The remaining third is a direct result of the war, with fuel use accounting for the largest proportion.
About 14% of the total is due to passenger airlines having to reroute flights to avoid Russia and Ukraine. For example, a flight from Tokyo to London now travels over Canada instead of Russia, increasing flight times from 11 to 15 hours.
About 13 percent is due to an increase in wildfires recorded on satellite imagery, which is due not only to weapons-fired fires but also an end to fire management in occupied territories, the assessment said.
In most cases, there is a great deal of uncertainty around the figures as there are no official figures to rely on, and instead the group must rely on open source assessments and figures from past conflicts.
There's also the issue of how far to go in assessing the cascading effects of war: “We try to be as comprehensive as possible,” de Klerk says, “but at the same time, there are limitations. Some effects are too remote or too hard to quantify.”
Estimating how much damage additional emissions will cause (known as the social cost of carbon) is another tricky area: “The science of trying to put a monetary value on future damages is still developing,” says de Klerk.
The estimated figure of $32 billion Based on 2022 research The social cost of carbon is about $185 per tonne of CO2.
If this amount, which is growing every day, were to be paid, De Klerk thinks that one part should be sent to Ukraine to be used for measures such as reforestation and helping to capture some of the carbon, while the other part should go to the countries most affected by global warming, probably through the existing system. Green Climate FundBut where that money will go is a political decision that has yet to be resolved.
Low-income and small island nations have fought for decades to establish the principle that high-income countries with large greenhouse gas emissions should compensate them for loss and damage caused by their emissions. A loss and damage fund was finally established last year as part of an international climate agreement.
A class action lawsuit has been filed by independent British retailers against Amazon, seeking £1 billion in damages. They claim that Amazon is pushing them out of the online market.
Around 35,000 merchants are part of the lawsuit, led by the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira). They allege that from October 2015 to the present, Amazon used non-public data from retailers to launch its own competing products.
The lawsuit also highlights how Amazon’s “Buy Box” aims to direct shoppers away from independent retailers to its own products, further hurting the market competition.
Bira claims that Amazon already charges a non-negotiable 30% commission on every item sold on the site and has unfairly injected cheaper products into the market, driving many independent UK retailers out of business.
The group plans to submit over 1,150 pages of documents outlining their case against Amazon to the Competition Appeal Tribunal in London.
Amazon has not yet commented on the lawsuit, but has stated in the past that they support over 100,000 small businesses in the UK and that their success is tied to the success of the businesses they work with.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority began investigating Amazon in 2022 for potentially giving its own brands and affiliated brands an unfair advantage over third-party sellers, following reports of data misuse.
The investigation concluded with Amazon agreeing to give independent sellers a fair opportunity to be featured in the site’s “buy box” and to refrain from using marketplace data from third-party sellers to gain an unfair competitive edge.
Amazon also made a similar commitment in December 2022, subject to an EU investigation.
The chairman of Tesla has suggested that Elon Musk might leave the company if shareholders do not support his $56 billion (£44 billion) pay package, implying that Musk has other opportunities to explore. Despite the vote next week on the CEO’s compensation deal, Robin Denholm emphasized that the decision is not solely about money, as Musk will still be one of the richest individuals regardless of the outcome.
Denholm mentioned that if the June 13 vote does not go in Musk’s favor, he could potentially depart from Tesla or reduce his presence at the company. In 2018, investors approved a similar compensation plan for Musk, which was later invalidated, prompting the board to seek investors’ approval once more.
Denholm emphasized the importance of Musk’s time and energy, stating that while he has many ideas and potential endeavors, Tesla and its owners should be his primary focus. Concerns have been raised by some investors about Musk’s engagement with Tesla given his involvement in other ventures like SpaceX, xAI, and X.
Denholm clarified that the compensation package includes a provision requiring Musk to hold the Tesla shares he receives for five years before selling any of them. With Musk’s net worth at $203 billion, he is currently ranked as the third wealthiest person globally, according to Bloomberg.
ISS and Glass Lewis have advised shareholders to vote against the proposed pay package, citing excessive payouts. Despite differing opinions among major investors, Denholm stressed the need to uphold the 2018 agreement to ensure Musk’s continued dedication and commitment to Tesla.
In a bid to streamline operations and facilitate growth, Denholm proposed relocating Tesla’s legal domicile to Texas, highlighting the state’s favorable corporate laws and potential for innovation. She noted that Texas legislators and courts are well-equipped to handle Tesla’s future endeavors effectively.
Analyst Dan Ives believes that while Musk is unlikely to leave Tesla entirely, a rejection of the compensation package could lead to his stepping down as CEO and reducing his involvement with the company over time.
Geologists have analysed 4-billion-year-old zircon crystals from Jack Hills in Western Australia’s mid-west region to date the emergence of fresh water back just a few hundred million years after the Earth formed.
Artistic conception of early Earth. Image by Simone Marchi/NASA.
On the early Earth, extensive interactions between flowing (fresh) water and the emerging continental crust may have been key to the emergence of life, but when the water cycle first began is unclear.
In the new study, Curtin University scientist Hamed Gamaleldien and his colleagues used the oxygen isotope composition of zircon crystals from Jack Hills in Western Australia to determine when the water cycle began.
Their findings suggest that meteoric water appeared on Earth about 4 billion years ago, 500 million years earlier than previously thought.
“We were able to date the origins of the hydrological cycle, the ongoing process by which water moves around Earth and is essential for maintaining ecosystems and supporting life on Earth,” Dr Gamalerdien said.
“By examining the age and oxygen isotopes of microscopic crystals of the mineral zircon, we discovered an anomalously light isotopic signature that dates back 4 billion years.”
“These light oxygen isotopes typically result from hot freshwater altering rocks several kilometers below the Earth’s surface.”
“The evidence for the presence of fresh water this deep in the Earth casts doubt on existing theories that the Earth was completely covered by oceans 4 billion years ago.”
“This discovery was crucial for our understanding of how Earth formed and how life began,” said Curtin University scientist Hugo Orioluk.
“This discovery not only sheds light on the early history of Earth, but also suggests that land and freshwater systems provided the foundation for life to thrive within a relatively short time frame – less than 600 million years after Earth’s formation.”
“This discovery represents a major advance in our understanding of Earth’s early history and opens the door to further exploration of the origin of life.”
H. Gamaleldine othersThe Earth’s water cycle began 4 billion years ago or sooner. National GeographyPublished online June 3, 2024; doi: 10.1038/s41561-024-01450-0
Astronomers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have discovered very old stars in the Milky Way’s halo, a cloud of stars that covers the entire disk of our galaxy. These objects formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago, when the first galaxies were beginning to form. Researchers believe that each star once belonged to its own dwarf galaxy, which was later absorbed into the larger but ever-growing Milky Way, making them known as small accreting star systems (SASS). It’s called a star.
Artist’s concept of the Milky Way galaxy. Image credit: Pablo Carlos Budassi / CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Given what we know about galaxy formation, these oldest stars should definitely exist,” says MIT professor Anna Froebel.
“They are part of our cosmic family tree. And now we have a new way to find them.”
As they discover similar SASS stars, Professor Froebel and his colleagues hope to use them as analogues of ultrafaint dwarf galaxies, which are thought to be some of the first living galaxies in the universe.
These galaxies remain intact today, but they are too distant and faint for astronomers to study in detail.
SASS stars may once have belonged to similar primitive dwarf galaxies, but they are now located within the Milky Way and are much closer, making them more accessible for understanding the evolution of ultrafaint dwarf galaxies. This could be the key.
“Now we can look for more brighter analogs in the Milky Way and study their chemical evolution without chasing these very faint stars,” Professor Froebel said.
The low chemical abundances of these stars suggest that they first formed between 12 and 13 billion years ago.
In fact, their low chemical signature was similar to what astronomers had previously measured for several ancient, ultra-dark dwarf galaxies.
Are the team’s star players from similar galaxies? And how did they come to exist in the Milky Way?
Based on a hunch, scientists studied the orbital patterns of stars and how they move across the sky.
The three stars are located in different locations throughout the Milky Way’s halo and are estimated to be about 30,000 light-years from Earth.
When astronomers used observations from ESA’s Gaia satellite to trace the movement of each star around the galaxy’s center, they noticed something strange. All three stars appeared to be in motion, compared to most of the stars in the main disk, which move like cars on a race track. Wrong way.
In astronomy, this is known as retrograde motion, and is information that the object was once accreted or pulled in from elsewhere.
“The only way to get a star wrong from other members is if you throw it the wrong way,” Professor Froebel says.
The fact that these three stars orbit in a completely different way than the rest of the galactic disk or halo, combined with the fact that their chemical abundances are low, suggests that these stars are actually It was strongly argued that it was ancient and once belonged to an earlier era, a small dwarf galaxy that fell into the Milky Way at a random angle and continued its stubborn orbit billions of years later.
The authors were interested in whether retrograde motion was a feature of other ancient stars in the halo that astronomers had previously analyzed, and they looked at the scientific literature and found similarly low strontium and barium contents, discovered 65 other stars that appear to be moving in retrograde motion as well. Galaxy flow.
“Interestingly, they are all traveling very fast, hundreds of kilometers per second, in opposite directions,” Professor Froebel said.
“They’re on the run! We don’t know why it happened, but this is the piece of the puzzle we need and we never expected it when we started.”
Researchers are keen to find other ancient SASS stars, and now have a relatively simple recipe for doing so. First, they look for stars with low chemical abundance, then track their orbital patterns for signs of retrograde motion.
Researchers hope this method will uncover a small but significant number of the universe’s oldest stars, out of the more than 400 billion stars in the Milky Way.
“I really enjoyed working with three female undergraduates. It was a first for me,” said Professor Froebel.
“This is just an example of the MIT way. It is. And anyone who says, ‘I want to participate,’ can do so, and good things happen.”
team’s paper Published in Royal Astronomical Society Monthly Notices.
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Hilary Diane Anders other. 2024. The oldest star with a small amount of neutron-capturing elements and originating from an ancient dwarf galaxy. MNRAS 530 (4): 4712-4729; doi: 10.1093/mnras/stae670
The Australian government has announced it will invest nearly A$1 billion in developing quantum computers, staking its claim in a race currently dominated by the United States and China.
Headquartered in the US, PsiQuantum was co-founded by a team including two Australian researchers and has received funding from both the Australian Federal and Queensland Governments of A$470 million, for a total of A$940 million ($600 million). The project will receive funding of $13 million. In return, the company will build and operate a next-generation quantum computer in Brisbane, Australia.
stephen bartlett Researchers at the University of Sydney said the announcement amounted to Australia asserting sovereign capabilities in quantum computing and building a quantum technology ecosystem.
“What I'm really excited about about this is that the size of the investment means we're serious,” Bartlett says. Big technology companies such as IBM, Google and Microsoft are investing billions of dollars in quantum computing, but Australian funding makes PsiQuantum one of the world's largest dedicated quantum computing companies.
Quantum computers offer the possibility of completing some tasks much faster than regular computers. So far, such capabilities have only been demonstrated in non-practical problems, but as research teams in the U.S., China and elsewhere race to build larger and less error-prone machines, they are becoming increasingly common. It is hoped that this will begin to prove useful.
Many teams have built quantum computers based on superconductors, but PsiQuantum's approach involves particles of light called photons, which were thought to be difficult to scale up. However, ahead of the Australian announcement, PsiQuantum Published a paper The paper details how standard semiconductor manufacturing equipment, of the type used to make regular computer chips, could be used to build the photonic chips needed for quantum machines.
Australia has exported generations of quantum researchers, including the co-founders of PsiQuantum. Jeremy O'Brien and Terry Rudolph. Mr Bartlett said government investment could allow these scientists to return to Australia and start building their careers here. “Australia is saying we have a seat at the big table when it comes to quantum computing.”
George Town, Grand Cayman, April 23, 2024, Chainwire
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As Zircuit progresses toward mainnet, ZK Rollup's staking program is rapidly gaining momentum, amassing over $2 billion in TVL in just two short months. Zircuit staking allows users to earn his Zircuit points by depositing assets and transfer those assets to her Zircuit's mainnet at launch. Users can earn Zircuit points by depositing ETH, Liquid Staking Tokens (LST), Liquid Restaking Tokens (LRT), and USDe (Ethena USD).
In March, Zircuit launched its Build to Earn program to encourage builders, founders, and community members to contribute to the Zircuit ecosystem. He has already received more than 1,000 applications for the program. Zircuit's growing pre-launch TVL and community allows approved projects to gain user engagement and benefit from a rich developer experience in one of the fastest growing L2s. Additionally, developers and ecosystem contributors who participate in Zircuit's Build to Earn program can receive rewards for their approved contributions. Projects that join Zircuit through Build to Earn will join a growing list of top-tier launch partners, including Ethena, Ether.fi, KelpDAO, Renzo, Hashflow, Galxe, Elixir, Blocto, Eigenpie, and more.
Zircuit is currently in testnet and plans to launch mainnet in summer 2024.
Zircuit is a ZK rollup with parallelized circuitry and AI-enabled security at the sequencer level. Built by a team of Web3 security veterans and PhDs in computer science, algorithms, and cryptography, Zircuit is backed by Pantera Capital, Dragonfly Capital, and Maelstrom. If you want to know more, please visit here zircuit.com Or follow us on Twitter/X @Zircuit2
Meta’s stock price tumbled 15% on Wall Street Thursday in response to commitments to ramp up spending on artificial intelligence, resulting in approximately $190 billion being wiped off the market value of the Facebook and Instagram parent company.
During a conference call on Wednesday, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s CEO, emphasized the necessity of increasing spending on AI technology in order to generate “significant revenue” from the company’s new AI products. “There is a need for an increase,” he stated.
The stock price of Meta had previously benefited from stringent cost-cutting measures in 2023, which Zuckerberg referred to as “the year of efficiency.” However, investors were spooked when Meta raised the upper limit of its capital spending guidance from $37 billion to $40 billion on Wednesday.
Meta recently launched Llama 3, the latest iteration of its AI model and image generator, which can update images in real-time while users input prompts. This update also sees the expansion of Meta AI, the company’s AI-powered assistant, to more than 10 markets outside the US, including Australia, Canada, Singapore, Nigeria, and Pakistan. Chris Cox, Meta’s chief product officer, mentioned that the company is still working on implementing this in Europe.
The decline in stock price comes after Meta Inc. experienced a record increase in market value in February, adding $196 billion to its market capitalization following the announcement of its first dividend, which was, at the time, the largest single-day gain in Wall Street history. However, Nvidia, a prominent supplier of chips for AI models, later surpassed this record with a $277 billion profit.
WASHINGTON — THE PRESIDENT Joe Biden marked Earth Day by announcing $7 billion in federal grants for residential solar power projects serving more than 900,000 households in low- and moderate-income areas. He also plans to expand the New Deal-style U.S. Climate Change Corps Green Jobs Training Program.
The grants were awarded by the Environmental Protection Agency, with 60 recipients announced on Monday. Government officials expect the projects to reduce emissions by the equivalent of 30 million tons of carbon dioxide and save households $350 million a year.
Biden’s climate announcement is aimed at energizing young voters in his re-election bid. Young people played a key role in defeating then-President Donald Trump in 2020. They have shown interest in Biden’s climate policy and are eager to contribute through programs like the Climate Change Corps.
Solar energy is gaining popularity as a renewable energy source that can reduce dependence on fossil fuels and improve the power grid’s reliability. However, the initial installation cost of solar energy remains a barrier for many Americans.
The grants include 49 state-level grants, six grants for Native American tribes, and five multi-state grants. They can be used for investments in rooftop solar power generation and community solar gardens.
Biden made the announcement at Prince William Forest Park in northern Virginia, about 30 miles southwest of Washington. The park was established in 1936 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.
Biden’s American Climate Corps, modeled after President Roosevelt’s New Deal, offers about 2,000 positions in 36 states, including partnerships with the Building Trades Union of North America.
The grants are part of the Solar for All program, funded by a $27 billion “green bank” established as part of a broader climate law initiative. The program aims to reduce climate change, air pollution, and support disadvantaged communities most affected by climate change.
EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe expressed excitement about the funds benefiting communities, providing skills, creating jobs, and helping households save on utility bills.
Among the businesses receiving grants are nonprofit projects in West Virginia, solar leasing programs in Mississippi, and solar worker training programs in South Carolina.
Concerns remain about Republican opposition to taxpayer-funded green banks and accountability for how the funds are used. The EPA previously allocated the remaining $20 billion in bank funds to support clean energy projects in various organizations and communities.
Tesla is seeking shareholders’ re-approval for CEO Elon Musk’s hefty $56 billion compensation plan from 2018, which was previously rejected by a Delaware judge in January for being excessive and unjustified.
Musk’s compensation, tied to Tesla’s market value increase to $650 billion over the next decade, currently stands at over $500 billion, according to LSEG data, excluding salary or cash bonuses.
The rejection from Delaware Court of Chancery’s Kathleen McCormick criticized the board’s decision, deeming the compensation “incalculable” and unfair to shareholders.
Tesla’s move for a fresh shareholder vote appears to bolster support for Musk’s pay package and challenge the court’s ruling, which disapproved the largest corporate pay package in America.
In response to the court’s decision, board chair Robin Denholm expressed disagreement, stating that the ruling did not conform to corporate law principles.
In 2023, Musk’s compensation was recorded as $0, as he does not draw a salary but is compensated through stock options. The court case also mentioned Musk’s involvement in an attempt to disrupt Twitter Inc.’s acquisition deal.
Tesla is suggesting a re-vote on the original 2018 compensation package, contemplating legal considerations, as well as seeking approval from shareholders to relocate its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas.
Ahead of the market opening, shares of the leading automaker rallied by 1%.
This year has been challenging for Tesla, with reports of underperforming against market expectations and observing its first decline in deliveries in four years, prompting a workforce reduction of 14,000 employees. The broader electric vehicle industry has also experienced a slowdown, with major players like Ford revising their plans.
Meanwhile, Apple scaled back its self-driving electric car project, leading to layoffs, indicating a shifting landscape in the electric vehicle sector.
Reddit, a popular social media network, is aiming for a valuation of approximately $6.5 billion (£5 billion) as it prepares to list on the New York Stock Exchange. The company, as stated in its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, plans to sell 22 million shares priced between $31 and $34 each in its upcoming initial public offering, potentially raising up to $748 million.
Initially planning to go public in 2021, Reddit delayed its IPO due to economic conditions and weak tech stock performance. The IPO, set to take place later this month under the ticker symbol RDDT, will be the most significant social media offering since Pinterest in 2019.
Described as the “front page of the internet” by its founders, Reddit intends to involve users and moderators in the IPO. A portion of the shares will be reserved for sale to targeted Reddit users, board members, employees’ friends and family, with eligibility criteria for user participation outlined.
Reddit is a digital platform where users can join communities, share experiences, and engage in discussions on various topics. With 100,000 active communities and 1 billion posts as of December 2023, Reddit sees potential growth in advertising and data licensing opportunities.
The company also aims to provide users with the opportunity to become investors through the IPO, while raising capital and offering liquidity to employees. Reddit’s recent financial filings showed a 21% revenue increase but a $90.8 million loss in 2023.
In preparation for its IPO, Telegram founder Pavel Durov announced that the messaging platform is exploring the possibility of going public. With 900 million users and a $30 billion valuation, Telegram is nearing profitability and has no plans to sell.
Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc., is facing a 2.1 billion euros ($2.3 billion) lawsuit from 32 media groups, such as Axel Springer and Schibsted. The media groups are alleging losses due to Google’s practices in digital advertising.
The lawsuit comes as antitrust regulators are tightening the grip on Google’s advertising practices. It was initiated by publishers from various European countries like Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, and more, accusing Google of creating a less competitive market due to its illegal conduct.
The media companies’ lawyers, Geradin Partners and Steck, stated that the losses incurred by the publishers could have been avoided if Google hadn’t abused its dominant position. This could have led to higher advertising revenues for the media companies and lower fees for ad tech services, ultimately benefiting Europe’s media landscape.
The lawsuit is supported by previous actions taken against Google, such as the French competition authority’s fine in 2021 and the European Commission’s complaint last year. Analysts predict that Google may need to adjust its practices and pricing due to increased regulatory scrutiny.
A spokesperson for Google dismissed the lawsuit as “speculative and opportunistic,” emphasizing the company’s collaboration with European publishers to enhance their advertising tools.
Despite Google’s disagreements with antitrust violations, publishers worldwide have expressed concerns about Big Tech’s dominance in advertising and the subsequent decline in their revenue share. Google remains the leading digital advertising platform globally.
The group of media companies chose to file the lawsuit in Dutch courts, citing the country’s reputation for handling antitrust claims effectively in Europe. Companies like Krone, DPG Media, TV2 Danmark A/S, and others are part of the collective seeking legal action against Google.
SpaceX, the rocket company, has relocated its corporate headquarters from Delaware to Texas, as announced by CEO Elon Musk.
Musk stated, “SpaceX has moved its state of incorporation from Delaware to Texas. If your company is still incorporated in Delaware, we recommend moving to another state as soon as possible.” This announcement was made on the platform.
This move comes after a Delaware judge ruled in favor of Tesla investors in a lawsuit alleging that Musk’s $56 billion compensation was excessive. Musk, who also serves as Tesla’s CEO, recently announced plans for a shareholder vote to move Tesla’s corporate domicile to Texas as well.
Musk also mentioned, “The people’s vote is unequivocally in favor of Texas! Tesla intends to immediately conduct a shareholder vote to move its incorporated state to Texas.” This statement was made earlier this month after a public opinion poll indicated support for the incorporation change.
In January, a Delaware judge nullified Musk’s compensation package, citing improper actions by the electric car maker’s board of directors.
This decision follows a lawsuit filed five years ago by Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta, accusing Musk of improperly directing negotiations over his compensation package and the board of directors of lacking independence.
Musk’s compensation deal with Tesla is the largest ever for an executive, contributing significantly to his fortune, which ranks among the largest in the world. Musk testified at his compensation trial in November 2022 that the money would be used to fund interplanetary travel.
Neuralink, Musk’s brain chip implantation company, also moved its location from Delaware to Nevada last week.
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It's widely agreed that 2023 was a great year for video games. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Baldur's Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Marvel's Spider-Man 2… Barely a week has passed without a blockbuster or independent masterpiece appearing.
But behind these accolades there is a sadder and more worrying story. This year also saw widespread layoffs in the industry, a trend that continues into the first weeks of 2024. Microsoft laid off 1,900 employees after acquiring Activision Blizzard for $69 billion. .Publisher Embracer Group lay off at least 900 staff
In addition to shutting down veteran British developer Free Radical Design, it has ended activity across many of the company’s studios. Epic Games, the creator of Fortnite, one of his most successful titles of this decade, has laid off 830 employees.electronic arts 6% reduction in workforce, which equates to approximately 780 jobs. There were similar harrowing stories from Ubisoft, Naughty Dog, Sega, and Unity.Big publishers and small studios alike is affected
Why did this happen? Why is the entertainment industry, said to be worth $180 billion a year, cutting staff at such an alarming rate?
In some cases, there are certain factors that promote redundancy. In the case of Activision Blizzard, one of the reasons is the duplication of roles after the purchase is completed. “Microsoft obviously already had a publishing business, but they bought ZeniMax Media, Bethesda's parent company, and another publishing business,” said James Batchelor, editor-in-chief of GamesIndustry.biz. “The company then acquired two publishing businesses, Activision and Blizzard, which operated somewhat separately. Think about the number of departments that have doubled here, including human resources, public relations, marketing, and accounting. So you end up with a lot of people doing the same job within the same company. This is a case of rationalization.”
Even though Fortnite has been a huge success, the publisher is still cutting back on employee numbers.
Photo: Zuma Press/Alamy
Sweden's Embracer Group is a game publisher that owns 135 studios around the world, including Tomb Raider creator Crystal Dynamics. After a period of accelerated expansion, the company was forced to close developers, cancel games, and make staff redundant. “The company had a very aggressive merger and acquisition strategy, but we now know that it was dependent on outside investment,” Batchelor said. “But last year, deals worth at least $2 billion were reportedly struck by Saudi investors. was canceledThis meant we had to make major adjustments to our plans. Embracer is a classic example of a company that is too big to survive. There are thousands of people working on the Embracer game, but we didn’t have a big seller to sustain that number. ”
However, one event looms large in the background: the new coronavirus pandemic. Interest in video games exploded during lockdown. He had two effects. For one thing, strong sales of titles like “Animal Crossing” and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare” have boosted revenues and sent stock prices soaring, attracting the attention of outside investors and flooding the industry with money. That means I did it. In response, arrogant publishers commissioned more ambitious projects and hired accordingly.
But the bubble didn't last. Sales declined as lockdowns eased and people continued to live their lives. “We've seen a lot of games canceled over the last few months. I think there are more that we just don't know about,” Batchelor says. “If we cancel a project and focus on a few games that we know will do well for the studio, we will unfortunately be putting the jobs of the people working on the projects that are being scrapped at risk.”
Hyena, one of many games canceled in 2023.
Photo: Sega
The solution for many publishers has been to cut back on riskier projects and focus on “sure-fire” hits, but this may just be perpetuating the cycle. McDonald explains: “Publishers are signing fewer games, development costs are lower, and it takes longer to sign deals, but if you leave them without all the promising games for the next few years, You put yourself at risk.”
Macdonald believes there may be a bandwagon effect. “We're at a stage now where so many studios are having so many layoffs that some companies think it's an opportunity to make layoffs for more specific reasons. , many other studios will be in the spotlight for job losses. It's especially unfortunate that companies with billions of dollars in cash jumped on the bandwagon and made mass layoffs, and that cash It is likely that the interest increase alone could have covered all of these salaries.
Given the gloomy start to 2024, the effects of coronavirus and various acquisitions across the industry are likely to continue to impact the gaming business. And even if it recovers, another threat looms over staff: the rise of artificial intelligence in development and production processes. “We don't know how widely AI tools are being deployed, but there is talk that some reductions are being made in hopes of leveraging AI for content creation.” McDonald says.
The use of AI could be attractive to publishers looking to reduce costs, such as by creating digital caricatures of an actor's voice.
Photo: David O’Donnell/The Guardian
For publishers looking to reduce development costs, the use of AI can be attractive, especially in areas such as quality assurance and performance capture. In January, the Sag-Aftra union criticized An agreement reached with an AI company that will allow actors to create digital images that resemble their voices has sparked an uproar on social media.Starfield and Mortal Kombat actor Sunil Malhotra I wrote to X: “I sacrificed going on strike for half of the last year to keep my profession instead of hoarding AI replicas.”
With their livelihoods threatened, more development staff are seeking to unionize, increasing pressure on the industry to self-regulate. Incumbent publishers are starting to see both as threats. Last June, Electronic Arts Financial Report We have identified unionization and AI regulation as having the potential to negatively impact our business and performance.
So how can newcomers to the gaming industry protect themselves? “At the end of the day, job seekers always have to look out for themselves,” McDonald says. “Check if the company is profitable, has a history of layoffs, and if salaries are sustainable.”
Video game companies also have a responsibility to reflect on the past year and learn from it. But what lessons might they learn?
“I think the industry is going to get more attention and focus on known hits and safer bets,” Batchelor said. “This is unfortunate because the industry still needs to take risks. But ultimately those risks need to be maintained and funded by companies, rather than relying on external investment.”
“As companies become more streamlined and more sustainable, we hope to create a smarter industry.”
Ransomware gangs experienced a resurgence last year, with victims paying $1.1 billion to hackers, a record high according to a study.
Following a lull in 2022, cybercriminals intensified operations in 2023, targeting hospitals, schools, and major corporations worldwide.
Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency research firm, reported that ransom payments doubled compared to 2022, with $567 million paid out that year.
The report highlighted the “big game hunting” aspect of attacks last year, with a higher proportion of ransom payments exceeding $1 million as wealthier companies were targeted.
“2023 will be the year of a major resurgence in ransomware, with record payout amounts and a significant increase in the scope and complexity of attacks. This is a significant reversal from the decline observed in 2022,” Chainalysis said.
In a ransomware attack, hackers typically infiltrate a target’s computer system, infect it with malware, and encrypt files, rendering them inaccessible. New trends involve attackers extracting data such as staff and customer details from IT systems and demanding payment to unlock the files or delete stolen data copies.
Chainalysis attributed the decline in payments in 2022 to factors including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Most ransomware groups are linked to Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union, and Russia. Some fraudsters have been disrupted or turned ransomware into politically motivated cyberattacks.
The FBI disrupted the Hive ransomware group by obtaining their decryption keys and preventing victims from paying a $130 million ransom. Chainalysis also cited research showing a rise in the number of attackers and ransomware variants involved in attacks over the past year.
“The main thing we’re seeing is an astronomical increase in the number of attackers conducting ransomware attacks,” said Alan Liska, an analyst at cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.
According to Recorded Future, 538 new ransomware variants are expected in 2023, indicating the emergence of new and independent groups. The Clop group emerged as a key player last year by claiming responsibility for the hack of payroll provider Zellis, affecting customers like British Airways, Boots, and the BBC.
The British Library is still recovering from a ransomware attack by the rebranded group Rhysida that targeted the library in October.
The growth of ‘ransomware-as-a-service’, renting malware to criminals in exchange for a share of the profits, and the activity of ‘initial access brokers’ who sell vulnerabilities in potential targets’ networks to ransomware attackers have become trends.
Ellie Ludlum, a partner specializing in cybersecurity at British law firm Pinsent Masons, anticipates the rise in attacks to continue. “This increase is expected to continue in 2024, with continued focus on mass data exfiltration by threat actor groups, which may result in increased ransom payments by affected companies,” she stated.
ERon Musk suffered one of the largest legal losses in U.S. history this week when Tesla’s CEO was stripped of $56 billion in compensation in a lawsuit brought by an unlikely opponent: a former heavy metal drummer. Covered.
Richard Tornetta sued Musk in 2018, when Tornetta, a Pennsylvania resident, owned just nine Tesla shares. The case ultimately went to trial in late 2022, and on Tuesday, a judge sided with Tornetta, invalidating his massive pay deal as unfair to him and all of his Tesla shareholders.
Mr. Tornetta could not be reached for comment, and his lawyer declined to comment.
Before Mr. Tornetta’s lawsuit, Mr. Musk had won a series of lawsuits accusing him of defamation, breach of duty to shareholders and violations of securities laws.
Judging by his online presence, Mr. Tornetta appears to be more interested in creating audio equipment for car customization enthusiasts than pursuing corporate excesses and fraud.
He posts light-hearted videos about his gadgets and mishaps, such as explaining how he burned his eyebrows.
Tornetta also appears in a video playing drums at the former legendary New York club CBGB with his now-defunct metal band Dawn of Collection, describing the sound as “steel-toed.” “It sounded like a quick kick in the face with a work boot.”
On social media, fans of Tesla and Musk seem to feel the incident is a travesty of justice, speculating about Tornetta’s intentions and political affiliations and wondering how investors with such a minuscule stake could He questioned whether he could wield such power.
Delaware’s corporate case law is replete with cases naming individual investors with small stakes that ultimately shaped American corporate law.
Eric Talley, who teaches corporate law at Columbia Law School, said many law firms representing shareholders have a steady stream of investors who can work with them to litigate cases. They may be pension funds with a wide range of stocks, but they are also often individuals like Tornetta.
Talley said it’s common for plaintiffs to sign the paperwork to file a lawsuit and then walk away. Investors won’t pay law firms to take on cases on a contingency basis, as lawyers did in the Musk case.
Mr. Tornetta, like other Tesla shareholders, stands to benefit from winning the lawsuit, saving the company billions of dollars that subordinate boards paid to Mr. Musk.
Business groups have long criticized lawsuits brought by individuals as a sign of potential abuse. A decade ago, Delaware was beset by lawsuits contesting merger deals and led by private investors who owned a minority stake. Cases were often quickly resolved with nonsensical settlements, which always included payments to the lawyers who brought the cases. Delaware judges and lawmakers eventually curbed the practice.
Experts said people like Tornetta are essential to policing the boardroom. Lawmakers and judges have long wanted big investment firms to take the lead in these corporate cases because of their ability to monitor lawyers’ tactics. But experts said fund managers did not want to jeopardize their relationships on Wall Street.
Therefore, it was up to Tornetta to face Mask.
“His name is now etched in the history of corporate law,” Talley said. “My students will be reading ‘Tornetta vs. the Mask’ for the next 10 years.”
In a court filing on Tuesday, a Delaware judge ruled in favor of investors who contested Elon Musk’s $56 billion pay package from Tesla, stating that it was excessive. The judge concluded that the compensation had been improperly established by Tesla’s board of directors and revoked it. If the decision is upheld in a potential appeal, Tesla’s board would need to create a new compensation plan for Musk.
Elon Musk responded on Twitter/X, saying, “Never incorporate a company in Delaware.”
Five years ago, Tesla shareholder Richard Tornetta filed a lawsuit accusing the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, of improperly directing negotiations on compensation packages and the board of directors lacking independence. The court’s decision directed Tornetta to cooperate with Musk’s legal team regarding the judge’s order, which can be appealed to the Delaware Supreme Court.
Musk’s compensation trial in November 2022 revealed that the money would be used to fund interplanetary travel. He testified, “This is how we’re going to get humans to Mars, so Tesla can help potentially achieve that.”
Tesla’s board argued that the package was necessary to keep Elon Musk committed to the electric car maker. The judge disagreed, noting that the defense failed to prove the need for such an unprecedented compensation plan. She instructed the parties to work on the final order implementing her decision.
The plaintiffs’ legal team also argued that the board had a duty to either reduce Musk’s salary or find another CEO and ensure that he worked full-time at Tesla instead of focusing on other projects.
Amit Batish of executive compensation research firm Equilar estimated in 2022 that Musk’s package was about six times the combined compensation of the 200 highest-paid executives in 2021.
In July, Tesla directors agreed to return $735 million to the company to settle shareholder claims that the company had overpaid in a separate lawsuit.
A new study led by scientists at the University of Göttingen has provided evidence that the first multicellular streptococci probably existed about a billion years ago.
bierenbrodspot other. We sequenced 24 new transcriptomes of Klebsormidiophyceae and combined them with 14 previously published genome and transcriptome datasets. Image credit: Bierenbroodspot other., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.070.
streptococcus is best known as a clade of plants that contains a rich diversity of embryophytes (land plants).
However, next to the embryophytes there is a series of freshwater and terrestrial algae that are responsible for important information on the emergence of key traits in land plants.
this house, Klebsolmidioalgae stand out. Klebsolmydiophytes thrive in diverse environments, from the mundane (ubiquitous on tree bark and rocks) to extreme environments (from the Atacama Desert to Antarctica), display filamentous body surfaces, and can be found on land. They can show remarkable resilience as habitat colonizers.
Currently, the lack of a strong phylogenetic framework for Klebsolmydiophyceae hinders our understanding of the evolutionary history of these important traits.
Dr Tatyana Dariyenko, co-lead author of the study, said: “These small, hardy little creatures have a very high diversity in their morphology and are very good at living in sometimes very harsh environments. “It's really interesting that we're adapting.”
“Our comprehensive sampling aimed to map the global distribution of Klebsolmydiophyceae and highlight its adaptability, ecological importance and hidden diversity.”
“We analyzed the molecular clock based on genetic data calibrated using fossils.”
When delving into the complex evolutionary history of Klebsolmydiophyceae, Dr. Darienko and colleagues faced the challenge of disentangling phylogenetic relationships using traditional markers.
To overcome this, they utilized hundreds of genes obtained from the transcriptomes of 24 isolates from different continents and habitats.
“Our approach, known as phylogenomics, was to reconstruct the evolutionary history by considering whole genomes or large parts of genomes,” said Iker Irisarri, Ph.D., co-senior author of the study. Ta.
“This very powerful method allows us to reconstruct evolutionary relationships with very high precision.”
Researchers have uncovered a new phylogenetic tree for the family Klebsormydiophyceae, revealing that it can be divided into three orders.
“A deep dive into phylogenetic frameworks and our molecular clocks has revealed the ancient ancestor of Klebsormydiophyceae, a multicellular entity that flourished millions of years ago. Its descendants began to diverge into three distinct branches more than 800 million years ago,” said co-lead author Maaike Bierenbroodspot.
Scientists are investigating the evolutionary history of multicellularity within streptococci.
They discovered that the ancient common ancestor of land plants, other chain algae, and Klebsormydiophyceae was already multicellular.
“This discovery reveals the genetic potential of multicellularity among streptococci and shows that the origins of this important trait date back almost a billion years,” said co-author Jan de Vries. the professor said.
of study It was published in the magazine current biology.
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Maike J. Bielenbrodspot other. Phylogenomic insights into the first multicellular streptococci. current biology, published online on January 19, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.12.070
aA big name in the plumbing industry. Patrick Lutz They were used to withstanding floods. But the circumstances led to a completely different kind of soaking, sitting in the rain in a local park and pondering the demise of the business in the dot-com crash. “I lost everything. I had a young child. I was embarrassed and angry that I had let my family down. I couldn't look them in the face,” he said. look back.
His lowest point came just before the patent battle with Apple erupted that would define his life. Nearly two decades later, he's still at odds with his company and the U.S. courts.
He presents an interesting profile. The reputable and established British inventor, who first found wealth and success in the 1980s, now dominates his online reputation, leaving onlookers wondering whether Raz or Apple is in the right. After years of David vs. Goliath dogfights, he was clearly feeling hurt and angry. It's on the right.
Racz is the creator of Triflow, the world's first three-way mixer faucet. This system added additional channels and valves to a typical sink mixer to deliver filtered water along with hot and cold water. A “multi-million pound” sale in 1998 sealed his profits after expanding the business to sell in 45 countries.
But he says the second chapter turned rocky when his dot-com-era venture, a file-sharing and payments technology company, was taken over by Apple's iTunes store. He claims that a US company stole his system.
“I went through a period of severe depression,” Raz said, opening up for the first time about the mental strain. “I'm embarrassed to say that I hit the bottle. I got completely lost in time and didn't remember much.”
It was a patent for the technology, first filed in 1999 and granted almost a decade later, that gave him a “new lease on life” and is still in the process of seeking $18 billion in damages. A large-scale legal battle has begun.
Apple is no stranger to patent disputes like this. U.S. sales of Apple's Series 9 and Ultra 2 smartwatches were suspended before Christmas due to a conflict with medical technology company Masimo. Mr. Lutz has won several rounds of court action against the company, but there is no guarantee that either side will ultimately prevail. The only certainty is that the road ahead will be long, winding and expensive.
Racz grew up on a strawberry farm in Jersey and spent his early career as a salesman. When he sold his tap business, Avillion, he pursued the digital download market in the same way that Napster transformed the music industry with illegal file sharing.
Racz quickly filed a patent for Smartflash, an anti-piracy alternative, and an accompanying system for enabling payments and secure downloads. He has finalized deals with retailers and manufacturers, including French SIM card company Gemplus. Pop star Britney Spears has been appointed as a brand ambassador.
But in the aftermath of 9/11 and the dot-com crash, Spears and GemPlus withdrew, and Luck's said in court that GemPlus, also an Apple partner, subsequently claimed the product as its own. .
The late Apple president Steve Jobs is “soaking in praise” for a series of products, starting with iTunes in 2003, that blended hardware and software in a way Raz claims he first invented. His blood boiled when he saw it. After receiving patent approval in 2008, he achieved an unlikely victory. He sued Apple in Texas in 2015 and won $533 million in damages. According to Lutz, this was one of the largest jury awards for a private inventor.
However, the court's decision was later reversed. He was first hurt by a U.S. Patent Trial and Appeals Board ruling that his patent was invalid, and then lost when Apple appealed in commercial court. He later lost his case on appeal, but he vowed to keep fighting. He has faced considerable backlash among Apple supporters online in recent years, including receiving death threats via email from unknown individuals.
“When you're told your kids should be burned at the stake and beheaded for what they do, those things start to get hard. My kids were being bullied. The kids said, “Your dad says he invented this, but he didn't steal it. Apple invented it.'' Your dad is a liar.'' The Rats were having coffee in London. I say this while drinking. He's tall and stocky, with close-cropped dark hair, and he's still visibly furious as he tells his story.
Lutz's latest battle is with the U.S. Patent Office, which he is suing for refusing to release uncensored emails and documents related to his intellectual property. He seeks to prove that the group of judges was intentionally populated with former lawyers and close Apple supporters. Lutz argues that the company has used its “wealth and power” to influence the U.S. patent system.
Asked for comment, Apple pointed to a previous statement issued in 2015, saying: “SmartFlash makes no products, has no employees, does not create jobs, has no presence in the United States, and uses our patent system to seek royalties for technology invented by Apple. They are abusing it.”
“We refused to reimburse the company for the ideas our employees spent years innovating. Unfortunately, we are left with no other option but to take this fight to court.”
Gem Plus did not respond to a request for comment.
Away from legal pursuits, he is a supporter of Regent Sounds, a music store on Denmark Street in central London. The music store, once used as a studio by the Rolling Stones, has been locked in its own battle with its landlord behind a major development by media venture Outernet. .
His main mission remains to tell his story.he wrote smart flashHe has written an autobiography titled “, and there is interest from a publisher. His friend Simon Morris, Amazon's former global chief creative officer and the man behind Amazon Prime Video, struck a deal to sell the rights to a documentary about Ratt's life and persuaded the studio to pursue the project. I'm selling it.
Meanwhile, Latz continues to focus on his legal work and is supported by private investors who will share in his winnings. “They say that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. That made me even more determined.”
MArc Zuckerberg hired Sheryl Sandberg as Facebook’s chief operating officer in 2008 as the social network grew rapidly and sought to attract investment. Zuckerberg was just 23 when he founded Facebook in his Harvard dorm room, but Sandberg, 38, was considered the “adult in the room.”
The former head of sales at Google and chief of staff at the U.S. Treasury has become one of the most influential people in global technology and one of the few women at the top of the industry. She also made a lot of money – which she is now worth after selling most of her stake in Meta, her Facebook parent company that also owns Instagram and her WhatsApp. Nearly $2bn (£1.6bn).
Mr. Sandberg, now 54, stepped down from his role a year and a half ago, and announced Wednesday night that he would also step away from Meta’s board. “We feel now is the right time to exit,” she wrote in a Facebook post, noting that Mehta is “well positioned for the future.”
“Sheryl, thank you for your extraordinary contributions to our company and our community over the years,” said Zuckerberg, the world’s sixth-richest man with an estimated personal fortune of $133 billion. “Your dedication and guidance have contributed to our success, and I appreciate your unwavering dedication to me and Meta over the years.”
…
Mr. Sandberg was one of six executive officers. Name as it appears in the prospectus When Facebook filed for an initial public offering in 2012. With her resignation, Zuckerberg is the only one left among the six. She was considered so important to the company’s success that she was named, along with the founder, as one of the key people who posed a potential risk to investors’ funds in the event of their departure.
Oldest known evidence of photosynthetic structures identified in a collection of mysterious cylindrical microfossils Nabyfusa magensis It was discovered in the 1.75 billion year old McDermott Formation in Australia.
Nabyfusa magensis Microfossil: (a) Nabyfusa magensis From the McDermott Formation of the Tawala Supergroup, northern Australia. (b) Nabyfusa magensis From the Grassy Bay Formation of the Shaler Supergroup in the Canadian Arctic. (c) Nabyfusa magensis From the Mbujimai supergroup BIIc6 formation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Scale bar – 50 μm. Image credit: Demoulin other., doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06896-7.
Oxygenic photosynthesis, in which sunlight catalyzes the conversion of water and carbon dioxide to glucose and oxygen, is unique to cyanobacteria and related organelles within eukaryotes.
Cyanobacteria played an important role in the evolution of early life and were active before the B.C. big oxidation event Approximately 2.4 billion years ago, the timing of the origin of oxygenic photosynthesis is debated due to limited evidence.
“Today, oxygenic photosynthesis is unique to cyanobacteria and their plastid relatives within eukaryotes,” said the paleontologist at the University of Liege. Catherine Dumoulin And her colleagues.
“Although its origins before the Great Oxidation Event are still debated, the accumulation of oxygen profoundly altered Earth's redox chemistry and the evolution of the biosphere, which contains complex life.”
“Understanding the diversification of cyanobacteria is therefore critical to understanding the coevolution of our planet and life, but their early fossil record remains equivocal.”
In their research, Demoulin and his co-authors discovered fossilized photosynthetic structures. Nabyfusa magensis Microfossil.
The microstructure is thylakoid. A membrane-bound structure found inside the chloroplasts of plants and some modern cyanobacteria.
Researchers identified them from fossils taken from three different locations, the oldest of which is from Australia's McDermott Formation and dates to 1.75 billion years ago (Paleoproterozoic era).
Nabyfusa magensis It is thought to be a cyanobacterium. The discovery of thylakoids in specimens from this period suggests that photosynthesis may have evolved at some point 1.75 billion years ago.
However, the mystery of whether photosynthesis evolved before or after the Great Oxidation Event remains unsolved.
Similar ultrastructural analyzes of older microfossils could help answer this question and determine whether the evolution of thylakoids contributed to elevated oxygen levels during the Great Oxidation Event.
“This discovery extends the thylakoid fossil record by at least 1.2 billion years and establishes a minimum age for the divergence of thylakoid cyanobacteria to be about 1.75 billion years ago,” the authors said. .
“This allows for the unambiguous identification of early oxygenic photosynthetic substances and new redox substances for investigating early Earth ecosystems, and for deciphering the paleontology and early evolution of fossil cells. This highlights the importance of examining the ultrastructure of cells.”
team's paper Published in today's magazine Nature.
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CF Dumoulin other. The oldest known fossil cells, thylakoids, provide direct evidence of oxygenic photosynthesis. Nature, published online on January 3, 2024. doi: 10.1038/s41586-023-06896-7
Microscopic image of a modern cyanobacterium called Oscillatoria
Shutterstock / Ekki Ilham
Researchers have identified photosynthetic structures inside a 1.75 billion-year-old cyanobacteria fossil. This discovery is the oldest evidence yet of these structures and provides clues to how photosynthesis evolved.
Emmanuel Javeau Researchers from the University of Liège in Belgium analyzed fossils collected from rocks at three locations. The oldest site is the approximately 1.75 billion-year-old McDermott Formation in Australia, the other two are the billion-year-old Grassy Bay Formation in Canada and the Bllc6 Formation in the Democratic Republic of Congo. was.
From these rocks, the researchers extracted fossilized cyanobacteria that produce energy through photosynthesis. “They're so small, less than a millimeter, that you can't see them with the eye,” Java says. She and her colleagues placed the fossils in resin, sliced them into sections 60 to 70 nanometers thick using a diamond-bladed knife, and analyzed their internal structures using an electron microscope.
They discovered that cyanobacteria in Australia and Canada contain thylakoids, membrane-enclosed sacs in which photosynthesis occurs. “These are the oldest fossilized thylakoids that we know of today,” Java says. Previously, the oldest thylakoid fossils were around 550 million years old. “So we delayed the fossil record by 1.2 billion years,” she says.
This is important because not all cyanobacteria have thylakoids and it is unclear when these structures, which make photosynthesis more efficient, first evolved, they said. Kevin Boyce at Stanford University in California. The origins of this diversification can now be traced back at least 1.75 billion years, he says. The oldest fossils of cyanobacteria are about 2 billion years old, but other evidence, such as geochemical signatures, indicate that photosynthesis has been around even longer than that.
It is widely believed that cyanobacteria helped build up oxygen in Earth's atmosphere 2.4 billion years ago. “The idea is that perhaps during this time they invented thylakoids, which increased the amount of oxygen on Earth,” Java says. “Now that we have discovered very old thylakoids and found them preserved in very old rocks, we think we might be able to test this hypothesis even further back in time,” she says. .
Over the course of another year, hackers stole billions of dollars in cryptocurrencies. However, the cryptocurrency security firm says it is on the decline for the first time since 2020.
According to Web3 security firm De.FI, hackers have stolen about $2 billion worth of cryptocurrencies in dozens of cyberattacks and thefts this year. Rekt leaderboard. The site ranks the worst crypto hacks of all time, from the 2022 Ronin network breach, in which hackers stole more than $600 million in crypto, to this year’s big-money hack of Mixin Network. It is attached. The hacker made about $200 million.
“This amount, while spread across a variety of incidents, highlights the persistent vulnerabilities and challenges within the DeFi ecosystem,” De.Fi said in the report, which the company reported on TechCrunch shared. “2023 was a year that demonstrated both the ongoing vulnerabilities and the progress made in addressing them, even though the first half of the year saw a relative lack of interest in the sector due to the bear market. .”
In early December, blockchain intelligence company TRM Labs also announced Announcing estimated value of stolen virtual currency By hackers this year. According to the company, the total amount as of mid-December was approximately $1.7 billion.
Other worst cryptocurrency thefts this year include the hack into Euler Finance, where hackers stole nearly $200 million. Also included were major hacks of Multichain ($126 million), BonqDAO ($120 million), Poloniex ($114 million), Atomic Wallet ($100 million), and more.
It is impossible to predict what will happen in 2024. However, given the insufficient security implemented by many cryptocurrencies and Web3 projects and the enormous monetary value they hold, Discussed at TechCrunch Disrupt earlier this yearit is expected that hackers will continue to target growing industries.
The Running Chicken Nebula is made up of several clouds, all of which can be seen in this expansive image from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) hosted at ESO’s Paranal Site. His 1.5 billion pixel image spans an area of the sky the size of about 25 full moons. The cloud, marked by a wispy pink plume, is filled with gas and dust and lit by young, hot stars within it. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ Team. Acknowledgment: CASU
of ESO has released a detailed image of the Running Chicken Nebula, located 6,500 light-years away in the constellation Centauri. This 1.5 billion pixel image of his captured by VST highlights young stars and regions such as IC 2948 and IC 2944, providing a cosmic treat for the eyes.
Many holiday traditions include a feast of turkey, buckwheat, latkes, or pan de pascua, but this year the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is bringing you the holiday chicken. The so-called Running Chicken Nebula, home to the birth of young stars, is revealed in stunning detail in this 1.5 billion pixel image captured by the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Site in Chile. It has become.
This vast stellar nursery is located in the constellation Centaurus, about 6,500 light-years from Earth. Young stars in this nebula emit intense radiation that makes the surrounding hydrogen gas glow pink.
The Running Chicken Nebula is actually made up of several regions, all of which can be seen in this vast image spanning an area of the sky the size of about 25 full moons.[1] The brightest region in the nebula is called IC 2948, where some people can see the head of a chicken, while others can see the back end. The wispy pastel outlines are fantastic plumes of gas and dust. His IC 2944 is characterized by a bright vertical, almost columnar structure towards the center of the image. The brightest sparkle in this particular area is lambda centauria star visible to the naked eye that is much closer to us than the nebula itself.
The Running Chicken Nebula is made up of several clouds, the most prominent of which are labeled in this expansive image from the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) hosted at ESO’s Paranal Site. The bright star, named Lambda Centauri, is actually much closer than the nebula itself and can be seen with the naked eye. The cloud, marked by a faint pink plume, is filled with gas and dust and lit by young, hot stars within it. In total, this image spans an area of about 25 full moons in the sky, one of which is shown to scale for reference. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ Team. Acknowledgment: CASU
But IC 2948 and IC 2944 themselves are full of young stars. And while they may be bright, they are definitely not cheerful. They tear through the environment like chickens, spewing massive amounts of radiation. Some regions of the nebula, known as Bok globules, can withstand the intense assault of ultraviolet radiation that spreads through this region. If you zoom in on the image, you may see small, dark pockets of dense dust and gas scattered throughout the nebula.
Other areas pictured here include gums 39 and 40 in the upper right and gum 41 in the lower right. In addition to the nebula, the sky is filled with countless orange, white, and blue stars like fireworks. Overall, this image is a wonder that cannot be explained. Zooming in and moving around the screen can be a feast for the eyes.
This 3D animation of the Running Chicken Nebula imagines what it would be like to fly near a swirling cloud of gas and dust. This video is based on real images from the VLT Survey Telescope hosted on his Paranal site in ESO. However, the 3D positions of the stars shown here are for reference only. Credit: ESO/VPHAS+ Team. Acknowledgment: CASU
This image is a large mosaic made of hundreds of individual frames carefully stitched together. Individual images are taken through filters that pass different colors of light and combined into the final result shown here.Observations were made with a wide-field camera omega cam in VSTis a telescope owned by the Italian National Institute of Astrophysics (INAF) and hosted by ESO at the Paranal site in Chile’s Atacama Desert, perfect for mapping the southern sky in visible light. The data used to create this mosaic were acquired as part of his VST photometric Hα survey of the Southern Galactic Plane and Bulge (VPHAS+), a project aimed at better understanding the life cycle of stars.
This diagram shows the location of the Running Chicken Nebula (IC2944) in the large constellation south of the constellation Centaurus (Centaurus). This map shows most of the stars visible to the naked eye under good conditions, and the location of the nebula itself is marked with a red circle. Although the star cluster associated with this nebula, IC 2948, is easily seen with small telescopes, the nebula is very faint and was only discovered in photographs in the early 20th century. Credits: ESO, IAU, Sky & Telescope
Note
This image spans 270 light years from edge to edge. It takes the average chicken almost 21 billion years to run through it. That’s a long time since our universe has existed.
In this festive Hubble Space Telescope image from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency), the galaxy UGC 8091 resembles a sparkling snow globe filled with a billion stars. Credits: ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESA, Yumi Choi (NSF’s NOIRLab), Karoline Gilbert (STScI), Julianne Dalcanton (Center for Computational Astrophysics/Flatiron Institute, Washington)
Dwarf irregular galaxies are born and dazzling stars are born
Hubble’s colorful snapshots show that the universe always seems to be in the holiday spirit. The dwarf irregular galaxy UGC 8091 is a rich example. A dizzying interplay of matter and energy bubbles up to create a dazzling blue, newborn star that looks like a celebratory string of lights. They are encased in a glowing cocoon of hot pink hydrogen gas. A galaxy is a collection of about 1 billion stars. That sounds like a lot, but it’s one-hundredth of the number of stars in our adult bodies. milky way Galaxy.
This little galaxy came late to the party. The early universe was filled with dwarf galaxies, which eventually merged to form the magnificent spiral galaxies that surround us today. Seven million light-years away, UGC 8091 has only recently begun to display its glittering tapestry.
The Hubble Space Telescope is an iconic symbol of space exploration, launched into orbit in 1990. Hubble revolutionized astronomy by providing unprecedented clarity and deep views of the universe, far beyond the distortions of Earth’s atmosphere. Credit: NASA
Hubble Space Telescope presents a starry sky for Christmas
The billion stars of galaxy UGC 8091 resemble sparkling snow globes during this festival. hubble space telescope Images from NASA and ESA (European Space Agency).
The dwarf galaxy is located in the constellation Virgo, about 7 million light-years from Earth. It is considered an “irregular galaxy” because it does not have a regular spiral or elliptical appearance. Rather, the stars that make up this cluster look more like a tangle of bright string lights than a galaxy.
Some irregular galaxies are entangled due to tumultuous internal activity, while others are formed by interactions with neighboring galaxies. The result is a class of galaxies of varying size and shape, including those whose stars are diffuse and scattered.
A combination of 12 camera filters produced this image using light from the mid-ultraviolet to the red end of the visible spectrum. The red spots are likely interstellar hydrogen molecules, excited by the light from the hot, energetic star and glowing. The other sparkles you see in this image are old star combinations. A diverse array of distant galaxies appears in the background, captured by Hubble’s sharp field of view.
The data used in this image was taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Survey Camera from 2006 to 2021.
Among other things, the observing program involved in this image sought to investigate the role that dwarf galaxies billions of years ago played in reheating hydrogen that had cooled after the universe expanded. big bang.
Astronomers are also studying the composition of dwarf galaxies and their stars to uncover evolutionary connections between these ancient galaxies and more modern galaxies like ours.
The Hubble Space Telescope is an international cooperation project between the two countries. NASA And ESA. NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Maryland, conducts science operations for Hubble and Webb. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Astronomical Research in Washington, DC.
Alterix is an Irvine, California-based software company that develops data science and analytics products. announced Private equity firms Clearlake Capital Group and Insight Partners announced that they have agreed to acquire the company in a deal valued at $4.4 billion.
Clearlake and Insight reportedly beat out another private equity firm, Symphony Technology Group. report I’ve been fighting for Alteryx for a few days now.
Clear Lake and Insight’s deal also includes debt, valuing Alterix’s equity at about $3.46 billion. report Reuters – A 29.1% premium to the company’s closing price on Friday. It is expected to close in the first half of 2024, subject to customary closing conditions and approvals.
The direct impact on Alteryx’s approximately 2,900 employees is not clear.
“In addition to providing significant and solid cash value to our shareholders, this transaction provides increased working capital and industry expertise; “It gives us the flexibility of being a private company.” “Over the past several years, we have executed a comprehensive transformation strategy to strengthen our go-to-market capabilities and establish a strong cloud and AI innovation roadmap. We are excited to partner with Clearlake and Insight for the next stage of Alteryx’s journey. ”
Alteryx’s predecessor, SRC, was co-founded in 1997 by Dean Stoecker, Olivia Duane Adams, and Ned Harding and initially focused on creating a data engine for demographic-based mapping and reporting. In 2006, SRC released a software app. Alteryx as a platform for building analytical processes and services. By 2011, SRC had changed its name to his Alteryx, and by that time SRC had become the company’s core product.
Alteryx went public on the NYSE in 2017 after raising tens of millions of dollars from VC firms including Toba Capital, Insight, Sapphire Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, and Meritech Capital Partners.
More recently, Alteryx moved to a subscription-centric business model and significantly expanded its AI-powered feature offering as part of its strategy to capture the growing demand for data analytics services. according to The value of the big data analytics market could reach $105.08 billion by 2027, up from $37.34 billion in 2018, according to analyst firm Research and Markets.
Alteryx currently counts more than 8,300 companies as customers, including Coca-Cola, Vodafone, Walmart, and Ford. In its coverage of the deal today, SiliconAngle said: Note That Alterix generated Revenue for the last quarter was $232 million, an increase of 8% from the same period last year. Also, annual recurring revenue grew nearly three times faster over the same period, increasing by about 21% to $914 million.
“When we founded Alteryx in 1997, we did so with a vision for the future of data science and analytics. Today, Alteryx is a differentiated platform that extends the democratization of data in a controlled way. We stand out as an industry leader with “The agreements with Clearlake and Insight demonstrate the strength of our business and the value of Alteryx’s capabilities and innovation.”
Adobe and Figma ended their $20 billion takeover dream this morning after regulators signaled tough times ahead. Figma still receives a $1 billion stipend as part of the deal, and as co-design lead, he should stand up well.
But it could be a different story for Adobe. They knew that the product they offered to compete with this company, XD, was not very strong, and they really wanted this company. They sought to use their corporate influence to seize advantageous aspects of their core creator businesses by acquiring market leaders.
But ultimately, the regulatory hurdles proved too much for them, and after more than a year of back and forth in regulatory meetings, both companies realized it wasn’t going to happen and decided to exit. decided.
Adobe put on a brave face their official statement, but I can’t help but be deeply disappointed with this result. “Adobe and Figma have shared a vision to jointly redefine the future of creativity and productivity, and we continue to leverage the huge market opportunity and mission to change the world through personalized digital experiences. We remain in a good position to do so.”
It’s not clear that Adobe could be in such a strong position without Figma, but it’s certainly true that Adobe is willing to pay a hefty price to have it under its wing. They were never able to convince regulators that this was not a blatant power grab by wealthy corporations to use their economic clout to take over the market.
Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s chief executive officer for competition, has made it clear that she believes this is just such an attempt. her official statement. “By merging these two companies, the proposed acquisition would end all current and stop all future competition between the two companies. Our thorough investigation shows that this We found that this could lead to higher prices, lower quality, or less choice for customers.”
Ray Wang, founder and principal analyst at Constellation Research, says this is a major setback for Adobe, forcing it to return to its design collaboration tool, XD. “Adobe realized that in a world of Generative AI, the value is not in content creation, but in coordinating the work of content. This deal takes Adobe back two years and expands the reach of this important market. “This will give us an incentive to revamp XD to cover this,” he said.
Adobe General Counsel Dana Rao told TechCrunch in October that the company has largely dismantled its XD team and is fully committed to meeting its product needs with Figma. “We tried to get in there [collaborative design] I used XD but it failed. We abandoned the product. Basically, our annual revenue never exceeded $15 million to $17 million. “I think he’s down to five full-time employees, but they continue to work according to their contractual requirements,” he said. “So if we’re going to get into the product design space, for us it’s going to be acquiring Figma,” he said at the time.
On the plus side, the company now has a lot of cash on hand that it wouldn’t have had had the deal gone through, and it could probably put it to better use in a post-generation AI world. Brent Leary says. Co-founder and Partner of CRM Essentials. “This deal was announced before ChatGPT, and the world has changed dramatically since then. And this could mean that Adobe could take back his $20 billion and adjust and shape the content creation process post-ChatGPT.” It might actually work better because of its gender,” he said.
Wang said the company may also consider acquiring other collaboration startups such as Milo, web flow or invision, which raised $476 million, $335 million, and $356 million, respectively (according to Crunchbase data). None of this would make him a perfect successor to Figma, but perhaps he could give the company a head start in the collaboration space without the kind of scrutiny it received in the Figma acquisition attempt. Sho.
Figma, for its part, hasn’t stopped since this deal was announced, moving forward and planning as an independent company. In fact, this startup has employed 500 people since September 2022. Additionally, we have developed new features including tools. For developers And we have a generative AI layer on top of the popular FigJam whiteboard tool.
John Lilly, an early investor in Figma, said he was enthusiastic about the company remaining independent. “This team is a very special team. Over the last 10 years, they have completely changed the way design works. And this market for designing products is much larger and growing faster.” Lilly told TechCrunch.
If he’s right, that’s exactly why Adobe wanted to buy the company. Now, with Figma continuing to operate on its own and a startup full of the same potential it had before the acquisition was announced in September 2022, Adobe will need to rethink its design collaboration strategy, and perhaps at this point You basically have to start from scratch, not in the position you were in.
Adobe finally makes a huge $20 billion bid to acquire rival Figma officially deadThis comes after the companies announced today that their acquisition plans had been scrapped due to regulatory pushback in Europe.
The deal, first announced last September, has always attracted regulatory scrutiny due to its size and the fact that it removed one of Adobe’s major rivals from the shadows. Ta. The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) Take a closer look at the transaction For the most part in 2023, news has not yet been filed to prevent the deal from happening. Appeared Before the weekend, Adobe and Figma had met with the Department of Justice in a last-ditch effort to avoid legal action.
Regardless, both companies were already facing significant headwinds in Europe. In late November, the UK announced that the proposed acquisitionharm innovation”, following similar findings in the European Union (EU), which announced a similar course of action in August.
The core of the concern is that Figma is the “clear market leader” in interactive product design tools and acts as a “constraining influence” on Adobe in the digital asset creation tools space. was. Therefore, if Adobe acquires Figma, Figma is a “valid competitor.”
in Today’s blog postFigma CEO and co-founder Dylan Field said the “co-decision” was reached because the two companies were unable to convince regulators of the differences between their products and businesses.
“This is not the outcome we were hoping for, despite spending thousands of hours with regulators around the world detailing the differences between our business, our products, and the markets we serve. We no longer see a path forward for regulatory approval of this transaction,” Field said.
This is a developing story.Please update the latest information.
IBM is distributing two data integration assets from Germany-based enterprise software company Software AG for 2.13 billion euros ($2.3 billion).
The all-cash transaction will see IBM take ownership. stream set Data integration platform acquired by Software AG just last year and WebMethods, acquired by Software AG for more than $500 million back in 2007.
It’s worth noting that Software AG itself was acquired by Silver Lake earlier this year, obtaining majority ownership of 63% before raising the investment amount to $2.4 billion, 85% or more during September. Silver Lake today just bought it. It owns 93% of Software AG, which will soon be delisted from the public market.
integrated
For IBM, the purchase of Software AG’s Integration Platform-as-a-Service (IPAAS) toolset fits into a broader commitment to hybrid cloud that the company has strengthened over the years with a series of major acquisitions. Includes the company’s $34 acquisition in 2018 of Red Hat for $1 billion and most recently its $4.6 billion acquisition of Apptio in June.
Although cloud computing offers many benefits to enterprises, vendor lock-in and aversion to a single cloud environment are increasing, leading to a more hybrid approach, one that relies on local on-premises infrastructure for security and low-latency purposes. A potentially dependent approach is required. Leverage one or more public cloud providers for specific resources as needed.
However, this means you need to manage and process data that may be stored in a variety of applications, both on-premises and across multiple private or public clouds. And this is where data integration systems come in, allowing companies to build pipelines that can pool data regardless of its location or format.
And this is effectively what IBM is buying with StreamSets and WebMethods: technology that spans the various layers that make up application and data integration, including API management, which WebMethods specifically provides.
Data is also the foundation of AI, and like almost every business today, IBM has been upping its AI game lately. In fact, this year the company introduced a new data science platform called Watsonx. It provides tools to build and deploy AI and manage all your data sources in one platform. And this is where IBM’s two acquisitions will come into play.
“Together with IBM’s Watsonx AI and data platform and its application modernization, data fabric, and IT automation products, StreamSets and webMethods help clients realize the full potential of their applications and data.” IBM said. Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of Software, said in a press release.
Tamara, the buy-now-pay-later platform for consumers in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council region, has recently completed a C round of funding that raised $340 million. This recent funding brings the company’s valuation to $1 billion, making it the first fintech unicorn startup in the region. SNB Capital and Sanabil Investments led the Series C round, alongside other backers such as Shorooq Partners, Pinnacle Capital, and Impulse. This round includes primary capital and some secondary equity transactions, marking one of the largest investments in fintech in the region. Tamara has raised a total of $500 million in equity funding, including secondaries, and over $400 million in debt funding.
Established in 2020, Tamara has quickly gained traction and currently boasts over 10 million users in Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Kuwait. The platform allows consumers to shop, pay in installments, and make bank transfers, and it has partnered with 30,000 merchants, including popular names like SHEIN, IKEA, Jarir, Noon, eXtra, and Farfetch.
The rise in popularity of buy-now-pay-later services in Saudi Arabia has seen significant growth, driven by the booming e-commerce market. According to a report from last year, the number of registered customers for BNPL services increased from 76,000 in 2020 to 3 million in 2021 and 10 million in 2022. With Saudi Arabia’s huge potential for digital payments, the market is expected to grow significantly in the next few years.
CEO Alsukhan emphasized the importance of building a customer-centric payment solution and the platform’s commitment to Shariah compliance. Tamara prides itself on offering a friendly and transparent service, focusing on avoiding unnecessary fees and helping customers make timely payments by offering risk management tools and options based on their financial capabilities.
Tamara’s long-term vision includes expanding its revenue sources and introducing new products and services beyond buy-now-pay-later. The platform plans to strengthen its integration into the shopping journey, introduce a buyer protection program, and enhance its card functionality for in-store transactions.
The recent funding not only represents a significant milestone for Tamara but also signals the region’s growing potential in the fintech industry. As the first homegrown unicorn in the Gulf, the company’s success reflects the supportive ecosystem, financial backing from local and international investors, and a strategic focus on customer satisfaction and compliance.
< p > Ad sales for Elon Musk’s social media platform X in 2023 are expected to fall to about $2.5 billion. Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Several companies, including Comcast and Walt Disney, stopped advertising on the platform after Musk last month agreed to a post on X (formerly Twitter) that claimed Jews were inciting hatred against white people. There was a pause. Joe Benarroch, head of business operations at Company X, told Reuters: “This report does not reflect the full scope of our business as sources relied upon by Bloomberg do not provide accurate and comprehensive details. “It gives an incomplete view.” Last month, Musk agreed with a post by X that claimed Jews were inciting hatred against white people. Getty Images for The New York Times < / p >
< p > As a publicly traded company, X’s revenue from advertising services in the last four quarters totaled $4.7 billion for the second half of 2021 and the first half of 2022, according to LSEG data. The company generated more than $600 million in advertising revenue in each of the first three quarters of 2023 and expects similar results this quarter, the report added, citing people familiar with the matter. Since Musk’s acquisition in October 2022, U.S. monthly ad revenue has fallen by at least 55% year over year every month, according to third-party data provided to Reuters in October. The company generated just over $600 million in ad revenue in each of the first three quarters of 2023, according to Bloomberg. zumapress.com < / p >
< p > Advertising sales account for 70% to 75% of X’s total revenue. Management had targeted $3 billion in revenue from advertising and subscription fees in 2023, but the company is far from reaching that number, according to the report. Musk also said in July that Twitter’s cash flow remains negative due to a nearly 50% drop in advertising revenue and high debt. < / p >
TikTok’s short-form video app is reaching a new milestone. The app is the first non-gaming mobile app to reach 1 billion monthly active users in 2021 and generate $10 billion in consumer spending across the Apple App Store and Google Play combined, according to new analysis by the app intelligence provider. It is said that it became. data.ai. The only other apps to achieve this include all games including King/Activision Blizzard’s Candy Crush Saga, which is the top earner at over $12 billion, Tencent’s Honor of Kings, XFLAG/Mixi’s Monster Strike, Including Supercell’s Clash of Clans.
Image credits: data.ai
The report notes that TikTok already entered 2023 with more than $6.2 billion in consumer spending and has since added another $3.8 billion over the course of the year, representing 61% year-to-date growth. This figure is 15% higher than the total of $3.3 billion in 2022, according to data.ai. For reference, that report only includes consumer spending on TikTok across iOS and Google Play, and does not include third-party Android app stores in China. In other words, TikTok’s total consumer spending could increase further.
This spending comes from TikTok’s in-app purchases of “coins,” a virtual currency that users can spend on gifts to creators on the platform. These gifts reward creators for their content and can be cashed out as fiat currency, with TikTok keeping his 50% of the payments. The app’s most popular in-app purchase is a bundle of 1,321 coins for $19.99, which accounts for a quarter of its revenue. TikTok also generates revenue from other sources besides in-app purchases, such as advertising and e-commerce through the TikTok Shop, but these are not counted in data.ai’s analysis.
Image credits: data.ai
According to Data.ai, US consumers and Chinese iOS users accounted for the majority of the in-app spending that pushed TikTok to the $10 billion milestone, with both markets accounting for around 30% of each revenue and In other words, it drives 60% of the total. Total when combined. This was followed by other markets such as Saudi Arabia, Germany, the UK, and Japan, which together accounted for 13% of his in-app purchase revenue.
TikTok is the only non-gaming app to reach $10 billion, but other non-gaming apps have also made billions of dollars, but far behind TikTok. The next closest competitors are Tinder and YouTube, both of which have a $2 billion to $3 billion lead over TikTok, the report said.
Image credits: data.ai
“TikTok is poised to become the most profitable mobile app in history, approaching the $15 billion milestone in 2024. Consumers are tipping their favorite content creators with more than $11 million per day. , which makes TikTok the world’s most lucrative mobile game ever, surpassing the beloved Candy Crush Saga,” said Lexi Sydow, Head of Insights at data.ai. At the announcement About new milestones. “TikTokers will spend 40 hours of work time each month within the app by the end of 2024, a 22% increase from 2023,” she added.
office Predict TikTok’s revenue will rise again in 2024, with consumer spending reaching $15 billion.
Thanks to the James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers discover that most early galaxies from about 12 billion years ago had more glowing gas than stars due to interactions with neighboring galaxies. I was able to.
This groundbreaking result provides new insights into the evolution of galaxies and the early Universe, and highlights the transformative impact of JWST on astrophysics.
New images from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) have helped Australian astronomers uncover the secrets of how infant galaxies began a burst of star formation in the very early universe .Some early galaxies were rich in gas that shined brighter than emerging stars. In a new study, astronomers have discovered just how prevalent these bright galaxies were about 12 billion years ago. Images from JWST show that nearly 90% of galaxies in the early Universe had this glowing gas, creating so-called “extreme emission line features. An image of a distant polar emission galaxy. Observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (left) and the Hubble Space Telescope (right). This comparison highlights the sharpness of the JWST images. Credit: ARC Center of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D)
“The stars in these young galaxies were amazing, producing enough radiation to excite the gas around them. This gas, in turn, shined even brighter than the stars themselves.” said Dr. Anshu Gupta, Curtin University Node of the ARC Center for Three-Dimensional All-Sky Astrophysics (ASTRO 3D) and the International Radio Astronomy Research Center.Iqral), lead author of the paper describing this finding. “Until now, it has been difficult to understand how these galaxies are able to accumulate so much gas. Our discovery suggests that each of these galaxies had at least one neighboring galaxy. This suggests that interactions between these galaxies cool the gas and trigger intense star formation episodes, resulting in this extreme luminescence property.” Progress in observing galaxies in the early universe
This discovery is an example of the unparalleled clarity the JWST telescope provides in studying the early universe.
“The quality of data from the James Webb Telescope is exceptional,” says Dr. Gupta. “It has the depth and resolution necessary to observe the surroundings and neighboring galaxies of early galaxies, when the universe was just 2 billion years old. We were able to confirm that there are significant differences in the number of neighboring galaxies among galaxies that do not.”
The target galaxy observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (left) and the Hubble Space Telescope (right). The unprecedented resolution and sharpness of the JWST images allowed us to identify neighboring galaxies (cyan circles) that were not even visible to Hubble. Credit: ARC Center of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D
Until now, we’ve struggled to get clear images of galaxies whose universe is about 2 billion years old. Since many stars had not yet formed, there were far fewer galaxies to focus on, making the task even more difficult.“Before JWST, we could only get pictures of really huge galaxies, most of which were in very dense galaxy clusters, making them difficult to study,” says Dr. Gupta. “With the technology available at the time, it was not possible to observe 95% of the galaxies used in this study. His Webb telescope revolutionized our research.
An image of a distant polar emission galaxy. Observed by the James Webb Space Telescope (left) and the Hubble Space Telescope (right). This comparison highlights the sharpness of the JWST images. Credit: ARC Center of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D)
Checking previous assumptions
The discovery proved an earlier assumption, said fellow author Tran, associate director of ASTRO 3D and the Harvard University and Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. “We suspected that these extreme galaxies were signposts of intense interactions in the early universe, but only with JWST’s keen eye could we confirm our hunch.” she says.
The study is based on data obtained as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragacular Survey (JADES) survey, which uses deep infrared imaging and multi-object spectroscopy to explore the universe for the earliest galaxies. It paves the way for further insights. “What’s really interesting about this study is that we see similarities in emission lines between the first galaxies and galaxies that formed more recently and are easier to measure. It means we now have more ways to answer difficult questions about the early Universe,” said second author Ravi Jaiswal, PhD student at Curtin University/ICRAR and ASTRO 3D.
“This research is at the heart of the work of our Galaxy Evolution Programme. Understanding what earlier galaxies looked like will help us answer questions about the origins of the elements that make up all of our daily life on Earth. We can,” said Professor Emma Ryan-Weber, ASTRO 3D Director.
Reference: “MOSEL study: JWST reveals massive mergers/strong interactions in the early universe driving extreme emission lines” Anshu Gupta, Ravi Jaiswar, Vicente Rodriguez-Gomez, Ben Forrest, Kim -Vy Tran, Themiya Nanayakkara, Anishya Harshan, Elisabete Da Cunha, Glenn G. Kapsack, Michaela Harshman, of astrophysical journal.
Shield AI The company has secured $200 million in fresh funding to expand its autonomous flight systems for the U.S. military and its allies.
Established in 2015, the startup currently holds a valuation of $2.7 billion. The latest funding round was led by US Innovation Technology Fund (USIT) with significant participation from Riot Ventures, a previous investor in Shield AI. Other contributors include existing investors Disruptive and Snowpoint, as well as new investor ARK Invest, an investment management company founded by Cathie Wood.
USIT, guided by billionaire Thomas Tull, served as the sole investor in Shield AI’s initial $60 million Series E funding. This substantial Series F round is a testament to the company’s successful track record of fundraising – the Series E raised a total of $225 million, and its Series D ranged between $210 million and $300 million.
It also highlights the capital-intensive nature of defense-focused startups, even for companies like Shield AI that offer more affordable systems compared to their traditional counterparts.
The startup specializes in developing hardware and software to transform drones and aircraft into autonomous systems capable of carrying out missions in conflict zones. The company’s flagship product is Hivemind, an AI pilot software that enables drones and aircraft to operate autonomously without relying on GPS assistance. Shield AI has also introduced a drone swarm feature called V-Bat Teams, which allows a single human operator to command at least four V-Bat drones (developed by Martin UAV, acquired by Shield AI in 2021).
“Our nation faces the challenging reality of having insufficient pilots, and rule-based autonomous solutions are insufficient for the existence of such swarms,” said Ryan Tseng, CEO and co-founder, when announcing V-Bat Teams earlier this month. “Shield AI changes this. For nearly nine years, Shield AI has been building the world’s most advanced AI pilots using a unified AI foundation that is applicable and deployable across all aircraft types, from quadcopters to F-16s. We’ve been steadfastly focused on that.”
The San Diego-based company is also working on integrating Hivemind into unmanned fighter jets and other aircraft. The Shield AI technology stack has garnered significant interest from the Department of Defense due to increasingly sophisticated counter-drone technologies that focus on disrupting drone communications and navigation.
“The battlefield is increasingly dominated by drone warfare, and adversaries are turning the battlefield into a hostile environment by disrupting communications and GPS,” stated Stephen Marcus, co-founder and general partner at Riot Ventures. “We are doing everything we can to address this. Modern Air Forces are operating blindly. Shield’s AI pilots are intelligent and adaptable to their environment, requiring no GPS or communications. Their AI is trainable and adaptable for diverse missions, and they have successfully flown teams of copters, V-BATs, and modern fighter jets. The most comparable technology we have seen thus far is what Tesla is doing with their self-driving stack.”
The new funding arrives amidst a surge in investor support for defense technology startups, driven in part by escalating geopolitical tensions and the U.S. lagging behind its adversaries. Engineers and the Pentagon are keenly aware of the risks at hand. In fact, some Shield AI executives have made noteworthy comparisons: Back in 2021, co-founder Ryan Tseng drew parallels between the Chinese military and Netflix, and the U.S. military and Blockbuster.
OKX a leading cryptocurrency exchange and Web3 technology company, today announced: futures spread trading volume Moreover liquid marketplace, a spot OTC, futures spread and options liquidity network, reached a monthly high of USD 1.54 billion in September 2023. This achievement is 62%* Institutional market share of futures spreads for the current month.
From July 2023 onwards launch OKX Accumulation of Nitro Spread, a venue for institutional investors to execute basis, futures spread, and funding rate arbitrage strategies under OKX’s Liquid Marketplace futures spread amount It led the market from August 28, 2023 to October 11, 2023.
OKX futures spread volume was also strong on the “high watermark” volume days, with OKX futures spread notional volume increasing four times within the date range (September 12th, September 19th). , September 28, and October 10) crossed the 100 million USDT mark. 2023).
These volume milestones solidify OKX’s position liquid marketplace The go-to place for institutional investors looking to take advantage of superior liquidity in a wide range of trades including futures spreads, spot OTC basis, options and more.
OKX Chief Commercial Officer Lennix Lai said: “The latest futures spread volume figures confirm that the OKX Liquid Marketplace is a diverse ecosystem of counterparties pursuing a variety of trading strategies, making it the trading venue of choice for institutional traders. We have worked hard to develop the products, liquidity, and intuitive trading features that traders demand in a highly competitive market environment. We will adapt it to the needs of customers and further expand our customer base.”
Since its launch in July 2023, OKX has announced on October 6th nitro spread Cumulative trading volume exceeded 2 billion USDT.
Nitro Spreads is a place for institutional investors to execute advanced strategies and efficiently drive delta rolls on OKX’s liquid marketplace. Nitro spreads allow both legs of a trade to be executed through a central order book, minimizing leg risk between markets and providing increased capital efficiency for institutional traders. Traders can also select a guaranteed spread for a trade before execution to reduce unexpected price slippage. The transaction is then matched and settled immediately.
OKX is the world’s leading cryptocurrency exchange and innovative Web3 company. Trusted by over 50 million users worldwide, OKX is known as the fastest and most reliable crypto trading app for traders around the world.
As a top partner for English Premier League champions Manchester City FC, McLaren F1, Olympian Scotty James and Formula 1 driver Daniel Ricciardo, OKX aims to enhance the fan experience with new engagement opportunities. OKX is also a top partner of the Tribeca His Festival as part of its efforts to bring more creators to his Web3.
OKX Wallet is the platform’s newest offering for those who want to explore the world of NFTs and the Metaverse while trading GameFi and DeFi tokens.
OKX is committed to transparency and security, and we publish the evidence every month.
To learn more about OKX, download the app or visit: okx.com
Disclaimer
This announcement is provided for informational purposes only. This is not intended to provide investment, tax, or legal advice, nor should it be considered an offer to buy, sell, hold, or offer any services related to digital assets. Digital assets, including stablecoins, involve a high degree of risk, can be highly volatile, and may even become worthless. Leveraged trading of digital assets magnifies both your potential profits and potential losses and can result in a loss of your entire investment. Past performance is not indicative of future results. You should carefully consider whether trading or holding digital assets is suitable for you, especially if you are considering the use of leverage. You are solely responsible for your trading strategies and
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