Rabu, 04 Desember 2019

Dow Jones Futures: China Trade Deal Hopes Set To Buoy Stock Market Rally; Alphabet CEO Larry Page Exits With Google Stock A Buy - Investor's Business Daily

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  1. Dow Jones Futures: China Trade Deal Hopes Set To Buoy Stock Market Rally; Alphabet CEO Larry Page Exits With Google Stock A Buy  Investor's Business Daily
  2. Stock futures point to a rebound for Wall Street with renewed optimism over U.S.-China trade talks  MarketWatch
  3. Dow tumbles on Trump's China remarks  NHK WORLD
  4. Dow Jones Today: Stocks Sell Off On Trump Trade Comments, Biotech Stocks Stage Stealth Rally  Investor's Business Daily
  5. Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100: Weakness Brings Support into Play  DailyFX
  6. View full coverage on Google News

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2019-12-04 12:49:00Z
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Dow Jones Futures: China Trade Deal Hopes Set To Buoy Stock Market Rally; Alphabet CEO Larry Page Exits With Google Stock A Buy - Investor's Business Daily

[unable to retrieve full-text content]

  1. Dow Jones Futures: China Trade Deal Hopes Set To Buoy Stock Market Rally; Alphabet CEO Larry Page Exits With Google Stock A Buy  Investor's Business Daily
  2. Futures Rebound, Jobs, Salesforce, Marvell, Alphabet - 5 Things You Must Know  TheStreet.com
  3. Dow Jones, S&P 500, Nasdaq 100: Weakness Brings Support into Play  DailyFX
  4. Dow Jones Today: Stocks Sell Off On Trump Trade Comments, Biotech Stocks Stage Stealth Rally  Investor's Business Daily
  5. Dow tumbles on Trump's China remarks  NHK WORLD
  6. View full coverage on Google News

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2019-12-04 11:48:00Z
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Larry Page is the tech world’s Dr. Manhattan - The Verge

You never forget the first time you see Sergey Brin. This is because he is wearing Crocs, and while you have read profiles that take great pains to point out that the billionaire Google co-founder is wearing cheap plastic shoes, they still come as a surprise when you find yourself face to foot with them.

For me this experience came four years ago, when Google invited me and a bunch of other reporters down to Mountain View to get an update on its self-driving car. Brin made a surprise appearance at the event, took a handful of questions, and then went back to doing whatever Brin did during the day. (It often seemed to involve a Segway.)

Larry Page, on the other hand, you never saw at all. Brin at least seemed to be of this world — I later bumped into him at a restaurant in San Francisco, where he was attending some sort of party for the Google Glass team, wearing a pair on his face — but Page was a phantom. You might hear his voice on an earnings call every once in a while, but for the better part of the decade everyone had the same question about Larry Page: where in the world was he?

On Tuesday, we got the answer: he’s gone, and so is Brin. The co-founders wrote in a surprise farewell blog post:

If the company was a person, it would be a young adult of 21 and it would be time to leave the roost. While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it’s time to assume the role of proud parents—offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!

Sundar Pichai is now CEO of Google and its holding company, Alphabet. And just like that, one of the founding stories of the modern-day internet — the two graduate students in their garage, devising a radically better search engine than the world had ever seen — has come to an abrupt close.

Of course, some observers wondered whether it had come to a close at all. Page and Brin remain on Google’s board and are not selling off their founder stock, which gives them ultimate control over the company’s fate. “Nothing in the Page/Brin announcement says anything about a divestiture or relinquishing of the voting control,” tweeted Luther Lowe, the Yelp lobbyist and professional Alphabet antagonist. “The fact remains: Larry Page and Sergey Brin are the most powerful and least accountable humans on the planet.”

Kara Swisher echoed those sentiments, pointing out that the founders had “essentially gone AWOL” years ago. That was backed up by Googlers I heard from. “By my reckoning, they had checked out since about the time of the transition to Alphabet in 2015/2016.”

OK, sure. But to the extent that they are leaving — why now?

One popular theory was that they are fleeing — something. Some speculated that they are fleeing a board investigation into Google’s troubling history of inappropriate relationships between Google’s mostly male C-suite and their subordinates. (If you don’t know the name Amanda Rosenberg, you should.) Or maybe they are fleeing a period of historic worker unrest at Google. Others told me they must be leaving because of the ongoing antitrust investigations into the company.

Still others wondered if they were simply trying to get out of the Google media holiday party Tuesday. (That’s a joke; they never came!) Then there was Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, who tweeted “How about Page/Brin 2020?” ... to absolute crickets.

Perhaps one of these theories will prove to be true in time. In the meantime, I’m left thinking of the superb HBO series Watchmen, which is now late into its first season. It’s a superhero show where only one character has actual superhero powers: a godlike enigma named Dr. Manhattan, who began life as an ordinary scientist before being transformed into an all-powerful titan on accident.

Eventually Dr. Manhattan grows to be so powerful that he loses all interest in the affairs of ordinary humans, and goes to live by himself on Mars. People call a hotline and leave him voicemails begging for his intervention in their affairs, and he ignores them all. His time among mortals is simply done.

It’s hard not to look at Larry Page’s life and see a little Dr. Manhattan in him. A young scientist becomes a titan of industry in an accidental collision of technology and timing, sending him into such rarefied air that he all but loses interest in his former world. The rest of us shout questions at him forever, but we’re just shouting into the void.

(I don’t know who the Brin analogue would be in the Watchmen universe. Suggestions welcome!)

Page and Brin’s Google was a historical triumph. But there’s little that feels triumphant about their sudden departure. The heat turned up on Google, and they decided to head for the exits. Google’s outsized success will dominate stories about their legacy. But the way they left — bored and mostly absent in a time of crisis — is part of their legacy, too.

The Ratio

Today in news that could affect public perception of the big tech platforms.

Trending up: Facebook is expanding its efforts against ad discrimination, following a settlement with the ACLU earlier this year. Its searchable ad library will now include housing ads targeted at people in the US.

Trending down: Four former Google engineers are filing unfair labor practice charges against the company for allegedly firing them due to workplace organizing efforts.

Trending down: Amazon’s on-site medical care puts workers in danger, a new investigation from The Intercept reports. The company sometimes fails to provide adequate care and discourages workers from going to the hospital, even in serious situations.

Trending up: Apple CEO Tim Cook signed a renewed commitment to the Paris Agreement, saying “humanity has never faced a greater or more urgent threat than climate change.” Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Tesla’s Elon Musk, and Google’s Sundar Pichai all co-signed the agreement as well.

Governing

Facebook moderators are suing the company in Europe, saying they suffered psychological trauma as a result of poor working conditions. These contractors, who work for CPL Resources in Dublin, say they lacked proper training to prepare for viewing horrific content. David Gilbert from Vice explains why this lawsuit poses a particular risk:

Facebook is already facing a lawsuit in California, brought by two former moderators who are seeking class-action status, but the lawsuit being filed in Dublin this week poses a much bigger risk for the company.

Not only are Europe’s workplace-safety rules much stricter than California’s, but among the dozen Dublin plaintiffs is one of Facebook’s own highly-paid employees.

The Facebook employee, who is seeking to remain anonymous during the court proceedings, worked on content flagged by moderators working for CPL and says that even their limited exposure to harrowing material has resulted in being diagnosed with Type 2 PTSD, which can result in symptoms ranging from irritability and panic attacks to suicidal feelings.

Fighting fake news isn’t just a job for tech companies and governments. This guide teaches you how to identify when something could be fake or taken out of its proper context — and fact-check to make sure it’s legit. Print this out and share it with your families! (Adi Robertson / The Verge)

The leak of classified trade documents between the UK and the United States resembles a Russian disinformation campaign, according to some experts. They say it could point to foreign interference in Britain’s election. (Jack Stubbs / Reuters)

Rating news sources could help limit the spread of misinformation, a new study shows. The ratings are most effective when they come from experts, rather than regular users. (Antino Kim, Alan R. Dennis, Patricia L. Moravec and Randall K. Minas / The Conversation)

The man who wrote the Facebook post that triggered the first correction under Singapore’s new fake news law is happy with how the tech company responded. “Facebook did a great job,” he said. “They didn’t say that this post contains a falsehood.” (Cameron Wilson / BuzzFeed)

Congress is split over your right to sue Facebook. Democrats have widely backed a provision that would ensure big tech companies are held liable for the data scandals they create. Republicans disagree, suggesting that it would create a storm of frivolous lawsuits that would negatively impact small businesses. (Makena Kelly / The Verge)

Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg has spent nearly $1 million on Google ads since the company said it would restrict political ads in the 2020 campaign. The company said that while the new policies don’t go into effect until January, Bloomberg’s ads are already in compliance. (Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed)

Should social media companies be legally responsible for misinformation and hate speech? Right now, they’re shielded by Section 230 of The Communications Decency Act, but some politicians are looking to change that. Vox surveyed the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates to weigh in. (Rani Molla and Emily Stewart / Vox)

The Trump administration says a new French tax aimed at big tech companies discriminates against the United States. The announcement could lead to retaliatory tariffs as high as 100 percent on French wines. (Jim Tankersley and Ana Swanson / The New York Times)

A California college student is suing TikTok for illegally harvesting user data and sending it to China. She says the company neglected its duty to handle user data with care and knowingly violated a slew of statutes governing data gathering and the right to privacy. (Blake Montgomery / Daily Beast)

Schools in the United States are implementing pricey surveillance systems, ostensibly to keep kids safe. The technology monitors what students write in emails, chats and shared documents — some even track what they say on social media. (Lois Beckett / The Guardian)

Chinese scientists are using DNA samples from Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minority groups to create images of peoples’ faces. The technology is also being developed in the US. (Sui-Lee Wee and Paul Mozur / The New York Times)

A Chinese diplomat is going after the US on Twitter, calling out the government’s hypocrisy in condemning China’s human rights abuses and saying American officials are scared of his country’s rise. (Ben Smith / BuzzFeed)

Russia passed a new law that will require manufacturers of smartphones, computers, and smart TVs to pre-install Russian-made software on their devices. The bill was approved earlier this year and officially signed into law on Monday. (Jon Porter / The Verge)

The FBI is treating any mobile app that comes out of Russia as a “potential counterintelligence threat,” according to a letter the law enforcement agency sent to Congress. Since 2015, Russia has required tech companies to store data on Russian users on servers inside the country, and hand it over if the government demands. (Ben Brody / Bloomberg)

Industry

Facebook created a chatbot to help employees navigate difficult conversations over the holidays. The “Liam Bot” teaches them what to say if someone wants to know how the tech giant handles hate speech, for example. Sheera Frenkel and Mike Isaac from The New York Times explain why this might be necessary:

Facebook’s reputation has been shredded by a string of scandals — including how the site spreads disinformation and can be used to meddle in elections — in recent years. In October, Mr. Zuckerberg was grilled by lawmakers for hours over everything from political advertising to work-force diversity.

For Facebook employees, that has sometimes led to questions from family and friends about why they would work for the Silicon Valley company. This year, Facebook fell to seventh place from the top spot when people were asked where they most wanted to work, according to a survey by Glassdoor, the employee reviews site.

Facebook announced the Liam Bot in a message to employees, the company said. In past years, Facebook provided employees with guidance for the holiday season by sharing news releases in internal groups, or directly with those who asked for advice. The company said it wanted to create a more efficient way to answer employee questions this year.

Google Photos added a new feature for fast messaging. With this release, Google has satisfied its legal requirement to release a new messaging product at random at least once a year. (Nick Statt / The Verge)

As Facebook expands into commerce, payments, and hardware, it’s still going to largely rely on ads as the cornerstone of its business. Other companies are pushing to diversify their businesses with subscriptions and licensing. (Sara Fischer / Axios)

Twitter is updating its global privacy policy to give users more information about what data is sent to advertisers. It’s also launching a site to share how it protects user data. (Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters)

A new YouTube policy will allow creators who produce gaming content to upload videos that contain simulated violence without worrying about being automatically hit by age-restriction gates. The new policy doesn’t apply to advertisement guidelines — if a video is considered too violent for marketers, it still runs the risk of being demonetized. (Julia Alexander / The Verge)

In the wake of recent reporting regarding how registered sex offenders use dating apps like Tinder, some people are suggesting these apps start doing background checks on users. That could change the culture of online dating, however, by limiting how freely users are willing to talk about their sexual preferences. (Ashley Carman / The Verge)

TikTok swiped one of Instagram’s senior European executives, Trevor Johnson, to head up the company’s UK and EMEA operations. The video-sharing platform has been on an aggressive hiring spree in the US and Europe. (Omar Oakes / Campaign)

Inside Twitch’s wildest talk show, a livestreamed reality TV series with 13 of the platforms more controversial personalities. (Cecilia D’Anastasio / Kotaku)

Investors and founders are starting to explore a new generation of social products that leverage the physical world, focus on content moderation and truth, or invent new content formats. (Sam Lessin / The Information)

And finally...

Standing ovation to the (anonymous, I think?) class clown who built a fake Liam bot for our enjoyment, simulating the chatbot Facebook employees are using to talk with family members over the holidays:

Aunt: What are you planning to do to lose the baby weight?

Robot: We’re committed to protecting people’s privacy.

It’s spectacular.

Talk to us

Send us tips, comments, questions, and your Larry Page / Watchmen fan fiction: casey@theverge.com and zoe@theverge.com.

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2019-12-04 11:00:00Z
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Read the email Sundar Pichai sent Google employees after founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page announced they were stepping down - Business Insider

Sundar PichaiSundar Pichai is now CEO of both Google and its parent company Alphabet.REUTERS/Brandon Wade/File Photo

  • Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin announced Tuesday they were stepping down from Google's parent company Alphabet.
  • Google CEO Sundar Pichai will now become CEO of both Google and Alphabet.
  • Pichai sent an email to employees on Tuesday outlining how his role will (and won't) change.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tuesday marked the end of an era for Silicon Valley.

Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who founded Google in a garage in 1998, announced they were stepping down from Google's parent company Alphabet.

Their successor is Sundar Pichai, Google's CEO of four years. Pichai will be retain his role as CEO of Google as well as becoming CEO of Alphabet.

Pichai circulated an email to employees after Page and Brin put up a blog post announcing their departure on Tuesday, outlining what the change would mean for the company. 

In the email Pichai says that Google is a company of "continuous evolution," but that his accession won't affect Alphabet's structure or the day-to-day work of Googlers.

Here is the email in full:

Hi everyone,

When I was visiting Googlers in Tokyo a few weeks ago I talked about how Google has changed over the years. In fact, in my 15+ years with Google, the only constant I've seen is change. This process of continuous evolution — which the founders often refer to as "uncomfortably exciting" – is part of who we are. That statement will feel particularly true today as you read the news Larry and Sergey have just posted to our blog.

The key message Larry and Sergey shared is this:

While it has been a tremendous privilege to be deeply involved in the day-to-day management of the company for so long, we believe it's time to assume the role of proud parents — offering advice and love, but not daily nagging!

With Alphabet now well-established, and Google and the Other Bets operating effectively as independent companies, it's the natural time to simplify our management structure. We've never been ones to hold on to management roles when we think there's a better way to run the company. And Alphabet and Google no longer need two CEOs and a President. Going forward, Sundar will be the CEO of both Google and Alphabet. He will be the executive responsible and accountable for leading Google, and managing Alphabet's investment in our portfolio of Other Bets. We are deeply committed to Google and Alphabet for the long term, and will remain actively involved as Board members, shareholders and co-founders. In addition, we plan to continue talking with Sundar regularly, especially on topics we're passionate about!

I first met Larry and Sergey back in 2004 and have been benefiting from their guidance and insights ever since. The good news is I'll continue to work with them — although in different roles for them and me. They'll still be around to advise as board members and co-founders.

I want to be clear that this transition won't affect the Alphabet structure or the work we do day to day. I will continue to be very focused on Google and the deep work we're doing to push the boundaries of computing and build a more helpful Google for everyone. At the same time, I'm excited about Alphabet and its long term focus on tackling big challenges through technology.

The founders have given all of us an incredible chance to have an impact on the world. Thanks to them, we have a timeless mission, enduring values, and a culture of collaboration and exploration that makes it exciting to come to work every day. It's a strong foundation on which we will continue to build. Can't wait to see where we go next and look forward to continuing the journey with all of you.

— Sundar

Although Pichai emphasises that power in the two companies will be consolidated under him, it's important to note that since Page and Brin control over half of Google's shares, they will still have voting control over the company. In their goodbye blog post the pair said they would remain "actively involved" board members and shareholders.

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2019-12-04 10:04:11Z
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U.S., China Move Closer to Trade Deal Despite Heated Rhetoric - Bloomberg

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  1. U.S., China Move Closer to Trade Deal Despite Heated Rhetoric  Bloomberg
  2. Stocks log third day of losses after Trump warns China trade war could go beyond 2020 election  CNN
  3. Trump plans to move forward with more China tariffs this month, report says | Markets  Business Insider
  4. Trump’s new stance on China trade deal may be good for him but bad for investors  MarketWatch
  5. Trump says it might be better to wait until after 2020 election for a China trade deal  CNBC
  6. View full coverage on Google News

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2019-12-04 09:11:00Z
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Elon Musk attempts to explain Twitter to normal people in court - The Verge

There are so many lawyers, and they are all wearing nondescript suits in blue or gray that are cut badly in the upper arm area. I have seen many shapes and styles of shoulder pads, all of them bad. I have seen an improbable amount of hair gel. I have seen loafers, flimsy and sturdy. I have seen, among the trial’s observers, a man wearing two sets of glasses, one over the other, presumably to avoid having to buy bifocals. The best-dressed people in the room are in the jury, and it’s not close. (The jury has been instructed not to read the press, so it’s not like I’m sucking up here.)

The Honorable Stephen Wilson, in explaining the case, tells the fortyish prospective jurors that Elon Musk “posted a series of tweets on his Twitter” very sincerely, a statement that had been tediously ironed out with both sets of lawyers the day before. None of them, apparently, viewed “posted tweets on his Twitter” as a howler; but first of all, “tweeted” is a fine strong verb. Second, where else would Musk post his tweets if not his Twitter account — Facebook?

We are convened because Elon Musk, following in the footsteps of American icon Courtney Love, has been sued for Twitter defamation. The claim was brought by Vernon Unsworth, who helped rescue a boys’ soccer team and their coach from the Tham Luang Nang Non cave system in Thailand.

It’s… a little convoluted but the basic facts are these: the soccer team became an international media frenzy straight out of Ace in the Hole after they were reported missing on June 23rd, 2018. After initially telling a Twitter rando that “I suspect that the Thai govt has this under control, but I’m happy to help if there is a way to do so,” Musk commandeered several SpaceX engineers to build a mini-sub. They then brought the sub to Thailand in the hopes of assisting the rescue operation. By the time Musk arrived in Thailand with the submarine on July 9, eight of the 13 people trapped in the cave had been rescued.

After they had all been rescued, Unsworth went on CNN. He’d assisted with the rescue since the beginning, on June 24th, and suggested that the Thai government contact world-class cave divers. Unsworth was not feeling charitable about Musk’s contributions, calling the sub a “PR stunt” with “absolutely no chance of working.” Also, he said Musk could “stick his submarine where it hurts.” For some reason, everyone who has spoken so far, including Musk, construes this as “stick it up his ass” though a submarine would probably hurt in plenty parts of one’s body if enough pressure were applied. An armpit, for instance. A belly button.

Musk testified that he watched the CNN clip on Twitter “two or three times” before sending the tweets that brought everyone into the courtroom today. He said he’d show that the submarine could navigate the caves. He capped off the three-tweet rant with “Sorry pedo guy, you really did ask for it.”

It is the “pedo guy” that appears to be the crux of the case. The jury will decide if the tweets count as recklessly negligent.

O jury, where art thou?

But first we had to find a jury. Four people said they were Tesla owners — one of whom specified that he had an old-school Roadster, one of whom said they had both an X and an S — but this would not impair their judgment. Three people had connections — as contractors or shareholders — with SpaceX or Boring Company, but were similarly confident about their judgment. One prospective juror said that he had an upcoming job interview with SpaceX and could not be impartial. He was excused. Two other jurors were excused because they followed Musk on Twitter.

After the bulk questions, eight prospective jurors were called into the box and questioned individually. These people were asked more specific questions about whether they were related to any lawyers, what their spouses and kids did and whether they had any “strong opinion, whether negative or positive, about whether someone is a billionaire.” Most people answered no; an aesthetician who answered “yes” was excused. Only one prospective juror indicated he had strong opinions — “both negative and positive” — about Musk. He ended up on the jury.

A turd in the punch bowl

Then it was time for opening statements. Taylor Wilson, a partner at L. Lin Wood and a lawyer for the plaintiff, put up a chart I couldn’t see with a lot of dates on it. (The chart was aimed at the jury and would continue to obscure my view all day.) He then walked through the dates of the basic action around the tweets with the energy of a nervous middle schooler doing a monologue at the school play. Not only did Musk call Unsworth a “pedo guy,” Wilson pointed out, when Kevin Beaumont sarcastically called the tweet “classy,” Musk replied “bet you a signed dollar it’s true.” (The “signed dollar” tweet has also been deleted.)

Musk apologized on July 17, but that wasn’t the end of it. Wilson rather irritably told the court that despite the apology, Musk did not retract his “worldwide accusation on Twitter” that Unsworth was a pedophile. Wilson then told the court that Musk’s family office retained a PI to look into Unsworth and on August 28th, instructed the investigator to leak negative information to the press. (It would later emerge that the PI was, in fact, a con man.)

There were a few other subsequent events Wilson brought up to show that Musk must have been serious about calling Unsworth a pedophile: a reply to Drew Olanoff saying “you don’t think it’s strange he [Unsworth] hasn’t sued me?” and an email to BuzzFeed News reporter Ryan Mac where Musk called Unsworth a “child rapist.”

Musk was accusing Unsworth “of being a pedophile during what should have been the proudest moment of his life,” Wilson said. In other words, according to Wilson, Musk metaphorically shat in the punch bowl.

An argument between two men

In response, Alex Spiro — a former assistant district attorney with a real Miles Teller vibe, who is now a partner at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and has represented Jay-Z — rose to give an opening statement from the defense. This was an argument between two men, he noted extremely correctly. He suggested that the plaintiff’s lawyers were changing the context on the exchange.

He set the stage on the Thailand thing differently. See, life and death hung in the balance. Naturally, the solution was hero engineers. (At this point, my notes read: “Spiro speaks better than Wilson but this defense is deeply goofy.”) Spiro rather dramatically told the courtroom “Thank God the pod was never needed.” He then pointed out that no one on the engineering team sat for an interview or took any money for their efforts.

Spiro then made the argument that “stick the sub where it hurts” was understood as a colloquialism. He notes that Unsworth incorrectly said in his CNN interview that Musk was asked to leave the cave, and that it was only Unsworth’s opinion that the minisub didn’t work. (I am now hoping for some extremely petty video evidence about whether or not the minisub works, which is possibly the least important part of this entire debacle.) According to Spiro, the hurtful part was calling Musk’s efforts a publicity stunt.

There are two basic mistakes to make on the internet, and Musk would proceed to make both of them. The first is to do a Google search in lieu of actual research, and Musk — immediately after seeing the video — did this. Through Google, Musk determined that Unsworth lived in Chiang Rai province in Thailand; an article somewhere named the province as a significant area of child sex trafficking.

From there, Musk proceeded to make the second mistake, which is to tweet. Armed with his Google knowledge, Musk called Unsworth a “pedo guy.” Spiro maintained that it was a “fill-in-the-blank insult” and that the Google search was just to determine an effective way to insult Unsworth. “These tweets are not allegations of crimes,” Spiro said. “They are joking, taunting tweets in a fight between men.”

Sprio then coined the worst acronym I’ve heard in years, and I edit stories about aerospace so I know from bad acronyms. It is: JDART, for joking, deleted, apologized-for, responsive tweets. See, because the tweets were in response to the CNN interview.

As for the later statements — which could be construed as doubling down — and the hiring of the PI, Spiro said that Musk was simply trying to get information because a lawsuit was imminent. (Truth is a defense against a defamation claim.)

Spiro then proceeded to question whether Unsworth was as upset as he claimed; after all, he’d been featured in GQ’s Men of the Year, received an award from the United Kingdom’s Queen (Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, a name in extremely questionable taste for an award as empires are currently out of fashion), and was honored by the King of Thailand.

Then, mercifully, we broke for lunch.

Musk takes the stand

After I ate two Cliff Bars sitting outside the courtroom, Musk showed up to testify in a positively funereal black suit and blue-gray tie, flanked by security guards. L. Lin Wood, a Philip Seymour Hoffman character who somehow got loose from the bounds of cinema and showed up in reality, handled the cross-examination. Wood was possessed of a certain oleaginous charm and generally bumbling manner, which belied the work he’d done on behalf of clients like Herman Cain, JonBenet Ramsey’s parents, and Richard Jewell, who was named as a suspect in the 1996 Olympic bombing before being cleared.

Anyway Wood began by asking about Twitter dot com. I live for this.

It rapidly became apparent that whatever pretrial prep Wood has done is insufficient for him to understand the Nature of Posting. Wood explained that before 2018, Musk knew that his Twitter account was used in part to convey factual information. It is. It is also used for Ambien tweets, reflections on anime, rumormongering, and fantasies about a volcanic lair. People on Twitter can assert anything that comes to mind, Musk said, “true, untrue, half-true. It’s where people engage in verbal combat. There’s anything on Twitter.”

Wood spent a great deal of time asking very similar-sounding questions. It is possible Wood did this because he’s rusty at trial; it is possible it was a deliberate strategy to make Musk lose his temper. It’s possible there is some reason I am not thinking of. Through most of the following, Musk sat with his arms crossed and resting on the table in front of him.

Wood attempted to establish that Musk is influential. Musk wasn’t having it. “I’m not sure to the degree I’m actually influential,” Musk said. Wood tried again: Musk is recognized as the pioneer who wants to take people to Mars. “I’m influential in the domains of climate change and rockets,” Musk admitted. “But this doesn’t mean I can change someone’s opinion in other areas.”

As a person who speaks publicly, though, Musk surely must know the value of choosing his words carefully, Wood suggested. At that point it occurred to me that Wood had probably never seen a Musk press event — for instance, the Neuralink one earlier this year where Musk shocked his own team by revealing that “a monkey has been able to control a computer with its brain” using that tech. “There are a lot of things I say and not all of them have the same quality of thought,” Musk said, in what was likely the understatement of the decade.

Wood seemed to switch tacks, going through old emails to establish a timeline for Musk’s work on the submarine. Musk says that at first he thought his help wasn’t needed, but then after a Thai Navy Seal died and reports of an imminent monsoon, he figured “it would be on my conscience forever” if he didn’t take action. Musk walked through the details of getting in touch with Rick Stanton, who coordinated the operation, doing what essentially amounted to a hackathon with his engineers, then flying to Thailand to drop off the sub. Musk sent his team ahead while he met with the Thai prime minister, then took the sub to the Navy Seals, headed into the cave to the dive point, posted a photo from the cave on Twitter, then left for his hotel room. The next day, he flew to Shanghai for a pre-planned business meeting.

At this point, Wood tried to enter an email exchange into evidence, resulting in a great deal of confusion on Judge Wilson’s part about how email reply chains work. (You read from the bottom.) After that confusion was resolved, a July 10 email was entered into evidence: “btw my gf just texted me saying the head of the Thai rescue team said the solution isn’t practical & the press is turning against me.” Wood noted that members of the media, before Unsworth said anything, had described the sub as a PR stunt.

Here is where we come to Musk’s third mistake: he had a Google alert set up on his name. (“Not anymore.”) He wasn’t quite sure where he’d seen the Unsworth interview, but he thought maybe Twitter. Musk posted the “pedo guy” tweets “minutes to hours” after seeing the video. The video was then played for the court; Musk turned pink while he watched it.

At this point, the “pedo guy” Twitter thread was entered into evidence, and the befuddled court had to be told that the reply chains work the other way on Twitter — the first tweet is at the top, and the last tweet is at the bottom. Musk helpfully explained Twitter’s reply mechanism means that when you reply to someone, it’s less visible than when you simply tweeted. Then the meaning of the slang “sus” was explained to the court.

Wood asked if Musk knew who Unsworth was when he tweeted. Musk thought he was “a random creepy guy” who was unrelated to the rescue. Wood then asked a series of questions establishing at length that Musk didn’t know who Unsworth was, apparently trying to get a rise out of Musk. Wood’s take on the apology tweet was that it was insufficient, because it did not clarify that Musk didn’t mean Unsworth was not literally a pedophile.

A very testy exchange between men

At this point, perhaps inevitably, we come to the conman: James Howard, a convicted felon. Howard had been trying to get in touch with Musk about investigating Unsworth; Musk was not directly involved in contracting Howard; Jared Birchall, who runs Musk’s family business Accession LLC and who has served briefly as an officer of Neuralink and the Boring Company, contracted Howard, who was paid $52,000. There was a $10,000 bonus for verified information on misconduct by Unsworth; Howard never got the bonus.

Birchall apparently told Musk that the investigator claimed he had verified information that Unsworth met his wife when she was 12. Musk said he wanted copies to make sure the information was true; Howard couldn’t provide the information.

Wood then switched back to Twitter. Musk’s August 29 tweet suggesting it was weird Unsworth hadn’t filed a lawsuit is teed up again. Wood told Musk he’d sent Musk a letter about his intent to file suit unless they could work something out; Musk said he’d been told about the letter but may not have read it. Wood dug up Musk’s sworn deposition, where Musk said he’d read it. Musk then said he interpreted the letter as a “shakedown,” “extortion.” “I get these shakedown letters quite a lot.”

This visibly irritated Wood. He asked Musk where in the letter the shakedown occurs. Musk said that Wood couches it in fancy language but Musk knows what it means. “I think you’re looking for a significant payday.” Wood seemed to take this personally, and a very testy exchange between men occurs. “You don’t work for free,” Musk said to Wood. “Neither do you,” Wood said to Musk. Judge Wilson told both men in fancy language to settle down.

So Wood moved on to Musk’s emails to Buzzfeed reporter Ryan Mac, who was sitting in front of me and shifted uncomfortably as several people, including members of the plaintiff’s legal counsel, turned to stare at him. Mac’s jaw worked. (I asked him after the trial if he had any on-the-record comment about his star turn and he referred me to a tweet: “After eating and thinking about it for 2 hours, my main takeaway from court today is that I would never want a jury to decide my fate based on my tweets blown up on a big screen.”) Wood had Musk read aloud the “I fucking hope he sues me” portion of the email. “I guess be careful what you wish for,” Musk said.

Judge Wilson interjected to tell the jury that Mac’s email is not part of the defamation claim.. Frankly, by this portion of the afternoon, Judge Wilson seemed cranky.

Well, who could blame him. Musk had been testifying for almost four hours. My back hurt — courtrooms are not ergonomic. And finally, we came to “pedo guy;” insult or accusation? Musk maintained that it was an insult, he didn’t clarify that because he didn’t think it required clarification, and he didn’t mention it in the apology because he thought it would make things worse. Besides, according to Musk, calling someone a “pedo guy” just means they’re creepy. “Pedo guy is less — it’s a frivolous insult. ‘Guy’ does not add gravitas to a statement.” After this somewhat deflating exchange, Wood rested his cross.

In the five minutes left in the day, Musk’s lawyer, Spiro, began asking Musk biographical questions, establishing that Musk was a father of five. That his first son had died as an infant. That Musk grew up in South Africa and his childhood was [long pause] “not good.” Judge Wilson ends promptly at 5PM PT, which is good news for the jurors. Though they were attentive, some of them seem to have lost the thread of questions a few times. It’s hard work, witnessing exchanges between men.

We’ll all be back at it at 9AM PT on Wednesday.

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https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibmh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZXZlcmdlLmNvbS8yMDE5LzEyLzQvMjA5OTQ4OTUvZWxvbi1tdXNrLXRlc3RpbW9ueS12ZXJub24tdW5zd29ydGgtdHdlZXQtbmVnbGlnZW5jZS1sYS1jb3VydGhvdXNl0gF7aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cudGhldmVyZ2UuY29tL3BsYXRmb3JtL2FtcC8yMDE5LzEyLzQvMjA5OTQ4OTUvZWxvbi1tdXNrLXRlc3RpbW9ueS12ZXJub24tdW5zd29ydGgtdHdlZXQtbmVnbGlnZW5jZS1sYS1jb3VydGhvdXNl?oc=5

2019-12-04 07:14:26Z
52780456883468

Selasa, 03 Desember 2019

AK Steel’s stock jumps after $1.1 billion buyout deal with Cleveland-Cliffs - MarketWatch

Shares of AK Steel Holding Corp. rose Tuesday, after the steel maker agreed to be bought out by iron ore mining company Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. in an all-stock deal valued at $1.1 billion.

Gains were pared, however, as the tumble Cleveland-Cliffs’s stock effectively swung the value of the buyout bid to a discount from a premium.

Under terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the first half of 2020, AK Steel shareholders will receive 0.40 shares of Cleveland-Cliffs common stock for each AK Steel share they own.

Based on Monday’s stock closing prices of $2.89 for AK Steel and $8.41 for Cleveland-Cliffs, the deal values AK Steel shares at $3.36, or a 16% premium. That implies a market capitalization for AK Steel of about $1.06 billion. Cleveland-Cliffs had a market cap of $2.27 billion on Monday.

AK Steel shares AKS, +4.50%  advanced 3.1% in morning trading, paring earlier gains of as much as 4.8%, while Cleveland-Cliffs’ stock CLF, -12.96%  tumbled 14.3%.

At current premarket prices, the deal would value AK Steel stock at about $2.88, or a penny discount to Monday’s closing price.

Stock deals often cause the acquiring company’s shares to fall, as issuing new stock to fund the acquisition would dilute shareholder value.

The merger announcement comes a day after President Donald Trump gave a boost to shares of steel producers, by saying he was bringing back tariffs on steel imports from Brazil and Argentina, as retaliation for currency devaluations. AK Steel shares ran up 4.7% on Monday and Cleveland-Cliffs’ stock climbed 5.3%.

Don’t miss: Trump brings back tariffs on Brazil and Argentina as deadline for China levies approaches.

Cleveland-Cliffs shareholders will own 68% of the combined company, which will be led by current Cleveland-Cliffs Chairman and Chief Executive Lourenco Goncalves. AK Steel Chief Executive Roger Newport will retire.

“For Cliffs, we expect to realize immediate growth and a long-desired objective of a more diverse customer base, as well as more predictable cash flow generation due to the contracted nature of AK Steel’s sales of high-end automotive steel,” Goncalves said in a statement.

The companies expect the combination to generate about $120 million in cost synergies per year, which are expected to be realized within the first 12 months after closing, primarily from consolidating corporate functions, eliminating duplicate overhead costs, energy cost savings and supply chain efficiencies.

“The combination of Cliffs’ iron ore pellet capabilities and our innovative, high-quality steel product development and production is strategically compelling,” AK Steel Chief Executive Roger Newport said. “Together, we expect to be able to take advantage of growth opportunities faster and more fully than either company could on its own.”

As the deal is completed, three existing members of AK Steel’s current board of directors will join Cleveland-Cliffs board, while two current Cleveland-Cliffs board members will step down. The combined company will be headquartered in Cleveland, but a “significant presence” will be maintained at AK Steel’s current headquarters in West Chester, Ohio.

AK Steel’s stock has soared 32.4% over the past three months, but has lost 8.6% over the past 12 months, while Cleveland-Cliffs shares have lost 25.0% the past year and the S&P 500 index SPX, -1.18%  has advanced 10.3% the past year.

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2019-12-03 13:33:00Z
52780456355569