Thursday, January 9

BUSINESS

Twitter Private – What That Means For The Company And Its Chances Of Success
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BUSINESS, IN OTHER NEWS

Twitter Private – What That Means For The Company And Its Chances Of Success

Elon Musk has finally completed his US$44 billion deal to acquire Twitter and take it private. The world’s richest man has already begun putting his imprint on the social network by firing four of its top executives. While most people are likely familiar with the idea of taking a private company public – the process that allows individuals to buy and sell a company’s shares in the stock market – the reverse process is not as well understood and happens far less often. As a business and law professor, I have been analyzing mergers, privatizations and other corporate deals for over two decades. The most common question I have been getting from students and faculty colleagues is why would Musk want to take Twitter private? Or more simply, what does it mean to go private? The answers to th...
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State Politics And Election Corporate Spending Can Affect Everything From Your Wallet To Your Health
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BUSINESS, POLITICS

State Politics And Election Corporate Spending Can Affect Everything From Your Wallet To Your Health

Political spending by corporations is big business. As one corporate executive with experience in business-government relations says, “A company that is dependent on government that does not donate to politicians is engaging in corporate malpractice.” Our research group heard that statement during a series of interviews with industry insiders that we conducted for a study on corporate political strategy and involvement in U.S. state politics. In the 2020 election cycle, private interests spent US$486 million on campaign contributions to U.S. federal election candidates and over $7 billion to lobby Congress and federal agencies. The 2022 cycle could be a record period if recent trends are any indication. At the federal level, nine of the 10 most expensive Senate races to date happened du...
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Stopping Domain Name Hijacking And Domain Name Theft
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BUSINESS, IN OTHER NEWS, LAW ENFORCEMENT

Stopping Domain Name Hijacking And Domain Name Theft

Domain hijacking, or domain theft, occurs when a person improperly changes the registration of a domain name without permission from the original registrant. A domain can be hijacked for several reasons: to generate money through click-through traffic, for resale to the proper owner or a third party, to add value to an existing business, for malicious reasons, or to achieve notoriety. The costs of domain hijacking are significant. According to Symantec, a security-software company, in 2012, the economy lost $400 billion as a result of incidents of domain hijacking and related crimes. A variety of domain names have been hijacked in recent years, including the U.S. Marines, The New York Times, Twitter, Google, The Huffington Post, Forbes.com, and Craigslist. Once a domain is hijacked, it i...
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Working In The Metaverse: What Virtual Office Life Could Look Like
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BUSINESS, TECHNOLOGY

Working In The Metaverse: What Virtual Office Life Could Look Like

In the context of work, the digital divide has become less about access to devices and connectivity and more about skills and mindset. Many experienced professionals have never learned more than the rudimentary basics of email, web search and Microsoft Office. Instead, they lean hard on nearby colleagues or the IT helpdesk when things go wrong. By contrast, young people have already demonstrated a competitive edge in the virtual workplace. They come equipped with a more intuitive grasp of digital technology and the initiative to troubleshoot problems via YouTube tutorials, social media and subreddits. As a generation, they’re also bigger gamers. As more and more work takes place in virtual reality (VR) – and one does not have to share the somewhat eccentric vision of the metaverse Mark Z...
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Corporate Takeovers Are Fundamentally Changing Podcasting – Here’s How
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BUSINESS

Corporate Takeovers Are Fundamentally Changing Podcasting – Here’s How

At first glance, it may seem as though Big Tech can’t figure out how to make money off its foray into podcasting. In early May 2022, Meta announced that it was abruptly ending Facebook’s podcast integration less a year after it launched. Facebook had offered podcasters the ability to upload their shows to the social media site. Meanwhile, Spotify’s own expensive gamble on podcast integration within its music streaming service hasn’t resulted in the surge of new listeners that it had hoped. And what about the emergence of social audio platforms like Clubhouse that promised to re-imagine podcasting as live audio chatrooms hosted by celebrities and public figures? After its meteoric rise in 2021 during the height of the global pandemic, Clubhouse has seen major declines in app installs, in...
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A Bitter Taste: Are Starbucks’ Caffeinated Anti-Union Efforts Legal
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BUSINESS, IN OTHER NEWS

A Bitter Taste: Are Starbucks’ Caffeinated Anti-Union Efforts Legal

Good news greeted Starbucks workers on May 3, 2022, in the shape of a promise of new pay increases. But there was a catch: Employees at unionized stores – or those planning to unionize – shouldn’t expect to see a dime of this hike. As far as efforts to discourage workers from supporting union drives go, the move by Starbucks appears pretty blatant. And it comes as the coffee chain sees a massive surge of union activity. Since its first victory at two stores in Buffalo in December 2021, Starbucks Workers United has now filed for union elections at over 250 stores – comprising over 6,600 employees – in over 30 states, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Moreover, the union has won 54 of the 64 elections conducted to date, many by overwhelming margins. As a scholar of organize...
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Recent And Rapid Collapse Of CNN’s Streaming Service, CNN+
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BUSINESS

Recent And Rapid Collapse Of CNN’s Streaming Service, CNN+

It seems that any hope that legacy media had of recovering audiences was crushed by the recent and rapid collapse of CNN’s streaming service, CNN+. For the past decade, viewers and listeners have gradually been abandoning legacy broadcast media, which refers to news media institutions established before the digital era, such as ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox News Channel, MSNBC, NPR and NBC. Audiences have instead gravitated toward nascent media makers that got their start on platforms like YouTube, Substack, Spotify and TikTok. The popular programming on these platforms – which includes “Bad Faith,” “Breaking Points,” “The Katie Halper Show,” “The Joe Rogan Experience,” “The Jimmy Dore Show,” “Empire Files,” “Useful Idiots” and “The Realignment Podcast” – are collectively, and sometimes individuall...
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By Giving Money Without Lots Of Obligations Some Funders Are Embracing ‘Trust-Based Philanthropy’
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BUSINESS, IN OTHER NEWS

By Giving Money Without Lots Of Obligations Some Funders Are Embracing ‘Trust-Based Philanthropy’

With most foundations, the board of directors and top executives set all funding priorities. Nonprofits seeking money from those funders, in turn, must demonstrate an intention to do work that conforms to those priorities. The same system prevails with many individual wealthy donors. Any nonprofit awarded a grant must follow the funder’s priorities and comply with all of its reporting requirements – which, with some foundations, can be very time-consuming. Funders, rather than the communities they aim to support, hold most of the power in this arrangement. That can steer priorities in the wrong direction because the organizations that deal primarily or exclusively with those issues are probably more aware of what’s going on and what works best. I’m studying the growing number of foundat...
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A Law Professor Explains How Blockchains And NFTs Don’t Protect Virtual Property – Can You Truly Own Anything In The Metaverse?
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BUSINESS, IN OTHER NEWS

A Law Professor Explains How Blockchains And NFTs Don’t Protect Virtual Property – Can You Truly Own Anything In The Metaverse?

In 2021, an investment firm bought 2,000 acres of real estate for about US$4 million. Normally this would not make headlines, but in this case the land was virtual. It existed only in a metaverse platform called The Sandbox. By buying 792 non-fungible tokens on the Ethereum blockchain, the firm then owned the equivalent of 1,200 city blocks. But did it? It turns out that legal ownership in the metaverse is not that simple. The prevailing but legally problematic narrative among crypto enthusiasts is that NFTs allow true ownership of digital items in the metaverse for two reasons: decentralization and interoperability. These two technological features have led some to claim that tokens provide indisputable proof of ownership, which can be used across various metaverse apps, environments an...
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A Finance Expert Explains The ‘Poison Pill’ The Anti-Takeover Tool That Twitter Hopes Will Keep Elon Musk At Bay
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BUSINESS, IN OTHER NEWS

A Finance Expert Explains The ‘Poison Pill’ The Anti-Takeover Tool That Twitter Hopes Will Keep Elon Musk At Bay

Takeovers are usually friendly affairs. Corporate executives engage in top-secret talks, with one company or group of investors making a bid for another business. After some negotiating, the companies engaged in the merger or acquisition announce a deal has been struck. But other takeovers are more hostile in nature. Not every company wants to be taken over. This is the case with Elon Musk’s US$43 billion bid to buy Twitter. Companies have various measures in their arsenal to ward off such unwanted advances. One of the most effective anti-takeover measures is the shareholder rights plan, also more aptly known as a “poison pill.” It is designed to block an investor from accumulating a majority stake in a company. Twitter adopted a poison pill plan on April 15, 2022, shortly after Musk un...
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