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Elon Musk names himself CEO of Twitter and only member of company’s board, too

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Tesla Inc. boss Elon Musk said on Monday he will serve as chief executive of Twitter, the social media company he just bought for $44 billion, a move that Wall Street analysts have said could stretch the billionaire thin.

Musk, who also runs rocket company SpaceX, brain-chip startup Neuralink and tunnelling firm the Boring Company, fired Twitter’s previous chief Parag Agrawal and other top company officials last week, and has proposed revisions to the platform’s user verification process, which has been free until now.

Responding to a tweet from author Stephen King that he would not be willing to pay $20 a month to keep the verified badge on Twitter, Musk replied: “How about $8?”

The billionaire said that introducing a price was the only way to defeat trolls and bots on the platform, and that Twitter could not entirely rely on advertisers to pay its bills.

Only member of company’s board

Musk announced his Twitter CEO role in a securities filing. In another filing on Monday, Musk revealed that he became the sole director of Twitter as a result of the takeover.

Musk had previously changed his Twitter bio to “Chief Twit” in an allusion to his planned move. Twitter on Monday declined to comment on how long Musk might remain CEO or appoint someone else.

“The following persons, who were directors of Twitter prior to the effective time of the merger, are no longer directors of Twitter: Bret Taylor, Parag Agrawal, Omid Kordestani, David Rosenblatt, Martha Lane Fox, Patrick Pichette, Egon Durban, Fei-Fei Li and Mimi Alemayehou,” Musk said in the filing.

Shortly afterward, Musk tweeted that the move to dissolve the board “is just temporary,” without elaborating.

Replying to a tweeted question on what was “most messed up at Twitter,” Musk tweeted on Sunday that “there seem to be 10 people ‘managing’ for every one person coding.”

Jack Dorsey, who founded Twitter and was CEO before Agrawal, was pushed to step down from the top job at the company because investors believed he couldn’t do the job while also being CEO of Block Inc., which runs the Square payment platform.

 

 

Some Twitter users say they’re worried Elon Musk’s plans to loosen moderation rules on the site will make it a hotbed of hate speech and abuse, and are considering leaving the social media platform before it goes sideways.

On Monday, Nick Caldwell, a general manager at Twitter’s Core Technologies, indicated on his Twitter bio that he was no longer with the company. Caldwell and Twitter did not respond to Reuters’s request for comment outside regular business hours.

Since the takeover, which concluded last week, Musk has moved quickly to put his stamp on Twitter, which he had ridiculed for months for being slow to introduce product changes or take down spam accounts.

His teams began meeting with some employees to investigate Twitter’s software code and understand how aspects of the platform worked, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

Some staff who spoke with Reuters said they had received little communication from Musk or other leaders and were using news reports to piece together what was happening at the company.

Tesla’s stock has lost a third of its value since Musk made an offer to buy Twitter in April, compared with a 12 per cent decline in the benchmark S&P 500 index in the same period.

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Coeur Mining signs all-stock deal to buy SilverCrest Metals valued at US$1.7B

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VANCOUVER – Coeur Mining Inc. has signed a deal to buy SilverCrest Metals Inc. that values the company at about US$1.7 billion.

Under the agreement, SilverCrest shareholders will receive 1.6022 Coeur common shares for each SilverCrest common share they hold.

The proposal values SilverCrest shares at US$11.34 per share, based on the closing price of Coeur common shares on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday. The offer is a 22 per cent premium to where SilverCrest shares closed before the deal was announced.

Vancouver-based SilverCrest owns the Las Chispas operation in Sonora, Mexico.

Coeur shareholders will hold a 63 per cent stake in the combined company, while SilverCrest shareholders will own 37 per cent.

The deal, which requires shareholder, court and regulatory approvals, is expected to close late in the first quarter of 2025.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 4, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SIL)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Industry minister echoes Shopify calls to boost ambition in Canada

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TORONTO – Canada’s industry minister has thrown his support behind a call from one of Shopify Inc.’s leaders for the country to get more ambitious.

“I could not agree more because for 10 years, I’ve always finished my speeches by saying, ‘Let’s seize the moment. Let’s be ambitious,'” François-Philippe Champagne said Thursday.

He was speaking at the Elevate tech conference in Toronto, where the tech community has been gathering since Tuesday to discuss trends in the industry and beyond.

Among the buzziest talks was one from Shopify president Harley Finkelstein, who told the audience on opening night that he had noted a lack of ambition in Canada that he likened to a “600-pound beaver in the room.”

Adding ambition to the Canadian psyche is “unequivocally necessary,” so the country doesn’t become a nation of branch plants and instead fosters massive companies at home, the leader of the Ottawa-based e-commerce software giant said.

He added that the current lack of ambition had left Canadian companies with a reputation for being acquired, while U.S. businesses are known for being the dominant “acquirees.”

“When someone calls me and says, ‘I’m thinking of selling my company to Google,’ my usual answer is, ‘Have you ever thought about one day you buy Google?'” Finkelstein said.

His remarks set off chatter across much of Canada’s tech ecosystem, with many backing his calls for the country to get bolder

But some disagreed.

Laura Lenz, a partner at the venture capital arm of pension plan Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System, called Finkelstein’s narrative “tired” and lamented that it places “the blame of sluggish productivity squarely on the shoulders of founders and management teams working as hard as they ever have.”

“Maybe it’s time to take a broader view of the problem and the lack of infrastructure supports to keep these companies here at home,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

She said the country has to address the lack of tax incentives, willingness to use and purchase Canadian software, and funding for companies, especially in their infancy or “seed stage.”

Abdullah Snobar, the executive director of the DMZ tech hub in Toronto, agreed that “Canada is failing to provide the right conditions of startups to thrive.”

“High costs of living, transportation, infrastructure and transportation — these things are making it next to impossible for entrepreneurs to succeed here,” he wrote on X.

However, on Thursday, Champagne argued the country is well-resourced and that talent is teeming in Canada.

He said Canada has the highest number of AI startups in the world, including Toronto firm Cohere, and when it comes to quantum computing, everyone in the global auto sector considers another one of the city’s companies, Xanadu, “the rock star.”

To be more ambitious, Champagne said the country has to “be more. Be more of everything.”

“I just wish we would all be bragger-in-chief,” he said. “There’s something in our DNA that we need to change somehow, to just be talking more about what we do.”

Aside from ambition, Champagne was questioned about the country’s approach to AI.

Canada is still working on an Artificial Intelligence and Data Act meant to guide how companies operating in the country will design, develop and deploy the technology.

It isn’t expected to come into effect until at least next year, so Champagne has been using a voluntary code of conduct as a stopgap.

The code asks signatories to build risk mitigation measures into AI tools, use adversarial testing to uncover vulnerabilities in such systems and keep track of any harms the technology causes.

Thirty companies, including BlackBerry, Cohere, Salesforce and CGI, have signed the code, but others including Shopify have railed against it, complaining it could hold innovators back.

Asked by moderator and tech personality Amber Mac whether more organizations could have signed the document in the one-year since it was released, Champagne joked he had a copy in his back pocket for any interested companies to sign.

“We may not have a law in the book as of yet but at least we have something,” he said.

“Honestly, the companies that have signed tell me that this has been beneficial.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:SHOP)

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Magna International reviewing records after charges against Stronach

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TORONTO – Magna International Inc. says it has launched a targeted review of its historical records in response to sexual assault charges against founder Frank Stronach.

Magna spokeswoman Tracy Fuerst says the review process is complicated because of the passage of time.

Fuerst says that if relevant information is found, the company, which is not facing any criminal or civil allegations, will follow a strict protocol to respect the legal rights of all and co-operate with authorities.

To date, the auto parts company’s internal document review has discovered one settlement involving a historical harassment allegation against Stronach and Magna Entertainment Corp. that had already been reported.

Stronach gave up control of Magna in 2010 and stepped down as chairman in 2012.

He faces charges including rape, attempted rape, indecent assault, forcible confinement and sexual assault in connection with alleged incidents that date as far back as 1977. Stronach has said he is not guilty and that he will fight the charges.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 3, 2024.

Companies in this story: (TSX:MG)

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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