Elon Musk has secured new funding to purchase Twitter, Tesla makes record gains in Q1 2022, and CNN+ shuts down just three weeks after its launch.
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That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now, welcome to Hashtag Trending. It’s Friday, April 22, and I’m your host, Samira Balsara.
It appears that Elon Musk isn’t done pursuing Twitter. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO confirmed that he’s secured new funding for taking over the social platform. The new massive $46.5 billion fund breaks down into $21 billion of equity financing, $12.5 billion in margin loans from banks, and $13 billion in other bank loans. With the new money, Musk is apparently considering extending a tender offer, which is a direct invite to shareholders to sell their stocks at a specific time and price. How things will play out is still up in the air. Musk’s filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission wrote that there’s no assurance that the definitive agreement will be executed.
In other Elon news, Tesla is rolling in money. Despite supply chain constraints and production delays in China, it sold 310,000 vehicles, turning a $3.3 billion profit in Q1 2022. The company’s revenue now sits at $18.7 billion, a staggering 81 per cent increase year over year. The company made $679 million in emission credit sales to other automakers, more than double what it made last year. Some of the money went into expanding its production capacities. The company opened two new factories, one in Berlin and one in Texas, almost back to back. The cost of these new factories are expected to drag Tesla’s financial statement this quarter, reported The Verge.
CNN+, a new streaming service by Warner Bros. Discovery, is shutting down less than a month after it launched. The service launched on March 29 and garnered 150,000 subscribers in the following three weeks. Although the numbers looked impressive, it was far below expectations. It only had about 10,000 concurrent users. Thus, Warner Bros Discovery has decided to put the service to rest. All marketing budget has been suspended as well. Departing CNN+ employees will receive a minimum of six-months severance, depending on length of service at CNN.
The Taliban has announced a ban against TikTok for misleading the young generations. The ban announced by the Afghanistan Cabinet also included PUBG, a popular PC and mobile game. This is just a long list of entertainment the Taliban has blacklisted since it took power in Afghanistan. The group has also banned music, movies, and television soap operas. The harsh control over the country’s media left its residents with little choice for leisure. The TV programs broadcast little more than news and religious content.
That’s all the tech news that’s trending right now. Hashtag Trending is a part of the ITWC Podcast network. Add us to your Alexa Flash briefings or your Google Home daily briefing. Make sure to sign up for our Daily IT Wire newsletter to get all the news that matters directly in your inbox every day. Also, catch the next episode of Hashtag Tendances, our weekly Hashtag Trending episode in French, which drops every Thursday morning. If you have a suggestion or a tip, drop us a line in the comments or via email. Thank you for listening, I’m Samira Balsara.
