Business

The Wrap reports: Elon Musk told employees on March 25 that the company is now valued at $20 billion valuation, according to a senior reporter at The Verge. That’s less than half of the $44 billion he paid for the social networking platform in October 2022. With the Musk-mandated return of several formerly banned users, a rise in antisemitic and …

Ars Technica reports: Four and a half months after the chaotic rollout of paid checkmarks, Elon Musk’s Twitter is following through on a plan to remove verification from individual accounts that don’t pay $8 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription. “Starting April 1, we’ll be winding down our legacy Verification program and accounts that were verified under the previous …

Gothamist reports: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is proposing steep fines for stores selling weed without a license. The move comes as pressure builds to crack down on unlicensed cannabis shops – something other city and state officials have struggled to do effectively. The governor introduced legislation in Albany Wednesday that would clarify and expand the authority of the state …

Vice News reports: The amount of antisemitic tweets poisoning Twitter timelines has more than doubled since Elon Musk took the platform’s reins, according to a new study. The research, published on Monday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, found that antisemitism spiked when the embattled billionaire took control of the site and has stayed at an elevated level ever since. …

Bloomberg News reports: Ten days before Signature Bank collapsed, the House Republican overseeing an inquiry into the bank’s failure was inside its boardroom on New York’s Fifth Avenue. Patrick McHenry was there to raise thousands of dollars from bank executives. The mood inside the Signature boardroom at the March 2 fundraiser was calm, according to a person who was at …

CNN Business reports: Switzerland’s biggest bank, UBS, has agreed to buy its ailing rival Credit Suisse in an emergency rescue deal aimed at stemming financial market panic unleashed by the failure of two American banks earlier this month. It said the rescue would “secure financial stability and protect the Swiss economy.” UBS is paying 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.25 billion) …

The Hill reports: Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, officially launched its paid “verified” subscription service for its social media platforms in the United States on Friday, similar to Twitter’s own service. Elon Musk created a paid subscription service for Twitter users in October. He tweaked the service a few times, but the current iteration of Twitter Blue …

The New York Daily News reports: Major money is on the way for Ryan Reynolds. The actor’s Mint Mobile company is being acquired by T-Mobile as part of a larger deal worth up to $1.35 billion, executives announced Wednesday. “Mint Mobile is the best deal in wireless and today’s news only enhances our ability to deliver for our customers,” Reynolds …

The Associate Press reports: Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill Tuesday restricting electric car manufacturers from selling vehicles in person unless they open franchised dealerships. Defying calls from some fellow Republicans in the Legislature to veto the measure, Reeves enacted into law House Bill 401, introduced by Republican Rep. Trey Lamar of Senatobia. The law will force electric car …

The Washington Post reports: Ohio is suing Norfolk Southern after one of the railroad’s trains that was carrying toxic chemicals derailed, leading to an environmental disaster. Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost (R) announced the lawsuit in a news conference Tuesday afternoon. A Norfolk Southern train was carrying hazardous chemicals such as vinyl chloride and butyl acrylate when it derailed in …

The Washington Post reports: The Justice Department has opened an investigation into the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the actions of its senior executives, according to a person familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe an investigation still in its early stages. Financial regulators closed the bank, popular among tech firms and start-ups, …

Yahoo Finance reports: Inflation showed continued signs of cooling off in February but remained stubbornly high and well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target in the year’s second month, according to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released Tuesday morning. The Consumer Price Index (CPI) revealed headline inflation rose 0.4% over last month and 6% over the …

CNN Business reports: The Justice Department on Monday filed a lawsuit against Rite Aid for allegedly violating the Controlled Substances Act, alleging that the company “knowingly filled unlawful prescriptions for controlled substances.” In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said the Department of Justice is “using every tool at our disposal” to hold Rite Aid accountable for contributing to the …

Bloomberg News reports: Barney Frank — the former congressman known for the Dodd-Frank Act, which overhauled US banking regulation to prevent another global financial crisis — said there was one thing lawmakers and regulators didn’t reckon with back in 2008: cryptocurrencies. “Digital currency was the new element entered into our system,” the 82-year-old Frank said in an interview Sunday. “A …

NBC News reports: President Joe Biden said Monday that Americans should “rest assured” after his administration acted to ease uncertainties about the banking system in the wake of the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank last week, the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history. The president spoke about the actions taken by his administration to give Americans confidence that the banking …

The Washington Post reports: The Biden administration announced Sunday night that all depositors at the failed Silicon Valley Bank would have access to all their money on Monday morning, approving an extraordinary intervention aimed at averting a crisis in the financial system. Authorities said they were also extending protection to depositors of a second bank, Signature Bank of New York, …

CNBC reports: After regulators shuttered Silicon Valley Bank and seized its deposits Friday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday that she has been working “to address the situation in a timely way,” but that a major government bailout is not on the table. “Let me be clear that during the financial crisis, there were investors and owners of systemic …

ABC News reports: Visa and Mastercard paused their decision to start categorizing purchases at gun shops, a significant win for conservative groups and Second Amendment advocates who felt that tracking gun shop purchases would inadvertently discriminate against legal firearms purchases. The decision is, at the same time, also a defeat for gun control groups. There had been hope that categorizing …

The New York Times reports: If there is one enduring axiom in banking, it is this: Don’t run out of money. Silicon Valley Bank, a lender to some of the biggest names in the technology world, did just that on Friday, becoming the largest bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis. The move put nearly $175 billion in customer …

Fortune reports: Elon Musk has reportedly bought thousands of acres of land about 35 miles outside of Austin and plans to build his own town there for employees to live and work. The Wall Street Journal reports Musk has described the city as a “sort of Texas utopia along the Colorado River.” By creating the town, Musk would be able …