Business

Bloomberg News reports: Elon Musk oversaw the creation of a 2016 video that exaggerated the abilities of Tesla Inc.’s driver-assistance system Autopilot, even dictating the opening text that claimed the company’s car drove itself, according to internal emails viewed by Bloomberg. Musk wrote to Tesla’s Autopilot team after 2 a.m. California time in October 2016 to emphasize the importance of …

USA Today reports: On the heels of Amazon beginning its latest round of layoffs that cut thousands of jobs, the e-retailer announced it plans to shut down its charity donation program. The online retailer and cloud computing giant donates a percentage of eligible purchases on the site to the shoppers’ chosen charity organization through the program AmazonSmile, launched a decade ago. Amazon said it has donated at least $449 …

Charleston’s NPR affiliate reports: In a press conference Wednesday morning, West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced his office has reached a settlement with the national pharmaceutical chain Walgreens for $83 million. “Today, we’re announcing that the state of West Virginia is settling for $83 million for its claims against Walgreens. We have signed the agreement and we have sent …

USA Today reports: The founder of the Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency exchange Bitzlato was arrested early Wednesday in Miami in connection with a vast money laundering operation, accused of transmitting more than $700 million in illicit funds in the past four years. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said Anatoly Legkodymov, 40, a Russian national, oversaw a major “high-tech financial hub that catered to …

NBC News reports: Bankrupt crypto firm FTX said on Tuesday that $415 million worth of crypto was hacked from the exchange’s accounts, representing a sizeable portion of the identified assets the company is trying to recover. In a presentation titled “Maximizing FTX Recoveries,” lawyers and advisors for FTX debtors updated the total liquid assets identified for recovery, and said they’re valued at …

CNN Business reports: Party City filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday after years of losses and weak sales. The largest party goods and Halloween specialty retail chain in the United States said in a regulatory filing that it reached an agreement with debtholders to cut its $1.7 billion debt load. The company said it secured $150 million in financing that will …

Reuters reports: A 2016 video that Tesla used to promote its self-driving technology was staged to show capabilities like stopping at a red light and accelerating at a green light that the system did not have, according to testimony by a senior engineer. The video, which remains archived on Tesla’s website, was released in October 2016 and promoted on Twitter …

The Daily Beast reports: Twitter’s revenue on Tuesday was down 40 percent year over year as the company continues its free-fall three months into Elon Musk’s takeover, according to Zoë Schiffer, a reporter for Platformer. Musk may also be staring down the barrel of a massive interest payment on the $13 billion in debt he took on to buy the …

The Verge reports: The Federal Elections Commission dismissed a Republican-led complaint that Google’s filters in Gmail unfairly send GOP fundraising emails to spam folders at a higher rate than those from Democrats. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report the FEC’s dismissal on Tuesday, citing a commission letter to Google earlier this month saying that it “found no …

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports: Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s decision to halt plans for a $3.5 billion Ford Motor Co. battery plant over his concerns about Chinese influence cost one of the poorest areas of Virginia a reported 2,500 jobs with potential for more. If Ford finalized the project, the plant would have gone in the Southern Virginia Mega Site at Berry …

Reuters reports: The West’s top energy firms are expected to rake in a combined record profit of $200 billion from a turbulent 2022 marked by huge volatility in oil and gas prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine with buoyant earnings likely to roll through 2023. Flush with cash, BP Chevron, Exxon Mobil, Shell and TotalEnergies also delivered shareholders unprecedented returns …

The Associated Press reports: Elon Musk claimed in a August 7, 2018 tweet that he had lined up the financing to pay for a $72 billion buyout of Tesla, which he then amplified with a follow-up statement that made a deal seem imminent. But the buyout never materialized and now Musk will have to explain his actions under oath in …

The Associated Press reports: A federal judge on Friday rejected Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s bid to move or delay a trial over a misleading tweet about a potential buyout of the electric automaker, setting the stage for the mercurial billionaire to be thrust into a legal drama amid the turmoil of his Twitter takeover. Musk’s attorneys last week asked Chen …

Axios reports: The company overnight “dramatically” cut prices of its Model 3 and Model Y in the U.S. by a weighted average of about $10,000, or 16%, according to Evercore ISI analysts. Tesla has experienced a sharp drop in its stock price over the last several months as Musk’s Twitter management led to criticism of his leadership — and as …

The Hill reports: Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian on Friday urged Congress to boost funding for the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following this week’s computer system outage that grounded U.S. flights for hours. Bastian said the FAA meltdown, which led to more than 10,000 delays on Wednesday, was “unacceptable” but placed blame on lawmakers for not prioritizing the agency. …

Reuters reports: Shareholders filed a lawsuit against Southwest Airlines Co on Thursday, accusing the carrier of fraudulently concealing problems that led last month to an operational meltdown and more than 15,000 flight cancellations. According to the proposed class action filed in federal court in Houston, Southwest publicly downplayed or failed to disclose serious shortcomings in its flight scheduling software technology. …

Business Insider reports: Elon Musk is closing many international Twitter offices as he continues to cut costs and try to find ways the company can make money. At least a dozen international offices are closed or in the process of closing, according to two people familiar with the company and messages seen by Insider, along with several more in the …

The Verge reports: Parlement Technologies began laying off workers in late November, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. These layoffs continued through at least the end of December, when around 75 percent of staffers were let go in total, leaving approximately 20 employees left working at both Parler and the parent-company’s cloud services venture. A majority of the …

NBC News reports: Attorneys for Tesla and Elon Musk are asking a federal judge in San Francisco to move, or delay, a forthcoming trial from Northern California to Western Texas, saying they won’t be able to find unbiased jurors and citing “local negativity” toward Musk. Musk, and other current and former Tesla board members, are set to face a jury …

ABC News reports: The holiday meltdown at Southwest Airlines last month cost the company as much as $825 million in lost revenue and added expenses, the company said in a government filing on Friday. Southwest, the largest domestic airline in the U.S., canceled more than 16,000 flights over an 11-day period at the end of December, the filing said. Southwest …