• Delaware court will hear Twitter’s case against Elon Musk in October, earlier than requested.
• Kathaleen McCormick, the chancellor of the Court of Chancery in Delaware, would be presiding over the hearing.

Elon Musk has been in the news for a considerable amount of time. Here is another update about the most talked-about topic in the town. In October, a Delaware court will hear Twitter’s case against Elon Musk for seeking to back out of his acquisition of the business. Twitter requested a shorter hearing period than Musk; thus, the winds are in favor of Twitter at the moment.

It was in April that Musk had agreed to purchase Twitter for USD 44 billion but remained quiet for an extended period about the agreement. Even though he was permitted to research the company he was planning to acquire, he asserted that Twitter had too many bots. Then, he attempted to terminate the agreement. Twitter filed a suit in response to holding the defendant from completing the purchase.

The judge who would be presiding over the hearing is Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick. During an oral trial, Twitter argued that Elon Musk’s objections regarding bots were not made in bad faith attempts to back out of the purchase owing to an acute case of buyer’s remorse. In the beginning, Twitter intended the trial to take place in September, but Musk requested that it take place in February. Nevertheless, the trial will last for five days, which is longer than what Twitter requested but shorter than what Musk did.

The legal representation for Twitter characterized Musk’s actions as “inexcusable” in the courtroom. Musk has held up an employee retention plan and is engaging in “needless value destruction.” In response, Musk’s legal team alleged that Twitter was playing games with Musk using bot data. Both teams concluded that Musk’s group had conducted millions of searches on Twitter’s firehose, which is a real-time stream of Tweets as they are sent. Musk’s attorneys also suggested that a leading daily was provided with a copy of Twitter’s complaint before they did.

McCormick stated that the delay would cost Twitter irreparably. Further, McCormick noted that she was sure that the teams of attorneys would be able to rise to the occasion, although a court date in October is a rapid turnaround.

Facebook’s user progress looks to have hit an upper limit, and its momentum is stalling. Thursday’s (February 03, 2022) fall wiped out about USD 230 plus billion of industry value in an instant (a number unprecedented in stock-market history).

Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that Meta is confronting serious competition for user time and attention, majorly from viral video-sharing application TikTok.

The report marks a spectacular turnaround for a firm that has posted share gains every year. Still, one since its 2012 preliminary public offering, stoking concern that Meta Platforms’ flagship product and core advertising moneymaker has plateaued after years of constant gains.

Zukerberg adds Meta’s rival to TikTok, Reels, is gaining popularity, but monetization has been slow. Thus, he requested investors for patience as the product ramps up.

Mark Zuckerberg added, “Over time we think that there is potential for a tremendous amount of overall engagement growth. We think it’s the right thing to lean into this and push as hard to grow Reels as quickly as possible and not hold on to the brakes at all, even though it may create some near-term slower growth than we would have wanted.”

The errors come at a crucial juncture for the firm battling regulatory skirmishes on several fronts and trying to rationalize a costly shift in corporate strategy to gamble on the Metaverse, Zuckerberg’s vision for an immersive internet that may take years to understand. However, seeing the current decade, it seems that Facebook will never stop growing. At present, young users are selecting platforms such as Google’s YouTube and TikTok for entertainment and community instead.

The company, which switched its name to Meta last year to signify its future direction, also said, “It will be taking on the META stock ticker in the first half of the year. Shares plunged as low as USD 237.07 in New York.”

Other social media firms also saw decline in their shares –

• Snap Inc., shares down by about 21%
• Pinterest Inc., shares down by about 8%
• Twitter Inc., shares down by about 5.1%

Meta’s Reality Labs division, which comprises the company’s investments in the metaverse and Virtual Reality (VR), stated an operating loss of about USD 3.3 billion for the fourth quarter, as the company revealed its contribution for the first time.

Meta said revenue will be USD 27 billion to USD 29 billion in the current period, compared with the USD 30.3 billion analysts estimated on average. Changes to Apple’s mobile software that require user permission to gather data for ad tracking are significantly crimping revenue by limited, targeted advertising.

“We believe the impact of iOS overall is a headwind on our business in 2022, on the order of USD 10 billion,” Chief Financial Officer David Wehner commented.

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said Menlo Park, a California-based company, is working to help advertisers target people with messages requiring fewer personal data.