Techmeme
October 31, 2022, 10:15 AM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Sources: Twitter could make Twitter Blue a $20/month subscription that verifies users; staff have until November 7 to build the feature or face being fired  —  Now that he owns Twitter, Elon Musk has given employees their first ultimatum: Meet his deadline to introduce paid verification on Twitter or pack up and leave.
More: BBC, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, The Economic Times, Tech Advisor, Engadget, Reuters, New York Post, Bloomberg, MSPoweruser, KnowTechie, BGR, MediaNama, PCMag, ExchangeWire.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechCrunch, Android Headlines, Morning Shots, TechRadar, Deadline, TechCircle, City A.M., iPhone Hacks, CoinGape, Neowin, TechSpot, The Week, Pocket-lint, Watcher Guru, Wccftech, iMore, Social Media Today, and TheGamer
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Sources: Twitter is strongly considering taking away its verified users' badges if they don't subscribe to Twitter Blue  —  Under pressure to generate revenue quickly, Twitter's new CEO considers ending free verification  —  Twitter is strongly considering making its users pay to remain verified …
Washington Post:
Source: Elon Musk plans to lay off 25% of Twitter's workforce in the coming days, focusing on sales, product, engineering, legal, and trust and safety  —  The first round of layoffs, led by his lawyer Alex Spiro, will target 25 percent of the workforce  —  SAN FRANCISCO …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Lauren Hirsch / New York Times:
Twitter faces ~$1B per year in interest expenses after Elon Musk's deal added ~$13B in debt, up from ~$50M in 2021 when operations generated ~$633M in cash flow  —  Mr. Musk faces financial challenges in owning Twitter.  The site frequently loses money and took on $13 billion in debt for the blockbuster deal.
Financial Times:
Sources detail the twists and turns in Elon Musk's $44B Twitter takeover, starting in March, falling apart, and then closing late on October 27  —  Even as his $44bn buyout came down to the wire, Elon Musk kept Twitter guessing.  —  Normally, lawyers and advisers on each side …
Alyssa Lukpat / Wall Street Journal:
The top 20 tech billionaires globally have lost $480B+ on paper in the past year; Mark Zuckerberg's wealth drops by $87B+, Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos by $58B+  —  Moguls including Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos have collectively lost more on paper than the market values of most S&P 500 companies
Selina Cheng / Wall Street Journal:
Inside Foxconn's Zhengzhou iPhone plant as the company grapples with a weekslong COVID-19 outbreak during a critical period, leading to harsh lockdown measures  —  As it adheres to Beijing's strict epidemic controls, Apple's biggest smartphone assembler scrambles to keep production lines moving
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
Twitter's head of safety and integrity says the service has not changed content policies but was subjected to “an organized effort to make people think we have”  —  Platform says 300 accounts carried out 50,000-plus tweets in ‘organised effort to make users think firm has changed content policy’
Rachel Sharp / The Independent:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: US-based self-driving trucking company TuSimple faces US federal probes into whether it improperly financed and transferred tech to a Chinese startup  —  Government authorities are investigating whether the U.S. self-driving trucking company defrauded investors by financing and transferring technology to China-backed Hydron

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Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: