Chinese battery giant CATL looks to set up R&D centres in Hong Kong to underpin technology exports

Sarah Wu
Mon, March 4, 2024 


Sign of Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Ltd (CATL) is seen on its building in Ningde


By Sarah Wu

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese battery giant CATL is in discussions to set up research and development centres in Hong Kong to create new technologies that can be licensed abroad and within the industry, its chairman told reporters on Monday.

The potential R&D expansion in Hong Kong aligns with CATL's strategy to place greater emphasis on exporting battery technologies, not just batteries, as Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) and batteries face intensifying scrutiny from foreign governments.

Chairman Robin Zeng, who founded the world's largest battery maker, made the comments ahead of a meeting of China's parliament, the National People's Congress. He is a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a top advisory body of experts, business leaders and representatives from other political parties, which held its opening meeting of the annual gathering on Monday.Some of CATL's licensing attempts abroad have encountered roadblocks. Ford last year announced plans to invest $3.5 billion to build an EV battery plant in Michigan with help from CATL's technology, but the deal has drawn the ire of some U.S. lawmakers.

Meanwhile, concerns about China's clout in the EV battery supply chain have extended to the country's rising status as a vehicle exporter. Exports have been a driving force for growth for automakers in China as demand at home weakens.

The European Commission last year launched a probe into China's EV subsidies.

When asked about European concerns over Chinese overcapacity, Zeng said Europe does not have enough "higher-quality" products yet.

The EU probe does not worry Zeng, who said the EV industry has received "regular support from the government" as China pursues its carbon neutrality goals.

While the European market has seen a slight slowdown, with electric vehicle batteries considered too expensive, more battery plant investments there will enable further growth, Zeng said.

He believes Germany will "catch up very quickly" in electrification and could be asking China for more EVs in a few years.

Earlier this month, the United States opened an investigation into whether Chinese vehicle imports pose national security risks and said it could impose restrictions on "connected" car technology.

Zeng said such concerns were unnecessary and could be resolved through communication.

(Reporting by Sarah Wu; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh and Zhang Yan; Editing by Jacqueline Wong and Susan Fenton)

Hedge Fund Startups On the Rise With Giant Firms Under Scrutiny

Liza Tetley and Nishant Kumar
Mon, March 4, 2024 





(Bloomberg) -- At a Morgan Stanley conference in January at the Breakers luxury resort in Palm Beach, Joshua White was treated like a mini celebrity as his startup hedge fund piqued the interest of attendees.

The founder of London-based Regents Gate Capital, who’s striking out on his own after spending 15 years as portfolio manager at Balyasny Asset Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel, said he got more than twice the number of requests for meetings at the event than he had time to accommodate all.

The 43-year-old trader’s boutique is among several sprouting across the fiercely competitive $3.5 trillion industry just as some of the multistrategy hedge funds come under scrutiny from clients for their high fees and lackluster gains. Evidence is now emerging that some investors are open to looking at alternatives to these long-dominant jumbo pod shops.

A survey of investors by Barclays Plc released last month found that interest in emerging managers is rising in 2024 after a two-year decline. Another by BNP Paribas SA showed over two-thirds of investors planning to allocate to hedge funds are expected to pursue new relationships rather than adding to existing ones. Almost a third of investors polled by Goldman Sachs Group Inc. deployed their money in at least one new launch last year.

Some of the startups that have successfully raised billions of dollars belong to high-profile traders who previously worked at some of the biggest hedge fund firms. They have mopped up capital from external investors, their former employers, other pod shops or a combination. Some are even spinning out funds they already ran at big money managers.

Millennium Management trader Diego Megia is soon expected to kick off his own operation with a $5 billion pool, with Millennium chipping in with $3 billion. Another alum Priya Kodeeswaran started trading on March 1 at his Katamaran Capital with money from Brummer & Partners AB. Citadel money managers Jonas Diedrich and Dave Sutton also raised close to $2 billion last year for their Ilex Capital Partners.

That is inspiring others like White, who started trading for his fundamental market neutral strategy at Regents Gate with internal money last October. He expects to launch with clients’ money in the second half of 2024.

“Seeing others succeed in raising significant capital gave me the confidence to launch a new fund,” he said in an interview.

There are more examples. Kamil Szynkarczuk, a top portfolio manager at LMR Partners, is being backed by the firm with $200 million. Others like Nat Dean, a partner and senior portfolio manager at London-based Capula Investment Management, are spinning out with the fund they are already running.

Fierce War

Multistrategy, multimanager hedge funds such as Citadel, Izzy Englander’s Millennium, Steve Cohen’s Point72 Asset Management and Balyasny typically deploy numerous teams of traders across strategies, attracting investors looking for steady gains.

To stay on top, they engage in a fierce war for talent, paying top dollar to poach star traders from each other. They even go after those who plan to start or run their own successful strategies, often trying to convince them to join the firms instead.

Read More: Hedge Funds at War for Top Traders Dangle $120 Million Payouts

The strategy has worked for some hedge funds but it has also meant high fees for clients. At a time returns are diminishing and 10-year US treasuries are yielding more than 4%, investors are starting to question the merit of staying with underperformers and locking their capital for years.

Clients received only 41 cents of every $1 made last year by multistrategy funds that passed on all their costs to investors via fees and other charges. There are also strict lock-ups — it could take as long as five years for investors to redeem fully from Millennium. When performance is good, few ask questions. But with the average multimanager only achieving a return marginally above the risk-free rate last year, scrutiny is building.

That’s making some investors take a closer look at their allocations.

Some respondents in the BNP Paribas survey questioned whether liquidity and fees justify the returns. Goldman’s report showed investor interest in the big pod shops peaked in 2023 and may now be waning. About 16% of those surveyed said they plan to allocate to multistrategy managers in 2024, down from 31% the year before. Meanwhile, more allocators said they plan to pull cash from the strategy this year than in 2023.

“Fees have gone higher and lock-ups have gone longer,” said James Medeiros, president at Investcorp-Tages, an alternative investment manager that oversees roughly $4 billion including seeding capital. “There is a higher level of scrutiny.”

Yet demand for a select few of the largest players remains strong, with many even closed to fresh cash. Startups like White’s still face a challenging capital raising environment. But the data shows green shoots are emerging even though new launches in 2023 lingered near record lows for the second straight year.

New launches rose last year in the Americas, the world’s biggest market, according to Goldman’s data. While volumes were lower, 2023 saw a record in average launch size. Startups worldwide raised an average of more than $300 million, 65% above the long-term trend and 14% more than the prior year. Goldman also pointed to higher survival rates among funds launched post-2018.

Some of the recent startups have also shown they can raise cash and generate the kind of returns investors desire.

Distressed and special situations fund Shiprock Capital Management, launched in January last year with $80 million, has seen its assets swell to over $300 million, spurred by 32% gains last year. Former Credit Suisse star trader Hamza Lemssouguer’s Arini Credit Master Fund made 32% last year, with firm-wide assets growing to $3.7 billion.

“We are at the tip of the spear in terms of a reverse migration,” Medeiros at Investcorp-Tages said, adding traders now have a choice.

One sign of that trend is Sean Gambino, who once produced an average annual return of 18.6% at his fund Heron Bay before moving to Eisler Capital in 2022 as fundraising got tough. In January, he reversed that decision and announced setting up Baypointe Partners, saying his approach doesn’t fit the tight risk limits of a multistrategy platform and he’s better off alone.

“Two years ago, our sole option was to migrate to a platform, but times have changed,” he said.

Most Read from Bloomberg Businessweek

INDIA OCCUPIED KASHMIR
India sees $4.95 billion investment for natural gas network in Kashmir, northeast

KASHMIR IS INDIA'S GAZA

Mon, March 4, 2024 
By Nidhi Verma

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India expects investment of about 410 billion rupees ($4.95 billion) from companies to build natural gas pipeline infrastructure in its northeastern states and northern federal territories of Kashmir and Ladakh, a minister said on Monday.

India, one of the world's biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, is seeking to boost the use of cleaner fuel to cut its carbon emissions and has set a 2070 goal for net zero carbon emissions.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is targeting raising the share of natural gas in India's energy mix to 15% by 2030 from the current 6.2%. Natural gas, while still a fossil fuel, emits less CO2 than coal.

"The envisaged natural gas infrastructure development in north-east states would also lead to better utilisation of domestic gas being produced locally in the region," Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri told reporters.

India invited bids in October for licences to supply natural gas to small industries, automobiles and households in five northeastern states - Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalya, Sikkim, and Arunachal Pradesh - and the northern union territories of Kashmir and Ladakh. Oil Minister Puri on Monday awarded licences to winners.

City gas distribution (CGD) network will cover the entire northeastern region by end of 2025, said Anil K Jain, chairman of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board(PNGRB) told a news conference.

State-run Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp have a licence to set up a CGD network in one northeastern state each. Northeast-focused explorer Oil India also won a licence for setting up a CGD in two areas in separate tie ups with Bharat Petroleum and Hindustan Petroleum.

Jain said building of pipeline network will also help in monetising surplus gas from the blocks operated by Oil India and Oil and Natural Gas Corp in the northeastern states.

($1 = 82.8690 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Nidhi Verma; Writing by Shivam Patel; editing by David Evans)

Two arms are better than one for robot dressers, says researcher

Aine Fox, PA Social Affairs Correspondent
Mon, 4 March 2024



A two-armed robot to help someone get dressed could make the process more comfortable for the person receiving care and free up time for stretched staff, a researcher has said.

Dr Jihong Zhu, a robotics researcher at the University of York’s Institute for Safe Autonomy, has been testing a two-armed assistive dressing scheme, which he said has not been attempted in previous research.

It is suggested the approach could be more effective and comfortable than the current one-armed machines designed to help an elderly person or a person with a disability get dressed.

Dr Zhu said: “We know that practical tasks, such as getting dressed, can be done by a robot, freeing up a care worker to concentrate more on providing companionship and observing the general wellbeing of the individual in their care.

“It has been tested in the laboratory, but for this to work outside of the lab we really needed to understand how care workers did this task in real-time.”

His team used a method called learning from demonstration, meaning a human could demonstrate the movement and the robot would learn that action, as opposed to an expert being needed to programme it.

He said: “It was clear that for care workers two arms were needed to properly attend to the needs of individuals with different abilities.

“One hand holds the individual’s hand to guide them comfortably through the arm of a shirt, for example, whilst at the same time the other hand moves the garment up and around or over.

“With the current one-armed machine scheme a patient is required to do too much work in order for a robot to assist them, moving their arm up in the air or bending it in ways that they might not be able to do.”

Care England, representing social care providers across the country, said robotics can have a role in the sector but cannot replace “relationship-based care”.

Chief executive Professor Martin Green said: “With significant staff shortages in the care sector there will be increasing emphasis on finding new and innovative ways of supporting people.

“Robotics will have their place, but it must be the choice of the individual as to whether or not they want some of their care to be undertaken by robots.

“We must also acknowledge that robots can never replace relationship-based care which relies on people-to-people contact and connection.”

Caroline Abrahams, charity director at Age UK, welcomed scientific research into robotics and other technologies to support people who need help, but said that while future innovations might work alongside or even replace some of the work of human beings “we are clearly a long way from that right now”.

She said: “It’s not just that the technology needs to develop further, it’s also that it has to be manufactured in a way that keeps down the cost.

“Given that social care is, however unfairly, a low wage occupation, it’s hard to see the economics working out to allow the wholesale expansion of technology within the next few years, even if it proves possible to develop it to the degree of sophistication required.

“Some policymakers have opined that robotics are set to solve the social care workforce crisis but if so, it’s unlikely to happen any time soon.

“Today’s care workers therefore don’t need to worry about robots replacing them and, in any event, the kindness and human touch they offer is really precious and highly valued by many people who benefit from good personal care.”

Dr Zhu said the next step in their research will be to test the robot’s safety limitations such as ensuring it can be stopped or changed mid-action “and whether it will be accepted by those who need it most”.

He added: “Trust is a significant part of this process.”

Researchers said their work was in collaboration with researchers from Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and was funded by the Honda Research Institute Europe.

 Humanoids at Amazon Provide Glimpse of Automated Workplace

 Mar 4, 2024

Employees at an Amazon.com Inc. warehouse near Seattle recently witnessed a glimpse of the future of work—a 5-foot-9-inch robot named Digit.

Developed by Agility Robotics Inc., Digit is designed for a specific task: picking up empty yellow bins from a shelf and transporting them to a conveyor.

Although still in the testing phase, Digit represents a significant technological advancement and places Agility Robotics at the forefront of efforts to create robots that can collaborate with human workers.

Agility Robotics, based in Tangent, Oregon, has practical goals, aiming to produce 10,000 robots annually for deployment in warehouses and storerooms worldwide, Bloomberg reported.

 

Amazon Unveils Humanoid Robot 'Digit' At Warehouse: A Glimpse Into Automated Workspaces

Benzinga News


Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) has introduced a humanoid robot, ‘Digit,’ at a warehouse near Seattle, offering a glimpse into the potential future of work.

What Happened: The 5-foot-9-inch robot, developed by Agility Robotics Inc., is designed to perform a repetitive task of moving empty yellow bins from a shelf to a conveyor, reported Bloomberg on Sunday.

Although Digit is still in the testing phase, it represents a significant technological advancement. Agility Robotics, based in Tangent, Oregon, aims to produce 10,000 robots annually and deploy them in warehouses and storerooms worldwide.

The technology that powers Digit, including affordable and powerful motors and batteries, computer vision, and artificial intelligence, has led to a surge in investment in humanoid robots. Startups in this emerging field have collectively raised approximately $1.6 billion in venture capital over the past five years.

See Also: Elon Musk Sues Sam Altman And OpenAI For ‘Refining AGI’ To Maximize Profits For Microsoft: ‘Stark Betrayal Of Founding Agreement’

Agility’s humanoid robots, already in testing, have attracted attention from industry giants. In 2022, Amazon invested in the startup, which has raised $180 million to date. Amazon’s interest in robotics dates back to its acquisition of Kiva Systems Inc., a pioneer in the logistics industry, in 2012.

Why It Matters: The introduction of humanoid robots in the workplace is a significant development in the ongoing debate about the impact of automation on jobs. A recent MIT study suggested that the rate of transformation due to AI might be slower than expected, as it is still not economically feasible for companies to replace employees with AI systems. However, the rise of humanoid robots in the workplace could potentially challenge this notion.

Furthermore, the introduction of humanoid robots in the workplace is not unique to Amazon. China has also unveiled plans to mass-produce humanoid robots by 2025, with the aim of reshaping the world. This trend suggests that the use of humanoid robots in the workplace is not just a technological advancement but also a potential shift in the global labor market.

As the use of AI and robotics in the workplace continues to grow, it raises questions about the future of work and the potential impact on employment. This trend is also evident in other industries, such as the fast-food industry’s adoption of AI to address staffing shortages.

NYCB Ballooned Despite Real Estate Warnings in Years Before Fall




Max Abelson
Mon, March 4, 2024 

(Bloomberg) -- The mood was practically giddy when the heads of two regional banks hosted a town hall in the spring of 2021.

The industry’s long drought in mergers was ending, and two lenders below the public’s radar, New York Community Bancorp and Flagstar, were poised to become more formidable by joining forces.

“I look at it as a blank page,” NYCB’s Thomas Cangemi said. “I call it a Picasso that we’re going to paint together.”

Three years later, the lender known for catering to New York City landlords is in serious trouble. Last week, it revealed major weaknesses in its ability to monitor risks and replaced Cangemi as CEO with the second fiddle at that town hall, Flagstar’s Sandro DiNello. Investors are worried the new boss will set aside even more money to cover souring loans, on top of a $552 million hit that shocked the market in January. Credit raters have slashed it to junk and its shares have cratered 73% this year.

How NYCB got here is a tale of percolating financial risks, changing rules and shifting regulators. New rent restrictions became law in 2019, but instead of acknowledging a hit to its loan book, the bank got bigger. Back-to-back acquisitions, first Flagstar and then parts of Signature Bank, almost doubled the firm's size and set it on a collision course with new rules for banks holding more than $100 billion of assets.

The crash came this year. Amid regulatory pressure, NYCB bolstered reserves and shareholders unloaded its stock.

It's a story with broad implications: Legions of rivals are under pressure to merge so they can afford to make the jump from street-corner branch networks to tech-driven financial services. But it's a perilous moment for the industry. High interest rates and cracks in commercial real estate are eroding the value of assets on balance sheets. Depositors are able to pull cash faster than ever. Shareholders have learned to dump stocks at the first sign of serious trouble.

Indeed, NYCB was a stock-market darling before it announced plans in late January to horde cash.

“Everything was going well, and all of a sudden — bingo — you have a day like that,” said Michael Manzulli, once the chairman of the bank’s board. “And you go: ‘Wow.’”

Some longtime fans have remained loyal. After the bank bolstered reserves, Mark Hammond, who ran Flagstar through the financial crisis and is the son of its founder, was optimistic enough to snatch up NYCB’s hobbled stock. In an interview last month, he pooh-poohed the “paranoia” about real estate. Then last week’s disclosures sent the stock down an additional 43%.

Spokespeople for the bank didn’t respond to requests for comment. The firm has said that it doesn’t expect the weaknesses in its controls to result in changes to its allowance for credit losses. And commercial real estate veterans say that when loans do sour, lenders have broad latitude to work out solutions with borrowers. In early February, the company said depositors had entrusted more money to the bank this year.

NYCB started off small, before a former teller landed on a big strategy.

Six decades ago, Joseph Ficalora, the grandson of Sicilian immigrants, joined Queens County Savings Bank. Coming back from the Vietnam War, he didn’t take his father’s advice to get a union job in sanitation, instead enrolling in a management training program at the bank. He quickly climbed the ranks. By the time the firm changed its name to New York Community Bank in 2000, he’d already been running the place for years.

Ficarola’s strategy was straightforward. He bought rivals, preserved their identities to appeal to mom-and-pop depositors and loaned their savings to Manhattan real estate investors. His sweet spot was multifamily apartment buildings with rents controlled or stabilized. While tenants could be relied on to stick around and keep cash flowing, many landlords adopted a more lucrative approach, fixing up buildings to take advantage of rules allowing them to raise rents.

By 2004, he had cobbled together seven banks into the third-biggest thrift in the US. As it hit $23 billion of assets, up from $1.9 billion in three years, he could brag about watching 35 rival branches disappear from just one spot in Flushing.

NYCB was just getting started. It bought $11 billion of assets from the failed AmTrust Bank in 2009 and $2.2 billion of deposits from Aurora Bank in 2012. Yet a proposal to get even bigger by buying Astoria Bank fell apart in 2016, with analysts suggesting that regulators may have balked. That year, NYCB rewarded its boss handsomely with unusually lucrative perks.

Around that time, a Queens reporter asked Ficalora about the secret of his success, eliciting a quick answer: “Always be an asset to your boss, never a threat.” But in late 2020, the bank surprised investors by announcing Ficalora would be stepping down just three days later. Cangemi, the longtime chief financial officer, would replace him.

If there was any ill will, it didn’t show in a recent photo: Ficalora, who was named the Associazione Culturale Italiana di New York’s Man of the Year in 2018, stood smiling near his successor when Cangemi got the honor last year.

Cangemi took over a bank facing hurdles. In 2019, New York renters won sweeping new protections that stopped landlords from raising rents on regulated apartments. Owners were outraged, and their banks found themselves under pressure. NYCB’s loan portfolio was almost all mortgages, mostly multifamily, and most of those subject to New York rent rules.

The pandemic triggered more stress. When offices emptied and companies pared their square footage, it spelled yet more trouble for the industry's bankers.

But the pain didn’t show up right away. Despite predictions that the new rent rules would lead to losses for landlords and their lenders, NYCB’s level of troubled loans hovered near record lows in 2020 and 2021, perhaps helped by rock-bottom interest rates and the government’s pandemic response. Cangemi chalked it up to careful lending — its “unprecedented track record of strong asset quality, which goes back over 50 years.”

One person who worked on risk around that time, asking not to be identified discussing internal operations, said regulators had long harped on the bank’s concentration in multifamily lending. But the response wasn’t always receptive. An executive was so gruff with regulators during a meeting that a colleague held a sidebar with the officials to make sure they weren’t offended, the person said.

The lender has long taken pride in its track record. NYCB has bragged that aside from some ill-fated taxi medallion loans its average losses over the past three decades amount to about 0.04% of its loan book each year, while the figure is almost 20 times higher for rivals in a key index.

Without evident loan losses, Cangemi could focus on the itch to grow. He lamented at the town hall that getting hung up on an earlier transaction had left the firm in “a very difficult spot.”

Things loosened around the end of 2020, when Huntington Bancshares Inc., M&T Bank Corp. and Webster Financial Corp. unveiled plans to swallow rivals.

Cangemi and DiNello soon announced their deal, too. Flagstar was the Midwest’s biggest publicly owned savings bank and one of the country’s largest residential mortgage servicers, but its history wasn’t pretty.

It was founded by Tom Hammond, who’d moved to Detroit from Nebraska with fond memories of hitchhiking to bird havens with his uncased shotgun. He boasted of bagging most of the game available in Alaska, the mountains of Europe and the South Pacific.

Flagstar got bagged, too. The bank was pummeled so badly during the global financial crisis that it was rescued by private equity firm MatlinPatterson Global Advisers. In the years that followed, the bank scrambled to clean up its act.

Flagstar agreed in 2012 to pay $133 million to settle a US lawsuit accusing the bank of submitting false documents to insure ineligible loans. A year later the bank reached a deal to pay $110 million to settle accusations from MBIA Inc. that it falsely represented the quality of loans. A $121.5 million settlement with Fannie Mae followed, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered the bank to stop illegally blocking attempts by borrowers to save their homes.

“When I got there, the bank was a train wreck,” said David Wade, who joined in 2013 and left last year as a senior mortgage underwriter. “Things had just gotten so bad.”

But for 2021, DiNello could brag of “exceptionally successful” earnings. Things were so good that Wade and his colleagues didn’t understand the direction of the takeover when it was announced that April. “In fact, initially, a lot of us were thinking this was a Flagstar acquisition, not the other way around,” Wade said. “It was a while before we realized, well, those guys actually have more money than us.”

For years, community groups had pushed the banks and their regulators to support underserved tenants. Then, during the merger talks, something behind the scenes caught the groups’ attention.

In April 2022, the banks announced they’d want to operate under a national bank charter, meaning they’d no longer need to win approval from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development, a nonprofit founded in 1974, was suspicious.

“They were unable to secure the necessary approvals from their regulator at the FDIC, and are now going through another regulator in the hopes that they will be more favorable,” the group wrote to regulators a few months later. “How is NYCB able to do this?”

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency eventually approved the deal, with a condition: The right to approve dividends through this November.

Once the deal closed, it was quickly followed by another — a partial takeover of rival Signature after its collapse. Both fed NYCB new customers and sticky accounts. The moves also helped ease its reliance on multifamily lending, which fell to 46% in early 2023 from 55% at the end of the year.

Even so, the old headaches in Washington and New York hadn’t disappeared. Investors were trying to measure the impact of $2.7 trillion in commercial real estate loans held by US banks as values tumbled and borrowers stared down sky-high interest rates.

And the takeovers had catapulted NYCB’s assets past $100 billion, triggering more rigorous regulation. Federal watchdogs taking a look could see that the bank’s new peers had more capital and deeper reserves for souring losses. Its top risk and audit executives exited their posts quietly.

Read More: NYCB’s Talks With Watchdog Led to Moves That Rocked Market

NYCB shocked shareholders and analysts with a one-two punch on Jan. 31. Its provision for loan losses jumped 10 times more than expected as the bank flagged trouble with a pair of loans for a co-op and office space. It slashed its quarterly dividend 70%.

“It’s like when you have a car that you love and you sell it to somebody, and you see them a year later and they’ve just torn it all up and not taken care of it,” said Wade, the former senior mortgage underwriter.

A week later, Moody’s Investors Service cited governance challenges and financial risks when it cut its credit to junk. Last week, Moody’s cut it even further.

At the 2021 town hall, DiNello and his counterpart didn’t show much anxiety about the future. “We laugh about it,” Cangemi said, according to a transcript filed with regulators. “We’re not going to go backwards. We’re going to go forward.”

But DiNello had the last word. “We’ve got to take all of this talk, all this opportunity that we envision, and we got to make it happen,” he said. “We’re all going to look back on this in the next few years and we’re going to think: ‘Wow.’”

--With assistance from Hannah Levitt, Katanga Johnson, Bre Bradham, Diana Li, Jennifer Surane and Steve Dickson.

Former Twitter CEO sues Elon Musk

Amanda Silberling
Mon, March 4, 2024 

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Another day, another lawsuit involving Elon Musk. Four former Twitter executives, including ex-CEO Parag Agrawal, sued Musk on Monday, alleging that they're owed over $128 million in severance payments.

When Musk bought Twitter (now X), one of his very first moves as the company's owner was to fire Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, and lawyers Sean Edgett and Vijaya Gadde. According to the lawsuit, Musk has a "special ire" toward these former executives, who worked hard to hold Musk to his $44 billion commitment when he tried to back out. The lawsuit quotes Walter Isaacson's biography of Elon Musk, which quotes Musk as saying he would "hunt every single one" of Twitter's C-suite "till the day they die."

Musk has been a vocal critic of Gadde in particular, who was involved in several high-profile content moderation decisions on Twitter. After putting in his bid to buy Twitter, he posted memes mocking the executive, which sparked a wave of racist online attacks against her.

It's not just these executives who haven't gotten their severance pay. Musk has faced several lawsuits from former Twitter employees who are also waiting for a check. Under Musk's ownership, the company has stopped paying rent on some of its offices, which has led to even more lawsuits and evictions.

According to the lawsuit, Musk claimed that these executives committed "gross negligence" and "willful misconduct" in their termination letters, but never was able to show evidence of his allegations.

"This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him," the lawsuit reads. "Even in defeat, Musk can impose delay, hassle, and expense on others less able to afford it."


Twitter's former CEO and other execs are suing Elon Musk and X for $128 million in unpaid severance

The group says Musk “made up a fake cause” for their firing to avoid paying them.


Karissa Bell
·Senior Editor
Mon, March 4, 2024 


Anadolu via Getty Images

A group of former Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon Musk and X over millions of dollars in unpaid severance benefits. The claims date back to the chaotic circumstances surrounding Musk’s takeover of the company in October 2022.

When Musk took control of the company, his first move was to fire Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sean Edgett. According to the lawsuit, Musk had “special ire” for the group because of the role they played in the months-long court battle that forced Musk to follow through with the acquisition after he attempted to back out of the deal. According to the lawsuit, Agrawal is entitled to $57.4 million in severance benefits, Segal is entitled to $44.5 million, Gadde $20 million and Edgett $6.8 million, for a total of about $128 million.

The lawsuit cites Musk biographer Walter Isaacson’s account of the events, which explains that Musk rushed to close the Twitter deal a day early so he could fire the executives “for cause” just before their final stock options were set to vest. According to Isaacson, Musk bragged that the legal maneuver saved him about $200 million.

“Musk doesn’t pay his bills, believes the rules don’t apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to run roughshod over anyone who disagrees with him,” the lawsuit states,“Because Musk decided he didn’t want to pay Plaintiffs’ severance benefits, he simply fired them without reason, then made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to uphold his decision.”

X didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. Of note, it’s not the first time former Twitter employees have sued the company for failing to pay severance benefits. A separate lawsuit claimed Twitter owed former workers more than $500 million in unpaid severance. Agrawal, Segal and Gadde also previously sued the company over unpaid legal bills as a result of shareholder lawsuits and other investigations that resulted from Musk’s takeover,

Former Twitter execs sue Elon Musk for over $128 million in severance

Reuters
Updated Mon, March 4, 2024 

FILE PHOTO: Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk in Paris

(Reuters) -Four former top Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, have sued Elon Musk for over $128 million in combined unpaid severance, according to a lawsuit filed on Monday.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in San Francisco, is the latest in a series of legal challenges the billionaire faces after he acquired the social media company for $44 billion in October 2022 and later renamed it X.

The other plaintiffs are Ned Segal, Twitter's former chief financial officer; Vijaya Gadde, its former chief legal officer; and Sean Edgett, its former general counsel.

Mere minutes after Musk took control of Twitter, the former executives say they were fired and that Musk falsely accused them of misconduct and forced them out of Twitter after they sued the billionaire for attempting to renege on his offer to purchase the company.

Musk then denied the executives severance pay they had been promised for years before he acquired Twitter, according to the lawsuit. The plaintiffs say they each are owed one year's salary and hundreds of thousands of stock options.

"This is the Musk playbook: to keep the money he owes other people, and force them to sue him," the former executives said in the 39-page lawsuit.

X is already facing a pair of proposed class actions claiming it owes rank-and-file workers who were laid off after Musk's acquisition at least $500 million in severance, and a third lawsuit by six former senior managers making similar claims. X has denied wrongdoing.

The company has also been sued previously for failing to pay its former public relations firm, landlords, vendors and consultants.

X did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Sourasis Bose in Bengaluru, Sheila Dang in Dallas and Daniel Wiessner in Albany, New York; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Aurora Ellis)

UK

Work experience placements must be reinvented, former education secretaries say


Eleanor Busby, 

PA Education Correspondent
Mon, 4 March 2024 


The traditional model of a fixed work experience placement for teenagers in the summer term needs to be reinvented, two former education secretaries have said.

Baroness Morgan of Cotes and Lord Blunkett, who were education secretaries in previous Conservative and Labour administrations, have called for work experience to not only be a “one-off event”.

Businesses should have an “ongoing” and “meaningful” relationship with secondary schools and colleges and they should move away from a “rigid view of two weeks of work experience”, the peers have said.

Conservative peer Lady Morgan, who served as education secretary for two years when David Cameron was Prime Minister, is now chair of The Careers and Enterprise Company.

Labour peer Lord Blunkett, who served as education secretary under Tony Blair, led Labour’s council of skills advisers and published a series of recommendations for the party in October 2022.

The pair, who will both give speeches at an event in the House of Lords on Tuesday to mark National Careers Week, have called on policymakers and sector leaders to look again at work experience.

The former education secretaries said: “Memories of bad work experience persist. The annual teenage procession of two weeks of tea-making at a local firm with little or no benefit to either party still colours our national discourse.

“People often remark that the only thing they learned from the process was what job they didn’t want. Less return on investment, more dead weight cost.”

They added: “Modern work experience has more purpose, is focused on those who face most barriers and helps young people build skills that they struggle to master in school. It stretches over a young person’s time in education, rather than solely a one-off event.”

Their comments come after a report about the careers landscape in England has been published by The Careers and Enterprise Company.

Based on the evidence in the report, Lady Morgan and Lord Blunkett said: “Young people – particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds – report they want more [work experience].

“They want to learn and practice skills like speaking and listening and want a greater focus on the practicalities of applications for jobs.

“For businesses, it’s about moving away from a rigid view of two weeks of work experience, which in itself has disappeared in too many secondary schools.

“Instead, there needs to be an ongoing, meaningful relationship with schools and colleges, capturing imaginations as soon as young people enter secondary school. This may not mean more time, but it will mean more impact.”

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “The call for a reinvention of work experience is laudable and it would certainly be a good thing to have more and better work experience opportunities. However, there are myriad practicalities involved.

“It can often be difficult to secure work experience placements at all, schools and colleges are already on their knees with the various expectations placed upon them, and money and resources are extremely tight because of more than a decade of government underfunding.

“A wholesale review of the curriculum is required to ensure that we are prioritising the right things and doing so in a way that is balanced and deliverable.”

A Department for Education (DfE) spokesperson said: “As the Careers and Enterprise Company found in their recent report, 96% of young people in secondary education had at least one employer encounter last year and the number of schools and colleges in England providing experiences of the workplace increased across the board.

“We know how vital work experience is to young people’s development, which is why we are funding CEC to support schools and colleges to provide high-quality experiences of workplaces through their Network of Careers Hubs and Enterprise Advisers and invested around £100 million to support delivery of high-quality careers advice and guidance to people of all ages.”

Jamie Dimon wants to see more teenagers landing $60K roles, with schools measured on student job occupancy instead of college admission rates

Eleanor Pringle
Mon, March 4, 2024

Tom Williams—CQ-Roll Call, Inc/Getty Images


In the work experience versus college experience debate, the former has won a powerful new advocate: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

The Harvard Business School alumnus said he wanted to see more of a focus in the education system on high school graduates landing jobs instead of being forced into further education.

Although Dimon paid his respect to America's "wonderful" universities in an interview released over the weekend, the billionaire Wall Street titan said more emphasis should be placed on how well schools support students who want to go straight into the world of work.

"If you look at kids they gotta be educated to get jobs. Too much focus in education has been on graduating college… It should be on jobs. I think the schools should be measured on, did the kids get out and get a good job?" Dimon told Indianapolis-based WISH-TV.

In the past few years approximately 60% of high school graduates have gone on to enroll in college—though that number dropped and then rose again since the COVID pandemic. And while landing a better-paid job after graduation is often cited as one of the motivators for attending college or university, anecdotal and data evidence suggest this may no longer be the case.

Gen Z, for example, is increasingly realizing the world of work isn't what they thought it was. Graduate Lohanny Santos recently went viral on TikTok for recounting her struggle to find a minimum-wage role with two degrees, while employers are increasingly turning to skills-based hiring.

And while Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows earnings tend to be higher once you've achieved a bachelor's degree, prospective students now also have to consider the cost of repaying crippling tuition loans.

Dimon pointed out that a 17-year-old bank teller could make $40,000 a year, adding: "And if you happen to have a family at 18 or whatever, you get $20,000 in medical benefit for your family. You can be a welder, you can be a coder, you could be cyber you could be automotive—all of those jobs are $40,000 to $60,000/$70,000 a year."

"Jobs, jobs, jobs," Dimon repeated. "There are a lot of efforts taking place around the country but I think we've fallen behind as a nation."
Education shakeup advocate

Dimon has long been an advocate of shaking up the education system to introduce a greater focus on skills, previously lauding Germany's apprenticeship scheme, for example.

And while the number of apprenticeship opportunities in America is growing—and is predicted by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics to continue to do so—the 600,000 individuals currently on such schemes are a drop in the ocean compared to millions of college undergraduates.

The price tag associated with high-calibre degrees is also going up—prompting some to wonder whether Ivy League qualifications are still worth the $90,000-a-year fees. While many experts told Fortune the value of such a degree warrants the eye-watering sum, individuals should be picky about which subjects they study if they want to go on to earn six-figure salaries.

Dimon's future of work

The banking boss, who was paid a record $36 million for his work at America's biggest bank in 2023, believes not only that the route to a career will change, but also that the nature of work will shift.

A cautious advocate of the benefits of AI, Dimon said last year he believes the technology will allow staff of the future to work 3.5 days a week instead of the traditional five.

“People have to take a deep breath,” Dimon told Bloomberg TV. “Technology has always replaced jobs. Your children are going to live to 100 and not have cancer because of technology, and literally they’ll probably be working three and a half days a week.”

The technology—which has allowed for the creation of services such as OpenAI's ChatGPT—may be utilized by JPMorgan for a vast range of areas, Dimon added in the interview: errors, trading, research, and hedging to name a few—arguably illustrating fears that AI will take the jobs of human counterparts.

And while the billionaire boss of the New York–based bank also noted some employees’ lives will be disrupted by the technology displacing their roles, he said in JPMorgan Chase’s case at least, he hopes to “redeploy” any staff who are pushed out of a job by the tech.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

A list of mass GUN killings in the United States this year

Mon, March 4, 2024 



The latest mass killing in the U.S. happened Sunday in King City in central California, where police said a group of men in masks opened fire at an outdoor party, killing four people and wounding seven others.

Police said they responded to a reported shooting and found three men with gunshot wounds who were pronounced dead in a front yard. A woman also died after someone took her to an area hospital, about 106 miles (170 kilometers) south of San Jose.

Several people were at the party outside a home when three men with dark masks and clothes got out of a silver car and fired at the group. The suspects then fled in the car. The investigation is ongoing, police said.

King City is a community of about 14,000 people in southern Salinas Valley farm country on the inland side of coastal mountains. The U.S. Army’s Fort Hunter Liggett training center sprawls nearby. The city is also known as a gateway to Pinnacles National Park.

This was the country’s 10th mass killing this year, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.

At least 47 people have died this year in those killings, which are defined as incidents in which four or more people die within a 24-hour period, not including the killer — the same definition used by the FBI.

The nation is witnessing the third-highest number on record of deaths due to mass killings by this point in a single year. Only 2023 and 2008 had more, with 57 deaths each by this point. Last year ended with 42 mass killings and 217 deaths, making it one of the deadliest years on record.

As of Monday, 584 mass killings have occurred since 2006, in which 3,036 people died and 2,047 people were injured, according to the database.

A look at other U.S. mass killings this year:

FERGUSON, MISSOURI: Feb. 19

Authorities said a 39-year-old woman intentionally set a fire at home to kill herself and her four children, ages 2, 5, 9 and 9. Investigators believe the mother set fire to a mattress, and a note was left stating her intentions to kill herself and her children, police said. Responding firefighters found the home engulfed in flames Neighbors had tried to save the family, but the fire was too intense.

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA: Feb. 16

Officials said four men were killed in a drive-by shooting in a neighborhood. Dozens of shots were fired outside a Birmingham home, police said. A group had been standing outside of a house as people got their cars washed when someone drove by and opened fire. No arrests were immediately reported.

HUNTINGTON PARK, CALIFORNIA: Feb. 11

Shootings over several hours left four people dead: a man in Bell, a man in a Los Angeles shopping center parking lot, a 14-year-old boy in Cudahy, and a homeless man in Huntington Park, authorities said. At least one other juvenile was wounded. Two suspected gang members were arrested in connection with the shootings, authorities said.

EAST LANSDOWNE, PENNSYLVANIA: Feb. 7

Six sets of human remains were recovered from the ashes of a fire that destroyed a home about 5 miles (8 kilometers) from Philadelphia, according to the county district attorney’s office. Authorities suspect the family members who died — including three children — were killed by a 43-year-old male relative who also died after shooting and wounding two police officers, the office added. A motive was not immediately identified.

EL MIRAGE, CALIFORNIA: Jan. 23

Authorities found the bodies of six men in the Mojave Desert outside the sparsely populated community of El Mirage after someone called 911 and said he had been shot, according to sheriff’s officials. The men were likely shot to death in a dispute over marijuana, local authorities said. The bodies were found about 50 miles (80 kilometers) northeast of Los Angeles in an area known for illegal cannabis operations. Five men were arrested and charged with murder.

JOLIET, ILLINOIS: Jan. 21

Authorities said a 23-year-old man shot eight people — including seven of his relatives — and injuring a ninth person in a Chicago suburb. He fatally shot himself later during a confrontation with law enforcement in Texas. Authorities believe he was trying to reach Mexico. Police said the victims included his mother, siblings, aunt, uncle and two men he might not have known. They were found in two homes, outside an apartment building and on a residential street.

TINLEY PARK, ILLINOIS: Jan. 21

A 63-year-old man in suburban Chicago killed his wife and three adult daughters a domestic-related shooting, police said. The man allegedly shot the four family members — ages 53, 24 and two 25-year-old twins — after an argument at their home. He was charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

RICHMOND, TEXAS: Jan. 13

A 46-year-old man fatally shot his estranged wife and three other relatives, including his 8-year-old niece, at a home in suburban Houston before killing himself, authorities said. The man opened fire at the home just before 7 a.m. that Saturday after returning his young child from a visit. Authorities said that after arriving at the home, he told his estranged wife that he wanted to reunite, but she refused. In addition to killing his niece and estranged wife, he also killed her brother and sister, ages 43 and 46.

REEDLEY, CALIFORNIA: Jan. 6

A 17-year-old boy was charged with killing four members of a neighboring family in central California. He lived next door to the victims — ages 81, 61, 44 and 43 — in Reedley, a small town near Fresno. Three bodies were found in the backyard of their home, including one buried in a shallow grave, police said. One body was found in the detached garage of the teenager’s home, police said.

The Associated Press