Battered FTX’s CEO Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested, Elon Musk’s SpaceX Mammoth Valuation Of $140B, China Weighs Over $143B In Semiconductor Push: Top Stories Tuesday, Dec. 13

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Sam Bankman-Fried Arrested In The Bahamas

Disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried was arrested in the Bahamas on Monday following the receipt of formal notification from the U.S.
Bahamian authorities said that the U.S. is likely to request his extradition.
“The Bahamas and the United States have a shared interest in holding accountable all individuals with FTX who may have betrayed the public trust and broken the law,” Phillip Davis, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, said in a statement.

Elon Musk has confirmed that Twitter users paying an $8 monthly premium for Twitter Blue and still getting annoyed with ads will have the option to choose an ad-free experience next year.
Responding to a user, who complained about paying for a Twitter Blue subscription and still seeing ads, Musk said Twitter’s Basic Blue tier would have half the number of advertisements.
He further stated that the platform would offer an ad-free tier next year, albeit at a higher price.

After freeing Brittney Griner from detainment in Moscow in exchange for ‘Merchant Of Death,’ Viktor Bout, the White House would return to negotiation with the Kremlin to release former marine, Paul Whelan.
The White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the U.S. officials would hold talks “this week” with Russian counterparts about negotiations to release Whelan.

At Pipeline Day, Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) forecasts that annual revenue from its mRNA vaccine portfolio could reach $10-$15 billion by 2030.
Pfizer also expects to lose $17 billion in annual sales between 2025-2030 due to the patent expirations, Chief Commercial Officer Angela Hwang said in an investor presentation.

Reuters

Microsoft Corp (NASDAQ: MSFT) aimed to resolve European Union antitrust concerns about its business practices spurred by Salesforce, Inc (NYSE: CRM) workspace messaging app Slack’s complaint.
The move, which could trigger a formal EU antitrust investigation, again highlighted Microsoft’s new preference for working out issues with regulators.
Slack alleged Microsoft unfairly integrated its workplace chat and video app Teams into its Office product.

Berkshire Hathaway sold 1.33 million Hong Kong-listed shares of electric vehicle maker BYD Co, Ltd (OTC: BYDDF) (OTC: BYDDY) for HK$267.69 million ($34.43 million).
The divestment reduced Warren Buffett-owned investment company’s holdings in BYD’s total issued H-shares to 14.95% on December 8, down from 15.07%.

China earmarked over 1 trillion yuan ($143 billion) in support package for its semiconductor industry, in a significant step towards self-sufficiency in chips and to counter the U.S. embargo.
China looks to implement the plan as soon as the first quarter of next year.

Wall Street Journal

Three senior VMware Inc (NYSE: VMW) executives exited the enterprise software company Broadcom Inc (NASDAQ: AVGO) aims to acquire for $61 billion.
VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram said the senior vice presidents of cloud infrastructure, Mark Lohmeyer; applications and management business, Ajay Patel; and networking and advanced security, Tom Gillis, departed an internal memo.
“As it happens during such transition, we find some executives decide to move on,” the internal memo read.

Bloomberg

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is reportedly selling insider shares in an offering, with the implied valuation shooting up by about 10% since July.
SpaceX has priced the shares at $77 apiece, giving the company a staggering valuation of $140 billion, citing people familiar with the matter.
This represented an increase from the $127 billion valuation that prevailed in July.

Uber Technologies, Inc (NYSE: UBER) probed the hack of a third-party vendor leading to a data leak from the ride-hailing company, including employee email addresses.
The vendor, Teqtivity, said a malicious third party’s unauthorized access to its systems compromised the customer data.
The incident compromised over 77,000 Uber employees’ email addresses and other data, including alleged source code associated with mobile device management platforms used by Uber and Uber Eats.

Novo Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NVO) will roll out its obesity treatment, Wegovy (semaglutide), in Europe in 2023 to ensure it has enough supply.
Following the launch in the U.S. in mid-2021, Wegovy faced a significant bottleneck. Catalent Inc (NYSE: CTLT) received an FDA write-up for its syringe filling facility in Belgium, “allegedly” the culprit behind the supply shortage for Wegovy.

More than 50 funds that own Bausch Health Companies Inc (NYSE: BHC) investors are reportedly seeking to block the eye-care business spin-off, Bausch + Lomb Corp (NYSE: BLCO).
The investors say improper asset shifting protects the company from securities lawsuits seeking to hold them liable for misrepresentations about its financial health.

Sony Group Corp’s (NYSE: SONY) PlayStation 5 drove a 45% spurt in U.S. games hardware sales to $1.3 billion in November.
The performance reflected improving PlayStation 5 supply.
NPD analyst Mat Piscatella said, “PlayStation 5 was November’s best-selling hardware platform in both unit and dollar sales, while Nintendo Switch ranked 2nd across both measures.”

Photo: Rick Partington by Shutterstock and Wikimedia Commons

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