Data sheet: Zuckerberg politics, Musk firing, Paramount firings, Visa antitrust

What does a Hollywood man have to do with the company behind the generative AI model called Stable Diffusion? If you’ve seen a demo of the stuff, the question practically answers itself.

Cameron joins a board that includes Napster co-founder Sean Parker and Greycroft co-founder Dana Settle. Just don’t talk to him, Sean. He’s connected. —Andrew Nusca

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There’s Something About Mark (and His Politics)

David Paul Morris – Bloomberg/Getty Images

A quirky new hairstyle, a gold chain and a fresh wardrobe are the standout features of Mark Zuckerberg’s recent makeover.

But it turns out that Sir Zuck’s transformation also extends to his political beliefs.

Once an outspoken supporter of progressive causes, the billionaire Facebook founder is now “done with politics.” according to one New York Times report. Like a disillusioned dreamer in a novel about the loss of innocence, Zuck has apparently resented Washington, believing that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are anti-technology.

Furthermore, the right-wing backlash against some of his philanthropic efforts, such as voting booth safety during the pandemic, has caused Meta’s CEO to back off on anything that could be perceived as remotely partisan.

For what it’s worth, Zuckerberg did that made political contributions to officials of both parties. (In 2014, for example, he gave $2,600 each to Republican John Boehner and Democrat Nancy Pelosi.) His individual contributions this decade have largely gone to PACs, even as he has spent hundreds of millions on election administration.

Zuckerberg’s political retreat stands in stark contrast to the growing trend open political activism and outspokenness from other tech figures such as Elon Musk and Marc Andreessen. Then again, he may not be retreating so much as recalibrating.

Like the Times report notes that Zuck spoke to Donald Trump on the phone twice this summer. And sources told the newspaper that his main political philosophy is essentially free-market and anti-regulation libertarianism.

Who knows, Zuckerberg may even become president one day. It wouldn’t be the first time a tech-forward media mogul occupied the Oval Office. —Alexei Oreskovic

Ex-Twitter employee: 1, Elon Musk: 0

Grok this: A former Twitter employee scored a victory in a legal battle with Elon Musk over severance pay, according to a memo shared with Bloomberg.

The employee, who was fired after Musk bought the social media service for $44 billion in 2022, was awarded his full severance package through arbitration.

The victory is a hopeful sign for the 2,000 other laid-off workers who are pursuing it similar arbitration claims against the service, now known as X.

It turns out that Musk’s X left a long trail of unpaid bills. LandlordsA private jet serviceAnd former Twitter executives have all filed lawsuits against the company at one time or another.

However, the company won an important lawsuit in July. A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit alleging that X owed more than $500 million in severance pay to 6,000 laid-off employees.

One thing is certain: Musk is a godsend for lawyers. —Jenn Brice

Visa sued for alleged debit monopoly

The US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa because it is, well, kind of at wherever consumers want to be.

The lawsuit alleges that Visa – whose payment network processes more than 60% of debit transactions in the US – imposes exclusionary agreements on merchants and banks that penalize Visa customers who make debit transactions on different networks.

According to the DOJ, Visa would “block debit volume, isolate itself from competition, and stifle smaller, lower-cost competitors.” It would also turn viable competitors into partners to ultimately extract higher compensation than they otherwise would. Delicious!

We’ll see where this one goes. Visa has not yet commented on the lawsuit, although the FTC has forced out rival MasterCard to refrain from similar practices last year.

Either way, a successful lawsuit could open the market to younger payments companies like PayPal, Square and Stripe. And make traders a lot happier. -A

Now streaming: More layoffs at Paramount

It’s never a good thing if your discharge plan includes a ‘phase two’.

The three co-CEOs of Paramount Global – the company formerly known as Viacom and CBS and, most awkwardly, ViacomCBS – revealed a new wave of cuts On Tuesday, they pledge that the company will achieve 90% of its planned $500 million in savings. (Comforting!)

Paramount’s growth has stalled as it grapples with the long decline of conventional television and the high-stakes deals for its controlling shareholder, Redstone-run National Amusements.

The second part of that has been taken care of: Skydance Media led by Ellison is waiting for its takeover agreement will close sometime in the first half of next year.

But the first? There are still problems, and Paramount is hardly alone. (Just ask Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery how they’re doing.) The parent company of MTV and Comedy Central hasn’t disclosed where it has made cuts, but this summer it laid out a three-phase profit-generating plan. that started last month.

As Logan Roy once said: Life? Just “a number on a piece of paper…a fight for a knife in the mud.” -A

The music stops at TikTok

Rest in peace, TikTok Music, we barely knew you.

TikTok parent ByteDance announced on Tuesday that the service will close on November 28.

ByteDance launched the music streamer just over a year ago as the successor to a service called Resso. At that time, some believed TikTok Music could prove to be “the first real challenger to Spotify’s global dominance.” (With apologies to Apple and Amazon.)

But it wasn’t to be.

The app was only released in Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico and Singapore. Thanks to both, greater availability was unlikely anti-TikTok political sentiment And divided relationships between ByteDance and major labels. (Something Spotify knows all too well about it.)

TikTok itself will certainly continue to be a place where new artists are on fire, but that’s as far as the show goes. —David Meijer

More data

—US House approves licensing exemption for domestic chip makers. Something something global competitiveness.

—Google’s Gemini is everywhere you go. Gmail! Documents! Motivation! Gird up your loins.

—AI is coming to a Spotify playlist near you. I can’t wait to give the prompt: “Sad love songs about the age of intelligence.”

—Vinod Khosla has something to say about AI. Artificial interns for everyone, apparently?

—MKBHD’s new app is being criticized as a ‘cash grab’. The internet’s favorite reviewer is being judged, and it’s not pretty. -A

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