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(Bloomberg) — Ukraine reached a deal with Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. to receive thousands more Starlink antennas to help counter Russian air attacks, according to a top government official.

More than 10,000 of the devices, which provide internet service beamed down from satellites, will be sent to Ukraine in the coming months, said Mykhailo Fedorov, deputy prime minister and minister for digital transformation, in an interview in his office in downtown Kyiv.

“SpaceX and Musk quickly react to problems and help us,” said Fedorov, adding that he has talked to Musk directly. “Musk assured us he will continue to support Ukraine. When we had a powerful blackout, I messaged him on that day and he momentarily reacted and has already delivered some steps. He understands the situation.”

A representative for SpaceX didn’t respond to a message seeking comment.

SpaceX’s satellites are part of the Starlink network, which transmits high-speed internet service to antennas on Earth.

Starlink played an important early role in the war in Ukraine, as Russia’s military focused on destroying communications. Starlink antennas allowed Ukraine’s troops to maintain contact as they repelled Russia’s opening onslaught. Musk was initially praised as a hero. 

But Musk, SpaceX’s chief executive officer, drew the wrath of Ukrainians in October when he tweeted that Kyiv should remain neutral — an apparent suggestion that it not join military alliances like NATO — and should cede territory to Russia in exchange for a peace deal.

Ukraine has received about 22,000 Starlink antennas since war began in February, Fedorov said.

While there’s no contract yet, the governments of several European Union countries are ready to share payment, he said, declining to publicly identify them. “As of now all financial issues have been resolved,” he said, adding that Ukraine will need to find additional funding in the spring.

“There is no alternative to satellite connections,” Fedorov said.

Ukraine is preparing for a worst-case scenario in which power, heating, water supplies and sewage could be cut off for several days or even weeks if Russia manages to further destroy the country’s energy infrastructure, Ukrainian authorities have said. About half of it has already been damaged. Mobile and internet connections could also be significantly limited in that instance.

Starlink antennas require electricity but can be powered by generators or power banks.

The nation’s contingency plan includes deploying thousands of so-called “points of invincibility,” locations where Ukrainians could get uninterrupted access to power, heating and internet, some of it provided by Starlink antennas. 

“We are ready to live without electricity for a month with at least mobile network and text messages being available,” Fedorov said. “Regarding internet, we have a lot of Starlinks, but the key point is we have got a nod for another shipment that will be used to stabilize connection for critical situations.” 

Ukraine’s tech companies are a large source of electrical demand. Tech ranks second among the country’s industries in terms of generating export revenue. While their sales continued to grow on an annual basis even during the war, October was the first month when revenues plunged amid blackouts, according to Fedorov.

The situation has stabilized as the companies have purchased Starlink antennas and generators, and are now fulfilling their contracts, he said.

 

 

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(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc. will restrict voting on major policy decisions to paying Twitter Blue subscribers, company owner Elon Musk said in one of his first tweets following a poll calling for him to step down.

Responding to a Blue member going by the name Unfiltered Boss, Musk agreed with the suggestion that only subscribers should have a voice in future policy and said, “Twitter will make that change.” A day earlier, the billionaire chief pledged to submit all future policy decisions to a vote and offered Twitter users a choice on leadership, asking them if he should step down.

More than 10 million, or 57.5% of the vote, were in favor of Musk relinquishing his role as head of Twitter. He committed to abide by the result when asking for the vote, but nearly a day later, he had tweeted more than 10 times without directly addressing the outcome. Musk responded to a tweet suggesting the poll may have been manipulated by bots with a single word: “interesting.”

Musk’s dramatic offer to step down came shortly after he attended the World Cup final match in Qatar, triggering a wave of trending topics such as “VOTE YES” and “CEO of Twitter.” He didn’t identify an alternative leader and went so far as to say anyone capable of doing the job wouldn’t want it.

Musk has warned that Twitter is at risk of bankruptcy and instituted a “hardcore” work environment for the remaining workers after a drastic cutback in staff. In his less than two months at the helm, he has spooked advertisers, alienated Twitter’s most ardent creators and turned the service from a reflection of the news of the day into the main topic.

After losing the initial poll, Musk, who’s also chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., retweeted promotional material for the car company and for Twitter’s Blue for Business service. He also responded to an article about rival Toyota Motor Corp.’s criticism of electric vehicles with a simple “Wow.”

The stock of Tesla, by far Musk’s most valuable holding, has plummeted since the Twitter acquisition and critics have argued he’s spending too much time on the social media company.

(Updates with latest tweets from Musk in third paragraph)

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(Bloomberg) — Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren on Monday sent a letter to the Tesla Inc. board questioning whether Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk is meeting his legal obligations to the company and its shareholders following his purchase of Twitter Inc. 

Warren wrote that Musk’s actions as the new CEO of Twitter have “raised questions about possible violations of securities or other laws.” 

“Despite widespread concerns about Mr. Musk’s acquisition of Twitter while serving as CEO of Tesla, it remains unclear whether the Tesla board – which has key decision-making authority within the company – is adequately governing the company or if it has established clear rules and policies to address the risks to Tesla posed by Mr. Musk’s dual roles,” Warren wrote. 

Musk has pulled Tesla engineers to help out at Twitter since he bought the company for $44 billion earlier this year. Warren’s letter also raised concerns about whether there is a conflict of interest between his roles at Tesla and Twitter, particularly because Tesla competitors like Audi AG advertise on Twitter’s platform.

Musk tweeted later that the US has “definitely been harmed” by having Warren as a senator.

The New York Times reported earlier on Warren’s letter to the Tesla board.

(Updates with Musk tweet in 5th paragraph.)

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(Bloomberg) — Binance Holdings Ltd.’s Indonesian unit is cutting jobs and replacing its top executive after the parent company took nearly full control over it.

The dominant cryptocurrency exchange now owns almost 100% of PT Crypto Indonesia Berkat, known as Tokocrypto, lifting its shareholding from more than 51% two years ago when the investment was first made, the local unit said in an emailed statement on Tuesday. Binance Chief Executive Officer Changpeng Zhao confirmed the move in a tweet on Monday. 

Following the move, Yudhono Rawis will be appointed as interim CEO at Tokocrypto, replacing Pang Xue Kai, to comply with a domestic policy to appoint local leaders, said Tokocrypto spokesperson Rieka Handayani. 

The Indonesian unit is reducing its workforce by 58% to cut costs and will halt diversification into non-exchange businesses, according to the statement. 

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(Bloomberg) — Walt Disney Co.’s Avatar: The Way of Water crashed screening equipment in some theaters across Japan, running into technical difficulties during its critical opening weekend in the country.

Audiences who went to see the James Cameron sequel took to social media to report abrupt cancellations and staff apologizing about machine troubles while issuing refunds. At least one theater lowered the frame rate of the film in half in order to be able to screen it.

The second Avatar film, one of the most expensive productions in Hollywood history, adopts many of the latest visual technologies, including a high frame-rate 3D format that requires a great deal of information processed quickly. It appears to have fallen prey to Japan’s cinema industry being slow to upgrade to the most up-to-date equipment.

United Cinemas Co., a member of the Lawson Inc. group, and Toho Co. declined to comment on the issue. Some of their screens were mentioned by fans who’d been turned away from their booked Avatar screenings. Tokyu Corp., another theater chain operator in the country, and Disney, the movie’s distributor, did not return calls seeking comment.

The specific cause of the technical issues remains unclear, however one theater in Nagoya worked around its hurdles by stepping down from the specified 48 frames per second to the traditional cinematic 24fps.

These challenges come at the worst time for the Cameron film, which underwhelmed some estimates with its opening weekend box office haul and now faces a disrupted holiday season in a country of avid moviegoers. That may further weigh on Disney’s share price, which has fallen 45% this year.

Read more: Disney Hits Lowest Since March 2020 After Tepid ‘Avatar’ Debut

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(Bloomberg) — China issued its most sweeping blueprint for data ownership in a sign of how important a role it plays in Xi Jinping’s vision for the world’s second-biggest economy.

Authorities vowed to create a “compliant and efficient” governance system that would lower the threshold for obtaining important data, while ensuring it isn’t used by companies to compete unfairly, the official Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday. The guidelines, issued by the Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council on Dec. 2., also promote greater interconnectivity between regional, industry, and national data centers.

The blueprint intends to “fully execute the country’s advantages in its massive scope of data and rich application scenarios,” and “provide new momentum for economic development,” Xinhua said.

The guidelines add to efforts by the government in recent years to exert greater influence over how data is collected and used by China’s biggest technology companies. That campaign has included regulatory actions against firms such as the ride-hailing company Didi Global Inc., and made increasingly prescient Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. co-founder Jack Ma’s prediction that data would be as valuable a resource as oil and water. 

Under the new guidelines, data would be categorized and graded based on its sensitivity, which would pave the way to “gradually form a data ownership rights system with Chinese characteristics.” While the government would be able to access corporate and institutional data under existing laws, the new guidelines say that certain usage restrictions would be applied to that access.

The increased sway that the government has gained over data in China has fueled concern authorities could uses that power to obtain user information via services like those provided globally by Huawei Technologies Co. and ByteDance Ltd.’s TikTok. Worries have also surfaced about the security of sensitive user data following a record domestic database breach this year.

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(Bloomberg) — Instacart Inc. cofounder Apoorva Mehta was accused in a lawsuit of using stolen trade secrets to create a healthcare startup that was a copy of an existing company.

Hello Logistics Inc., which operates under the name NextMed, sued Mehta, his business partner Tejasvi Singh, and their company Cloud Health Systems over allegations of misappropriation of trade secrets, copyright infringement and other claims. Both companies run websites promoting weight loss.

“Wanting in on NextMed’s success, and in search of venture capital funding for a new project,” Mehta teamed up with Singh, “to do what Mehta later said he considered ‘unethical but not illegal’— create a copycat company,” NextMed said in the complaint filed Monday in Manhattan federal court.

Singh, a cofounder of NextMed, collected some of the company’s closest held trade secrets under the guise of gathering the information as part of due dilligence for investors, according to the complaint.

Mehta and Singh then used the information to create a company that does business as Sunrise, with a copycat website, according to the complaint. They also lined up vendors and implemented NextMed’s highly confidential customer acquisition and other strategies, “in mere weeks,” NextMed claimed in the complaint.

Instacart didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, made after regular business hours. Sunrise also didn’t immediately respond to an emailed request for comment.

Mehta’s new company was launched a few weeks ago, has already raised $30 million from two venture capital firms, NextMed said.

NextMed is seeking an order to shut down the Sunrise website and unspecified monetary damages.

The case is Helio Logistics Inc. v. Mehta, 7:22-cv-10047-NSR, US District Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

 

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(Bloomberg) — After hitting an abrupt and confusing snag in a Bahamas courtroom, Sam Bankman-Fried’s preparations to be extradited to the US appear back on track.

FTX co-founder Bankman-Fried said in court Monday that he was ready to waive his right to fight extradition to the US where he faces fraud charges over the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange. However, his local lawyer, Jerone Roberts, said in the same hearing that he wasn’t aware of the plan.

Ultimately, the proceedings were adjourned, and Bankman-Fried was ordered to return to jail. Later in the day, Roberts appeared to reverse himself, telling local media that Bankman-Fried wouldn’t fight extradition and could be back in court again this week. Attempts to reach Roberts were unsuccessful.

The chaotic scene is the latest twist in the high-stakes drama that has been playing out since Bankman-Fried was arrested last week at the request of US authorities. 

Although he initially said that he would fight extradition, Bankman-Fried has more recently indicated in private conversations that he was preparing to return to the US as soon as Monday, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter. 

Bankman-Fried’s change in attitude is in part tied to the expectation that he’ll be able to get bail in the US, according to the person, who asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter.

Former federal prosecutor Tim Howard said a US bail deal for Bankman-Fried is definitely a possibility. Willingly returning to the US would help calm fears that he’s a flight risk, though he’d still have other conditions to meet.

“If the defendant was to offer a substantial bail package secured by cash, home detention and location monitoring, I could see a situation where prosecutors would agree to that,” he said.

Representatives for Bankman-Fried and the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, which has been handling the case, declined to comment on Monday.

Bankman-Fried wore a blue suit and a white shirt to Monday’s proceedings, which played out in a courtroom packed with about 20 people, including several who appeared to work for the US government and members of the press. There was confusion from the start as Roberts asked for clarification on the purpose of the hearing, and said he was “shocked” to find out that his client was in court.

“Whatever trail got him here this morning, it did not involve me,” said Roberts. “I am not at the front of what is going on here, I am reacting.”

Recess Called

A brief recess was called shortly after the hearing began.

Bankman-Fried kept his head down for much of the proceedings, his right arm twitching. When asked to stand before the judge, his jacket was off, his shirt was untucked and his sleeves were rolled up. A bailiff ordered him to keep his hands out of his pocket.

After the judge adjourned the proceedings, in the cleared out courtroom, Bankman-Fried and Roberts appeared to convene a conference call. 

Before his arrest, in numerous interviews following FTX’s implosion last month, the 30-year-old denied knowingly committing fraud or breaking the law. 

Since being denied bail in the Bahamas court last week, Bankman-Fried has been in a notorious correctional facility on the outskirts of Nassau known as Fox Hill. 

At Monday’s hearing the judge ordered him returned to the facility. 

FTX and scores of related companies declared bankruptcy last month after three years of frenetic growth. At its peak, the exchange was worth $32 billion.

Authorities in both the Bahamas and the US are continuing to probe Bankman-Fried’s involvement in FTX’s collapse last month. The firm was headquartered in the Bahamas.

–With assistance from Ava Benny-Morrison.

(Updates with former prosecutor comment in seventh paragraph. An earlier version corrected the spelling of lawyer’s name.)

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(Bloomberg) — Bitcoin dropped to its lowest level in three weeks as equities continued to trend lower.

The largest cryptocurrency declined as much as 1.9% on Tuesday to $16,277, the lowest level since Nov. 29. Second-largest Ether fell as much as 2.1% to the lowest since Nov. 28. Those moves come as the S&P 500 slid for a fourth straight session amid nervousness about the Federal Reserve’s potential rate-hike path.

“We expect a retest of the November lows, near $15,600, in the coming weeks” after a failed test of levels in the $17,000 to $18,000 range, said Katie Stockton, founder of Fairlead Strategies LLC. “We ultimately expect Bitcoin to make a lower low, increasing risk to long-term support near $13,900.”

Cryptocurrencies have had a harsh 2022 after reaching record highs late last year, buffeted by everything from the Fed’s policy tightening to the implosions of the Terra/Luna ecosystem, hedge funds Three Arrows Capital and exchange FTX. They’ve been highly correlated with US equities for a couple of years now, and Fundstrat digital-asset strategist Sean Farrell said in a note that was a reason for the Monday crypto declines.

Traders may also need to be on the lookout for the situations that come with holiday-season trading, according to Bitfinex.

“As we approach the end of the year many firms and traders take a break, however the slowdown in trading activity brings with it the risk of higher volatility, given the declines in trading volume and liquidity,” Bitfinex analysts said in a report. “This is already evident on the lower timeframes, even if the higher timeframe price action appears to be in a range between $16,000 and $18,000.”

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(Bloomberg) — Twitter Inc. will restrict voting on major policy decisions to paying Twitter Blue subscribers, company owner Elon Musk said in one of his first tweets following a poll calling for him to step down.

Responding to a Blue member going by the name Unfiltered Boss, Musk agreed with the suggestion that only subscribers should have a voice in future policy and said, “Twitter will make that change.” A day earlier, the billionaire chief pledged to submit all future policy decisions to a vote and offered Twitter users a choice on leadership, asking them if he should step down.

More than 10 million, or 57.5% of the vote, were in favor of Musk relinquishing his role as head of Twitter. He has yet to publicly address the outcome of the poll, which he committed to abide by when issuing it. Musk’s dramatic offer came shortly after he attended the World Cup final match in Qatar, triggering a wave of trending topics such as “VOTE YES” and “CEO of Twitter.” He didn’t offer an alternative leader and went so far as to say anyone capable of doing the job wouldn’t want it.

Musk has warned that Twitter is at risk of bankruptcy and instituted a “hardcore” work environment for the remaining workers after a drastic cutback in staff. In his less than two months at the helm, he has spooked advertisers, alienated Twitter’s most ardent creators and turned the service from a reflection of the news of the day into the main topic.

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