Seeking Alpha Author Hector Andres Pacheco joins Cheddar to discuss how the new tax bill will impact special dividends given out by giant companies. In particular, he's looking at Apple and Microsoft to bring back billions of dollars from overseas.
The new tax bill will allow American companies to bring back money from overseas at a reduced tax price. Pacheco explains why Apple is a prime contender for a special dividend. It's on track to spend $300 billion returning capital to shareholders by 2019. If Apple repatriates all of its overseas cash its tax bill will only be $39 billion...only!
Plus, Microsoft is no stranger to shareholder-friendly action. In 2004 the company brought back about $30 billion in cash from abroad and issued a $3-a-share special dividend. Pacheco believes it plans to do the same thing in 2018.
Pacheco also talks about how a higher minimum wage for lower-income Americans plays a more stimulative role for the economy than giving higher wages to those with a large net worth.
Hollywood’s actors’ union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Llama Productions on Monday, alleging the company replaced actors’ work by using artificial intelligence to generate Darth Vader’s voice in Fortnite without notice.
Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company, xAI, says an “unauthorized modification” led its Grok chatbot to post unsolicited claims on social media about the persecution and “genocide” of white people in South Africa.
Pernilla Sjöholm, star of the Tinder Swindler on Netflix and founder of IDfier, explains how she went from fraud to co-founder of her own company. Watch!
DJ X, alongside Molly Holder, Senior Director of Product Personalization, takes us inside Spotify's A.I. DJ and how it's the best new way to listen to music.
Skype users are scrambling to find an alternative after Microsoft shut down the pioneering internet phone service which let people make cheap long distance calls and chat with other users. Google Voice lets users make calls from a smartphone or a desktop web browser but it's only available to people in the U.S. Viber users can call phone numbers but can't get a number to receive calls. Zoom offers phone options too. You could get a number from a low cost virtual carrier or try other internet phone services. Microsoft says some Skype features will migrate to Teams, but its Teams Phone feature is only for businesses.
