*By Carlo Versano*
Shares of Tesla jumped more than 15 percent in the pre-market Monday on news that CEO Elon Musk settled a lawsuit with the SEC over Musk's social media use.
Under the terms of the settlement, Musk will step down as chairman of Tesla ($TSLA) for at least three years but can remain in the chief executive role. He and the company must each pay $20 million in fines. Two independent board members will also be appointed.
Federal regulators sued Musk last week, arguing that his infamous Aug. 7 "funding secured" tweet amounted to securities fraud. The lawsuit was filed after Musk reportedly scuttled a last-minute deal with the agency under which he would resign as chairman and pay a fine but not admit to any wrongdoing. Talks restarted soon after, and by Saturday a new settlement was in place.
The settlement takes care of one major headache for investors, who will now look to the car maker's third-quarter production and delivery numbers, which may be reported as early as Monday. Musk [reportedly] (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/09/30/elon-musk-tells-tesla-to-ignore-distractions-hints-at-profitability.html) emailed employees over the weekend, telling them to "ignore all distractions" and that the company was approaching profitability.
Energy Impact Partners is a VC firm committed to helping the world move toward a more sustainable future. The tech-focused fund aims to reach $350 million for its Deep Decarbonization Frontier Fund,' which aims to support early-stage companies working on innovative solutions. Energy Impact Partners' Managing Director Andy Lubershane joined Cheddar Climate to discuss.
Over the years we have heard a number of ways people can invest. However, have you thought about how you could invest in sneakers? Well, one platform says you can do that and more.RARE is an investment platform for sneakers that allows users to easily invest in the sneaker culture by giving them the opportunity to buy and trade shares of rare shoes and letting users own some of the most sought-after kicks at a fractional level. Rare says the goal is to empower the communities who made sneakers what they are today and give everyone a piece of the pie. CEO of RARES, Gerome Sapp, joined Cheddar to discuss more.
Crypto is increasingly becoming a hotspot for criminals and fraud with cryptocurrency crime reaching a record-breaking high. reports show scammers took $14 billion worth of crypto in 2021 alone. The latest crypto scam is aimed at investors in Binance. Ben Armstrong, the founder of Bitboy Crypto, joins Cheddar News to discuss.
SES Holdings, a leader in production of high-performance hybrid lithium-metal rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles, has arrived on Wall Street. The company went public via SPAC deal and now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker 'SES.' Qichao Hu, founder & CEO, joined Cheddar Movers to discuss the debut as well as what lies ahead for the company.
More than 70 religious leaders have come together to sign a letter to urge Mark Zuckerberg and Meta to halt plans for Instagram for Kids. The signers claim that this new platform, currently on pause, could cause spiritual harm to young people. Lucy Kidwell, the screen-free week coordinator for the nonprofit that organized the letter, Fairplay, joined Cheddar News to discuss the issue on Safer Internet Day. "It's not necessarily the content, even, that's on these platforms, but more the structure of the app itself," she said. "It's all focused on comparison, promoting yourself, putting forward this image of perfection and this beautiful life that's really harmful to kids who can't really separate what's real and what's fake and who may not be emotionally mature enough to handle something so complicated."
Amazon warehouse workers in Alabama are set to begin voting to unionize for a second time after workers at the facility in the town of Bessemer overwhelmingly voted against forming a union during an election early last year; but in November, the National Labor Relations Board overturned the vote, upholding a union challenge of the results which argued that Amazon undermined the conditions for a fair election. Another round of ballots will now be mailed out to works at the warehouse for a so-called re-run election. Director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University John Logan and National Field Director for Our Revolution Mike Oles joined Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
