*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.
Cloud-based AI-powered writing assistant Grammarly recently raised $200 million in a funding round that values the company at $13 billion. The funding will be used to help Grammarly achieve its goal of becoming more ubiquitous, as the company says it wants to be the go-to writing assistant for wherever people type. Grammarly also says it aims to solve what it calls one of the most critical problems facing people and businesses today -- ineffective communication. Grammarly global head of product Rahul Roy-Chowdhury joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
The Competition and Markets Authority in the UK moved to block Facebook parent company Meta from acquiring the image sharing platform Giphy after saying advertisers and consumers would be adversely impacted. Hatem Dhiab, managing partner at Gerber Kawasaki Wealth & Investment, joined Cheddar to break down the decision and noted that the CMA's order could also halt other big tech firms from making similar purchases in the future. "I think this is going to be true for Facebook, it's going to happen for other big tech companies — Amazon, perhaps Google, so it's interesting that the UK is starting this wave," he said.
Namita Dhallan, Chief Product Officer at Brightcove, joins Cheddar to discuss how artificial intelligence and machine learning are creating room for more personalization in video, and how these technologies are shaping the future of the video tech industry.
NASA indefinitely delayed a spacewalk to repair an ISS antenna, citing concerns about space debris. It was unclear if the warning from the space agency to astronauts aboard the ISS was related to the recent destruction of a non-functioning Russian satellite.
Jack Dorsey has officially stepped down as CEO of Twitter.
In a statement -- he says he is leaving because the company is ready to move on from its founders. Tom Morton, Global Chief Strategy Officer, R/GA joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the implications of the move.
Mike Proulx, VP and research director at Forrester, joined Cheddar to talk about what Jack Dorsey's departure from Twitter as CEO means for the social media platform. He noted that while Dorsey had been the face of the company, "he's been a part-time CEO" since also taking on the leadership position at Square. Stepping down from leading Twitter allows his replacement Parag Agrawal, the former CTO, to be a dedicated leader of the company. However, Proulx noted that Agrawal faces headwinds on policy and political ramifications that will come with the job.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority blocked Facebook parent company Meta's acquisition of the image sharing platform Giphy, stating that the deal would harm UK advertisers and social media users. Meta responded and said that it is considering an appeal.
Jill and Carlo cover the latest developments with the Omicron variant that are spooking markets once again. Twitter's @Jack is leaving, SCOTUS takes up abortion rights and the world has a brand new republic.
