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Wake up to the shifts shaping the future.
From boardroom shakeups and billion-dollar bets to the latest tech breakthroughs rewriting the rules, The Company Brief is your front-row seat to the stories moving markets and mindsets.
We cut through the noise so you can stay ahead of the curve, one bold business move at a time.
Global Cyber Monday online sales hit $17.3 billion
Shoppers spent $17.3 billion online on Cyber Monday, Salesforce data showed, capping the Black Friday weekend. Global online sales were up 5.3% by midday, according to the data firm. It expects online spending to rise 6% to $52.7 billion by the day's end. Meanwhile, U.S. online sales grew 2.6% to $3.4 billion through 12 p.m. ET, Salesforce said, adding it expects sales to grow 4% to $13.3 billion by the end of the day.
Bond and bitcoin selloff leaves stocks unsteady
Stocks made muted gains and traders were wary on Tuesday, following a slide in cryptocurrencies and a global bond selloff triggered by a looming interest rate hike in Japan. S&P 500 futures were steady in early trade, after falls on Wall Street overnight, while Japanese government bonds remained under pressure ahead of a 10-year auction after a weeks-long tumble on concern about the nation's fiscal outlook. Ten-year JGB yields ticked up 1.5 basis points to a 17-year top of 1.88% in morning trade. Bitcoin, which has been a talisman for sentiment, had an unsettling 5.2% slump on Monday and at $87,000 is down 30% from an October peak.
OpenAI plans to improve ChatGPT and delay initiatives, such as advertising
OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told employees he was declaring a "code red" to improve ChatGPT and is planning to delay other initiatives, such as advertising, The Information reported, citing an internal memo. OpenAI hasn't publicly acknowledged it is working on selling ads, but it is testing different types of ads, including those related to online shopping, the report said, citing a person with knowledge of its plans.
GovChat–Meta discovery battle stalls
The Competition Tribunal has indefinitely postponed GovChat’s discovery application against Meta, signalling further delays in the high-profile data access dispute that forms part of the Commission’s ongoing prosecution of Meta for alleged abuse of market dominance. The case stems from GovChat’s 2020 complaint, upheld by the Competition Commission in 2022, that Meta subsidiaries Facebook and WhatsApp threatened to remove GovChat and its partner platform #LetsTalk - a technology start-up that connects government and citizens - from the WhatsApp Business Application Programming Interface. At Monday’s resumption of interlocutory proceedings, GovChat’s Senior Counsel Paul Farlam SC argued that Meta’s discovery affidavits remained incomplete and evasive. Representing Meta, Senior Advocate Jerome Wilson argued that the volume and complexity of electronically stored information (ESI) made the process inherently difficult.