SpaceX owner and Tesla CEO Elon Musk speaks at the E3 gaming convention in Los Angeles, California, U.S., June 13, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Blake/
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July 9 (Reuters) – Elon Musk avoided discussing the failed Twitter deal, only repeating allegations of problems with fake accounts on the social media platform as he addressed an audience of tycoons on Saturday, two people who attended the conference told Reuters.
In a wide-ranging interview on Saturday, Musk spent most of his time talking about Mars and extolling the benefits of increasing birth rates on Earth, one of the sources said. Musk, chief executive of Tesla Inc ( TSLA.O ) and rocket company Space X, has said he aims to create a civilization on Mars.
Musk earlier this week said he would do everything in his power to help what he called an “underpopulation crisis” after a media report said he had twins with a top executive at his brain chip startup Neuralink. Read more
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The billionaire entrepreneur took the stage at the Allen & Co Sun Valley Conference, an annual gathering of media and technology executives in Idaho, less than 24 hours after announcing he was ending his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter Inc ( TWTR.N ).
The interview was conducted by Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, an artificial intelligence research company founded by Musk and several others.
Musk’s arrival at Allen & Co’s Sun Valley conference kicked off this week’s off-the-record event, where headlines usually happen outside the prying eyes of the media.
“It just looks like an absolute mess,” said a senior media executive, speaking on condition of anonymity before being interviewed. “A man makes his own rules… I wouldn’t want to be on Twitter where you have to take this man seriously.”
Sun Valley is usually covered like a sports-entertainment version of the Met Gala, with photographers capturing the arrivals of fleece-clad media moguls and reporters notching up strong lunches at the property’s Konditorei cafe.
A Hollywood powerbroker on Friday expressed hope that Musk’s interview would enliven the laid-back, cerebral atmosphere of this year’s conference.
Hours later, Musk’s lawyers sent an eight-page letter to Twitter saying he planned to cancel the deal to acquire the social network. The filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleges that Twitter failed to respond to repeated requests for information over the past two months or obtain its consent before taking actions that would affect its business — such as firing two key executives. Read more
Until now, talk in media circles has focused on Wall Street’s reassessment of the streaming business in the wake of Netflix Inc’s ( NFLX.O ) subscriber losses. One digital media executive said Hollywood, normally insulated from recessions, was suddenly worried about how the deteriorating economy would affect their multibillion-dollar investments in streaming services.
“For the first time, people are realizing that the economy is impacting the entertainment business because inflation is impacting churn,” the digital media executive said, referring to subscribers leaving the service. “People are now saying, ‘Wow, are people really going to pay for three of these things?’
After Musk’s announcement, one CEO spotted the elephant in the room — Saturday’s remarks may have been uncomfortable for two conference attendees: Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal.
One of Musk’s last public messages to Agrawal came in the form of a poop emoji tweet in response to the Twitter CEO’s defense of how the company reports spam bots. Read more
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Reporting by Dawn Chmelewski in Los Angeles; edited by Kenneth Lee and Franklin Paul
Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
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