An IPO seems to be back in the realm of possibility. Also: Joby wants to expand the focus to Germany and Elon Musk believes that nobody in California likes him.
Good morning! Even during the weekend, work in the digital scene continued in many places.
The top topics:
Jack Ma will be in control of Chinese fintech – the Ant Group – submit. The company announced this on Saturday without going into detail about the background. What is known, however, is that the Communist Party has long been taking action against the Chinese technology sector and has also targeted the billionaire.
Ma is one of China’s most well-known entrepreneurs who once worked as an English teacher and with Ali Baba the successful Chinese counterpart Amazon built. The billionaire has stayed out of the public eye since Beijing torpedoed Ant’s planned IPO in Hong Kong in 2020. Ma had previously been critical of state regulators. According to Saturday’s announcement, Ant is adjusting its ownership structure so that “no shareholder, alone or jointly with other parties, will have control over the Ant Group.” Ma, who previously held more than half of the voting rights, will only control 6.2 percent of the shares after the adjustment. [Mehr bei The Guardian, Bloomberg, Bloomberg und Reuters]
on Founder Scene: Since auto shows have largely died out, the corporations have little opportunity to present their new developments. This applies above all to technologies in the digital sector, for example in the field of infotainment systems and autonomous driving. the CES in Las Vegas is one of the few opportunities that corporations have. Our columnist Don Dahlmann reports what there was to see at the fair – and above all: what not. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
And here are the other headlines of the night and the past few days:
Joby According to a media report, wants to expand its focus to Germany. Founder JoeBen Bevirt sees the air taxi pioneer as a leader in development, but short sellers and authorities are not making it easy for the industry. Nevertheless, Bevirt announced that he intends to expand the company’s branches near Munich and Stuttgart. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt]
Teslas attorneys and CEO Elon Musk are asking a federal judge in San Francisco to move or postpone an upcoming trial from northern California to west Texas. It’s difficult to find judges who are impartial to Musk, they said. Tesla moved its headquarters from California to Texas in 2021. The lawsuit concerns Musk’s $420-per-share tweet in 2018. Shareholders accuse the Tesla boss of using it to manipulate shares. Tesla’s share trading was then initially stopped, later the shares were volatile for weeks. [Mehr bei CNBC]
Tesla has again reduced the prices for its models in China, the most important market for the US electric car manufacturer. For the Model 3 and Model Y, Chinese buyers now have to pay more than ten percent less than before. Tesla had already lowered the prices in the fall of last year. The reason for this is a drop in demand – the domestic competition from providers such as BYD, Xpeng or Nio gets bigger and bigger. Tesla also lowered its prices in Japan. [Mehr bei Handelsblatt und Wall Street Journal]
Huobi is reportedly planning to cut about 20 percent of the jobs. The Seychelles-based crypto exchange is thus reacting to the volatile crypto market, which has not least been since the FTX– bankruptcy collapsed. According to data from Coingecko, Huobi handles about $370 million in trading volume in a single day. Huobi had about 1600 employees worldwide as of October. [Mehr bei CNBC]
Mojo Vision, a US startup that develops augmented reality contact lenses, is also suffering from the current difficult investment climate amid the economic slowdown. Instead of focusing on contact lenses, Mojo intends to focus its resources on micro-LED technology going forward. Along with the transition, the company has also drastically reduced headcount, cutting its workforce by 75 percent. [Mehr bei Techcrunch und Axios]
Our reading tip on Gründerszene: A founder names ten advantages and disadvantages of Bootstrapping and reveals which requirements are important for a startup to make it work. [Mehr bei Gründerszene+]
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Have a good start into the week!
Your Gründerszene editors
Source: https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/business/jack-ma-gibt-kontrolle-ant-ab/
