Elon Musk responded with outrage in a tweet. Also: Andreessen Horowitz raises $600 million fund for the games industry and Joby Aviation acquires Avionyx.
Good Morning! While you slept, work continued elsewhere in the digital scene.
The top topics:
Tesla has been removed from the S&P 500 ESG stock index for sustainable investments. ESG is the acronym for Environmental, Social, and Governance in the sustainability investment category. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and oil and gas company Exxon Mobil have remained on the list. S&P analyst Margaret Dorn says the move to scrap Tesla comes because of problems at the electric car maker. These include allegations of racial discrimination, poor working conditions and accidents related to the Tesla Autopilot vehicles.
Nevertheless, Tesla’s sustainability ranking has remained relatively stable over the past year. But the rest of the auto industry has improved significantly, Dorn said. As a result, Tesla slipped. Elon Musk reacted with outrage Twitter and called the ESG asset class a “hoax”. He also accused the index provider of having lost its integrity. The index changes went into effect on May 2nd. [Mehr bei CNBC, Handelsblatt und Reuters]
On Gründerszene you read today: In the search for cheap or self-sufficient energy, many people are currently buying solar systems. startups like Zolarwho offer systems and power storage online benefit from this. Now the Berliners were even able to collect 100 million euros in the current round of financing. [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
And here are the other headlines of the night:
Andreessen Horowitz launches a new $600 million fund focused solely on the gaming industry. The new fund, called Games Fund One, will be led by Andrew Chen, Jon Lai and James Gwertzman. The fund’s backers include a number of executives in the gaming world, including co-founders of companies such as King, Discord, Roblox, Zynga, Twitch, Blizzard and Riot Games. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]
Takeover: Joby Aviation has announced Avionyx, an aerospace software development company. The two companies did not disclose the terms of the deal. Joby is currently focused on vertical integration around aircraft development and certification. The company’s first systems and compliance review was approved in March. [Mehr bei Techcrunch]
The Russian Googledaughter plans to file for bankruptcy. This is reported by the news agency “Reuters”, citing a Google spokesman. Previously, Russian authorities blocked Google Russia’s bank account. Google has suspended ad sales in the country, blocked global access to state-backed Russian media channels and disabled certain tools like live traffic in Ukraine. [Mehr bei Reuters, The Information und Wall Street Journal]
Cisco Systems, the largest seller of data center networking hardware, reported sluggish revenue growth of $12.8 billion for the three months ended April. The group said sales would decline in the current quarter due to measures in China related to Covid-19. After the poor result, Cisco shares fell more than 12 percent in after-hours trading. [Mehr bei The Information und CNBC]
investments: Spoton has raised $300 million in a Series F funding round. The round was led by investment firm Dragoneer. The software manufacturer was valued at $3.6 billion. Spoton offers payments and other software for businesses. Masterschool, an Israeli network of tech education schools, has raised $100 million in an early-stage funding round led by venture firm Group 11. Since its inception in 2019, graduates from dozens of masters schools have been hired by some of the biggest tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, and Intel. [Mehr bei Techcrunch, Reuters und Reuters]
Our reading tip on Gründerszene: What do the founders of Apple and Whatsapp have in common? They all have her graduated. But is that a guarantee of success? [Mehr bei Gründerszene]
Don’t want to miss anything? Then subscribe to our Gründerszene newsletter! It appears every morning at 8:30 a.m. and brings you all the important news straight to your inbox.
A nice Thursday!
Your Gründerszene editors
Source: https://www.businessinsider.de/gruenderszene/business/warum-tesla-aus-dem-sp-nachhaltigkeitsindex-500-gestrichen-wurde/
