Meta has suspended the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei due to what the company calls “repeated violations” of its “dangerous organizations and individuals policy.”Khamenei was booted from the popular social media platforms following his repeated calls to “wipe Israel off the map.”Iran is a sworn enemy of Israel, which has been engaged in warfare against Hamas after the Palestinian terrorist organization’s Oct. 7 assault which left nearly 1,200 people dead.News of Meta ...

Chipotle customers in California should prepare for “significant” price hikes after the state recently approved minimum wage increases for fast food workers, one of the company’s top executives told shareholders this week.Jack Hartung, Chipotle’s chief financial and administrative officer, told investors on an earnings call on Tuesday that the price hikes are necessary to keep up with increasing labor costs.“We know we have to take something as a significant increase when you talk about a 20%-ish increase ...

Hershey announced layoffs Thursday after reporting its quarterly earnings were hit by the soaring cost of cocoa and inflation-weary shoppers who cut back on the company’s expensive chocolates and candies.The Pennsylvania-based company said it would slash 5% of its workforce, resulting in as much as $60 million in severance costs.It wasn’t immediately clear how many jobs among the company’s workforce of roughly 18,075 full-time and nearly 2,000 part-time staffers would be affected, or what teams would be im ...

Google on Thursday renamed its Bard chatbot after the new artificial intelligence that is powering it, called Gemini, and said consumers can pay for better reasoning capabilities as it vies with Microsoft to win subscriptions.US customers can subscribe for $19.99 a month to access Gemini Advanced, which includes a more powerful Ultra 1.0 AI model, the Alphabet subsidiary said.Subscribers will receive two terabytes of cloud storage that typically cost $9.99 monthly, and they will soon gain access to Gemini  ...

Disney CEO Bob Iger is making big bets on Taylor Swift, “Fortnite,” and football — investments he claims will fuel “significant growth” as the Mouse House scrambles to recover from years of lackluster results.Iger on Wednesday made a series of sweeping announcements after Disney reported lower-than-anticipated quarterly revenue of $23.5 billion in an attempt to reverse the entertainment giant’s fortunes.Among the most buzzed-about moves: Disney+ will be the home to Swift’s “Eras Tour” concert movie.When th ...

Financial Performance - The company reported earnings of $1.22 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations of 99 cents per share [1] - Quarterly revenue was $23.5 billion, slightly below the projected $23.6 billion but comparable to the previous year [1] - The company cut $500 million in costs during the quarter and is on track to achieve over $7.5 billion in savings by the end of the fiscal year [2] Shareholder Returns - The board authorized a $3 billion share repurchase program for the current fiscal year [1] - A dividend of 45 cents per share was declared, representing a 50% increase from the previous dividend paid in January [1] Business Segments - The Experiences unit, which includes theme parks, achieved record revenue, operating income, and operating margins [3] - The streaming business reduced operating losses to $138 million, a significant improvement from nearly $1 billion a year ago [3] - The Entertainment unit's streaming business reported revenue of $5.5 billion, marking a 15% improvement from the previous year [4] Subscriber Trends - Disney+ lost 1.3 million subscribers, nearly double the expected loss of 700,000, following a price increase [4] - The company anticipates gaining 5.5 million to 6 million Disney+ subscribers in the next quarter [4] Content Performance - The weak box office performance of "The Marvels" and "Wish" negatively impacted content sales and licensing [5] - The sports division reported revenue of $4.8 billion, a 4% increase from the previous year, but faced an operating loss of $103 million [5] Theme Park Success - Theme park revenue was boosted by new attractions, with the unit reporting $9.1 billion in revenue and $3.1 billion in operating income [6]

Tesla managers have been asked whether each of their employees’ positions were critical, stoking layoff fears in the company, Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.Tesla sent out a single-line query for each job after canceling some employees’ biannual performance reviews, some of the people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.The electric automaker did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Tesla sent out a single-line query for each job after canceling some employees’ biannual performan ...

Billionaire Elon Musk escalated his fight with Disney by backing a lawsuit by fired “Mandalorian” actress Gina Carano — who alleged the “woke” company canned her because of her conservative political views.Carano, who played warrior Cara Dune, was written off the “Star Wars” spinoff in February 2021 after spouting conspiracy theories on social media. She derided mask mandates during the pandemic and echoed false claims of voter fraud during the 2020 presidential election.In another post, the former MMA sta ...

The chair of the National Transportation Safety Board warned that another mid-air door blowout like the nearly disastrous one that happened on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 plane last month “can happen again.”“Of course, something like this can happen again,” the NTSB’s Jennifer Homendy said on “CNN This Morning” aired Wednesday. “There is no way that this plane should have been delivered with four safety critical bolts missing,” Homendy added, noting “a problem in the process.”Homendy deterred travelers from Boeing’ ...

McDonald’s has defeated Byron Allen’s $100 million lawsuit, in which he accused the fast-food giant of lying when it pledged to increase national ad spend with black-owned outlets. A Los Angeles Superior Court judge dismissed the lawsuit filed by the media exec’s Allen Media on Sunday. Allen’s suit hinged on a specific interpretation of claims McDonald’s made in a 2021 press release outlining its promises to increase its spending with black-owned businesses overall. But the judge ruled that Allen’s legal m ...