Billionaire In-N-Out owner Lynsi Snyder stirred up a storm of online controversy over the weekend when she revealed that she planned to move her family out of California to Tennessee. The news comes as In-N-Out begins to expand heavily into the South, launching a new joint headquarters in Franklin, Tennessee, near Nashville — where Snyder will also now be based.

-Blackstone's exit adds uncertainty to TikTok US deal -Deadline for ByteDance to divest TikTok US repeatedly postponed -TikTok deal now part of U.S.-China trade talks

July 18 (Reuters) - Private equity giant Blackstone has withdrawn from a consortium seeking to invest in TikTok’s U.S. operations, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday.

The latest change came as uncertainty has mounted and there have been several delays in the TikTok deal now at the center of U.S.-China trade talks.

Blackstone had planned to take a minority stake in the TikTok U.S. business in a deal orchestrated by President Donald Trump. The consortium is led by Susquehanna International Group and General Atlantic, current investors in TikTok's Chinese owner ByteDance. The group had emerged as the front-runner to secure TikTok’s U.S. business in a deal under which U.S. investors would own 80% of TikTok, while ByteDance would retain a minority stake.

Blackstone declined to comment. TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The deadline for ByteDance to divest the popular social media app in the U.S. has been repeatedly postponed, creating uncertainty for investors.

Last month, Trump signed a third executive order extending the deadline for ByteDance to sell TikTok or face a ban, moving the cutoff to September 17. In April 2024, Congress passed a law mandating a sale or shutdown of TikTok by January 19, 2025.

• Raj Jegannathan takes over Tesla sales amid declining demand

• The IT exec lacks traditional sales experience, has grown closer to Elon Musk
  

• High-level departures at Tesla include Troy Jones, Omead Afshar
  

July 18 (Reuters) - A relatively little-known information technology executive is running Tesla's sales team as the electric carmaker grapples with a drop in sales, according to people familiar with the matter.

Raj Jegannathan, a senior executive with a wide purview including several IT and data functions, recently took over the sales role, said the people familiar with the matter. Some inside Tesla have interpreted this to mean that Jegannathan has assumed the role of Troy Jones, Tesla's top sales executive in North America until he departed earlier this month after 15 years with the company, said the people.

Jegannathan, who has recently grown closer to CEO Elon Musk, has no traditional sales experience, according to two people familiar with the matter and his LinkedIn profile. Reuters could not determine if it is an interim role.

Demand for Tesla's cars in Europe and North America has dropped sharply. Last quarter, its quarterly sales plunged 13% to the weakest in nearly three years, due to a backlash to Musk's politics, Tesla's aging vehicle lineup and increased competition from rivals offering more affordable alternatives.

Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Tesla's share price, which has fallen 18% so far this year, rose 3% on Friday.

Jones, the latest in a string of high-level departures, managed the fallout as Musk's political affiliation with U.S. President Trump prompted left-leaning consumers to shun Tesla.

As Tesla's sales were dropping earlier this year, Jones implored managers to work on selling and pushed back against concerns over political headwinds related to Musk, according to a person who heard the comment.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33085817

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32643686

Dr. Phil McGraw’s conservative-leaning cable network Merit Street Media is filing for bankruptcy barely a year after its launch, and is also suing its distribution partner Trinity Broadcasting for breach of contract.

In its lawsuit against the Christian broadcaster, Merit Street alleged that Trinity “reneged on its obligations and abused its position as the controlling shareholder of Merit Street,” leaving the upstart channel with over $100 million in debt.

So how many Cybertrucks did Tesla actually sell?

A March recall—in which Cybertruck panels were literally falling off due to faulty glue—betrayed the number: 46,096 sold in the 14 months since deliveries began. That’s less than 3,300 per month.

Trump's not gonna protect workers from forced labor (permalink)

As fascism burns across America, it's important to remember that Trump and his policies are not popular. Sure, the racism and cruelty excites a minority of (very broken) people, but every component of the Trump agenda is extremely unpopular with the American people, from tax cuts for billionaires to kidnapping our neighbors and shipping them to concentration camps.

Keeping this fact in mind is essential if we are to nurture hope's embers, and fan them into the flames of change. Trumpism is a coalition of people who hate each other, who agree on almost nothing, whose fracture lines are one deft tap away from shattering:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/14/fracture-lines/#disassembly-manual

The vast unpopularity of Trumpism presents endless opportunities for breaking off parts of his coalition. Take noncompete "agreements": contractual clauses that ban workers from taking a job with any of their employers' competitors for years. One in 18 Americans has been captured by a noncompete, and the median noncompete victim is a minimum-wage fast-food worker whose small business tyrant boss wants to be sure that she doesn't quit working the register at Wendy's and start making $0.25/hour more flipping burgers at McDonald's.

The story of noncompetes is bullshit from top to bottom. The argument goes, "Your boss invests heavily in training you, and lets you in on all his valuable trade-secrets. When you walk out the door and go to work for a competitor, you're stealing all that training and knowledge. Without noncompetes, no boss will invest in the knowledge-intensive industries that are the future of our economy."

Now, like I said, the vast majority of people under noncompetes are working low-waged, menial jobs with little to no training, and no proprietary trade secrets to speak of. Which makes sense: workers with less bargaining power end up signing worse contracts. That's half the case against noncompetes.

Here's the other half: the most IP-intensive, profitable, knowledge-based industries in America operate without any noncompetes. California's state constitution bans noncompetes, which means that every worker in Hollywood and Silicon Valley is free to quit their job and walk across the street and join a rival.

If Hollywood and tech are examples of industries that "can't attract investment," then we should be shooting for every sector of the American economy to be so starved for capital. Silicon Valley's origin story is based on the ability of key workers at knowledge-intensive firms to quit their jobs and go to work for a direct competitor: the first Silicon Valley company was Shockley Semiconductors, founded by William Shockley, who won the Nobel Prize for inventing silicon transistors.

Shockley literally put the "silicon" in Silicon Valley, but he never shipped a working chip, because he was a deranged, paranoid eugenicist who ran such a dysfunctional company that eight of his top engineers quit to found a rival company, Fairchild Semiconductor. Then two of the "Traitorous Eight" quit the Fairchild to start Intel, and the year after, another Fairchild employee quit to start AMD:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/10/24/the-traitorous-eight-and-the-battle-of-germanium-valley/

This never stopped. Woz quit HP and Jobs quit Atari to start Apple and the tradition of extremely well-capitalized companies being founded by key employees who quit market-leading firms to compete with their old bosses continues to this day. There are many things we can say about AI, but no one will claim that AI companies – especially not those in California, where noncompetes are banned – have trouble attracting investment. Half of the leading AI companies were founded by people who couldn't stand working for Sam Altman at Openai and quit to found a competitor. Just last week, Altman flipped out because Mark Zuckerberg poached his key scientists to work on competing products at Meta:

https://fortune.com/2025/06/28/meta-four-openai-researchers-superintelligence-team-ai-talent-competition/

Knowledge-intensive industries are provably compatible with a system of free labor where workers can work for anyone they want. You know who understands this? The lawyers who draw up employment contracts with noncompete clauses in them: the American Bar Association bans noncompetes for lawyers! Every law firm in America operates without noncompetes!

Everyone hates noncompetes. They are bullshit, and only get worse with time, as the largest companies in America metastasize into sprawling conglomerates, they compete with everyone. Who isn't a competitor of Amazon's?

https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/02/its-the-economy-stupid/#neofeudal

Biden's antitrust enforcers hated noncompetes, too. Former FTC chair Lina Khan held listening tours and solicited comments to hear workers stories about noncompetes, developing a record that she used to create a rule that banned noncompetes nationwide:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/capri-v-tapestry/#aiming-at-dollars-not-men

America's oligarchs weren't happy. They sued to overturn the rule, and got a nationwide injunction (you know, those things that Trump's illegitimate Supreme Court claims are unenforceable) that suspended the FTC rule pending a full hearing.

It's clear that Trump's FTC is going to walk away from this fight and let the rule die. Trumpism is wildly unpopular, and this is no exception. Americans overwhelmingly support banning noncompetes, but Trump's richest donors are terrified of another Great Resignation and want to keep us indentured to their shitty companies, so Trump's FTC will sell us all out.

But that's not the end of things. As David Dayen writes for The American Prospect, states and local governments can pass their own noncompete bans, and they are:

https://prospect.org/labor/2025-07-02-ftc-noncompete-state-regulation-workers-wages/

Take NYC mayor-in-waiting Zohran Mamdani: unlike Trump (and the Democratic Party's billionaire wing), Mamdani campaigned by offering to create policies that are popular, including a ban on noncompetes. New York City has two distinct groups of workers who are screwed over by noncompetes. One of those groups is Wall Street finance bros, who work for some of the most legendarily toxic assholes to ever draw breath, and are overwhelming bound by noncompetes that will all become null and void the day Mamdani dons his sash.

The other group of workers Mamdani will liberate are those at the very bottom of the income distribution, from fast food workers to gig workers to doormen, who are victims of some of the dirtiest noncompete clauses in America, including "bondage fees":

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/21/bondage-fees/#doorman-building

Big cities are filled with workers who are getting screwed by noncompetes and every city government has it in their power to liberate every one of those workers (who are also voters).

States can do even better. There are already four states that ban noncompetes, two of them blood red: California, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oklahoma. Other states place significant restrictions on noncompetes, including Washington, Colorado, Illinois, Virginia, Maryland, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, and Maine. Nevada bans noncompetes for hourly workers, Idaho only allows them for "key employees"; Louisiana limits noncompetes to two years, and NJ bans noncompetes for domestic workers.

Up and down the country, in states blue and red, noncompetes are unpopular, and banning noncompetes is popular:

https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/majority-americans-support-ftc-ruling-would-ban-non-compete-agreements

Oregon just banned noncompetes for doctors and other health workers, as part of a sweeping, bipartisan law that banned the "corporate practice of medicine":

https://pluralistic.net/2025/06/20/the-doctor-will-gouge-you-now/#states-rights

Oregon's in good company: noncompetes are banned in the health sector in 32 states, including Arkansas, Indiana and Colorado.

Lina Khan's FTC developed an irrefutable evidentiary record about the abusive nature of noncompetes, proving that industries can attract capital and field successful companies without them. States have it in their power to step in where Trump has betrayed American workers. This isn't the most efficient way to protect workers – that would be a federal ban on noncompetes – but it will still get the job done, and it will weaken the Trump coalition, which is barely holding together as it is.

Lululemon Athletica Canada Inc. is accusing Costco Wholesale Corp. of infringing on its intellectual property by selling knockoffs of some of its most popular products.

A lawsuit filed in a California court recently alleges Costco sells dupes of Lululemon’s Scuba hoodies and sweatshirts, Define jackets and ABC pants.

Europeans still aren't buying Teslas with figures out Wednesday showing sales plunged for a fifth month in a row in May, a blow to investors who had hoped anger toward Elon Musk would have faded by now.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/32006346

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/31730538

Avatars generated by artificial intelligence are now able to sell more than real people can, according to a collaboration between Chinese tech company Baidu and a popular livestreamer.

Luo Yonghao, one of China’s earliest and most popular livestreamers, and his co-host Xiao Mu both used digital versions of themselves to interact with viewers in real time for well over six hours on Sunday on Baidu’s e-commerce livestreaming platform “Youxuan”, the Chinese tech company said. The session raked in 55 million yuan ($7.65 million).

In comparison, Luo’s first livestream attempt on Youxuan last month, which lasted just over four hours, saw fewer orders for consumer electronics, food and other key products, Baidu said.

June 18 - Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares fell nearly 4% on Tuesday after reports surfaced of a temporary production halt at its Austin, Texas facility, dampening investor sentiment ahead of the company's highly anticipated Robotaxi launch. The stock has declined about 22% so far this year.

According to Business Insider, Tesla plans to suspend manufacturing of its Cybertruck and Model Y models for a week starting June 30. The company reportedly told employees the downtime would allow for maintenance and upgrades on the production lines. No details were provided on which areas may see output improvements.

Crosspost

On June 10th, 2025, four members of the NVSTly team traveled to New York City to attend the 2025 American Business Awards® ceremony, held at the iconic Marriott Marquis in Times Square. It was an unforgettable night as we accepted the Gold Stevie® Award for Tech Startup of the Year—this time, in person.

Meow (left), rich (center), MartyOooit (right)

Representing NVSTly at the event were:

• Rich, CEO & Founder
• Meow, CTO, Lead Developer, & Co-Founder
• MartyOooit, Investor
• Noob, Market Analyst (not shown in photos)

MartyOooit (left), rich (center), Meow (right)

While we shared the exciting news back in April when the winners were announced, being there in person alongside other winners—including eBay, AT&T, T-Mobile, HP Inc., and Fidelity Investments—made the achievement feel even more surreal. To be honored alongside billion-dollar industry leaders was a proud and humbling moment for our startup and a huge milestone in NVSTly’s journey.

🎤 Team Interview at the Event

During the event, our team was interviewed about the win. When asked:

“What does winning a Stevie Award mean for your organization?”
“How will winning a Stevie Award help your organization?”

Here’s what we had to say:
📺 Watch the video

A Big Win for Retail Traders

NVSTly was awarded Gold for Tech Startup of the Year in recognition of our work building a powerful, free social investing platform that empowers retail traders with transparency, analytics, and community-driven tools.

Unlike traditional finance platforms, NVSTly gives users the ability to:

• Share and track trades in real time
• Follow and receive alerts from top traders
• Compete on global leaderboards
• Access deep stats like win rate, average return, and more

Whether you're a beginner or experienced trader, NVSTly gives you the insights and tools typically reserved for hedge funds—but in a free, social format built for the modern investor.

Continued Recognition and Momentum

This award adds to a growing list of recognition for NVSTly:

• 🏆 People’s Choice Winner at the 2024 Benzinga Fintech Awards
• 🔁 Nominated again for Best Social Investing Product in the 2025 Benzinga Fintech Awards
• 🌟 Team members JustCoreGames and Lunaster are nominated for Employee of the Year (Information Technology – Social Media) in the 2025 Stevie® Awards for Technology Excellence

We’re beyond proud of what our small but mighty team has accomplished—and we’re just getting started. 🚀

Thanks to the Stevie Awards for an incredible night in New York, and to our community of 50,000+ traders who’ve helped shape NVSTly into what it is today.
This win is yours, too.

Stay tuned—more big things are coming.

— Team NVSTly

The event brought together some of the most respected names in tech, finance, and business.

One of the grocery giant's labor unions has authorized a strike, which follows a similar vote by Teamsters.

Walmart heiress Christy Walton is facing backlash, and Walmart is facing some calls for a boycott from Trump supporters after placing a full-page ad in The New York Times urging Americans to attend town halls and engage in civic discourse.

While the "No Kings Day" ad did not mention President Donald Trump by name, its emphasis on values like honoring commitments to allies, defending against dictators, and respecting trading partners was widely interpreted as a critique of Trump's foreign policy and "America First" agenda.