A recent report has revealed that Twitter’s current valuation has shrunk, as the micro-blogging platform is now one-third of what Elon Musk acquired it for last year October.

According to financial services corporation Fidelity Investments, in its annual monthly report of portfolio valuations posted on the 28th of May, the financial services giant stated that the market value of its equity stake in Twitter, identified by its new name, X Holdings Corp. fell to $6.5 million at the end of April, from $19.66 million when Musk concluded the deal a 66% drop. This implied that Twitter’s current valuation is about $15 billion.

This means that in just six months since Musk paid the sum of $44 billion including $33.5 billion in equity to purchase Twitter, the company’s value has plunged by nearly two-thirds. Meanwhile, some other aspects of Twitter’s current financial health are uncertain, because the company hasn’t made enough disclosures.

Recall that Elon Musk admitted that he had a bit of buyer’s remorse over his $44 billion acquisition deal for Twitter which he stated that he obviously overpaid. This saw Musk warn workers that Twitter remained in a precarious financial position and, at one point, had been four months away from running out of money.

Investors King understands that part of the fall in Twitter’s value can be attributed to a series of decisions carried out by Musk, such as mass layoffs affecting critical teams and challenges with content moderation that have turned advertisers away from the platform.

Musk was able to win back some of them by providing steep discounts. He has also implemented subscription-based verification to boost sales.

Musk who expressed optimism, says he sees a ‘clear but difficult path’ to $250 billion valuation, which would mean current grants could 10x. He however noted that Twitter is on the path of an inverse startup. The mercurial mega-billionaire believes the social network will be worth far more in the future.

Meta-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has rolled out a new feature known as ‘status archive’ for business accounts.

The ‘Status Archive’ feature will enable users conveniently manage their archive preferences and access their archived statuses directly from the menu within the status tab. Notably, the archived statuses will remain private and will be visible to only the respective businesses.

The archived statuses can be stored for up to 30 days on the user’s device, during this period, businesses can still create advertisements for either Instagram or Facebook or share status updates until it expires from the archive.

Investors King understands that this feature will be very pivotal for businesses, as it provides them with the opportunity to repost a status from their archived and share it with customers to enhance their business outreach.

The ‘status archive’ feature is currently available for beta users and is expected to roll out to a wider range of users in the coming weeks.

Once available, users will get a banner in the app’s Status tab, suggesting that updates will be kept on their devices for up to 30 days after it is shared. This feature is only limited to business accounts.

WhatsApp has in less than a decade become the most popular app for personal and business conversations. This has seen it become a widely used tool by business owners as it offers them a fast, simple, and convenient way to carry out their businesses and transactions.

With WhatsApp, companies can send appointment reminders, order notifications, product demonstration videos, verification codes, boarding passes, amongst others. It’s immediate, more personal, and international in reach. It also provides reliable delivery information, providing businesses the additional benefit of knowing what messages have been delivered and, ultimately, read.

The introduction of WhatsApp as a business tool is no doubt monumental. With its extensive reach, highly engaged user base, and rich communications capabilities, it has the potential to become one of the most powerful customer engagement channels on the market today, especially for those businesses serving a global audience.

In a groundbreaking decision, Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook, has been slapped with a record-breaking €1.2 billion (US$1.3 billion) privacy fine by the European Union (EU).

The EU’s regulatory body, the Irish Data Protection Commission, announced the penalty and issued a deadline for Meta to cease shipping users’ data to the United States. This stern action comes in response to the company’s failure to adequately safeguard personal information from the prying eyes of American security services.

The Irish Data Protection Commission emphasized that Meta’s ongoing data transfers to the US did not sufficiently address the risks posed to the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals whose data was being transferred across the Atlantic.

Consequently, Meta has been given a five-month ultimatum to suspend any future transfer of personal data to the US, and a six-month deadline to halt the unlawful processing and storage of transferred personal data in the US.

While the ban on data transfers was widely expected and previously prompted Meta to consider withdrawing from the EU altogether, the impact of this decision has been mitigated by the transition phase outlined in the ruling. Additionally, there is hope for a new EU-US data flows agreement, which could be operational as early as the middle of this year.

Monday’s decision is the latest development in a protracted saga that has left Facebook and numerous other companies in a legal quandary. In 2020, the highest court of the EU annulled an EU-US pact that regulated transatlantic data flows due to concerns over the safety of citizens’ data once it reached US servers.

While the court did not invalidate an alternative tool based on contractual clauses, doubts about American data protection prompted the Irish authority to issue a preliminary order, prohibiting Facebook from transferring data to the US via this method as well.

In December, EU regulators unveiled proposals to replace the defunct “Privacy Shield” agreement, which had been invalidated by the EU’s Court of Justice. Months of negotiations with the US resulted in an executive order from President Joe Biden and assurances that EU citizens’ data would be safeguarded during transatlantic transfers.

The fine imposed on Meta Platforms coincides with the fifth anniversary of the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which is considered the global standard for privacy protection. Since May 2018, EU regulators have had the authority to impose fines of up to 4% of a company’s annual revenue for severe violations.

The Irish Data Protection Commission has swiftly emerged as the leading privacy regulator for major tech firms with an EU presence, including Meta and Apple, following the transition triggered by the annulment of the EU-US data pact.

As the deadline looms for Meta Platforms to comply with the EU’s demands, all eyes will be on the company’s response and the potential impact on transatlantic data flows. This landmark decision serves as a stark reminder of the importance of safeguarding personal information and the ever-evolving landscape of data privacy regulation in the digital age.