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Frank McCourt is crafting a fundamental overhaul of TikTok's business model as part of a plan to bid for the Chinese-owned short-form video app, he told Reuters. McCourt, who formerly owned the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team, said he has received verbal funding commitments totaling $20 billion from a consortium of investors to rescue the app from legal purgatory as it awaits a Supreme Court decision to determine if it will be forced to sell its US operations. His vision for TikTok includes revamping the company's advertising model so that users will have control over the ads and type of content they want to see. Over time, TikTok could earn revenue through ecommerce and licensing data for artificial intelligence training models — with users' consent — which will diminish the business' reliance on ads.

OpenAI said on Friday it was testing new reasoning AI models, o3 and o3 mini, in a sign of growing competition with rivals such as Google to create smarter models capable of tackling complex problems. CEO Sam Altman said the AI startup plans to launch o3 mini by the end of January, and full o3 after that, as more robust large language models could outperform existing models and attract new investments and users. Microsoft-backed OpenAI released o1 AI models in September designed to spend more time processing queries to solve hard problems.

Discount chain Big Lots is conducting going--out-of-business sales at its remaining locations after a sale of the company didn’t materialize

Luigi Mangione is currently in custody of the NYPD for the alleged killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, which shook the entire country, while a manhunt for the killer went on or days until Mangione was nabbed very recently. He is now lodged into a Brooklyn prison, which is one of the most dangerous ones in the entire US, and even lodges alleged sex trafficker and hip-hop mogul Sean Diddy Combs, as per reports.

National Bank of Canada’s $5-billion takeover of Canadian Western Bank has cleared its final regulatory hurdle.

Luigi Mangione shot to the headlines after becoming the prime suspect in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, for which a manhunt went on for days on end until Thompson was captured. NYPD officials had a few field days trying to nab a suspect in this shocking incident, and tried to use every resource at their disposal, and even federal authorities tried to assist them in the case.

Party City will close all of its locations in the US due to ongoing bankruptcy proceedings. Employees were told by the CEO that closures would differ depending on the location, with some staying open until February 2025. The retail chain's decades-long presence in the market came to an end when the precise shutdown dates were not made public, as quoted in a report by Times Now. After 40 years in the US market, the retail chain Party City is scheduled to close all of its locations due to the ongoing bankruptcy. According to reports, the CEO of the retail chain informed corporate staff on Friday that all of the chain's locations would close. Nevertheless, the precise dates of the stores' closure have not been disclosed.

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Cummings' statements came as the IA's How investment management supports UK growth report found over 15 million UK adults have investable assets worth more than £10,000, with more than half owning at least three-quarters of them in cash. According to the IA CEO, «this means they are missing out on the potential investment growth while being exposed to the detrimental impact of inflation», which has led to a drop in the real value of investments in cash individual savings accounts (ISAs). Number of ISA millionaires hits all-time high of nearly 5,000 «If these consumers had put £10,0...

TeamLease Services on Friday announced that it has acquired stakes in outsourcing services TSR Darashaw and HR Tech software solutions provider Crystal HR and Security Solutions Private (Crystal HR) for Rs 42.6 crore. TeamLease Services has acquired 100 stakes in TSR Darashaw for Rs 17.6 crore, while it bought 30 per cent stakes in Crystal HR for Rs 25 crore, a company spokesperson told PTI. «Our acquisition of TSR Darashaw's payroll processing business and Crystal HR provides crucial infrastructure for our vision of becoming India's largest Human Capital Management (HCM) service provider.

Freshworks founder Girish Mathrubootham sold shares in the software-as-a-service (SaaS) company amounting to nearly $40 million, filings made with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed. Mathrubootham, who stepped down as the chief executive officer (CEO) of Freshworks, sold a total of 2.5 million shares in two tranches on December 18 and 19, the filings showed. Prior to this, he owned around 5% stake in the company. Mathrubootham is currently the chairman of the board of directors at Freshworks and was replaced by Dennis Woodside for the CEO position.

Workers at Starbucks stores plan to go on a five-day strike starting Friday to protest lack of progress in contract negotiations with the company

Google CEO Sundar Pichai to the company's employees in an all-hands meeting on Wednesday, reports Business Insider. The changes were made by the Google over the past couple of years to simplify the company and be more efficient, two people said on the condition of anonymity. A Google spokesperson told the Business Insider that some employees whose positions had been cut would be «transitioned to individual contributor roles», while some others were «role eliminations». ALSO READ: Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai rave over Willow, Google's new 'mind-boggling' quantum computing chip. 'It's so cool', say netizens

Elon Musk running the US government? Tesla CEO's growing influence on the Republican Party and the Trump administration has become a topic of discussion among Democrats, some of whom now sarcastically refer to the SpaceX CEO as “President Musk.” As the threat of US government shutdown looms, Musk, one of the closest allies and a big supporter of President-elect Donald Trump, interjected himself into the process. The moniker 'President Musk' started trending on X, formerly known as Twitter, after the spending fight on Capitol Hill took an unexpected turn as the billionaire entrepreneur played a pivotal role in derailing a bipartisan funding bill, raising questions about his growing influence in Washington. Musk’s barrage of posts on X calling for lawmakers to «kill the bill» has led many to wonder whether he, not Donald Trump, is setting the Republican agenda. ALSO READ: What US government shutdown actually means: Explained in 10 points

Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE) marked a significant milestone by hosting a felicitation of MLIs and MSE Beneficiaries on approving 1 crore guarantees. The event was held at SIDBI Swavalamban Bhavan in the presence of Manoj Mittal, Chairman & Managing Director, SIDBI & Chairman of CGTMSE, Sudatta Mandal, DMD, SIDBI, Manish Sinha, CEO CGTMSE along with guests from State Bank of India, HDFC Bank and Union Bank. The occasion celebrated the achievements of CGTMSE’s commitment to fostering financial inclusion and empowering small businesses. The occasion was graced by the Chairman who felicitated the three Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) borrowers — Gauri Deepak Samudre proprietor of UNIQUE DIGITAL PRINTING, Meet Yogesh Sanghvi, promoter of KEMKO TITANIUM PRIVATE LIMITED and MVGS Anil Kumar, CFO of HIGHNESS MICROELECTRONICS PVT LTD. These borrowers were supported by three leading Member Lending Institutions (MLIs) — Union Bank, State Bank of India and HDFC Bank respectively, whose contributions were instrumental in making this accomplishment possible. Speaking at the event, Mittal emphasized the transformative impact of credit guarantees on the MSE ecosystem, enabling businesses to access funding without collateral, third party guarantee and achieve sustainable growth. Anindya Sunder Paul, CGM, State Bank of India, Sanjay D'Souza, Group Head, HDFC Bank and G K Sudhakar, Rao, GM MSME, Union Bank also shared insights on strengthening the MSE sector and nurturing entrepreneurship through collaborative efforts.

Bitcoin traded lower for the fourth consecutive day on Thursday, weighed down by Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's hawkish tone and comments on the potential of a Bitcoin reserve. In a press conference on Wednesday, Powell stated that the US central bank has no intention of being involved in any government efforts to stockpile large amounts of Bitcoin. «We're not allowed to own Bitcoin,» he said, following the Fed's two-day policy meeting.

digital marketing lead. What was meant to be a routine discussion about their skills and career aspirations turned into an uncomfortable and humiliating encounter, he said in post on social media. During the interview, the CEO laughed at one of their previous job roles, dismissing it as a “gig” instead of a real job, solely because it was a remote position for an overseas company. Despite attempts to explain the nature of their work, the professional felt belittled and exhausted by the interaction, he said. The situation worsened when the CEO mocked his career trajectory, pointing out that their last three jobs were in different industries. Instead of appreciating the adaptability and diverse experience, the interviewer appeared to see this as a lack of focus or commitment. The professional left the interview feeling humiliated and questioning whether this treatment was normal or an indication of something deeper about the company’s culture.

Luigi Mangione and Sean «Diddy» Combs, now have two things in common: they share the same prison and the same lawyer. Mangione, accused of killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, has been transferred to Brooklyn's Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC), where Combs is also being held amid a series of sexual assault lawsuits. Incidentally, Mangione's lawyer is also defending rapper Sean «Diddy» Combs in a separate sex-trafficking case. Mangione was arrested in Pennsylvania after a five-day search and brought to New York. CNN and ABC News report that he is now in federal custody at the MDC. “Mangione appreciates everyone’s support,” said Karen Friedman Agnifilo, Mangione’s lawyer and the wife of Marc Agnifilo.

UnitedHealthcare's CEO was whisked back to New York by plane and helicopter Thursday to face new federal charges of stalking and murder, which could bring the death penalty if he's convicted. Luigi Mangione was held without bail following a Manhattan federal court appearance, capping a whirlwind day that began in Pennsylvania, where he was arrested last week in the Dec. 4 attack on Brian Thompson. The 26-year-old Ivy League graduate had been expected to be arraigned Thursday on a state murder indictment in a killing that at once rattled the business community and galvanized some health insurance critics, but the federal charges preempted that appearance. The cases will now proceed on parallel tracks, prosecutors said, with the state charges expected to go to trial first.

recruitment post has sparked the ire of netizens and reopened the age-old language debate that has emerged as one of the red-button subjects in Bengaluru. While the city is often called the ‘Silicon Valley’ of India and is renowned for its vibrant startup culture, several red flags about India’s tech paradise have recently emerged: traffic problems, sky-high rents, and the language debate. Delhi-based entrepreneur Vikram Chopra recently took a potshot at Bengaluru’s language issue. In a hiring post addressed to techies, the CEO of Cars 24 wrote, “Still can’t speak Kannada after years in Bengaluru? It’s okay. Aa jao Dilli (come to Delhi).” He added that his firm was on the lookout for ‘kickass’ engineers who wished to stay close to home. “We are not saying Delhi NCR is better. Only that it really is. If you wish to come back, write to me at [email protected] with the subject — Delhi meri jaan,” he wrote.