RETAIL INDUSTRY

Year 2011

According to ShopperTrak, Black Friday (November 25, 2011) sales in 2011 increased 6.6 percent to $11.4 billion compared with 2010, and traffic rose 5.1 percent. ShpperTrak founder Bill Martin said that shoppers were using web to narrow down the list of stores instead of "wandering from store to store".

According to ComScore Inc. report released on November 27, 2011, online sales soared 26 percent on the day after Thanksgiving from a year ago to $816 million. On the Thanksgiving Day (November 24, 2011), online sales rose 18 percent to $479 million as retailers offered promotions early on the websites. Last year (2010), the Cyber Monday was the biggest day of online shopping, with sales exceeding $1 billion. On November 27, 2011, bullish Chairman of ComScore Gian Fulgoni predicted another record-breaking Cyber Monday.

A survey released by National Retail Federation on November 27, 2011 showed that brick-and-mortars and websites together get 226 million shopper visits over the Thanksgiving weekend (Thursday through Sunday), up from 212 million in 2010. The average holiday shopper spent $398.62 in the 2011 Thanksgiving weekend, up from $365.34 in 2010 Thanksgiving weekend. Total spending reached an estimated $52.4 billion, according to the NRF survey conducted by BIGresearch Novmber 24 (Thursday) through November 26 (Saturday), 2011. The survey has 1.6 percent margin of error. According to the survey, almost one in four shoppers (24.4 percent) stood in line outside the stores at midnight on the Thanksgiving Day compared to 9.5 percent in 2010 and 2.2 percent in 2009, respectively. This year, some of the largest U.S retailers--Best Buy, Kohl's, Macy's, Target, Toys R Us and Walmart--were open at midnight on the Thanksgiving Day for the first time.

YEAR 2012

Americans spent approximately $59.1 billion during the four-day (November 22-25, 2012) Thanksgiving Holiday period (Thursday through Sunday), about 13% higher than the last year's $52.4 billion during comparable time period. The Black Friday (this year it was November 23, 2012) online sales reached a record, first time crossing the threshold of $1 billion, by rising 26% to $1.04 billion, according to ComScore Inc. report issued on November 25, 2012. This year's Thanksgiving Day sales also rose by a whopping 32% to $633 million.

Year 2013

This year's Thanksgiving weekend shopping spree didn't bring a positive dividend for the nation's retailers as National Retail Federation on December 1, 2013 estimated sales of $57.4 billion over the four-day (November 28-Dec 1, 2013: Thursday through Sunday) period of Thanksgiving weekend, a drop of 2.9 percent compared to the same period in 2012. The traffic was higher with 141 million unique visits compared to 139 million unique visits in 2012. However, average spending was lower--$407 in 2013 vs. $424 in 2012--because of expanded promotions and deep discounts. NRF Chief Executive Mathew Shay explained the drop in terms of a customer who is value focused and budget conscious. According to the NRF survey, conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics, 54.2 percent of the customers planned to shop in department stores, followed by 42.1 percent shopping online, while 38.9 percent in discount stores. This year many of the stores opened their doors in evening, and many of the door-busters began in the late afternoon.

Research firm ComScore reported on December 3, 2013 that the online sales on Cyber Monday (December 2, 2013) would be about $1.74 billion, up from $1.47 billion on Cyber Monday in 2012. Online sales will account for about 10 percent of total sales of $602.1 billion in combined November and December sales this year, a jump of about 3.9 percent compared to last year. ComScore figure doesn't include sales from mobile devices. This year many of the shoppers bought merchandise online using mobile gadgets.

For the year 2013, average shopper became more productive as reported by ShopperTrak survey released on December 23, 2013. For the week of December 16-22 (Mon-Sunday), 2013, the in-store traffic fell by 21.2% compared to the same period last year vs. sales declined by 3.1%. ShopperTrak founder Bill Martin said that one way to measure whether shopper had become more efficient in shopping was average number of shops visited (3 to 3.5 in 2013 vs. 4.5 to 5 in 2008).

Analyzing the federal figures, National Retail Federation on January 14, 2014 estimated that sales rose 3.8% for November and December 2013 (November sales rose 3% and December sales rose 4.6%) compared to the same period in the previous year, a bit short of its earlier forecast of 3.9%, but better than 3.5% jump in 2012. However, to entice shoppers, retailers had to offer myriads of promotions and deep discounts, thus hurting margins. According to Ken Perkins, President of Retail Metrics LLC, fourth quarter profits would drop 0.7%, first such decline since a 6.7% drop in the second quarter of 2009 as the country had hit the trough and just started to climb back out of the worst recession in a generation. Perkins' figure was based on a survey of country's 120 retailers. NRF's estimate included online sales, but excluded sales at automotive dealers, gas stations and restaurants.

Year 2014

Retail Watchdog Predicts More than 4 Percent Boost During 2014 Holidays
National Retail Federation estimated on October 6, 2014 that the retail sales during 2014 holidays would increase by 4.1 percent compared to last year's increase of 3.1 percent. The average annual increase of retail sales over the past 10 years is about 2.9 percent. Last year, NRF predicted 3.9 percent growth during holidays, but the actuals came out to be 3.1 percent.

Holiday Sales Fall During Thanksgiving This Year
The four-day (November 27-30, 2014) sales spanning Thanksgiving Thursday through Sunday this year fell 11 percent compared to the same period last year, according to the National Retail Federation. This year the four-day sales were estimated at $50.9 billion, based on a sample of 4,600 shoppers in a survey conducted by Prosper Insights and Analytics for the NRF. The federation president, Mathew Shay put a positive spin on the significant decline, stressing on the fact that the average shopper might be feeling economically secure this year and harbor less desire to rush to the stores during a crowded Thanksgiving weekend. The National Retail Federation survey also illustrated
* A significant shift in buying pattern to web as the store traffic this year dropped 5.2 percent to 134 million
* A downward trend in average spending by shoppers from $407.02 last year to $380.95 this year
A big surprise of the federation survey was its findings of flat online sales which didn't match with findings by other researchers. Adobe estimated that the Thanksgiving Day online sales this year were $1.33 billion, up 25 percent, and the Black Friday online sales were $2.4 billion, up 24 percent compared to 2013. IBM Digital Analytics estimated the corresponding boost in sales of 14.3 percent (Thanksgiving Day 2014 VS. 2013) and 9.5 percent (Black Friday 2014 VS. 2013), respectively. Meanwhile, another weekend report indicated cannibalization as many of the national retail chains opened for the third year in a row on the Thanksgiving Day, grabbing foot traffic from the Black Friday. According to ShopperTrak, founded by Bill Martin, Thanksgiving Day traffic registered a whopping increase of 27 percent from a year ago, only to have Black Friday to witness a decline of 5.6 percent in foot traffic. However, the combined sales for the Thanksgiving Day and the Black Friday, according to ShopperTrak, this year totaled $12.29 billion, a meager 0.5 percent drop from the last year.


Year 2015

Retail Watchdog Predicts 3.7 Percent Boost During 2015 Holidays
National Retail Federation estimated on October 8, 2015 that the retail sales during 2015 holidays would increase by 3.7 percent to $630.5 billion compared to last year's increase of 4.1 percent. The average annual increase of retail sales over the past 10 years is about 2.9 percent. However, NRF expects online sales to grow 6 percent to 8 percent to $105 billion. Online sales grew last year's holiday period (November and December) by 5.8 percent.

Black Friday Online Sales Heat up
A shopping tracking firm, Adobe, reported on November 27, 2015 that this year's Black Friday (November 27, 2015) online sales jumped by a respected 14 percent compared to that of 2014 to $2.72 billion. The firm also reported that this year's online sales on the Thanksgiving Day were $1.73 billion, a 25 percent increase from last year's Thanksgiving Day online sales. According to Adobe, nearly 57 percent of $1.73 billion on the Thanksgiving Day came from mobile devices. Smartphones and tablets account for 37 percent of online sales between midnight and 11AM on Black Friday. Nearly 60 percent of American shoppers had already begun holiday shopping since November 10, 2015, according to the National Retail Federation.

In-Store Sales Fall on both Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday
Continuing trend that had begun few years ago, the in-store sales on the Thanksgiving Day (November 26, 2015) and Black Friday (November 27, 2015) fell this year nearly by 10 percent to $1.8 billion (from $2 billion) and $10.4 billion (from $11.6 billion), respectively, according to the retailing research firm ShopperTrak. Part of the reasons for declining in-store sales during Thanksgiving Weekend is retailers' elongation of holiday sales timeline, according to ShopperTrak Chief Revenue Officer Kevin Kearns. The ShopperTrak survey was released on November 29, 2015.

NRF Changes its Survey Methodology, Gets out of Individual Day Forecasts
This year National Retail Federation changed its Thanksgiving holiday survey questions and methodology, rendering year-to-year comparison irrelevant. Pam Goodfellow, principal analyst at Prosper Insights and Analytics that conducts the survey, has said that the change is needed to capture the shift in consumer taste and choice. NRF is also out of forecasting a single-day sales such as Black Friday sales figures.

Forrester Research Predicts Double Digit Online Sales Gain
Forrester Research's prediction about 2015 holiday season is that online sales will jump by 11 percent to $95.5 billion.

Cyber Monday Registers a Record in Online Sales
This year's Cyber Monday (November 30, 2015) set a record in web sales as consumers made a brisk purchase of a whopping $2.98 billion, up 12 percent from last year's Cyber Monday, according to Adobe Digital Index. Brick-and-Mortar retailers saw their online sales increase by a whopping 18 percent, outpacing the sales growth of online-only retailers. According to Adobe's Tamara Gaffney, principal analyst, Dallas-Fort Worth (43 percent), Chicago (23 percent) and Los Angeles (26 percent) markets had some of the highest online sales growths. According to Adobe, smartphones and tablets account for 37 percent of online sales between midnight and 11AM on Black Friday compared to 26 percent last year and 21 percent in 2013.

IBM Watson Estimates More than Half Web Traffic to be Mobile
According to IBM Watson Trend Report issued on November 30, 2015, the 2015 Black Friday (November 27, 2015) turned out to be a trend-setter with mobile traffic (57.2 percent compared to 49.6 percent last year) exceeding desktop traffic for the first time.

Research Firm ComScore Reports Record Cyber Monday Sales
Research firm comScore on December 2, 2015 reported that Cyber Monday (December 1, 2015) sales had registered a whopping $3.11 billion, a record, up by 21 percent. The boost was prompted by 53 percent surge in orders placed through mobile devices.

Lackluster Holiday Report Card for Retailers
National Retail Federation on January 15, 2016 issued a not-so-good report card for nation's retailers for this past holiday season. The sales registered a meager 3 percent growth in November-December 2015 compared to year ago November-December period to $626.14 billion. On October 8, 2015, NRF forecast a growth of 3.7 percent in the past holidays. The primary drag, according to the venerable group, was the warm weather in the much of the US that had forced retailers to mark deeper discount to stimulate sales of winter cloths. Also, there was deflationary pressure on electronic items. One of the bright spot this past holiday season was online sales that grew by 9 percent to $105 billion, a 15 percent of the total retail pie. In its October 8, 2015, pre-holiday estimate, NRF predicted online sales to grow between 6 percent and 8 percent.

YEAR 2016

Rosy Holiday Sales Forecasted by Retail Group
The Retail industry group National Retail Federation, or NRF, on October 4, 2016 issued an optimistic projection of for the combined November and December sales growth. The estimated sales will grow by 3.6 percent, according to the NRF, to $655.8 billion, more than last year's combined November-December growth rate of 3 percent. This year's projected growth rate is higher than the 10-year historic growth rate of 2.5 percent and 3.4 percent average annual growth rate since the end of recession in 2009. However, the growths projected by various retail groups often don't materialize as last year's actual holiday growth came almost 0.7 percent below the projected growth rate of 3.7 percent. NRF's figure does not include auto, restaurants and gasoline sales, but includes online and non-store sales. NRF estimated total non-stores sales to grow by 7 percent to 10 percent to $117 billion.

Online Sales Soar on Black Friday
The changing behavior of how shoppers make their purchase has contributed to a significant uplift of online sales for both the Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday in 2016. According to Adobe, this year's Black Friday online sales hit a record of $3.34 billion, a 21.6 percent increase, mostly fueled by a whopping 33 percent growth to a record-setting $1.2 in sales ordered from the mobile devices. Online sales also hit records both on the Thanksgiving Day as well as the day earlier. Combined Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday, according to Adobe, online sales increased a whopping 21.6 percent to $5.27 billion. The online sales of $1.93 billion on the Thanksgiving Day this year, though jumped 11.5 percent compared to 2015, fell short of Adobe estimate of $2 billion.

Door-Busters Drive Massive Traffic
Deep discounts and milder weather combined had desired effect on the retailers' topline as shoppers opened wallet during the Thanksgiving weekend as National Retail Federation on November 27, 2016 estimated that average dollar volume this year rang about $289, although $10 lower than last year's $299.

First Data: Retail Spending up, but at a Slower Rate
First Data on December 16, 2016 released its research findings for the timespan of October 29, 2016 (Saturday) through December 12, 2016 (Monday). The data are captured from 40 percent card transactions, but exclude cash transactions. The key findings are:
* Relative to last year's growth of 2.4 percent in the comparable period, this year's growth was 2 percent.
* During this time, online sales grew 9 percent this year compared to store sales of 0.1 percent.
* The average spend amount for the 45-day period this year was $70.28 compared to last year's $69.34.
* Four of the seven segments tracked by First Data registered growth this year: (1) Building Materials; (2) Electronics and Appliances; (3) Furniture and Home Furnishings; and (4) Health and Personal Care. The biggest decrease (2.8 percent) was in General Merchandising Category, with Department Store sub-category getting hammered by a whopping 8.8 percent.

YEAR 2017

Online is the King of Thanksgiving Week
National Retail Federation said on November 28, 2017 that more people had shopped this year from the Thanksgiving Day (November 23, 2017) through Cyber Monday (November 27, 2017)--174 million vs. 164 million--and they spent an average of $335.47, but the preferred platform for the shoppers was online that surprised probably none. According to NRF,
* About 58 million shoppers did their purchases only online
* About 51 million only in stores
* About 65 million in both
However, the most prized customers are the ones who shopped both in-store and online as they, on the average, spent $82 more than that of only online shoppers and $49 more than only in-store shoppers.
What is more of a trend these days is there is no let-up in shopping just because it's a holiday because of smartphones. According to Adobe Analytics, online shopping averaged $1 billion everyday in November 2017, and during the five days from the Thanksgiving Day (November 23, 2017) through Cyber Monday (November 27, 2017), it totaled $19.6 billion, an all time record.

YEAR 2018

Thanksgiving Weekend Give Retailers Healthy In-store Traffic and Outstanding Digital Growth
Adobe Analytics reported on November 23, 2018 that this year's Thanksgiving Day (November 22, 2018) was another busy retail day with a respectable in-store traffic, who switched between eating turkeys and shopping, and strong online purchases. Online purchases this Thanksgiving Day (November 22, 2018) had its own record of $3.7 billion, according to Adobe Analytics, with purchases from smartphones breaking the threshold of $1 billion for the first time. Last year, $1 billion mark for smartphone was been breached on Cyber Monday.

Shoppers Splurge with New Vigor
National Retail Federation on November 27, 2018 estimated that more than 165 million shoppers hit brick-and-mortar stores between the Thanksgiving Day (November 22) and Cyber Monday (November 26), spending on the average $313. Both numbers are down from last year's comparable figures of 174 million shoppers and $335 average spend, respectively. However, the premier retail trade group still believes that consumers will up their spending by 4.8 percent during this year's holiday period compared to last year's. In addition, NRF issued a breakdown of shopping patterns:

* About 21 percent shopped only in stores
* About 25 percent shopped only online
* About 56 percent shopped both in stores and online

According to NRF estimate, this year's holiday sales will increase 4.3 to 4.8 percent

According to Adobe's November 27, 2018, update, a record $7.9 billion was spent online on Cyber Monday (November 26, 2018), a whopping 19.3 percent increase from last year's comparable figures.

According to ShopperTrak, the traffic to shopping centers and brick-and-mortar stores fell a combined 1 percent this year for the Thanksgiving Day (November 22, 2018) and Black Friday (November 23, 2018), with Black Friday traffic falling by 1.7 percent. One of the reasons this year's traffic fell on the Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday was due to consumer's beginning of shopping earlier this year.

YEAR 2019

Retail Industry Group Forecasts Robust Holiday Sales Growth
National Retail Federation on October 4, 2019 issued an optimistic estimate of retail sector growth in the November-December period of this year (2019). The estimate ranges from 3.8% to 4.2%, stronger compared to last year's tepid 2.1% growth in the comparable period. Last year's growth was lower than 5-year average of 3.7%.

Rosy Forecasts for Online Sales
As retailers are gearing up for the Black Friday (November 29, 2019), online sales have been bumper  marks throughout the month of November as each of the first 27 days of November 2019 clocked more than a billion dollar in revenue, including $2 billion on eight days, according to Adobe Analytics. This year, too, online sales will follow the same trends of past several years of grabbing market shares from brick and mortars, and are expected to rise by 14.1%. Adobe Analytics forecasted that online sales would be up on Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday, this year Cyber Monday falling in December and projected to bring in a record revenue of $9.4 billion.

Black Friday Online Sales Hit a Record
Adobe Analytics reported on November 30, 2019 that the Black Friday (November 29, 2019) had turned out to be a bonanza for online sales this year as consumers had spent a record $7.4 billion sitting from the comfort of their homes and buying with few clicks. Adobe's estimate of a record online sales on this year's Black Friday fell short of online sales in last year's Cyber Monday that came out to be around $7.9 billion. This year's Cyber Monday online sales are expected to be around another record-setter, $9.4 billion, according to Adobe Analytics.
However, the Black Friday sales, despite hitting a record for online segment, contracted this year by 1.6%, according to RetailNext, and the traffic fell by 2.1%.
According to National Retail Federation, this year's combined November and December sales will increase 4% to $730 billion. Adobe Analytics projected that online sales this year's November and December will total about $143.7 billion, a jump of almost 14.9% compared to the last year.

Record 190 million Shoppers Are in Buying Spree
National Retail Federation on December 3, 2019 estimated that a record 189.6 million shoppers made purchases in the five-day period from the Thanksgiving Day (November 28, 2019) to Cyber Monday (December 2, 2019), an increase of 14% relative to the comparable period last year. According to the NRF, some 142 million shoppers purchased online, 124 million purchased in brick-and-mortars, and 76 million did both. Underlining the shopping trend, Matthew Shay, president of the National Retail Federation, said that Americans "continue to start their holiday shopping earlier in the year". According to the NRF estimate, Americans on the average spent $361.90 between Thanksgiving Day (November 28, 2019) and Cyber Monday (December 2, 2019) this year, an increase of 16% compared to the last year.

YEAR 2020
Retail Sales Projected Jump between 3.6% and 5.2% 

National Retail Federation delayed the projection of holiday sales this year by a month in order to better gauge the effect of pandemic on nation’s retail landscape. On November 23, 2020, country’s premium retail trade group has estimated that combined November-December sales this year will jump by 3.6% t0 5.2% from last year’s $729.1 billion (a 4% gain last year’s combined November-December sales) to the range of $755.3 billion to $766.7 billion. Over the last five years, holiday retail sales uptick is averaging by 3.5% .

Best Black Friday Online Sales Reported

Adobe Analytics reported on November 28, 2020 that this year’s Black Friday (November 27) helped set a record in online sales as shoppers weary of COVID-19 pandemic filled up virtual carts with merchandises worth $9 billion, a 22% jump compared to previous record of $7.4 billion registered in 2019. Meanwhile, in-store sales slumped on Black Friday, falling by 52%, according to Sensormatic Solutions. Footwear and jewelry product lines have witnessed some of the largest declines ever. Another notable event this year was stores remaining closed on the Thanksgiving Day, first time many retailers have done so since a broader trend had emerged in 2013 to have stores opened on the Thanksgiving Day to get prepared for early birders.

YEAR 2021

Adobe Analytics Forecasts First ever $200 billion Breach in the Holiday Online Sales 

Adobe Analytics reported on October 20, 2021 that its renowned Adobe Digital Economy Index Holiday Shopping Forecast Model was pointing at another year of bumper holiday online sales during November and December 2021 combined period, with the sales exceeding the $200 billion threshold for the first time, coming only four years after the holiday online sales broke another record of $100 billion in 2017. Cyber Monday will be again the biggest online sales day this year, with an estimated sales of $11.3 billion, but the growth rate will be a meager 4%, compared to last year's 15% and 17% in 2019. However, reflecting a severe supply-chain problem and what may be expected to happen during the holidays, the out-of-stock notification is now up 172% from a year ago. 

Cyber Monday Sales Fall for the First Time

Adobe Digital Economics Index shows that this year's Cyber Monday (November 29, 2021) online sales have fallen for the first time, a drop of 1.4% to $10.7 billion compared to the last year's corresponding figures. Meanwhile, National Retail Federation estimated that the Black Friday (November 25, 2021) in-store traffic had jumped to 66 million, up from last year's 52.9 million and compared to 84.2 million in 2019. 

Retail Sales A Big Bright Spot in the Midst of a New COVID Surge

National Retail Federation said in early December 2021 that this year's holiday sales were on track to beat its already record-breaking estimates of 8.5% to 10.5% growth compared to last year's sales. Holiday sales spiked last year by a whopping 8.2%, and shoppers moved to online and splurged on home goods and pajamas as many of them had stayed put at home last year. 

Meanwhile, Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks all modes of payments including cash and debit cards, has reported on December 26, 2021 that, between November 1, 2021 and December 24, 2021, holiday sales have risen 8.5% relative to last year. Mastercard SpendingPulse earlier projected an 8.8% increase. Holiday sales were up 10.7% compared to pre-pandemic 2019 holiday period. This year, clothing rose 47%, jewelry rose 32% and electronics by 16%, according to Mastercard SpendingPulse. Online sales rose 11% compared to last year, 61% compared to 2019. Department stores had 21% increase compared to holiday period in 2020. 

YEAR 2022

Back-to-School Spending: DFW Will Top the National Average

A Deloitte study published by The Dallas Morning News on July 27, 2022 reports that the DFW parents will be spending more than the parents overall in the back-to-school spending. Texas parents will be looking for items such as transparent backpacks, shoes and school items during the upcoming tax-free weekend August 5-7, 2022. According to the Deloitte study, the average back-to-school spending is estimated at $987 per child compared to the national average of  $661. Last year (2021), DFW parents on the average spent $1,087. This year is turning out to be challenging, with the threat of recession looming large, inflation running at the highest level since 1981 and geopolitical situation being fluid because of, among other things, Russian invasion of Ukraine.  

Holiday Sales Will Jump This Year, but not by an Out-of-blue Pace, NRF Predicts

National Retail Federation on November 3, 2022 put out this year's holiday sales figures which are expected to rise a healthy 6% to 8%, but still fall short of last year's comparable growth of 13.5%. The combined November and December sales this year will rise to a range between $942.6 billion and $960.4 billion. The numbers exclude automobile sales, transactions at gas stations and restaurant sales. 

Record Cyber Monday Sales Reported

The Dallas Morning News reported on December 2, 2022 based on Adobe Analytics numbers that Cyber Monday sales this year hit a record, $11.3 billion, up 5.8% compared to last year. However, the online discount this year was significant. In the toy category, the average discount this year was 34% compared to 19% last year, according to a report issued on November 30, 2022 by Adobe Analytics. Electronics discounts stood at a whopping 25% compared to 8% last year. 

Holiday Sales Hitting Marks Despite Inflation

A key report issued on December 26, 2022 pointed to a healthy retail sales during holidays despite several hurdles, including a stubborn inflation. According to a report issued by the Mastercard SpendingPulse that reflects all types of sales, including cash, credit and debit cards, the sales has risen 7.6% during this year's holiday period compared to last year's. Last year's growth rate was 8.5%. Although this year's sales growth came 0.9 percent below the last year's level, it easily beat the forecast of 7.1%. 

Mastercard SpendingPulse tracked all sales between November 1, 2022 through December 24, 2022, covering the all important busy Christmas shopping days. The report breaks down by categories: clothing clocked a healthy 4.4%, while jewelry and electronics dropped about 5%. Between brick-and-mortar and online transactions, in-person sales rose 6.8% and online sales rose a whopping 10.6%. Department stores came up with a meager 1% growth compared to 2021. 

The data released on December 26, 2022 excludes auto sales and is not adjusted to inflation. Behind the healthy growth figure of 7.6%, there are many stories that reflect a very complex and evolving retail landscape. There is a general consumer propensity for scaling down on national brands in favor of less expensive private labels. Consumers are spending more on basic necessities such as food than other merchandises such as electronics. 

YEAR 2023

NRF Estimates Sales Growth of 3% to 4% in 2023 Holiday Season

The Dallas Morning News on November 23, 2023 reported, based on the projections from the National Retail Federation, that the retail sales would jump between 3% and 4% in November-December 2023 compared to that of November-December 2022. The sales jump is in alignment with the long-term pre-pandemic annual sales increase of 3.6% experienced between 2010 and 2019. The forecast from the NRF excludes auto, restaurant and gasoline, and compares to 9.1% increase in 2020, 12.7% in 2021 and 5.4% in 2022. 

A separate survey from Deloitte forecasts that on the average, Dallas area shoppers will spend $1,864, a 2% increase compared to the last year, during 2023 Holiday season. That's about 13% higher than the national average of $1,652, according to The Dallas Morning News' November 23, 2023, edition. 

Online Sales This Holiday Season Starts off on Healthy Note

Adobe Analytics at the end of the Black Friday on November 24, 2023 gave a sneak-peek of how the shopper had demonstrated in terms of shopping behavior and whether it did portend a healthy Holiday season. According to the Adobe Analytics,

* Online sales on the Thanksgiving Day (November 23, 2023) jumped 5.5% this year to $5.6 billion

* Consumers spent $76.7 billion online in the first 23 days of November this years

* Online Black Friday sales increased 5.7% to $9.6 billion this year

National Retail Federation forecasted that this year's combined November-December sales would increase 3% to 4% to $957.3 billion to $966.6 billion. 

Record Cyber Monday Sales Reported

Adobe reported on November 27, 2023 that consumers had spent between $12 billion and $12.4 billion on the Cyber Monday (November 27, 2023), a record. The five-day (November 23-27, 2023) Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday online sales figure is 7.8% higher than the corresponding five-day period last year to reach $38 billion.  

Retail Sales Come Bumper, according to Mastercard

According to a survey released on December 26, 2023 by the Mastercard, the retail sales during November 1, 2023 through December 24, 2023 jumped 3.1% relative to comparable period last year. The in-store sales jumped 2.2% and online sales jumped 6.3%. Among the categories, the Mastercard SpendingPulse Survey points to a healthy retail landscape across the broader spectrum of categories, with Restaurants (7.8%), Apparel (2.4%), Grocery (2.1%) having seen the uptick while Electronics  and Jewelry losing grounds by 0.4% and 2%, respectively. 

JCPENNY

A three-way legal drama, involving some high-level testimonials at the New York Supreme Court, played out since the trial began on February 20, 2013 with appearance of CEOs Terry Lundgren of Macy's, Ron Johnson of J.C. Penney and Martha Stewart of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc. Since 2007, Macy's has been exclusively selling many of Martha Stewart's home merchandises such as cookware and utensils, which J.C. Penney made a coup in December 2011 taking use a loophole in the Macy's exclusive agreement by having the home diva namesake to open its store within JCP. JCP also bought a stake of 17 percent in Martha Stewart Living by investing $38.5 million. Macy's filed a lawsuit against Martha in January 2012 and JCP three months later. On March 7, 2013, Judge Jeffrey Oing asked three parties to participate in mediation between now and April 8, 2013, next hearing date.

On late April 8, 2013, Ron Johnson was forced out as his trend-setting model of launching store-within-store concept without enough testing led to 25 percent loss in revenue over the past year, and more so during critical holiday quarter, and nearly $1 billion in loss. Former CEO Myron Ullman was brought back to lead the 111-year retail chain out of financial and sales morass.

On April 12, 2013, Judge Jeffrey Oing gave J.C. Penney a break from the dilemma over a three-way legal drama, involving Penney, Macy's and Martha, by letting JCP sell Martha-branded housewares to sell. Oing gave ouster of Johnson, who had orchestrated the deal with Stewart, one of the reasons for go-ahead.

After a public spat with the 111-year-old retailer's board in general and Chairman Tom Engibous in particular over finding a permanent CEO to replace Myron Ullman sooner, the activist investor and Pershing Square Capital head Bill Ackman resigned from the board on August 13, 2013 in what could be termed as a mutually agreed exit. Ackman's 17.7 percent stake in J. C. Penney will be bought over by Citigroup, which may sell the shares later when the stock prices will go up and reap a healthy profit, according to an announcement by Ackman himself on August 26, 2013. Back in 2010, Ackman and Vornado Realty Trust's Steven Roth disclosed that between them they had owned about 26 percent of Penney stake. Both Ackman and Vornado Chairman Roth were added to the J.C. Penney board without proxy later in 2010. In March 2013, when the then-CEO Ron Johnson was battling for his survival, Roth sold 10 million shares, leaving only 6.1 percent stakes under the control of Vornado. After Bill Ackman's August 13, 2013, resignation from the board, former Macy's Vice Chairman Ronald W. Tysoe was added to the board.

On September 3, 2013, Dallas-based hedge fund Hayman Capital , run by the Fort Worth billionaire Kyle Bass, disclosed that it had bought 5.2 percent stake in Penney. Also on September 3, 2013, New York-based Glenview Capital Management founded by Lawrence Robbins announced that it had acquired more than 20 million, or 9.1 percent, of JC Penney shares. These two high-profile activities related to Penney shares came on the top of August 30, 2013, high-stake disclosure by another New York-based hedge fund, Perry Corp led by Richard Perry, that it had bought an additional 3 million shares for $12.90 apiece, thus raising its stake in the retailer to 8.62 percent. Last month Penney board approved a so-called poison pill that would bar anyone to acquire more than 10 percent of the retailer.

In the backdrop of a challenging market and customer reluctance to return to its stores in expected numbers, J.C. Penney Co. on September 27, 2013 announced to sell 84 million of shares at a price of $9.65 per share by October 1, 2013 to cushion its liquidity position during the all important holiday season. The offering of 84 million shares will fetch $810.6 million, and then the Goldman Sachs, the underwriter for this stock offering, will have flexibility of selling an additional 12.6 million of shares for $9.65 per share within the next 30 days.

JCPenney Names New CEO
Plano-based J.C. Penney Co. on October 13, 2014 announced that Home Depot Executive Vice President Marvin Ellison would become the retailer's new CEO and President in August 2015. However, Ellison will join Penney on November 1, 2014, and will work alongside Myron Ullman, who had returned to Penney in April 2013 after ouster of Ron Johnson and was credited for stabilizing the 112-year retail chain after several quarters of steep declines, to learn about and adapt to Penney environment.

Penny Files Bankruptcy
Iconic retailer J.C. Penny that once sprouted in small town America and then spread its tentacles to suburbs and glittering malls was forced to seek bankruptcy protection on May 15, 2020 as novel coronavirus had shut down its 846 department stores for weeks and its own past mistakes and online retail challenges compounded its very survival at an important juncture of retail evolution. It filed for bankruptcy in the Bankruptcy Court in Corpus Christi. The Chapter 11 filing will wipe away its debt, and the lenders who hold 70% of its first-lien debt have agreed to re-org. It has obtained $900 million in financing to get it through the bankruptcy process, and it has $500 million cash on hand. Penny CEO Jill Soltau called Chapter 11 filing as a necessary step.

J.C. Penny to Emerge Bankruptcy bailed by Two Big Mall Operators
Two landlords, Brookfield Property Partners and Simon Property Group, had decided to take ownership of more than century old iconic retailer J.C. Penny for $1.75 billion in cash and debt, according to the retailer's bankruptcy lawyer Josh Sussberg, who announced it on September 9, 2020. Companies, both of them are landlords of many J.C. Penny stores, will provide $300 million in cash, $500 million in new financing and nearly $1 billion in debt. Under the bankruptcy reorganization plan, Penny will be split into three companies: one operating company and two REITs. One REIT will own stores and another REIT will own the warehouses. When Penny filed bankruptcy in May 2020, it had $5 billion in debt, part of it would be erased in exchange for lenders' ownership of REITs. The operating company will have lease agreements with the publicly traded REITs. Penny had 846 stores when it filed for Chapter 11, and 150 stores were closed since then. Many stores will be closed in coming months. If the re-org process goes smoothly, Penny will emerge out of bankruptcy before the all crucial holiday period.

J.C. Penney Exits Bankruptcy under New Owner

J.C. Penney's sale to duo of its landlords--Simon and Brookfield--was completed on December 7, 2020, thus leading the iconic retailer to exit the Chapter 11 process that it had filed on May 15, 2020. Bankruptcy Judge David Jones signed off the retailer's sales on November 9, 2020. Another part of the retailer, warehouses and some stores, will be sold to a group of lenders in January 2021. Penny's operating company exited bankruptcy on December 7, 2020 with 690 stores open. The retailer has closed 156 stores in recent months. Six distribution centers and 160 Penny stores will be owned by a group of lenders. Penny will pay them $150 million per year in rent. 

CEO is out

As expected J.C. Penney CEO Jill Soltau's last day will be on December 31, 2020. Simon Properties and Brookfield Properties announced her departure in a news release on December 30, 2020 as they, as a new owner of the iconic retailer, wanted to find a leader focused on "innovation" and "modern retailing".

NEIMAN MARCUS

Neiman Files Bankruptcy
A 113-year-old Texan retail icon that had put Dallas in the world's fashion map filed for Chapter 11 on May 7, 2020, becoming the first big retail casualty of coronavirus pandemic. Neiman Marcus' high-profile, but expected, bankruptcy filing came three days after May 4, 2020, bankruptcy filing by another luxury brand, J. Crew. Neiman's unsustainable debt from two leveraged buyouts (LBOs) already put a strain in the company's ledger book, even absent coronavirus pandemic that had shut down all of its stores on March 18, 2020, leading to most of its 14,000 of employees to be either furloughed or laid off. After the Chapter 11 filing at the bankruptcy court in Houston, company CEO Geoffroy van Raemdonck expressed optimism that the retailer would emerge out of bankruptcy in the fall of 2020 after shedding almost $4 billion of $5 billion of its debt and as a stronger company. Its debtholders, including Pacific Investment Management Company, Davidson Kempner Capital Management and TPG, will own equity in the emerged company as owners in lieu of debt. The retailer has 42 Neiman Marcus stores, two Bergdorf Goodman stores and Horchow brand.

Judge Okays $675 million Financing during Bankruptcy
The Houston Bankruptcy Judge David R. Jones on May 8, 2020 consented to $675 million financing pipeline to Neiman Marcus as the luxury retailer would navigate through the bankruptcy process and emerge from Chapter 11 sometime in the Fall of 2020.

Neiman Gets Nod to Exit Bankruptcy
Receiving a second chance to survive and thrive in ever-changing and challenging retail landscape,  Neiman Marcus on September 4, 2020 had the positive news from a bankruptcy judge, Judge David R. Jones, who had okayed the iconic retailer's exit plan from bankruptcy. The retailer will exit the bankruptcy with seven fewer stores, $750 million in term loan, and $1.29 billion in debt, shedding almost $4 billion in debt from its pre-filing debt level of $5.1 billion. Among the seven stores slated to be closed is Manhattan's Hudson Yard store that had been open since March 2019. CEO Geoffrey van Raemdonck said that the company would focus on its Bergdorf brand as it "is the beacon of luxury". The retailer's new owners include PIMCO, Davidson Kempner Capital and Sixth Street Partners.

Neiman Exits Bankruptcy
Neiman Marcus on September 25, 2020 completed its journey through a quick bankruptcy process and exit it with only $1.25 billion in debt, down significantly from $5.1 billion in debt, and shaving off $200 million in interest payment that had hobbled the iconic retailer from investing in growing segments of its business and executing a turnaround strategy. Neiman also has a wherewithal of money with a $750 million term loan from Credit Suisse.

********************************* RADIOSHACK ****************************
RadioShack Files for Bankruptcy Protection
After years of flirting with bankruptcy and seeing some of the electronics retailer chains such as Tweeter, Ultimate Electronics and Circuit City liquidating one by one, Fort Worth-based RadioShack Corp. on February 13, 2015 filed for Chapter 11 protection. The 94-year-old retailer said that it had reached an agreement with its largest shareholder Standard General to acquire 1,500 to 2,400 RadioShack stores.

Hedge Fund Buys RadioShack
New York-based hedge fund Standard General on April 1, 2105 became the winning bidder after a bankruptcy judge tossed out the objections from the retailer's biggest lender, Salus Capital. Standard General will co-own 1,743 stores with Sprint Wireless.
********************************* RADIOSHACK ****************************

WALMART

Walmart to Hike Wages
In a surprising move that would have potential to push the minimum wage battle to the front and center of Labor politics and prod other retailers to raise their wages too, USA's largest private employer and retail behemoth Walmart on February 19, 2015 announced that it would raise the hourly wages of its US workers to $9 by April 2015 and $10 by February 2016. Walmart's move will raise the wages of hundreds of thousands of employees over the current minimum federal wage of $7.25. There are many contributing factors to Walmart's decision to raise the hourly wage, including:
* Effort to avoid bad press in the face of pickets at its store front organized by Our Walmart movement around the Thanksgiving holidays over the last few years
* Desire to preempt local, state and federal actions to raise minimum wage as the topic has again become a focal point in the run-up to the 2016 US Presidential elections
* Corporate focus, in the backdrop of flat sales over the past few quarters at its brick-and-mortar stores, on exploring many strategic channels such as e-commerce, thus necessitating of hiring and retaining a dedicated and knowledgeable workforce and reducing the turnover rate

TECHNOLOGY AND TELECOMMUNICATION INDUSTRY NEWS

U.S. Launches Probe against Tech Giants
U.S. Department of Justice's anti-trust department is probing whether tech giants such as Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook have used their market domination to stifle competition and innovation related to search engine technology, research and other capabilities, including the ones on their social media platform, according to reports carried on July 23, 2019 by The Associated Press and Bloomberg News. The top DOJ official at the anti-trust division, Makan Delrahim, said that without the "discipline of meaningful market-based competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands". 

Section 230: Focus of Social Media Regulation Fight 

As The Dallas Morning News has reported in a front-page article on October 24, 2020 that both the Left and Right want to see more oversight on the powers of social media companies such as Facebook and Twitter on what goes published or what goes purged out, they will be better advised to focus on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act passed in 1996, aimed at promoting a sustainable and faster development of an internet whose future, at that time, has been unknown to lawmakers or policymakers. In order to preserve the opportunity for the internet to reach its potential, the Section 230 states: “We’re going to give the internet more favorable treatment than the other media so that it can do things it’s capable of”. Social media platforms are using this “Good Samaritan” clause to not only host the content, but also content-moderate without any legal ramification.

Russia: Record Fines Slapped on Tech Giants

A Russian court on December 24, 2021 imposed $98.4 million fine on Google for failing to remove banned content. The Tagansky District Court also ordered the parent company of Facebook, Meta, a fine of $27.2 million for the same kind of dereliction of responsibility. Russian state communication watchdog, Roskomnadzor, blamed Meta and Google for purveying extremist ideology, insults to religious belief and harmful content. 

5G Rollout Around Airport Delayed

AT&T, Verizon and other providers of 5G services on January 18, 2022 announced, to the much relief of FAA and airlines, that it would delay its rollout, scheduled for January 19, 2022, of 5G services around nation's airports, providing some sort of reprieve to the ensuing battle over the past two years among airlines, airport, FAA, policymakers, regulators and telecom companies. The crisis started right after the federal government had auctioned $80 billion in C-band Spectrum to cellular networks. Airline industry said that telecom companies' use of the coveted frequency would compromise with sensitive aircraft equipment. Many of the international airlines already cancelled flights to U.S. airports on the eve of January 19, 2022, planned 5G rollout. There is a fear that 5G spectrum-based signal may interfere with the radio wave altimeter installed in the aircraft. AT&T spent $27.4 billion for its share of C-band Spectrum. 

Tech Giants Seek Supreme Court Intervention

Texas became only the second state in the Republic after Florida to pass and enact a bill to enjoin tech firms from viewpoint-based censoring. While a federal court issued a temporary injunction against the Florida law, Texas HB 20 became a law. Last week, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state. Tech companies do believe that the H.B. 20 curbs their First Amendment rights, which allows them to censor harmful viewpoint on a private platform. Texas argue that Tech companies have become common-carrier utilities more like telephone and telegram of the past century and, thus, require regulatory oversight. Tech companies on May 18, 2022 filed an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, HB 20 is mute as Tech companies get authorities for content-based moderation under the Section 230 of Communication Decency Act that shields the social media and tech entities from the liability of the third-party content on their platforms. Section 230 also gives the tech companies the authority for content-based censoring on their platform. The demarcation line between viewpoint-based censoring and content-based censoring is thin. 

Appeals Court Rejects Florida Law

That the GOP-led states' efforts at curbing the powers of social media and tech companies to rein in conservative views are heading to Supreme Court is becoming clear as days have passed by and the nation's lower courts are issuing contradictory verdicts. A week after the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the state of Texas, a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against a Florida law that Governor Ron DeSantis had signed to bar tech companies from censoring conservative views on their platforms. Writing for the three-judge panel, Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom, a Donald Trump-appointee, said that "put simply, with minor exceptions, the government can't tell a private person or entity what to say or how to say it" because that right was accorded by the First Amendment of the Constitution. 

Biden Admin Unveils AI "Bill of Rights"

Biden administration, after months of consultation with industry experts, privacy rights advocates and civil leaders, on October 4, 2022 unveiled a blueprint to protect the privacy rights of consumers. Under the white paper issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, many of the hurtful practices such as application of facial recognition technology will be limited. 

************************************ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE **************************

Biden Signs Executive Order

President Joe Biden on October 30, 2023 signed an executive order to provide necessary guardrails against the harmful effects of the evolving technology while empowering companies and consumers to have balanced access to the unlimited potential and benefits offered by it. White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients said that "we can't move at normal government pace" as "we have to move as fast, if not faster, than the technology itself". 

Altman Fired, Reinstated in Five Days

Sam Altman, founder and CEO of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, was fired on November 17, 2023. The board's action shocked and surprised employees, investors and AI world. On November 19, 2023, reports pointed that Sam Altman would join Microsoft. On November 20, 2023, about 770 employees of OpenAI, almost all of the employees, signed a petition to reinstate Altman or they would resign too. On November 22, 2023, Sam Altman is back at the helms of OpenAI. 

************************************ ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE **************************

AMAZON

FTC, 17 States Sue Amazon for Anti-competitive Practices 

On September 26, 2023, Federal Trade Commission and 17 states filed a lawsuit against online behemoth Amazon to force third-party sellers to exclusively sell on its platform, use its fulfillment service, Fulfillment by Amazon, and follow its anti-competitive, monopolistic rules inimical to fostering innovation and free market competition. 

APPLE

ITC's Ruling Stands, Apple Watch out of Market

The U.S. International Trade Commission on October 26, 2023 ruled that Apple Watches equipped with blood oxygen measurement infringed on two patents owned by two U.S. firms--Masimo Corporation and Cercacor Laboratories. After a 60-day review, ITC's ruling went into effect on December 26, 2023. U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai let the ITC's decision stand. The Office of the U.S.T.R. issued a statement on December 26, 2023 that after careful consideration, "Ambassador Tai decided not to reverse" the decision of the U.S. ITC. On December 26, 2023, Apple filed an emergency certiorari to reverse the U.S. ITC's decision. Apple is expected to lose circa $300 million to $400 million in revenue in the Holidays period, a few drops in the bucket as the technology behemoth is expected to bring in $120 billion in revenue in the Q4 2023. Apple stopped selling the Apple Watch equipped with blood oxygen measurement in-store and online starting from on-the-eve of Christmas Holidays. 

Justice Files Antitrust Lawsuit

In a sweeping case against Apple, the U.S. Justice Department on March 21, 2024 filed a lawsuit at a federal court in New Jersey, accusing the technology behemoth of using its iPhone monopoly to squelch competition in areas such as messaging, streaming and digital payment services. The suit doubled down on Apple's business practices for carving out exclusive contracts to charge developers and content creators hefty amounts for developing and selling products and services in its App Store. 

Although the U.S. target of Apple's monopolistic behavior is a recent one, the company is a long-time target of the EU's competition agency. Spotify, a prime competitor of Apple Music, complained to the European Commission, EU's executive arm and chief antitrust body, on Apple's effort to prevent consumers from streaming its music seamlessly. The European Commission ordered Apple to stop such anti-competitive behavior and fined $2 billion as a future deterrent. European Union's  Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager called Apple's behavior "illegal" and added that the tech company's behavior prevented millions of European consumers from making a "free choice as where, how and at what price to buy music streaming subscriptions". In a separate antitrust case, European Commission complained in 2022 that Apple was inhibiting rival digital payment options from functioning smoothly, including Apple Store's preferred, or default, payment option favoring Apple Pay. Apple has offered concessions to the European Commission, which is still considering the tech giant's offer. EU's Digital Markets Act, or DMA, is designed to mitigate the adverse effect of tech firms' "Walled Garden" business model. 

Apple Share Rises to Record High Fueled by AI Enablement

The Dallas Morning News reported on July 16, 2024 that the Apple share rose to record high the previous day (April 15, 2024) as analysts, including Morgan Stanley, had put a premium on its stock and many forecast as high as $300 as share price. Apple recently announced unveiling its new phone models with Artificial Intelligence capability, opening the floodgates of potential consumer upgrades. Apple Intelligence is likely to push the technology behemoth to an enviable position of Gen AI "base camp" just like it has once held in the domain of digital content (IPOD) and Social Media (IPHONE)

ATT

ATT's Futile Merger Bid of T-Mobile
ATT Inc. on March 20, 2011 stunned the telecommunications world by announcing its plan to buy T-Mobile USA Inc. from its parent Deutsche Telekom AG for about $39 billion. AT&T plans to test its next generation 4-G network from this summer, based on a tecnology called the Long-Term Evolution (LTE). Currently both AT&T and T-Mobile brand their latest service as 4-G although the technology is based on revamped 3-G called HSPA+.

The U.S. Justice Department filed the antitrust complaint against the merger in late August 2011, and was quickly joined by SprintNextel and Cellular South. The trial will start on February 13, 2011. If the merger doesn't go through, AT&T will pay a $3 billion break-up fee and other associated costs.

On November 22, 2011, the FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked the other commissioners to grant for a rare administrative hearings as the proposed $39 billion merger might have adverse impact on jobs and investment. In addition, Genachowski asked the commissioners to approve $1.9 billion spectrum purchase, announced by AT&T in December 2011, from Qualcomm.

A day after FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski asked other commissioners to approve a rare hearing before an administrative law judge, AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, parent of T-Mobile, on November 23, 2011 requested FCC for an extreme measure of withdrawing the merger license. It is up to FCC to oblige such a request. On November 24, 2011, AT&T said that it would take a pre-tax charge of $4 billion in the fourth quarter.

On November 29, 2011, FCC allowed AT&T and Deutsche Telekom, owner of T-Mobile USA, to withdraw the merger license.

On December 19, 2011, AT&T formally ended the $39 billion deal to acquire T-Mobile USA.

ATT Storyline: A History of Birth, Break-up and Re-Birth of a Telecommunication Giant
Telecommunication giant ATT at its present size and shape is the outcome of a classic corporate evolution story over the past three decades of shifts in regulatory landscape, explosion in technological innovation, ever stronger appetite for acquisition and successful integration of disparate units to boost operational efficiency and economy of scale. Significant impact of regulatory reach in telecommunication industry was first felt three decades ago in 1984 when the then-ATT was forced to break up into seven Baby Bells and the parent company was allowed to retain the long-distance services, manufacturing divisions and Research-and-Development units. Seven regional behemoths created out of parent company were Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth, NYNEX, Pacific Telesis, Southwestern Bell, and USWEST, respectively.
In 1993, Southwestern Bell moved its headquarters from St. Louis to San Antonio, and acquired cable TV operations in Maryland and Virginia. Two years later, the company changed its name to SBC Communications Inc., and positioned itself for a growth spurt that is continuing until today. The year 1996 marked the year of transformation in telecommunication industry as a major legislative revamp in more than 60 years led the industry to a new competitive landscape where anyone would be allowed to enter any communication business and any communication business would be allowed to enter any market. Two months after the law passed and signed by the then-President Bill Clinton, SBC Communications Inc. and another Baby Bell Pacific Telesis announced merger. In 1997, SBC Communications Inc. completed the $16.5 billion in acquisition of Pac Tel while departing the cable markets in Maryland and Virginia. Next year (1998), SBC loaded its portfolio with another acquisition, this time buying Southern New England Telecommunication (SNET) for $4.4 billion. Noting the planned future acquisition spree, Edward Whitacre Jr., the then-CEO of SBC Communications Inc., said that his company would strive toward becoming "one of the successful operators".
In 1999, SBC added its portfolio by acquiring another Baby Bell, Ameritech, for $62 billion, and complemented its telephone asset with mobile asset by buying Comcast Cellular for $1.7 billion. Following year (2000), SBC and BellSouth pooled their wireless operation with stakes 60 percent-to-40 percent ratio to create Cingular Wireless. In 2004, Cingular acquired ATT Wireless for $41 billion.
In 2005, Edward Whitacre Jr. pulled the most significant acquisition by acquiring the mother company (ATT) and 20th century American technological icon for $22 billion, and changed the corporate name of the combined company to ATT Inc.. At the time of merger, Whitacre commented: "The brand we associate with the invention of the telecommunication industry is the brand that will soon represent the reinvention of communications and entertainment". In 2006, ATT acquired former Baby Bell BellSouth for $90 billion. In 2007, ATT rebranded both BellSouth and Cingular, and acquired Dobson Communications Corp. for $5 billion.
In 2008, ATT moved its headquarters to Dallas.
After a failed bid to acquire T-Mobile in 2011, ATT acquired Leap Wireless International for $4 billion in 2014. Also in May 2014, ATT plunged into video universe by announcing its acquisition of DirecTV.

Hours-long AT&T Outage Probed by Feds 

Millions of AT&T customers on February 22, 2024 woke up to network disruptions, failing to place calls, send texts, connect to work portals and carry out basic necessities of life taken as granted such as paying parking fees with the press of a button. Hundreds of thousands of customers from across the U.S., including from some of the major metropolitan areas such as Chicago, Dallas and New York City, reported outages on the Downdetector.com website. AT&T's first responders and emergency communication network, FirstNet, was impacted too. FirstNet is used by circa 27,500 public services agencies. Customers of the largest two wireless carriers--Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile--had encountered difficulties in communicating with customers on the affected network. Both Verizon and T-Mobile said that their own networks were not affected. Nation's third-largest wireless carrier, AT&T, said in a statement that "keeping our customers connected remains our top priority". 

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are investigating into whether the outage has stemmed from any cyberattack, according to the February 23, 2024, edition of The Dallas Morning News. Federal Communications Commission is also in touch with the impacted carrier to carry its fact-finding mission. 

AT&T: Telecom Giant's Second Breach This Year Compromises 100 million Customers

The year 2024 didn't augur well for AT&T, especially in the all important field of data security. The telecom behemoth's first data breach occurred roughly a month before the firm became aware about the second data breach. In the first data breach, the names and social security numbers of approximately 73 million customers of AT&T and its former companies were spilled out on the dark web. 

No sooner had the fallout from the first breach subsided than the Dallas-based telecom firm was roiled by another breach, this time affecting 100 million customers. The Dallas Morning News ran a front-page cover story in its July 13, 2024, edition that the firm came to know on April 19, 2024 of a "threat actor" having "unlawfully accessed and copied call logs", according to the firm's filing with the Security and Exchange Commission. The malicious actor gradually siphoned the data from an AT&T workspace through a "third-party cloud platform" between April 14, 2024 and April 25, 2024. The identity and other private information may not be compromised, only the content of the call. However, "threat actor" may connect the dots to figure out identities of the callers. The calls and texts pertain to the timeframe between May 1 through October 31, 2022 and January 2, 2023, respectively. 

Class-Action Lawsuit Filed against AT&T over Data Breach

A 15-year-old plaintiff, Dina Winger, filed a class-action lawsuit against telecom behemoth AT&T on July 17, 2024 at a federal court, accusing the firm of not being transparent over the scale and scope of the data breach reported by The Dallas Morning News days ago. Houston lawyer Patrick Yarborough filed the class-action suit on behalf of the plaintiff. 

Meanwhile, Wired reported on July 14, 2024 that AT&T paid $300,000 in bitcoin to one of the hackers in May 2024 to delete the stolen data. The hacker obtained the data by breaking into one of the AT&T's cloud storage accounts hosted by Snowflake. 

FACEBOOK/META

Facebook Settles FTC Case for $5 billion
Federal Trade Commission on July 24, 2019 imposed largest ever fine in the agency's history on Facebook as part of a settlement to an investigation that it had launched last year over the social media giant's privacy policies related to data harvesting of 87 million Facebook users by the British data mining company Cambridge Analytica. In addition to $5 billion settlement, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has to personally vouch for user privacy mechanism in quarterly reports, thus creating in some way accountability of executives reaching at the topmost level. Although three Republican commissioners voted supporting the $5 billion settlement, two Democratic commissioners opposed it on the ground that a company with annual revenue of $56 billion was let off the hook on pennies for a dollar's worth of violation. In addition to July 24, 2019, FTC-Facebook settlement, Facebook will pay an additional $100 million to settle a Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit over misstating its user data privacy.

U.S., State and Local Authorities File Anti-trust Suit against Facebook

Federal Trade Commission and 48 states and local authorities on December 9, 2020 filed an anti-trust lawsuit against Facebook, holding the social media behemoth responsible for crushing the smaller competitors. The plaintiffs may seek relief by dividing the Facebook and selling off WhatsApp and Instagram. One of the plaintiffs, New York Attorney-General Leticia James, said that Facebook "used its monopoly power to crush smaller rivals and snuff out competition". In July 2019, FTC imposed a $5 billion fine on Facebook, largest fine against any tech company, and some restrictions and oversight of the social media's business practices. Facebook called the anti-trust lawsuit as a "revisionist history".

Judge Tosses anti-Trust Complaint

A federal judge on June 28, 2021 dismissed Federal Trade Commission's and 48 states' and local authorities' lawsuits against Facebook, dealing a setback to federal and state authorities' efforts to rein in the social media giant. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said in his ruling that the FTC lawsuit was "legally insufficient", but gave the agency leeway to refile the case within the next 30 days. Judge Boasberg took exception to how the Federal Trade Commission had arrived at the conclusion of Facebook controlling the 60% market share in the social networking market. Judge James Boasberg opined: "Because this defect could conceivably be overcome by repleading, however, the Court will dismiss only the Complaint, not the entire case". The judge also dismissed a similar lawsuit brought by 48 states and districts that accused the social media giant of showing anti-competitive behavior following its acquisition of Instagram in 2012 and WhatsApp in 2014 and sought redress by demanding curbing of powers of Facebook, including breaking up the social media behemoth. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled that states and local authorities had waited too long to file this lawsuit. Facebook has welcomed the verdict which will make efforts by the administration's new FTC head, Lina Khan, to push measures to curb the powers of tech giants all the more difficult. 

Facebook Whistleblower Urges Senators to Regulate Her Former Employer

A former Facebook employee appeared before a Senate subcommittee on October 5, 2021, denouncing Facebook's policies that harmed kids, especially young girls, stoked political divisions and put profit over safety of its users. Frances Haugen, 37, on October 5, 2021 testified before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection. The subcommittee is investigating into Facebook's suppression of its own internal findings, including evidence that Instagram causes severe mental problems among many girls, including suicidal thought process. The Wall Street Journal last month published the company's internal research that showed, among others, clear harm to young people by Facebook's photo-sharing platform, Instagram. The Wall Street Journal received the ream of information from Frances Haugen. The subcommittee Chairman Senator Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, called Facebook's action as "a Big Tobacco moment", referring to Tobacco industry's knowledge of what its internal research [that the  smoking was harmful] had found, but yet the industry chose to stay silent. 

Jan 6 Insurrection Forces Facebook to Scurry for Cover 

Based on the document provided by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen to the Security and Exchange Commission and a redacted version shared with the Congress and a consortium of media companies, The Dallas Morning News published an article on October 24, 2021 that described a crisis-like situation erupting in California on January 6, 2021 as the insurrection by Trump supporters was ongoing in the Capitol Hill. Thousands of engineers were struggling to bring down the hateful and violent pages down at the height of insurrection. Many Facebook employees had expressed frustration over why the social media giant had loosened the control or constraint after the 2020 Presidential Election. One Facebook employee even wrote on the internal message board: "we are fueling this fire for long time". 

*************** Facebook Papers

Series of Mistakes, Probable Willful Negligence Chronicled in Facebook Papers

Facebook Papers refer to a collection of document that former Facebook Data Scientist and whistleblower Frances Haugen has handed over to the Securities and Exchange Commission. A redacted version of those papers were shared with Congress by Haugen's attorneys. A consortium of 17 media organizations, including The Associated Press, have also received copies of those redacted papers shared with Congress. The consortium is in the midst of publishing articles encompassing many explosive information with political, religious and electoral implications in various regions of the world. 

An article published by The Dallas Morning News on October 25, 2021 puts a spotlight on how lack of adequate control and oversight in Hindi and Bengali language posts have led to spiraling of fake, and often violent, news in various pages on the Facebook in India, leading to bloodshed, attacks on Muslims, riots and killings. 

Facebook Slow to Scuttle COVID Vaccine-related Misinformation Flow

The Dallas Morning News carried an article in its October 27, 2021, edition that, during the height of vaccine rollout in March 2021, there was flood of misinformation-driven posts against COVID-19 vaccines and users had seen them as part of their feed because the engagement-based ranking model had ranked those debunked content on the top. Engagement-based ranking allocates higher ranks based on likes, shares and comments, putting many of the fake news on the top. According to a redacted version of the document shared by former Facebook Data Scientist turned whistleblower Frances Haugen, social media giant's internal researchers have recommended more intervention-based ranking instead of engagement-based ranking to screen out the false feeds. Their study findings, according to internal memos, were very encouraging: 12% decrease in content debunked by fact-checkers and 8% increase in feed-streams based on WHO and other trusted news sources. Facebook delayed a month to implement those changes, and many employees internally raised serious questions why their employer was delaying rolling out those changes. 

*************** Facebook Papers

Facebook Changing Its Corporate Name, Ticker Symbol

Facebook is changing its name to Metaverse, according to the October 29, 2021, business edition of The Dallas Morning News. Its Facebook App, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp will remain the same. The ticker symbol under which Facebook will begin trading on December 1, 2021 will be MVRS. 

EU Fines Meta 1.2 billion Euros

In the largest fine since Europe's strict data privacy laws and provisions came into existence five years ago, European Union slapped 1.2 billion Euros, or $1.3 billion, against Meta, and ordered the parent of Facebook to stop sending the user data across the Atlantic. The fine exceeds the 2021 fine of 746 Euros slapped on Amazon for violations to data protection laws. Data protections and privacy are always twin concerns to European policymakers and sore points with American authorities. The genesis of stricter data privacy has roots in 2013 revelations that National Security Agency has been scooping user information as detailed by leaks from Edward Snowden. An Austrian lawyer, Max Schrems, filed a suit, complaining that Facebook was handing over European user information to U.S. intel agencies. European Union subsequently crafted a privacy law, Privacy Shield, to regulate data flow like the ones in Meta across the Atlantic, but an European Court shot it down on the ground that the law didn't go far enough to guard the user privacy. Washington and Brussels have signed a revised Privacy Shield last year, but the revised draft is pending European lawmakers' approval. 

Meta Settles with Texas for $1.4 billion over Biometric Info 

The Dallas Morning News reported on July 31, 2024 that Texas had reached a settlement with Meta for $1.4 billion over the social media giant's gathering and selling of biometric information without prior consent from its users. Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton said on July 30, 2024 that his office would hold the biggest technology companies accountable for mishandling and misuse of privacy information. This marks the largest biometric privacy information-related settlement, eclipsing the prior $650 million that a judge has approved in 2021 between Meta and Illinois. Paxton filed the privacy-related lawsuits against Meta and Google in 2022. The lawsuit against Google is ongoing.  

GOOGLE

E.U. Slaps $1.7 billion in Fine against Google
European Union on March 20, 2019 imposed a fine of $1.7 billion on Google for its business practices in ad sales space. The March 20, 2019, sanction was the third in two years, and brought the total fine to the tune of $10 billion. European Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, announcing the fine, said that the search engine's action likely yielded to "higher prices that would be passed on to consumers". The business practice in question is related to ad sales on a website that runs google search and google ads appear on the top because of the exclusivity agreement between the website operators and the search engine. As a results any ads similar to Google-carried ads are suppressed.

Paxton Leads Lawsuit against Google
Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton announced a landmark lawsuit being filed at the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of 50 states and territories against Google's monopolistic business practices. Standing on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court, Paxton alleged on September 9, 2019 that Google "dominates all aspects of advertising on the internet and searching on the internet". This year alone, Google will rake in $48 billion in digital ad revenue. The digital giant has 75% of the market share of overall spends of all search advertisements.

******************************* ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT 

Trump Administration Files Antitrust Suit against Google

In the largest and most consequential antitrust case since Clinton administration’s lawsuit against Microsoft in 1998, Trump administration on October 20, 2020 filed an antitrust case against technology giant Google, accusing the search giant of violating the antitrust laws and stifling innovation by monopolizing the search and advertising domains. This is a clear deviation from Trump administration’s more laissez faire attitude to corporate monopoly. U.S. Deputy Attorney-General Jeff Rosen, unveiling the antitrust lawsuit, said that Google “has maintained its monopoly power through extraordinary practices that are harmful to competition”. Google has used billions of dollars from the revenue of its advertising business to give subsidies to phone manufacturers to let its browser become the default search tool, according to the lawsuit. 11 states, including Texas, have joined the DOJ lawsuit. Attorney generals of all 11 states are Republicans.

Trial Begins in Anti-Trust Lawsuit

The antitrust trial against Google filed by Trump administration three years ago began on September 12, 2023. The trial is expected to last for the next 10 days. However, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta is not expected to rule in this case before early 2024. On September 12, 2023, the lead DOJ prosecutor, Kenneth Dintzer, argued that Google leveraged its dominance in search domain to smother innovation and lock out competitors. Dintzer also accused Google of using exclusive agreements and "$10 billion per year" to ensure that it remained the default search engine in technology platforms, especially the mobile devices, protecting its "privileged positions".

Judge Rules Google an Illegal Monopoly

On August 5, 2024, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled in a 277-page ruling that Google was an illegal monopoly in search engine domain, with the tech and search behemoth grabbing 89.2% market share in general search and almost 94.9% in online search. Google continues its monopoly by spending billions of dollars in exclusive agreements to lock in the status of default search engine. According to a recent study released by the investment firm BOND, Google's search engine processes an estimated 8.5 billion queries per day worldwide. Judge Mehta said in the ruling that Google spent $26 billion in 2021 alone to remain the default search engine, a point the federal judge mentioned as highly correlated with search volume and, as a result, yielding to more digital advertising revenue. 

The judge scheduled September 6, 2024 for a follow-up hearing, including beginning a remedial action plan. 

******************************* ANTI-TRUST LAWSUIT 

Paxton to File anti-Competitive Ad Lawsuit against Google

Texas Attorney-General Ken Paxton on December 16, 2020 announced that he and several other Republican attorney generals would file a lawsuit against Google for its "monopolistic" behavior in online advertisement, helping the tech giant to get bigger and bigger pie of online ad sales and crush competition. Paxton and attorney generals of rest of the 50 states in September 2019 launched an investigation into Google's domination of "all aspects of advertising on the internet and searching on the internet". Through the first nine months of 2020, Google's ad sales revenue totaled $101 billion, 86% of the tech giant's total revenue. 

Google Settles Privacy Lawsuit over Location Data for $392 million 

Search giant Google reached a settlement for $391.5 million with 40 states, according to attorneys general who announced the deal on November 14, 2022

HUAWEI

OMB Chief Asks for Huawei Ban-related Delay
Director of White House Office of Management and Budget Russell Vought sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence and nine members of Congress, asking for a two-year extension of a proposed ban on U.S. telecom companies to do business with Huawei. The proposed ban, to be effective in 1 year and 1 month, will go into effect in 3 years and one month if approved by the Trump administration. World's largest telecom company has U.S. headquarters in Plano and employs about 1,100 people. The letter was first reported by The Wall Street Journal on June 9, 2019. The ban in question is one of the three bans that Trump administration has slapped on Huawei. The other two are:
* In 2018, Donald Trump signed a defense spending bill banning U.S. government agencies and all government contractors from doing business with Chinese telecommunication companies, including Huawei, on national security ground
* In May 2019, Commerce Department has imposed penalties on Huawei that will make U.S. companies do business with the Chinese telecom behemoth all but impossible, triggering appeals from U.S. companies to seek waivers

Trump Administration not to Extend Reprieve
President Donald Trump told reporters at Morristown, New Jersey on August 18, 2019 that his administration would most likely not to extend another reprieve to Huawei. The context behind Trump's comment dated back to May 2019 when the president had directed the Commerce Department to put the Chinese telecom behemoth in the so called "Entity List", all but making it impossible for any U.S. company to do business with Huawei. Days later, the Commerce Department gave a 90-day reprieve to the Chinese firm, effective May 20, 2019.

********************** HUAWEI CFO'S ARREST BY CANADA ********************

Huawei CFO Detained at Vancouver

The same day Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping signed a 90-day trade truce at the G-20 summit at Buenos Aires, the CFO of the Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, was detained at Vancouver over a U.S. arrest warrant for skirting the Iran sanctions. Meng's December 1, 2018, arrest during layover at Vancouver en route to Mexico from Hong Kong opened another front of political and trade tension between world's two strongest economic powers and sucked Canada deep into controversy.

Prosecutor Asks Judge to Deny Bail to Meng

A prosecutor on behalf of Canadian authority on December 7, 2018 urged a judge to deny bail to Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who had been arrested during her layover at Vancouver as she was en route to Mexico. John Gibbs-Carsley told a Vancouver judge that Meng was a flight-risk and she had the wherewithal to flee Canada. John Gibbs-Carsley, the Canadian prosecutor, told the judge that Meng was aware of the U.S. arrest warrant that had been issued on August 22, 2018 at New York City, and she had been avoiding U.S. since then although her teenage son went to school in Boston. Meng Wanzhou was accused of lying to U.S. financial institutions in 2013 that Huawei had nothing to do with Hong Kong-based former subsidiary Skycom that it had sold in 2009. At the time Meng misled the U.S. financial institutions, Skycom was violating the U.S. sanctions on Iran by selling the U.S.-manufactured gears to Teheran. Meng's lawyer, David Martin, dismissed the prosecution argument, saying that Meng was an honorable business executive and she would put two of her Vancouver homes as collateral in addition to wearing an electronic anklet.

Huawei Executive Granted Bail

After three days of hearings, a British-Columbia judge on December 11, 2018 granted bail to Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou in lieu of $10 million Canadian, requiring her to wear an ankle bracelet, surrendering her passport, confining her movement to Vancouver and surrounding areas and ordering her to stay overnight from 11PM to 6AM at one of her two Vancouver homes. Upon hearing her bail, a strong crowd of her supporters from the Vancouver's Chinese community erupted in applause. At the courthouse, her husband, Liu Xiaozong, was also present.

China Detains a Former Canadian Diplomat

In what could be a tit-for-tat diplomacy, China on December 11, 2018 morning took a former Canadian diplomat, Michael Kovrig, to custody. Michael Kovrig has been a Canadian diplomat to China, Hong Kong and the U.N., and has gone to China as part of his current work as a North East Asia adviser for the International Crisis Group.

A Second Canadian Taken to Custody

A day after former Canadian diplomat Michael Kovrig's detention, a second Canadian, Michael Spavor, was detained by Chinese authorities on December 12, 2018 on charges of "activities that jeopardize China's national security". Michael Spavor runs a North Korea cultural exchange program. Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland expressed deep concern over the detention of two Canadians in a span of 24 hours.

Kovrig's, Spavor's Cases Handled Separately, China Says

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on December 13, 2018 that Michael Kovrig's case was being handled by Beijing bureau of the country's national intelligence agency while the case of Michael Spavor was being handled by the agency's local bureau in the city of Dandong, where Spavor was detained.

A Third Canadian Arrested Released and Returned Home

As the political theatrics and troubles hobbled the Sino-Canadian relations over the arrest of a Huawei executive on an American arrest warrant, Canadian government spokesman Richard Walker said on December 28, 2018 that Sarah McIver, an Albertan teacher, who had been recently arrested in China over security related issues tied to her teaching job, had been subsequently released by Chinese authorities and McIver was already back in Canada.

Canada Worried about Death Sentence Imposed by China on One of Its Citizens

Canadian premier, Justin Trudeau, on January 14, 2019 expressed dismay, "extreme concern" and worry over the renewed sentencing imposed on a jailed Canadian by a Chinese court. The defendant, a 36-year-old Canadian citizen, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, was detained in 2014 by Chinese authorities for smuggling methamphetamine, and later sentenced to 15 years of imprisonment. The case went unnoticed for the most part until a Chinese court had re-opened the case days after a Huawei executive had been arrested in Vancouver on an American arrest warrant, precipitating a political crisis between Ottawa and Beijing, and resentenced Schellenberg to death. Many see the re-opening the case and re-sentencing Schellenberg to death a political move to settle score with Ottawa.

Two Canadians Charges on Spying

Two Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, on June 19, 2020 were charged on spying by Chinese authorities. While Michael Kovrig was charged in Beijing, Spavor was charged in Dandong, near the border with North Korea, with similar counts related to state secrets. Many diplomats think this as the latest strategy of Beijing to put pressure on Justin Trudeau administration to free Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, who is fighting extradition to the US. 

Three-way Deal Frees Huawei Executive, Two Canadians

In a three-way swap agreed by Canada, U.S. and China, Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou has been flown to Beijing, and two Canadians detained in China--Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor--have been brought back to Canada on September 25, 2021. Under the deal, U.S. withdrew the case against Meng. 

********************** HUAWEI CFO'S ARREST BY CANADA ********************

TELEGRAM

Telegram Founder Detained

Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, a dual French-Russian citizen, 39, was detained at Paris' Le Bourget Airport on August 24, 2024 upon arrival from Azerbaijan on an arrest warrant alleging the platform for money laundering, trafficking, fraud, drug offenses and other acts of malfeasance. 

Telegram Founder's Detention Extended

A French investigative judge on August 26, 2024 extended the detention of Pavel Durov for another 48 hours. If French authorities fail to file charges against Durov, he has to be released. Pavel Durov is a multination citizen from Russia to UAE to France to Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis. Pavel Durov is likely to face 12 charges of violation, ranging from child sexual abuse material on Telegram to drug trafficking, fraud, abetting organized crimes and failure to share information with law enforcement authorities upon request. 

Pavel Durov sold his stake in VKontakte, a popular Russian networking site that had become an epicenter of the Russian opposition during opposition protests in 2011 and 2012 as well as during the 2013 opposition protest in Ukraine against a pro-Russian leader, in 2013. Telegram came also under Russian attack in 2018 when the Kremlin tried to block it, only to withdraw the effort in 2020. Now, Russian authorities are shedding the crocodile's tears over Durov's arrest. 

Telegram Founder Slapped with Preliminary Charges

French investigative judges on August 28, 2024 filed preliminary charges against Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of Telegram. Pavel Durov was released on a 5-million-euro bond and ordered from leaving France. Durov is to report to law enforcement authorities twice a week. 

TIKTOK 

TikTok Facing Gargantuan Headwind from Lawmakers

Already banned from official devices by many state and federal agencies, TikTok is facing epiphanous resistance by lawmakers and policymakers in the U.S. as it is seen as one of biggest threats to the U.S. national security. Under law, Chinese government can force TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, to turn over user and other information, including behavioral patterns, to the government. Also, critics accuse Chinese authorities of using TikTok to spread propaganda among its 150 million U.S.-based users. On March 15, 2023, Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States issued almost a warning to ByteDance: sell TikTok or face a ban. 

On March 22, 2023, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew faced an unfriendly Congressional hearing where he tried his best for six hours to dispel doubt of the lawmakers about any potential national security threat, and forcefully repudiated that the platform had ever turned over any information to the Chinese government. 

House Pushes Bill to Ban TikTok if Its Chinese Owner Doesn't Divest 

The U.S. House of Representatives on March 13, 2024 passed a bill, Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, giving an ultimatum to ByteDance: either sell TikTok or see it banned. Although the PAFACA Act is much broader and doesn't point out TikTok in particular, but the language of the bill is amply clear that it targets, among others, the app that's available to 150 million Americans, half of the nation. The bill is expansive in scope and scale as the president may impose similar sanctions on entities owned by companies in North Korea, Russia and Iran. 

TikTok Files Lawsuit against Its Potential Ban

TikTok on June 20, 2024 launched its first volley of legal attacks on the U.S. Justice Department, blasting Biden administration's and Congress' political demagoguery. The law President Joe Biden signed early this year will ban TikTok if its owner ByteDance fails to sell its U.S. assets by January 19, 2025. 

Federal Government Sues TikTok for Violating COPPA

The U.S. Department of Justice on August 2, 2024 filed a lawsuit against TikTok and its Chinese parent company for allowing minors younger than 13 to easily create an account on the popular social media platform and then collecting their private information, a massive breach of Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA. 

TWITTER/X

Twitter's Entry into Equity Market Marked with Interest, Soaring Stock

Twitter made a strong debut in the New York Stock Exchange on November 7, 2013 avoiding the mishaps that had stalked the debut of Facebook last year. The IPO price of the ticker symbol TWTR was $26 a share, but when trading started on November 7, it began right at $45.10, then jumping as high as $50.09, and eventually closing at $44.90, 73 percent above the IPO price set on November 6, but slightly lower than the opening price ($45.10). What was different in Twitter debut were the phalanx of stars who rang the opening bell ranging from actor Patrick Stewart; 9-year-old Vivienne Harr, who opened a lemonade stand to end child slavery; and Cheryl Fiandaca, head of Boston Police Department's public information office, while the company executives--CEO Dick Costollo; CFO Mike Gupta; and co-founders Jack Dorsey, Evan Williams and Biz Stone--and lead Goldman Sachs banker Anthony Noto standing on the trading floor.

Twitter's Former Cybersecurity Chief Accuses the Company of Dereliction, Falsehood

Twitter's ex-cybersecurity chief sought whistleblower protection as Peiter Zatko brought complaints against his former employer to the attention of Federal Trade Commission, Securities and Exchange Commission and the Department of Justice last month, accusing the social media giant of neglecting customer privacy and confidentiality, according to The Dallas Morning News's August 24, 2022, edition. Peiter Zatko, who is known by hacker handler "Mudge", is a respected cybersecurity expert and has worked for Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Agency and Google before joining Twitter in late 2020 at the urging of then-CEO Jack Dorsey. Peiter Zatko, who was fired earlier this year, also slammed his former employer for allowing fake accounts to flourish. Elon Musk is trying to get out of a $44 billion acquisition of Twitter and he cited the social media platform's refusal of sharing with him the number of fake accounts as a reason for calling off the transaction.  Another point of contention that Peiter Zatko raised with the regulators was a willful violation of the social media platform to a 2011 agreement on customer privacy with the FTC. 

Twitter's Ex-Security Chief Testifies before Senate

Twitter's former cybersecurity head, Peiter Zatko, on September 13, 2022 appeared before the Senate Judiciary Committee, and accused the social media giant of prioritizing "profit over security". Zatko added that Twitter knowingly hired Chinese and Indian agents in its payroll. 

Trump's Twitter Account Restored

Days after taking over the helms of affairs of Twitter, Elon Musk conducted a poll on Twitter on whether to return Former President Donald Trump, who had been banned from the platform for lifetime for instigating violence, to the platform. Based on 52%-to-48% verdict on the online poll, Musk on November 19, 2022 restored Trump's Twitter account. However, the former president reiterated that he would stay on his new social media platform TRUTH SOCIAL. 

Blue Bird Logo to be Dropped by Musk

Since the $44 billion acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, one thing that billionaire Elon Musk has brought into regular cadence to drive Twitter to profitability and retore customer base is the constant change. On July 23, 2023, Musk propagated the idea of the most gargantuan change to day, replacing the blue bird logo with X, but soliciting which color to pick: Black or White. He also favored dropping the name of Twitter eventually. 

X Banned in Brazil

The monthslong feud between X and one of Brazil's Supreme Court justices, Alexandre de Moraes, eventually led to the ban of Elon Musk's landmark social media platform. Moraes is spearheading efforts to block dissemination of antisemitic, antidemocratic and racist content propagated on X. Elon Musk closed the firm's office in Brazil early August 2024. Justice Alexandre de Moraes on August 28, 2024 ordered the company its legal representative by August 29, 2024. After X failed to name a legal representative in due time, Justice Alexandre de Moraes ordered the platform to be banned, according to the August 31, 2024, edition of The Dallas Morning News. 

Supreme Court Panel Unanimously Upholds Ban Decision 

It's not a rogue justice who has hit back X on his activist zeal. It's a thoughtful and deliberative verdict. On September 2, 2024, a panel of Brazilian Supreme Court Justices unanimously upheld the verdict issued on August 30, 2024 by Justice Alexandre de Moraes. The five-justice panel includes Justice Moraes. There are a total of 11 Justices in Brazil's top court. 

YAHOO


Yahoo to Spin off Internet Business
Yahoo on December 9, 2015 threw its CEO Marissa Mayer's initial proposal to sell the internet company's stake in Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba, valued to be around $32 billion, to cold water as proposition to sell the stake in Alibaba into a different holding company, Aabaco, ran into trouble as Internal Revenue Service didn't assure the transaction to be tax exempt, a selling point that Mayer had put forward as a rationale for going ahead with her proposal. Instead, the board meeting on December 9, 2015 took a different approach on Yahoo's re-org plan by deciding to shed its internet, digital advertising and mobile application into a separate holding company, and then wait for a suitor such as AT-and-T, Verizon and IAC/InterActiveCorp to gobble up its internet asset. After the re-organization, Yahoo will look more like a company that has only stake in Alibaba as significant asset.