Singapore-based Terraform Labs, the company behind digital assets TerraUSD and Luna, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in Delaware following the collapse of its cryptocurrencies in 2022. Terraform Labs, which confirmed its Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection filing, says the filing is a strategic step that will enable it to continue its operations and support litigation pending in Singapore and U.S. litigation involving the Securities and Exchange Commission. The outfit also says it would meet...

The Nigerian Communications Commission has granted the telecom a 21-day extension to settle interconnect fees owed to MTN, delaying a planned phased disconnection. Globacom reportedly owes MTN about ₦6 billion ($6.7 million) in interconnect fees, which led the NCC to approve the partial disconnection of Globacom from MTN Nigeria on January 8. In 2019, MTN disconnected Globacom for five days, resulting in Glo paying ₦2.6 billion ( out of a total ₦4.4 billion owed, in interconnect fees....

South African broadcaster Openview has taken MultiChoice to court for monopolising broadcasting rights for the Rugby World Cup. The eMedia parent company argues that Multichoice, through its sports channel SuperSport, unfairly excludes other platforms, like the South African Broadcasting Corporation channel from airing the popular event, hindering competition and limiting viewer choice. However, MultiChoice says e-media is seeking to reap where it has not sown.

Amazon Prime, the global streaming giant, is laying off staff and scaling back its local content production in Africa and the Middle East. The streaming platform, the third largest in Africa, is restructuring its business model to focus on its European market. Barry Furlong, the vice president of Prime’s EMEA division, says that the decision was made to focus on the areas that drive the highest impact and long-term success. Amazon Prime will still be present in Africa, but the platform...

Patricia’s, the crypto exchange’s latest time frame for repayment is now two to five years which the company says it set for expectation management purposes. Patricia has tried several measures to repay its customers including an app relaunch, a stablecoin backed by the dollar, and fundraising. Patricia says this will help ensure a safe process for everyone, but it remains to be seen why the company would need video testimonials if it has records of all its users. It calls into question if...

Kenya’s phone regulator, the Communications Authority of Kenya, has slapped Airtel and Telkom Kenya with warning notices and fines for failing to meet quality of service standards. The CA regularly tests mobile networks against benchmarks for call success rate, internet speed, and coverage. To be considered compliant, networks must score at least 80% on these key performance indicators. In the latest report covering June 2023, Safaricom, the market leader, exceeded expectations with 90%,...

Egypt’s government-owned telecom has announced that citizens can expect 5G this year. Telecom Egypt has begun testing 5G services in five locations across the country, aiming for a full rollout later in 2024. The company says the tests will span three months, followed by a nationwide rollout. CEO Mohamed Nasr expects the financial impact to be evident by the end of 2024. Already the telecom saw a 48% net profit in 2023, and more subscribers means even better margins, especially with the...

Google pulled many crypto exchanges, including Binance and Kraken, from its Play Store in India in what is the latest blow to the world’s second-largest internet market’s already dwindling web3 dream. The ban comes two weeks after these global crypto exchanges were flagged for operating illegally in the South Asian market. Financial Intelligence Unit, an Indian government agency that scrutinizes financial transactions, late last month issued show cause notices to nine crypto firms and...

Nigeria’s apex bank has appointed new board members for the three commercial banks whose boards it dissolved. The Central Bank of Nigeria dissolved the board of directors of Union, Keystone and Polaris banks citing regulatory non-compliance and corporate governance failure. The dissolution and replacement of board members comes weeks after Jim Obazee’s investigation into the Central Bank under former Governor Godwin Emefiele’s alleged questionable bank acquisitions. Obazee’s report claims...

Amazon is laying off hundreds of employees across Prime Video and the recently acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) Studios, because it wants to focus on creating high-impact content. Twitch, Amazon’s live-streaming site, is also preparing to cut off 35% of its staff after several top executives left the company in the final months of 2023. Amazon isn’t alone: Beyond Amazon, the broader streaming landscape is grappling with economic headwinds, prompting layoffs at industry giants like Disney...

Global investment bank Citigroup has announced that it will cut 10% of its workforce, about 20,000 jobs, by 2026. The chief financial officer Mark Mason, the layoffs are part of the company’s reorganisation and bid to boost its bank results. The company has had four rough quarters culminating in Q4 2023 when it recorded $1.8 billion in losses, the biggest losses recorded since 2009 when it recorded $8.9 billion in losses in its fourth quarter. The bank has sold some of its operations...

South Africa is seeing another multinational exit with network operator Lyca Mobile’s shutdown. Last week, the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) stated that it’s cutting ties in SA. Users had until January 9, 2024, to hop onto another network or face the risk of losing their phone number and access to text, call and data services. Lyca’s announcement is related but the company’s long-time partner Cell-C is facing significant financial challenges. Cell-C, however, has lost 9 million...

Elon Musk’s Space X is redefining global mobile communication dynamics. The satellite company has launched six Starlink satellites with direct-to-cell capability to eliminate mobile dead zones. This means mobile phones can connect directly to the satellite, skipping the need for traditional cell towers. This makes it possible for mobile connectivity to work in remote areas and other places where traditional networks reach poorly or not at all. Musk also clarified that Starlink’s satellite...

Mark Zuckerberg has been selling the shares every trading day since November 1, 2023, till the end of 2023. The average earnings from each day amounted to $10.4 million, with the largest transaction occurring on December 28, 2023, at $17.1 million. Meta shares, which grew by 193%, outperformed those of every other major tech giant except Nvidia Corp. last year and is now near its September 2021 record high. Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff also cashed out over $475 million in the second half...

Multichoice-owned SuperSports channel will not show this year’s edition of the Africa Cup of Nations after it lost its broadcasting rights to a Togo-based platform, New World TV. The Confederation of African Football president Patrice Motsepe described it as a mega deal that no other broadcaster could match. New World TV secured the exclusive rights to cover both AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast and 2025 in Morocco.

The ChatGPT parent company and its investor Microsoft faced a fresh lawsuit when two authors sued the company for allegedly using their books to train the AI service. Nicholas Basbanes and Nicholas Gage claim that OpenAI infringed on copyrighted works to build an empire that’s now worth millions of dollars. The authors want the courts to stop OpenAI from using their works without authorisation, and about $2.5 million in damages. The lawsuit, which is over 150 pages long in total, accuses...

South Africa has plans to end load-shedding for good. The bad news though, is that it will take a couple of years. Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe published the country’s Integrated Resource Plan which is South Africa’s plan for stable electricity supply from now till 2024. The IRP sets out two timeframes: 2023–2030 to stabilise South Africa’s power and end load-shedding, and 2031–2050 to generate enough power for the future. The plan involves various energy sources like gas, solar, wind,...

A U.S. bankruptcy judge has approved cryptocurrency lender Celsius Network's pivot to bitcoin mining, ruling that the company could deviate from a previously approved bankruptcy plan because creditors and customers were no worse off under the new restructuring. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn in Manhattan says the bankruptcy plan approved in November contained enough flexibility to allow Celsius to switch to a backup plan after it hit a roadblock with the U.S. Securities and Exchange...

Mutual fund company Fidelity has marked down its investment in X holdings — the parent company of X (formerly Twitter) owned by Elon Musk — by 71.5% from the original valuation of shares, according to a new disclosure. Fidelity spent $19.2 million to acquire a stake in X back in October 2022. The fund manager made a valuation cut of 65% in October 2023. CEO Linda Yaccarino claimed that the company would turn profitable in 2024. The biggest challenge for the company is to convince...

FTX Trading Ltd has revealed a proposal to repay billions of dollars to customers and creditors. The crypto exchange proposes to liquidate most of its remaining crypto holdings and convert them into cash which will then be distributed to creditors and customers, according to a yet-to-be-determined formula. The proposal is slated for a vote by creditors next year. The plan will be subject to final approval by US Bankruptcy Judge John Dorsey. Nigerian crypto company Nestcoin was affected....

Starlink, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service provider has officially launched in Eswatini. Starlink already beams across Kenya, Mozambique, Rwanda, Mauritius, Sierra Leone, Zambia, and Nigeria. The service is awaiting regulatory nod In Zimbabwe and Botswana where its application for an operation licence is still being vetted. Starlink’s operation went through swiftly in Eswatini, getting a licence in June after applying in March. Despite being its biggest potential market, South...

The Central Bank of Lesotho discovered that a cybersecurity incident had affected its system. The apex bank has restored transfers, but it advised customers to expect delays as the processing of payments is done manually. The attack led to several outages and affected the country’s National Payments System, which facilitates inter-bank transactions. There are concerns that the current wave of attacks might affect Lesotho’s exchange rate against the rand. Lesotho’s incident is not a...

Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook, has become the latest tech company to be fined in Italy for breaches of a ban on the advertising of gambling. Meta has been fined 5.85 million euros in connection with profiles and accounts on Facebook and Instagram, as well as sponsored content which promoted either betting or games with cash prizes. Communications watchdog AGCOM says earlier this month, announced fines for Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) YouTube and Amazon's (AMZN.O) Twitch for...

Israel's government agreed to give Intel Corp a $3.2 billion grant for a new $25 billion chip plant it plans to build in southern Israel. Intel says the expansion plan for its Kiryat Gat site is an important part of Intel’s efforts to foster a more resilient global supply chain, alongside the company’s ongoing and planned manufacturing investments in Europe and the United States. The chipmaker also committed to buy 60 billion shekels ($16.6 billion) worth of goods and services from Israeli...

Nigeria’s Central Bank has removed a two-year restriction on cryptocurrency transactions as it introduces stringent customer KYC and anti-money laundering checks. The CBN banned banks from crypto-related transactions in 2021, citing money laundering and terrorism financing concerns. The regulator has now reversed that ban and taken a positive posture towards digital currency assets, issuing new guidelines to financial institutions for crypto transactions. Based on the new guidelines...