Tech Digest daily roundup: Mazda hints at electric MX-5
Mazda has previewed a sleek two-seat coupé – which could hint at the next-generation MX-5 – alongside the announcement of an £8.9 billion investment into future electric vehicles. Although the firm did not detail the model…it was shown alongside a series of Mazda MX-5 convertibles. This suggests it could be an early look at the next-generation sports car, despite being a hard-top coupé with Lamborghini-style scissor doors. Also shown was an early look at the model’s chassis, with a large space for a longitudinally mounted engine and a structure – likely a fuel cell or battery enclosure – behind the driver. Autocar
Put off by Elon Musk’s muscular management style? Move to us! That’s the pitch being used by talent-starved technology firms trying to lure thousands of former Twitter employees laid off by the social media company under its new owner. Twitter has fired top executives and enforced steep job cuts with little warning following Musk’s tumultuous takeover of the social media platform. About half of the workforce – around 3,700 employees – has been laid off. Hundreds more are reported to have quit as a result of his sweeping reforms. On Monday, the head of French operations was the latest senior manager to leave. Guardian
Turning around Twitter is an uphill job. Since Elon Musk bought the social media website for $44bn at the end of October, around 4,700 staff have either been fired or quit. Advertisers have fled as the red carpet has been rolled out for Donald Trump’s return. And regulators and politicians around the world are sharpening their knives. Who can Musk turn to? A 33-year-old programming prodigy who is between projects, it seems. The Tesla chief this week hired coder and entrepreneur George Hotz to overhaul Twitter’s search engine, part of a wide-ranging effort by Musk to turn around the stuttering business. Telegraph
Troubled crypto firm FTX collapsed after being “run as a personal fiefdom of Sam Bankman-Fried“, a US bankruptcy court has heard. The former FTX boss led the firm once valued at $32bn (£27bn), but lacked basic money controls, a lawyer leading the bankruptcy proceedings said. The true state of FTX’s finances was only now being understood, he said. He also claimed Mr Bankman-Fried’s team spent roughly $300m on holiday homes and property for senior staff. Only now do we realise that “the emperor had no clothes,” attorney James Bromley said, describing the situation as “one of most abrupt and difficult collapses in the history of corporate America.” BBC
The European Space Agency will vote on Wednesday on whether to spend billions more euros to keep up with rising competition in space, as well as unveiling its much-anticipated new crop of astronauts. The ESA’s 22 member states, whose ministers charged with space duties have been meeting in Paris since Tuesday, will decide on meeting the agency’s request for a record 18.7 billion euros for new programmes over the next three years. The figure is more than 25 percent higher than the 14.5 billion euros agreed at the ESA’s last ministerial council in 2019. Yahoo!
