Business

Tesla executive Jerome Guillen has decided to part with the company. After spending more than a decade with the company, Guillen left the company on June 3. He was among the top four executives who were working closely with Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk. Guillen recently served as president of heavy trucking. He was given the responsibility on March 11, 2020. “We thank Guillen for all his contributions to the company and wish him well in his future career,” the company said in an SEC filing. But the document hardly talks anything about why he left the company. According to people familiar with the development, Guillen was the brain behind the ramp-up of Model 3 production three years ago. Apart from being the top lieutenant of Musk, Guillen also served as the president of Tesla’s automotive business.

Analysts feel that it is a huge and unexpected loss for the company. Analyst Pierre Ferragu said that the departure is part of a pattern of departure of top-level executives of the company. “Guillen has contributed a lot to the company. However, Tesla will continue to attract other top executives.” The development had a visible impact on the shares of Tesla as it fell as much 0.8 percent in postmarket trading. Guillen joined Tesla in 2010 as program director for the Model S. The model has been a breakthrough electric vehicle that created the ground for the crossover Model X and extremely popular Model 3. According to Tesla’s latest annual reports, Guillen – who is French – was 48 years old. He went on long leave in the year 2015 but returned to lead the Semi truck program of the company. Two years later, he was promoted as the head of the automotive operations. But the sudden departure took almost everyone by surprise. Guillen has so far not reacted to the development.

Tesla has been facing the departure of top executives for years. The departures come as the company is looking to ramp up the production of electric vehicles. Most recently, Kevin Kassekert left Tesla after working with the company for almost seven years. Kassekert was the man behind the construction of Gigafactories. Earlier to his, Dane Butswinkas, the general counsel of Tesla left the company and returned to his practice in Washington, D.C. Earlier in 2018, Jeff Jones – head of global security, left Tesla after working for just 11 months on the job. Several others, including Gilbert Passin and Gabrielle Toledano, left the company the same year.

AT&T spent USD 85 billion three years ago to purchase Time Warner. The deal turned the US telecom giant into one of the world’s biggest media houses. WarnerMedia has been growing ever since. The success of HBO Max helped it to thrive even better. It must be noted that AT&T owns CNN, HBO, and Warner Bros as it spent USD 108 billion in the acquisition in 2018. But AT&T is apparently regretting its decision. This is because the company is in deep debt. In a bid to reduce the burden of debt, the telecommunication company has decided to spun off the WarnerMedia division and merge it with rival Discovery to create a new streaming giant. This will help the company to compete with rivals like Disney and Netflix. They have a considerable presence in the area of streaming services.

According to AT&T, it would receive around USD 43 billion. This will be in combination with cash, debt, and retention of certain debt of WarnerMedia. Under the agreement, shareholders of AT&T would own 71 percent of stocks and Discovery would get the remaining 29 percent. The final deal is expected to be announced as early as within a week. Once announced, the deal would need approval from regulators. Once done, this would be a reversal of the telecommunication giant’s plan to club distribution and content in a vertically integrated company. But the deal would create an entirely separate company, separate from AT&T. The new streaming company could be valued at around USD 150 billion, including debt.

AT&T CEO John Stankey said that the deal would bring together two of the biggest entertainment leaders. “This will unite two of the biggest leaders of the entertainment industry. The good part is that they will have added strengths of content. This will help the new company to become one of the biggest global direct-to-consumer streaming platforms. Shareholders of AT&T will continue to retain their stakes in the company and will also get some stakes in the new company,” Stankey said in a statement. According to AT&T, the new company will be headed by Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav. Initially, there will be 13 board members. Out of them, seven – including the chairman – will be appointed by AT&T. Remaining six members, including Zaslav, would be chosen by Discovery. Commenting on the announcement, Zaslav said that he is excited about the deal that would combine such historic brands.

In a major victory for Amazon, the European Union’s second-highest court has ruled that the e-commerce giant need not to pay USD 300 million or 250 million euros in the tax bills. The General Court rejected the European Commission order that asked Amazon to pay the amount as taxes to Luxembourg. It must be noted that Amazon has its European headquarters in Luxembourg and the court is also based there. The court rejected claims made by EU regulators that the US tech giant had a selective advantage in the tax deal. “The regulator failed to prove to the requisite legal standard that US company had any illegal tax advantage,” the court concluded.

In a statement issued after the court ruling, Amazon said that the court’s decision proves their stand that they followed all applicable laws and didn’t get any special treatment. “The court’s decision is in line with our long-standing position. European subsidiary of our company abided by all the laws and received no special treatment. We are happy that the General Court has made this clear. Now we can focus on providing services to our customers across Europe.” The case dates back to 2014. The European Commission investigation had concluded that the country granted undue tax advantage to Amazon that benefited the company to the tune of USD 300 million. The case was spearheaded by European Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager.

Vestager said that Amazon was allowed to pay substantially less tax than its competitors. “Because of illegal tax benefits, almost three-quarters of profits of the US company was taxed. In other words, Amazon paid four times less tax than other businesses,” Vestager had said in 2017. She then ordered Luxembourg to recover the money. Two years later, the European Commission launched a formal antitrust investigation against the company. The EU said that Amazon distorted competition rules in online retail markets. But the ruling of the General Court comes as a blow to Vestager. It must be noted that the General Court last year rejected an order that asked Apple to pay USD 15 billion in tax to Ireland.

Most of the manufacturers are aiming to go green and adopting ways to become more sustainable. Even the companies making toys are taking this seriously. This is apparently when Mattel has launched a program wherein it will take all the old toys and recycle them. The company has named the recycling program ‘Mattel PlayBack’. Under this program, Mattel is taking back Mega toys, Barbie, and Matchbox for free and then will reuse the parts to make future products. This is the latest step adopted by Mattel to reach the goal of having 100 per cent recycled, bio-based plastic or recyclable materials for all its products by 2020. The company wants to implement the same for even packaging.

So once you are done, make sure your Barbies don’t end up in the landfill. There is something better that they deserve. Moreover, Mattel is giving a free shipping label for all their qualifying toys. This can be collected from the official website of the company. Visit the official website of Mattel and then click on the ‘get started’ button. Mattel will take one hour after you submit the request to email the label. In order to supply the toys, you will need your own box. But you need not to clean the toys before mailing them. The only thing that the company has requested is to remove the batteries from toys. Mattel will separate all the toys collected on the basis of material type and then have them processed. The company said that those materials that can’t be repurposed will either be converted into other plastic products or used for making energy from waste.

Mattel is already working on making more eco-friendly toys. It used plant-based plastics to make three Mega Bloks sets last year. There is already a fully recyclable Uno deck that is called “Nothing’ But Paper.” Matchbox too showed its own tiny Tesla Roadster which was made from 99 per cent recycled materials and certified CarbonNeutral. It will be available to buy next year. And the most important thing is that the packaging will be done with recyclable and compostable material. It must be noted that there are other toymakers that are aiming to go green. Lego has already launched a program Replay under which it donates used bricks to non-profit organisations of children in the United States. Similarly, Hasbro has joined hands with TerraCycle to give a free shipping label to its consumer so that they can responsibly dispose of Hasbro toys and games.

Online gaming company and sports betting company Super Group have agreed to go public in a USD 4.75 million merger deal with Sports Entertainment Acquisition Corp through a special purpose acquisition company or SPAC. The management team of the SPAC is led by John Collins and Eric Grubman. The other sponsors are PJT Partners, and Timothy Goodell, Wall Street veteran Chris Shumway. As part of the deal, Super Group will purchase Digital Gaming Corp. With the acquisition, the company will get access to markets in 10 US states. These states will include New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Colorado.

The combined value of the companies after the merger will be around USD 4.75 billion. It will then aim at the multi-billion-dollar betting sports market of the United States. The market is only getting bigger with more and more states legalizing it. According to a forecast of Super Group, it is looking at USD 1.5 billion this year in net gaming revenue. The company is also targeting the market outside the United States. It already has a significant presence overseas with licensed in around 23 global jurisdictions. This is why John Collins once stated that the company doesn’t need to be a leader in the US market in order to stay profitable and grow at the desired rate.

“The group currently has more than 3,500 employees around the world. They are working in over a dozen offices globally. The group has a real operating scale and has a substantial market share in data science and technology. When this is combined with over 20 years of business experience, the group gets real confidence about making an impact in new markets,” Collins said. According to the company, it will be not only debt-free at closing but also have USD 200 million in cash on this balance sheet. The combined company will have Eric Grubman as the chairman and Collins will serve as a member its board.

Two of the biggest Spanish-language media companies have announced a merger plan. Univision Communications and Grupo Televisa are said to combine their media, production, and content. The new company will be called Televisa-Univision, the companies jointly announced the decision. The process had started last year with the ownership change at Univision and it has now been formalized. After the merger, the new entity will become the largest Spanish language company in the world. According to a person familiar with the development, the new entity will be managed by Univision Chief Executive Wade Davis. The person also said that the deal is likely to be closed later this year.

Davis said that there has never been a Spanish-language media company that was truly global. “Even Univision and Televisa were relegated to their own geographic regions. And this makes the move breathtaking. Especially considering the sizeable audience of the global Spanish language and its marketplace,” Davis was quoted as saying in a report. The new service of Univision also provides live streaming to Univision and UniMas. They are over the air broadcast TV networks of the company. Univision is looking to give a push to its streaming services by using the worldwide recognition of Televisa. Also, the company has a huge vault of Spanish-language programme that Univision can use in the Mexican market and even in the US and abroad.

Univision and Televisa have borrowed a page from the playbook of the Walt Disney Co. It is one of the world’s largest producers and providers of entertainment and information. The company had acquired Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox entertainment two years ago. The deal was worth USD 71 billion. The company was betting on the bulk up on programming. It wanted to take on Netflix by acquiring a majority stake in the Hulu streaming service. Televisa and Univision are now looking to help each other by announcing this multi-billion deal. But Televisa is struggling to adapt to the streaming culture. Despite creating over 86,000 hours of content, it failed to connect with the young audience. The company is now hoping to change things as it already has valuable rights to sports and special events.

With ease in coronavirus-induced lockdown, start-up airline thinks it is the right time to begin flying. The budget carrier has announced 11 new routes and it will commence flight services from April 28. The airline is in limelight because of the introductory rates it is offering. Avelo has announced that it will launch its service with one-way fares beginning at USD 19. The airline said that it will fly passengers in a 189-seat Boeing 737-800 plane. It said that initially, the focus will be on smaller airports in California. Other destinations that Avelo will be covering include Colorado, Oregon, and Montana.

The airline said that the ticket price is part of the introductory offer that is temporary. Avelo is the first new major airline in the United States in the past 15 years. Chief Executive Officer Andrew Levy said the routes have been decided considering the fact that there is little if any, direct competition. “We have a lot of hopes and we are in a great place to launch flight services. Considering that we will be running during the summer peak season, we are expecting good footfall,” Levy said in Burbank, California. Levy understands that if properly executed, the small airport strategy can be highly profitable.

Avelo was planned to launch last year but it was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic. As per the information shared by International Air Travel Association, the COVID-19 pandemic has cost the industry around USD 380 billion. Levy and his team then spent all the time to make sure that the airline would be ready to offer services when the travel industry showed signs of recovery. The airline has adopted the strategy of offering services to those airports that have little airline services. Local tourism and business leaders are excited about the new airline and are of the view that the routes picked by it will make the life of lots of travelers easy.

Soon you may have a robot delivering your Pizza if you are living in Houston. Domino’s has partnered with Silicon Valley startup Nuro to launch this autonomous pizza delivery service to selected people. The company said that the autonomous delivery system will satisfy the continuous increase in online orders. Domino’s has registered a steep surge in online orders during the coronavirus pandemic and this trend seems to continue in the future as well. Customers, who will opt for it, will have their pies delivered in a fully autonomous vehicle. The small sized vehicle has been designed by the Nuro. The startup has already got US clearance for unmanned delivery services. Both the companies have taken several steps to make the launch of services smooth.

Nuro has been way ahead of its competitors in gaining approval. The robot car by Nuro was the first completely autonomous vehicle to get approval for an on-road delivery vehicle. The company recently secured USD 500 million including from Woven Capital. This raised the total valuation of the company to over USD 5 billion. The autonomous vehicle has been named R2. It is expected to start delivery in around seven days in Houston. The service will be expanded to other locations later.

Nuro head of partner relations Cosimo Leipold said that it is always a task for big companies to hire enough drivers. “This is where Nuro helps,” Leipold said. Nuro has already partnered with some big retailers like Walmart, Kroger, and CVS for providing autonomous delivery. The company said that during the first three months of the coronavirus pandemic, its weekly deliveries had almost tripled. Now Nuro will provide autonomous delivery in Houston which is the fourth largest city in the United States. The city has one of the highest fatality rates and therefore it will be a challenging task for the company. Nuro was founded in 2016 by two former engineers of Google.

After spending more than five years at Waymo, Chief Executive Officer John Krafcik has decided to step down from his post. Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet that is working on developing autonomous-drive technology, will now have co-CEOs. Tekedra Mawakana and Dmitri Dolgov, two top executives of Waymo will now be the top bosses of the company. Telling about his decision to step down from the post in a blog post, Krafcik said that he would continue to remain with the company as an advisor. “Waymo One ride-hailing service is now open for all in the launch area of Metro Phoenix. Also, fifth generation of the Waymo Driver is under preparation for deployment in goods delivery and ride-hailing services. With all this, I think this is the appropriate time to pass the baton,” he said.

Tekedra Mawakana joined the company four years ago and he recently served the company as Chief Operating Officer. On the other hand, Dmitri Dolgov joined the company way back in 2009. It was the time when the company was created as known as the Google self-driving car project. Dolgov was recently working as Chief Technology Officer of the company. After being elevated to the post of co-CEOs, Mawakana and Dolgov sent a joint statement to Waymo employees. “We are committed to working for the development of better technology. We will work alongside to build and deploy the Waymo driver. We feel energized for the opportunities that are ahead of us.”

Waymo established itself as a leading player in the field of developing autonomous vehicle technology under the leadership of Krafcik. It has more than 20 billion miles driven in simulation and over 20 million miles on public roads. But just like the entire self-driving industry, Google’s subsidiary has struggled to meet deadlines. This is no more a hidden thing that developing self-driving cars is a very difficult task. Despite massive backing in terms of funding, Waymo raised USD3.25 billion externally. Meanwhile, there are debate weather roads should be retrofitted with sensors to support the launch of self-driving cars.

Electric car maker Tesla has announced a new option to pay for buying vehicles. Its owner Elon Musk has said that Tesla will accept payments in Bitcoin. This means anyone can pay in Bitcoins to Telsa to buy a new car. This is, however, limited for US customers. Tesla said that it will soon expand the option to pay with Bitcoin in other countries. Currently, the value of one Bitcoin is USD 56,000. Those willing to buy an electric car from Tesla will have to pay less than one Bitcoin to buy an entry-level vehicle. The Standard Range Plus of Model 3 is Tesla’s entry-level vehicle. It has a starting price of USD 37,990. The Long Range variant starts at USD 46,990 and the top-of-the-line Performance at USD 54,990.

Musk said that his company is using only internal and open-source software. It operates Bitcoin nodes directly. Notably, Tesla has invested USD 1.5 billion in the popular cryptocurrency. He said that payments received in Bitcoin will be retained in their original form. The company said that it will not convert Bitcoin to fiat currency. The new mode of payment also appears on Tesla’s US website. It is providing an option of scanning a QR code to the buyers to make payment. Besides, users can simply copy and paste the Bitcoin wallet address to make payment for their purchases. Tesla, however, said that it will continue pricing its cars the US dollars.

Musk in recent times has been tweeting on cryptocurrencies more frequently. The total market value of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency has surpassed the USD 1 trillion mark. Tesla’s investment in Bitcoin contributed to the value of Bitcoin. Tesla is believed to have made a profit of USD 1 billion from its investment in Bitcoin. Meanwhile, Square has revealed that it invested USD 170 million in Bitcoin. Square is backed by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. It is a credit and payments company. Square purchased about 3,318 Bitcoins. The value of Bitcoin is likely to see a further surge with the recent investments.

NASA’s long wait for a new administrator is set to end. The agency is finally getting a new head. President Joe Biden has nominated Bill Nelson for the role. Nelson will serve as the 14th administrator of the space agency. Nelson is a former Senator. He is also a one-time astronaut. He is seen as a moderate Democrat. His nomination has invited bipartisan praise. Nelson, 78, will take charge once the nomination is confirmed in the Senate. Nelson thanked Biden for showing trust in him. The former Senator said that he was honored to be nominated for the role. He promised to lead the agency and Americans into an exciting future. White House in a statement said that no one can think of anyone other than Nelson to head the agency.

White House added that every particular of space and the science-related law has Nelson’s imprint. He served as a Senator until 2019 since 2001 from Florida. In 1986, Nelson traveled into space. He was a Payload Specialist. He flew on a Columbia space shuttle. With this, he became the second sitting Congress member to travel into space. Former NASA chief Jim Bridenstine appointed Nelson to the agency’s Advisory Council in 2019. As the NASA administrator, he will succeed Bridenstine. Bridenstine resigned from the chair in January soon after Biden took over as the President. Bridenstine, a member of the Republican Party, was appointed to the post in April 2018 by then President Donald Trump.

The post of NASA administrator was lying vacant since Bridenstine’s exit. The delay in the appointment of a NASA chief had raised apprehensions over the goal of the Artemis program. Acting NASA administrator Steve Jurczyk welcomed Nelson’s nomination. He said that the agency is pleased to see that Nelson has been nominated as the 14th Administrator. Nelson is known for advancing the country’s position in the human exploration of space. Steve said that agency looks forward to working under Nelson’s leadership. NASA will carry out critical missions including the Moon missions under his guidance. Steve is confident that the Senate will approve Nelson’s nomination.

Weeks after losing a major labor battle in the Supreme Court, Uber has announced that it will treat drivers as workers in the United Kingdom. The ride-hailing app giant announced the change during a filing at Securities and Exchange Commission. The company said in the filing that 6.4 percent of the total mobility gross bookings it received during the fourth quarter of 2020 are from the UK. After these changes, Uber drivers will get some assured benefits like minimum wage, paid holiday, and pension contributions from the employer. This also means that Uber will pay its drivers, who are over the age of 25, in UK National Living Wage. The minimum wage to be paid in the UK is around £8.72 per hour.

The move will increase the company’s costs in the United Kingdom. However, Uber hopes adjusted EBITDA profitability by the end of the year. The company has also said that the changes will not mean an increase in fares for passengers. In an op-ed in a newspaper, Uber chief executive officer Dara Khosrowshahi said that could have continued the battle but the company decided to turn the page. “I know we will not get a pat on the back for this move, which comes after a long-fought legal battle. They have a point. But I think the path chosen by us shows our willingness to change.”

Earlier this year, the ride-hailing service provider lost a major legal battle over the issue. The top court upheld the ruling that stated that a group of drivers were not independent contractors but workers. While the ruling was applicable to a small group of Uber drivers, thousands of others have taken the matter against the company. Meanwhile, Uber and the gig economy are facing challenges from regulatory authorities from around the globe. The company has already spent millions on fighting those challenges in other regions. Uber has always maintained the position that it is a technology platform and charges a fee for connecting drivers with passengers.

Social media app Parler is trying to return to App Store but Apple has reportedly has refused re-entry. The re-entry to its App Store means that Apple users would be able to download the app on iPhones. The tech giant has reportedly told Parler that the changes made are not sufficient to comply with the guidelines of App Store Review. “After having reviewed the updates, we found that they are not sufficient. App Store cannot allow racist, hateful, discriminatory content. Developers must make considerable changes to filter such objectionable content. This is very important as protecting the health and safety of our users are our prime concern,” Apple said.

It had joined Google in removing the social media app from App Store following the Capitol Hill riots in January this year. The move excluded Parler from all smartphones of Apple. A similar decision was taken by Amazon as it removed the social media app from its web hosting services. Because of this, Parler went offline for quite a few days. It came back online only after finding another hosting service provider last month. Apple said that derogatory comments, as well as Nazi symbols, were still available on the platform. “For these reasons, we cannot allow your app to return to App Store for distribution. For this, you need to comply with all the guidelines.”

Reacting to it, Parler issued a statement where the company insisted that it had always worked on removing violent content and opposed content that can incite violence. According to Breitbart, Parler showed Apple they have incorporated several changes to remove content that has the potential of inciting violence. “We have used a combination of algorithmic filters and human review for this. We also explained our new feature that allows users to filter out persona attacks. We are hopeful that the tech giant will differentiate with other ‘Big Tech’ companies by accepting its customers’ choice,” Parler said in the statement.

Social media giant Facebook has announced to change a key policy related to the advertisement. The company has revoked the ban on political ads. It said that political and social issues ads will be allowed on the platform from March 4. These ads will, however, require verification. They will also need to display a disclaimer. It should tell users that messages in the ads are paid for by’ a specific group or person. Facebook banned political ads in November 2020. Such ads were barred from the platform to check the spread of misinformation during the Presidential election in the United States. Facebook said that it took the feedback of users into account before resuming political ads.

Facebook said that the public feedback helped the company to understand more about such ads. The company will keep a close watch on such ads. It will introduce changes if there are scope and merit. Notably, there is no mechanism available to fact-check political ads on Facebook. This is one of the reasons why the company often faces criticism for its policies regarding political ads. The ban on ads also came close on the heels of confusions that were created by then President Donald Trump who used social media platforms to publicly fight the results. Around a Senate runoff in Georgia in January, Facebook had allowed some political ads. But soon it re-imposed the ban.

According to Facebook, political ads on the platform make a very small part of its business model. The ban also helped in addressing concerns that candidates could influence or mislead the voters about the Presidential election to swing the outcomes. Facebook said that it will store the content of ads in its library. By doing this, the company said that it will become easy for researchers and others to view the ads. Earlier, search engine giant Google also announced to lift the ban on political ads. Both Facebook and Google dominate the digital advertising sector worldwide. Google too had suspended political ads to check the flow of misinformation involving the elections.

Luxury goods conglomerate LVMH has purchased a 50 percent stake in Armand de Brignac, a champagne brand owned by Shwan ‘Jay-Z’ Carter. The champagne brand is also famous as ‘Ace of Spades.’ The terms of the deal have not been made public and therefore it is not how much the French conglomerate has paid for the deal. The deal has been signed at a time when LUMH is working on diversifying its offering. According to reports, the value of half of the champagne brand was valued at around USD 250 million in 2018. The company has been criticized for the lack of diversity by many.

Reports suggest that the deal between the hip-hop mogul and the luxury brand happened ‘very naturally’ and the two brands are eager to work together. They will now work to find ways to promote the brand among other luxe champagnes like Veuve Clicquot, Dom Pérignon, and Krug. But the path is going to be tough as they deal comes a time when the champagne industry is going through one of its toughest times. This is because there has been a huge fall in demand for the drink because of the decline in events and celebrations. Most of the restaurants and event destinations have suffered a huge blow because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which directly affected the sales of the drinks.

Meanwhile, LVMH signed start tennis player Naomi Osaka as its new brand ambassador. Osaka was in limelight during the US Open as he extended support to the Black Lives Matter protests. The protest had started over the summer. The company has also signed skateboarder Lucien Clark for skate shoes and apparel. LVMH has been trying to associate with Black celebs for quite some time. Last year, it signed singer Rihanna on Fenty Fashion House. She was the first black woman to be associated with the luxury brand. However, Fenty Fashion House was discontinued recently. However, LVMH said that it will continue to support the other products of the Fenty empire. The focus will be now more on beauty and skincare items along with lingerie lines.

Bitcoin has been the talk of the town of late and now there is some more news related to it. Reports suggest that the USD 150 billion investment unit of Morgan Stanley is exploring options to bet on Bitcoin. Counterpoint Global, an investment arm of Morgan Stanley Investment Management, is accessing if it would a viable option for investors. However, regulatory approval will be required for any such investment. The cryptocurrency has been in the news recently because of the recent surge in prices. The surge is because of the renewed interest of investors in Bitcoin. The price of the volatile digital currency has surged around 1,200 per cent since mid March last year.

Morgan Stanley has not reacted to the development yet. A spokeswoman of the multinational bank refused to comment when contacted by a media house. If the investment by Counterpoint Global materialises, it would join the list of several high profile companies that have invested in it. But it must be noted that some analysts at Morgan Stanley have been bearish on Bitcoin. An analyst had earlier said that the real value of the cryptocurrency was zero. When he made this comment, Bitcoin was trading at about USD 14,400. Now, one of the Bitcoin backers has predicted that its price would climb to USD 100,000 by end of the year. However, some analysts have urged investors to stay away from it.

According to reports, Bank of New York Mellon is planning to offer Bitcoin transactions. The bank is the country’s oldest financial institution. Mastercard too has announced that it would allow merchants to accept certain cryptocurrencies. Such announcements by some of the biggest corporations in the United States can help Bitcoin enter the mainstream. This will also allow the cryptocurrency to be accepted as a form of payment. Tesla has also invested USD 1.5 billion into the cryptocurrency. This resulted in a 16 per cent rise in the price. Microblogging site Twitter too has said that it was mulling adding some Bitcoin to its balance sheet. These announcements have to lead to wide acceptance of the cryptocurrency. It is also evident by the fact that it has gained around 60 per cent so far in 2021.