Musk Says on Track to Buy Twitter; PlayStation 5 Could Get Discord Voice Chat; Google Revenue Grows-Profit Not So Much; EV Sales Continue to Heat Up

Elon Musk confirmed in a video call with advisers that he intends to close the $44 billion deal to buy Twitter on Friday. Arstechnica.com also reports that Musk’s lawyers at Skadden, Arps sent paperwork to equity investors in the deal, according to two investors and a person close to the Tesla boss. One person familiar with Twitter’s thinking said the company also expected the deal to close on Friday. If all goes as expected, it will be interesting to see if there is the kind of exodus of users from Twitter that some believe will happen.

Xbox owners just got voice chat features via Discord, now it’s the PlayStation 5’s turn. According to mashable.com, the voice chat features should hit the PS5 before long…probably by March2023. Unfortunately, if you don’t have the latest and greatest, no Discord chat for you. PS4 users will have to continue to use the console’s built-in party chat system. For a lot of gamers, it’s about time…Sony had announced a partnership with Discord back in 2021!

Google parent Alphabet released earnings this week. Revenue grew, but profits have slipped. In this immediately past quarter, they had $69 billion in revenue and $13.9 billion in profit. The previous year was exceptional, but that quarter brought in $65.1 billion in revenue and almost $19 billion in profit. Theverge.com says both the ad business and the cloud business saw increases. CEO Pichai said that they recently logged the ‘highest selling week ever for Pixel’, after introducing the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro and the Pixel Watch. 

As EV sales heat up, Tesla’s market share is dropping. Marketwatch.com notes that a year ago, Tesla had 70% share, but is now down to 64%. This is not surprising, even as Teslas sales are growing…more competitors selling more cars cuts your share. Tesla Model 3 and Model Y are still the 2 top selling EV models. In third is The Chevy Bolt, with the Ford Mustang Mach-E 4th. Tesla’s Model S was 5th in sales. Toyota continues to lead in hybrid sales, with 47% market share. The RAV4 Hybrid is the top selling US hybrid.