Disney-Iger’s Back; US EV Market to Jump 20%; Twitter Copyright Strike System Broken; Apple Switches iPhones to Samsung Memory Chips

In a bombshell from the House of Mouse, an announcement came late Sunday that Bob Chapek was out, and Bob Iger back as CEO of Disney. CNBC reports that the change is effective immediately. Chapek had been widely criticized for his management of Disney. Disney stock jumped 9% on the announcement. The company earnings in the last quarter way underperformed Wall Street expectations. This, despite a surge in revenue from the theme parks. Iger will stay a couple more years, and help the board develop a successor CEO. 

If you seem to be seeing more electric vehicles on the road as you commute or just drive around…you’re right. According to electrek.co, the US EV market share was up to 6.7% the first half of 2022, from just 1.8% in 2019. Mainly due to charger availability, EV market share is up even more: Germany has gone from 3% to 26%, the UK from 2.2% to 24%, and France from 2.8% to 21%. The climate incentives passed into law last summer in the US are expected to push US market share up over 20% before 2030…earlier than expected. Incentives are a big help, but the real key is building out charging stations to all but eliminate ‘range anxiety.’

There has been plenty of talk about Twitter completely breaking down in the aftermath of Elon Musk’s layoffs and now staff quitting over his demands to return to the office. As of this report, Twitter is still up, but some things are breaking. Theverge.com says one is the copyright strike system. A user posted the entirety of ‘The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift’ movie in a series of some 50 tweets containing two minute clips. The thread has been up for a couple days now, without any apparent attempt or maybe ability to take it down. 

Since the US has imposed export controls on one of China’s top NAND flash chip makers, Apple is pivoting to Samsung for iPhone Memory chips. Macrumors.com reports that Apple had been using chips from Yangtze Memory Technologies, but will now rely on Samsung starting in 2023. Unlike some other chip makers, Samsung hasn’t put production cuts in place in response to decreased market demands. The export controls are an effort by the US to slow China’s tech and military advances from copying US tech. 

I’m Clark Reid, and you’re ‘technified’ for now.