Bulletin Business Briefs (e-edition)

Published 6:34 pm Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Billionaire Elon Musk abruptly canceled “The Don Lemon Show” on his social media network X after the former CNN anchor recorded an interview with the billionaire for its as-yet unaired first episode.

Musk owns X, formerly known as Twitter, and frequently proclaims himself a “free speech absolutist.” In a post on X, the San Francisco-based company said only that after careful consideration, it “decided not to enter into a commercial partnership with the show.” It added that Lemon’s show “is welcome to publish its content on X, without censorship, as we believe in providing a platform for creators to scale their work and connect with new communities.”

In a video posted to X, Lemon declared that “Elon Musk is mad at me” and said he will be airing his interview with the Tesla CEO on YouTube and via podcast on Monday.

Target Corp. cut dozens of marketing positions this week.

A spokeswoman for the Minneapolis-based retailer declined to share the number of jobs eliminated, but said the reductions amount to 0.3% of its corporate workforce.

Target has about 7,100 corporate employees who work in downtown Minneapolis, as well as thousands more who work at the campus in Brooklyn Park. In addition, it has other corporate employees around the U.S. and in India.

The layoffs come as Target is trying to pull itself out of a sales slump as consumers have pulled back spending amid economic pressures. Its comparable sales have slid for three consecutive quarters and executives said last week they expect sales to continue to be down in the first quarter of this year.

Executives expect sales trends to improve later in the year, forecasting sales growth for this year to be flat to up 2%.

Robotaxis will begin cruising the streets of Los Angeles on Thursday when Google spinoff Waymo starts offering free rides to some of the roughly 50,000 people who have signed up for its driverless ride-hailing service.

Waymo is expanding into Los Angeles, the second largest U.S. city, seven months after California regulators authorized its robotaxis to begin charging for around-the-clock rides throughout San Francisco. That came despite objections from local officials who asserted the driverless vehicles posed unacceptable risks to public safety.

Although Waymo isn’t charging for rides in its robotaxis in Los Angeles to start, the company said in a blog post announcing the expansion that it will eventually collect fares from passengers there too. Waymo also hopes to begin commercial operations in Austin, Texas, later this year, a goal that makes its robotaxi service available in four major U.S. cities 15 years after it began as a secret project within Google.

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