Between its ongoing supply chain constraints, brutal rounds of layoffs and a plummeting stock price, the past year has been a glass case of emotion for Tesla and its embattled CEO, Elon Musk. Still, the company managed to produce nearly 440,000 vehicles and delivered over 405,000 of them — year over year increases of 47 and 40 percent, respectively — Tesla announced on Wednesday during the Q4 2022 earnings call. Those are both records for Tesla, as was the full-year deliveries of 1.31 million. Profits for the year totaled $12.6 billion.

"Despite the fact that 2022 was an incredibly challenging year due to forced shutdowns, very high interest rates, and many delivery challenges," Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, said during the call. "It's worth noting that all these records were in the face of massive difficulties. a credit to the team for achieving that."

The final quarter of 2022 was especially volatile for the electric automaker following the finalization of Musk's Twitter acquisition in late October. While the billionaire sought to split his attention between his EV company, his spaceship company and his new social media platform, Tesla shareholders revolted, furious that the automaker had lost some $620 billion in market capitalization that year. Musks antics at Twitter combined with his sale of Tesla stock to fund the acquisition sent the EV company's ticker tumbling, resulting in drastic price cuts — by as much as $20,500 in some cases. This, in turn, saw customers in China, angry that they had just purchased their vehicles at a higher price, raid Tesla showrooms to demand answers and restitution.  

"The most common question we've been getting on investors is about demand," Musk said. "I want to put that concern to rest. Thus far in January, we've seen the strongest orders here today then ever in our history, we currently are seeing orders at Almost twice the rate of production."

Those price cuts will continue into the new year. "In the near term we are accelerating our cost reduction roadmap and driving towards higher production rates," the company announced Wednesday. "In any scenario, we are prepared for short-term uncertainty, while being focused on the long-term potential of autonomy, electrification and energy solutions."    

Despite the turbulence, Tesla continues to expand its regional production capacities. In January, the company announced its $3.6 billion investment in two new factories, one of which will produce the long-awaited, repeatedly-delayed Semi electric 18-wheeler. The company aims to produce 1.8 million vehicles in total this coming year.

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Like many big tech companies, Microsoft is preparing for the worst after announcing plans to lay off 10,000 employees in the upcoming third quarter. It turns out that the company's second quarter was a mixed bag: It earned $52.7 billion in revenue, which was up 2 percent from last year, but a slight miss from the $52.9 billion analysts expected. Profits also fell by 12 percent to $16.4 billion, a trend that may continue throughout the year.

Despite the faltering PC market, Microsoft has been riding high on cloud revenues for years, and that seems to be continuing. its intelligent cloud business was up 18 percent from last year, reaching $21.5 billion. Microsoft's belt tightening didn't stop the company from potentially investing $10 billion more in ChatGPT creator OpenAI, yet another sign that AI is going to play a major role in its future projects. The company plans to add ChatGPT to its Azure OpenAI service soon, and it's reportedly planning to integrated that technology in Bing.

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Elon Musk said he could've sold his SpaceX shares to take Tesla private when he took the witness stand again to defend his 2018 "funding secured" tweets in a lawsuit filed by the automaker's shareholders. According to CNBC, Musk proclaimed: "SpaceX stock alone meant 'funding secured' by itself. It's not that I want to sell SpaceX stock but I could have, and if you look at the Twitter transaction — that is what I did. I sold Tesla stock to complete the Twitter transaction. And I would have done the same here." He didn't say how many of his shares he'd have to sell, however, to be able to fund the transaction. 

The plaintiffs' lawsuit is based on Musk's infamous 2018 tweets in which he said he was "considering taking Tesla private at $420." He even said that he already had "[f]unding secured." Musk first took the stand for this particular case last week to defend himself against the plaintiffs' accusations that the tweets he made cost them significant financial losses. Tesla's shares temporarily stopped trading after those tweets and remained volatile in the weeks that followed. He said at the time that just because he tweets something "does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly."

This time, Musk reiterated his previous claim that he had an agreement with Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund to take Tesla private. He told the court that the country was "unequivocal" in its support of the transaction, which ultimately didn't go through. According to Bloomberg, the court discussed his communication and eventual falling out with Saudi fund governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan regarding the deal. A text exchange was reportedly presented to the jury, wherein Musk accused Al-Rumayyan of backing out of their handshake agreement. The Saudi official responded that he didn't have sufficient information to be able to commit to the buyout and called Musk's public announcement of their discussions "ill advised."

The plaintiffs' lawyer also asked Musk what many of us were probably wondering: If the $420 share price in his tweets was made as a joke in reference to marijuana. Apparently, it wasn't a joke, and he chose it "because it reflected about a 20 percent premium on Tesla's stock price." Musk is expected to testify again on Tuesday, so we'll likely hear more details about his failed bid to convert Tesla into a private entity. 

As Bloomberg notes, the judge in this case had already determined that his tweets were "objectively false and reckless." However, the plaintiffs still have to prove that Musk knew his tweets were misleading and that his tweets caused their losses to win the case. Musk and Tesla previously had to pay the Securities and Exchange Commission $20 million each to settle a separate lawsuit over the same tweets, accusing him of making "false and misleading statements" that could be constituted as fraud. The CEO said on the stand that he told the SEC about SpaceX and that the plaintiffs' lawyer "deliberately exclud[ed] that from jurors."

One of streaming's most influential figures is stepping away from the spotlight. Netflix co-creator Reed Hastings is stepping down as the company's co-CEO. Ted Sarandos, who has been co-CEO since July 2020, will share the reins with newly promoted operations chief Greg Peters. Hastings will remain involved as Executive Chairman.

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Oil and gas company Shell is buying electric vehicle charging operator Volta for $169 million through a subsidiary. The deal, which the companies expect to close in the first half of this year, amounts to 86 cents per share, around 18 percent more than Volta's closing price on Tuesday.

Volta's board of directors approved the deal unanimously, though it still requires the green light from shareholders. It's subject to regulatory approval and other closing conditions too. Shell will provide loans to Volta to give it a hand through the closing of the transaction. On September 30th, Volta had $15.6 million in cash and cash equivalents, compared with $262.2 million at the end of 2021.

"While the EV infrastructure market opportunity is potentially enormous, Volta's ability to capture it independently, in challenging market conditions and with ongoing capital constraints, was limited," Volta interim CEO Vince Cubbage said in a statement. "Both Volta and Shell have a demonstrated ability to meet the changing needs of customers, and this acquisition will bring that experience together to provide the options that are needed as more drivers choose electric."

The company has more than 3,000 charging stations across the US and a handful in Europe, typically at grocery stores and malls. For a few years, its DC fast charging stations were free to use for up to 30 minutes, with advertising and sponsorships helping to cover the costs. However, it shifted its DC fast chargers to a paid model last year. Volta's more than 2,000 L2 chargers are still free to use. After the deal closes, "there will be no immediate change in driver experience," the companies said.

Odd as it may seem that an oil company is buying an EV charging network, it isn't the first time Shell has done so. It snapped up UK network Ubitricity in 2021 for an undisclosed sum. Last year, Hertz and BP announced plans to set up a charging network in the US.

Chinese billionaire Jack Ma is ceding control of Alipay owner Ant Group. Per The Wall Street Journal, the Alibaba-affiliated company announced it would end agreements that had allowed Ma to hold a dominant position within Ant Group’s corporate governance structure. The outspoken entrepreneur previously possessed more than 50 percent of voting rights at Ant, even though he did not sit on the company’s board of directors or was involved in day-to-day operations. Ma’s influenced Ant Group through a handful of investment vehicles that owned a combined 50.5 percent stake in the fintech giant.

Moving forward, Ant said Ma and nine other company executives and employees would have voting rights they had agreed to use independently of one another. Reuters estimates Ma will own 6.2 percent of Ant Group shares once the company implements the changes it announced over the weekend.

In 2020, shortly before Ant was scheduled to hold an initial public offering that was expected to raise a record $34 billion, Ma drew the ire of Chinese authorities after he called the country’s banks “state-owned pawnshops” during a speech in Shanghai. Chinese regulators went on to block the impending IPO and ordered Ant to scale down its business. Specifically, the company was ordered to return to its roots as a payment provider. A year later, authorities fined Alibaba, Ma’s other company, $2.8 billion following an antitrust investigation into alleged monopolistic practices by the company. Ma has avoided the public eye ever since.

Tesla delivered 405,278 electric vehicles over the final three months of 2022, the automaker announced on Monday. That number represents a new record for the company, but it also fell short of Wall Street estimates. As recently as December 30th, the consensus among most analysts was that Tesla would deliver about 418,000 vehicles in Q4. A year earlier, the company delivered 308,600 cars during the same period.

According to Tesla, the Model 3 and Model Y made up most of the company's deliveries in the fourth quarter of 2022, with 388,131 of those vehicles making their way to consumers before the end of the year. Comparatively, Tesla's more expensive Model S and Model X cars accounted for a modest 17,147 deliveries over the same time frame. Tesla produced 439,701 vehicles in the fourth quarter, setting another record.

It's fair to say the end of 2022 could have gone better for Tesla. Even before considering how much Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has hurt the company, Tesla was faced with macroeconomic and logistical challenges threatening to slow growth. As they did earlier in the year, COVID-19 restrictions in China forced Tesla to suspend and reduce production at its Shanghai Gigafactory. Tesla also closed the facility during the last week of December, adding to concerns the company has been dealing with weakening demand in the world's biggest automotive market. In Q4, Tesla also had trouble securing transportation for completed vehicles.

Separately, Elon Musk's handling of Twitter and repeat Tesla stock selloffs saw the value of the company's shares drop dramatically. In December, Tesla's stock fell 33 percent (and 45 percent over the last six months) before rallying in anticipation of the company's fourth-quarter numbers. Tesla will publish its full Q4 results on January 25th and hold its next annual Investor Day presentation on March 1st.

A federal judge has set a date for the first pre-trial hearing between Microsoft and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The two go to court on January 3rd to spar over the fate of Microsoft’s $69 billion bid to buy Call of Duty publisher Activision Blizzard. Microsoft and Activision announced the merger at the start of 2022. At the time, the tech giant said it expected the deal to close no later than June 2023. Last month, the FTC sued Microsoft to block the acquisition from moving forward.

“Microsoft has already shown that it can and will withhold content from its gaming rivals,” FTC Director Holly Vedova said at the time. “Today we seek to stop Microsoft from gaining control over a leading independent game studio and using it to harm competition in multiple dynamic and fast-growing gaming markets.”

The FTC is expected to face an uphill battle trying to convince a judge of the merits of its case. For one, Microsoft isn’t pushing for a “horizontal” merger that would see it take one of its direct competitors out of the picture. Additionally, the company has signaled it’s ready to make concessions to rubberstamp the deal. Should the merger move forward, Microsoft has pledged to release future Call of Duty games on competing platforms for at least 10 years. It also said it would bring the franchise to Nintendo consoles.

“The commission cannot meet its burden of showing that the transaction would leave consumers worse off, because the transaction will allow consumers to play Activision’s games on new platforms and access them in new and more affordable ways," Microsoft wrote in a legal filing last month. The deal also faces regulatory scrutiny from the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority, which recently said it would conduct an “in-depth” investigation of the proposed merger.

Facebook parent company Meta has acquired Luxexcel, a Dutch startup specializing in smart eyewear. News of the purchase was first reported by De Tijd and later confirmed by TechCrunch. “We’re excited that the Luxexcel team has joined Meta, deepening the existing partnership between the two companies,” a Meta spokesperson told the outlet. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal.

Founded in 2009, Luxexcel began life as a prescription lens manufacturer. More recently, the company has made a name for itself in the augmented reality space. At the start of 2021, for instance, it partnered with WaveOptics, the display manufacturer Snap paid $500 million later that same year to buy. As TechCrunch points out, there are also rumors Luxexcel previously worked with Meta on the company’s Project Aria AR glasses.

The acquisition comes as Meta faces regulatory scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission over its purchase of Supernatural developer Within. The agency sued Meta in July to block the deal. The social media giant also faces criticism over just how much it's spending to further its metaverse ambitions. In October, a month before the company laid off 11,000 employees, Meta told investors Reality Labs, its virtual and augmented reality unit, lost more than $9 billion in 2022. It went on to predict the division’s operating losses were likely to “grow significantly year-over-year” in 2023.

The European Union plans to carry out a full-scale investigation of Broadcom's $61 billion bid to buy VMware. Following a preliminary probe, the European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, announced on Tuesday it believes the proposed acquisition may allow Broadcom to "restrict competition" in the markets for network interface cards, fiber channel host-bus adapters and storage adapters.

Specifically, the EU is concerned Broadcom may harm competition in those markets by limiting interoperability between rival hardware and VMware's server virtualization software. It also worries the company could either prevent or degrade access to VMware's software. The European Commission warns those actions "could lead to higher prices, lower quality and less innovation for business customers, and ultimately consumers."

The Commission will also investigate whether Broadcom could hinder rivals like NVIDIA and Intel from developing their own smart network interface cards. Here it points to VMWare's involvement in Project Monterey, an industry-wide effort the company announced in 2020. "Broadcom may decrease VMware's involvement in Project Monterey to protect its own NICs revenues," the Commission notes. "This could hamper innovation to the detriment of customers." Another concern is that Broadcom could start bundling VMware's virtualization software with its own mainframe and security tools, a move that would reduce choice in the market.

As one of the larger tech acquisitions of 2022, Broadcom's bid to buy VMware was certain to draw scrutiny. The European Commission won't necessarily block the deal, but the investigation could significantly delay the transaction and force concessions out of Broadcom. With today's announcement, the Commission has 90 working days or until May 11th, 2023, to make a decision. If the deal were to fall through, it would be a bitter repeat of Broadcom's 2018 attempt to buy chipmaker Qualcomm. While the circumstances and concerns were different, the company was forced to abandon the takeover after the Trump administration blocked the transaction.