Are Text Messages the New Social Media? One Start-Up Thinks So.

“As opposed to email, when you have to scroll to the bottom of the thing and hit the link that says unsubscribe, if you don’t like the text messages you’re getting, you only have to write one word: Stop,” Mr. Kutcher said. (That’s some news you can use.)

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Rupert Murdoch makes another deal. Fox News settled a defamation case with Dominion Voting Systems at the last minute for $788 billion. The deal allowed Murdoch and his company’s executives to avoid having to testify, but it also handed Staple Street, the private equity owner of Dominion, a big payday after it bought the company for $38 million in 2018. His son Lachlan, C.E.O. of Fox Corporation, also settled a separate defamation suit against an Australian publisher this week.

Return to sender. Netflix ended its DVD delivery service after 25 years. The streaming company’s original business model revolved around sending discs by mail, and at its peak, in 2010, about 20 million subscribers used the service. The company announced the changes as it reported first-quarter profits of $1.3 billion, up 4 percent year on year.

Gary Gensler gets a grilling. The chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was hammered by Republicans over the agency’s handling of the cryptocurrency industry, in an appearance before the House Financial Services Committee. Gensler defended the regulator, saying he had never seen a sector break so many securities laws with such regularity, after being accused of failing to spot problems at FTX before the cryptocurrency exchange collapsed.

China’s economy bounces back, kind of. In its first full quarter since Beijing lifted punishing Covid restrictions, the world’s second-largest economy beat expectations on the back of surging consumer spending, rising exports and government-led infrastructure spending. But youth unemployment hit 19.6 percent, its second-highest mark on record, suggesting that businesses are not convinced that Beijing is finished dabbling in the private sector and that economic uncertainty is over.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/business/dealbook/text-messages-community.html