Business news in brief
By The Associated Press
Judge orders Elon Musk
to testify in
SEC probe
SAN FRANCISCO | A judge has ordered Elon Musk to testify for a third time as part of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s investigation into his $44 billion purchase of Twitter, now called X, in 2022.
Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler issued an order Saturday giving Musk, his team and the SEC a week to agree on a date and location for Musk’s testimony. In a court hearing last December, Beeler said she would issue an order if the two sides couldn’t agree on when and where the Tesla and SpaceX CEO would testify.
“The parties, at least initially, agreed to a date but ultimately the respondent did not appear and resists the subpoena on the grounds that the SEC’s investigation is baseless and harassing and seeks irrelevant information,” Beeler wrote in the order in federal court in Northern California.
Potential $50B Southwestern energy giant emerges
Diamondback Energy will attempt to buy rival Endeavor Energy Resources to create an energy giant in the Southwestern United States worth more than $50 billion.
Growing confidence in an economic recovery, particularly in the U.S., has driven massive deals in the energy sector in recent months, including Chevron’s $53 billion acquisition of Hess in October, and a $59.5 billion deal two weeks before that by Exxon Mobil, its biggest acquisition since buying Mobil two decades ago.
A tie-up between Diamondback and Endeavor, if it succeeds, would create a player in the massive Permian Basin oil and gas field that straddles Texas and New Mexico.
It would be the third largest producer in the Permian behind Exxon and Chevron, overseeing 838,000 acres and potentially producing 816,000 oil-equivalent barrels each day.
Biden campaign trumpets joining TikTok
WASHINGTON | President Joe Biden ‘s reelection campaign on Monday defended its new TikTok account as a vital way to boost its appeal with young voters, even as his administration continued to raise security concerns about whether the popular social media app might be sharing user data with China’s communist government.
The campaign’s inaugural post featured the president being quizzed on Sunday’s Super Bowl — and included a reference to the latest political conspiracy theory centering on pop superstar Taylor Swift.
“The President’s TikTok debut last night — with more than 5 million views and counting — is proof positive of both our commitment and success in finding new, innovative ways to reach voters in an evolving, fragmented, and increasingly personalized media environment,” Biden reelection deputy campaign manager Rob Flaherty said in a statement.
—From AP reports
