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Facebook's day off: Facebook is having quite a week

Facebook's day off: Facebook is having quite a week

Facebook has had quite a week. On Monday the company's 3 major platforms, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, all went down for 6+ hours. Then a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, testified in front of a Senate Commerce subcommittee, where she did didn't pull any punches.

The outages at the start of the week were a boon for Facebook rivals. Messaging apps like Telegram and Signal surged up the app download rankings, with Telegram's founder claiming 70 million new users on Monday. Snapchat and TikTok also scooped up more screentime, with usage up 23% and 11% respectively. Facebook's stock dropped 5%, only to gain half of its losses back yesterday.

The bigger problem

The technical issues may have been Facebook's longest outage for years, but the damage done is likely to be limited to Monday. That's not quite true for whistleblower Haugen's testimony to the Senate yesterday. She doubled down on her criticism that Facebook is harmful to teen mental health (and knows it), stokes divisions within society and is harmful to democracy.

Zuckerberg answered the age old Facebook prompt "what's on your mind" with a 1300+ word rebuttal of Haugen's main criticisms.

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Eli Lilly makes the world’s bestselling drug. Can it keep the party going?

Some are starting to worry that Lilly, which for a short time vaulted into the trillion-dollar market cap club, may have hit a plateau.

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Delta to increase bag fees by $10 on domestic flights this week, following JetBlue and United, as jet fuel surges

As the price of jet fuel surges amid the war in Iran, Delta Air Lines on Tuesday announced that it will hike its checked bag fees by $10 beginning this week.

Checking one bag on a domestic Delta flight will now cost $45, up from $35. A second bag will cost $55, up from $45, and a third will cost $200, up from $150. In a statement to Sherwood News, Delta issued the following announcement:

“For tickets purchased on or after April 8, Delta will increase fees for first and second checked bags by $10 and for a third checked bag by $50 on domestic and select short-haul international routes. These updates are part of Delta’s ongoing review of pricing across its business and reflect the impact of evolving global conditions and industry dynamics. Delta SkyMiles Medallion Members; customers traveling in First Class, Delta Premium Select and Delta One; active-duty military customers; and those with eligible co-branded Delta SkyMiles American Express Cards will continue to receive their allotment of complimentary checked bags.”

The move follows similar hikes by JetBlue and United Airlines last week. More are likely to come: when one major airline adjusts its fees, others tend to follow quickly behind. Delta last raised its bag fees in 2024, along with other major airlines.

Jet fuel prices were $4.69 a gallon on Monday, per the Argus US Jet Fuel Index. That’s up from the low $2 range for much of January.

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Paramount reportedly receives $24 billion from Gulf funds to back its Warner Bros. takeover

Three Middle East sovereign wealth funds have agreed to back Paramount’s takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery to the tune of roughly $24 billion, according to Wall Street Journal reporting.

The company’s triumph over Netflix in the bidding war came thanks in part to financial backing from Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, billionaire father of Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Saudi Arabia’s PIF, which last year led the $55 billion deal to take Electronic Arts private, will provide about $10 billion in the deal. The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co. is also involved.

According to the WSJ, the funds will not receive voting rights in the combined Paramount-Warner company. Those working on the deal don’t expect the Gulf funds’ involvement to spark any additional regulatory reviews.

The company’s triumph over Netflix in the bidding war came thanks in part to financial backing from Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, billionaire father of Paramount CEO David Ellison.

Saudi Arabia’s PIF, which last year led the $55 billion deal to take Electronic Arts private, will provide about $10 billion in the deal. The Qatar Investment Authority and Abu Dhabi’s L’imad Holding Co. is also involved.

According to the WSJ, the funds will not receive voting rights in the combined Paramount-Warner company. Those working on the deal don’t expect the Gulf funds’ involvement to spark any additional regulatory reviews.

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