Thursday’s top tech news: what does ‘funding secured’ mean anyway?

If the CEO of a publicly traded company were to tweet that they planned to take their company private, and said they had “funding secured,” you’d be forgiven for assuming that, well, they planned to take their company private and had secured funding to make it happen. “Not so fast,” argue Elon Musk’s lawyers, in response to being sued by Tesla investors over this tweet that the investors say caused them to lose millions.

“It isn’t clear what funding secured even means in a tweet phrase,” say the Tesla CEO’s lawyers, “It’s not self-evident how one could be just considering something, and yet, all the details are set.”

Next up, a new rumor suggests Apple’s smart home ambitions are kicking into a higher gear. The company revealed a new Matter-compatible HomePod yesterday, and shortly afterwards a report claimed it’s working on a new iPad-like smart display to compete with similar devices from Google and Amazon.

Finally, in the US the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cited Amazon for alleged safety law violations in its warehouses. It’s proposed $60,269 in penalties. Amazon says it disagrees and intends to appeal.

For now, here’s a silly tweet to start your day:

• Jan 19, 2023, 6:33 PM UTCElizabeth Lopatto

  Don’t trust Bill Gates’ taste in fake meat.

  Loved this Bloomberg review of how the fake meat market went awry.

  Here’s some free advice for all you VCs: the “crunchy set” is the actual market for meat replacement, so make black bean burgers with sweet potatoes and quinoa if you want to succeed. Good talk!