Canal+: no white flags here
Canal+, unlike its forebears, isn’t backing down. It’s desperately looking for an ‘in’ to Africa’s content scheme, and it’s hoping to do that through a total buyout of MultiChoice, owners of DStv and SuperSport. Despite turning down the French firm’s initial offer in February, Canal+ returned with a vastly improved offer that, by the look of it, MultiChoice is deeply considering.
According to MyBroadband, MultiChoice has informed shareholders that an independent board has been established to seriously consider Groupe Canal+’s offer to purchase the remainder of shares it does not already own, valuing the broadcaster at roughly R55 billion. The deal, a cash buyout, would be worth around R35 billion.
MultiChoice in a statement issued on Monday noted that it had selected Standard Bank as the deal’s independent expert, allowing the bank to review the terms, provide an opinion on Canal+’s offer, and recommend a course of action to its shareholders.
Separate from the deal, Canal+ has continued to dig itself deeper into the company, MultiChoice confirmed on Friday, 5 April. Canal+ now owns 36.6% of the company, up from the 35.01% it held when it upped its bid to R125/share in March, though should the share price rise to above R125/share before the deal closes, Canal+ may be forced to up its offer.
Both MultiChoice and Canal+ intend to post a combined circular to MultiChoice shareholders by 7 May 2024, according to TechCentral.
Spotify’s fiddling with AI again
It was only a matter of time before Spotify got ’round to throwing generative AI onto their platform. It’s been toying with the idea of artificial intelligence for ages, first doling out X, the AI DJ, to users before saddling them with a whole lot of other AI-powered features, Now, however, the platform will allow users to hit a couple of keys on their keyboard (typing) and have an entire playlist spat out back at them. Say hello to AI playlists.
Spotify announced the feature yesterday, although it’s reserved for customers in the UK and Australia for now. When it eventually reaches South Africa, users can type in prompts such as “a playlist that makes me feel like the main character,” or “relaxing music to tide me over during allergy season.”
Get creative with those prompts. Spotify reckons the intelligent platform will understand references to places, animals, activities, movie characters, colours and “even emojis”. Describe your moods and the decades of music you’re after to get the best results. As for when the feature will see a wider rollout, there’s no way of telling. We’re hoping it’ll be sooner rather than later.
Eskom is dropping R67 billion to pollute less
When South Africa’s state-owned power utility, Eskom, isn’t load shedding the country, it’s unfortunately burning more coal than your uncle on a Sunday afternoon. It’s now looking to fix that, according to Bloomberg, by spending billions of rands to cut emissions down to a healthier figure.
Specifically, Eskom is committing to a plan that will see the utility spend R67 billion from now until 2035 to cut its most dangerous emissions by 70% in that timeframe.
Why now? Last week, the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air said that the government’s idea of delaying the closure of certain plants could result in the death of tens of thousands of residents.
“Eskom has developed station-specific recovery plans for each station and these include emission-improvement plans which are being implemented and are beginning to show success,” the company said in a response to queries.
Unfortunately, Eskom provided nothing more than ambitious promises and vague sentiments on how it’s planning to cut down on those emissions.
Elon Musk wants a Tesla robotaxi, is getting a robotaxi
According to a new tweet from Elon Musk, the auto-automobile manufacturer is currently working on the long-promised robotaxi, which will be revealed to the world at an event (presumably streamed exclusively on X) on 8 August 2024.
The robotaxi’s unveiling announcement came the same day as a Reuters report noting that Tesla had shelved plans to develop a cheaper car, costing roughly $25,000, with company head Elon Musk telling employees that he’d rather focus on an autonomous vehicle that would make other vehicles “obsolete.”
The idea of a Tesla robotaxi isn’t entirely new. Musk first teased the vehicle at a 2023 event while unveiling the company’s third ‘Master Plan’, though the car was under a cover and left to the imagination. Even earlier, Musk had brought up ideas of a vehicle that would allow customers to earn money from their car by sending it out to complete passenger pick-ups and drop-offs.
Whether the idea of a Tesla robotaxi will all play out how Musk imagines remains to be seen. It will require considerable faith from customers and passengers, a difficult feat after the bad press the company’s FSD (full self-driving) feature has received in the past few years.