DAILY DOSE: February 17, 2021
Posted on 02/17/2021
1. Iconiq Capital plans to expand in the U.K. The wealth management business formed a U.K. entity called Iconiq Capital (UK) Ltd., which was incorporated on December 23, 2020. Its business is given as “fund management activities.” Divesh Makan is the founder of Iconiq Capital.
2. Iran plans to block nuclear inspectors if the U.S. does not drop its array of sanctions on Iran.
3. Houston power outages caused by the cold weather front could last several more days.
4. Mario Draghi, age 73, is the Prime Minister of Italy since 13 February 2021. He previously served as President of the European Central Bank from 2011 until 2019. Draghi is not aligned with any party and is an independent. Draghi told media that this Italian government believes the euro is irreversible. Draghi’s first priority is to fight the COVID pandemic.
5. Social media giant Facebook has cracked down on anti-vaccine and other healthcare information on its users, censoring information. In a leaked call however on July 16, 2020, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was recorded saying when it came to a COVID vaccine, “I share some caution on this. We just don’t know the long-term side effects of basically modifying people’s DNA and RNA.”
6. Epic Games, the maker of the game Fortnite, is taking its battle against Apple Inc. to European Union antitrust regulators. Epic Games failed to make gains in the U.S. court system. This is all over an argument over Apple’s iPhone payment system on its App Store and control over apps downloads.
7. Automobile-buying experts at Edmunds expects U.S. electric vehicle sales to grow to 2.5 percent in 2021 from 1.9 percent in 2020.
8. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has reportedly raised US$ 850 million in a round of funding, in transactions that would value shares of the company at US$ 419.99 each. The funding round values SpaceX at US$ 74 billion.