1.SOFTBANK: Blockchain-based fantasy soccer game Sorare has raised $680 million in a funding round led by SoftBank, with players including ex-England international Rio Ferdinand and Spain’s Gerard Pique also investing, the company said on Tuesday.
Paris-based Sorare said the investment valued the company at $4.3 billion.
Founded in 2018, Sorare is an online game where players buy officially licensed cards representing soccer players and build teams which play against each other, with the outcome based on the players’ performance in real-life games.
The cards are traded in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), a kind of crypto asset which records the ownership status of digital goods on the blockchain.
2.DAIMLER:-The heads of a German environmental NGO have sued automakers BMW and Daimler for refusing to tighten their carbon emissions targets and give up fossil fuel-emitting cars by 2030, Handelsblatt newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The NGO, Deutsche Umwelthilfe, confirmed to Reuters that the lawsuits had been filed on Monday evening.
In letters to the firms in early September, the companies were given until September 20 to agree to the NGO’s demands, which also included limiting production of internal combustion engines cars ahead of 2030.
3.Bank Of America– Bank of America Corp has named three bankers to head its global financial institutions investment banking business, according to a company memo seen by Reuters on Monday.
The three executives – Will Addas, Gary Howe and Giorgio Cocini – each have over 20 years of experience in the sector, the memo said, adding that they would report to Thomas Sheehan, head of global investment banking.
Addas and Howe were most recently co-heads of Americas financial institutions investment banking, while Cocini was co-head of financial institutions investment banking for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), the memo said.
4.ROBINHOOD:–Robinhood Markets Inc is testing new crypto wallet and cryptocurrency transfer features for its app which would allow customers to send and receive digital currencies such as bitcoin, Bloomberg News reported on Monday.
A beta version of its iPhone app showed the company’s work on such features, the report said.
There was also a hidden image showing a waitlist page for users signing up for a crypto wallet feature, the report added.
A spokesperson for Robinhood declined to comment.
The company’s retail shareholders have long waited for a crypto wallet. A day before the brokerage announced its first quarterly results last month, the top question on Say, a platform that lets companies crowdsource questions from retail investors, was whether the brokerage was getting such a wallet.
5.GENERAL MOTORS:Â General Motors Co said on Monday that battery production for its recalled Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle had resumed and that battery replacements will begin next month.
GM said supplier LG battery plants in Holland and Hazel Park, Michigan, have resumed production and LG is adding capacity to provide more battery cells to GM.
Last week, the largest U.S. automaker said it would extend a shutdown of a Michigan assembly plant to mid-October following a new recall of its Bolt electric vehicles over battery issues after 13 reported fires. GM declined Monday to say when it might resume production of the vehicles.
GM shares recovered some of their earlier losses after the announcement, closing down 3.8% at $49.37.
GM in August widened its recall of the Bolt to more than 140,000 vehicles to replace battery modules, at a cost now estimated at $1.8 billion. The automaker said it would seek reimbursement from LG.
GM said on Monday “replacement battery modules will begin shipping to dealers as soon as mid-October.”
