Tag: Direct

• In two emails sent internally this weekend, Palantir Technologies blamed Morgan Stanley for a “failure” that left some employee and alumni shareholders unable to sell their shares when the company made its public debut last Wednesday.
• The problem stemmed from a glitch with Morgan Stanley’s trading platform Shareworks.
• In an unsigned email sent late in the evening Sunday, Palantir said it had heard from Morgan Stanley that the bank was in a “war room” all weekend working to determine which shareholders were owed compensation. 
• A spokesperson for Shareworks at Morgan Stanley said the issue was a “slowness” that “may have resulted in delayed logins into our system.”
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Palantir placed blame squarely on Morgan Stanley following a glitch in the bank’s trading software Shareworks on Wednesday, according two unsigned emails sent to “Palantirians” on Saturday and Sunday, which were obtained by Business Insider.

That glitch temporarily prevented some employee and alumni shareholders from selling shares during the tech company’s direct listing.

Morgan Stanley “intends to ‘make people whole’ who were affected by the Shareworks failure,” Palantir wrote in the email from Saturday.

“We have and will continue to put the weight of the company behind protecting our hobbits and helping make sure Morgan Stanley is good to its word,” that email said, referring to employees with a reference to “Lord of the Rings.”

“The issues that we encountered with Shareworks are very frustrating. And while it was a successful listing (we pulled off the near impossible in getting the company listed and out in less than 6 months) it was blemished by Shareworks’ failure,” that email added.

A spokesperson for Palantir declined to comment on the emails. 

A spokesperson for Shareworks by Morgan Stanley told Business Insider that it had “experienced slowness that may

Facebook has announced that it is integrating the Messenger experience into Instagram direct messages, allowing users to enjoy the features of the messaging platform in the primarily photo-sharing app.

In a blog, Instagram’s Adam Mosseri and Messenger’s Stan Chudnovsky said the integration brings “the best Messenger features to Instagram,” allowing the latter’s users to stay connected with their non-Instagram-using family and friends.

Basically, Instagram and Messenger users will be able to message each other without having to download the other app.

The respective apps’ heads said that about 100 billion messages are sent each day via Facebook’s family of apps, which includes both Instagram and Messenger. About one out of three users, however, sometimes forget where particular message threads or conversations are located. The integration between the two apps will help deal with this problem.

The Instagram logo is pictured. Photo: AFP/LOIC VENANCE

In addition to allowing users to communicate with friends across apps (including via messages or video calls), the integration also allows Instagram users to enjoy Messenger’s slew of features, which include the following:

• Vanish Mode: Users can choose to make messages disappear after they are seen or when the chat is closed.
• Watch Together: Users can watch videos with their friends on other platforms during video calls. This includes videos on Facebook Watch, IGTV and more.
• Selfie Stickers: Users can create boomerang stickers with their selfies for use in conversations.
• Chat Colors: Users can customize their chats using fun color gradients.
• Custom Emoji Reactions: Users can create shortcuts to favorite emojis used to react quickly to

• Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote a letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission asking for the agency to investigate the data-mining company Palantir ahead of its stock-market debut, which it made on Wednesday.
• Among the congresswoman’s concerns is Palantir’s longtime penchant for secrecy, which she wrote could hurt future investors.
• Other concerns listed are its domestic and foreign contracts, including with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, law-enforcement agencies, and foreign governments that “may present human rights risks.”
• Palantir, a famed Silicon Valley startup founded in 2003, has a reputation for being secretive and has come under scrutiny recently ahead of its direct listing.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote a letter to the US Securities and Exchange Commission in mid-September asking the agency to investigate the secretive data firm Palantir as the company gained attention with its stock-exchange plans.

In the letter, the congresswoman listed several concerns pertaining to the Peter Thiel-founded Silicon Valley startup. But her primary grievance was the startup’s failure to fully disclose information regarding its business practices, omissions that could lead to material risks for future investors and national security issues as it begins trading, the letter said.

According to Ocasio-Cortez, one such partial omission was the funding it received from In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture-capital arm. A 2009 shareholder report from Palantir revealed that In-Q-Tel held a 10% share in Palantir, but the firm’s 2020 S-1 filing did not say whether that investment was still in play or how many Palantir shares In-Q-Tel held. Palantir is listed as one of In-Q-Tel’s portfolio companies on the venture group’s website.

Palantir’s contracts with foreign governments were also cited, some of which involve governments “known to engage in corrupt practices and human rights violations,” such as Qatar, Ocasio-Cortez wrote in the letter.

Palantir’s domestic contracts have

Topline

Facebook will soon allow people on the social media platform to send direct messages to Instagram users and vice versa, the social media giant said in a blog post, signaling the first step in the company’s plan to unify messaging systems across all of its platforms, which also includes WhatsApp.

Key Facts

Crucial Quote

Responding to a question on WhatsApp integration on Twitter, Facebook’s EMEA Technology Communications Manager Alexandru Voica wrote, “Right now, we are focused on cross-app communications Messenger and Instagram. We are still determining how cross-app communications will work with WhatsApp. WhatsApp will continue to remain a separate, end-to-end encrypted app at this time.”

Chief Critic

After Zuckerberg