Fort Myers Police respond to rollover crash; driver flees sceneWest End residents frustrated by security failures, lack of response
FORT MYERS Fort Myers Police respond to rollover crash; driver flees scene The Fort Myers Police Department responded to a crash involving one vehicle on Colonial Gardens Circle and Colonial Boulevard.
FORT MYERS West End residents frustrated by security failures, lack of response A nearly $64 million luxury apartment complex that close to 500 people call home, but somehow, security seems to fall through the cracks.
NAPLES Collier County nearly doubles tourism budget On Tuesday, Collier County Commissioners approved a nearly $12 million budget for a tourism marketing campaign.
Florida policyholders urged to contact OIR if policies are canceled or nonrenewed If your insurance has been canceled or is not being renewed due to this year’s storms, the state of Florida wants you to reach out to the Office of Insurance Regulation.
BAREFOOT BEACH Woman thinks QR code got hacked A Fort Myers woman says a fraudulent QR code at Barefoot Beach caused her credit card to be hacked. She’s on a mission to warn others.
CAPE CORAL Sticker shock: Cape Coral residents hit with unexpected property tax hikes This is the time of year when people start paying their property taxes, but what happens when you get your bill and it’s more than you expected?
SANIBEL Sanibel workshop teaches residents benefits of elevating homes and businesses With each hurricane that brings damage to our area, many people rush to be more resilient. On Sanibel, more than 300 people have RSVP’d to learn about raising their homes and businesses.
SANIBEL Sanibel Causeway construction causing confusion and costing local business Repairing the Sanibel Causeway after recent storms has caused more than just traffic back-ups.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Speakeasy in downtown Fort Myers honors local historic figures Everything inside the Escondido Lounge whispers an authentic speakeasy, from the dim red lights to the fancy vintage glasses.
ESTERO Caught on camera: Man steals money from tip jar in Estero A business manager feels violated after a man took money from a tip jar on Tuesday.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral ranked 13th for establishing small businesses A blog set out to find the top U.S. cities where aspiring business owners can thrive in 2024, Cape Coral was named 13th.
NAPLES Minimally invasive balloon procedure for sinus issues Battling a sinus infection is bad enough, but contending with chronic sinus infections can be a real problem.
Most Wanted Wednesday: Southwest Florida’s most wanted suspects for November 13, 2024 Here are some of Southwest Florida’s most wanted suspects for November 13, 2024.
ESTERO Car crashes into restaurant window in Gulf Coast Town Center Authorities are investigating after an SUV crashed into a restaurant at the Gulf Coast Town Center in Estero.
WEST PALM BEACH Trump picks Sen. Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State President-elect Donald Trump named Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as his nominee for secretary of state on Wednesday.
FORT MYERS Fort Myers Police respond to rollover crash; driver flees scene The Fort Myers Police Department responded to a crash involving one vehicle on Colonial Gardens Circle and Colonial Boulevard.
FORT MYERS West End residents frustrated by security failures, lack of response A nearly $64 million luxury apartment complex that close to 500 people call home, but somehow, security seems to fall through the cracks.
NAPLES Collier County nearly doubles tourism budget On Tuesday, Collier County Commissioners approved a nearly $12 million budget for a tourism marketing campaign.
Florida policyholders urged to contact OIR if policies are canceled or nonrenewed If your insurance has been canceled or is not being renewed due to this year’s storms, the state of Florida wants you to reach out to the Office of Insurance Regulation.
BAREFOOT BEACH Woman thinks QR code got hacked A Fort Myers woman says a fraudulent QR code at Barefoot Beach caused her credit card to be hacked. She’s on a mission to warn others.
CAPE CORAL Sticker shock: Cape Coral residents hit with unexpected property tax hikes This is the time of year when people start paying their property taxes, but what happens when you get your bill and it’s more than you expected?
SANIBEL Sanibel workshop teaches residents benefits of elevating homes and businesses With each hurricane that brings damage to our area, many people rush to be more resilient. On Sanibel, more than 300 people have RSVP’d to learn about raising their homes and businesses.
SANIBEL Sanibel Causeway construction causing confusion and costing local business Repairing the Sanibel Causeway after recent storms has caused more than just traffic back-ups.
DOWNTOWN FORT MYERS Speakeasy in downtown Fort Myers honors local historic figures Everything inside the Escondido Lounge whispers an authentic speakeasy, from the dim red lights to the fancy vintage glasses.
ESTERO Caught on camera: Man steals money from tip jar in Estero A business manager feels violated after a man took money from a tip jar on Tuesday.
CAPE CORAL Cape Coral ranked 13th for establishing small businesses A blog set out to find the top U.S. cities where aspiring business owners can thrive in 2024, Cape Coral was named 13th.
NAPLES Minimally invasive balloon procedure for sinus issues Battling a sinus infection is bad enough, but contending with chronic sinus infections can be a real problem.
Most Wanted Wednesday: Southwest Florida’s most wanted suspects for November 13, 2024 Here are some of Southwest Florida’s most wanted suspects for November 13, 2024.
ESTERO Car crashes into restaurant window in Gulf Coast Town Center Authorities are investigating after an SUV crashed into a restaurant at the Gulf Coast Town Center in Estero.
WEST PALM BEACH Trump picks Sen. Marco Rubio as his Secretary of State President-elect Donald Trump named Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida as his nominee for secretary of state on Wednesday.
FILE – Elon Musk speaks at the SATELLITE Conference and Exhibition March 9, 2020, in Washington. Musk will participate in a meeting with employees of Twitter on Thursday, June 16, 2022, as the billionaire and social media platform continue to try to push forward on their agreed-to $44 billion acquisition. Twitter confirmed on Tuesday that the meeting will take place, but did not provide any other details about it. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File) Elon Musk announced Friday that he will abandon his tumultuous $44 billion offer to buy Twitter after the company failed to provide enough information about the number of fake accounts. Twitter immediately fired back, saying it would sue the Tesla CEO to uphold the deal. The likely unraveling of the acquisition was just the latest twist in a saga between the world’s richest man and one of the most influential social media platforms, and it may portend a titanic legal battle ahead. Twitter could have pushed for a $1 billion breakup fee that Musk agreed to pay under these circumstances. Instead, it looks ready to fight to complete the purchase, which the company’s board has approved and CEO Parag Agrawal has insisted he wants to consummate. In a letter to Twitter’s board, Musk lawyer Mike Ringler complained that his client had for nearly two months sought data to judge the prevalence of “fake or spam” accounts on the social media platform. “Twitter has failed or refused to provide this information. Sometimes Twitter has ignored Mr. Musk’s requests, sometimes it has rejected them for reasons that appear to be unjustified, and sometimes it has claimed to comply while giving Mr. Musk incomplete or unusable information,” the letter said. Musk also said the information is fundamental to Twitter’s business and financial performance, and is needed to finish the merger. In response, the chair of Twitter’s board, Bret Taylor, tweeted that the board is “committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon” with Musk and “plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery.” The trial court in Delaware frequently handles business disputes among the many corporations, including Twitter, that are incorporated there. Much of the drama surrounding the deal has played out on Twitter, with Musk — who has more than 100 million followers — lamenting that the company was failing to live up to its potential as a platform for free speech. On Friday, shares of Twitter fell 5% to $36.81, well below the $54.20 that Musk agreed to pay. Shares of Tesla, meanwhile, climbed 2.5% to $752.29. After the market closed and Musk’s letter was published, Twitter’s stock continued to decline while Tesla climbed higher. “This is a disaster scenario for Twitter and its board,” Wedbush analyst Dan Ives wrote in a note to investors. He predicted a long court fight by Twitter to either restore the deal or get the $1 billion breakup fee. On Thursday, Twitter sought to shed more light on how it counts spam accounts in a briefing with journalists and company executives. Twitter said it removes 1 million spam accounts each day. The accounts represent well below 5% of its active user base each quarter. To calculate how many accounts are malicious spam, Twitter said it reviews “thousands of accounts” sampled at random, using both public and private data such as IP addresses, phone numbers, location and account behavior when active, to determine whether an account is real. Last month, Twitter offered Musk access to its “fire hose” of raw data on hundreds of millions of daily tweets, according to multiple reports at the time, though neither the company nor Musk confirmed that. One of the chief reasons Musk gave for his interest in taking Twitter private was his belief he could add value to the business by getting rid of its spam bots — the same problem that he’s now citing as a reason to end the deal. “This whole process has been bizarre,” said Christopher Bouzy, founder of research firm Bot Sentinel, which tracks fake Twitter accounts used for disinformation or harassment. “He knew about this problem. It’s odd that he would use bots and trolls and inauthentic accounts as a way of getting out of the deal.” On the other hand, Bouzy said, the letter from Musk’s legal team makes some valid critiques of Twitter’s lack of transparency, including its apparent refusal to provide Musk with the same level of internal data it offers some of its big customers. “It just seems as if they’re hiding something,” said Bouzy, who also believes the number of fake or spam Twitter accounts is higher than what the company has reported. Musk’s lawyer also alleged that Twitter broke the agreement when it fired two top managers and laid off a third of its talent-acquisition team. The sale agreement, he wrote, required Twitter to “seek and obtain consent” if it deviated from conducting normal business. Twitter was required to “preserve substantially intact the material components of its current business organization,” the letter said. Musk’s flirtation with buying Twitter appeared to begin in late March. That’s when Twitter said he contacted members of its board — including co-founder Jack Dorsey — and told them he was buying up shares of the company and was interested in either joining the board, taking Twitter private or starting a competitor. Then, on April 4, he revealed in a regulatory filing that he had became the company’s largest shareholder after acquiring a 9% stake worth about $3 billion. At first, Twitter offered Musk a seat on its board. But six days later, Agrawal tweeted that Musk would not be joining the board after all. His bid to buy the company came together quickly after that. When Musk agreed to buy Twitter for $54.20 per share, he inserted a “420” marijuana reference into his price. He sold roughly $8.5 billion worth of shares in Tesla to help fund the purchase, then strengthened his commitments of more than $7 billion from a diverse group of investors including Silicon Valley heavy hitters like Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison. Inside Twitter, Musk’s offer was met with confusion and falling morale, especially after Musk publicly criticized one of Twitter’s top lawyers involved in content-moderation decisions. Groups opposing the takeover from the outset — including those advocating for women, minorities and LGBTQ people — cheered Friday’s news. “Despite what Musk may claim, this deal isn’t ending because of Twitter bots or spam accounts. This deal is collapsing because of Elon Musk’s own erratic behavior, embrace of extremists and bad business decisions,” said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters, a left-leaning nonprofit watchdog group that’s been critical of Musk’s Twitter bid. Musk, he said, “made it clear that he would roll back Twitters’ community standards and safety guidelines, which would turn the platform into a fever swamp of dangerous conspiracy theories, partisan chicanery and white supremacist radicalization.”