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Adam Dodd, co-founder of wealth technology app Freetrade, is stepping down as CEO.

Freetrade

LONDON — The boss of U.K. stock trading service Freetrade is stepping down and leaving the company with immediate effect, the company told CNBC exclusively Monday.

Adam Dodd, who co-founded the company with business partners Davide Fioranell and Viktor Nebehaj in 2016, will be replaced by Nebehaj, currently Freetrade’s chief marketing officer, as CEO, pending customary regulatory approvals.

Dodd remains the largest individual shareholder in Freetrade, owning a roughly 12% stake, according to company filings. He won’t be involved in the day-to-day operations of the company from now, however a Freetrade spokesperson said he’ll continue to support the company’s evolution from the “outside.”

‘We almost died so many times it’s hard to count’

Dodd felt it was the right decision to leave the company and have Nebehaj take the reins as it enters the next stage of its growth trajectory, which includes plans to push out new products including bonds and mutual funds, tax wrappers, and its web platform, as well as grow its core profitable U.K. userbase.

The Freetrade logo on a smartphone screen.

Rafael Henrique | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

“When reflecting on the journey from idea to over a million users with billions in assets, it’s getting through the tough times you remember the most,” Dodd said in comments shared with CNBC. “We almost died so many times it’s hard to count.”

“Now, after putting up our first profitable quarter and with the business on a strong sustainable footing, it’s time to hang up my skates. Freetrade is default alive and ready to take on the incumbent platforms in the UK with self-sustaining growth,” Dodd said.

Dodd added: “I’m very happy to say Viktor will be stepping up to take over the helm as CEO. I’ll be doing everything I can to support him and the company from the board. As for me I’m looking forward to getting to know my kids better, annoying my wife on the farm, and finally getting my pilot license.”

Nebehaj, Freetrade’s incoming CEO, applauded Dodds’ eight-year run as CEO and said that “it’s natural that different stages of a company’s growth require different leaders.”

“With our first profitable quarter behind us, I’m excited about the size of the opportunity ahead,” Nebehaj said in a statement. “Our talented and high-quality team is building the right product for our customers.”

Perry Blacher, Freetrade’s board chairman, said that Nebehaj “is ideally placed to lead Freetrade from strength to strength.”

Wild few years

Dodds’ departure follows a wild ride for the company in recent years. Dodds took Freetrade from a scrappy startup in the early days seeking to disrupt the world of wealth management, to a 500-person company with over 1.4 million users.

In 2020, Freetrade was onboarding thousands of users a day as retail trading activity boomed in the wake of the GameStop stock-trading saga, which saw a community of hardcore fans of the U.S. video game retailer drive up the price of the company’s share price.

More recently, it’s been forced to tighten its belt as the reality of a gloomier macroeconomic environment set in. In 2022, Freetrade announced measures to lay off 15% of its workforce as sought to push toward profitability.

The following year, Freetrade raised £2.3 million ($2.9 million) in a crowdfunding round on Crowdcube at a valuation of £225 million — a 65% discount to its earlier £650 million valuation. Freetrade at the time blamed a “different market environment” plagued by higher interest rates and inflation.

More recently, the firm has had news to cheer about. Freetrade reported its first-ever quarter of profit in the three months through March, according to unaudited financial statements shared with CNBC in April. Preliminary revenues hit £6.7 million for the quarter.

Freetrade still generated an annual loss of £8.3 million in 2023, down from the £28.8 million loss it racked up the year prior, while revenues climbed 45% to £21.6 million in the same timeframe.

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Binance secures ‘largest investment ever’ in crypto as Abu Dhabi’s MGX pledges $2 billion

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Binance secures ‘largest investment ever’ in crypto as Abu Dhabi’s MGX pledges  billion

The Binance logo is displayed on a screen in San Anselmo, California, June 6, 2023.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Emirati state-owned investment firm MGX announced a $2 billion investment into Binance, in what marks the cryptocurrency exchange’s first institutional investment and the “single largest investment” ever paird in crypto.

In a joint press release, the firms said the minority stake would be paid for in stablecoins, making it the “largest investment ever” paid in cryptocurrency. Stablecoins are a type of digital asset designed to hold a constant value, typically with a peg to a fiat currency. 

Abu Dhabi launched the MGX investment firm last year with a focus on AI technology. In September, MGX partnered with the likes of BlackRock and Microsoft to launch a more than $30 billion AI fund, but it had yet to invest in the cryptocurrency industry and blockchain sectors. 

“MGX’s investment in Binance reflects our commitment to advancing blockchain’s transformative potential for digital finance,” Ahmed Yahia, managing director and CEO at MGX, said in a statement.

The press release added that “by partnering with the leading industry player, MGX aims to enable innovation at the intersection of AI, blockchain technology and finance.”

Binance and MGX did not immediately comment on the size of the stake or what stablecoin would be used for the payment. Binance has not responded to an inquiry on whether the deal had been completed.

As part of the UAE’s broader ambitions to become a global technology leader, it has been growing into a regional crypto hub

Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, has grown its Middle East footprint as it faced regulatory hurdles and enforcement measures in other jurisdictions in recent years, 

According to the press release, Binance employs approximately 1,000 of its roughly 5,000 global workforce in the UAE. It adds that it now boasts over 260 million registered users and has surpassed $100 trillion in cumulative trading volume. 

Binance CEO Richard Teng is scheduled to take part in a panel session at CNBC’s CONVERGE LIVE in Singapore at 2:40 p.m. local time (2:40 a.m. ET) on Thursday.

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Meta goes to arbitrator to prevent whistleblower from promoting tell-all book

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Meta goes to arbitrator to prevent whistleblower from promoting tell-all book

This photo illustration created Jan. 7, 2025, shows an image of Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, and an image of the Meta logo.

Drew Angerer | Afp | Getty Images

Meta is seeking to stop the promotion of a new memoir by a former staffer that paints the social media company in an unflattering light, including allegations of sexual harassment by the company’s policy chief. 

An emergency arbitrator ruled Thursday that Sarah Wynn-Williams is prohibited from promoting “Careless People,” her book that was released Tuesday by Flatiron Books, an imprint of publisher Macmillan Books.

The memoir chronicles Wynn-Williams’ tenure at Facebook from 2011 through 2017. During that time, she became a high-level employee who interacted with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, then-COO Sheryl Sandberg and Joel Kaplan, the company’s current policy chief. In the book, Wynn-Williams alleges that Kaplan made a number of inappropriate comments to her, which she then reported to the company as sexual harassment.

“This is a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives,” a Meta spokesperson previously said about both her book and complaint.

Wynn-Williams also details in her book the company’s various attempts to enter the Chinese market, including building tools that would censor content to appease the Chinese Communist Party. Wynn-Williams addressed some of these China-specific claims in a whistleblower complaint that she filed in April with the Securities and Exchange Commission, NBC News reported.

The emergency arbitrator ruled in favor of Meta after watching a podcast appearance of Wynn-Williams in which she discussed her memoir and her allegations that Meta was attempting to “shut this book down.”

“The Emergency Arbitrator finds that, after reviewing the briefs and hearing oral argument, (Meta) has established a likelihood of success on the merits of its contractual non-disparagement claim against Respondent Wynn-Williams, and that immediate and irreparable loss will result in the absence of emergency relief,” the filing said.

Additionally, the arbitrator ruled that so much as Wynn-Williams can control, she is prohibited from further publishing or distributing the book and from further disparaging Meta and its officers or repeating previous disparaging remarks. The arbitrator also ruled that Wynn-Williams is to retract her previous disparaging remarks.

The company has previously dismissed Wynn-Williams’ claims as “out-of-date” and said that she was fired for “poor performance and toxic behavior.”

Meta spokesperson Andy Stone shared the emergency arbitrator’s ruling in a post on Threads, saying that it “affirms that Sarah Wynn Williams’ false and defamatory book should never have been published.”

“This urgent legal action was made necessary by Williams, who more than eight years after being terminated by the company, deliberately concealed the existence of her book project and avoided the industry’s standard fact-checking process in order to rush it to shelves after waiting for eight years,” Stone said.

Meta alleged that Wynn-Williams violated the non-disparagement terms of her September 2017 severance agreement, resulting in the company filing an emergency motion on Friday. The emergency arbitrator then conducted a telephone hearing involving legal representatives of Meta and Macmillan Books, but not Wynn-Williams who did not appear though she was given notice, the filing said.

Wynn-Williams, Flatiron Books and Macmillan Books did not respond to requests for comment.

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What's driving Meta's stock run

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Intel appoints Lip-Bu Tan as new CEO, stock jumps 12%

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Intel appoints Lip-Bu Tan as new CEO, stock jumps 12%

Lip-Bu Tan appointed chief executive officer of Intel Corporation

Courtesy: Intel

Intel said on Wednesday that it had appointed Lip-Bu Tan as its new CEO, as the chipmaker attempts to recover from a tumultuous four-year run under Pat Gelsinger.

Tan was previously CEO of Cadence Design Systems, which makes software used by all the major chip designers, including Intel. He was an Intel board member but departed last year, citing other commitments.

Tan replaces interim co-CEOs David Zinsner and MJ Holthaus, who took over in December when former Intel CEO Patrick Gelsinger was ousted. Tan is also rejoining Intel’s board.

The appointment closes a chaotic chapter in Intel’s history, as investors pressured the semiconductor company to cut costs and spin off businesses due to declining sales and an inability to crack the booming artificial intelligence market.

Intel shares rose over 12% in extended trading on Wednesday.

Tan becomes the fourth permanent CEO at Intel in seven years. Following Brian Krzanich’s resignation in 2018, after the revelations of an inappropriate relationship with an employee, Bob Swan took the helm in Jan. 2019. He departed two years later after Intel suffered numerous blows from competitors and chip delays. Swan was succeeded by Gelsinger in 2021.

Gelsinger took over with a bold plan to transform Intel’s business to manufacture chips for other companies in addition to its own, becoming a foundry. But Intel’s overall products revenue continued to decline, and investors fretted over the significant capital expenditures needed for such massive chip production, including constructing a $20 billion dollar factory complex in Ohio.

Last fall, after a disappointing earnings report, Intel appeared to be for sale, and reportedly drew interest from rival companies including Qualcomm. Analysts assessed the possibility of Intel spinning off its foundry division or selling its products division — including server and PC chips — to a rival.

In AI, Intel has gotten trounced by Nvidia, whose graphics processing units (GPUs) have become the chip of choice for developers over the past few years.

In January, Intel issued a weak forecast even as it beat on earnings and revenue. The company pointed to seasonality, economic conditions and competition, and said clients are digesting inventory. The prospect of tariffs was adding to the uncertainty, Zinsner said.

Intel said that Zinsner will return to his previous role of CFO. Holthaus will remain in charge of Intel Products.

Intel was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average in November and was replaced by Nvidia, reflecting the dramatic change of fortune in the semiconductor industry. Intel shares lost 60% of their value last year, while Nvidia’s stock price soared 171%. At Wednesday’s close, Intel’s market cap was $89.5 billion, less than one-thirtieth of Nvidia’s valuation.

WATCH: Intel appoints Lip-Bu Tan as CEO

Intel appoints Lip-Bu Tan as CEO

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