The daily business briefing: March 19, 2019

1. Warner Bros. chief Kevin Tsujihara resigns after scandal

Warner Bros. chief Kevin Tsujihara stepped down on Monday after allegations that he promised on-screen roles to an actress with whom he was having an affair. The Hollywood Reporter reported earlier this month that Tsujihara had exchanged text messages with British actress Charlotte Kirk suggesting they were involved in a sexual relationship and that Tsujihara had promised she would be considered for TV and movie roles in an apparent quid pro quo. "Kevin acknowledges that his mistakes are inconsistent with the company's leadership expectations and could impact the company's ability to execute going forward," WarnerMedia chief executive John Stankey said. Tsujihara's departure made him one of the highest ranking Hollywood executives to be ousted in a recent wave of sexual misconduct allegations.

The Associated Press

2. SEC: Musk violated deal to get Tesla tweets approved

Federal regulators on Monday told a judge that Tesla CEO Elon Musk had not sought pre-approval for any of his tweets about Tesla since reaching a fraud settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission that required him to notify regulators before posting anything that could materially impact the company. The SEC said that a Feb. 19 comment by Musk that was visible to his 24 million Twitter followers, in which he said Tesla would build 500,000 vehicles in 2019, amounted to "a blatant violation" of his agreement. After the SEC last month said that tweet violated the September fraud settlement, Musk said the "single, immaterial" tweet complied with the settlement. He said the SEC was trying to infringe on his freedom of speech.

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Reuters

3. Facebook shares fall 3.3 percent in worst day of year

Facebook shares dropped by 3.3 percent on Monday, their worst day of 2019, after Needham analysts downgraded the social network's stock. The downgrade came after Facebook's well-regarded chief product officer, Chris Cox, quit last week. Cox was one of Facebook's first employees, and was referred to by colleagues as the "heart and soul" of Facebook. He announced his departure shortly after CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed that Facebook was shifting its focus toward private messaging rather than open posts on users' News Feeds. Chris Daniels, chief of WhatsApp, also left the company. The social network's stock fell by 2.5 percent on Friday. It is now down by more than 13 percent in the past year.

CNBC

4. Stock futures rise ahead of Fed meeting

U.S. stock index futures rose early Tuesday ahead of the start of a two-day meeting of Federal Reserve policy makers. Futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the S&P 500, and the Nasdaq were all up by about 0.3 percent. The gains were widely seen as a sign of investor anticipation of a cautious tone from the Fed as global economic growth appears to be slowing. The central bank is expected to lower its interest rate forecasts to indicate little or no further hiking of rates this year. All three of the major U.S. indexes gained on Monday despite reports that a meeting between President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping to seal a trade deal, once hoped for late March, might not happen until June.

CNBC MarketWatch

5. Myspace loses a decade of user files

The once-dominant social media platform MySpace announced on Monday that "any photos, videos and audio files" uploaded before 2015 may be gone for good due to a "server migration project." After its conception in 2003, MySpace became home to about 50 million songs and helped launch careers for a host of now-big-name artists. MySpace has lost much of its widespread popularity, but fans still noticed when links to previously uploaded music stopped working last year. The company's Monday statement is its first public acknowledgment that those files were gone, likely forever.

TechCrunch