iWorld
Britney Spears sells music catalogue rights
Pop princess bags multi-million deal to hand over hits to Primary Wave
ALIFORNIA: Britney Spears is officially trading her masters for a massive payday. The pop icon has reportedly sold the rights to her extensive music catalogue to Primary Wave, an independent music publisher known for housing the legacies of legends like Whitney Houston and Stevie Nicks.
According to legal documents obtained by TMZ, the deal was inked on December 30. While the exact figure remains under wraps, sources suggest the payout is “in the ballpark” of the $200 million agreement Justin Bieber struck with Hipgnosis back in 2023. It seems Britney decided it was finally time to see some “Gimme More” in her bank account.
The 44-year-old superstar has been a permanent fixture on the global charts since her 1998 debut, “…Baby One More Time.” This new deal covers a treasure trove of millennial anthems, including:
Toxic
Oops!… I Did It Again
Circus
I’m a Slave 4 U
While the news has sent fans into a frenzy, the parties involved are keeping things quiet for now. Primary Wave has not yet responded to requests for comment, and Spears herself has stayed silent on social media.
For an artist who has spent decades under intense public and legal scrutiny, this move represents a significant shift in how her musical legacy will be managed. By handing over the keys to her kingdom, Britney is the latest in a long line of heavyweights to treat their songbook as a high-value asset rather than just a trip down memory lane.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
