Storyline: General Motors (GM) announced the end of production of six sedans by the end of 2019. The GM announcement is part of a broader shift among the Big Three to curb domestic production of smaller, lower-profit vehicles and focus more on higher-profit, roomier sport-utility vehicles and trucks. The company previously said that it would launch 20 new… Read More
Amazon announces two HQ2 locations
Storyline: Amazon has announced it will split its second headquarters, HQ2, between the Long Island City section of Queens, New York, and the Crystal City area of Arlington, Virginia. The company plans to evenly split the operations with as many as 25,000 employees in each location.The company began the search across North America in September 2017,… Read More
Luckey left Facebook because of his right political leanings?
Storyline: Oculus VR co-founder Palmer Luckey was fired from Facebook. On March 25, 2014, Facebook purchased Oculus VR for approximately $2 billion. Six months after contributing $10,000 to an anti-Hillary Clinton group, Luckey was let go. He is now claiming it was because of his support for Donald Trump in the presidential election. Facebook Chief… Read More
After walkout, Google employees continue demands for core changes
Storyline: More than 20,000 Google employees walked out of 40 offices around the world last week after a NYTimes article detailed the company’s actions shielding executives accused of sexual misconduct. The organizers demanded concrete changes such as a new system for reporting abuse and an employee representative on the company’s board. Google employees are using… Read More
Businesses supporting tax to deal with climate change
Storyline: Seattle is experiencing the effects of climate change first hand. It’s a contributing factor in the increasing number of forest fires that blanket the city in smoke. It has damaged oyster farms in nearby Puget Sound by altering the acidity of the Pacific Ocean. And the declining snowpack and earlier snowmelt in the mountains are… Read More
San Francisco’s tech billionaires fight for the homeless
Storyline: Next week, San Francisco residents will vote on Proposition C, a bill to fight homelessness with a new business tax. Marc Benioff, founder and co-CEO of Salesforce – San Francisco’s largest private employer – has emerged as the ballot measure’s most ardent supporter, pitting himself against Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter and Square, who… Read More
Apple preaches data privacy
Storyline: Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook recently called for U.S. data protection regulation saying individual’s personal information has been “weaponized.” Mr. Cook proposes that U.S. data protection laws be modeled on the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that was enacted in May to both improve user rights and bolster the 28-member bloc’s power as a… Read More
Activist tech workers shaking up Silicon Valley
Storyline: In December 2016, President-elect Donald Trump met with some of the tech world’s most prominent CEOs including Tim Cook of Apple, Larry Page of Alphabet, Satya Nadella of Microsoft, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon. This meeting did not sit well with the rank and file tech community that are often recruited globally. Trump had… Read More
Can AI drive workplace inclusiveness?
Storyline: There are many predictions that Artificial Intelligence (AI) will displace the human workforce with robots and machine learning. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has a different perspective and believes AI algorithms can actually expand the current workforce by helping people with disabilities. At the Wired25 Summit he told the audience, “There are a billion people in… Read More
Homeless initiative divides San Francisco
Storyline: Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced that he and his company will donate millions of dollars to the campaign for Proposition C, an upcoming ballot measure that will raise taxes on the biggest San Francisco businesses—including Salesforce—and use the money to help the homeless. Proposition C would more than double San Francisco’s housing-assistance spending by levying… Read More