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Tag: Layoffs

  • Meta Fires $400,000 Employee Over $25 Uber Eats Meal Voucher | Entrepreneur

    Meta Fires $400,000 Employee Over $25 Uber Eats Meal Voucher | Entrepreneur

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    Meta fired about two dozen people in the company’s Los Angeles office last week for misusing a $25 dinner voucher over an extended period of time. One employee made $400,000 per year.

    Meta gives employees a $20 credit for breakfast, $25 for lunch, and $25 for dinner through Grubhub or Uber Eats. Instead of using the $25 credit to buy dinner and have it delivered to the office, some Meta staff opted to buy items like toothpaste and wine glasses with the credit, per The Financial Times. Or they would get dinner delivered at home or pool their credit money together.

    Related: Meta Is Putting AI Images on Your Facebook and Instagram Feeds, With Personalized Pictures

    The staff who were let go routinely misused their vouchers, while others who misapplied them less frequently, were reprimanded but not fired.

    The Meta employee who made $400,000 wrote on an anonymous messaging platform that being let go over the meal credit was “surreal.”

    Mark Zuckerberg. Photo Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images

    Meta started a new round of layoffs on Wednesday that affected teams across Instagram, WhatsApp, and Reality Labs. It’s unclear how many people were affected.

    Meta reported 22% revenue growth, or revenue of $39.07 billion, in its second quarter in late July. In an earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company was “driving good growth” and that Meta AI was “on track to be the most used AI assistant in the world by the end of the year.”

    Related: She Sent a Cold Email to Meta Judging Its Ray-Bans. Now She Runs the Wearables Division.

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    Sherin Shibu

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  • Operator Layoffs at Cleveland Hopkins Won’t Impact Fall Flights, Airport Says

    Operator Layoffs at Cleveland Hopkins Won’t Impact Fall Flights, Airport Says

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    click to enlarge

    Frontier

    Swissport, which is laying off 213 employees at Cleveland Hopkins, has handled luggage for Frontier, along with a number of airlines at CLE in the past few decades.

    The hundreds of baggage handlers, ticketing agents, gate managers and ramp operators let go last week at Cleveland Hopkins International won’t hamper flights or service, the airport said.

    Over the weekend, Swissport USA, the Switzerland-based company that handles passenger bags at 60 airports across the country, filed paperwork at the state level to officialize a mass layoff of 213 of their employees. Swissport has had a contractual relationship with a list of airlines since they set up shop here in 1996.

    The move lands after a summer of comings and goings. In July, Frontier announced that they would be ending five direct flights out of Cleveland, blaming “seasonal” fluctuations in the market. And in early September, tens of thousands of flight attendants at United around the country, and dozens at CLE, made clear they were poised to strike, if corporate didn’t agree to a pay raise.

    All changes that, whether seen on the flight board or at the gate, could possibly alter air travel rhythms in the coming months.

    click to enlarge United flight attendants picketing at Cleveland Hopkins in early September. - Mark Oprea

    Mark Oprea

    United flight attendants picketing at Cleveland Hopkins in early September.

    Plausible interruptions that Swissport’s former airline clientele and Hopkins itself denies will be noticeable when the company formally ends its ground handling operations in Cleveland on November 4.

    “All airlines currently under contract with Swissport have contracted with another provider to render the same services after the end of the Swissport agreement,” a Hopkins spokesperson told Scene on Tuesday. “So there will be no disruption of service.”

    In an email, Swissport told Scene that all 213 employees were handed WARN notices, federally-required notificatat least two months prior to being let go.

    Like Hopkins, Swissport signaled that let-go employees were lined up to work with G2 Secure Staff and PrimeFlight Aviation Services—which handle operations for JetBlue and Frontier—yet weren’t clear on how many of those workers actually agreed to new job offers.

    “We thank our employees for their dedication and excellent performance over the past several years, and we will focus on helping them find new employment opportunities,” a Swissport spokesperson wrote Scene.

    They added: “We will make sure our current airline customer will have a smooth transition to the new ground services provider in November.”

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    Mark Oprea

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  • Wells Fargo announces second round of jobs cuts in metro Denver this summer

    Wells Fargo announces second round of jobs cuts in metro Denver this summer

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    Wells Fargo, the state’s largest bank, plans to cut about 70 jobs at its Chief Operating Office Global Operations business unit in Greenwood Village, according to a notification sent to the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment on Tuesday.

    “The affected employees who do not relocate or secure other positions within the company will be eligible to receive paid severance benefits based on years of service and the opportunity to continue participating in the company’s health plans at active rates for a period of time,” Ashley Frazier, an executive in the bank’s Displacements Advisory Group wrote the state in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act or WARN letter.

    Frazier said more specific information on job titles involved, notice dates and number of displaced employees would follow once official written notices went out. The layoffs are being made at 5700 S. DTC Parkway, Building 15.

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    Aldo Svaldi

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  • Paramount laying off another 15 percent of its US workforce

    Paramount laying off another 15 percent of its US workforce

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    Paramount is laying off 15 percent of its US workforce, . This follows a in which total revenue fell short from an expected $7.21 billion to $6.81 billion. The layoffs will impact around 3,000 people.

    “The industry continues to evolve, and Paramount is at an inflection point where changes must be made to strengthen our business,” company CEOs wrote in a staff memo.

    Paramount representatives say these cuts will happen in three stages, with layoffs beginning today and 90 percent of all cuts being completed by the end of September. The layoffs will primarily impact employees involved in marketing and communications, though the company’s legal and finance arms will also face cuts.

    Paramount already back in February, and this was after a three percent increase in revenue growth that was largely credited to its streaming and film businesses. So, a three percent increase of revenue translated to a three percent reduction of Paramount’s workforce and missing revenue expectations by around four percent is leading to layoffs accounting for 15 percent of company employees. Workers can’t catch a break.

    All of these layoffs are likely being used to clear the runway, so to speak, for the forthcoming merger with Skydance. The merger was and will soon head to the regulatory review process. Paramount for its streaming service and, of course, for reasons that make a lot of sense to corporate executives but not so much to regular people.

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    Lawrence Bonk

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  • Meta shutters its first-party VR game studio Ready at Dawn

    Meta shutters its first-party VR game studio Ready at Dawn

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    Ready at Dawn Studios, the game studio behind the Echo virtual reality series for the Meta Quest, has been shut down by its parent owner, Meta, effective immediately.

    Android Central reported Meta’s decision to close Ready at Dawn Studios almost a year and a half after purchasing the game studio. The news comes on the heels of a mid-July report that Meta plans to cut its Reality Labs division’s budget by 20 percent by 2026 when it is reportedly scheduled to release the Meta Quest 4 and Quest 4s, its next VR headsets.

    Ready at Dawn’s reach in the gaming industry goes all the way back to the days of Sony’s PlayStation Portable (PSP). The studio released its first game in 2006 with Daxter, a PSP spinoff of the popular Jak and Daxter series. Ready at Dawn also released three titles in Sony’s God of War series for the PSP including Chains of Olympus, Ghost of Sparta and the Olympus Collection that bundled its two earlier titles. The studio made the jump to consoles starting with the PlayStation 4 in 2015 with The Order: 1886. The Victorian-era third-person action adventure became one of the year’s most anticipated titles for its boundary pushing graphics. Following a wave of mixed reviews, Ready at Dawn took a stab at a multiplayer title with a cheerier disposition in 2017 called De-Formers for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. Engadget senior editor Jessica Conditt described the colorful character combat competition as “cannibalism combat in a 3-D cartoon.”

    The rise of and ease of access to virtual reality prompted the studio to pivot again in 2018 to the new immersive game medium. The studio released the first two VR titles in its Echo game series including the free-to-play Oculus Rift and Quest virtual sport Echo Arena and the interactive, gravity-free sci-fi adventure Lone Echo. Both found a fanbase on the all-in-one VR headset leading to sequels including the free-floating arena shooter Echo Combat in 2018 and Lone Echo II in 2021.

    Oculus bought the studio in 2023 and allowed it to continue operations in its California and Oregon offices. The same year, Meta shut down its free Echo VR game due to dwindling player numbers.

    Meta has slashed more than 20,000 jobs since 2023, a period that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has characterized as a “year of efficiency.”

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    Danny Gallagher

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  • Humble Games reportedly lays off its entire staff

    Humble Games reportedly lays off its entire staff

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    Humble Games has reportedly laid off all 36 of its staff. Former employees posted about the layoffs on social media. Humble Games is owned by media conglomerate Ziff Davis, which counts IGN, Eurogamer and GamesIndustry.biz among its gaming portfolio. Humble Games confirmed in a LinkedIn post that there had been a “restructure” at the company, but did not reveal the number of jobs lost.

    A PR rep for Humble Games also confirmed to Engadget that the company would not be shutting its doors as a result of today’s restructuring. He added that both ongoing and upcoming projects would continue to be supported and published by the studio.

    The layoffs at Humble Bundle are the latest in a sweep across the gaming business. Last year saw a shocking number of cuts across studios of all sizes, and the trend has sadly continued into 2024.

    “The games industry is volatile, it’s been inundated by people who only want exponential growth at the expense of making great games with great teams,” Emilee Kieffer, a former lead quality assurance analyst with Humble Games, wrote on LinkedIn following the layoffs.

    The indie publisher helped bring almost 50 video games to market, including notable hits such as Slay the Spire, Unpacking, Wandersong and Coral Island. Humble Games also had several upcoming games slated for release, such as Never Alone 2, a second delve into mythology and stories from the indigenous Iñupiat people in Alaska.

    “This decision was not made lightly; it involved much deliberation and careful thought, with the goal of ensuring the stability and support of our developers and ongoing projects,” Humble’s statement said.

    This business is a separate operation from the charity storefront Humble Bundle, which is also part of Ziff Davis but does not appear to be impacted by today’s news. We’ve reached out to Ziff Davis and Humble Games for more information and will update if we hear back.

    Update, July 23, 2024, 5:35 ET: Article has been updated to include a response from Humble Games’ PR team.

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    Anna Washenko

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  • Corus Entertainment announces further layoffs to help cut costs – MoneySense

    Corus Entertainment announces further layoffs to help cut costs – MoneySense

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    The job losses, which amount to around 800 positions, come during a turbulent year for the Toronto-based television and radio broadcaster, mired by advertising revenue declines, regulatory challenges and licensing battles.

    On Monday, Corus reported a loss attributable to shareholders of $769.9 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $495.1 million a year earlier as its revenue fell 16%. Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $331.8 million, down from $397.3 million a year earlier.

    The drop came as television revenue in the quarter sank 17% to $308.2 million compared with $371.2 million last year, while radio revenue slipped 9.9% to $23.6 million compared with $26.2 million a year earlier.

    “We’re making tough decisions to shutter areas of the business we can no longer sustain and pause longer term development activities while we implement efficiency initiatives,” said co-chief executive John Gossling during a conference call with analysts.

    “Our plan is to emerge as a smaller but more profitable business with a sustainable future.”

    Inflation and other factors have impacted ad revenue

    Corus has attributed the advertising slump this year in part to lingering effects from the 2023 Hollywood strikes that delayed production of key programming, along with inflationary and competitive challenges.

    In May, Canada’s broadcasting regulator granted the company’s request to ease some of its Canadian content spending requirements after it warned of an increasingly dire financial situation. The CRTC noted the risk of Corus exiting the Canadian broadcasting landscape “would greatly reduce the options Canadian viewers have for content.”

    Then last month, the company was hit by the loss of rights to key brands like HGTV, Food Network, Cooking Channel, Magnolia Network and OWN, as of the end of this year.

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    The Canadian Press

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  • Mortgage lender Newrez announces 187 more job cuts in Denver area

    Mortgage lender Newrez announces 187 more job cuts in Denver area

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    A major mortgage lender with offices across the country is cutting 187 more positions from its office in Greenwood Village after having announced the elimination of a total of 420 jobs in two previous rounds of layoffs.

    Newrez, based in Pennsylvania, said the latest layoffs will start Aug. 26 and will likely be permanent. The company notified the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment of the reductions in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification dated June 27.

    Newrez sent a letter in May notifying the state that 103 jobs would be cut and a June 6 letter about 317 more positions to be eliminated in phases.

    “We take all personnel decisions extremely seriously and are committed to supporting affected employees through this transition,” a Newrez spokesperson said in an email Wednesday.

    The company declined to say how many employees will remain in the Greenwood Village office after the job cuts or if the office will stay open.

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    Judith Kohler

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  • CNBC Daily Open: Nvidia pushes past $3 trillion

    CNBC Daily Open: Nvidia pushes past $3 trillion

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    Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange during morning trading in New York City.

    Michael M. Santiago | Getty Images

    This report is from today’s CNBC Daily Open, our international markets newsletter. CNBC Daily Open brings investors up to speed on everything they need to know, no matter where they are. Like what you see? You can subscribe here.

    What you need to know today

    Nvidia powers S&P 500 to record
    The     S&P 500 rose to a record after Nvidia crossed through the $3 trillion barrier for the first time and softer-than-expected jobs data raised hopes for an interest rate cut. The Nasdaq Composite also set a record, climbing almost 2%, with technology stocks Hewlett Packard Enterprises and CrowdStrike soaring on better-than-expected sales and earnings, respectively. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lagged behind, adding just under 100 points. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped, while U.S. oil prices rose from four-month lows.

    Nvidia passes Apple
    Artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia surpassed the $3 trillion market capitalization mark, pushing past Apple to become the second most valuable company behind Microsoft. Nvidia’s shares have risen 24% since its blockbuster earnings report in May, while Apple’s shares are up only 5% this year as sales growth stalled in recent months.

    Baron backs Musk’s pay deal
    Billionaire investor Ron Baron has publicly defended Elon Musk’s controversial $56 billion Tesla pay package. The Baron Capital chairman and CEO argues the package, tied to “aggressive” performance targets, is justified as without Musk “there would be no Tesla.” Baron previously revealed that his firm has made about 20 times its investment in Tesla since he first bought the stock in 2014. The package, previously voided by a Delaware judge, will face a shareholder vote on June 13.

    Elliott retakes SoftBank stake
    Elliott Management, an activist investor, has taken a $2 billion stake in SoftBank and is pushing for a $15 billion share buyback. This marks the second time Elliott has taken a stake in the Masayoshi Son-led firm. In 2020, at Elliott’s urging, SoftBank launched a $20 billion share buyback and asset disposal program. Elliott believes another buyback would boost SoftBank’s share price and signal confidence in CEO Son’s plans, particularly in AI.

    Electric air taxi gets FAA signoff
    Shares of Archer Aviation soared 6% after the Federal Aviation Administration granted the electric air taxi maker a key certification that would allow the company’s aircraft to eventually carry passengers. Archer, which has won orders and backing from United Airlines, is building electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft for urban areas, which could reduce carbon emissions. Archer has partnered with automaker Stellantis to produce hundreds of the electric air taxis.

    [PRO] Buy the dip
    While investors are concerned about this biotech company’s potential loss of exclusivity and rising competition, Goldman Sachs sees an upside of more than 60%. The Wall Street bank believes investors should buy the dip and consider its “overlooked” pipeline. 

    The bottom line

    Billionaire investor Ron Baron's support of Elon Musk's $56 billion compensation package almost feels like looking in the rearview mirror. Nonetheless, it's a crucial intervention just ahead of next week's vote on what would be corporate America's biggest compensation package.

    Shareholder advisory firms, Glass Lewis and ISS, have told investors to reject the award. In voiding the original package, the judge said the process was flawed because of the close relationship the compensation committee had with Musk. For example, Robyn Denholm, the chair of Tesla, sold some of her Tesla options for $280 million between 2021 and 2022 — a "life-changing" transaction, as she described it. Other members of the team had relationships with Musk going back 15 years or more and regularly vacationed together.

    The package has no salary or cash bonus and sets rewards based on Tesla's market value rising to as much as $650 billion over the 10 years from 2018. The court also found the defendants did not prove the package was necessary to retain Musk.

    At its height, Tesla reached a market capitalization of $1.2 trillion in November 2021. Since then, the EV market has slowed and competition has intensified. Its current market cap is $560 billion. While Baron remains bullish and has made and expects to make a lot more money from Tesla, other investors expect the company's stock to fall by as much as 30%.

    Who would bet against Musk? He took a niche vehicle manufacturer that has flirted with bankruptcy and challenged Detroit, and now plans to reinvent the EV maker into a leader in AI and robotics.

    Still, Wall Street has a new favorite in Nvidia. It passed the $3 trillion mark and surpassed Apple to become the second most valuable U.S. company. Before Thursday's record high, UBS noted that Nvidia's year-to-date gain is responsible for a significant chunk of the S&P 500's 2024 rally.

    "NVDA accounts for 30% of the market's return YTD," wrote strategist Jonathan Golub in a Wednesday note to clients. "S&P 500 returns drop from 11.3% to 7.8% ex-NVDA. Many stocks have moved in step with the AI theme." 

    While some caution a bit of profit-taking, the company's 10-for-1 stock split should encourage side-lined retail investors to take a slice of the AI frenzy. Bank of America still sees an upside to the stock.

    — CNBC's Brian Evans, Alex Harring, Darla Mercado, Kif Leswing, Rohan Goswami, Leslie Josephs and Yun Li contributed to this report.

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  • These Ohio companies have hundreds of layoffs this summer

    These Ohio companies have hundreds of layoffs this summer

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    *Attached video: Ohio 2024 minimum wage increase

    CLEVELAND (WJW) – This summer, several companies have planned layoffs in the state of Ohio. Luckily, Ohioans can easily check if their employer is planning serious layoffs or branch closures under a federal law called the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act.

    The WARN Act requires employers with 100 or more full-time employees to give 60 days of advanced notice for plant closings or mass layoffs. It also requires employers to give written notification to those who may be affected by any planned layoffs or closures.

    It’s a federal law, so the requirements apply in all 50 states. For-profit and non-profit companies are covered by federal law, but government jobs are not.

    Many states, including Ohio, make filed WARN notices publicly available online. So, which companies are facing layoffs in Ohio? Here’s the list:

    • VS Direct LLC: 120 employees will be laid off March – August 2024
    • Nestle USA: 13 employees will be laid off March-December 2024.
    • ZIN Technologies, Inc: 122 employees will be laid off March – September
    • Linamar Structures USA: 106 employees will be laid off from April – August
    • Genpact LLC: 64 employees will be laid off from April – July
    • Commercial Vehicle Group: 79 employees will be laid off June through August
    • Brightview Landscapes, LLC: 86 employees will be laid off from May – June
    • Sid Tool Company: 130 employees will be laid off from May – June 
    • First Student Transportation LLC: 81 employees will be laid off in June
    • ProMedica Employment Services LLC: 92 employees will be laid off in May-June
    • Oak View Group: 108 employees will be laid off in June
    • EVO Transportation & Energy Services Inc.: 82 employees will be laid off in June
    • Express: 615 employees will be laid off in June and July
    • Bon Appetit Management: 222 employees will be laid off in June
    • Arlington Contact Lens Service: 151 employees will be laid off from June through August
    • Insight : 82 employees will be laid off in August
    • Cygnus Home Service: 13 employees will be laid off in July
    • Barclays: 252 employees will be laid off from July-September
    • RK Industries: 80 employees will be laid off in July
    • Optum Services: 129 employees will be laid off from July-September
    • HealthHelp: 22 employees will be laid off in June
    • Mauser Packaging Solutions: 107 employees will be laid off from July-September

    Click here for Ohio’s full WARN Act database.

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    Celeste Houmard

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  • Fisker cuts hundreds of workers in bid to keep EV startup alive | TechCrunch

    Fisker cuts hundreds of workers in bid to keep EV startup alive | TechCrunch

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    Struggling EV startup Fisker has laid off hundreds of employees in a bid to stay alive, as it continues to search for funding, a buyout or prepare for bankruptcy.

    Workers suspected layoffs were coming when the company directed everyone to work from home on Wednesday — an out-of-character directive, according to multiple current and former employees. The layoffs were announced during an all-hands meeting held Wednesday morning.

    Founder and CEO Henrik Fisker told employees that the large investor his company owes money to — and the chief restructuring officer working on the investor’s behalf — wanted to let more people go, according to employees who attended. Fisker has never disclosed who is ultimately behind the convertible debt investment in question, though Henrik Fisker did reference Heights Capital Management during Wednesday’s meeting when discussing the layoffs, according to the two employees. Heights Capital Management is an affiliate of financial services giant Susquehanna International Group.

    One current and one laid off employee estimated that only about 150 people remain at the company.

    Fisker has already gone through several rounds of layoffs. It announced cuts of 15% in February. Fisker employed 1,135 people as of April 19, according to a regulatory filing. Those workforce numbers were reduced by an unknown amount after another round of layoffs in late April, and another series in late May before Wednesday’s cuts.

    Fisker did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Restructuring officer John DiDonato also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. DiDonato previously told California’s Employment Development Department on April 29 that it planned to lay off more than 300 workers on June 28 if the company was “unable to address its operating cash requirements,” according to documents obtained by TechCrunch.

    Despite the widespread cuts, Henrik Fisker struck a somber-but-determined tone during the call, according to sources. At one point, he noted that the company built “something great” and would continue to sell its one and only EV — the Ocean SUV — to people who want to buy them.

    He also suggested that laid off workers would be re-hired once the company is back up and running, according to the account of one person who attended the meeting.

    Many workers initially learned they were laid off after losing access to Microsoft services like Teams or Outlook. Later in the day, some employees received an email officially announcing they were terminated with one week of severance. Laid-off employees echoed similar details in posts on LinkedIn.

    These new layoffs come after months of troubles at Fisker, and less than a year after the company began full-scale deliveries of the Ocean SUV.

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    Sean O’Kane

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  • Food supply chain software maker Silo lays off ~30% of staff amid M&A discussions | TechCrunch

    Food supply chain software maker Silo lays off ~30% of staff amid M&A discussions | TechCrunch

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    Silo, a Bay Area food supply chain startup, has hit a rough patch. TechCrunch has learned that the company on Tuesday laid off roughly 30% of its staff, or north of two dozen employees. Silo has confirmed the headcount reductions, clarifying the cuts were across the board and not focused on individual departments.

    Silo shared the following statement with TechCrunch regarding the layoffs:

    We recently made the difficult decision to reduce our headcount by almost 30%. We are committed to supporting those team members impacted and have provided severance packages and recruiting support. At the same time, Silo remains dedicated to serving our customers and the perishables industry at large, and will continue to focus more nimbly on building next-generation supply chain management software solutions.

    Founded in 2018, Silo’s platform helps automate the workflows of food and agricultural businesses and later expanded into other areas, like payment products for accounts payable and receivable automation, inventory management, ledger accounting, financing and more.

    Leading up to the layoffs was an issue around a lending product that had hurt Silo’s revenue. A company source confirmed that a customer had become delinquent on their loan, which caused Silo’s banking partner to pause the loan product. Silo then worked with the bank to resolve the problem with the customer, so the facility has the ability to fund again.

    While Silo is now able to lend, the lack of payment from that customer and overall pause in lending meant a drop in revenue for that period, leading to the layoffs. For that reason, Silo will likely be careful about ramping up the lending product as it moves forward.

    This all took place in recent weeks. However, it’s possible that if Silo had implemented stronger risk management processes, it wouldn’t have faced the default.

    In addition, we’re hearing Silo is engaged in M&A discussions as another possible resolution to its current situation. The company had previously engaged in discussions with potential deal partners ahead of its Series C last year, but the fundraise allowed Silo to pause those talks for a time. In recent weeks, those M&A discussions have picked back up again on the back of new growth the company saw last year as well as the possible need for an exit.

    The startup raised $32 million in Series C funding last summer. Investors include Initialized, Haystack, Tribe Capital, KDT, a16z and others.

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    Sarah Perez

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  • Commercial Brokerages Cut Staff and Diversify to Stem Losses

    Commercial Brokerages Cut Staff and Diversify to Stem Losses

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    Commercial real estate brokerages from coast to coast are cutting costs through layoffs and efficiency measures.

    As higher interest rates lower the number of transactions and eat into profits, North America’s largest brokerages have cut spending this year through “precision cost trimming,” CoStar News reported, citing regulatory earnings calls.

    Brokerages ranging from Calabasas-based Marcus & Millichap to its larger publicly traded rivals, CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Newmark and Toronto-based Colliers have announced cost-cutting initiatives.  

    To shave a buck this year, the firms have trimmed staff as hopes dwindle that the Federal Reserve will significantly lower interest rates. The total number of layoffs was not disclosed.

    Pressure to trim expenses in other ways is growing as big brokerages selectively invest in talent and acquisitions to earn money by providing management and consultative services while waiting for commercial sales to rebound.

    “There’s a lot of what I would call ‘quiet cutting’ going on right now,” Robert Shibuya, CEO of Dallas-based real estate advisory firm Mohr Partners, told CoStar. “I know that all of the big brokerages are still cutting because their people have been calling me for work.”

    Marcus & Millichap’s decline in brokerage commissions from sales contributed to its fourth consecutive quarterly loss, even after the brokerage trimmed costs 5 percent from a year earlier to $69 million. 

    CEO Hessam Nadji said market disruptions since the pandemic have upended sales and the recruiting and training of new brokers.

    Investment property sales and financing fell early in the pandemic only to recover in 2021 and 2022, then dive last year as higher interest rates caused sales to dry up, Nadji said. That lower demand has resulted in higher turnover, especially for newer brokers, making it harder for the firm to expand its sales force.

    “The last three- to four-year period has provided nothing resembling a typical market environment, in which we train people, mentor people and they learn the fundamentals of brokerage,” Nadji said during the company’s most recent earnings call. “This market disruption is the primary reason that skill sets aren’t developing in a way that we’re used to seeing.”

    Chicago-based JLL, the world’s second-largest brokerage, credited a recent revenue surge to benefits from cost cuts coupled with growth in leasing and “resilient” businesses such as workplace and property management.

    The changes helped drive a $66.1 million profit in the first quarter, compared with a $9.2 million loss in the year-earlier period, CFO Karen Brennan said in an earnings call.

    “As we strengthen our service and product offerings, we will selectively add people and capabilities, both organically and through very targeted” mergers and acquisitions, CEO Christian Ulbrich told investors. 

    Cushman & Wakefield, which reported a 29 percent increase in earnings over the prior-year quarter by lowering expenses and higher leasing revenue, has delivered on its cost-savings plans, Morningstar analyst Suryansh Sharma said in an email.

    “Keeping a rein on expenses is essential, given the current macroeconomic challenges,” Sharma told CoStar. He said Cushman management has projected that cost and efficiency initiatives will mostly offset an increase in inflation costs this year.

    While brokerage layoffs probably won’t match levels of the past two years when the businesses shed hundreds of jobs, CBRE and other companies are likely to keep reducing their employee counts in certain areas to further cut corporate costs, Shibuya added.

    Despite the layoffs, the five largest global real estate services firms ranked by revenue —  CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers and Newmark — have added employees over the years by acquiring companies not as reliant on volume sales.

    They include project management, investment management, technology and engineering services.

    — Dana Bartholomew

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    TRD Staff

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  • Luminar cuts 20% of staff and outsources lidar production | TechCrunch

    Luminar cuts 20% of staff and outsources lidar production | TechCrunch

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    Lidar company Luminar is slashing its workforce by 20% and will lean harder on its contract manufacturing partner as part of a restructuring that will shift the company to a more “asset-light” business model, as it aims to scale production.

    The cuts will affect around 140 employees, and are starting immediately. Luminar is also cutting ties with “the majority” of its contract workers.

    “Today, we stand at the crossroads of two realities: the core of our business has never been stronger across technology, product, industrialization, and commercialization; yet at the same time the capital markets perception of our company has never been more challenging,” billionaire founder and CEO Austin Russell said in a letter posted to Luminar’s website. “[T]he business model and cost structure that enabled us to achieve this leadership position no longer fit the needs of the company.”

    Russell wrote in the letter that the restructuring will make it possible for Luminar to get products to market faster, “drastically reduce” costs, and set the company up better for profitability. The company said in a regulatory filing that the changes will reduce operating costs “by $50 million to $65 million on an annual basis.” The company is also reducing its global footprint “by sub-leasing portions or the entirety of certain facilities.”

    Luminar will continue to operate its Florida facility, which is used for development, testing and research and development, according to spokesperson Milin Mehta.

    Luminar announced in April that it had begun shipping production lidar sensors to Volvo to be built into the automaker’s EX90 luxury SUV. It also announced plans to deepen its relationship with Taiwanese contract manufacturing company TPK Holding. TPK has “committed to an exclusive relationship with Luminar,” Russell wrote in his letter.

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    Sean O’Kane

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  • Peloton to lay off 400 employees as CEO Barry McCarthy departs | TechCrunch

    Peloton to lay off 400 employees as CEO Barry McCarthy departs | TechCrunch

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    Peloton, the exercise equipment maker and online fitness course provider, said it is laying off 15% of its workforce (about 400 people) as part of cost-cutting measures. The company also said its CEO, president, and board director, Barry McCarthy, would step down after two years in the role.

    McCarthy, who was previously CFO at Spotify and Netflix, was coerced out of retirement in early 2022 when Peloton’s co-founder and then-CEO, John Foley, left the role alongside a major cost-cutting effort that saw 2,800 employees laid off. Foley remained as executive chair, but he left the company seven months later along with co-founder and chief legal officer, Hisao Kushi.

    Peloton says it’s in the process of finding a successor to McCarthy. Current Peloton chairperson, Karen Boone, and director, Chris Bruzzo, would serve as interim co-CEOs through the transition.

    Peloton went public in 2019 with an opening valuation of $6 billion, and saw its fortunes soar when the pandemic struck. As the world hunkered down at home, and people sought ways to stay healthy with home exercise equipment, the company’s bikes and online courses flew off the shelves, eventually earning it a market cap of $50 billion by early 2021.

    But when the world returned to normality, so did Peloton’s shares, and its market cap came back down to $10 billion in January 2022, a year after its peak.

    Today, the New York company’s market cap sits a little above $1 billion. Still, its shares went as high as 13.3% in pre-market trading on Thursday morning, seemingly buoyed by Peloton’s saying it would cut costs.

    Aside from reducing its headcount by 15%, Peloton said that it also intends to continue reducing its brick-and-mortar footprint in retail showrooms and will be doubling down on its international growth with a more “targeted and efficient” go-to-market strategy. All those steps are expected to help it reduce annual expenses by more than $200 million by the end of its fiscal year 2025.

    These announcements came just before Peloton reported worse-than-expected Q3 2024 revenue and loss, and a 21% decline in paid app subscriptions compared to a year earlier. When the company reported second-quarter results in February, its shares tumbled 24% to a then-all-time low after reporting continued revenue declines and a dismal outlook for the coming months.

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    Paul Sawers

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  • TikTok faces a ban in the US, Tesla profits drop and healthcare data leaks | TechCrunch

    TikTok faces a ban in the US, Tesla profits drop and healthcare data leaks | TechCrunch

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    Welcome, folks, to Week in Review (WiR), TechCrunch’s regular newsletter covering this week’s noteworthy happenings in tech.

    TikTok’s fate in the U.S. looks uncertain after President Joe Biden signed a bill that included a deadline for ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, to divest itself of TikTok within nine months or face a ban on distributing it in the U.S. Ivan writes about how the impact of TikTok bans in other countries could signal what’s to come stateside.

    Meanwhile, fallout from the Change Healthcare hack continues. Change, a subsidiary of health insurance giant UnitedHealth, confirmed this week that the ransomware attack targeting it earlier this year resulted in a huge theft of Americans’ private health info, possibly covering “a substantial proportion” of Americans.

    And Tesla profits dropped 55% as the EV company contends with increased pressure from hybrid carmakers. The automaker’s growth plan is centered around mysterious cheaper EVs scheduled to launch next year — as well as perhaps a robotaxi. But a recall on the Cybertruck for faulty accelerator pedals certainly won’t help in the interim.

    Lots else happened. We recap it all in this edition of WiR — but first, a reminder to sign up to receive the WiR newsletter in your inbox every Saturday.

    News

    Amazon grocery plan: Amazon launched a new unlimited grocery delivery subscription in the U.S. The plan, which costs $9.99 per month for Amazon Prime users, comes with free deliveries for grocery orders over $35 across Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market and other local grocery retailers.

    California drones grounded: In more Amazon news, the tech giant confirmed that it’s ending Prime Air drone delivery operations in Lockeford, California. The Central California town of 3,500 was the company’s second U.S. drone delivery site after College Station, Texas; Amazon didn’t offer any details around the setback.

    Fisker plans layoffs: Fisker says it’s planning more layoffs less than two months after cutting 15% of its workforce, as the EV startup scrambles to raise cash to stay alive. Fisker expects to seek bankruptcy protection within the next 30 days if it can’t come up with the money.

    Stripe expansion: Among a slew of other announcements at its Sessions conference in San Francisco, Stripe said that it’ll be de-coupling payments from the rest of its financial services stack. Given that Stripe previously required businesses to be payments customers in order to use any of its other products, that’s a big change.

    Analysis

    Rabbit hands on: Brian writes about the R1, the first gizmo from AI startup R1. The $199 price point, touchscreen and funky aesthetic from storied design firm Teenage Engineering make the R1 far more accessible than Humane’s Ai Pin, he concludes.

    Lab-grown diamonds: Pascal, an Andreessen Horowitz-backed startup, claims it can make high-end jewelry accessible by using lab-grown diamonds chemically and physically akin to natural diamonds but that cost one-twentieth of the price.

    AI poetry: An experiment called the Poetry Camera — an actual, physical camera — combines open source technology with playful design and artistic vision. Instead of merely capturing images, the Poetry Camera arranges thought-provoking, AI-generated stanzas based on the visuals it encounters.

    Rippling deep dive: Connie interviewed Parker Conrad, the CEO of workforce management startup Rippling, on the company’s new $200 million funding round, new San Francisco lease (the second biggest to be signed in the city this year) and more.

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    Kyle Wiggers

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  • Tesla layoffs, Cybertruck recalls and Serve Robotics goes public | TechCrunch

    Tesla layoffs, Cybertruck recalls and Serve Robotics goes public | TechCrunch

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    Welcome back to TechCrunch Mobility — your central hub for news and insights on the future of transportation. Sign up here — just click TechCrunch Mobility — to receive the newsletter every weekend in your inbox. Subscribe for free.

    Tesla is back in the news cycle and our crystal ball says it’s one of those long-term affairs. The week kicked off with layoffs — about 10% of its more than 140,000-person workforce — and CEO Elon Musk declaring he was going “balls to the wall” on autonomy. It ended with a Cybertruck recall. Cool cool.

    There’s lots more in the newsletter than just Tesla — although before we move on, do check out Sean O’Kane’s scoop about the company’s 1,800-mile Tesla Semi charging corridor program. Read on to catch up on Serve Robotics’ public market debut, a week of highs and lows for Waymo, and more.

    Let’s go! 

    A little bird

    While much of our focus is on startups and Silicon Valley, we do have some little birds in Washington, D.C.

    A little bird told us recently that federal regulators are getting close to publishing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on autonomous vehicle regulations, which would be the first set of federal guardrails proposed for the industry.

    Our source said the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), which regulates commercial vehicles in the U.S., should have a proposal out by this summer, fall at the latest. We’re told that the federal ruling on AVs will likely establish a minimum safety standard for AVs to operate on public roads but that state governments could enforce stricter regulations within their own borders. We’ve been hearing about discussions and plans around federal AV regulations for years now. Have we finally started to make headway? We shall see. 

    Got a tip for us? Email Kirsten Korosec at kirsten.korosec@techcrunch.com, Sean O’Kane at sean.okane@techcrunch.com or Rebecca Bellan at rebecca.bellan@techcrunch.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging apps.

    Deal of the week

    money the station

    Serve Robotics, the Nvidia- and Uber-backed sidewalk robot delivery company, hit the public markets this week via a reverse merger. Serve expects its public debut to bring in around $40 million in gross proceeds, funding that will go toward R&D for future robots, manufacturing of new robots, geographic expansion and more.

    Serve’s goal is to increase its fleet from the 100 robots deployed today around Los Angeles to 2,000 robots across multiple U.S. cities by the end of 2025, via a partnership with Uber Eats. Serve has huge revenue ambitions, with plans to generate between $60 million and $80 million in annual revenue by that same deadline. In 2023, Serve brought in $207,545 in revenue at a loss of $1.5 million.

    FWIW, Uber and Nvidia are still shareholders, but their shares in the company are decreasing with this debut. Pre-IPO, Uber and Nvidia held a 16.6% stake and 14.3% stake, respectively. Once the offering closes, those stakes will change to 11.5% and 10.1%, per regulatory filings.

    Serve’s share price was $4 at market open on Thursday, and it closed that day at around $3.

    Other deals that got my attention …

    Found Energy, a startup that uses waste aluminum to generate heat and hydrogen, raised a $12 million seed round, but Tim De Chant’s story on the company is about so much more.

    Getir, a Turkish delivery company that was once worth $12 billion, is reportedly weighing asset sales and exits from non-core markets as investors put the pressure on to cut losses.

    Swtch Energy, a company building EV charging solutions for apartment buildings, raised $27.2 million in a Series B to expand its charging network and boost the tech behind its charging and energy management solutions. Blue Earth Capital led the round with participation from Alantra’s Energy Transition Fund Klima, Active Impact Investments and GIGA Investments Corp.

    Notable reads and other tidbits

    ADAS

    Mobileye has secured orders to ship 46 million of its EyeQ6 Light ADAS chips over the next few years to automakers. Multiple models launching this year will feature the chip, which promises to deliver improved sensing of wet roads, detection of and reaction to objects at a greater distance, and better ability to read key text phrases on road signs. TechCrunch had the chance to dig into this, and our main takeaways are that automakers will probably love this chip because it’s more powerful than Mobileye’s last chip, but it’s the same price.

    Autonomous vehicles

    Waymo has begun initial data collection and mapping in Atlanta, the company’s latest geographic win. The Alphabet-owned company didn’t say whether it plans to launch in the Georgian city or any other city it is mapping in, such as Washington, D.C., and Buffalo. Aside from San Francisco, Waymo has launched commercial robotaxi services in Los Angeles and Phoenix, with Austin planned for the end of this year.

    But with ups, come downs. Six Waymo vehicles also got caught blocking traffic to an on-ramp in San Francisco. The vehicles were caught between a construction zone and the on-ramp and had to pull over to await rescue. A spokesperson told TechCrunch that while Waymo does have the green light to go fully driverless on freeways in San Francisco, the company has not yet pulled the driver out.

    Electric vehicles, charging & batteries

    General Motors launched a home EV charger and vehicle-to-home (V2H) kit that lets a home pull energy from an EV battery in the event of a blackout. Customers in California, Florida, Texas, Michigan and New York can purchase today.

    Gogoro, the two-wheeler battery-swapping company, and TSMC, a global semiconductor company, are partnering to introduce 15 GoStations across Taiwan that use 100% clean energy. They’ll also be launching Gogoro’s scooter-sharing service in TSMC’s headquarter city, Hsinchu, and expanding the charging network in the city.

    TeslaCrunch

    We’ve been all over Tesla this week, so let’s dive in.

    The week started out with company-wide layoffs that affected at least 10% of the entire 140,000-person organization, with some teams seeing 20% of their staff gutted. Two high-profile executives departed Tesla as well: Drew Baglino, Tesla’s SVP of Powertrain and Energy, and Rohan Patel, VP of Public Policy and Business Development. Patel told TechCrunch he left because of “[b]ig overall changes” at the company that he declined to specify. In an email sent to the company, CEO Elon Musk said the cuts were necessary to increase productivity and prepare for Tesla’s “next phase of growth.”

    (Psssst! Don’t want to read about Tesla layoffs and what comes next? You can watch about it instead.)

    Many of those who were cut, sources say, were high performers who just happened to be working on lower-priority projects. Sources at Tesla also told TechCrunch the company made the cuts because it expects poor first-quarter earnings. Deliveries were subpar, and all those price cuts last year that continued early into 2024 likely had an effect on Tesla’s margins. Deliveries were down in Q1 year-over-year, despite the $200,000 Tesla spent on advertising on X, per our reporting.

    Which might be why Tesla ditched its EV inventory price discounts this week. On X, Musk said this move was in line with Tesla’s strategy to “streamline the whole Tesla sales and delivery system.”

    These changes in general, and the layoffs in particular, are made more stark by Tesla’s proxy statement that calls on the board to reinstate Musk’s $56 billion payout, which a Delaware judge earlier this year voided. In a huff, Musk threatened to reincorporate Tesla in Texas instead, and it appears that plan will also be put to the board soon.

    Meanwhile, on the charging front, Tesla is moving forward with its plan to build an electric big rig charging corridor stretching from Texas to California, despite being snubbed by a lucrative federal funding program that’s part of Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure law.

    Tesla this week also had to recall the 3,878 Cybertrucks that it has delivered to customers to date over faulty accelerator pedals that can get stuck. I know what you’re thinking. Finally we know how many Cybertrucks Tesla delivered.

    This week’s wheels

    I’ve been in a handful of new vehicles and I’m eager to share my thoughts, but we’re also running out of space this week. In the coming issues, we’ll have some takes on electric bikes, the 2024 Lexus LC 500h, the 2024 Mercedes-Benz eSprinter and more.

    See y’all next week!

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    Kirsten Korosec

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  • Meow Wolf lays off 50 Denver employees as the company reduces expenses and overall workforce

    Meow Wolf lays off 50 Denver employees as the company reduces expenses and overall workforce

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    Meow Wolf’s new building has a new sign. July 29, 2021.

    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Layoffs at Meow Wolf will impact the immersive art and entertainment group’s Denver location.

    On Wednesday, 50 positions at the Convergence Station were eliminated across multiple areas of the company. 

    Meow Wolf announced on Monday that it would reduce its workforce by 165 employees amid plans to cut expenses by 10%.

    A total of 111 employees across the exhibition and corporate teams were cut. Roles in Denver accounting for nearly half of those eliminated positions, including creative operators, security leads and IT. 

    “When we’re being run by a bunch of corporatists who live in New York City and California … we’re getting these kinds of draconian decisions like this that don’t take into account at all our community, our friends, our coworkers,” said Jerome Morrison, secretary-treasurer for Meow Wolf Workers Collective (MWWC), the union representing its employees. 

    What other cost-saving measures are being taken?

    In a meeting on Thursday, leaders shared that Meow Wolf’s entire executive team, including CEO Jose Tolosa and each of his direct reports, will reduce their compensation by 10% for the remainder of the year. 

    “It’s not necessarily that these cuts were a result of low visitation,” said Ru Johnson, public relations manager for Denver Meow Wolf. “It was based on the actual structure of the business model.” 

    A musical room that Meason Wiley, director of R and D for Meow Wolf Denver, helped construct. Sept. 13, 2021.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    Additional cost-saving measures include:

    • Closing Meow Wolf’s New York City office
    • Scrapping plans to open an LA office
    • Eliminating software contracts
    • Reducing spending on professional services
    • Reducing travel and other expenditures across the board by close to $1 million.

    Las Vegas Meow Wolf employees spared for now

    Another 54 employees from the bargaining unit in Las Vegas were also set to be eliminated, but the union “successfully paused Las Vegas Union layoffs by demanding the company fulfill its obligation to bargain changes in good faith due to the ongoing collective bargaining at that location.”

    “We are working to mediate these layoffs,” MWWC added in a statement. “But in Santa Fe and Denver, Meow Wolf is choosing to continue its pattern of not bargaining in good faith and it is actively pursuing its shameful, fruitless union containment strategies.” 

    Meow Wolf Denver: Convergence Station. Sept. 13, 2021.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    The union statement outlined that Meow Wolf has refused to listen to their alternative suggestions to layoffs, a point included in both the Denver and Santa Fe collective bargaining agreements. These suggestions include voluntary pay decreases, resignations and limiting the number of outside contract workers. 

    Morrison said there’s an issue with outside contractors being hired at higher salaries than those paid in-house. 

    “Our CBA says those folks are supposed to be the first ones to be let go, particularly if it’s the work of people who are within our unit,” Morrison said. “That’s one of the areas that we’re not seeing.” 

    When did Meow Wolf Denver unionize?

    Employees at Convergence Station in Denver announced plans to unionize in July 2022. The location originally opened in September 2021. 

    Denver’s original collective bargaining agreement took into consideration what happened during the pandemic layoffs from 2019, which the company described as COVID-19-related challenges.

    Morrison said employees at the time did not find any “rhyme or reason” for why the company chose to lay off certain employees when accounting for years of experience and knowledge. 

    What the CEO says is ‘right-sizing the business,’ union leaders see as ‘writing on the wall’

    When Meow Wolf CEO Jose Tolosa informed employees of the layoffs via email, he said the reductions are an effort to “right-size” the business. 

    “When we opened our first exhibitions, we were inventing an operating model from scratch,” Tolosa wrote. “Over the past three years, we’ve developed a better understanding of our guests and what we need to staff and support our exhibitions in order to make the most of the growth opportunities ahead, including our Houston location that opens later this year.”

    Meow Wolf Denver: Convergence Station. Sept. 13, 2021.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    The New Mexico-based company employs people in corporate offices located in Los Angeles and New York, as well as four exhibition spaces in Santa Fe, Las Vegas, Denver and a new Dallas-Fort Worth area location that opened July 2023. 

    The expense cuts and workforce reduction come after the company laid off eight members of its corporate team in December. 

    According to Morrison, who has worked at Meow Wolf for more than five years, those closely watching the situation have seen “the writing on the wall” regarding Denver’s decline in visitations. 

    “Our hourly workers have been drastically reduced to very minimum hours and not even really given any guaranteed schedule,” Morrison said. 

    Meow Wolf Denver: Convergence Station. Sept. 13, 2021.
    Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite

    The MWWC has filed a number of Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) charges with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), including one in Denver back in March for “Bad Faith Bargaining” that remains open.  

    “In short, the company refuses to work with us when problems arise,” the statement reads. “We are calling on the company to reinstate these employees now. We are asking Meow Wolf to cease its practices of skirting the union and failing to see us as equal partners in the operations of our company.” 

    In response to the Union complaints, Johnson provided the following statement:

    “Meow Wolf complied with the layoff provisions of its Santa Fe CBA and its Denver CBA, by providing proper notice, considering the Union’s proposals, and providing the agreed-upon separation benefits to impacted bargaining unit members. Both collective bargaining agreements also provide that after going through this process, the final decision regarding a layoff rests with Meow Wolf.”

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    Isaac Vargas

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  • Salem-Keizer Schools Looking at Hundreds of Job Cuts – KXL

    Salem-Keizer Schools Looking at Hundreds of Job Cuts – KXL

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    Girl riding bike to school

    SALEM, Ore. — The Salem-Keizer school board and administration are preparing for $71 million in cuts in next year’s budget.

    Parents and staff are questioning the district’s priorities. Tyler Scialo-Lakeberg is the President of the Salem-Keiser Education Association. “We are in the business of educating students. The proposed cuts in front of you do not align to that purpose. 239 licensed staff positions to be cut. The majority are which are classroom teachers. representing about over eight percent of all licensed positions compared to 15 administrators positions which represent a total of seven percent.”

    Jane Tichnel told the school board and the superintendent, “I’m a mom and I’m here to demand action. I want my school board to demand action too. Depleting this district of so much funding and qualified staff will inevitably increase violence in our schools and decrease student ability to function academically and emotionally. I can assure you this depletion will have substantial adverse impacts on this generation of students.”

    Others, like Jeff Jabin, worry about a reduction in school based health assistance so nurses would only be on site at schools for two hours a day. “Diabetes medications, injuries that happen throughout the day, all of these different things. How are those going to be taken care of in two hours? The school day is six hours long.”

    Superintendent Andrea Castanedas explains that cutback. “School based health assistance was federal recovery funded. And it’s just another example of the difficult decisions.

    She points to growing expenses and declining revenue, as COVID money dries up. “We need the services, we need the people, but we no longer have that money.”

    Tomorrow’s the day that those who are losing jobs will find out from the district.

     

    More about:

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    Annette Newell

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  • Startups Weekly: So are we all working from home now? | TechCrunch

    Startups Weekly: So are we all working from home now? | TechCrunch

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    Welcome to Startups Weekly — your weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday.

    In the corporate tug-of-war over remote work, CEOs like Andy Jassy and Elon Musk are the old-school gym teachers insisting everyone get back on the field, despite the bleachers being perfectly fine. They argue that remote work is akin to slacking off, yet studies and employee sentiments suggest otherwise, highlighting that flexibility might just be the secret sauce to productivity and satisfaction.

    Meanwhile, the rest of us are watching this unfold like a tennis match, wondering if these executives will ever match their strategies with the reality of modern work preferences. Ron has been working from home as a writer for almost as long as I’ve been alive. No wonder we call him Daddy Ron (we don’t, honestly, although that would be hilarious). In any case, Ron argues that working from home ain’t going away, and I can’t say that I disagree in any way — even as I’m writing this from my local pizza parlor. Working from home. Working from pizza parlor. Whatever, as long as it ain’t the office, amirite?

    Most interesting startup stories from the week

    Very checkr. Much security. Image Credits: Checkr

    Mahbod Moghadam, whose roller-coaster career ranged from legal eagle to rap lyric annotator to blockchain enthusiast, died in March at the age of 41. He leaves behind a legacy as colorful and controversial as a graffiti-splashed back alley. Known for his edgy antics and brainchild projects like Genius and Wikipedia-but-on-blockchain Everipedia, Moghadam was a maverick who tried to shake up the digital content payment scene with ventures like HellaDoge, and even in his final acts, remained a thorn in the side of the establishment he helped create. As tributes roll in, the tech community reflects on a figure who was as much a provocateur as he was a pioneer, proving that in the startup world, being unforgettable is sometimes more impactful than being unimpeachable.

    Moar transpo

    A side view of a silver Faraday Future FF91

    Image Credits: Faraday Future

    Look, I’m trying my best to have a balance of everything here on Startups Weekly. It ain’t my fault that the transportation team keeps punching way above its weight. Just read all of their stuff, okay, it’s all good.

    In a twist that’s less surprising and more “Muskian,” Elon Musk refuted claims about Tesla ditching a budget EV for a robotaxi, only to turn around and hype an upcoming robotaxi reveal (even as Tesla throws in the towel for its entry-level-price car). Critics replied that he’s been promising that since 2016, but Full Self-Driving (FSD) continues to be a thorn in Tesla’s side.

    Here’s some highlights from the past week:

    • Tesla fire sale: Tesla is slashing prices on its Model Y SUVs like they’re last season’s fashion, desperately trying to clear an inventory pileup that’s become as cumbersome as a traffic jam. Dropping prices by up to $7,000, Tesla’s discount bonanza highlights its struggle to balance production with actual sales.
    • The Apple falls far from the car: Apple, after packing in its electric car project, let go of 600 staff who were reportedly working on the project. I’d pay good money to see the prototypes …
    • A cagey claim: Faraday Future, which is running on fumes, is now facing accusations from whistleblowers that it’s been inflating its already scant sales figures. Against a backdrop of furloughs, near evictions, and federal investigations, the company’s drama seems more suited for a soap opera than Silicon Valley. Pass the popcorn, I guess?

    Other unmissable TechCrunch stories…

    mechanical keyboard

    Clicky clicky. Image Credits: Frederic Lardinois/TechCrunch

    Every week, there’s always a few stories I want to share with you that somehow don’t fit into the categories above. It’d be a shame if you missed ’em, so here’s a random grab bag of goodies for ya:

    • Zero-day price spike: Crowdfense, playing the role of a modern-day arms dealer, dishes out millions for hacks that could make iPhones and Androids spill their secrets, all under the guise of aiding government surveillance. Zero-day exploits are the new gold rush, with prices soaring as tech giants fortify their fortresses.
    • That’s fine, you can have my SSN. I wasn’t using it anyway: Greylock McKinnon Associates (GMA), a consulting firm that’s no stranger to sensitive data, recently joined the “Hacked Club” by losing over 341,650 Social Security numbers. While they were busy providing litigation support, hackers were busy lifting data. Insert rant about how dumb SSNs are anyway.
    • Something about keyboards and magnets: Look, I’m as surprised as y’all are, but if my analytics software is anything to go by, it seems people went gaga over Frederic’s piece on magnetic keyboard switches. If keyboard nerding is your thang, we’re really pushing your buttons here.
    • Dialing down the drama: Snapchat decided to tweak rather than trash its “Solar System” friendship ranking feature, which was causing more teen drama than a high school prom. It’s just another day at Snap, where the solution to tech-induced anxiety seems to be a toggle switch in the settings menu.
    • InstaTok: TikTok’s upcoming Instagram competitor app for sharing photos could be named TikTok Notes, according to screenshots posted by users. TikTok also confirmed the app was in development.

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    Haje Jan Kamps

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