DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Despite recent apologies and reassurances, documents leaked to Vox show OpenAI pressured departing employees over equity
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Sarah Gray | Erin Snodgrass | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

A Vox story on Saturday said the company could take back vested equity if departing employees did not sign a non-disparagement agreement. "For a company to threaten to claw back already-vested equity is egregious and unusual," California employment law attorney Chambord Benton-Hayes told Vox. AdvertisementOn Saturday, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said on X, "Vested equity is vested equity, full stop." We have not and never will take away vested equity, even when people didn't sign the departure documents. Not signing "could impact your equity," OpenAI told one of them, per Vox.

Persons: —, Chambord Benton, Hayes, Vox, Sam Altman, Altman, Kelsey Piper's, OpenAI execs, Jason Kwon, Kwon, OpenAI, i've, Scarlett Johansson Organizations: Service, Equity, Business, Vox Locations: California, Vox

☆ Tesla Fremont factory suffers another fire, investigation underway
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Lora Kolodny | In Lorakolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

An aerial view of the Tesla Fremont Factory on April 24, 2024 in Fremont, California. A fire broke out at Tesla 's vehicle assembly plant in Fremont, California on Monday afternoon, according to a statement from the Fremont Fire Department, posted on social network X. The Fremont factory is Tesla's first mass EV manufacturing facility. On May 17, 2024 Tesla celebrated a milestone for its Fremont factory in conjunction with their battery factory outside of Reno, Nevada, saying they had surpassed production of 3 million vehicles. Fires at the Fremont factory in the past have sometimes necessitated a pause in production.

Persons: Tesla, Tesla's Fremont Organizations: Tesla Fremont Factory, Fremont Fire Department, Elon, Fremont, Environmental Health, Safety, California Employment, Bay, Air Quality Management, CNBC Locations: Fremont , California, Fremont, Reno , Nevada, California, Tesla's, Alameda County

☆ As Tesla layoffs continue, here are 600 jobs the company cut in California
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-17 | by ( Lora Kolodny | In Lorakolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

In an aerial view, brand new Tesla cars sit parked in a lot at the Tesla Fremont Factory on April 24, 2024 in Fremont, California. Faced with weakening demand for Tesla EVs and increased competition, the company has been slashing headcount since at least January. Previous filings revealed that Tesla would cut more than 6,300 jobs across California, Austin, Texas and Buffalo, New York. The WARN filing shows that to be the case, with many cut from the team at Tesla's Hanover Street location in Palo Alto. Read the latest WARN filing in California here:

Persons: —, Elon Musk, Tesla, Musk, Kato, CNBC's David Faber Organizations: Fremont Factory, California Employment Development Department, CNBC, Tesla, Tesla's, American, Twitter Locations: Fremont , California, California, Fremont, Palo Alto, Austin , Texas, Buffalo , New York, Tesla's Hanover, China, robotaxis, U.S

☆ Apple layoffs are a sign Tim Cook is getting a little more serious
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Things are getting a bit more serious this year over at Apple. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementThings have been getting a little more serious over in Cupertino this year for Tim Cook. The latest sign of the mood change came Thursday after it emerged that Apple had laid off over 600 employees in California. That's especially so when considering that Apple had about 161,000 full-time employees at the end of its last fiscal year.

Persons: —, Tim Cook Organizations: Apple, Service, California Employment Development Department, Bloomberg, Apple's Big Tech Locations: Cupertino, California

☆ Qualcomm to cut roughly 1,258 jobs in California
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-12 | by ( Jake Piazza | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Cristiano Amon, president and CEO of Qualcomm, speaks during the Milken Institute Global Conference in Beverly Hills, California, May 2, 2022. Qualcomm is cutting about 1,258 jobs in offices in two of its California locations, according to recent filings with the California Employment Development Department. The semiconductor manufacturer notified the state Wednesday that it would be eliminating roughly 1,064 of its San Diego employees and 194 of its Santa Clara employees. "Given the continued uncertainty in the macroeconomic and demand environment, we expect to take additional restructuring actions to enable continued investments in key growth and diversification opportunities. We currently anticipate these additional actions to be substantially completed in the first half of fiscal 2024."

Persons: Cristiano Amon Organizations: Qualcomm, Milken Institute Global Conference, California Employment Development Department, San Diego, Santa Clara, CNBC Locations: Beverly Hills , California, California

☆ How a California hedge fund bulldozed the state's labor laws to impose some of the harshest noncompetes on Wall Street
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-03 | by ( Alex Morrell | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +23 min

That's partly why so few quantitative trading firms reside in California, whose labor-friendly laws have long favored employee mobility and competition. Exhibit A: The Voleon Group, a prominent quantitative-trading firm based in Berkeley, California, that manages about $5 billion in assets. The hedge fund has bulldozed past state prohibitions to not just impose noncompetes, but impose some of the harshest noncompetes in the entire industry, according to seven former employees, industry experts, and documents detailing the firm's restrictive covenants. Like so many other quant-trading firms, Voleon took care to protect its edge. Other employees Insider spoke with have a less generous view, with several describing the company as stingy — a third ex-employee bemoaned the company as "notoriously cheap" on compensation.

Persons: Kathy Hochul's, haven't, Michael Kharitonov, Jon McAuliffe, Shaw, — Kharitonov, McAuliffe, Voleon, —, Harry Lipman, Rottenberg Lipman Rich, Lipman, bemoaned, noncompetes, Martin Wainwright, Howard Aiken, Wainwright, hasn't, It's, Jessica Riggin, Rukin Hyland, Riggin, specter, James Hannaway, Sanford Heisler Sharp, Hochul, Rob Bonta, Sen, Anna Caballero, foisting, Caballero, Voleon's Organizations: New, Gov, University of California, Stanford, UC Berkeley, Wall Street, Google, Citadel, Sigma, That's, Big Tech, Darwin, MIT, Berkeley, California, Labor Locations: New York, California, Berkeley , California, University of California Berkeley, Berkeley, Voleon, Delaware, Washington ,

☆ Asian Americans are anxious about hate crimes. TikTok ban rhetoric isn’t helping
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +15 min

And the Chinese government’s authoritarian approach to numerous other issues clashes with important American values, said many Asian Americans interviewed for this article. Concerns about China have gone mainstream as US national security officials and lawmakers have publicly grappled with state-backed ransomware attacks and other hacking attempts. People rallied during a "Stop Asian Hate" march to protest against anti-Asian hate crimes on Foley Square in New York, on April 4, 2021. But to Chu, the incident was an example of the way politics surrounding China, technology and national security have fueled anti-Asian sentiment. “Asian American issues are American issues, and all Americans deserve to be treated with respect.

The records, a series of state tax lien notices from the last two years, show the state of California claiming that Yeezy Apparel, a company managed and reportedly owned by Ye, owes over $600,000 in unpaid tax debt. Four tax law experts said the amount owed by Yeezy Apparel is significant and could be a sign of deeper issues at the company. “Multiple California tax liens, adding up to $600,000, that’s certainly a sign of either extreme incompetence or extreme cash problems,” said USC Gould School of Law Professor Edward McCaffery, who specializes in tax law. Yeezy Apparel has been operating in California since 2017, according to public California business records, and was recorded as being active and in “good” standing in an annual filing in January. “Tax lien indicates that the state maintains that a debt is owing to the state,” LoPucki said.

☆ Twitter cut more than 950 California employees after Elon Musk took over, WARN notice shows
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Lora Kolodny | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

According to the letters from Twitter, shared by the California Employment Development Department, Twitter notified affected employees on Nov. 4. This kind of arrangement may serve as "payment in lieu of notice," in California depending on specific terms of employment. At the company's satellite locations in Santa Monica, Twitter cut approximately 93 employees including 17 mid-level officials and managers, 66 professionals and 10 combined sales and administrative support workers, the WARN notice showed. At a San Jose office, Twitter cut approximately 106 employees, including one executive or senior-level official or manager, 18 mid-level officials and managers, 85 professionals and two administrative support workers, according to the WARN notice. Shannon Liss-Riordan, a worker's rights attorney representing the terminated Twitter employees, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Search resuls for: "California Employment"

9 mentions found