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☆ Steve Cohen's Point72 fund has likely scored a $100 million gain on Nvidia stock in 2 months as the AI craze persists
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Theron Mohamed | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Steve Cohen's hedge fund has likely made a $100 million gain on Nvidia after investing last quarter. Cohen recently urged investors to shrug off their fears and ride the "big wave" of AI. Steve Cohen's hedge fund has likely scored a $100 million gain on Nvidia in just two months, thanks to the chipmaker's stock surging on the back of the artificial-intelligence boom. Point72's largest positions included a $523 million stake in Meta Platforms, and more than $400 million worth of stock in both Broadcom and Amazon. He described the burgeoning technology as a "big wave," and predicted it would create new jobs as well as eliminate existing ones.

☆ Even Apple will have a hard time making the metaverse cool
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Apple must do what no other tech company has done: make the metaverse cool. The iPhone maker is widely expected to debut its mixed-reality headset next month. The company's making a risky move as the tech world retreats from the metaverse and fixates on AI. In other words, Apple has more to lose by not making a wager on a mixed-reality headset than if it did. "If you believe there's something beyond a smartphone then it's probably the metaverse," Munster said.

☆ Amazon CEO Andy Jassy needs to take a page out of Mark Zuckerberg's cost-cutting playbook at Meta
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Paulina Likos | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Andy Jassy, CEO of Club holding Amazon (AMZN), said Thursday he's committed to investing in overall growth while creating cost efficiencies throughout the enterprise. Jim has said that Amazon needs to cut another 200,000 jobs or more to even approach pre-pandemic staffing of around 798,000 in Q4 of 2019. For example, Amazon has stopped physical store expansion, shuttered Amazon Care and Amazon Fabric, and it's letting go of devices that won't provide solid returns. Jassy also addressed Amazon's stock price during CNBC's interview. AMZN .SPX mountain 2020-04-09 Amazon vs. S & P 500 since April 2020 Bottom line Amazon needs to make additional moves to further reduce its headcount.

☆ Harvard expert 'takes issue' with Mark Zuckerberg's Meta layoffs: Cutting jobs over email is 'absolutely horrific'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( Ashton Jackson | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

As Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to let go of 10,000 more workers in his company's latest round of layoffs, a Harvard University expert says she "takes issue" with the way some of them are being conducted — namely, over email. A bevy of ex-Meta employees have spoken with media outlets or posted on social media about getting laid off via email in recent weeks. Jennifer Haynes, a former Meta technical recruiter, filmed herself checking her email and learning that she'd been laid off in real time. On March 13, one day before Zuckerberg's layoffs announcement, a share of Meta stock was worth $180.90. This story has been updated to reflect that similar reports of recent layoffs though email have emerged from Amazon and Twitter.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse ambitions are shrinking
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

In a year, the metaverse went from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg's obsession to rarely being mentioned. He mentioned AI four times, positioning the development of that technology as now being Meta's "single largest investment." Executives mentioned it half a dozen times during a call with Wall Street analysts, while the metaverse was not mentioned at all. It's a relief to investors and Wall Street analysts, who last year grew increasingly frustrated with Zuckerberg's once defiant tone on the massive cost of metaverse work. It's set to lose $15 billion this year and is on track to cost the company $20 billion a year going forward.

Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc., demonstrates the Meta Quest Pro during the virtual Meta Connect event in New York, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022. Analysts were expecting Reality Labs to record an quarterly operating loss of $4.36 billion on revenue of $715.1 million, according to StreetAccount. In July, Meta announced it was raising the price of its Quest 2 VR headset by $100. Meta then debuted its more expensive Quest Pro VR headset in October, pitching it to companies as an enterprise-workplace device for $1,500. This week, Meta is running a sale on its high-end VR headset, shaving off $400 for a limited time.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse just keeps losing money, as Meta's Reality Labs division posts a loss of $13.7 billion for the year
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Reality Labs is the business and research unit of Meta that focuses on the metaverse. It reported a loss of $4.28 billion for the fourth quarter, wider than $3.3 billion in the quarter prior. The company posted its fourth-quarter earnings report on Wednesday, with Reality Labs showing an operating loss of $4.28 billion for the fourth quarter, wider than $3.3 billion in the previous quarter. In the past 12 months, Reality Labs has sucked up more than $13.7 billion. However, in an internal email sent in late December, Bosworth reportedly told the 18,000 members of Reality Labs that the company has solved too many problems simply "by adding headcount."

☆ Meta and Apple are no longer among the best places to work, according to a new Glassdoor ranking
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-11 | by ( Grace Kay | Madison Hoff | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta and Apple fell off Glassdoor's list of best places to work for the first time in over a decade. Other tech companies like Google, LinkedIn, and Microsoft made the top 20 of this year's list. While Meta and Apple fell off the list, tech companies still dominated the US rankings, accounting for 40% of the organizations on the list. Top tech companies like Microsoft, LinkedIn, and Google made the top 20. There are some tech companies that entered the list," Zhao said.

☆ Apple reportedly set to announce 'Reality Pro' VR headset this spring and will ship it in the fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The silhouette of Tim Cook, chief executive officer of Apple, during the Apple World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. Apple will unveil its highly anticipated mixed-reality headset this spring, with consumer deliveries beginning in fall 2023, Bloomberg recently reported. Kuo also anticipated that Apple would announce its headset in the spring or at Apple's developer event in June. Bloomberg said on Sunday that Apple's anticipated headset would run on a new operating system, dubbed xrOS, and that Apple had already granted a select group of software developers access to the platform. Apple's software enables companies and developers to let users do anything from trying on glasses to model furniture purchases in their personal spaces.

☆ Facebook lost several notable leaders in 2022, from Sheryl Sandberg to John Carmack, with more changes likely to come
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-03 | by ( Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

As Facebook began 2022 with a quiet reorganization, several executives and well-known leaders left the company. Along with executives leaving the company, Meta also laid off 11,000 employees, with even more cuts possible in the coming weeks. Sheryl SandbergSheryl Sandberg Facebook COO. Maria Angelidou-SmithAngelidou-Smith joined Meta in 2014 and spent five years as head of monetization for the Facebook app. When the company began to quietly reorganize and plan for layoffs in late summer, the Facebook app was not immune.

☆ The 10 biggest losers in the S&P 500 this year have erased $1.6 trillion in market value
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-27 | by ( Carla Mozée | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

In a losing year for US stocks, here are the 10 biggest percentage decliners on the S&P 500. The 10 largest S&P 500 stock losers wiped out $1.6 trillion in market value. The 10 S&P 500 companies that have experienced the largest stock-price declines heading into the end of 2022 have wiped out a combined market value of more than $1.6 trillion. PayPalTicker: PYPLYTD Performance: -63.4%Market Value Decline: $142.49 billionLike many tech companies, the digital payments processor is seeing a slowdown after a pandemic boom. Photo by George Frey/Getty ImagesTicker: GNRCYTD Performance: -73.8%Market Value Decline: $16.6 billionMass COVID lockdowns helped sparked big demand for backup generators as people worked and studied at home.

☆ Apple job listings suggest the company is building a metaverse of its own for its long-rumored headset
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Britney Nguyen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Apple is looking for engineers who can develop a 3D mixed-reality world for its coming headset. Tim Cook and another Apple executives have previously said they avoid using the word "metaverse." The company's development of a virtual and augmented reality headset was reported in early 2021, and trademark filings from August show that Apple may call the headset "Reality One" or "Reality Pro." Apple CEO Tim Cook previously told Dutch media outlet Bright that he avoids using the word "metaverse." Apple is expected to release its first mixed-reality headset in 2023, Bloomberg reported.

☆ Facebook layoffs will likely hit most departments, including Mark Zuckerberg's beloved metaverse division
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Kali Hays | Rob Price | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Facebook employees have been told for weeks to expect layoffs, as Insider previously reported. Even Reality Labs is expected to be impacted, despite it building out Zuckerberg's metaverse vision. 'Investors are demanding more action'One of the people said Reality Labs is "Mark's baby" and could be somewhat insulated from cuts, compared with other divisions. Facebook disclosed it has already this year lost more than $9 billion on Reality Labs, including nearly $4 billion in the third quarter alone. The division lost $10 billion over the whole of 2021, yet the company said spending on Reality Labs is only going to keep growing.

☆ The Oculus founder who was later fired by Facebook created a VR headset that can kill people in real life if they die in a game
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Palmer Luckey, who created Meta's Oculus, created a VR headset that kills users in real life if they die in a video game. "The idea of tying your real life to your virtual avatar has always fascinated me," Luckey recently wrote. Luckey sold Oculus, the backbone of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse pivot, to Facebook in 2014 for $2 billion. The original creator of the Oculus headset, which now serves as the backbone for Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse ambitions, wrote in a blog post that he had modified a VR headset to explode when the wearer loses in a video game, killing the user in real life, too. In the post, titled "If you die in the game, you die in real life," Luckey said he was inspired to create the deadly gaming device by a fictional VR headset called "NerveGear" featured in an anime television series called Sword Art Online.

☆ Billionaire Barry Diller said there is something 'quite odd' in Mark Zuckerberg's decision to turn Facebook into Meta
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-07 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

IAC founder Barry Diller said "something is quite odd" in Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse pivot. Meta has shed over 70% of its value since the Facebook founder changed its name. Diller has made billions in founding and investing in top media companies like Expedia Group, Fox Broadcasting Company and USA Broadcasting. Last week, Federal Communications Commissioner Brendan Carr told Axios regulatory agencies like the Council on Foreign Investment in the US should take action to ban the app which is owned by Chinese media company ByteDance. At Meta, Zuckerberg has continually copied the popular video-app, rolling out features like Instragram Reels.

☆ Meta investors reportedly 'got more disgusted' with Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse plans after he doubled down in the company's earnings
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta shareholders are becoming frustrated with Mark Zuckerberg's plans, Financial Times reported. Investors expressed their anger in meetings with Meta executives over the past week, per FT.Meta's shares plunged after its quarterly earnings report showed Zuckerberg was doubling down. Last week, Meta shares plummeted 24% after the company missed earnings targets and Zuckerberg said he intents to spend billions more on the metaverse project in the coming year. Investors have expressed their ire and frustration in meetings with Meta executives, including some with Zuckerberg over the past week, FT reported. Financial Times' recent report came after another investor published an open letter ahead of the company's quarterly earnings report, saying Meta has "lost the confidence of investors."

☆ Twitter employees expect layoffs as Elon Musk preps 'aggressive' cuts
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

And that's not to mention that employees are preparing for layoffs after Twitter leaders and VPs made lists of who to keep. Twitter employees expect layoffs to begin very soon. By Saturday afternoon, they handed Elon Musk lists of employees "to keep," two people said. Elon Musk fired Twitter execs "for cause" in a bid to avoid paying out tens of millions in severance. Among this year's biggest losers are those who've invested heavily in the metaverse (Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg) and crypto (Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao).

☆ How an $18-an-hour Amazon warehouse job cured one former tech exec's burnout
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

It's been a wild week in tech, made even more wild by Elon Musk's Twitter deal closing last night. We've got a ton of news this morning, including an account from a longtime tech exec who took a job at an Amazon fulfillment center to help cure his burnout. How an $18-an-hour Amazon warehouse job cured one tech exec's burnout. He decided to quit his CEO job and, eventually, take on a seasonal role at an Amazon fulfillment center. How Elon Musk's "autocratic leadership" will change Twitter.

☆ Meta got bumped off world's top 20 companies' list, thanks to Zuckerberg's relentless metaverse pursuit
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-28 | by ( Huileng Tan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Meta's share price tanked nearly 25% on Thursday, taking its market cap down to around $260 billion. It is now the world's 27th most valuable company, after starting the year in the sixth spot. The drop in Meta's share price this year has shaved 70% off Mark Zuckerberg's net worth. Meta's stock price is down about 71% this year. An extended decline Meta's stock price in February knocked the company off the world's top 10 most valuable companies list.

☆ The memes that relentlessly mocked Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar seem to have struck a nerve with the CEO
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Beatrice Nolan | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Mark Zuckerberg seems to have taken the memes that mocked his metaverse avatar to heart. During the call, the Meta CEO appeared to defend himself against viral memes that mocked his metaverse avatar earlier this year. In August, Zuckerberg posted a selfie of an early version of his metaverse avatar in front of the Eiffel Tower on Facebook. Zuckerberg seemingly responded to the memes by posting a more advanced version of his avatar on his Instagram. He added that "major updates" were coming to metaverse avatar graphics soon.

☆ Meta says it's laying off staff and easing off hiring to reduce costs – but will keep pumping billions into Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-27 | by ( Grace Dean | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Meta is cutting hiring and laying off staff to trim costs, CFO David Wehner said Wednesday. But Meta will continue pumping billions into its metaverse business, execs said Wednesday. Meta expects its headcount to remain roughly flat between now and the end of 2023, Wehner said. "We do anticipate that Reality Labs operating losses in 2023 will grow significantly year-over-year," Wehner said. Meta has been under pressure from Wall Street to reduce spending, especially on its metaverse projects.

☆ 3 things not to do when pitching your startup to a VC, according to a partner at a $750 million crypto venture firm
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Morgan Chittum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Marc Weinstein, a partner at VC firm Mechanism Capital, has cut 100 checks as an angel investor. The crypto venture firm grew from $500,000 to a peak AUM of $750 million in two years. But venture firms like Mechanism Capital say there are still tons of deals to be made. Founders who are 'catching the latest fad'The Mechanism Capital partner is focused on the team's backgrounds and what they've accomplished in the past. The firm, Weinstein included, looks for a certain level of consistency in their potential portfolio companies.

☆ Meet the wealthy ex-Goldman Sachs junior banker and hedge-fund manager taking over as the UK's new prime minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

We've got famous authors yelling at Jamie Dimon, rich Russians heading to your favorite all-inclusive, and more people complaining about Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse infatuation. The UK has a new prime minister — no, it's not the head of lettuce — and he comes from the world of Wall Street! Rishi Sunak, a former finance minister, officially became prime minister on Tuesday after meeting with King Charles. Sunak's early career reads like a typical Wall Street mogul:-Spend three years working as a junior analyst at a bank (Goldman Sachs). Grenada is proving to be an effective loophole for wealthy Russians looking to get US visas.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg should dial down the metaverse crap and make Facebook 'Facebook' again
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-23 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Mark Zuckerberg is going all in on the metaverse, but he should re-focus on other things. download the app Email address By clicking ‘Sign up’, you agree to receive marketing emails from Insider as well as other partner offers and accept our Terms of Service and Privacy PolicyMeta, the company formerly known as Facebook, should start focusing on making Facebook Facebook again. Over the past year, CEO Mark Zuckerberg has zeroed in on his passion project: the metaverse. Zuckerberg should instead dial that down and prioritize bolstering his company's core apps, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, which have felt largely neglected while Meta poured $15 billion into its metaverse project. That hasn't stopped Zuckerberg from making his metaverse push a Meta vs. Apple contest, so it's clearly taking up headspace.

☆ Meta has spent $15 billion so far on its metaverse project. Here are some incredible things that cost less.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Meta's losses from its Reality Labs project total $15 billion since last year, with no end in sight. Meta's losses have come under scrutiny after some were disappointed in Mark Zuckerberg's recent update on the metaverse. Meta's losses from its metaverse project keep stacking up. The hefty price tag on Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse project appears even more substantial when it's put into perspective. Here are other incredible things that cost less than the amount Meta has reported as losses on its Reality Labs project since last year.

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