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☆ Amazon's amazing turnaround: How Andy Jassy secretly wooed Wall Street and overhauled a bloated tech giant
▼ + stars: | 2024-07-08 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

This person is one of over a dozen Amazon employees, investors, and analysts that BI interviewed to better understand Jassy's first 3 years as CEO. Andy Jassy replaced Jeff Bezos (pictured here) as Amazon's CEO in July 2021. In his first 3 years as CEO, Jassy has lost many senior staff. Amazon's spokesperson said the company has "strong retention and continuity" among senior leaders. Amazon's spokesperson said the company is making "huge investments" in AI across AWS and the retail business.

Persons: —, Andy Jassy, Jeff Bezos, Jassy, Bezos, EMMANUEL DUNAND, Mark Shmulik, Bernstein, Bernstein's Shmulik, He's, Shmulik, Amazon's, That's, spokespeople, Jassy doesn't, Doug Herrington, Jay Carney, Dave Limp, Adam Selipsky, Dave Clark, Clark, Ted S, Babak Parviz, Parviz, Mark Mahaney, We're, Jeff Organizations: Service, Business, Amazon, Washington Post, BI, Warren, Echo, Microsoft, AWS Locations: Seattle

☆ ‘Sonic Logos’ Struggle to Get Heard at U.S. Checkouts
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Katie Deighton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +8 min

A spokeswoman for American Express said the company’s sonic logo plays on marketing channels such as brand videos, but not at any credit-card terminals. PREVIEWPayments firms say sonic logos at cash registers can also communicate to customers that they are transacting with a trusted merchant, making the sounds akin to the stickers of credit-card logos that often appear in store windows. Visa’s spokeswoman said the company doesn’t share figures on how many businesses play its sonic logo due to the complexity of tracking rollouts. To that suggestion, Mastercard said the value of sonic logos for merchants “comes in through consumer trust and reassurance.” Visa declined to comment. But some retailers want no part of sonic logos.

☆ Intrepid septuagenarians have cold water poured on cross-channel record
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The brave septuagenarians arrived on Sangatte beach near Calais in September having entered the water 21 miles away on England's Kent coast 18 hours earlier in pitch darkness. But their incredible achievement has not been ratified by The Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation (CSPF), because of what was described as an 'illegal changeover'. Group leader Bob Holman, 78, said he was 'totally gutted' that 'nit-picking and a pedantic attitude' by the overseeing organisation had denied them the record. Legal action is now being considered by the group whose effort raised thousands of pounds for an Alzheimer's charity. The Channel Swimming and Piloting Federation has been approached by Reuters for comment.

☆ Why Saudi Arabia is hosting one of the world's biggest raves
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +14 min

The kingdom’s Soundstorm music festival, which began in 2019, is back again for its fourth year and will start on Thursday. “(It) is a particularly powerful example because it seeks to bring together young people and women from across Saudi Arabia and the world,” she said. By contrast, Las Vegas’ Electric Daisy Carnival, considered North America’s biggest dance music festival, had an attendance of over 400,000 this year. Last year, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said that performers should either “speak up” about Saudi Arabia’s human rights violations or not attend the festival at all. Some however argue that opening up countries to international norms and values can allow for better discussion on human rights shortcomings.

☆ Amidst the layoffs at Amazon, the company's ultra-secretive research lab is at risk of being shut. It's a sign things are changing 'dramatically' at the company.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Early last month, members of Amazon's secretive in-house research lab, Grand Challenge, were called into an unexpected video meeting. Weibel announced 3 of the 5 projects Grand Challenge was working on would shut down, effective immediately. When other team employees wanted to collaborate with the team, they needed additional approvals from its leadership. Amazon Glow was among the Grand Challenge projects to be discontinued at the end of this year. Getting support promoting Grand Challenge projects was a challenge too.

☆ Amazon's moonshots lab recently shut down several secret projects, shocking members of the team. Here are the initiatives that got the chop, and the ones that survived.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Eugene Kim | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Amazon's Grand Challenge division recently shut down three confidential projects, a cost-cutting move that shocked and disappointed members of the secretive moonshots lab, Insider has learned. Two healthcare projects survived the cull. The healthcare projects that survived are a new type of at-home fertility-monitoring device and a therapeutic treatment to protect against antibiotic resistance, these people said. The decision to keep two healthcare projects reflects CEO Andy Jassy's ambition in this field. Glow, a video-calling device that Amazon shut down earlier this month, was also part of the broader Grand Challenge team.

☆ The era of Big Tech moonshots is over. Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft are pulling back on ambitious, risky long-term projects after many of them failed.
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Hugh Langley | Eugene Kim | Kali Hays | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +13 min

Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Facebook have scaled back their ambitious "moonshot" projects. Moonshots like Google X and Amazon Grand Challenge allowed tech firms to build innovative projects. Before Amazon, Parviz led a similar team at Google called Google X. Page and Brin championed X projects they loved, helping them gain funding and headcount within the unit. Parviz, who created the once-hyped-up Google Glass, left Google X in 2014 to start Amazon's Grand Challenge.

☆ Un cunoscut regizor iranian, ucis și dezmembrat de părinți pentru că nu s-a căsătorit până la 47 de ani
▼ + stars: | 2021-05-20 | by ( Publika.Md - Aici Sunt Știrile | ) www.publika.md time to read: +2 min

Un regizor de film în vârstă de 47 de ani a fost ucis și dezmembrat de părinți, pentru că nu se căsătorise până la vârsta pe care o avea, scrie digi24.ro. Părți din cadavrul lui Babak Khorramdin au fost descoperite într-o valiză, în Ekbatan, un cartier din vestul Teheranului, relatează Newsweek. Apoi i-am dezmembrat corpul și l-am aruncat în cel mai apropiat coș de gunoi, pe stradă, împreună cu soția mea." Poliția a percheziționat casa familiei și a descoperit dovezi ale crimei. Parviz Jahed, cineast și critic, a scris pe Instagram: „Babak a fost cineast și acum câțiva ani l-am întâlnit deseori în cercurile culturale și artistice din Londra.

Persons: Babak, Akbar, Khorramdin, . Regizorul Organizations: Newsweek Locations: Londra, Iran, Teheran, Hole

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