DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Microsoft to cut 650 jobs at its Xbox gaming unit — read the full memo from top exec Phil Spencer
▼ + stars: | 2024-09-12 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Patrick T. Fallon | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMicrosoft on Thursday said that it is cutting 650 roles at its Xbox gaming division, in the latest major round of layoffs to hit the video game industry. It marks the third series of redundancies in Microsoft's video game unit since the company's blockbuster acquisition of Activision Blizzard, the publisher behind the Call of Duty franchise, for $69 billion in cash. In a memo obtained by CNBC, Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, told employees that the firm had taken this "difficult" decision to align its post-acquisition team structure and "organize our business for long term success." Bethesda publishes major gaming titles, such as the Fallout and The Elder Scrolls series. Major gaming studios have cut thousands of jobs around the world, beginning in 2023 and continuing into 2024.

Persons: Phil Spencer, Patrick T, Spencer, Japan's, Playtika Organizations: Microsoft, Fallon, Bloomberg, Getty, Activision Blizzard, Duty, CNBC, Microsoft Gaming, Xbox, Activision, ZeniMax Media, Bethesda Softworks, Bethesda, Japan's Sony, PlayStation, Gaming Locations: Los Angeles, U.S

As advocates push this year for ballot measure initiatives aiming to protect abortion rights, key differences have emerged in the language of proposed measures. Among them is the inclusion of mental health exceptions. Meanwhile, proposed ballot measure language in Arkansas only says “physical health,” excluding a mental health exception. “We don’t as a society have a great track record of treating mental health the same way we do physical health.”Policies that dismiss mental health as less important than physical health put lives at risk, said Columbia University psychiatrist Paul Appelbaum. We felt it was unlikely for a version that explicitly names mental health to pass.”Arkansas advocates were also worried the opposition campaign would target a mental health exception, Diaz said.

Persons: Kaniya Harris, Harris, don’t, “, ”, Roe, Wade, Michelle Oberman, ” Oberman, Paul Appelbaum, Appelbaum, ” Jayme Trevino, Mallory Schwarz, —, Gennie Diaz, ” Diaz, Diaz, Ingrid Duran, Duran Organizations: CHICAGO, Alabama, U.S, Supreme, U.S . Centers for Disease Control, Santa Clara University, Columbia University, American Psychiatric Association, OB, Physicians for Reproductive Health, Republican, Associated Press, AP Locations: Bethesda , Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri, Arizona, Michigan, Arkansas, Florida , Montana and Nebraska, — Florida, Georgia , Idaho , Iowa , Kentucky, Louisiana , Ohio , Tennessee, West Virginia, Wyoming, Alabama, ” Arkansas, Santa

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Funeral services for former first lady Melania Trump's mother, Amalija Knavs, are scheduled for Thursday at a church not far from the family's Mar-a-Lago estate. Amalija Knavs was at a 2018 ceremony where the first lady debuted her “Be Best” public awareness campaign to help children. Amalija Knavs was a textile worker and homemaker, while her husband worked as chauffeur before becoming a car dealer. The former first lady, 53, attended high school in the Slovenian capital, Ljubljana, and changed her name to Melania Knauss when she started modeling. Their lawyer said at the time that they applied for citizenship on their own and didn’t get any special treatment.

Persons: Melania, Amalija, Donald Trump, Knavs, Jan, Viktor Knavs, Amalija Knavs, Melanija, Ines, Trump, didn’t Organizations: Episcopal, of Bethesda, Trump, White, Communist Locations: PALM BEACH, Fla, Lago, Knavs, Miami, New York, Sevnica, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, Slovenian, Ljubljana, United States, New York City

☆ Microsoft gaming chief Phil Spencer says Starfield is seeing 'huge demand'
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Jordan Novet | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming, appears at the Political Opening of the Gamescom conference in Cologne, Germany, on Aug. 23, 2023. Microsoft is seeing "huge demand" for its new Starfield video game, Phil Spencer, the software company's CEO of gaming, said Wednesday. Microsoft picked up the game through its $8.1 billion acquisition of game publisher ZeniMax, the parent of Bethesda. Spencer said Starfield is the most wish-listed game the company has had on the Steam game store. Spencer said tens of millions of Game Pass subscribers were getting a chance to play Starfield on Wednesday.

Persons: Phil Spencer, Spencer, CNBC's Steve Kovach, ZeniMax, Jim Ryan, Ryan, We've, we've, Starfield Organizations: Microsoft Gaming, Microsoft, Microsoft's Bethesda Game Studios, PlayStation, Gaming, Activision Blizzard, Sony Interactive Entertainment, Activision, Sony, Nintendo, Markets Authority, Ubisoft Locations: Cologne, Germany, Microsoft's, Bethesda, San Francisco

An Activision Blizzard's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare video game is inserted into the Microsoft's Xbox One video game console arranged in Denver, Colorado, on Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022. Shares of Activision Blizzard surged Friday, after the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority narrowed the scope of its investigation into Microsoft 's takeover of the games publisher. The development marks a partial win for Microsoft, as it pursues an expansion of its video game business. Among its concerns, the regulator flagged that the deal would cause a substantial lessening of competition in the console gaming market. With this new evidence, the CMA now says it no longer believes the transaction will hamper competition in console games.

☆ How ballroom dance become a refuge for Asian immigrants
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-27 | by ( Kimmy Yam | Kimmy Yam Is A Reporter For Nbc Asian America. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +7 min

Three days a week, Edward Wan, of Bethesda, Maryland, steals away to a ballroom dance studio so he can glide across the floor in the company of older Chinese immigrants like him. Wan, 78, is one of the countless Asian immigrants who’ve regarded ballroom dance as a sort of creative sanctuary, but are now shaken by the two shootings incidents, one of them deadly, that shook California dance halls on Saturday. “It’s an injustice to ballroom dance. Ballroom dance itself is almost like going to learn poetry or sitting down to meditate,” Wan said. Ballroom dance helped him move forward, he said.

☆ These 15 people are shaping the office of the future, designing meeting pods, hologram calls, and buildings that actually make workers healthier
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Robert Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +27 min

These 15 power players are just a handful of the people designing workplaces to balance productivity, interaction, and employee well-being through indoor-air-quality monitoring systems, building amenities, holographic meeting spaces, and more. AftershipCities like Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; and Raleigh, North Carolina, began offering business-relocation incentives during the pandemic to boost their workforces and help increase occupancy in office buildings. Room's office suite includes a phone booth, a meeting room, an open meeting room, and a focus room. Room also makes a soundproof meeting room that fits two people, a more open meeting booth, and a focus room designed for quiet concentration. "The future of office work needs to be guided by a new, genuine form of flexibility in which the work, not the workers themselves, become even more malleable," Petersen writes.

Search resuls for: "of Bethesda"

7 mentions found