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☆ Google has a secretive project that could reduce the need for human engineers
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-23 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today, we've got the details on Elon Musk walking back perks at Twitter, and news on a secretive project at Google. Google has a secretive new project that teaches code to write itself. In this case, the goal is to reduce the need for humans to write and update code, while maintaining code quality. It later moved into Google Labs — a transition that signaled its increased importance to leaders, with Google Labs pursuing long-term bets. Elon Musk put an end to some Twitter perks.

The law allows the government to choose 10 drugs to negotiate from among the 50 costliest drugs for Medicare. Even so, Republicans will "chip away" at the drug price negotiation provision and its implementation, said Joel White, founder and president of Horizon Government Affairs. Biden is unlikely to weaken his signature domestic achievement, said Larry Levitt, Executive Vice President for Health Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Even Republican support for the drug pricing provision is not guaranteed because it is popular with voters across the political spectrum, he said. "All Republicans voted against drug price negotiation, but they have to tread carefully in any effort to weaken it."

☆ Alphabet must cut headcount and trim costs, activist investor TCI says
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

TCI's stake represents 0.27% of outstanding Alphabet shares, according to Factset data, a position that the hedge fund has steadily accumulated since 2017. TCI noted that headcount has "increased at an annual rate of 20% since 2017," the year that TCI first disclosed their Alphabet position. TCI argued for an increase in share buybacks and the establishment of an EBIT margin target for Google Services. Significantly, TCI argued that Google's "Other Bets" category – their Moonshot division – demanded immediate attention, singling out self-driving vertical Waymo as a unit that failed to justify "its excessive investment." Alphabet shares are down more than 30% year-to-date.

☆ 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.

☆ BlackRock says it could be time to buy some growth and tech — Top ETFs to play the trade
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Patti Domm | In | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

BlackRock strategists recommend investors dip back into growth and tech for next year, but they say picking selective themes will be the best way to play them. BlackRock strategists say 2023 could be the year that changes the three-year pattern of growth and tech stocks moving in unison, both higher and lower. ETFs that fit these themes include BlackRock's iShares Self-Driving EV and Tech ETF , the iShares Global Clean Energy ETF , and iShares U.S. Infrastructure ETF. There is the iShares Cybersecurity and Tech ETF , IHAK and IRBO, the iShares Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Multisector ETF. BlackRock Future Health ETF, i Shares Genomics and Immunology and Healthcare ETF, and iShares Neuroscience and Healthcare ETF cover those themes.

CNN —“Mattress Mack” had reason to celebrate the Houston Astros’ World Series win on Saturday – and not just because he’s an Astros superfan. Houston furniture store owner Jim McIngvale, known as “Mattress Mack,” made a series of bets amounting to $10 million on the Astros to win the World Series. The Houston Astros celebrate their World Series win against the Philadelphia Phillies in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, November 5. Peña was awarded the World Series MVP for his stellar play during the series. He is just the second rookie to be named LCS and World Series MVP in the same postseason.

CNN —The Houston Astros won the franchise’s second World Series title on Saturday after defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 4-1 in Game 6 at Minute Maid Park. After falling behind 2-1 through the first three games of the World Series, Houston evened up the series after throwing a combined no-hitter in Game 4. Party!”The Houston Astros celebrate their World Series win against the Philadelphia Phillies in Houston, Texas, on Saturday, November 5. Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos/Getty Images The Houston Astros celebrate their win in Game 5 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, November 4. The Phillies hit five home runs in the game, tying a World Series record, and they won 7-0 to take a 2-1 series lead over the Houston Astros.

☆ The Stripe founders' memo explaining its layoff plan to employees is a remarkably candid look at why so much of tech is in freefall
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-05 | by ( Travis Clark | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Its memo to employees highlights the economic headwinds other tech companies are facing. From Meta to Shopify, tech companies are navigating an uncertain future. It over-hired during the pandemic"We over-hired for the world we're in," the founders wrote. It failed to keep other costs in checkThe founders' wrote: "We grew operating costs too quickly. The open question facing Stripe and other tech companies is what that recalibration looks like, beyond simply cutting costs.

CNN —It was an anxious, exciting night to be a Philadelphia or Houston sports fan Thursday, with a two-sport high-stakes showdown played at the same time that gave Houston an edge in the World Series and kept Philadelphia perfect on the gridiron. In Pennsylvania, there was Game 5 of the World Series between the Philadelphia Phillies and Houston Astros, each looking to take the advantage in a 2-2 series. The Houston Astros celebrate their win in Game 5 of the World Series against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, November 4. Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images Philadelphia right fielder Nick Castellanos makes a diving catch on the first play of Game 3 on Tuesday night. Houston vs. Philly, againAs the World Series was underway Thursday night, the Eagles held off the Texans in Houston 29-17 to start 8-0 for the first time in franchise history.

☆ Britain's Prince William unveils finalists for Earthshot environmental prize
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Britain's Prince William on Friday unveiled the finalists for his Earthshot prize, which awards 1 million pounds ($1.12 million) each to five winners developing solutions to major environmental problems. The 15 finalists across five categories range from a Kenyan startup that makes cleaner-burning stoves to a city-wide recycling initiative in Amsterdam. The prize received more than 1,000 nominations. Other prize finalists include an Omani initiative to remove carbon dioxide by turning it into rock, an Indian business making a sustainable alternative to leather from used flowers, and a Chinese team trying to turn barren desert into fertile soil. ($1 = 0.8940 pounds)Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Sandra MalerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ This tech stock is a 'screaming buy' right now: Ritholtz's Josh Brown
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-04 | by ( Weizhen Tan | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Tech stocks got clobbered this week, with the Nasdaq Composite tumbling more than 3% Wednesday after the U.S. Federal Reserve hikes rates by another 0.75 percentage point . Tech stocks have been underperforming all year, with the Nasdaq down more than 30% year-to-date. But Josh Brown , co-founder and CEO of Ritholtz Wealth Management, says one mega-cap tech stock is a "screaming buy." I don't think that's going to be the case," Brown told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia." "And so I think Alphabet right now is a screaming buy."

☆ Everybody thinks Apple's Tim Cook's boring (but he's kicking everybody's ass)
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Apple's market cap is worth more than Amazon, Meta, and Alphabet combined. Other tech companies have faced more pushback for seemingly investing too much in headcounts and moonshot projects. Apple isn't immune to criticism, but CEO Tim Cook largely avoids controversy, which may insulate the company. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has even publicly accused the company of undercutting other businesses to grow its own. But Apple's stock is down only 23%.

☆ Uber whistleblower says current business model 'absolutely' unsustainable
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( Sergio Goncalves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Pedro NunesLISBON, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Mark MacGann, the whistleblower behind the so-called Uber Files, said on Wednesday that the ride-hailing company seemed to be taking steps toward improving its work culture but that its business model was still "absolutely" unsustainable. MacGann said Uber's current CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, and his executive team "have done a lot of good things, but they have so, so far to go." "My message to Uber is: 'you've done well, (but) you can do it so much better (because) the current model is absolutely not sustainable,'" MacGann told a news conference during Europe's largest tech conference, the Web Summit, in Lisbon. He said Uber recently reiterated that the "core of its business model is independent contractors, since everybody wants to be self-employed, everybody wants flexibility." "Uber is pumping tens of millions of dollars in Europe, United States, other parts of the world fighting legislation," he said.

For good.”R&B superstar Blige said she lost aunts and other family members to breast, cervical and lung cancer. She has promoted breast cancer screening in the past, especially among Black women who are disproportionately affected, through the Black Women’s Health Imperative. First lady Jill Biden, right, holds hands with singer Mary J. Blige during an event to launch the American Cancer Society's national roundtables on breast and cervical cancer in the State Dining Room of the White House, on Monday. Patrick Semansky / APBlige blamed misconceptions about mammograms among Black women and “the practice of not wanting other people in our business” for disparities in breast cancer outcomes between Blacks and whites. “She has a rock-hard mass in her breast,” Gore said.

☆ Metaverse-obsessed Mark Zuckerberg refuses to cut costs. It's no wonder the stock tanked
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Zev Fima | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Club holding Meta Platforms (META) reported mixed third-quarter results and weak forward guidance after the closing bell Wednesday. While beating expectations, revenue for Q3 dropped 4% to $27.71 billion. As for profitability, Family of Apps operating income came in at $9.34 billion, short versus expectations of $9.65 billion. Facebook Global Average Revenue per User (ARPU): $9.41 versus expectations of $9.83. Capital expenditures (capex) guidance was tightened to a range of $32 billion to $33 billion versus $30 billion to $34 billion previously forecast and above the $30.41 billion consensus.

☆ Twitter employees are leaving for tech rivals ahead of Elon Musk's planned takeover
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Today, we're looking at a major side-effect of the drama surrounding Elon Musk's Twitter takeover: the employee exodus. Twitter is experiencing an employee exodus amid the Elon Musk deal. Meta and Google snap up Twitter employees. Amid the months-long saga between Twitter and Elon Musk, employees have been leaving in droves. Elon Musk pledges to close Twitter deal on time.

☆ Amazon is shutting down teams that make free AWS tutorials and other online courses as cost cuts grow
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Eugene Kim | Katherine Long | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Amazon is shutting down the team responsible for creating cloud computing tutorials. It also axed an online test-prep app for prospective engineering and medical students in India. Amazon is planning to shut down an Online Learning team that was responsible for creating online programming and cloud computing tutorials, Insider has learned. The company currently offers hundreds of online courses, many of which are free, across topics including data science and software engineering on its Online Learning site. Amazon is also shutting down an online learning platform in India that offers tutorials for students preparing to take the country's highly-competitive engineering and medical college entrance exams, according to a current employee.

☆ Wait for the dust to settle after Alphabet's poor results before taking action on the stock
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-25 | by ( Jeff Marks | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

But we think Club members should wait until the dust settles before taking any action. Even Google Search, the greatest advertising platform in the world, was not immune to some macroeconomic pressures. Revenue breakdown Google Advertising revenue increased 2.5% year-over-year, to $54.48 billion, missing the consensus estimate of $56.59 billion. Google Search & Other revenue rose 4%, to $39.54 billion, below the $40.93 billion forecasted by analysts, driven by a solid performance in travel and retail. Still, we see no reason to doubt the resilience of Google Search due to its strong measurability and high return on investment.

☆ 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.

☆ 28-year-old former teacher now makes $110,000—how working for a company with pay transparency helped
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-12 | by ( Jennifer Liu | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Salary transparency laws are sweeping the U.S., and workers are more open than ever about how much money they make. Have you ever negotiated a job offer, scored a major raise or used pay transparency to level up in your career? Despite the sudden departure, Fante's ex-employer did give her one major point of leverage that powered her new job search: The ed-tech company operated with total salary transparency. Fante adds that the company's policy existed before Colorado enacted its salary transparency law in January 2021. "It revolutionized the way I thought about pay, because that transparency just felt very natural and like something everyone deserves," she says.

☆ The era of the Big Tech moonshot is over
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Each of these ideas is a "moonshot," or a radical, potentially world-changing project that Big Tech companies have worked on in recent years. Is the era of Big Tech moonshots over? For years, companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook dumped money and energy into radical, potentially world-changing projects. But recently, Big Tech firms have been scaling back their ambitions — and have instead turned to a Wall Street-appeasing pragmatism. It comes after Amazon workers of all types have been pushing for higher pay for years.

☆ 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.

☆ Everything you'll need to know about Amazon's second Prime Day
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-27 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

That's right: Amazon has confirmed it's hosting another Prime Day-esque event, slated to take place next month. It's official: Amazon is hosting a second "Prime Day" sales event. Here's what we know so far:The "Prime Early Access Sale," will be held on October 11 and 12. As with Prime Day, the Prime Early Access Sale is exclusively available to Amazon Prime subscribers. But as long as you sign up before the event ends on October 12, you'll be able to partake.

☆ Amazon is walking back staffers' raises after an internal bug miscalculated compensation
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Jordan Parker Erb | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

We're looking at that and more today — but first, let's kick things off with the latest on Amazon compensation. Leaked email reveals that Amazon is walking back employees' raises. A software bug caused Amazon to overstate some corporate employees' raise packages, according to the email. Per the email, the glitch caused Amazon to overstate bonuses for recently-promoted employees by relying on older, higher stock prices for Amazon shares. In response, Amazon nearly doubled its base pay cap and promised raises, but that wasn't enough to quell the gripes.

☆ Leaked Microsoft documents show where and how the tech titan's new moonshot team is placing its bets, from quantum computing to government cloud services
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-22 | by ( Ashley Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

The team formed to manage Microsoft's biggest moonshots just released its first growth strategy, according to internal documents viewed by Insider. Microsoft expects the total addressable market through the company's 2025 fiscal year for Microsoft Federal to reach $105 billion, and $149 billion for the Microsoft Communications unit. Azure Quantum, led by CVP Zulfi Alam: "Azure Quantum team is engineering the quantum machine to solve for a better future." Azure for Operators, led by CVP Martin Lund "is accelerating the Cloud transformation of mission critical communication networks for Core and Edge services." Mission Engineering, led by Zach Kramer: "Mission engineering is delivering the innovation and technology that creates the ecosystem that transform mission."

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