Category: News and Views

Uber’s Travis Kalanick Said To Resign As CEO Amid Investor Backlash | Forbes

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Uber CEO and co-founder Travis Kalanick, who took a leave of absence from the company just last week after months of turmoil, has now reportedly resigned in the face of mounting investor anger.

The New York Times broke the news late Tuesday, reporting that five major investors in the ridehailing giant demanded Kalanick resign immediately as chief executive officer. The group included Benchmark, a venture capital firm that’s represented on Uber’s board by Bill Gurley, the Times said. Two people with knowledge of the matter, that the newspaper didn’t identify, confirmed the ultimatum given to Kalanick.

That demand was delivered to Kalanick in a letter titled “Moving Uber Forward,” a copy of which the Times obtained. Spokespeople for Uber didn’t immediately respond to a Forbes request to confirm his departure.

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Revolutionary Solar Paint Creates Endless Energy When Mixed With Water Vapor | Inhabitat

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Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne have created a revolutionary new solar paint that can be used to produce endless amounts of clean energy. The innovative paint draws moisture from the air and splits it into oxygen and hydrogen. As a result, hydrogen can be captured as a clean fuel source.

The paint contains a recently-developed compound that looks and feels like silica gel — commonly used in sachets to absorb moisture and keep food, electronics, and medicine dry — but acts like a semiconductor. Additionally, the synthetic molybdenum-sulphide material catalysis the splitting of water atoms into hydrogen and oxygen.

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For Western Union, Refugees and Immigrants Are the Ultimate Market | Bloomberg

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Early in the summer of 2014, executives at Western Union offices around the globe began to notice something strange. The world’s largest money transfer company, Western Union Co. processes 31 transactions a second, and the money moves in distinct regional and seasonal patterns, like ocean currents or highway traffic. When disruptions occur or new patterns emerge, a knowledgeable observer can spot history unfolding in real time: The volume of transfers reflects the ebb and flow of nations’ economic growth and the vacillations of commodity markets. Natural disasters show up as sudden influxes of cash.

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Brexit talks: U.K. and EU begin divorce negotiations | CNN Money

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Brexit talks are officially underway.

Officials charged with negotiating the first departure of a country from the European Union were in Brussels on Monday to kick off the most consequential series of talks for the U.K. since the end of World War II.

Chief U.K. negotiator David Davis is meeting his EU counterpart, former French foreign minister Michel Barnier, to grapple with a complex set of questions about the future of trade and migration, how much the country must pay to settle its bill with the bloc, and the rights of millions of citizens who have settled in Britain or Europe.

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Amazon is gobbling Whole Foods for a reported $13.7 billion | TechCrunch

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Amazon has made a bid to buy Whole Foods in what would be a whopping $13.7 billion deal.

The all-cash acquisition (which includes Whole Foods Market’s net debt), will radically shake up any number of businesses and completely changes the online retail and bricks and mortar landscape.

“Millions of people love Whole Foods Market because they offer the best natural and organic foods, and they make it fun to eat healthy,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive in a statement. “Whole Foods Market has been satisfying, delighting and nourishing customers for nearly four decades – they’re doing an amazing job and we want that to continue.

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McDonald’s Ends Olympics Deal Three Years Early | BBC News

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McDonald’s and the International Olympics Committee (IOC) are ending their long-running sponsorship deal three years early.

The fast food chain said it was “reconsidering all aspects of its International Olympics Committee business” as part of a plan to re-invigorate its business.

The IOC said it understood “that McDonald’s is looking to focus on different business priorities”. The partnership began in 1976.

“For these reasons, we have mutually agreed with McDonald’s to part ways,” said the IOC.

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Crash Override Malware Took Down Ukraine’s Power Grid Last December | WIRED

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AT MIDNIGHT, A week before last Christmas, hackers struck an electric transmission station north of the city of Kiev, blacking out a portion of the Ukrainian capital equivalent to a fifth of its total power capacity. The outage lasted about an hour—hardly a catastrophe. But now, cybersecurity researchers have found disturbing evidence that the blackout may have only been a dry run. The hackers appear to have been testing the most evolved specimen of grid-sabotaging malware ever observed in the wild.

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This Startup Wants to Make the NBA Even More Diverse | Inc.com

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For most people, landing Facebook, Goldman Sachs, Airbnb, and Netflix as customers would be good enough. Porter Braswell, who can already count those celebrated companies to his roster, may well say his latest client is his greatest so far: the NBA.

On Thursday, Jopwell, the New York City-based recruitment platform that connects minority job candidates with prominent employers across the country, announced that it has partnered with the National Basketball Association to connect job seekers of color to the league’s offices. Teams including the Golden State Warriors, the Boston Celtics, and the L.A. Clippers have agreed to pay an undisclosed subscription fee for access to the startup’s platform, where they can then tap a minority candidate for, say, a financial analyst or data scientist job.

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