Per Layoffs.fyi, a layoff tracker, over 16,000 tech workers lost their jobs in May, and June is off to a similarly brutal start. TechCrunch’s senior reporter Amanda Silberling and I have accidentally, and unfortunately, started working on a weekly column about the tech layoffs; what first started as a tip-over moment at Thrasio has soon expanded to startups regardless of sector, financing stage or if they had obvious growth tensions or not.
Category: News and Views
Kohl’s puts up a for-sale sign | CNN
Kohl’s may soon have a new owner.
Kohl’s (KSS) said late Monday that it had entered into a three-week exclusive negotiation period for a potential sale with Franchise Group (FRG), a holding company which owns The Vitamin Shoppe and other retail brands.
Franchise Group has proposed to buy Kohl’s for $60 a share. Kohl’s stock closed at $42.12 on Monday and rose 10% during early trading Tuesday on the news. The deal would value Kohl’s at around $8 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported, about 5 times more than it was worth last week.
How to watch SpaceX launch a cargo ship to the ISS this week | Digital Trends
This week, a SpaceX Cargo Dragon spacecraft will travel to the International Space Station (ISS), carrying supplies and scientific research equipment to the astronauts there. NASA will livestream the launch, and we’ve got the details on how you can watch the event from home.
On Friday, June 10 at 10:22 a.m. ET (7:22 a.m. PT), a SpaceX Dragon will lift off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It will carry 4,500 pounds of cargo to the space station, which it is scheduled to arrive at on Sunday, June 12 at 6:20 a.m. ET (3:20 a.m. PT). When it arrives at the Harmony module of the space station, NASA astronauts Kjell Lindgren and Bob Hines will oversee its docking with the station.
Elon Musk declares end to remote working at Tesla | BBC News
Tesla boss Elon Musk has ordered staff to return to the office full-time, declaring that working remotely is no longer acceptable.
The new policy was shared in emails that were leaked to social media.
Tesla did not respond to a request for comment on the messages, one of which appeared to be addressed to executives.
People who are unwilling to abide by the new rules can “pretend to work somewhere else” Mr Musk said on Twitter, when asked about the policy.
“Everyone at Tesla is required to spend a minimum of 40 hours in the office per week,” he wrote in one of the emails. “If you don’t show up, we will assume you have resigned.”
Proton Adds Proton Calendar, Proton Drive, and Proton VPN Encrypted Features | WIRED
SINCE ITS FOUNDING in 2014, ProtonMail has become synonymous with user-friendly encrypted email. Now the company is trying to be synonymous with a whole lot more. On Wednesday morning, it announced that it’s changing its name to, simply, Proton—a nod at its broader ambitions within the universe of online privacy. The company will now offer an “ecosystem” of linked products, all accessed via one paid subscription. Proton subscribers will have access not just to encrypted email, but also an encrypted calendar, file storage platform, and VPN.
Enormous asteroid 7335 (1989 JA) to fly by Earth on May 27 | Live Science
An enormous asteroid four times the size of the Empire State Building will make a close approach to Earth on May 27, according to NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies (CNEOS).
Fear not: the asteroid, named 7335 (1989 JA), will soundly miss our planet by about 2.5 million miles (4 million kilometers) — or nearly 10 times the average distance between Earth and the moon. Still, given the space rock’s enormous size (1.1. miles, or 1.8 km, in diameter) and relatively close proximity to Earth, NASA has classified the asteroid as “potentially hazardous,” meaning it could do enormous damage to our planet if its orbit ever changes and the rock impacts Earth.
Netflix cuts 150 US-based jobs after losing subscribers | BBC News
Netflix has made about 150 staff redundant, a month after the streaming service said it was losing subscribers for the first time in a decade. The redundancies, announced by the entertainment giant on Tuesday, will mainly affect its US office in California. They account for about 2% of its North American workforce. Netflix said the job losses were due to the slump in the company’s revenue. The streaming service is battling an exodus of viewers this year.
Sony confirms its new PlayStation Plus tiers will launch on June 13, reveals list of games | TechCrunch
Sony announced today that its revamped PlayStation Plus gaming subscription tiers will launch in the United States on June 13th. The new PlayStation Plus tiers offer similar benefits to Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass, which gives users access to a library of rotating games for a monthly fee. Sony has also released a list of games that will be available during the launch time frame. It’s worth noting that Sony’s new subscription tiers won’t include new first-party games, such as “Horizon Zero Dawn and “Horizon Forbidden West,” at least not at launch.
The lowest tier of the subscription service is called “PlayStation Plus Essential” and comes with the same benefits that PlayStation Plus members have today and costs $9.99 per month. The middle tier, which is called “PlayStation Plus Extra,” comes with all the same perks as the Essential tier but includes a selection of up to 400 PS4 and PS5 games. Sony notes that games in the Extra tier can be downloaded for online play. The Extra tier costs $14.99 per month.
Twitter CEO Breaks Silence on Exodus of Execs, Hiring Freeze and Musk Bid: ‘We Need to Be Prepared for All Scenarios’ | Entrepreneur
The transition from Twitter being a publicly traded company led by CEO Parag Agrawal to a privately-held company owned by billionaire Elon Musk has been anything but smooth and drama free.
Musk’s purchase, which is widely expected to close by the end of 2022, has been the cause of contention among shareholders Twitter employees who have been vocal about their concerns for the company moving forward.
It seems as though some of these concerns were well-founded last week when Agrawal told employees that two top Twitter execs — Kayvon Beykpour (general manager of consumer) and Bruce Falck (revenue product lead — would be leaving the company, shortly after Musk himself explained that his bid on the company was “on hold” pending an accurate report of what percentage of Twitter users are actually bots and spam accounts.
Agrawal did not publicly comment on the matter at the time but took to Twitter over the weekend to break his silence regarding Musk’s deal and the departure of the employees, noting that he does “expect the deal to close.”
Netflix is working on adding live streaming to its service, report claims | Mashable
Netflix wants to do it live.
So reports Deadline, which notes that the streaming giant is “exploring” bringing live streaming to its service. That’s right, live entertainment — presumably with none of the pausing, rewinding, or fast-forwarding we’ve all come to take for granted in our post cord-cutting world.
The move into live entertainment would follow on Netflix’s apparent plan to add an ad-supported tier to the subscription platform sometime this year, and would reportedly focus on stand-up specials and unscripted shows.
Dispatches From The Front 