A
leaked memo obtained by Vice showed Amazon’s efforts to mount a smear campaign
against a worker it fired. The memo
was written by one of Amazon’s top lawyers who described the fired worker,
Chris Smalls, as “not smart or articulate.”
Zoom’s
CEO has apologized to the video conferencing app’s millions of users over
privacy concerns. “We recognize that we have fallen short of
the community’s — and our own — privacy and security expectations,”
founder Eric Yuan said in a blog post.
Japanese
investor SoftBank stated it is dropping a plan to buy $3 billion worth of
WeWork shares, claiming ‘significant’ criminal and civil investigations. The decision nixes an offer to buy $3
billion worth of shares from other WeWork investors and employees, including
nearly $970 million worth from former CEO Adam Neumann.
Apple
seemed to unintentionally leak details of an unreleased iPhone accessory, which
would help you find lost items with your phone. Apple posted and quickly removed a video
tutorial that mentioned an unreleased and long-rumored product called AirTags.
Amazon
CEO Jeff Bezos will give $100 million to support food banks that are facing
shortages due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Bezos
wrote that food insecurity in American households is an important problem that
will be made worse by COVID-19.
Disney
will furlough employees during the Coronavirus crisis. This will begin on April 19 after the
company’s theme parks, cruise lines, retail stores, and film productions have
all been hit by the pandemic.
Bill
Gates has said the US must have a nationwide shutdown for at least 10 more
weeks to fight coronavirus. The
Microsoft founder called for a “consistent nationwide approach to shutting
down” to combat the spread of the Coronavirus.
Airbnb
has reportedly dropped its internal valuation to $26 billion as the coronavirus
halts travel worldwide. That’s a
16% drop from the company’s previous valuation of $31 billion, according to
PitchBook.
Venture
capital-backed startups will become eligible for $350 billion in small business
loans guaranteed by the federal government. Coronavirus
stimulus provides forgivable loans of up to $10 million for companies with
fewer than 500 employees but contained an affiliation rule which would have
excluded small businesses with venture capitalists as shareholders.
The CEO of Voi, a European rival to $2.5 billion scooter startup Bird, revealed the firm has furloughed and laid off staff to cope with COVID-19. The company has laid off and furloughed most of its staff in an attempt to manage the ongoing pandemic.
