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Category: CFOTrends

  • Major Google Investor Wants Company to Lay Off 30,000

    Major Google Investor Wants Company to Lay Off 30,000

    A major Google investor doesn’t believe the company’s 12,000 job cuts are enough and is calling for 30,000 instead.

    Sir Christopher Hohn runs The Children’s Investment Fund. He was already a proponent of layoffs, raising the possibility to Google leaders in November, according to The Register.

    In an open letter to Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Hohn makes the case that the company’s recently announced layoffs don’t go far enough.

    “The decision to cut 12,000 jobs is a step in the right direction, but it does not even reverse the very strong headcount growth of 2022,” he writes. “Ultimately management will need to go further.”

    “I believe that management should aim to reduce headcount to around 150,000, which is in line with Alphabet’s headcount at the end of 2021. This would require a total headcount reduction in the order of 20%,” he added.

    Interestingly, Hohn takes aim at “excessive employee compensation” as well, saying the median salary at Alphabet was almost $300,000 in 2021, with the average being even higher.

    That specific criticism is — shall we say — “interesting,” coming from an individual who reportedly paid himself a whopping $690 million salary, or $1.8 million per day, in 2022.

  • Spotify Laying Off 6% of Its Workforce

    Spotify Laying Off 6% of Its Workforce

    Spotify has joined the ranks of tech companies laying off employees, saying it is laying off 6% of its employees.

    The tech industry has been especially hard-hit by the economic downturn following a couple of years of breakneck hiring during the pandemic. Spotify is no exception, with CEO Daniel Ek sharing a note with employees informing them of the layoffs.

    While we have made great progress in improving speed in the last few years, we haven’t focused as much on improving efficiency. We still spend far too much time syncing on slightly different strategies, which slows us down. And in a challenging economic environment, efficiency takes on greater importance. So, in an effort to drive more efficiency, control costs, and speed up decision-making, I have decided to restructure our organization.

    Ek made it clear that, like many business leaders, he underestimated the post-pandemic economy.

    Like many other leaders, I hoped to sustain the strong tailwinds from the pandemic and believed that our broad global business and lower risk to the impact of a slowdown in ads would insulate us. In hindsight, I was too ambitious in investing ahead of our revenue growth. And for this reason, today, we are reducing our employee base by about 6% across the company. I take full accountability for the moves that got us here today.

    Laid off employees will receive an average of five months of severance pay, pay for all unused vacation time, healthcare during their severance period, as well as immigration and outplacement support.

  • Capital One Eliminates 1,100 Tech Jobs

    Capital One Eliminates 1,100 Tech Jobs

    Capital One has eliminated 1,100 agile tech jobs, part of its “overall tech transformation.”

    According to Bloomberg, the company is eliminating jobs specifically focused on agile development. Instead, the company plans for existing engineering and product management roles to integrate agile methods in their work routines.

    “Decisions that affect our associates, especially those that involve role eliminations, are incredibly difficult,” the company said in the statement to Bloomberg. “This announcement is not a reflection on these individuals or the work they have driven on behalf of our technology organization. Their contributions have been critical to maturing our software-delivery model and our overall tech transformation.

    “The agile role in our tech organization was critical to our earlier transformation phases but as our organization matured, the natural next step is to integrate agile delivery processes directly into our core engineering practices,” Capital One added.

    Impacted employees are being invited to apply for other roles within the company. Those that don’t find new jobs inside Capital One will be given at least 16 weeks severance pay.

  • Alphabet CEO Announces ‘Difficult Decision’ to Lay Off 12,000

    Alphabet CEO Announces ‘Difficult Decision’ to Lay Off 12,000

    Google parent Alphabet has now firmly joined the ranks of companies laying off employees, with plans to cut 12,000 jobs.

    Two of Alphabet’s “Other Bets” companies, Intrinsic and Verily, announced layoffs last week, but today the company announced mass layoffs at its core: Google and Alphabet. In an email, which later became a blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company would be laying off some 12,000 employees, surpassing both Microsoft and Meta’s numbers.

    In his memo to employees, Pichai called the move “a difficult decision to set us up for the future.”

    I have some difficult news to share. We’ve decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices.

    This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here.

    Like many other executives announcing layoffs, Pichai blamed it on a changed economic reality from the one that led to the frenzied hiring of the past couple of years.

    Over the past two years we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today.

    Interestingly, Pichai said the layoffs were in response to a review of the company’s personnel and roles in an effort to identify “people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company.” This statement seems to confirm fears Googlers had in December that new evaluation methods were being used as a prelude to layoffs.

    Pichai says impacted US employees have already been notified, although notifying international employees will take longer because of local laws. In the meantime, employees will continue to be paid during the notification period, a minimum of 60 days.

    Alphabet is also offering a severance package that starts at 16 weeks’ pay, plus an additional two weeks for every year at the company. The company will also accelerate a minimum of 16 weeks GSU vesting.

    The company also plans to pay all 2022 bonuses and vacation time and provide six months of healthcare, job placements, and immigration assistance.

    Pichai tried to reassure employees that the company was well-positioned for the future, despite the layoffs.

    All this work is a continuation of the “healthy disregard for the impossible” that’s been core to our culture from the beginning. When I look around Google today, I see that same spirit and energy driving our efforts. That’s why I remain optimistic about our ability to deliver on our mission, even on our toughest days. Today is certainly one of them.

    Regardless of how Pichai spins it, the fact remains that these layoffs are a major black mark on Alphabet and Google’s reputation. The company has long prided itself on never laying people off. With this announcement, however, the company has managed to lay off more employees than any other company in the last year except Amazon.

    Future tech talent looking for a company to spend their career at may well remember this.

  • Elon Musk’s Twitter Cancellation Letter

    Elon Musk’s Twitter Cancellation Letter

    Sometimes legal letters can be an interesting read! Elon Musk’s cancellation letter to Twitter by his legal team may be a crushing blow to Twitter’s business, not just this deal.

    Musk’s ending of his acquisition of Twitter is centered on the company’s mDAU as reported in their SEC filings… and that is key. If Musk can prove that Twitter misrepresented investors in their official filings with the SEC then not only is Musk off the hook for any end-of-deal damages but Twitter could be subject to a not-so-friendly SEC investigation.

    For its part, Twitter continues to stand by its claim that less than 5% of monetizable daily active users are spam or bots and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the deal.

    “The Twitter Board is committed to closing the transaction on the price and terms agreed upon with Mr. Musk and plans to pursue legal action to enforce the merger agreement. We are confident we will prevail in the Delaware Court of Chancery,” tweeted Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor.

    Elon Musk says in his filing that it appears that Twitter is dramatically understating the proportion of spam and false accounts represented in its mDAUcount:

    “Preliminary analysis by Mr. Musk’s advisors of the information provided by Twitter to date causes Mr. Musk to strongly believe that the proportion of false and spam accounts included in the reported mDAU count is wildly higher than 5%,”

    The letter purports that Musk’s acquisition team was not provided the key data that they requested and not in a usable format for them to further assess whether the fake accounts included in their mDAU stat is in fact lower than 5% as claimed by Twitter in all of its SEC filings. The mDAU stat is key to predicting the success of Twitter since 95% of its revenue comes from advertisers and fake people don’t convert to purchases.

    Another key aspect of the filing is Musk’s assertion that his team didn’t receive all of the Board materials they requested related to the Board members conversations about the mDAU metric and their calculation of the number of spam and false accounts.

    Why is this key? If Musk can show that Board members themselves had concerns about the accuracy of the “less than 5% mDAU are fake” metric then Musk doesn’t have to prove the stat is wrong, he can just point to Board statements. Musk did not provide any evidence that the Board in fact did discuss this issue substantively, but one assumes that because this stat is key to their business and their stock price, it’s likely they did to some extent. What was said in these possible discussions is key.

    Additionally, anything said by Board members or staff that counters the “less than 5% mDAU are fake” guidance by Twitter in SEC filings and in public statements would be evidence for any future SEC filings.

    581832232-Musk-SEC-Twitter-LetterDownload
  • Explaining the Importance of the C-Suite Team in a Business

    Explaining the Importance of the C-Suite Team in a Business

    The C-Suite is a popular term used to describe the executive managers within an organization. They’re known as the C-Suite since all the crucial positions have abbreviations that begin with the letter C (CEO, CFO).

    These roles are essential to the success and the working of any business, as achieving that success is their responsibility and a big part of their job description. In essence, the job of a senior executive is to create strategies and enforce them across the entire organization.

    Only people with vast experience and proven leadership skills can be the ones suitable for a C-Suite position. In addition to knowledge and technical abilities, it is important they have a vision that allows them to take multiple perspectives when dealing with a work-related issue.

    It’s worth mentioning that the senior executive positions are highly stressful jobs with around-the-clock work hours. For this reason, their compensations are quite rewarding and motivating.

    C-Suite Executives Explained

    When discussing the C-Suite, there are four positions that are the most prominent and most known:

    ●  CEO – Chief Executive Officer.

    ●  CFO – Chief Financial Officer.

    ●  COO – Chief Operating Officer.

    ●  CIO – Chief Information Officer.

    However, besides these four, there are other chief positions that are a part of the C-Suite team:

    ●  CCO – Chief Compliance Officer.

    ●  CHRM – Chief Human Resources Manager.

    ●  CSO – Chief Security Officer.

    ●  CGO – Chief Green Officer.

    ●  CAO – Chief Analytics Officer.

    ●  CMO – Chief Marketing Officer.

    ●  CDO – Chief Data Officer.

    Here are short summaries regarding some of the C-Suite positions:

    CEO

    The CEO is typically the highest position in the company. The person who has the position is usually the face of the company and speaks to the public in its name. However, this doesn’t mean that the CEO is calling all the shots by themselves. For most major decisions, the CEO consults with all the other chief officers in the organization and relies on their insights.

    There is no formal education that is specifically required for the CEO position and successful workers from any background can potentially reach it. What most CEOs have in common though is great judgment and leadership capabilities.

    CFO

    The position at the top of the financial hierarchy in an organization is the CFO. Unlike the CEO, the CFO has to come from a financial background and have a significant understanding of finances and economics. The CFO role and responsibilities include things like portfolio management, performing financial analysis, conducting research for investment opportunities, and even accounting.

    Additionally, staying up to date with the worldwide economy and maintaining an overall global perspective are important qualities for CFOs. In many organizational processes like investment decision-making and assessment of risks, the CEO and the CFO work together.

    COO

    The COO position serves as the extended hand of the CEO. COOs report directly and only to CEOs and are second in command in the company. They are responsible for the daily operations and administrative tasks across the entire organization. Some of the most important traits for COOs are good managerial abilities, an analytical mind, and strong communication.

    There are some other terms that refer to this position that might be more popular than COO like “vice president” or “operations director”. More often than not, COOs work closely with the CEO, and they are the best candidate to take their place once the CEO steps down.

    CIO

    Also known as CTO, chief technology officers are the executives responsible for computer technology and its implementation, management, and usability within an organization. In the past, this position was not considered as important as the others in the C-Suite. However, technology has taken such an essential part in the workplace, that CIOs nowadays are among the top five executives of any company.

    Business analysis, programming, management, and knowledge of mapping are the key skills that any CIO should possess. CIO’s responsibilities also include providing input into critical processes like risk management, developing business strategies, and other financial activities.

    Conclusion

    In addition to creating strategies and making sure that the daily operations are running smoothly the C-Suite is important for the future of the company. Executives need to constantly come up with new ideas and find new ways for the business to grow. This includes creating new business models, introducing new products, and any other way of pursuing innovation that will help the company to expand.

  • Twitter Buying Scroll to Serve as Foundation for Subscription Service

    Twitter Buying Scroll to Serve as Foundation for Subscription Service

    Twitter has announced it is buying Scroll as it looks to establish a subscription service for premium content.

    Twitter has been looking for ways to diversify its services and new ways to monetize its user base. Despite being one of the oldest social media platforms, Twitter has been surpassed in many ways by newer, upstart platforms.

    The company is purchasing Scroll in an effort to introduce paid subscription services, free of ads. Twitter VP Mike Park announced the company’s plans on the company’s blog:

    That’s why we’re excited to announce that Twitter is acquiring Scroll. Scroll has built a way to read articles without the ads, pop-ups, and other clutter that get in the way, cleaning up the reading experience and giving people what they want: just the content. Meanwhile, publishers who work with Scroll can bring in more revenue than they would from traditional ads on a page. It’s a better Internet for readers and for writers.

    Twitter also hopes integrating Scroll will help it to assist the journalism industry, one that has experienced major setbacks as a result fo the digital transformation.

    Those who create and consume news know that reading – and more broadly, journalism – deserve a better future. Scroll will help us build that future, solving one of the most frustrating parts about reading content online. We want to reimagine what they’ve built to deliver a seamless reading experience to our hyper-engaged audiences and allow publishers to deliver cleaner content that can make them more money than today’s business models.

    To do this, we plan to include Scroll as part of an upcoming subscription offering we’re currently exploring. As a Twitter subscriber, picture getting access to premium features where you can easily read articles from your favorite news outlet or a writer’s newsletter from Revue, with a portion of your subscription going to the publishers and writers creating the content.

    Park said Scroll will pause new sign-ups while the service is integrated with Twitter. After the integration, Twitter will work on growing Scroll’s subscriber base.

  • PayPal Rumored to Be Exploring a Stock-Trading Platform

    PayPal Rumored to Be Exploring a Stock-Trading Platform

    PayPal is rumored to be looking at the possibility of creating a stock-trading platform in a bid to challenge rivals.

    PayPal is already one of the leading payment services companies, and has recently entered the cryptocurrency market. According to CNBC, the company is now looking at creating a stock-trading platform.

    Such a move would help PayPal better compete with Robinhood and similar platforms, ones that already offer both stock and crypto trading options.

    According to CNBC’s sources, PayPal may purchase or partner with an existing trading company. Either way, sources warned the company’s product will likely not be market-ready this year.

    PayPal’s stock jumped 3% on the news, while Robinhood lost 3%.

  • The Side Hustle is Here to Stay

    Before the pandemic, the idea of a side hustle wasn’t that appealing to most people.

    Most were satisfied with the money they made from their job. Or at least satisfied enough that additional income wasn’t more important to them than their free time. And for those who weren’t, a side hustle was often just a path to full-time entrepreneurship.

    But then the pandemic revealed the reality of today’s workplace.

    Simply put, there is no certainty in any job.

    Literally, anyone can lose their job at any time for any number of reasons.

    A side hustle equals freedom

    Between lockdowns, economic uncertainty, cancel culture, and business-crushing legislation, we’ve all seen highly qualified employees lose a job. So rather than playing a game of financial Russian Roulette, more people are embracing the side hustle lifestyle. 

    Dr. David Phelps, author of the book, Own Your Freedom says people are starting to rethink how they structure their lives. They want flexibility and control in how and when they work, but more importantly, they want to be free of the whims of others.

    Phelps made this realization when his daughter faced a health crisis several years ago. 

    He immediately restructured his life, giving up a lucrative but demanding dental practice and replacing it with a lifestyle that gave him near-complete freedom to live as he chose to. 

    Shortly after that, fellow dentists began asking how he made the changes he made in his life. This led to the creation of Freedom Founders, where he now teaches others how to achieve the freedom they want in their own lives.

    Phelps explains, “Initially, I chose this path as a way to spend more time with my daughter, but I quickly realized how many people were tired of being stuck in the cycle of working themselves to death. They’re sick of that lifestyle and they crave real freedom in terms of finances, time, and choices. Empowering people to create that freedom in their own lives is my mission now.”

    Since the pandemic, more people are starting to see what Phelps saw, which is driving the side hustle lifestyle. This lifestyle offers several advantages. 

    It can provide additional income that can be invested or spent on luxuries during good times, or support basic needs during difficult times. It can become a valuable bargaining chip in negotiations because you know you have something to fall back on. It can be a safer runway to launch a business. Or it can just be a profitable hobby.

    How can you launch a side hustle?

    So how does someone launch their own side hustle?

    The possibilities are endless, but a good side hustle generally meets three criteria.

    • It doesn’t require a huge commitment of time, energy, or resources.
    • It doesn’t demand a strict schedule.
    • It can be learned relatively quickly in your spare time.

    Some side hustle brands you’ve probably heard of

    There are some easy side hustle ideas that require nothing more than you showing up.

    Uber is a perfect example of this. Drivers can choose to transport passengers from point A to point B, or they can deliver food from restaurants to customers.  A driver simply has to install the app, go through screening, and start receiving gigs. The platform provides all the customers. 

    Offering your services as a virtual assistant is a more robust way to make some money. This one is great if you have a valuable skill, and it can lead to a freelance career or even your own business.

    The services you could provide are virtually endless. 

    It could be just about anything that someone else may not want to or know how to do. I recently heard of a guy who was offering handstand coaching as a side hustle, and scaled it to over $500,000 per year! 

    And you can offer up your services on gig platforms like Fiverr, Upwork, and Freelancer.com, so you don’t have to work hard to find clients.

    Ecommerce as a side hustle

    Another approach many are taking is ecommerce. But rather than the risky approach of buying a bunch of inventory and hoping it sells, some are leveraging dropshipping. 

    This is where you list products from suppliers on your ecommerce website, and when someone makes a purchase, you buy the necessary products from the suppliers, which are then shipped directly to the customer.

    From a customer’s perspective, they’re just making a regular purchase. But you are free of any risk because you didn’t buy any inventory until a purchase was made. And there are even tools available to streamline this process.

    Zendrop is one of those tools.

    It was founded by Jared Goetz as a way to make dropshipping more efficient in his own business. He stumbled into dropshipping after a string of failed businesses and finally found the success he had been looking for. From there, he quickly scaled and has continued growing ever since.

    “I’m passionate about this because I know first hand the impact it can have. Dropshipping completely changed my life. But I also know the flaws in the model. Early on, I was ripped off to the tune of about $450,000 by a Chinese sourcing agent. Fortunately, I was able to absorb that loss, learn from it, and come out stronger as a result. Not everyone can absorb a loss like that, though. That’s what led me to launch Zendrop. I wanted to create a platform that made dropshipping easier and safer—especially for those who are doing this as a side hustle,” Goetz explains.

    All signs indicate that path was a success.

    Zendrop integrates directly with Shopify and will soon integrate with WooCommerce, which together, cover roughly fifty percent of the US market. The platform currently offers users a selection of over 500,000 products from vetted suppliers that they can list in their ecommerce stores. This allows users to get a store up and running without a web developer. And it handles everything on the backend, so all a user needs to do is market their store.

    Goetz says, “I believe drop shipping is the ultimate side hustle because it eliminates the need to buy and warehouse inventory, source products, or ship orders. It also eliminates the need for technical skills or expensive web development agencies. I’ve seen so many people build successful businesses following this model.”

    The role of a remote workforce 

    Some experts claim that businesses will return to an in-office workforce, and a few companies are demanding exactly that of their employees, but the vast majority are not.

    Robert Nickell, the founder of the virtual assistant agency, Rocket Station, says he sees no sign of businesses returning to the old way of operating. 

    “We grew by over four hundred percent during the pandemic because of the demand for an effective remote workforce. People keep saying that’s going to change…that it’s going to reverse course. But here we are, continuing to grow at that pace nearly two years later. Other than a few big companies, most are sticking with the remote workforce model because it’s proven to be more effective and less expensive.”

    With so many businesses keeping the remote workforce model, employees will have more time available because they don’t have a commute to worry about. 

    Bottom line—the side hustle lifestyle is here to stay.

  • Jack Dorsey’s TBD Is Building Decentralized Bitcoin Exchange

    Jack Dorsey’s TBD Is Building Decentralized Bitcoin Exchange

    Jack Dorsey is revealing more information about his TBD business and its focus on building a decentralized Bitcoin exchange.

    Dorsey announced in July that his company Square was creating a new business named TBD.

    It’s unclear if TBD is the final name, or merely a placeholder. Either way, Dorsey is finally revealing what TBD’s business will be.

  • Amazon Partners With Affirm to Offer Buy Now, Pay Later

    Amazon Partners With Affirm to Offer Buy Now, Pay Later

    Amazon is partnering with Affirm to offer its customers the option to buy now, pay later.

    Buy now, pay later is becoming an increasingly popular option, even in e-commerce. Square recently inked a deal to purchase Afterpay Limited in an effort to offer buy now, pay later.

    Amazon is now getting in on the action, partnering with Affirm to offers its customers the convenience.

    As a result of Amazon and Affirm’s partnership, select Amazon customers now have the option to split the total cost of purchases of $50 or more into simple monthly payments by using Affirm. Approved customers are shown the total cost of their purchase upfront and will never pay more than what they agree to at checkout. As always, when choosing Affirm, consumers will not be charged any late or hidden fees. 

    The two companies are testing the service with select customers, but intend on bringing it to Amazon’s wider customer base as soon as possible.

    “By partnering with Amazon we’re bringing the transparency, predictability and affordability that Affirm provides today to the millions of people who shop on Amazon.com in the U.S.,” said Eric Morse, Senior Vice President of Sales at Affirm. “Offering Affirm’s alternative to credit cards also delivers more of the payment choice and flexibility consumers on Amazon want.”

  • Walmart Ecommerce Business Is Humming

    Walmart Ecommerce Business Is Humming

    “With Walmart’s e-commerce business humming the way it is and the way the company’s been able to integrate it with the store base, with curbside and everything else, this is a tough one,” says Moody’s retail analyst Charlie O’Shea. “This is really setting a high bar for brick and mortar retail and it’s giving Amazon something to really think about.”

    Charlie O’Shea, retail analyst at Moody’s, and Bill Simon, former president and CEO of Walmart, discussed Walmart’s blowout quarterly results:

    Walmart Is Going To Be Tough To Stop

    This is just a phenomenal quarter for Walmart. It’s good on all fronts. It really is an indicator that the consumer is still there. Once we sort through all this COVID stuff the consumer is willing to spend. I’m particularly impressed by Walmart’s operating income. I’ve been watching that for several years and it’s been challenged as they move their business to digital and to e-commerce. Big growth and operating income have been under pressure.

    Walmart grew its operating income by almost nine percent. Even adjusted for currency it is in the mid-teens. That’s phenomenal. Brett Biggs is one of the best CFOs in the country in my view and they manage the company very well. It looks like they’ve been able to get the e-commerce growth under control in a way that can deliver some pathway to profitability. If they can do that they’re just going to be tough to stop.

    Walmart Ecommerce Business Is Humming

    Every quarter it looks like they’re running on all cylinders and now the engine just keeps getting bigger. We’ve gone from an eight-cylinder engine to a 12-cylinder engine. With the e-commerce business humming the way it is and the way the company’s been able to integrate it with the store base, with curbside and everything else, this is a tough one. This is really setting a high bar for brick and mortar retail and it’s giving Amazon something to really think about.

    It’s how does Amazon compete with Walmart not how does Walmart compete with Amazon? With an almost doubling of online revenue for this quarter we’re starting to see this battle really escalate. If you were open you obviously had advantages. That’s not exactly a lightning bolt coming out of the sky. But I think what we’re seeing with the consumer is they have money they’re willing to spend and they weren’t able to spend it for a while because a lot of places weren’t open. Now that things are starting to reopen there’s a lot of pent-up demand here.

    Consumers Are Shifting Spending And Walmart’s Benefitting

    During the early days of the pandemic during lockdowns no one’s buying pants, no one’s buying blouses, and no one’s buying tops because you can’t eat those and you also can’t use them to clean your house. So people had kind of shifted their demand towards the essentials and the consumables. Now they’re moving in another direction and Walmart’s benefiting. They benefited from the early blast of spending and now they’re benefiting as it expands. The margins going up indicates they’re selling a lot of other non-consumable stuff because those margins are lower.

    I also cover the auto retailers and the auto retailers showed an awful lot of resilience so far this year. Q2 numbers for my rated universe were much better than we expected and we didn’t expect them to be that bad. The consumer clearly has money and the stimulus obviously helps the folks that are still employed are out there and still spending. That portends well for Target tomorrow and Best Buy next week. Home Depot also popped a big number today. The essential type retailers are still going to be benefiting.

    Walmart Ecommerce Business Is Humming
  • Cisco CEO: Customers Preparing For Hybrid Work Model

    Cisco CEO: Customers Preparing For Hybrid Work Model

    “We are really seeing the impact of this hybrid work model,” says Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. “We are seeing the preparation for hybrid work and the return to the office. Customers are absolutely believing this is going to occur and they’re investing in it. Customers are turning to us to help them create the trusted workplace of the future.”

    Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, discusses on CNBC and in their quarterly earnings call how customers absolutely believe that the hybrid work model is in their future:

    Customers Are Preparing For Hybrid Work Environment

    Over the last couple of quarters, we’ve seen significant investment in next-generation wireless infrastructure to be ready for their employees to come to the office. As you load these wireless networks they are going to need campus refresh underneath them, and we’ve seen exactly that. The Catalyst 9000 platform has had four consecutive quarters of increasing growth sequentially.

    We are really seeing the impact of this hybrid work model. We are seeing the preparation for hybrid work and the return to the office. Customers are absolutely believing this is going to occur and they’re investing in it.

    Trusted Workplace of the Future

    Let me now touch on Infrastructure Platforms. We saw strong demand across a majority of our portfolio, led by our next-generation Enterprise Networking and Service Provider solutions, as companies accelerate the modernization of their infrastructure. This modern infrastructure delivers higher performance and faster access to data while offering the best user experience in an increasingly distributed environment.

    Customers are turning to us to help them create the trusted workplace of the future, with Wi-Fi access points, video endpoints, cameras and IoT sensors feeding data into DNA Center and DNA spaces. We’re enabling operations teams to remotely monitor workplace conditions for a safe return to office.

    We’re also working to provide visibility beyond corporate networks, which is increasingly critical as our customers accelerate their adoption of SaaS and cloud solutions for hybrid work. At Cisco Live, we launched the industry’s first enterprise-wide full stack observability offering by integrating ThousandEyes cloud intelligence with our Catalyst switching portfolio and AppDynamics. This provides IT with visibility and actionable insights across both external and internal networks to provide a seamless digital experience for users. And with users more distributed than ever, it is vital that they have the most efficient and secure connection to the cloud.

    Building the Internet of the Future

    Our deep partnerships with Google, Amazon, and Microsoft allow native connectivity from our SD-WAN fabric to each of these cloud offerings. With our technology, customers can reduce deployment times and connect branch offices to cloud workloads in minutes. In our Webscale business, we delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of strong order growth, which increased over 25% in the quarter, and over 50% on a trailing 12-month basis.

    Our Webscale customers are starting their 400 gig upgrade cycles and aggressively pursuing long-haul build-outs while our Carrier customers are exploring new architectures to realize the full potential of 5G. We are building the internet for the future by creating breakthrough innovation with our routing, optical and automation technologies to deliver significant economic benefits.

    Customers Consuming Cisco Technology In New Ways

    Recently, we launched a new routed optical networking solution, integrating our scalable, high-performance routers and Acacia’s pluggable optics, which offers significant cost savings. Last week, we announced our intent to acquire Sedona Systems to extend our cross-work automation platform to build on these capabilities. We also expanded our Silicon One platform, from a routing-focused solution to one which addresses the Webscale switching market, offering 10 networking chips ranging from 3.2 terabits to 25.6 terabits per second, making it the highest performance programmable routing and switching silicon on the market. We know our customers increasingly want to consume Cisco’s technology in new and more flexible ways.

    At Cisco Live, we launched our new As a Service portfolio, Cisco Plus, and our first offer, Cisco Plus Hybrid Cloud, combining our data center compute, networking and storage portfolio. Cisco Plus includes our plans to deliver networking as a service, which will unify networking, Security, and observability across Access, WAN and Cloud domains to deliver an unparalleled experience for our customers.

    Turning to Security, we had a record quarter, surpassing $875 million in revenue, up 13% as we expanded our reach with customers around the world. Our Security strategy is focused on delivering a simple and secure experience. We have an unrivaled ability to provide end-to-end Security capabilities across users, devices, applications and data, on any network or any cloud.

    Powering Business Transformation

    Wellbeing is top of mind for so many right now as we face a new way of working. This is why we launched People Insights to help people monitor and manage their wellbeing. These new features, devices and capabilities combined with Cloud Calling and Cloud Contact Center provide our customers with the most comprehensive and inclusive hybrid work platform.

    Last week, we announced our intent to acquire Socio Labs. By integrating Slido and Socio Labs into our WebEx platform, we will also be able to provide the most comprehensive internal and external event management solution on the market. In summary, we had a very good quarter. I’m so proud of the continued success of the business transformation our teams are driving.

    Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins: Customers Preparing For Hybrid Work Model
  • Peter Thiel Invests In Free Speech Video Platform Rumble

    Peter Thiel Invests In Free Speech Video Platform Rumble

    Rumble received a big boost today in its effort to capitalize on the censorship of the political right by YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Well-known Paypal co-founder and libertarian Peter Thiel along with J.D. Vance have invested in the platform in an effort to support its growth.

    “We couldn’t be more excited to welcome aboard investors that are aligned with our long-term vision. This investment is evidence that the market really desires competition and freedom of choice. These funds will help us launch our new cloud services, enhance our video platform, and help create the rails for a new economy that is desperately needed,” said Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski. 

    According to the Wall Street Journal the investment is “being led by Narya Capital, a Cincinnati-based venture-capital fund co-founded by Mr. Vance and Colin Greenspon, and by Mr. Thiel, who is also a Narya investor, in a personal capacity. Colt Ventures, the family office of Dallas investor and former Trump adviser Darren Blanton, is also part of the investment group.”

    The WSJ says that the investment was described as significant and that it values Rumble at around $500 million.

    During the run-up to the election and afterward many conservative YouTubers have said that they have been blocked or banned on social media for simply espousing conservative views without much recourse. Censorship during the pandemic has been especially rampant where even medical doctors who have personal experience treating COVID patients have complained about being blocked or banned.

    Big tech seemed to have decided that a big tent for thoughts is not a good idea. It’s as if they think there is only one viewpoint that should be allowed on social when it comes to certain subjects like COVID. For instance, some medical doctors posted videos positively discussing hydroxychloroquine as a potentially life-saving treatment for COVID, and their videos were deleted by the platforms. Their voice was silenced.

    Since then studies have shown hydroxychloroquine to be a powerful treatment which simply goes to show how dumb and harmful it is to ban speech.

    Not so coincidentally, Rumble’s monthly viewership has grown from 1.6 million users per month to an average of 31 million per month in the first quarter of 2021 – an increase of more than 1,800%. Rumble says that this growth reflects the increasingly strong market recognition by both users and creators of Rumble’s differentiated value proposition. 

    Just possibly, users want to be able to freely express their own views without fear of social platform retribution. Hence Rumble, and other newer social platforms are starting to gain traction against YouTube, Facebook, Twitter.

    “The investment will add considerable strength to Rumble’s ability to build upon this success,” states Rumble’s press release on the investment. 

    More from the Release:

    Rumble was built on the belief that small creators should be given equal opportunity to freely express themselves, reach their followers, and be provided the same access to tools that are available to larger creators. This investment will allow Rumble to continue to fulfill its mission while providing the platform with more opportunities to build out its infrastructure and launch new cloud services where businesses can feel safe and secure.

    The investment is being led by Narya, a Cincinnati-based venture capital firm co-founded by J.D. Vance and Colin Greenspon that seeks to invest long-term capital in technology that solves significant challenges.

    Narya is joined in this investment by Peter Thiel, famed entrepreneur and venture capitalist who has a long and storied track record of investing in frontier technology companies, including PayPal, Facebook, Palantir Technologies, Compass Pathways, and many other ventures.

    Ethan Fallang of Narya will join Rumble’s board. “At Narya, we support founders who combine technical and business model innovation to address large and underserved markets. We believe Chris and the entire Rumble team have built an excellent platform and are thrilled to be part of their ongoing success as they continue to scale,” said Fallang.

  • Amazon Goes on Another Hiring Spree

    Amazon Goes on Another Hiring Spree

    Amazon has announced it is hiring tens of thousands of new workers, across the US, Canada and the UK.

    Amazon has been one of the companies that has benefited most from the pandemic. During lockdowns and quarantine, the e-commerce giant went from luxury to necessity for many people, and its hiring has reflected that growth.

    Although many areas are easing restrictions, Amazon continues to benefit people’s newfound appreciation for the convenience of home shopping. In addition, the company is preparing for its upcoming Prime Day next month.

    As a result, Amazon has announced it is hiring an additional 75,000 employees across the US and Canada, with average starting pay of over $17 and $1,000 starting bonus.

    “We look forward to hiring 75,000 associates across our fulfillment and transportation network,” said Alicia Boler Davis, Vice President of Global Customer Fulfillment at Amazon. “Working at Amazon also comes with an unwavering commitment to safety, especially as we continue to navigate a global pandemic. In addition to the great pay and robust benefits available to new hires starting on their first day, we’re offering a $100 benefit to new hires who come to Amazon already vaccinated for COVID-19.”

    The company is also hiring for 10,000 new permanent jobs in the UK, bringing its total UK workforce to more than 55,000.

    Business Secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said: “Amazon’s announcement today is fantastic news and a huge vote of confidence in the British economy, helping us deliver on our commitment to level up across the UK with a whopping 10,000 new permanent jobs. As we build back better from the pandemic, this is a prime investment in our retail sector.

    “Over the past year, Amazon’s workforce have pulled out all the stops to ensure consumers have had safe access to goods during this challenging time. Their latest investment will open up a wide range of opportunities for even more workers, helping to develop the skills needed to power tomorrow’s economy.”

  • EU Loses Case to Force Amazon to Pay Back Taxes

    EU Loses Case to Force Amazon to Pay Back Taxes

    The European Union has lost a high-profile case in which it was trying to force Amazon to pay $300 million in back taxes.

    It’s not uncommon for corporations to make tax deals with individual EU states. Apple and Google have both made deals with Ireland, and Amazon had a deal with Luxembourg. In many cases, the deals are lucrative for individual states, making them eager to work with foreign companies.

    The EU isn’t always pleased with those deals, however, and has tried to end them in the past. The EU lost a court case trying to stop a deal between Apple and Ireland, and now it has lost a similar case over Amazon and Luxembourg.

    According to The Houston Chronicle, the EU’s executive branch had ordered Amazon to pay back taxes in the amount of $300 million. After challenging the ruling, the EU’s General Court overturned the European Commission’s ruling, saying it didn’t prove “to the requisite legal standard that there was an undue reduction of the tax burden of a European subsidiary of the Amazon group.”

    The decision is a big win for Amazon, as well as other foreign companies doing business within the EU.

  • T-Mobile Reports Quarterly Results, Smashes Estimates

    T-Mobile Reports Quarterly Results, Smashes Estimates

    T-Mobile has reported its quarterly results, beating analysts’ estimates and reporting strong subscriber growth.

    T-Mobile is known for large gains in the subscriber department, and this quarter was no exception. The company posted 1.4 million net additions, beating both AT&T and Verizon.

    The company also posted $19.76 billion in revenue, up from $11.11 billion in the year-ago quarter, a 78% increase. Net profit came in at $933 million, or $0.74 a share. In contrast, analysts were expecting $0.54 a share.

    T-Mobile’s acquisition of Sprint is moving ahead, with roughly 20% of Sprint customers already moved over to the T-Mobile network. In addition, 50% of Sprint customer traffic is now on the T-Mobile network.

    “T-Mobile puts customers at the center of everything we do by giving them the best network, value and experience all at once – and this quarter’s stellar, industry-leading results prove that they’re noticing,” said Mike Sievert, CEO of T-Mobile. “We just keep pushing further ahead of the competition. Our network leadership is fueling customer momentum, delivering merger synergies and expanding our addressable markets for growth. We have so much confidence that we are raising 2021 guidance just one quarter into the year. Our mission is to be the very best at connecting customers to their world and we’re delivering on it.”

  • Google Finally Embraces Long-Term Hybrid Work

    Google Finally Embraces Long-Term Hybrid Work

    Google has finally embraced long-term hybrid work, paving the way for employees to have more flexibility.

    Google was one of the first major companies to send employees home as a result of the pandemic, and has continued to push back its return-to-office date. Nonetheless, the company had previously sent clear signals that it was all-in on in-office work, even investing billions in new office space.

    The company’s move was unpopular with employees, many of whom started pushing back against the idea of returning to the office full-time. Some even threatened to quit if Google forced their hand. Further complicating the issue was the company’s own financial reports, showing it saves roughly $1 billion a year as a result of remote work.

    It appears Google is beginning to change its tune, finally embracing remote and hybrid work long-term. In a blog post, CEO Sundar Pichai outlined the company’s new policies.

    We’ll move to a hybrid work week where most Googlers spend approximately three days in the office and two days wherever they work best. Since in-office time will be focused on collaboration, your product areas and functions will help decide which days teams will come together in the office. There will also be roles that may need to be on site more than three days a week due to the nature of the work.

    In addition to the hybrid approach, Pichai says Googlers will have far more freedom to choose a different Google location to work from. This will give employees the ability to choose from the company’s many locations around the globe, rather than their job being tied to a single location that may not be ideal for them or their family. The only major limitation will be whether the proposed location has the infrastructure to support a given role.

    In addition, employees will be able to apply for completely remote work, depending on the job in question. As with the location transfers, remote work applications will be evaluated on whether the job can be adequately accomplished, and the team properly supported, remotely.

    Taken together these changes will result in a workforce where around 60% of Googlers are coming together in the office a few days a week, another 20% are working in new office locations, and 20% are working from home.

    With this adjustment to its work plans, Google joins a long list of companies that are fully embracing remote and hybrid work, furthering the workplace transformation the pandemic started.

  • Verizon Media Sold to Apollo Funds

    Verizon Media Sold to Apollo Funds

    Following reports Verizon was exploring a sale of Yahoo and AOL, its Verizon Media business is being sold to Apollo Funds.

    Verizon purchased Yahoo and AOL, both pioneers among the early internet companies. Although both had since fallen on hard times, the two brands still had large, loyal followings. Verizon’s goal was to build an advertising business that could rival Google and Facebook.

    Unfortunately, the advertising business proved more difficult for Verizon to crack than it planned. Over the last several years, the company has been selling off some of its media properties, with Yahoo and AOL being the final piece. Apollo Funds has agreed to purchase Verizon Media for $5 billion. The new company will be known as Yahoo, and Verizon will maintain a 10% stake in it.

    “We are excited to be joining forces with Apollo,” said Guru Gowrappan, CEO, Verizon Media. “The past two quarters of double-digit growth have demonstrated our ability to transform our media ecosystem. With Apollo’s sector expertise and strategic insight, Yahoo will be well positioned to capitalize on market opportunities, media and transaction experience and continue to grow our full stack digital advertising platform. This transition will help to accelerate our growth for the long- term success of the company.”

    “We are thrilled to help unlock the tremendous potential of Yahoo and its unparalleled collection of brands,” said Reed Rayman, Private Equity Partner at Apollo. “We have enormous respect and admiration for the great work and progress that the entire organization has made over the last several years, and we look forward to working with Guru, his talented team, and our partners at Verizon to accelerate Yahoo’s growth in its next chapter.”

    “We are big believers in the growth prospects of Yahoo and the macro tailwinds driving growth in digital media, advertising technology and consumer internet platforms,” said David Sambur, Senior Partner and Co-Head of Private Equity at Apollo. “Apollo has a long track record of investing in technology and media companies and we look forward to drawing on that experience to help Yahoo continue to thrive.”

    “Verizon Media has done an incredible job turning the business around over the past two and a half years and the growth potential is enormous,” said Hans Vestberg, CEO, Verizon. “The next iteration requires full investment and the right resources. During the strategic review process, Apollo delivered the strongest vision and strategy for the next phase of Verizon Media. I have full confidence that Yahoo will take off in its new home.”

  • IBM Acquiring Turbonomic to Build Hybrid Cloud AIOps

    IBM Acquiring Turbonomic to Build Hybrid Cloud AIOps

    IBM is continuing its breakneck pace of acquiring companies, with Turbonomic the latest acquisition.

    IBM is working to reinvent itself as a hybrid cloud provider, with plans to spin off its legacy business. To aid in that endeavor, the company has been snapping up startups left and right to help it round out its portfolio of services and abilities.

    The latest acquisition is Turbonomic, “an Application Resource Management (ARM) and Network Performance Management (NPM) software provider.” The company specializes in using AI to help automate ARM.

    The acquisition of Turbonomic builds on the company’s purchase of Instanta and will position it to be the only company able to offer the entire range AI-powered automation capabilities.

    “IBM continues to reshape its future as a hybrid cloud and AI company,” said Rob Thomas, Senior Vice President, IBM Cloud and Data Platform. “The Turbonomic acquisition is yet another example of our commitment to making the most impactful investments to advance this strategy and ensure customers find the most innovative ways to fuel their digital transformations.”

    “We believe that AI-powered automation has become inevitable, helping to make all information-centric jobs more productive,” said Dinesh Nirmal, General Manager, IBM Automation. “That’s why IBM continues to invest in providing our customers with a one-stop shop of AI-powered automation capabilities that spans business processes and IT. The addition of Turbonomic now takes our portfolio another major step forward by ensuring customers will have full visibility into what is going on throughout their hybrid cloud infrastructure, and across their entire enterprise.”

  • IBM Reports First Quarter Results, Beats Wall Street Expectations

    IBM Reports First Quarter Results, Beats Wall Street Expectations

    IBM has beat Wall Street expectations, returning to revenue growth after four quarters of declines.

    IBM has been in the process of reinventing itself as a hybrid cloud provider. The company plans to spin off its legacy operations, focusing primarily on its hybrid cloud business, and has been snapping up startups to help drives its transformation.

    The company’s strategy appears to be paying off as it reported revenue of $17.7 billion, up 1%. The company’s Cloud & Cognitive Software was up 4%. Cloud revenue accounted for $6.5 billion, up 21%. Over the past 12 months, cloud revenue accounted for $26.3 billion, an increase of 19%.

    “Strong performance this quarter in cloud, driven by increasing client adoption of our hybrid cloud platform, and growth in software and consulting enabled us to get off to a solid start for the year,” said Arvind Krishna, IBM chairman and chief executive officer. “While we have more work to do, we are confident we can achieve full-year revenue growth and meet our adjusted free cash flow target in 2021.”

    “In the first quarter we continued to improve the fundamentals of our business model,” said James Kavanaugh, IBM senior vice president and chief financial officer. “With strong cash generation and disciplined financial management, we increased investments in our hybrid cloud and AI capabilities, while significantly deleveraging in the quarter and supporting our commitment to a secure and growing dividend.”