1
Disney’s streaming boss to become TikTok’s new CEO
TikTok is all set to get a new CEO and he hails from one of the biggest companies in the entertainment world – Walt Disney Co. Kevin Mayer was the chief of Disney’s streaming unit and played a key role in launching Disney+ streaming that was unveiled in November last year. Mayer’s appointment will be effective from June 1 and will simultaneously take up the role of COO of ByteDance, parent company of TikTok and the world’s most valued startup.
2
Uber furloughs another 3,000 employees
Ride-hailing giant Uber is all set to lay off another 3,000 employees, according to Wall Street Journal. This comes just weeks after Uber furloughed nearly 4,000 workers. With fresh layoffs, Uber has now fired almost quarter of its employees. Wall Street report also claimed that the ride-hailing company will close 45 offices including artificial intelligence lab.
3
A court in Texas holds trail by using Zoom app
A Texas court has created a history by conducting a jury trial by using Zoom app. This will be probably amongst the rare cases where an entire trail will be ran through a video conferencing app. Since all the courts across US have been shut down from March to steam the growth of COVID-19, the Texas court was caught in a difficult choice to either postpone the hearing till the pandemic ends or conduct the trail through remote proceedings.
4
After Twitter, Square announces a permanent work-from-home policy
Taking cue from Twitter’s decision last week, Fintech firm Square has now announced permanent work from home policy for its employees. This means that Square’s employees can continue to work from the comfort of their home even after COVID-19 lockdown ends. By the way, Twitter and Square are bound by a common thread and the thread is Jack Dorsey, who happens to be CEO of both these companies.
5
SoftBank’s tech fund announces stunning $18 Bn loss
Softbank’s much-celebrated Vision Fund on Monday reported an operating loss of whopping 1.9 trillion Yen or $18 Bn. Out of the 18 Bn, 10 Bn loss belongs to WeWork and Uber alone, according to media reports. The value of most other portfolio companies in SoftBank’s vision fund has equally deteriorated massively, leaving Japanese conglomerate in deep mess.
