News You Can Use: 11/21/2018

The Source: Getting Things Done

  • When Acquiring a Company, Don’t Forget About the People

    Goal setting is proven to have a positive impact; according to McKinsey, 91 percent of companies that have effective performance management systems say that employee goals are linked to business priorities. Goals have the power to encourage and motivate people, whether they’re employees, investors or the board of directors. Give your team challenging, yet achievable targets to help push them in the right direction and encourage them to continue performing even when they’re dealing with new people and initially unfamiliar technologies or processes.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/323050

  • 3 Warning Signs Your Mentor Is Not Helping You

    If your mentor doesn’t challenge you to tackle your weaknesses and overcome your fears, your mentor is satisfied with the status quo — which isn’t good enough for you! Building a company requires doing the stuff we love and the stuff we wish we could hire someone else to do. If your mentor is worth her salt, she will push you to grow into your weaknesses and throttle past the challenges that scare you.

    Takeaway: I’ve often heard mentors working with startups in our accelerator respond to questions with questions. Mentors don’t have to have all of the answers — but they do need to know how to ask the right questions. This requires a mentor to slow down, listen and focus on you and your startup.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/322375

  • Why Facebook and news orgs are sworn frenemies
  • That ‘Bad’ Interviewee You Just Talked to May Be the Perfect Match for Your Job Opening

    That afternoon, however, reality set in, in the form of close to ten disappointing phone calls.

    Picking up my phone once more, I made my final call — to the most unlikely candidate of the bunch. And, within two minutes, I was floored: This guy was quizzing me on my knowledge of our business space. Not only that, but he was also asking about my personal relationships with competitors. Huh?

    Calling around to other founders after the interview, I quickly uncovered a strong consensus based on those founders’ individual experiences: This candidate’s comments weren’t weird or unwelcome, they said. In fact, they considered the best salespeople to be the ones who quizzed them.

    https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/322897

  • I want to work in these cubicles of the future

    Rapt’s designers envisioned a concept in which everyone gets a private space to work when they want it. But there’s a catch: Each private cubicle sits on short legs, enabling small warehouse robots to scuttle around underneath them. Then, the robots can pick up the cubes and move them around the office based on what each person and team needs for the day. For instance, if you have a day of heads-down work, you’d get assigned a private cubicle so you can focus. If you have a day full of meetings, and you don’t need private space, your cube combines with other cubes to create a larger space in which to work with your colleagues. The robots shift the office in real time to make this happen.

    https://www.fastcompany.com/90262512/i-want-to-work-in-these-cubicles-of-the-future

Photo by Wade Austin Ellis on Unsplash

Supplier Report: 11/16/2018

Activism within technology companies remains a major topic due to headlines about Google and Amazon’s internal cultures.

Google workers remain unhappy with company’s response to repeated sexual harassment accusations from high level management.

Amazon employees remain frustrated with CEO Jeff Bezos’ willingness to support ICE with facial recognition software.

Silicon Valley is doing some collective soul searching because of these issues as well as the industry dependence on Saudi Arabian funding (via Softbank).

This is a good time to ask questions, but not a good time for clear answers.

Acquisitions

  • SAP to buy Qualtrics for $8 billion

    This would be the largest-ever purchase of a VC-backed enterprise software company, and the second-largest sale of any SaaS company (behind Oracle buying Netsuite for $9.3 billion).

    SAP CEO Bill McDermott said in a conference call that the Qualtrics IPO was already over-subscribed, and that he views this deal will mean for SAP what buying Instagram meant for Facebook — with SAP being able to merge its massive trove of operational data with Qualtrics’ collection of user experience data.

    https://www.axios.com/sap-to-buy-qualtrics-for-8-billion-1541977708-2936da4b-aeae-4ad2-9888-3dc384e08823.html

  • Microsoft buys two more video game studios

    In a broadcast from its Xbox Fanfest event this weekend, Microsoft announced the acquisition of two new video game studios: inXile Entertainment and Obsidian Entertainment.

    Both studios are headquartered in California, and both specialise in role-playing games. Both studios also have their roots in the 1990s “golden age” of computer RPGs, staffed by veteran developers from beloved 90s studio Black Isle. inXile is famous for nostalgic, strategic RPGs, such as Wasteland 2, which raised nearly $3m (£2.3m) on Kickstarter in 2012. Obsidian Entertainment is responsible for acclaimed modern RPGs Fallout: New Vegas, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Pillars of Eternity, and South Park: The Stick of Truth.

    https://www.theguardian.com/games/2018/nov/10/microsoft-buys-two-new-video-game-studios

  • BlackBerry in talks to buy cybersecurity company Cylance

    BlackBerry Ltd is in talks to buy cybersecurity company Cylance Inc for as much as $1.5 billion, Business Insider reported on Friday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

    Irvine, California-based Cylance develops AI-based products to prevent cyberattacks on companies and recently considered filing for an IPO, according to the report. (read.bi/2SYzvM9) A deal could be announced as soon as next week, Business Insider reported citing sources, who cautioned the deal could still fall apart.

    https://www.reuters.com/article/us-cylance-m-a-blackberry-idUSKCN1NE2GW
    That is a big purchase considering BlackBerry’s current cash flow

Artificial Intelligence

Cloud

  • Oath is dead. Long live Verizon Media Group/Oath

    Anyway, Oath is now going to be Verizon Media Group/Oath as part of a corporate restructuring undertaken by Verizon’s CEO, Vestberg. The company is going to operate under three different business units — a Consumer Group, led by Ronan Dunne, a current executive vice president of Verizon and president of Verizon Wireless; a Business Group, led by Tami Erwin, currently executive vice president of wireless operations — which will focus on government, small and medium businesses, large business customers, and operate the company’s telematics arm; and a Media Group / Oath, which will be led by Guru Gowrappan, currently Oath’s chief executive.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/05/i-come-to-bury-oath/

Security

  • Jeff Bezos Fails to Explain Away Amazon’s Partnership with ICE

    So far, employees tell me, Amazon has not taken any action in response to its workers’ concerns. In fact, they said, a Thursday all-hands meeting was the first time executives addressed the controversy. Although the meeting wasn’t intended to focus on Rekognition, Bezos and co. fielded a pre-screened question that reportedly asked, “What is being done in response to the concerns voiced by both Amazon employees and civil-rights groups regarding Amazon selling facial-recognition technology to government and police organizations, including ICE?” Bezos passed the question to Andy Jassy, the Amazon Web Services C.E.O., who has defended the company’s decision, arguing that the terms of service for its products protects against misuse

    https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/11/jeff-bezos-fails-to-explain-away-amazons-partnership-with-ice
    Bezos has stated in several interviews that he supports the government. To say that he hasn’t responded or made his position clear is inaccurate.

Datacenter/Hardware

  • AMD stock jumps as Amazon starts using Epyc chips in the cloud

    Amazon, the largest provider of cloud computing services, is now offering three of its most popular products based on AMD’s Epyc server chips, Matt Garman, vice president of computing at Amazon Web Services, said Tuesday at an AMD presentation in San Francisco. The AMD chips allow for a 10 percent saving in computing costs, Garman said.

    Separately, AMD said it has sent samples of a new chip design to customers. Those chips are being made by Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. with a technique called 7-nanometer production. That technology is equivalent to Intel’s announced 10-nanometer process, but will be in the market first, according to AMD’s Chief Technology Officer Mark Papermaster. Intel has announced issues with that 10-nanometer transition and said it won’t have server chips in the market until late next year.

    https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/amazon/amd-climbs-after-saying-amazon-will-use-its-cloud-server-chips

Other

  • Google Picks Geisinger CEO to Oversee Health-Care Initiatives

    Geisinger pioneered the use of electronic health records and other digital medical data. Its setup of integrating an insurer with a hospital system has been widely seen as a model, as more health-care companies try to blend various businesses under one roof. It has also been a leader in the broad use of genetic information to help manage and predict patients’ health conditions.

    Alphabet Inc.’s Google has launched various efforts in health care over the years with mixed success. Google Health, its first attempt to create an electronic health-records database, was launched in 2008 but was closed in 2011 after it failed to catch on with consumers and health-care providers.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-picks-geisinger-health-ceo-to-oversee-health-care-initiatives-1541712775

  • Google walkout organizers aren’t satisfied with CEO’s response

    In the Medium post today, the organizers commended Google’s process while also noting how Pichai’s response did not address many of the core demands. In the post, they write:

    However, the response ignored several of the core demands — like elevating the diversity officer and employee representation on the board — and troublingly erased those focused on racism, discrimination, and the structural inequity built into the modern day Jim Crow class system that separates ‘full time’ employees from contract workers. Contract workers make up more than half of Google’s workforce, and perform essential roles across the company, but receive few of the benefits associated with tech company employment. They are also largely people of color, immigrants, and people from working class backgrounds.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/08/google-walkout-organizers-response-sundar-pichai/

  • Tesla picks telco executive Robyn Denholm to replace Elon Musk as chairman

    “I believe in this company, I believe in its mission and I look forward to helping Elon and the Tesla team achieve sustainable profitability and drive long-term shareholder value,” Denholm said in a statement.

    “Robyn has extensive experience in both the tech and auto industries, and she has made significant contributions as a Tesla Board member over the past four years in helping us become a profitable company. I look forward to working even more closely with Robyn as we continue accelerating the advent of sustainable energy,” Musk added.

    https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/08/robyn-denholm-tesla-chair/

  • In Silicon Valley, Saudi Money Keeps Flowing to Startups Amid Backlash

    Silicon Valley startups are continuing to negotiate deals with Saudi Arabia and take its capital through its partner SoftBank Group Corp, amid the controversy over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi that has clouded the kingdom’s role as a global technology investor.

    Two startups— View Inc., which makes light-adjustable glass, and Zume Inc., which uses robots to make pizza—disclosed investments over the past week totaling a combined $1.5 billion from SoftBank’s Saudi-backed Vision Fund.

    https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-silicon-valley-saudi-money-keeps-flowing-to-startups-amid-backlash-1541586601

Photo by Alen Rojnić on Unsplash

News You Can Use: 11/14/2018

  • China is making the internet less free, and US tech companies are helping

    While doing business in China, US tech companies must play by local rules — or leave, as Google did in 2010. Sarah Cook, Freedom House’s senior research analyst for East Asia, tells The Verge that abiding by local regulation is a waste of time. “Rather than develop tailor-made products to comply with China’s draconian censorship rules, we believe tech companies’ resources and ingenuity would be better spent on helping users jump the Great Firewall and access the uncensored version of their products,” she says.

    But most companies aren’t doing that. This August, Apple pulled 25,000 apps from its Chinese App Store, claiming they were “illegal” according to local law. In 2017, Apple removed VPN apps that people had used to elude Chinese censorship. When Apple launched the Product RED version of the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus in China, it removed any trace of the Product RED branding that’s designed to support AIDS-related charities, in what some critics say may have been a response to China’s anti-LGBT policies. Currently, LinkedIn restricts Chinese users from accessing politically sensitive profiles or posts from people outside the country. Microsoft’s Bing search engine still sanitizes Chinese language search results, nearly a decade after the New York Times first reported on it.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/2/18053142/china-internet-privacy-censorship-apple-microsoft-google-democracy-report

  • This Map Shows You How Much Money Every Member of Congress Got from Big Telecom

    The map only includes incumbents, so you’ll have to dig a little deeper to get information on other candidates. Still, it’s a good starting place for checking where your members of congress stand before you cast a ballot. In New York, for example, Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has gotten $413,307 from ISPs, according to the map, while Senator Chuck Schumer has attracted $1,018,574 in contributions from Big Telecom.

    Net neutrality and the influence of Big Telecom is a hot issue for many voters, after the Federal Communications Commission voted to repeal net neutrality last year. Major ISPs were in favor of scrapping the rules and used their financial and lobbying power to try to push it through.

    https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/9k7e43/before-you-vote-check-out-this-map-of-how-much-big-telecom-gave-your-congress-members

  • NAFTA, explained with a toy car
  • Facebook Is the Least Trusted Major Tech Company When it Comes to Safeguarding Personal Data, Poll Finds

    Only 22% of Americans said that they trust Facebook with their personal information, far less than Amazon (49%), Google (41%), Microsoft (40%), and Apple (39%).

    “Facebook is in the bottom in terms of trust in housing your personal data,” said Harris Poll CEO John Gerzema. “Facebook’s crises continue rolling in the news cycle.”

    http://fortune.com/2018/11/08/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-reputation/

  • Half of YouTube viewers use it to learn how to do things they’ve never done

    A new Pew research study that surveyed 4,594 Americans in 2018 found that 51 percent of YouTube users say they rely on the video service to figure out how to do new things, and the service proved important both for regular users and irregular users. “That works out to 35 percent of all U.S. adults, once both users and non-users of the site are accounted for,” the study reads.

    https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/7/18071992/youtube-pew-study-education-news-childrens-videos

Photo by Aditya Saxena on Unsplash