Photo by Luke Michael on Unsplash
The walls are once again closing in on Google. For weeks I have been tracking rumors that the DoJ is going to hit the internet giant with an anti-trust investigation and rumors are that the Department of Justice is pulling in dozens of state-level attorneys general to kick off the investigation that could start within weeks.
The bad press keeps rolling as over 40 current and former Google employees are protesting former Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote at a Stanford University artificial intelligence ethics conference citing Schmidt’s lack of “ethical conduct” in the field (specifically the company’s aborted plans for China).
Meanwhile Thomas Kurian is trying to get more attention, better sales people, and of course customers for Google’s cloud services – but all this bad press can’t be helping the company attract new business.
Acquisitions/Investments
- Microsoft acquires cloud migration startup Movere to help companies transition to Azure
Microsoft didn’t have to go far for its latest acquisition. The Redmond, Wash.-based tech giant today announced that it acquired Movere, an 11-year-old Seattle-area cloud migration startup. Microsoft will use the deal to help customers move their existing applications and infrastructure to Azure. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
“Movere’s innovative discovery and assessment capabilities will complement Azure Migrate and our integrated partner solutions, making migration an easier process for our customers. We believe that successful cloud migrations enable business transformation, and this acquisition underscores our investments to make that happen,” Jeremy Winter, partner director for Azure Management, said in a statement.
Cloud
- Google Cloud has a new program to assign its best salespeople to go after the biggest customers — but Google employees say it makes it harder for current salespeople to advance
This change is similar to how Oracle, where Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian most recently worked, handles its largest customers. However, this isn’t sitting well with current Google employees, sources said: It’s far easier for outsiders to get hired into these account-director roles than for an existing Google salesperson to step up, even if they have the right experience.
Sources also said that there’s a perception among Google Cloud salespeople that the hiring process is “biased” toward Oracle veterans.
https://www.businessinsider.com/thomas-kurian-google-cloud-sales-account-director-2019-9
Security/Privacy
- Monster.com says a third party exposed user data but didn’t tell anyone
The server contained résumés and CVs for job applicants spanning 2014 and 2017, many of which included private information like phone numbers and home addresses, but also email addresses and a person’s prior work experience.
Of the documents we reviewed, most users were located in the United States.
It’s not known exactly how many files were exposed, but thousands of résumés were found in a single folder dated May 2017. Other files found on the exposed server included immigration documentation for work, which Monster does not collect.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/05/monster-exposed-user-data-years/
Software/SaaS
- Slack Intensifies a War of Words
World-wide spending on collaboration software is expected to rise to $16.5 billion this year and eventually reach more than $26.6 billion in 2023, according to research firm International Data Corp.
Mr. Bracelin said Slack has an advantage over Microsoft in helping businesses get more productivity out of workers by automating and streamlining routine tasks. Slack offers users more than 1,800 third-party applications that work on top of its software, compared with just a few hundred for Teams.
Slack’s user-engagement numbers are another sign of strength, D.A. Davidson & Co. analyst Rishi Jaluria said. People spend an average of 90 minutes daily using its software, Slack said, far more than the average time spent with some popular consumer applications such as Facebook and the mobile game “Candy Crush Saga.”
https://www.wsj.com/articles/slack-intensifies-a-war-of-words-11567726192
Infrastructure/Hardware
- Antonio Neri and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s cultural revolution
Neri and HPE may actually have two North Stars. At the center of the company’s current strategy are two sets of platforms. The first is HPE’s Greenlake—an infrastructure management service for both cloud and on-premises that turns even local infrastructure into a “consumption-based” resource that can be scaled up and down (within limits) on demand.
The second central tenet is HPE’s pair of analytics and machine-learning based automation tools: InfoSight and OneView. Combined, these two sets of technologies will tie into HPE’s new Primera storage platform, Aruba networking hardware, and even supercomputing resources such as Silicon Graphics (and, if the transaction completes, Cray) systems to create an “as-a-service” fabric. With these two tentpoles, Neri’s long-term goal for the company is what he calls “cloudless” computing—a unified “as a service” management of all compute, storage, and network resources transparently across all public and private clouds and “edge” devices.
- In the Race to Dominate 5G, China Sprints Ahead
President Trump has said 5G is a race that the U.S. must win. But while American wireless carriers are leading in early deployment of the technology, some telecom-industry leaders say Beijing is poised to vault ahead in coming months.
While U.S. wireless carriers shuffle from city to city to introduce 5G, China plans to blanket urban areas with it by the end of next year and the rest of the country soon after. A local manager at one carrier estimated that even Tongguan, which lacks modern plumbing, could get the superfast networks by 2021.
“We look forward to 5G,” said Wu Shengmin, Tongguan’s baby-faced village chief. His locale boasts superb service on current 4G systems that would be the envy in much of the U.S., courtesy of a nearby cellular tower nestled in a tree-covered peak.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-the-race-to-dominate-5g-china-has-an-edge-11567828888
Other
- Google could face far-reaching antitrust investigation as soon as next week
The investigation is said to involve more than half of the nation’s state attorneys general. The Post says the Department of Justice has met with many of those state attorneys general, but it’s unclear whether it will be involved in the final lawsuit.
The news follows comments late last month from the DOJ’s antitrust chief Makan Delrahim that suggested the agency would be working closely with state lawmakers and regulatory authorities on future antitrust probes. Regardless, the investigation would mark a further escalation in the US government’s attempts to rein in Big Tech, and it signals that authorities at both the federal and state effort are working concurrently on a number of investigations into Silicon Valley companies.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/3/20847798/google-antitrust-investigation-us-states-attorneys-generals-doj-ftc-regulation
Google receives demand for documents from Justice Dept., acknowledging federal antitrust scrutinyGoogle said Friday that the Justice Department has requested records related to its prior antitrust investigations, marking the tech giant’s first major acknowledgment that it’s a subject of a federal competition probe.
The civil-investigative demand — acknowledged in a securities filing and a blog post — comes weeks after Justice Department officials said they would open a broad review of big tech, including search. It also comes days before more than 30 state attorneys general are expected to announce a major antitrust investigation of Google, as The Washington Post first reported.
- We Company (WeWork) reportedly mulls slashing its valuation ahead of its initial public offering
SoftBank has already balked at putting more cash into The We Company ahead of the public offering, and it’s not clear whether the company will step in as a white knight now.
What is clear is that We needs money and its long-term viability as a business is contingent on the infusion of massive amounts of cash.
Indeed, the company has a $6 billion line of credit at stake, which would be pulled if the public offering underperforms.
If the company fails to hit the $3 billion mark in its public offering, then the credit line promised from the big banks that are underwriting the public offering goes away. That would be a pretty devastating turn of events for a company that’s currently racking up losses in the billions of dollars.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/05/we-company-reportedly-mulls-slashing-its-valuation-ahead-of-its-initial-public-offering/
We Company adds a director, ditches its $5.9 million naming deal with its CEO, remains a governance nightmareAs part of the amended filing, The We Company also committed to add a director to the board that will increase the company’s gender and ethnic diversity.
In the same amendment, the company said that it was unwinding the $5.9 million transaction between itself and a holding company — WE Holdings LLC, which held the trademark for the “We” brand and was owned by We Company’s chief executive, Adam Neumann.
- AT&T Names Media Boss John Stankey as CEO Heir Apparent
Mr. Stankey, 56 years old, will serve as president and chief operating officer starting next month. He will continue to serve as the head of WarnerMedia, the unit that houses HBO, the Warner Bros. studio and cable channels like CNN.
He will report to Mr. Stephenson and is the front-runner to take over the top job, according to people familiar with the matter. Mr. Stankey joined one of AT&T’s predecessors in 1985 and spent most of his career in the telecommunications business.
Mr. Stephenson, 59 years old, hasn’t indicated when he plans to retire, though he has been CEO for 12 years and there are discussions for and against his retirement at the board level, the people said.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/at-t-names-new-president-and-chief-operating-officer-11567525692