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10 things in tech you need to know today
Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Friday.
REUTERS/Michele Tantussi
- A leaked memo obtained by Vice revealed Amazon's efforts to mount a smear campaign against a worker it fired. The memo was written by Amazon's top lawyer and described the fired worker, Chris Smalls, as "not smart or articulate."
- Zoom's CEO 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 mega-investor SoftBank confirmed it's abandoning a plan to buy $3 billion worth of WeWork shares, citing '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 some $970 million worth from former CEO Adam Neumann
- Apple appeared to accidentally leak details of an unreleased iPhone accessory that 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 donate $100 million to help 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 worsened by COVID-19.
- Disney will furlough employees during the coronavirus crisis. The furloughing will begin 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 needs 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.
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See the rest of the story at Business Insider
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- 10 things in tech you need to know today
- 10 things in tech you need to know today
- 10 things in tech you need to know today
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