Vice Media laid off about 60 employees Friday in what the edgy news outlet described as a way to place a greater emphasis on video. The layoffs — which affect multiple departments and represent a 2% cut of Vice’s roughly 3,000 employees — come a month after Vice announced it had secured $450 million...
There are only two types of companies, it is commonly said: those that have been hacked, and those that just don't know it yet. IBM Corp. wants to get rid of both. The Armonk, N.Y., computing giant said Monday that it has achieved a breakthrough in security technology that will enable all businesses...
Shares of Snap Inc. are trading below their $17 price in their initial public offering.
For the last 15 years, Internet television company Roku Inc. has done one thing and done it well. Its streaming sticks, boxes and software make it easy and enjoyable to watch Internet content on a television — a seemingly simple task, but one that its largest rivals have struggled to perfect. “I...
When publicly traded companies are caught behaving badly, markets can hold their feet to the fire. Stock prices take a hit, as Volkswagen witnessed after its emissions scandal. Activist investors mobilize, like when Yahoo shareholders criticized the company’s direction. Executives are forced to...
Two days after Snap Inc.’s stock fell below its $17 initial public offering price, shares gained back some ground Thursday morning as an influential analyst encouraged investors to buy into the Venice company. Shares traded as high as $15.97 Thursday morning before closing at $15.69, up 45 cents,...
Uber just stopped fighting to dominate the ride-hailing market in Russia. The company announced Thursday that it will merge its business there and in a few other former Soviet countries with part of Russia’s Yandex to form a new ride-hailing, food-delivery and logistics company. Yandex, the Russian...
When Jeffrey Brewer’s son was 15, the boy nearly lost his life because he took too much insulin. The diabetic teen took insulin so he could eat a large bag of chips late at night. But about 20 minutes later, he forgot about that first dose and took another. He spent two days in the hospital, his...
By selling Thin Mints and Tagalongs in kindergarten, Elizabeth Lewelling earned Girl Scout badges for customer service and managing money. Now going into eighth grade, she’s setting her sights on a topic a bit more complicated than the cookie business: cybersecurity. The 12-year-old from Palmdale...
Apple will allow PayPal payments in its digital stores, offering customers another check-out option on iTunes, iBooks, Apple Music and the App Store. The partnership, rolled out Tuesday in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Mexico, Australia and parts of Europe, lets users choose the San Jose-based secure...
Names and phone numbers of millions of Verizon customers were made available on a publicly accessible storage area owned by one of the company’s vendors, according an enterprise security software company that discovered the exposed data. “Anyone entering a URL in a browser would have been able...
The United States is pulling back the welcome mat for foreign entrepreneurs. In a move that drew criticism from the technology industry, the Trump administration delayed the rollout of the International Entrepreneur Rule, a piece of immigration policy set to take effect July 17 that would have...
Shares of Los Angeles technology company Snap Inc. on Monday dipped below the original price at which they were sold when the company went public in March. Snap shares traded as low as $16.95 before closing at $16.99, down about 1.1%. The company went public at $17. Falling below an IPO price for...
Tesla Inc. Chief Executive Elon Musk has placed one of his biggest bets yet on where energy development is headed and how fast he can get there. Musk wagered a few months ago that Tesla could build a grid-connected energy-storage system in Australia within 100 days, or he’d eat the costs. Now he...
Qualcomm Inc. fired back at Apple Inc. on Thursday in a fierce legal battle over patents, asking the U.S. International Trade Commission to ban the import of certain new models of iPhones. The San Diego-based company alleges that Apple is infringing on six patents issued between 2013 and 2017 that...
As the expected fall debut of Apple Inc.'s next iPhones nears, rumors have taken hold, based on reports from analysts and leaks from Apple's supply chain. As with all speculative reports, it's best to take these ideas with a grain (or shaker) of salt. Apple did not immediately respond to a request...
Buy a smartphone, use it for a couple of years, then ditch it for something new and improved. It’s a life cycle that has become the norm for cellphones. Now, that same short-term relationship is applying to what traditionally has been a long-term commitment: cars. Instead of buying a vehicle, more...
Snapchat users now can include hyperlinks to outside websites in their posts, reversing a longstanding strategy that has helped keep eyeballs from leaving the messaging and entertainment app. The update, which rolled out Wednesday, allows users to adorn their photo and video Snaps with clickable...
Microsoft Corp. is laying off thousands of employees in a shake-up aimed at selling more subscriptions to software applications that can be used on any Internet-connected device. Most of the people losing their jobs work in sales and are located outside the United States. The Redmond, Wash.-based...
Not long after the pizzeria Zume opened for business last year, its kitchen staff noticed a problem with some of its pizzas: they had holes in them. It wasn’t the fault of the workers, who rolled out intact dough bases. There wasn’t a kitchen mole prodding holes. It wasn’t even the recipe — a Zume...
Also a look at Wonder and Gamevice, hardware start-ups seeking to change mobile gaming. Plus, a new CEO at Mobcrush.
It used to take months from the day a company filed its paperwork to go public to the day it sold shares, giving potential investors loads of time to decide whether to buy in. But under a new Securities and Exchange Commission rule set to take effect next month, big private companies such as Uber...
Loot Crate Chief Executive Chris Davis now says he may have done what seemed unthinkable: grown the company too fast.
The largest terminal at the Port of Los Angeles remained closed Thursday as Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk continued to grapple with effects of a cyberattack that rippled across numerous countries Tuesday. The terminal, leased by Maersk, has been closed since early Tuesday, and there...
The technology industry is built on a model where venture capitalists have lots of leverage. Start-up founders, after all, regularly beg them for the cash needed to turn nascent ideas into viable businesses. But that’s a power dynamic with dangerous consequences, as a sexual harassment scandal...
A brief friendship that began with an online chat and an awkward date may have inspired one of the world’s bestselling video games.
Facebook has hit 2 billion active monthly users, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Tuesday. The social media giant has doubled its user base in less than five years — it reached 1 billion in October 2012. Growth has held largely steady during that time. In its most recent earnings report,...
The European Union slapped a record $2.7-billion fine on Internet giant Google on Tuesday for allegedly taking advantage of its dominance in online searches to direct customers to its own online shopping business. European regulators gave the Mountain View, Calif., company 90 days to stop or face...
A Northern California federal judge has denied Qualcomm Inc.’s motion to dismiss the U.S. Federal Trade Commission antitrust lawsuit against the San Diego wireless technology company, which means the case will go forward. The suit, filed in January, alleges that Qualcomm uses its dominant market...
Uber recently pledged to be friendlier to its employees and its drivers. As of Tuesday, it plans to be friendlier to senior citizens, too. The ride-hailing company launched a feature in more than 30 countries on Tuesday that lets users of the Uber app book a ride for someone other than themselves....
Mayor Rahm Emanuel is talking to entrepreneur Elon Musk about the possibility of the technology investor and SpaceX founder using a high-tech digger to bore out an underground high-speed rail line connecting downtown to O'Hare International Airport. On Monday, Emanuel described the discussions...
Tracy and Paul Grand picked up a partial victory this month when the international body in charge of website-name disputes ruled against Snap’s bid to snatch away geofilters.com from them.
Recent scandals have put Uber on such shaky ground that a lawyer representing aggrieved drivers has filed a lawsuit against Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp — the ride-hailing firm's co-founders — in case the company doesn't survive long enough to defend itself. Describing the lawsuit filed Thursday...
It may not be enough for the electric car company Tesla to take on the giants of Detroit, like General Motors and Ford. The Palo Alto-based automaker is said to be exploring its very own music streaming service too, a move that would pit the company against market leader Spotify, and the aggressive...
In the year since Snapchat began welcoming geofilters, paid submissions have increased to tens of thousands per day. Last month, graduations made up 15% of such sales.
The majority of Uber’s investors may have wanted its co-founder and chief executive, Travis Kalanick, out, but some employees of the ride-hailing company are already calling for his return. In a petition that began circulating within Uber on Wednesday, employees called for Uber’s board of directors...
Tesla Inc. is working with the city of Shanghai to “explore the possibility” of opening a factory in the area, the maker of electric cars confirmed Thursday. Sales in China generate a hefty chunk of Tesla’s revenue, and moving some manufacturing near those buyers would slash some costs. “While...
A pricey acquisition last month appears to have helped Snapchat maker Snap Inc. bolster its newest feature just before launch. The Los Angeles tech company committed around $300 million in cash and stock to a French start-up that had developed a mapping app that shows people the precise locations...
YouTube is launching a program to give creators a crash course in pitching and growing their business.
Bill Gurley, a venture capitalist whom sources said led the push to demand the resignation of Uber Chief Executive Travis Kalanick, stepped down late Wednesday from his role at the company too. Gurley is being replaced immediately by his colleague, Matt Cohler, on the ride-hailing app maker’s board...
With $6.5 billion in annual sales and 12,000 employees around the world, Uber Technologies hardly resembles a blank slate. But that’s the pitch — long-awaited in some of its investors’ and employees’ eyes — that Uber can now make with this week’s resignation of Chief Executive Travis Kalanick. ...
Travis Kalanick never ran away from a fight. When cities challenged the legality of his ride-hailing service, he ordered drivers to continue picking up passengers. When competitors complained about his tactics, he lowered prices and tried to poach their drivers. He even got into a spat — caught...
Snapchat has billed itself as a way to stay up to date with friends. It’s latest feature, Snap Map, delivers on that premise, at the least. The tool lets users see where their friends are — and what they’re doing — at any given moment. The goal, according to a Snap Inc. spokesperson, is to get...
Amazon can’t provide a fitting room for trying on that new pair of jeans before purchasing them, but a new feature for Amazon Prime members is taking a crack at being the next best thing. The company on Tuesday announced Amazon Prime Wardrobe, which will allow users who pay for the e-commerce giant’s...
A Tesla car in Autopilot mode warned its driver seven times to put his hands on the steering wheel during the 40 minutes before the crash that ended his life last year, a newly released set of reports from the National Transportation Safety Board revealed. The reports, released this week, contain...
Video streaming service Twitch announced Tuesday a two-year deal with Blizzard Entertainment to become the exclusive third-party home for many of the Irvine game-maker’s e-sports events. Blizzard Entertainment can continue to stream video game competitions on its own services, including MLG.TV...
Uber is enabling passengers to tip its U.S. drivers with a tap on its ride-hailing app for the first time, part of a push to recast itself as a company with a conscience and a heart. Besides the built-in tipping option announced Tuesday, Uber is giving drivers an opportunity to make more money...