Tech sales used to be an easy way to get rich, now it "kinda sucks." Think less $800 dinners, more performance-based firings. I dug into ground-zero of these changes at Salesforce with
@drakepbennett
.
"The goals are to get drivers to stop taking lowball offers as a whole."
The
#DeclineNow
movement is testing whether workers can use DoorDash's software against it
It’s my first day as a full time reporter with Bloomberg
@business
! I’ll be rotating through four teams over the next year, starting with DC breaking news. So grateful for this opportunity and everyone who helped me get here.
Scoop: Databricks' acquisition of Tabular was actually nearly $2 billion. I spoke with 50 insiders to tell the real story of the Snowflake/Databricks war with
@Katie_Roof
. Free link below -
🚨🚨 I’m now covering enterprise tech companies full-time for Bloomberg
@technology
! Think Salesforce, Zoom, Oracle, or any other software that your workplace relies on. I’m at bford61
@bloomberg
.net for tips, jokes, or gossip!
SCOOP: Employees of the crime-watch app Citizen voted to unionize, a rare instance of successful labor organizing at a venture-backed startup. Details on the Terminal.
Twilio CEO Jeff Lawson cut his salary in half as part of a major layoff. Except that pay accounts for less than 1% of his $14 total million compensation package.
EXCLUSIVE: A new worker-owned Uber competitor promoted by
@AOC
and other progressives is seeking to raise over $1 million from investors, drivers and everyday people. With
@thesimonetti
NEW: Russia’s business giants spent at least $186 million on U.S. influence since 2014. Now, they're getting dumped by their lobbyists.
@OpenSecretsDC
@BenFreemanDC
@annalecta
NEW feature: Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor
@btaylor
was used to big deals and big personalities. Then came Elon Musk.
@KurtWagner8
and I did 17 interviews to understand who is negotiating with the world's richest person.
Scoop: Oracle has been silent after the Roe v Wade decision, but it quietly updated employee health plans to include abortion travel benefits.
@dinabass
Scoop: Adobe is paying around 6 cents a photo for AI training data. Lots of fun exclusive details about Firefly in this feature with
@AustinCarr
and
@daniellesacks
@drakepbennett
Salesforce ushered the golden age of the cushy tech job. Now we can see how that era is coming to a close across the industry. Paywall-free link below -
Scoop: Adobe's been keeping a little secret about its AI. Its Firefly model was branded as more ethical than rivals like Midjourney. But it was actually trained on images from them. With
@rachelmetz
New: Twilio is sticking with work-from-home as many tech cos force workers back to the office. It has around 6,600 employees after two rounds of layoffs.
One of my favorite elements of the rivalry is nicknames. "SnowMelt" is a initiative within Databricks to take business from its winter-themed rival. At Snowflake, "SparkAttack" is a codename to snatch machine learning workflows from Databricks.
Scoop: TikTok touts its 'Project Texas' security setup which includes rigorous code reviews from Oracle. Except... they're not actually happening yet. w/
@alexbarinka
Scoop: Adobe is officially giving up on building a direct Figma competitor after its planned merger collapsed. XD won't see further investment and any work in the product design space will be through partnerships.
A big tech rivalry is brewing - ServiceNow has poached hundreds of workers from Salesforce, thrown shots at the company, and even quit using Slack once it became part of CRM. $NOW $CRM
NEW: Adobe tried for years to buy Figma before
@zoink
finally accepted. Though not before he tried to get an offer from another tech company. Lots of new details on how Adobe’s mega-deal came together.
New: Adobe's getting sued by the government. It's too difficult and expensive to cancel subscriptions to apps like Photoshop, the DOJ/FTC says. Adobe plans to fight them in court. $ADBE
Shutterstock has quietly built one of the world's largest AI data licensing businesses. It cleared $104M last year by letting firms like OpenAI and Meta train on its marketplace of images and videos. $SSTK
Exclusive: Amazon and Oracle assured lawmakers that they're not selling data that could help prosecute abortions.
@LoriTrahanMA
isn't convinced.
@accessnow
Databricks has played the public antagonist. Attendees to Snowflake’s 2023 conference in Vegas were greeted with billboards claiming Databricks’ product was nine times cheaper.
NEW: Yellow cabs are making a comeback. Soaring costs at Uber and Lyft have led more New Yorkers to step off the curb and raise their hands. With
@jackiedavalos1
New: Microsoft's Azure outage yesterday began as a DDoS cyberattack ... and was worsened by a glitch in Microsoft's own defenses. W/
@CGorrivan
$MSFT $SBUX
Scooplet: Some of TikTok’s rising stars haven't been able to get paid for weeks due to a glitch in the app's Creator Fund registration system. “It's a very defeating feeling,” one of them told me.
Scoop: Oracle Health (Cerner) revenue is down and they’re losing customers, according to internal documents and interviews with 30+ employees/customers. Free link here -
Snowflake's Frank Slootman walks away worth $3.7B. That's richer than Tim Cook or Satya Nadella. Very rare for a non-founder to amass that level of wealth. $SNOW
@LamoneyTom
NEW: Activist groups urge retailers like Macy's and Albertson's to stop using facial recognition in their stores, saying the unregulated technology can lead to abuses.
Dell's stock has tripled over the last year due to AI server business. Still, the stock is way down after reporting earnings that didn't meet the hype. $DELL $SCMI $HPE $NVDA
New: One of ServiceNow's top execs, CJ Desai, is out after a complaint around a government contract and his hiring of the Army's CIO. Text me if you know what happened. $NOW
Scoop: Oracle's massive VA project is going badly, according to internal documents. The $16B contract is being renegotiated after outages and deaths. $ORCL
#Cerner
Snowflake's new CEO, Sridhar Ramaswamy, is set to make around $104 million over the next five years. Frank Slootman was a rare non-founder billionaire. $SNOW
@technology
After covering everything from currency markets to antitrust law during my year of rotating around the newsroom, I feel so lucky to be returning to the tech team. Looking forward to working under the great
@sarahfrier
, Andy Pollack, and more.
New: Snowflake customers are being extorted by hackers. Ransom requests for stolen data coming in as high as $5 million. W/
@CGorrivan
@MargiMurphy
$SNOW
NEW: While New York and Miami fight to attract the crypto industry, one unlikely state is actually leading the charge. Documentary with
@mbyhoff
,
@Crystal_Tai_
,
@kathiglanz
Scoop on benefits offered to 180 Asana employees laid off today: 3 months base pay, career services, $500 stipend, late December stock vesting. No mention of immigration services.
ServiceNow's CEO tanked his company's stock earlier this month by doomsaying about the economy on CNBC. Today, the company cut its sales forecast for the year.