Amazon Must Not Interfere With US Union Effort, Say Investors
By: The FT February 9, 2021 Amazon should stop interfering with efforts by its workers to unionise ahead of a pivotal vote in Alabama, said a group of more than 70 of its investors. Mail-in balloting began this week among more than 5,800 employees in Bessemer, a suburb of Birmingham, marking the first […]
HSBC To Close 82 Branches This Year
By: BBC January 19, 2021 HSBC is to close 82 branches in the UK between April and September this year, claiming customers are turning to digital banking. The company will have 511 branches across the country following the closure programme. Managers said they did not expect to make any redundancies, with staff moved to […]
It’s Time To Tidy Up Space
By: The Economist January 14, 2021 Everybody’s business, an old saw has it, is nobody’s business. And that is a good description of the business of keeping outer space clean and tidy. Yet the part of space nearest Earth, known technically as low-Earth orbit, is getting cluttered. Some of the objects up there are […]
Microsoft Slams Google Over Threat to Shut Search Engine in Australia
By: The FT February 3, 2021 Microsoft has moved to capitalise on Google’s threat to shut its search engine in Australia, throwing its weight behind efforts to make Big Tech pay for news content and offering to transfer small businesses to its rival service Bing at no cost. The Seattle-based company on Wednesday […]
Robinhood Looks For In-House Lobbyist Amid Backlash From Lawmakers
By: The Hill January 29, 2021 Financial service company Robinhood is hiring to bulk up its lobbying portfolio amid scrutiny after lawmakers have ripped its decision to stop trading of GameStop and other companies whose stock has skyrocketed this week. GameStop, along with several other stocks, were restricted by Robinhood after a group […]
Paykey Launches Trading Functionality to Compete With ‘Wild West’ App Market
By: City AM February 2, 2021 The Gamestop frenzy last week not only showed the power of retail investors but the popularity and risks associated with free trading apps. Robinhood, which promises no user fees, faced backlash from investors after sharp swings in the value of stocks meant it was forced to restrict […]
Amazon Grapples With Shareholders Over Surveillance Tech
By: Government Technology January 28, 2021 Amazon has asked federal regulators to block a number of shareholder proposals that strike at the heart of many recent criticisms of the Seattle-based commerce behemoth, including its use of surveillance technologies. (TNS) — Amazon has asked federal regulators to block a number of shareholder proposals that […]
Big Tech Companies Using Lobbyists to Engage With Biden Administration
By: Fox Business January 22, 2021 WASHINGTON — Big technology companies are bracing for a new administration and new scrutiny of their businesses with a time-tested strategy: opening their pocketbooks. Facebook Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. topped all other U.S. companies in federal lobbying expenditures last year, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of the most […]
The Struggle Over Chips Enters a New Phase
By: The Economist January 23, 2021 When microchips were invented in 1958, the first significant market for them was inside nuclear missiles. Today about a trillion chips are made a year, or 128 for every person on the planet. Ever more devices and machines contain ever more semiconductors: an electric car can have over 3,000 […]