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Alphabet CEO Larry Page. Photo by Bloomberg.

Google Employees Have to Waive Right to Sue on Pornography

By Reed Albergotti · Mar 17, 2017 10:39am PDT · 6 comments

Courts have long held that people can sue for sexual harassment if they see pornography at work. But at Google, employees are required to waive their right to sue on those grounds, according to a lawsuit. Google requires new employees to sign an “Adult Content Liability Release,” according to a court filing this week in the lawsuit,... Courts have long held that people can sue for sexual harassment if they see pornography at work....

Writers for "The Mindy Project," now on Hulu, at an event last September. Photo by AP.

Hulu Looking for Executive to Oversee Programming

By Tom Dotan · Mar 16, 2017 5:23pm PDT · 2 comments

Hulu is searching for a senior executive to oversee its programming, said two people familiar with the search, as the company prepares to expand with a new service of traditional cable channels in addition to its on-demand offering.The company has reached out to a number of high-level television executives for a position called chief content... Hulu is searching for a senior executive to oversee its programming, said two people familiar...

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey. Photo by Bloomberg.

Twitter Broadens Live Video Push

By Tom Dotan · Mar 15, 2017 2:59pm PDT

Twitter plans to announce next week that it will allow media firms to post live streaming videos directly into the service, the latest step in its path to becoming a hub for live video, according to two people briefed on the plans.The company will open up its live-streaming API, allowing media firms to plug directly into Twitter’s... Twitter plans to announce next week that it will allow media firms to post live streaming videos...

Charoen chairman Dhanin Chearavanant with Alibaba chairman Jack Ma in November. Photo by Bloomberg.

China’s Finance Giant On the Move

By Juro Osawa · Mar 14, 2017 10:07am PDT · 1 comment

Charoen chairman Dhanin Chearavanant with Alibaba chairman Jack Ma in November. Photo by Bloomberg.

China’s Finance Giant On the Move

By Juro Osawa · Mar 14, 2017 10:07am PDT · 1 comment

Alibaba Group’s internet finance arm Ant Financial Services is accelerating its global expansion. In its latest effort, Ant is in talks to create a payment joint venture in Indonesia with a local media conglomerate, Emtek, people familiar with the discussions said. A partnership with Emtek, one of Indonesia’s largest conglomerates... Alibaba Group’s internet finance arm Ant Financial Services is accelerating its global...

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Photo by Bloomberg.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Has a New “Shadow”

By Eugene Kim · Mar 13, 2017 3:51pm PDT

Amazon has appointed a former Kindle vice president to be the new technical advisor to CEO Jeff Bezos, a highly coveted position within the company that’s often called Jeff Bezos’s “shadow.” That’s because the person in the role accompanies Mr. Bezos everywhere he goes, including to all meetings, with the aim of... Amazon has appointed a former Kindle vice president to be the new technical advisor to CEO Jeff...

Velodyne Lidar devices attached to the top of a car at an exhibition. Photo by Flickr/ETC-USC

Key Sensor for Self-Driving Cars is in Short Supply

By Amir Efrati · Mar 13, 2017 7:02am PDT · 6 comments

Lots of things are holding up the development of self-driving cars, including government regulation and the sheer complexity of getting the tech right. But one of the biggest issues right now is a crippling shortage of a special laser sensor, used by autonomous vehicles to figure out what’s going on around them.Wait times for this laser,... Lots of things are holding up the development of self-driving cars, including government...

Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky. Photo by Bloomberg.

Airbnb Looks To Add To Executive Ranks

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 10, 2017 5:27pm PST

Airbnb’s on-again, off-again search for another senior executive to help CEO Brian Chesky manage the rapidly growing company is active again, said three people briefed on the matter. Among the people approached recently was Brent Bellm, former chief operating officer of vacation-rentals rival HomeAway and current CEO of ecommerce platform... Airbnb’s on-again, off-again search for another senior executive to help CEO Brian Chesky...

Facebook vp of product Fidji Simo. Photo by Flickr/LeWeb.

Facebook’s Uphill Battle To Win Back Publishers

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 9, 2017 1:25pm PST · 3 comments

Facebook vp of product Fidji Simo. Photo by Flickr/LeWeb.

Facebook’s Uphill Battle To Win Back Publishers

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 9, 2017 1:25pm PST · 3 comments

Facebook product managers gathered about a dozen news publishers at the company’s New York office two weeks ago to unveil potential changes to Instant Articles, the nearly-two-year-old program aimed at making news articles load faster on the social network. The roadmap, including giving publishers more ways to track reader habits and to... Facebook product managers gathered about a dozen news publishers at the company’s New York...

Former Quixey co-founder CEO Tomer Kagan, second from right. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

Alibaba-Backed Quixey Shutting Down

By Amir Efrati · Mar 8, 2017 4:41pm PST · 2 comments

Quixey, a seven-year-old mobile search company that raised more than $130 million from Alibaba Group and others, is in the process of shutting down, said a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Numerous employees were laid off two weeks ago, according to a former employee.Quixey came to prominence as a potential alternative to Google... Quixey, a seven-year-old mobile search company that raised more than $130 million from Alibaba...

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Photo by Bloomberg

Uber CEO, Facing Multiple Controversies, Seeks No. 2 Exec

By Amir Efrati and Alfred Lee · Mar 4, 2017 6:06pm PST · 3 comments

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick plans to appoint a number two executive to serve alongside him and make key decisions, said a person briefed on the plan. The decision is a concession for Mr. Kalanick, who has long operated Uber without a formal second in command. Along with two colleagues, he controls a majority of the shareholder votes.The expected... Uber CEO Travis Kalanick plans to appoint a number two executive to serve alongside him and make...

Uber CEO Travis Kalanick. Photo by Bloomberg.

How Uber Can Drive Profits

By Amir Efrati · Mar 3, 2017 7:01am PST · 4 comments

How much the recent spate of negative media coverage of Uber and its workplace culture will have on its business and ability to attract talent is anybody’s guess. But new financial data shows how profitable the ride-sharing firm is in key cities in the U.S. and Europe—and gives a clue about what it has to do to cut its enormous... How much the recent spate of negative media coverage of Uber and its workplace culture will have...

An attendee at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Photo by Bloomberg.

Out of Sight at Mobile World, Facebook Still Looms Large

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 2, 2017 7:00am PST · 1 comment

An attendee at this week's Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Photo by Bloomberg.

Out of Sight at Mobile World, Facebook Still Looms Large

By Cory Weinberg · Mar 2, 2017 7:00am PST · 1 comment

BARCELONA—Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stayed away from this week’s Mobile World Congress, the telecom industry’s annual assembly, for the first time in four years. That lowered Facebook’s profile at the gathering but not its activity level. Behind the scenes, executives from the social network wooed telecom executives as... BARCELONA—Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stayed away from this week’s Mobile World...

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Photo by Bloomberg.

AWS Takes Aim at Call Center Industry

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 28, 2017 7:01am PST · 6 comments

Alexa is coming to customer call centers.Amazon Web Services is preparing to sell software to help companies manage their call centers, based on software Amazon developed for its retail call centers, according to a person who’s been briefed on the plans. The new services also incorporate Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant to respond to... Alexa is coming to customer call centers.Amazon Web Services is preparing to sell software to...

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

How Rizvi’s Clients Will Do on Snap IPO

By Alfred Lee · Feb 27, 2017 7:00am PST · 1 comment

When Snap goes public on Thursday, one of the investors closely watching the result will be Rizvi Traverse, the secretive firm that rose to prominence amassing large stakes in Twitter and Square. Chances are Rizvi will do well on the offering—and probably better than people who invested in Rizvi-arranged funds holding Snap stock.Rizvi put... When Snap goes public on Thursday, one of the investors closely watching the result will be Rizvi...

AWS CEO Andrew Jassy. Photo by AP.

AWS Taking On Microsoft, Google with Productivity Suite

By Kevin McLaughlin · Feb 24, 2017 7:01am PST · 7 comments

Amazon Web Services dominates the market for cloud server and storage services and has made inroads in other enterprise technologies like databases. Now it wants to become a more potent competitor in productivity apps, where Microsoft and Google are well established. AWS is working on upgrades to its WorkMail email-calendar app and its WorkDocs... Amazon Web Services dominates the market for cloud server and storage services and has made...

Lightspeed partner Jeremy Liew. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

How a Mountain View High School Cashed in on Snap

By Alfred Lee and Tom Dotan · Feb 23, 2017 5:01pm PST

Lightspeed partner Jeremy Liew. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

How a Mountain View High School Cashed in on Snap

By Alfred Lee and Tom Dotan · Feb 23, 2017 5:01pm PST

Lots of people stand to make a fortune when Snap goes public next week, including co-founders Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy and early investors like Lightspeed Venture Partners. Then there’s Saint Francis High School, of Mountain View, California. An investment fund associated with the high school is believed to have been one of the... Lots of people stand to make a fortune when Snap goes public next week, including co-founders...

Apple CEO Tim Cook. Photo by Bloomberg.

Apple Severed Ties with Server Supplier After Security Concern

By Amir Efrati · Feb 23, 2017 3:44pm PST · 4 comments

In early 2016, Apple discovered what it believed was a potential security vulnerability in at least one data center server it purchased from a U.S.-based manufacturer, Super Micro Computer, according to a Super Micro executive and two people who were briefed about the incident at Apple. The server was part of Apple’s technical... In early 2016, Apple discovered what it believed was a potential security vulnerability in at...

Facebook's VP for messaging products, David Marcus, at F8 last year. Photo by Bloomberg.

How Messenger and “M” Are Shifting Gears

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 22, 2017 7:00am PST · 4 comments

After two years of trying to figure out ways to get commerce flowing through Messenger, with little success, Facebook is taking a new tack. Messenger is trying to find ways to inject buttons into conversations between friends when it thinks they intend to do things like make restaurant reservations, buy tickets to something or order food. The... After two years of trying to figure out ways to get commerce flowing through Messenger, with...

David Marcus, Facebook VP for messaging products. Photo by Bloomberg.

Bots and Humans Strain to Get Along on Messenger, Twitter

By Cory Weinberg · Feb 17, 2017 7:01am PST · 6 comments

When customers started chatting with 1-800-Flowers.com on Facebook Messenger in recent months, they often received two different kinds of responses in the same thread. One would be an automated response run by a bot company that can serve up flower orders in a few taps. The other response would be from a human agent that signed his or her name,... When customers started chatting with 1-800-Flowers.com on Facebook Messenger in recent months,...

Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

Cruise’s Self-Driving Cars May Not Be as Smart as They Appear

By Amir Efrati · Feb 16, 2017 12:26pm PST · 3 comments

Cruise CEO Kyle Vogt. Photo by Flickr/TechCrunch.

Cruise’s Self-Driving Cars May Not Be as Smart as They Appear

By Amir Efrati · Feb 16, 2017 12:26pm PST · 3 comments

Cruise Automation, the General Motors-owned autonomous car startup, turned heads in the self-driving car world earlier this month. Test results filed with California regulators implied that its self-driving software might be more advanced than that of Mercedes, Tesla, Bosch and Delphi. The results showed that the company’s workers had to... Cruise Automation, the General Motors-owned autonomous car startup, turned heads in the...