Stream of Reading (Prepare to be Forwarded) – An Archive of What I'm Reading
Barclays Plc plans to shut most of its cash-equities business in the Asia-Pacific region as Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley pushes to reduce costs, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The near-exit from cash equities is part of plans to eliminate about 50 percent of jobs at the wider equities unit in the…
Yahoo! Inc. is planning to eliminate jobs as part of Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer’s effort to cut costs and revive growth at the struggling web portal, according to a person familiar with the matter. The plan will help the company streamline operations, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter…
In the past couple of years, Twitter’s user growth has slowed and then practically ground to a halt. As a result, the company has come under increasing pressure — from both Wall Street and the media — to reinvent the service in order to jump-start growth. Last summer, Twitter CEO Dick Costolo resigned and was…
Mansion Maniac, a whimsical online toy created by the New York Public Library, may seem like envy bait for the real-estate have-nots. With the help of a Pac-Man-like icon, users can explore the floor plans of some of the city’s most extravagant early-20th-century residences, culled from the library’s archives. But the game is what you…
A grand jury has subpoenaed Chipotle Mexican Grill in an investigation of a norovirus outbreak, and the chain warned investors Wednesday the fallout from increased media attention about foodborne illness has hammered its sales. Comparable restaurant sales nosedived 14.6 percent during the fourth quarter, the chain said in a filing Wednesday. This metric dropped as…
The night before a big meeting with a Swiss drug company in 2008, Theranos Inc. founder Elizabeth Holmes and a colleague sat in a Zurich hotel, sticking their fingers with a lancet. They drew drops of their own blood to try the company’s testing machine, but the devices wouldn’t work, says someone familiar with the…
Lumosity, which created a brain game powerhouse by telling people it could make them smarter, is paying for its lies. Lumos Labs will pay the Federal Trade Commission $2 million for deceptive trade practices. “Lumosity preyed on consumers’ fears about age-related cognitive decline, suggesting their games could stave off memory loss, dementia, and even Alzheimer’s…
Snapchat’s valuation is based on a single flawed assumption I recently was reading a leaked email written by Twitter’s current CFO, at the time representing Snapchat’s investors, to Snapchat’s CEO which dissected Facebook’s recent earnings announcements. It’s clear from the mail that Snapchat’s investors view Facebook as the benchmark when it comes to the size…
Dec. 31, 2015 11:36 a.m. ET Gawker Media, a network of websites known for pillorying the powerful in media, tech and politics, has helped sell millions of cable ties to readers looking to control their tangled messes of electronic cords. Gawker has also been hawking flashlights, laser printers, headphones, car phone chargers and a 42-piece…
I’ve never been a fan of the “sharing economy”. Not that there’s anything intrinsically wrong with Uber, Airbnb and their peers, it’s just that there doesn’t really seem to be much “sharing” going on. It’s more like adding a technological middleman to a rental market. Now having shaken up the taxi and hotel market, the…