Amazon CEO Andy Jassy is calling for a full return to office at the start of 2025. For the last 15 months, employees have been expected to work in the office three days per week. Now employees will be expected to be in the office five days a week, with work from home being OK only in extenuating circumstances. Big Tech executives have championed return-to-office mandates, but they have proven unpopular among some tech workers.U.S. tech giant Cisco has let go of thousands of employees in its second layoff ro ...

Chipmaker Qualcomm is trying to buy rival Intel, according to multiple reports.The Wall Street Journal first broke the news late Friday that Qualcomm had approached Intel about a takeover. The New York Times then corroborated the story, while also saying no official offer has been made. Even if there is an offer, it’s not clear whether Intel would accept it or if regulators would approve. (Neither Qualcomm nor Intel immediately responded to TechCrunch’s request for comment.)Once the industry leader, Intel ...

The iPhone 16 officially goes on sale Friday. But for its earliest adopters, it arrives with a fundamental compromise baked into the deal.Put simply, this is not the iPhone 16 that they were promised. Tim Cook said it would be “first iPhone built for Apple Intelligence.” But that “for” is key: the handsets actually will not have its most hyped AI features out of the gate. This feels like a turning point for Apple. When it comes to new features on phones, the company may not always be known for being the fi ...

Qualcomm, which makes chips for smartphones, said it will lay off 226 workers in San Diego later this year, according to a California WARN notice published this week. The layoffs, which were first reported by the San Diego Union-Tribune, will take effect the week of November 12.The layoffs affect employees at 16 facilities across San Diego, including the company’s headquarters, which has a cybersecurity presence. It’s unclear if the cybersecurity team is affected, and a Qualcomm spokesperson declined to say ...

Cruise is returning to the streets of Sunnyvale and Mountain View for the first time since it paused operations in the Bay Area after a robotaxi struck a pedestrian in October 2023. The company said Thursday that it will put “several” vehicles driven by humans in the two cities that will initially perform mapping. The company said it hopes to progress to supervised AV testing of up to five robotaxis “later this fall.” “Resuming testing in the Bay Area is an important step forward as we continue to work cl ...

The European Union has opened two “specification proceedings” on Apple under the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA) that will see it instructing the iPhone maker on how to comply with certain interoperability provisions in the market fairness regulation. If Apple fails to meet the Commission’s requirements it could risk fines of up to 10% of its global annual turnover. The European Commission, which enforces the DMA on Apple and the other six gatekeepers in scope of the pan-EU regulation, opened its first non ...

Google has succeeded in overturning a $1.7 billion antitrust penalty handed down by the European Union back in March 2019. The €1.49 billion fine, which Google appealed, was originally issued after the European Commission found the tech giant’s search ads brokering business had violated competition rules between 2006 and 2016 to cement a dominant position. On Wednesday, the EU’s General Court upheld the majority of EU’s findings, but annulled the earlier decision in its entirety after finding that the Comm ...

Company Overview - 23andMe, a personal genomics company, went public in early 2021 through a merger with a blank check company, which valued it at $3.5 billion [1] - The company has faced declining interest in its main product, DNA kits, and suffered a data breach affecting 6.9 million users [1] Leadership and Strategic Moves - CEO and co-founder Anne Wojcicki is reportedly seeking to take the company private after her initial proposal was rejected by the board in July [2] - The independent directors have expressed a lack of confidence in Wojcicki's ability to present another proposal, citing her voting power as a factor in their decision to step back [2] Financial Performance - The company's market capitalization has fallen to $173 million, a significant decline from its initial valuation [3] - The departure of notable board members, including figures from Sequoia Capital and YouTube, is expected to further negatively impact the company's stock price [3]

Amazon has named long-time executive Samir Kumar as the new head of its India consumer business, following an abrupt leadership change in one of its key markets last month.Kumar, who has been with the e-commerce giant for 25 years, will assume the role of Country Manager for India, the company said. This appointment comes in addition to Kumar’s existing responsibilities overseeing Amazon’s consumer operations in the Middle East, South Africa and Turkey, the company said. The leadership transition was annou ...

Group 1 - NASA aims to establish a permanent human presence on the Moon and is developing the Near Space Network for continuous lunar communications [1][2] - Intuitive Machines has been awarded a contract by NASA to build a satellite constellation for navigation and communications, with a maximum potential value of $4.82 billion [2][4] - The contract guarantees $150 million, with the possibility of exceeding this amount based on the services provided over a five-year period [4] Group 2 - The lunar satellite constellation will support NASA's goal to land humans on the Moon's south pole, which has limited direct communication opportunities with Earth [5] - The infrastructure will also enhance capabilities for uncrewed missions, including remote operation of rovers and improved data transmission rates [5][6] - Intuitive Machines, which went public last year, reported a revenue of $41.4 million in Q2, reflecting a 130% year-over-year increase, largely from government contracts [7]