 | Apr 11, 2025 | | | | | | TGIF! Europe threatens to tax Meta and Google as potential tariff retaliation. Google lays off hundreds of employees in Android and Pixel unit. China retaliates with 125% tariffs on U.S. imports.
| | | | The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, said Europe could tax digital ad revenues of Meta Platforms and Google in retaliation for tariffs imposed by the U.S. on Europe. Von der Leyen was speaking in an interview with the Financial Times. She said the European Commission was "developing retaliatory measures" in case negotiations between the U.S. and Europe did not succeed. Europe accounted for 23% of Meta's 2024 revenues and 29% of Google parent Alphabet's revenues. | | | | Google on Thursday laid off hundreds of employees in its platforms and devices unit, which works on Android software, Pixel phones and the Chrome browser, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. The cuts follow the company's move in January to offer buyouts to employees in the unit. Google moved Android and Chrome under Pixel and devices executive Rick Osterloh last year. The combined group numbered over 20,000 before the buyout offer. Google cut 6% of staff in 2023. It has cut some employees since then but its headcount has stayed around 180,000. "Since combining the Platforms and Devices teams last year, we've focused on becoming more nimble and operating more effectively and this included making some job reductions in addition to the voluntary exit program that we offered in January," a Google spokesperson said in a statement. Google continues to hire in the US and globally, the spokesperson said. | | | | The Chinese government said on Friday it will increase tariffs on U.S. imports to 125% from 84% effective Saturday, as the trade war between the two nations continues to escalate. China's Ministry of Finance said in a statement that, if the U.S. decides to impose further tariffs from now on, Beijing will ignore such moves because the current tariff level already makes it impossible for any U.S. imports to be accepted in China based on market merit. The ministry said "abnormally high" U.S. tariffs on China violates international trade rules and basic economic principles, calling it "unilateral bullying and coercion." Beijing's latest move comes after President Donald Trump earlier this week raised U.S. tariffs on Chinese imports to 125% and later clarified the actual rate is 145% after factoring in the 20% rate that was already in place before recent hikes. At the same time, Trump suspended for 90 days his plan to impose higher tariffs on 75 other countries. The increasing hostility between the world's two largest economies over trades and tariffs could affect tech giants such as Apple and Amazon that rely on China's supply chain, while also complicating any attempts by the Trump administration and ByteDance to reach a deal to allow TikTok to continue operating in the U.S. | | | | Amazon CEO Andy Jassy earned $40.1 million last year, according to Amazon's proxy statement published on Thursday. That figure includes stock that vested during the year, as well as salary, and was a 37% increase from the $29.2 million Jassy earned in 2023. Even though Jassy had 6% fewer shares vest in 2024 than 2023 under a 10-year equity grant he received when he became CEO in 2024, a surge in Amazon's share price boosted the value of his compensation, Amazon said. Jassy has not received any new stock grants since he succeeded Jeff Bezos in 2021. Other highly paid Amazon leaders include top retail executive Doug Herrington, whose compensation rose to $22.4 million from $19.3 million the previous year. Matt Garman, who became head of Amazon Web Services in June 2024, earned $11.9 million. Garman's predecessor, Adam Selipsky, earned $16.5 million in 2023, according to Amazon. | | | | Donald Trump signed an order Wednesday that targets Christopher Krebs, a critic of the president and the former head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency during the first Trump administration. In the Wednesday order, Trump took aim at Krebs for disputing Trump's baseless claims that the 2020 election was "stolen." The president ordered an investigation into Krebs' activities and revoked his security clearance. It is the latest in a string of attacks the president has mounted on people, law firms and universities who he sees as having wronged him. Trump previously fired Krebs following the 2020 election, after the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency put out a joint statement saying the election was "the most secure in American history." Krebs currently works at cybersecurity company SentinelOne. | | | | Honeycomb, a San Francisco-based startup that helps engineers identify and resolve bugs, has acquired Grit, a coding startup that helps companies maintain their software and codebase, Honeycomb CEO Christine Yen confirmed. Grit raised a $7 million seed round in 2023 from firms such as Founders Fund and 8VC. The core product will be wound down after the acquisition goes through, and the sale is not expected to return much cash to investors, a person with direct knowledge of the sale said. The sale shows the pressure facing some AI startups, whose cash constraints and technology can make them targets for larger startups. Nine-year-old Honeycomb has raised over $140 million from investors including Insight Partners, Headline and Scale Venture Partners. Yen, who declined to disclose specifics of the deal's value, said that Grit CEO Morgante Pell is joining Honeycomb as part of the acquisition. "I have a lot of respect for founders in the AI space that build a good product and don't get caught up in hype," Yen said, of companies that are looking to sell right now. She said that Honeycomb is looking at developing other tools in the developer tool space, but doesn't have any immediate plans to make another acquisition. | | | | Wayve, an eight-year-old autonomous driving software company, said Thursday that its self-driving technology will be used in Nissan's ProPilot assisted driving feature in Nissan's fiscal year starting April 1, 2027. The London-based company sells the Wayve AI Driver, a mapless approach to autonomous driving where the model adapts to environments it hasn't seen before. Wayve's technology will be used in Nissan's advanced collision avoidance capabilities. Wayve in May raised $1.05 billion in a Series C round led by SoftBank, with Nvidia joining as a new investor and SoftBank taking a board seat. Uber also invested an undisclosed amount last fall. One of Wayve's competitors, Nuro, recently raised $106 million at a $6 billion valuation. Nuro's business model is also autonomous driving software licensing, but it hasn't announced commercial partnerships with automakers yet. | | | Popular articles
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