Happy Friday, readers. We’re taking a look at Twitter staff reactions to the Elon Musk takeover bid, and are showing you Mercedes-Benz’s EV concept car.
Ready? Let’s dive in.
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1. Twitter employees are expressing concern about the company’s future. After Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter outright, workers at the social media company told Insider they’re feeling frustrated and left out of the loop:
- Musk offered to buy the company in a deal that values it at $43 billion, saying he’d “unlock” the company’s “extraordinary potential,” and positioning himself as a free-speech advocate.
- But some employees said the only thing they know for sure is that the future is uncertain, and an all-hands meeting on Thursday afternoon offered few clues: CEO Parag Agrawal offered little “of substance,” saying only that no decision had been made yet.
- “Many people are concerned about Musk’s business practices and ethics changing the culture at Twitter,” one employee told Insider.
Here’s what else employees are saying.
In other news:
Adam Weiss/Getty Images
2. Peloton is raising its subscription prices for the first time. The cost of a subscription will increase to $44 a month from $39 in the US, but in an attempt to lure in more customers, the company will be cutting prices of its bikes and treadmills. What you need to know.
3. A “Shopify Mafia” founder explains how he built his brand while working full-time. Greg Macdonald has run his bath-products brand for years while working as a merchant-success manager at Shopify, calling it the only company in the world where you can have “a million-dollar side hustle.”
4. A judge has upheld a Black former Tesla worker’s racial discrimination claim, but cut his payout. The worker, who sued Tesla in 2017, was awarded $137 million by a jury in October, a sum the judge cut to $15 million. Here’s what we know so far.
5. Russian tech workers who fled are facing anti-Russian backlash, reluctant banks, and sky-high rents. More than 70,000 Russian IT workers have pulled off a perilous escape as their homeland crumbled amid Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine. Now, they’re facing a new set of challenges. Inside Russia’s tech brain drain.
6. Amazon’s CEO says the company’s injury rate is “misunderstood.” We found it’s higher than he says. In his first letter to shareholders, CEO Andy Jassy cited misleading statistics to refer to Amazon’s injury rate. We fact-checked his letter. Here’s what we found.
7. DoorDash’s CEO just told staff the company is planning a major hiring slowdown. In an internal meeting, CEO Tony Xu told employees DoorDash is expanding headcount by only 10% to 15% this year, a far cry from last year, when the company’s ranks more than doubled. Get the details from the meeting.
8. A company that switched to a four-day work week says business has never been better. Nonprofit Healthwise has had three-day weekends since 2021, and found employees were more productive and the company retained more workers. An economist explains how Healthwise made it work.
Odds and ends:
Mercedes-Benz
9. Mercedes-Benz’s sleek electric concept car drove 626 miles on a single charge. The Mercedes Vision EQXX’s range outstrips both the Tesla Model S and Lucid Air, which have 405 and 520 miles of range, respectively. Check out the car that could cure range and charging anxiety.
10. We tested out Amazon’s Kindle Oasis and Rakuten’s Kobo Sage so you don’t have to. The two e-readers stacked up pretty evenly, with high-end features and similar content libraries — but the Kindle Oasis delivers a better reading experience. Read the full review.
The latest people moves in tech:
- Shopify just hired Tia Silas as its new chief talent officer.
- E-commerce giant JD.com’s founder Richard Liu is stepping down as CEO.
- Google Cloud VP Oliver Parker, who is in the sales organization, is departing the company.
- EV startup Canoo’s leadership exodus rolls on with the departure of its newly hired head of operations.
- Citi snagged a JPMorgan rainmaker to bolster its tech and capital-markets teams.
- Variety reported that Netflix has named Emily Feingold as its VP of communications.
Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.
Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email jerb@insider.com or tweet @jordanparkererb.)
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