Business

The Windows and Surface team split last year when Panos Panay left, with Parakhin’s team building AI-powered web services like Bing Chat / Copilot. Then, this spring, in a shake up as Mustafa Suleyman became CEO of Microsoft AI, Parakhin was out.

He’s since joined the board of an AI startup and with Shopify:

Mikhail will oversee our engineering and data organizations and push Shopify to the cutting edge, not just in ML and AI, but in everything we’re building to make commerce better for everyone.

The web browser and search startup confirmed to TechCrunch that 27 roles have been axed, but provided no explanation for the cuts.

That’s a significant number for a company the size of Brave — just 191 staffers according to a Pitchbook estimate. The move also follows Brave laying off 9 percent of its workforce in October last year.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt “...gave money back to make sure that we had a theatrical release” in thousands of theaters, but just ahead of a big Olympics marketing push, the Wolfs plan changed to a limited one-week run before its Apple TV Plus debut.

NYT:

Apple executives in Cupertino were already questioning the entertainment units over the amount of money being spent on movies, and the people said there was a thought within the company to not risk a public disappointment should the movie not succeed at the box office.

More than 1,000 people will lose their jobs — and others will be relocated to sites outside China. This follows Microsoft’s similar move in May. In a call, an IBM exec blamed increasing competition in China.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., who put in a $6 billion bid for control of Paramount last week, would want to partner with a company like Amazon or Apple to bolster Paramount’s streaming service, according to a report from Bloomberg.

Paramount is expected to decide whether Bronfman’s offer beats its merger deal with Skydance on August 28th.

In a letter seen by The Wall Street Journal, Skydance’s lawyers accuse Paramount of breaking their merger agreement by dragging out the amount of time it can review other bids, and said:

While Skydance is not currently exercising its right to terminate the Transaction Agreement, we reserve the right to do so in the future.

Paramount extended its “go shop” period after receiving a $6 billion bid from media investor Edgar Bronfman Jr.

Mineral, which Alphabet shut down last month, says it has sold some of its technology to John Deere to support the company’s See & Spray product, according to a memo posted last week. The startup also confirms that the berry company Driscoll will use Mineral’s tech to “better forecast yields, optimize quality inspections, and reduce food waste.”

Media investor Edgar Bronfman Jr. increased his offer to acquire Paramount from $4.3 billion to $6 billion, according to CNBC. Paramount has since extended its “go shop” period to 15 days, which allows it to review offers from other potential buyers. The offer could potentially upend the sweetened deal it reached with Skydance last month.

Michael Lewis has a new essay to accompany the paperback version of Going Infinite, a book about Sam Bankman-Fried that appeared just before his trial. Sure, SBF did crimes because he was an arrogant gambler, but Lewis still loves his gamer son.

The resulting write-downs have hobbled the banks’ loan books and, in one case, was a factor that crimped compensation for a bank’s merger department, according to people involved with the deal.

Oh.

GoPro, which currently employs 925 people, says in an SEC filing that it’s issuing the layoffs as part of its plan to reduce costs. The company reported earning $186 million this past quarter — a 23 percent dip compared to the same time last year. It also laid off 4 percent of workers in March.

Sam Altman’s crypto-adjacent Worldcoin has irritated global regulators:

It has been raided in Hong Kong, blocked in Spain, fined in Argentina and criminally investigated in Kenya. A ruling looms on whether it can keep operating in the European Union.

The Autonomy founder’s superyacht, the Bayesian, sunk after being hit by a tornado while anchored near the coast of Sicily, with 22 people on board. 15 survivors have been rescued so far.

Lynch sold his company to HP in 2011 for $11 billion, then HP alleged “accounting improprieties” had misrepresented its value. Lynch was acquitted of fraud charges in June.

This in-depth story about Silicon Valley power couple Ben and Felicia Horowitz suggests that the catalyst for their political about-face was receiving criticism from the left. “Multiple sources close to the couple said the social media backlash affected them deeply.”

After over a decade, The Onion will once again appear in print — this time, as a monthly newspaper delivered to your doorstep. The satirical outlet, which now has new owners, will charge $5 / month for the newspaper if you sign up by August 31st.

Vance, who was an investor, board member, and spokesman, claimed AppHarvest was “a great business that’s making a big difference in the world.” It declared bankruptcy last year.

Several former employees told CNN they thought Vance and other board members should have recognized and responded to warning signs that company officials were misleading the public and their own investors.

Publishers like Rolling Stone and The New York Times are sizing up Reddit as a potential source of significant traffic, according to Adweek.

Reddit’s visibility in Google Search has skyrocketed this year, making the platform an attractive place for marketers and the SEO industry. But media of all industries should know that relying on outside platforms historically hasn’t gone well.

Medialab, started by Whisper co-founders Michael Heyward and Brad Brooks, has left a trail of lawsuits following its acquisitions. Apparently it loaded up on cheap debt — and the Genius lawsuit alleges that it’s slow-rolling its acquisition payments to service that debt.

The CNN media reporter announced today that he’s starting his own news outlet called Status — a nightly briefing covering the media industry, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley.

Darcy is the latest journalist to move from a big outlet to an independent enterprise. Status will be subscription-based, and will launch with an initial (as of yet unnamed) sponsor.

That’s what WBD CEO David Zaslav said during an earnings call on Wednesday, referencing the company’s $9.1 billion goodwill impairment charge linked to the value of its legacy TV networks and “uncertainty” about sports rights now that the NBA is headed to streaming:

It’s fair to say that even two years ago, market valuations and prevailing conditions for legacy media companies were quite different than they are today, and this impairment acknowledges this and better aligns our carrying values with our future outlook.

After Disney agreed to buy Comcast’s 33 percent stake in Hulu with an initial payment of $8.6 billion, the two companies entered arbitration to determine Hulu’s fair value. Now, Disney says in an SEC filing that it could end up paying up to $5 billion depending on the outcome of arbitration.