Microsoft is the latest tech company to announce a slowdown in hiring. Any new hires in Microsoft's Windows, Office, and Teams groups will now require approval from company EVP Rajesh Jha, according to reports. The move will help ensure that "the right resources are aligned to the right opportunity," Microsoft said. More: - The hiring slowdown is limited to those groups and is not companywide.
- Microsoft said it will continue to recruit new employees overall.
- The announcement comes shortly after Microsoft said it will nearly double its budget for employee pay in order to retain workers.
- The company plans to award merit salary increases, mostly for early and mid-career employees, and bump up the range of its annual stock awards.
- Other tech companies that have decelerated hiring during the downturn include Twitter, Meta, Snap, Uber, Redfin, Salesforce, and Nvidia.
- While tech companies are slowing or freezing hiring and even rescinding job offers, engineers and some other positions are still in high demand.
BLOOMBERG 
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A newly filed class-action lawsuit accuses Elon Musk of engaging in behaviors to drive down the price of Twitter's stock. A shareholder, William Heresniak, filed the complaint on Wednesday in the Northern District of California. It references Musk's tweets and other conduct that he says were "designed to create doubt about the deal," which Musk could arguably use to create leverage and back out of or renegotiate his $44B takeover of Twitter. More: - The suit was filed this week on behalf of Twitter shareholders. Musk is accused of making statements, sending tweets, and engaging in conduct designed to create doubt about the deal and push Twitter's stock price down.
- It claims that Musk's concerns about Twitter’s spam/fake accounts were an attempt to secure a discount on Twitter.
- The complaint states that Musk was "was well aware that Twitter had a certain amount of ‘fake accounts’ and accounts controlled by ‘bots’."
- The lawsuit also references Musk’s late disclosure of his 9% stake in Twitter, saying the Tesa CEO "engaged in market manipulation" to buy shares at a lower price, saving $156M.
- Earlier this month, Musk said a deal to buy Twitter at a lower price point is not "out of the question."
- Twitter declined to comment on the suit.
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A bill introduced by three Republican senators would bar Apple and Google from hosting apps that accept China’s national digital currency as a form of payment. The senators — Tom Cotton, Marco Rubio, and Mike Braun — are concerned that China could use its digital currency to spy on the financial activities of U.S. citizens. More: - The bill seeks to ban companies that own app stores from carrying apps that enable transactions in e-CNY, China’s digital currency payment system, also known as the digital yuan.
- China first began trialing its digital yuan, a central bank digital currency (CBDC), in 2019 and has used it in at least 15 cities.
- In a statement, Braun argued that China could use the state-controlled digital currency to infiltrate the private information of U.S. citizens and the economy.
- However, Apple Insider's William Gallagher notes issues with the bill. It's unclear how the senators think that China could directly spy on an individual's financial situation, he wrote.
REUTERS
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The NFL plans to launch a $5-per-month streaming service for mobile phones and tablets as early as July, according to the Sports Business Journal. NFL Plus would stream live games on local TV markets but not out-of-market games, per the SBJ. More: - In addition to games, the service is expected to include podcasts, radio, and team-created content.
- It's viewed as a replacement for local games streamed for free on laptops and tablets though Yahoo Sports and mobile devices through various phone carriers. These deals have now expired.
- NFL Plus could potentially be bundled with the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market sports package:
- According to reports, Apple is closing in on a deal to obtain the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, currently held by DirecTV.
- NFL Sunday Ticket broadcasts all regular-season NFL games.
- Should Apple acquire the rights, the company could ink a deal with the NFL that would allow users to watch both local and out-of-market games on one platform.
- DirecTV's rights reportedly expire after the 2022 NFL season.
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Microsoft said it's pivoting away from its current version of Keystone, a device that would stream Xbox games through the cloud without a console. Instead, the company will refocus on another approach to "deliver Xbox Cloud Gaming to more players around the world," it said. More: - The Chromecast-like dongle would enable players to access games on Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming service.
- Code-named Keystone, it would connect to TVs or monitors and eliminate the need for a console.
- While Microsoft has confirmed its existence, the company has decided to "pivot away from the current iteration" of Keystone.
- Xbox chief Phil Spencer first hinted at the possibility of an Xbox streaming stick in 2020. Microsoft later affirmed plans for "standalone streaming devices that you can plug into a TV or monitor" for streaming Xbox games with a strong and stable internet connection.
- Reports from early May suggested that the Xbox streaming device and a game streaming app for Samsung smart TVs could arrive within 12 months.
WINDOWS CENTRAL
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Sega said it will announce a new project during a live broadcast set for Friday, June 3. The Japanese video game company said its producers Hiroyuki Miyazaki and Yosuke Okunari will appear during the livestream. No other details were provided. More: - According to TechRadar, the company could potentially deliver an update on its “Super Game” initiative.
- The project is expected to include AAA titles that would involve cloud gaming and NFTs.
- It could involve a partnership with Microsoft to use its Azure cloud streaming software.
- "Super Game” aims to revive existing IP and create new revenue streams for Sega after its heyday in the 90s.
- As part of the initiative, Sega plans to reboot two classic gaming franchises — "Jet Set Radio" and "Crazy Taxi" — that could be massively online and free-to-play titles, similar to "Fortnite."
- Sega's upcoming broadcast will stream on YouTube, Niconico, and Twitter starting at 7 a.m. ET on June 3.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and analyst at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily tech news. Since starting work at Inside, she has covered various topics including virtual reality, drones, and e-commerce. Prior to that she was a public policy and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, where she won a Pulitzer Prize nomination and First Amendment Award for reporting on the rising costs of pensions. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Eduardo Garcia is a writer and editor based in New York. He is the author of "Things You Can Do," an illustrated book about climate action. Bylines in The New York Times, The Guardian, Slate, Scientific American, and others. In one of his previous lives, Eduardo worked as a Reuters correspondent in Latin America for nearly a decade. | |
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