Activision Blizzard workers have created a second Albany union in a unanimous 14-0 vote. This vote comes seven months after workers at Raven Software, a division of Activision, created a union. More: - This second union was created by the QA testing team in the company's "Diablo" division.
- Union representatives stated that they had watched the first successful union vote from the Raven Software team and were inspired to emulate the idea.
- The "Diablo" QA testers will be unionized under the Communication Workers of America, the same organization under which the Raven Software union will be represented.
- This is only the third union in the U.S. gaming industry overall and the second in AAA studios.
Zoom Out: - Unionization in the tech scene has become a controversial topic. Unions and similar models have begun being created in many large companies in the industry, such as Amazon and Alphabet, but the overall unionization rate in the tech industry remains under 7%.
- Amazon's Staten Island workers won a vote to create their own union back in April 2022, a campaign that made history as the first since Amazon was founded in 1994.
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Amazon's top media executive, Jeff Blackburn, is set to retire on Jan. 1, 2023, after working for more than 20 years at the company. The decision comes as the company is making significant changes in its management team to properly manage the overall market shake-up. More: - Blackburn, who joined the company in 1998, is known for leading the $8B MGM acquisition process and helping the team transition. Blackburn was also the head of the Lord of The Rings project, a series that cost the company approximately $1B.
- Blackburn will be replaced by two executives who will report directly to CEO Andy Jassy.
- Other changes in the company include leadership in Twitch, Audible, and gaming, which will be led by Steve Boom, who currently is the head of music and podcasting.
- The company plans to cut over 10,000 jobs.
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Mixed reality headset Meta Quest Pro will enable users to record what they see, according to a new report. The new feature is part of a series of updates that have been added to the V47 software version. More: - The feature wasn't immediately available for Meta Quest Pro users when the headset was launched.
- Meta has added a number of other features, such as Background Audio Playback, which supports background audio from any 2D panel app in any VR experience, making wishlists and being able to share them with your friends, an updated Meta Quest mobile app, an avatar mirror that enables you to look at your avatar's wardrobe easily, etc.
- Meta Quest Pro is the premium version of Meta's XR headset. The device costs $1499, while its cheaper version, Quest 2, costs $399.
- The latter, however, will not benefit from the recent updates, a sign that Meta might be prioritizing the more profitable Quest Pro.
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Google has shut down its conversational software project, Duplex on the Web AI. The project was first introduced in 2019. More: - Duplex on the Web was a conversational technology project that aimed to make tools that would save users time.
- The project had a few use cases, such as opening a movie theater chain’s website to fill out all of the necessary information on a user’s behalf and pausing to prompt for choices like seats.
- The tool was also used during the COVID-19 pandemic to automatically update business listings on Search and Maps with modified store hours, book movie tickets, rent cars, answer unknown spam calls, etc.
- Google attempted to create a tool that would essentially serve as a smart assistant, but the idea never took off the way it intended.
- The feature, however, had certain limitations, such as:
- It was limited to specific industries and locations
- The settings page was not visible unless the site was eligible and the user was contacted to participate.
- Enabling Duplex on the Web for a site usually took a few hours or days, etc.
- Industry experts stated that the decision to shut this project down might be related to the fact that Google intends to build AI-powered assistant capabilities only for hardware devices that are built by Google.
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OpenDoor CEO Eric Wu has stepped down from his position in the company as the current CFO, Carrie Wheeler, is set to replace him. Wu will work in a new role as president marketplace. More: - Wu announced the decision in a blog post. Wu stated that he wants to spend more time developing the company's products and figuring out how those products best fit the market.
- Regarding the choice of having Wheeler become the new CEO, Wu stated that based on the time that he has spent working with her, he knows that she is the right executive for the company at this time.
- Wheeler will join Opendoor's board, where Wu will continue to serve his role as a member too.
- Opendoor, founded in 2014, has recently gone through a layoff round that saw 18% of the company let go.
- The real estate relisting platform went public in 2020 but has struggled to reach the expectations that investors had regarding its stock price.
- The company is currently valued at $1.1B, considerably lower than its $8B valuation in 2021.
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U.S.-based 645 Ventures has closed a $347M funding round to help SaaS startups scale and become category leaders. The firm currently manages $550M in assets. More: - The $347M will be separated into two funds: Fund IV ($194M) and Select I ($153M).
- The difference between the two funds is that Fund IV will make investments at the Seed and Series A stages, while Select I will write late-stage checks into the best-performing companies that reach the growth stage from the company's earlier funds.
- Fund IV will write checks ranging from $1M to $10M, while Select I will invest up to $15M.
- 645 Ventures focuses on software companies that tackle one of the four following themes:
- Citizen professional
- 2nd wave in SaaS
- Engineering value chain revolution
- Personalized consumer
- The firm's portfolio includes companies such as Spiketrap (acquired by Reddit), Alice (acquired by Expedia), Rifiniti, Resident, etc. Overall, it has had over 10 exits since being founded in 2013.
- It has raised five funds so far, and it currently manages $550M in assets.
- 645 Ventures has offices in San Francisco and New York.
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- Microsoft will likely adhere to certain requests from EU regulators regarding its acquisition of Activision Blizzard. The main request likely to be fulfilled is keeping CoD on the Playstation platform for at least another 10 years.
- Around 91,000 people in the tech industry have lost their jobs so far in 2022, the most out of all industries.
- An individual in Alaska was saved by Apple's SOS Satellite emergency feature after getting stuck in the snow while traveling with a snow machine.
- Motorola has released its new 2022 Motorola Edge. The device's spec list includes a 6.6 inch 144Hz OLED screen, 256GB in storage, etc. The device is being sold for a 30% discount on Amazon from its original $599 price.
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 |  | Arbër is an Inside writer who also has experience in entrepreneurship. He has experience covering Consumer Tech, Venture Capital, NFTs, Crypto, etc. Arbër holds a Bachelor's degree in Business from XAMK University in Finland. When he is not reading(and writing) business news, he chooses to watch sports or anime...and then read news about sports or anime. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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