Tech layoffs tracker 2024: Job cuts at eBay, TikTok, and Wayfair this week

It’s been another brutal week for tech layoffs. In the past six days, numerous major tech companies have announced they are cutting jobs. The most recent is e-commerce juggernaut eBay, which has announced it will cut 9% of its workforce.

Here’s the latest:

  • Wayfair: Last Friday, digital home goods retailer Wayfair announced it would cut 13% of its global workforce. That’s around 1,650 employees. Part of those cuts will see Wayfair
Microsoft’s market cap hits $3 trillion for the first time

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Microsoft’s stock market value crossed the $3 trillion milestone for the first time on Wednesday, retaining its place as the world’s second most valuable company, just behind iPhone maker Apple.

Microsoft and Apple shares have been vying for the top spot as the most capitalized stock on Wall Street since the start of the year, with the iPhone maker briefly losing its crown to the X-box owner earlier in January.

Shares of Microsoft

AI guacamole recipes are here in time for Super Bowl 2024, courtesy of Avocados From Mexico

The perfect guacamole recipe must include ripe, mashed avocados. Fresh lime juice, cilantro, red onion, and spices like salt and cayenne pepper are frequently added to the dish.

But guacamole’s newest ingredient, courtesy of the nonprofit marketing organization Avocados From Mexico (AFM), is a dash of artificial intelligence.

With the Super Bowl looming and an estimated 250 million pounds of avocados to be consumed in the weeks leading into football’s biggest

How Etsy plans to make you the perfect gift giver

How good are you at giving gifts? According to a national survey commissioned by Etsy, 75% of Americans believe that being a good gift giver is important and shows someone how much they mean to you, but 64% feel it takes a lot of effort to find the perfect gift.

Now the $8.4 billion market cap e-commerce company is launching a new product called Gift Mode, to make narrowing down the more than 100 million things for sale on its platform a lot easier. It’s also a strategy to di

40 years later, the original Mac is more amazing than ever

You’re reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech update, which means I must be global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. My inbox awaits your feedback and ideas for future newsletters: Send them to me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com.

A few Fast Company tech stori

63% of financial advice on TikTok is misleading, one study found. Users love it anyway

In a series of TikTok videos that went viral earlier this month, Patricia Milan, the user behind the account, Business Women University, boasted about securing $150,000 in cash to buy an Airbnb unit by maxing out her credit cards. The plan, as she explained to viewers, was to pay off her debt using the proceeds from her rental. A second video gave advice on how to obtain high credit card limits by creating a series of circular transactions within her own companies—which is, in fact, il

Apple’s new iPhone Stolen Device Protection feature may have one big flaw

Released as part of Monday’s iOS 17.3 update, Apple’s new Stolen Device Protection feature can protect users from industrious phone thieves who’ve managed to learn the device’s passcode. An iPhone passcode has been likened to “a treasure box” that grants near-total access to the user’s digital life—bank accounts, email, private photos, the whole privacy nine yards. Apple’s operating system previously gave victims precious few ways

Netflix movies got a lot less Oscar attention this year. Again. Here’s why

On the eve of the 2024 Oscar nominations, Netflix film chief Scott Stuber announced he was leaving the position to start his own film company. His exit couldn’t have come at a better time.

When Stuber started at Netflix in 2017, the streamer’s executives would have been absolutely thrilled to nab the 11 nominations its original films earned this year. Prior to that point, the only nods the company had ever garnered came from its documentary offerings. Even with prestig

Layoffs 2024: Fintech startup Brex lays off 20% of employees

Brex, the fintech startup that made a splash with corporate credit cards and moved into cash management accounts for tech companies, has cut its staff by 20%. Some 282 people were laid off Tuesday amid reports of heavy cash burns in the final three months of last year.

It was just under a year ago that Brex saw a huge influx of customers and deposits, as Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. As the panic over that bank’s implosion spread, Brex saw billions of dollars pour in and ove

Oscars 2024: Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were snubbed, but it’s still the year of Barbie—and Oppenheimer

Barbenheimer saved the movie industry, so why shouldn’t the most famous portmanteau in film history also be the big story of the Oscar nominations?

Universal’s Oppenheimer and Warner Bros.’s Barbie, which together grossed almost one billion dollars at the domestic box office last summer, have now earned a combined 21 Academy Award nominations. Both films made the shortlists for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress, and


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