With Files from Jori Negin-Shecter
Apple responds to employee requests for remote work, Sony’s PlayStation 3 Console experiences a major leak, and Facebook’s stock value soars after a court decision.
It’s all the biz/tech news that’s popular right now. Welcome to Hashtag Trending! It’s Friday, July 2nd and I’m your host Tom Li.
Apple has pushed back in response to an internal letter from its employees requesting to work fully remote. Apple’s senior vice-president of retail and people Deirdre (Dee-Druh) O’Brien stated in a recent interview that Apple believes “in-person collaboration is essential to our culture and our future.” The news follows another report from earlier this month about an internal memo from CEO Tim Cook requiring employees to be present in office on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays starting in the fall. This memo received pushback quickly, as employees followed up with Apple executives, noting some had been forced to quit because of the policy, and requested that all teams be given the opportunity to work remotely. Many employees felt that they’ll need to choose between a combination of their families and wellbeing and being a part of Apple. [The Verge] [LinkedIn]
Sony’s Playstation 3 has experienced a breach that is resulting in large swaths of its remaining user base being banned from the console. The seventh generation console was reportedly breached after a file containing every user’s online console ID was left unsecured. Users have begun taking to online boards to voice their frustrations of receiving error codes while being unable to log into their consoles. US based Cybersecurity website Threatpost is reporting that threat actors have begun using the stolen PS3 console IDs for malicious purposes, resulting in bans against legitimate PS3 users. Sony has yet to address these concerns or confirm any connection between the PS3 ID breach and reports that their player base is being locked out. [Reddit]
And finally, following the dismissal of two antitrust lawsuits, Facebook has seen its stock prices leap, reaching the $1 trillion benchmark earlier this week for the first time. Facebook is the 5th U.S. based company to reach the milestone, and the youngest of the group to do so in just 17 years. The lawsuits were ultimately dropped after the FTC “failed to support its claims that Facebook held monopoly power” according to Business Insider. Facebook controls over 60% of the social-networking market, and has also been in hot water of late with the FTC over concerns regarding its purchases of Whatsapp and Instagram in a separate suit. Facebook’s stock has added nearly $600 billion since the beginning of the pandemic. [Reddit]
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