Fed official: SVB itself was main cause of bank's failure
The nationโs top financial regulator is asserting that Silicon Valley Bankโs own management was largely to blame for the bankโs failure earlier this month and says the Federal Reserve will review whether a 2018 law that weakened stricter bank rules also contributed to its collapse.
Fed official: Bank rules under review in wake of SVB failure
The Federal Reserveโs bank supervisors warned Silicon Valley Bankโs management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model, a top Fed official said Tuesday, but its managers failed to take the steps necessary to fix the problems.
Will the governmentโs moves to stabilize banks work?
Two large banks that cater to the tech industry have collapsed after a bank run, government agencies are taking emergency measures to backstop the financial system, and President Joe Biden is reassuring Americans that the money they have in banks is safe.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise to move headquarters to Texas
SPRING, Texas โ Tech giant Hewlett Packard Enterprise said it is moving its global headquarters to the Houston area from California, where the company's roots go back to the founding of Silicon Valley decades ago. Hewlett Packard Enterprise was created in 2015 when the computer hardware pioneer Hewlett-Packard Inc. broke into two parts after years of struggling to keep up with industry trends, such as consumersโ shift away from personal computers. The split left one new company, HPE, concentrated on the business of selling data center hardware and business software, while another new company, HP Inc., kept the legacy PC and printer operations. HP Inc. is still headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and remains the bigger of the two companies in terms of revenue. โWe are incredibly committed to Silicon Valley,โ he said.
Italian regulator investigates Google over digital ads
ROME โ Italian regulators opened an investigation Wednesday into Google over alleged abuse of its dominant role in the country's online ad market, adding to the global scrutiny that the Silicon Valley company is facing. Advertisers use these tools to determine how effective their ad campaigns are by measuring how many views and clicks an online ad gets. Reduced competition in the digital ad market could be bad for consumers, the authority said. Italy's online advertising market was worth more than 3.3 billion euros ($4.9 billion) last year, with display ad revenue accounting for 1.2 billion euros of the total, the authority said. Last year, EU regulators fined Google 1.49 billion euros for freezing out rivals in the online ad market.
Rising star in Detroit departs suddenly for Silicon Valley
The chief financial officer at General Motors, Dhivya Suryadevara, is trading Detroit for Silicon Valley in a surprise departure to join Jack Dorsey's startup, Stripe. She has helped the company strengthen our balance sheet, improve our cost structure, focus on cash generation and drive the right investments for our future. Stripe is maintaining a $2 billion balance sheet, more fortress-like than besieged, as so many major companies have become during the COVID-19 crisis. Adding to Stripes client roster this year alone are the companies Caviar, Coupa, Just Eat, Mattel, NBC, and Paid. I really enjoy leading complex, large-scale businesses and I hope to use my skills to help accelerate Stripes already steep growth trajectory.General Motors named John Stapleton, GM North America chief financial officer, as acting global chief financial officer, effective Saturday.
Quibi adds '60 Minutes' to growing roster of news partnerships
LOS ANGELES, Calif. - "60 Minutes" is the latest big name news brand to partner up with Quibi -- the upcoming and much-discussed short-form streaming service from Hollywood and Silicon Valley giants Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman. CBS News and Quibi on Tuesday announced a licensing agreement that will bring a new news show called "60 in 6" to the streaming service. Each episode of the weekly series will be six minutes in length and will include a "wide range of compelling stories," according to the network. The new ESPN Quibi show will feature "daily episodes and breaking news covering the biggest stories in sports," the network said Monday. Quibi, which stands for "Quick Bites," will offer videos that are 10 minutes or less in length and created for viewing on mobile phones.
Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg outlines plan to fight online extremism
Some of Silicon Valley's biggest companies announced Monday that they're revamping an organization they established to fight online extremism in order to allow it to work more extensively with outside parties. MENLO PARK, Calif. - Some of Silicon Valley's biggest companies announced Monday that they're revamping an organization they established to fight online extremism in order to allow it to work more extensively with outside parties. Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, spoke alongside Arden. Asked what Facebook could do about the spread of footage like that from the New Zealand attack on WhatsApp, Sandberg said it had used information from Facebook and Instagram to take action against some WhatsApp users. Amazon, LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft, and WhatsApp, owned by Facebook, will join the consortium of companies supporting the organization, GIFCT said Monday.
Google hit by DOJ demand for antitrust records
(CNN) - Google's parent company, Alphabet, has received a mandatory request for information from the Justice Department concerning the company's previous antitrust investigations, the tech giant said Friday. The compulsory request was received on August 30, the company said in a notice to investors, which also acknowledged a looming antitrust investigation by dozens of state attorneys general. "We continue to cooperate with the DOJ, federal and state regulators in the United States, and other regulators around the world," the company said in its filing. The filing did not specify what previous investigations the DOJ was seeking information on. Also on Friday, a group of nine attorneys general from eight states and the District of Columbia said they are launching an antitrust probe of Facebook.
Your first look at the end of 'Silicon Valley'
HBO via CNNHOLLYWOOD, Calif. - It's time to say goodbye to "Silicon Valley." But before the guys of Pied Piper log off, Richard (Thomas Middleditch) will find himself thrust into the spotlight, according to a new preview for the final season. Sitting before a committee grilling him the security of user data is far from Richard's most comfortable position. In fact, as one of his friends puts it in the sneak peek, "he looks like child in a messy custody hearing." "Silicon Valley" returns in October for its sixth and final season.
NASA's Apollo program kicked off Silicon Valley's tech revolution
CNN Video(CNN) - Silicon Valley, its visionaries like Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, and the entire tech revolution may not have happened without the Cold War space race. The Apollo program was the birthplace of the modern tech ecosystem, says Basil Hero, a former investigative reporter and media executive who authored the new book "The Mission of a Lifetime." "Without [Apollo], I don't think the computer revolution would have happened as quickly and on the same trajectory," Hero told CNN Business. Apollo, the startupNASA's Apollo program was the first-ever "moonshot." Microsoft's Bill Gates and Apple's Steve Jobs built off computing technology that NASA incubated during the Apollo era, Hero said.
GOP senator introduces bill to combat 'social media addiction'
The Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology Act -- or the SMART Act -- would ban practices frequently employed by top social networking sites to keep users engaged, like YouTube's "autoplay" feature or Snapchat's "snapstreaks." The bill comes as tech giants face mounting scrutiny in Washington over their handling of disinformation, hate speech and user data. Hawley's bill would give social media companies three months to eliminate what it deems "practices that exploit human psychology or brain physiology" -- autoplay, self-populating feeds and virtual awards linked to constant engagement with the platform. "This legislation will put an end to that and encourage true innovation by tech companies." One recent proposal seeks to make the federal government the arbiter of whether tech companies have treated user content equally and without partisan bias.
Google will build 15,000 Silicon Valley homes
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images(CNN) - Google is teaming up with an Australian developer to build $15 billion worth of homes, offices and retail space in the San Francisco Bay Area. The tie-up with Lendlease is part of Google's $1 billion pledge in June to help create more affordable housing options in the Bay Area. The tech giant committed land worth $750 million to building residential projects, as well as $250 million to encourage developers to build affordable housing. Silicon Valley, home to some of the world's biggest tech companies, has been grappling with a housing crisis for years. A shortage of affordable housing across the Bay Area is pushing out middle and low-income workers like teachers and restaurant employees.