Bulletins

CES 2022 looks doomed as Google, GM, Lenovo and Waymo pull out

Following those cancellations, CES organizers still put on a brave face.

CES 2022 looks doomed as Google, GM, Lenovo and Waymo pull out

After going all virtual in 2021, CTA had planned CES 2022 as a hybrid event.

Image: CES/Zoom/Protocol

More companies are pulling out of CES over health concerns: Both GM and Google announced Thursday afternoon that they were canceling their in-person presence at the trade show. Lenovo announced Wednesday that it won’t be participating in the show anymore, followed by a similar announcement from Alphabet-owned Waymo.


GM's plans had included the unveiling of the company's new Silverado EV during a keynote of CEO Mary Barra, which the company now plans to do during an online-only version of Barra's keynote.

Lenovo cited the pandemic as the reason for pulling out of the show, which begins Jan. 5. “CES UPDATE: After closely monitoring the current trends surrounding COVID, it is in the best interest of the health and safety of our employees, customers, partners, and our communities to suspend all on-site activity in Las Vegas,” the company said in a tweet.

"The safety and wellbeing of our team is our top priority, so based on quickly evolving COVID infection rates, Waymo has made the tough decision not to participate in person at CES’22," the self-driving car company tweeted Thursday. "We are aiming to still virtually participate in some CES-related events."

Intel announced Thursday that it would "move to a digital-first [...] experience with minimal on-site staff," and Hisense told Protocol that it canceled its in-person keynote, but will still have a booth at the show. This follows similar announcements from AT&T, Amazon, Meta, Pinterest, TikTok, Twitter and others, as well as news that T-Mobile CEO Mike Sievert canceled his keynote speech, with the telco also announcing that “vast majority” of its team wouldn’t be attending in person.

Most of the companies pointed to health and safety concerns as the reason for pulling the plug. Amazon, for instance, said that the company and its Ring subsidiary wold “no longer have an on-site presence at CES" due to "the quickly shifting situation and uncertainty around the omicron variant,” while TikTok simply pointed to “the increase in positive COVID-19 cases across the country.”

iHeartMedia announced this week that it was canceling its popular CES party; MediaLink pulled the plug on its CES events, which in prior years had been must-attend events for media insiders. A large number of tech media outlets, including the Verge, CNET, Engadget and TechCrunch, also announced that they wouldn’t send any reporters to Las Vegas. (Protocol will be covering the show remotely as well.)

Following those cancellations, CES organizers still put on a brave face. In a statement to the Verge, the Consumer Technology Association pointed to the fact that it had only received 42 exhibitor cancellations thus far. “Registrations for both our digital access and our Las Vegas event are continuing to show strong momentum, with thousands more registrations in the last few days,” the group said.

After going all virtual in 2021, CTA had planned CES 2022 as a hybrid event, with a digital component accompanying the in-person trade show and conference programming. To keep attendees and exhibitors safe, CES is requiring proof of vaccination for any in-person attendance. CTA also announced that attendees must provide a negative COVID test result to enter the show, and that it will pass out free rapid tests to attendees.

Still, a looming winter COVID surge and international travel restrictions already stopped many companies from attending even before omicron became a major threat. Ford, Haier and its GE Appliances subsidiary as well as GoPro were among the companies that never signed on to the show to begin with.

Others began scaling back their CES plans weeks ago: TCL switched its keynote to a virtual format. Samsung, whose show floor presence had long been a major CES magnet, attracting thousands of onlookers, opted to make its booth open by invitation only.

Creative Strategies President Carolina Milanesi pointed out on Twitter this week that it is a lot harder for smaller companies to bow out of CES. “It's a much bigger investment for them with less flexibility to take a hit by dropping out,” she said. Some nonetheless announced this week that they decided to skip the show.

EV charger manufacturer JuiceBar, which was scheduled to show off a new product, canceled its in-person plans Wednesday. “CES is by far the most influential tech event in the world,” the company wrote on LinkedIn. “But with COVID-19 cases continuing to rise, we are prioritizing the health and safety of our employees and other attendees.”

Update: This post was updated Dec. 13 multiple times with details on GM's, Waymo's, Hisense's and Intel's plans for the show, and again Dec. 27 to include more information on Hisense's presence at the show.

Latest Bulletins

Mobile game revenue will decline for the first time in history this year, market research firm Newzoo now says in a revised outlook for the 2022 global games market. While the whole game industry is expected to contract by 4.3% — another first since Newzoo began tracking the market in 2007 — the company is predicting a 6.4% decline in mobile game spending on top of a 4.2% decline in console game spending.

Keep ReadingShow less

Amazon is planning to lay off thousands of employees, Protocol has learned, ahead of what the company has cautioned will be a slow holiday shopping season.

Keep ReadingShow less

Google agreed to pay $391.5 million and make changes to its user privacy controls as part of a settlement with a coalition of 40 state attorneys general. The coalition accused Google of misleading customers about location-tracking practices that informed ad targeting.

Keep ReadingShow less

FTX has filed for bankruptcy and the crypto company also announced that founder Sam Bankman-Fried has resigned as CEO.

Keep ReadingShow less

Salesforce recently updated its internal policies to make it easier for managers to terminate employees for performance issues without HR involvement, Protocol has learned, a move that comes as the software giant looks to shed as many as 2,500 jobs.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said fraud and scam reports comprise the top complaint it receives about virtual currencies — and that customers are finding little help from companies when it happens.

Keep ReadingShow less

Elon Musk sent his first email to Twitter staff late Wednesday, warning of a difficult economic road ahead and telling employees they need to be in office for a minimum of 40 hours per week. "Sorry that this is my first email to the whole company, but there is no way to sugarcoat the message," he began, ominously.

Keep ReadingShow less

Binance isn’t buying FTX after all. The crypto giant said Wednesday it has decided that it “will not pursue the potential acquisition” based on a “corporate due diligence” review.

Keep ReadingShow less

On Wednesday, John Kerry unveiled a plan for a new carbon credit program aimed at mobilizing private capital to help middle-income countries transition away from coal and move toward renewable energy.

Keep ReadingShow less

Meta announced it was laying off more than 11,000 employees Wednesday morning, slashing jobs in its recruiting department and refocusing its remaining team on AI discovery, ads, and its investment in the metaverse.

"I want to take accountability for these decisions and for how we got here," Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a message to employees that was also posted online. "I know this is tough for everyone, and I’m especially sorry to those impacted."

Keep ReadingShow less

Al Gore has one mission this week at COP27, and that’s to give climate negotiators what he hopes will be a critical tool to address the crisis at hand: an independent, global inventory of greenhouse gas emissions, down to the individual facility.

The Climate TRACE coalition just released the world’s most detailed inventory of global greenhouse gas emissions, which Gore, a founding member, is unveiling on Wednesday at the United Nations climate summit in Egypt.

Keep ReadingShow less

Way back in March, your friendly Protocol Climate team offered you some tips for writing a climate plan that doesn’t suck. Surely you took that advice. But if for some reason you didn’t, the United Nations has your back.

Keep ReadingShow less

Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao said Tuesday the crypto powerhouse signed a deal to acquire rival FTX.

Keep ReadingShow less

Salesforce is preparing for a major round of layoffs that could affect as many as 2,500 workers across the software vendor, Protocol has learned, in a bid to cut costs amid a new activist investor challenge and harsh economic conditions.

Keep ReadingShow less

BlockFi has introduced a new digital assets interest product for accredited investors, after previously agreeing to shut down a yield-paying crypto product that the SEC said was illegal.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Justice Department said Monday it seized $3.4 billion worth of bitcoin stolen in the 2012 hack of the Silk Road dark web marketplace.

Keep ReadingShow less

U.S. election infrastructure is exceedingly secure, and voter fraud here is so rare it’s comparable to your annual chances of getting struck by lightning. Despite this, former President Donald Trump and a long list of allies in the Republican Party have spent the last two years questioning the overall integrity of the U.S. election system. Many of those allies are now candidates themselves, and their coordinated attack on the country’s status as a democracy is not a relic of 2020. Some have already started repeating these “Big Lie” charges ahead of next week’s midterms. And the social platforms that help them spread their message have prepared few measures to stop it.

Keep ReadingShow less

The White House just laid out its climate tech priorities to reach net zero by 2050.

Keep ReadingShow less

Coinbase said Thursday that it lost more users in the third quarter. But the decline wasn’t the disastrous drop that Wall Street was expecting, and that sparked a rally in the crypto company’s shares after-hours.

Keep ReadingShow less

The Biden administration announced $9 billion in funding Wednesday to improve home efficiency, which could help support the installation of up to 500,000 heat pumps. With winter approaching and utilities warning of gas shortages, there are some major challenges facing the technology that money can be used to tackle.

Keep ReadingShow less

Block beat earnings expectations, with strong growth largely fueled by its Cash App business. Traders sent shares up more than 12% after-hours Thursday.

Keep ReadingShow less

Stripe is laying off 14% of its staff, its co-founders said Thursday, as the fintech startup must start "building differently for leaner times."

Keep ReadingShow less

Roku saw its revenue growth slow in Q3, and warned investors Wednesday that things are about to get worse: “A lot of Q4 ad campaigns are being canceled,” said Roku CEO Anthony Wood during the company’s Q4 earnings call. “We’re seeing lots of big categories pull back. Telecom, insurance … even toy marketers are planning on reducing their spending.”

Keep ReadingShow less

Green jobs and corporate climate pledges abound, but skilled sustainability professionals are scarce.

Keep ReadingShow less

Robinhood reported a drop in third-quarter revenue but also a narrower loss on Wednesday, in a sign that it might be stabilizing its business as it attempts to recover from a staggering drop in the stock and crypto trading activity that fueled its growth.

Keep ReadingShow less
Bulletins