May 20, 2022

Illustration: Jorg Greuel/Photodisc/Getty Images
Good morning! Tech companies are tightening their belts — except when it comes to stock, which they’re showering on their restive employees. That’s good news for workers, who will benefit when the market recovers, and also a sign that the cooling job market isn’t really all that cool. I’m Caitlin McGarry, and I firmly believe the best road trip snack is Smartfood white cheddar popcorn. Do not @ me.
The stock market is tanking, dragging tech stocks and my 401(k) down with it. This is bad news for, well, everyone, but it’s uniquely bad for tech workers, whose compensation packages include shares of their employers that are nowhere near as valuable as they were just a few months ago. Those workers are now clamoring for more shares to make up the difference — and many companies are handing them over.
Coinbase is the latest company to make up for cratering stock with, uh, more stock. The cryptocurrency trading outfit has been thoroughly screwed by the crypto crash and is reportedly cutting costs by freezing hiring for two weeks and putting new projects on ice.
Tech giants are also handing out stock grants to say “thanks” (and “please don’t quit”) to their employees.
The moves are designed to retain skittish employees. Ultimately, shareholders pay a price, since the shares issued to employees dilute their holdings, but if their portfolios recover, they probably won’t notice. And what really matters for tech companies is whether they can build compelling new products — and that requires people. The market for tech workers is cooling, but not that much (yet), and companies that lose talent will be forced to compete with rivals once the economic downturn eases. Stock grants are expensive, but starting from scratch? A nightmare.
Last chance to register! The DC Blockchain Summit is a one-day, premiere gathering of the most influential people who are focused on public policy action for digital asset and blockchain innovations. It will feature discussions with policymakers, innovators and technologists on the issues impacting the growing blockchain and cryptocurrency landscape. Special government rates available. See you on May 24th!
Y Combinator told portfolio founders to brace themselves:
And Mike Schroepfer thinks it's best to prepare for the worst:
YouTube star Logan Paul doesn’t like Elon Musk’s ideas about moderation:
Fastly bought Glitch, a web coding platform, for an undisclosed amount.
Krish Venkataraman is Socure’s new CFO. Venkataraman’s held the same role at KnowBe4, Dealogic and others.
Orit Kendal is Versapay’s new chief people officer. Kendal was previously LiveAction’s SVP of HR.
Jason Pielemeier is the Global Network Initiative's new executive director. Pielemeier replaces Judith Lichtenberg, who leaves the board next month.
Brian Roach is Red River’s new CEO. Roach is a former SAP North America exec.
Christofer Hoff joined LastPass as CTO and CSO. Hoff held security roles at Bank of America and Citadel.
Campbell Brown got promoted at Meta as head of a new global media partnerships team. Brown was Meta’s VP of News Partnerships.
Krishna Juvvadi is Binance.US’s new VP and head of Legal. He was Uber’s first regulatory attorney.
Twitter wants to take down misinformation in crisis situations, but implementing that policy could get messy.
Elon Musk offered to buy a flight attendant a horse in exchange for sexual acts, according to Insider. SpaceX paid the flight attendant not to talk about her claims.
Apple execs showed their AR/VR device to the board last week, which could indicate that the product is getting ready for take-off.
Stop talking about abortions on internal messaging boards, a Meta exec told employees yesterday.
Good-faith security research shouldn't be charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the DOJ decided. The act’s been controversial for a while now.
Twitter won’t renegotiate the price of Elon Musk’s deal, execs said during an internal meeting yesterday.
Lawmakers are eyeing big online ads businesses. They introduced a bill that would break up major digital ad exchanges from publisher- and advertiser-focused platforms.
Jack Sweeney rediscovered Mark Zuckerberg’s private jet. Meta hasn’t asked him to take it down from Twitter (yet).
It’s pretty common for people to have a to-do list each day. It’s less common for us to list out every minute of our day, but that’s the norm for VMware’s Sumit Dhawan.
Dhawan needs to plan his schedule this way. He meets with hundreds of customers each month, and he blocks out some time for merely getting things done, because if not, people would write in a meeting. If you ever feel like you’re in a time crunch, take his schedule as a template for getting through the day.
Last chance to register! The DC Blockchain Summit is a one-day, premiere gathering of the most influential people who are focused on public policy action for digital asset and blockchain innovations. It will feature discussions with policymakers, innovators and technologists on the issues impacting the growing blockchain and cryptocurrency landscape. Special government rates available. See you on May 24th!
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