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Under Jon Gruden, the Raiders are disappearing into a statistical black hole

A sputtering offense and a bad defense is causing the Raiders to be outscored by nearly eight points per game after adjusting for strength of schedule.




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NFL Week 7 ATS picks: The Rams’ play-action will be too much for the 49ers’ defense to stop

Goff is using play-action more often than any other quarterback in 2018.




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Colts RB Marlon Mack is your top waiver wire priority for Week 8

Mack carried the ball 19 times for 126 yards and a touchdown and added two catches for 33 yards and a touchdown on Sunday against the Bills.




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LeBron James has never faced a challenge like winning with these Lakers

The Lakers rank near the bottom of the league in three-point percentage after three games and spreading out around the arc will not work for this team. Couple that with a fast pace and James's age and there are real concerns to address in L.A.




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A World Series win would place 2018 Red Sox among MLB’s best teams ever

Since 1969, only 12 teams have recorded baseball’s best record and gone on to win a championship that same year. Just seven of those 12 won 108 or more games during the regular season. The Red Sox are two wins away from joining that elite company.




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Best bets for the 2018 Breeders’ Cup Classic don’t include Accelerate

This year’s Classic, a 1¼-mile race for 3-year-olds and up, will be held at Churchill Downs and features several strong entrants.




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Four long shots for Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup races

Favorites have won 99 of 318 races (31 percent) in the Breeders’ Cup.




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Week 10 waiver wire: A reborn running back and a magical QB highlight top options

The dismissal of coach Hue Jackson seems to have given Duke Johnson Jr. new life with the Browns.




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New Coach Mike Budenholzer has the Milwaukee Bucks ahead of schedule

Milwaukee has embraced the modern NBA.




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NL rookie of the year race between Juan Soto, Ronald Acuna Jr. is impossibly tight

The Braves' Acuna appears to be a runaway winner right now, but a closer look shows Soto had a tremendous impact on the Nationals.




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Bryce Harper and Manny Machado are going to get PAID. Machado should get paid more.

Harper has had one spectacular season — earning him a unanimous MVP award in 2015 — surrounded by some very good but not great years. Machado, on the other hand, projects more favorably and doesn't carry a significant liability.




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Fantasy Football start/sit tips Week 13: Backup running backs take center stage

If you were relying on Jaguars running back Leonard Fournette to help you this week you’re going to need a back up plan.




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The wild NFC East will largely shape crowded conference playoff race

Here’s what we know for sure about the NFC playoff picture: the Saints, Rams and Bears can make postseason plans. The rest is up for grabs.




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Packers are your best play in eliminator and survivor pools for Week 13

This week’s opponent, the Arizona Cardinals, gives Aaron Rodgers and the Packers a great chance to break their losing skid.




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Week 14 waiver wire tips: Pass-catching back, defense with weak schedule are available

The Ravens' Ty Montgomery figures to take on a larger share of the workload in Baltimore over the remainder of the season.




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Alex Ovechkin is putting Wayne Gretzky’s untouchable goal-scoring record within reach

If the Great Eight tops the 50-goal mark in 2018-19 he becomes only the fourth player in NHL history to have at least two such campaigns after the age of 30. While Gretzky's goal scoring started to slow in his 30s, Ovechkin is still going strong.




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Week 14 NFL betting tips: The Cowboys' potential surges while the Packers’ fades

Meanwhile there's not much value left in division title futures, with the Los Angeles Rams (-15000), New Orleans Saints (-3300) and New England Patriots (-5000) are all huge favorites to win their respective divisions.




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A blockbuster Facebook office deal is a make-or-break moment for the future of commercial real estate. 3 leasing experts lay out the stakes.

  • Facebook has been in negotiations for months to lease over 700,000 square feet at the Farley Building on Manhattan's West Side. 
  • Office leasing activity in the city has plummeted, giving the blockbuster deal even more importance as a sign of life in a suddenly lethargic market.
  • The coronavirus has spurred a deep downturn in the economy that is already being felt in the city's commercial real-estate market, prompting a big slowdown in leasing activity.  
  • The rapid expansion of tech in recent years has propelled the city's office market. Real estate execs say that Facebook's big deal is a key barometer. 
  • The crisis also raises questions whether tenants will ever occupy office space the same way as companies and their workforces around the world grow familiar with remote work. 
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Leasing activity in New York City's multi-billion-dollar commercial office market has dropped precipitously as the coronavirus has battered the market and raised questions of when — and even if — tenants can return to the workplace in a post-Covid world.

Amid the growing concerns the crisis will smother what had been robust demand for office space, eyes in the city's real estate industry have turned to a pending blockbuster deal on the West Side that could offer a signal of confidence to the market.

Facebook is in talks to take over 700,000 square feet of space in the Farley Building, a block-long property across Eighth Avenue from Penn Station.

"If that deal happens, then this market will be just fine," said Peter Riguardi, the New York area chairman and president of JLL. "If the deal happens but it's renegotiated, it will be fine, but it will be a trend that every tenant can follow. And if it doesn't happen, I would be very concerned about the market."

Read More: Inside the drama over control of the iconic Chrysler Building: A real-estate tycoon and a prestigious college are renegotiating a critical $150 million deal.

Facebook's NYC real-estate footprint

Last year, Facebook signed on for 1.5 million square feet in the Hudson Yards mega-development just west of the Farley Building, taking space in three new office towers at the project.

For months the $600 billion Silicon Valley-based social media giant has been in negotiations for even more space at the nearby Farley Building, whose interior landlord Vornado Realty Trust is redeveloping to include newly built office and retail space.

Vornado had originally expected to complete the deal with Facebook in early March, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. The talks have continued on as the virus pandemic has brought commerce and social life to a virtual halt. The source expected the lease, which will commit Facebook to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in rent for the space over the life of the lease, to soon be completed.

In a conference call with investors and analysts on Tuesday to discuss Vornado's first-quarter earnings, the company's CEO Steve Roth also hinted that the Facebook deal was still on track.

"There's another large tenant that has been rumored to be that we've been in dialogue with," Roth said, not directly naming the company. "That conversation is going forward aggressively and hopefully maybe even almost complete."

Rapid growth in Big Tech leasing before coronavirus

Recent real-estate decisions by Facebook and other tech companies have worried real-estate executives that they may reconsider their footprint after years of dramatic growth. Facebook on Thursday revealed that the bulk of its over 40,000-person workforce will be asked to work remotely for the remainder of the year, a timeline that appears to show the company is using caution in returning to its footprint.

Read More: Neiman Marcus just filed for bankruptcy, and it could mark a major blow to NYC's glitzy Hudson Yards — one of the most expensive mega-malls in US history. Here's why.

Real-estate executives have expressed concern that tenants may become accustomed to offloading a portion or even the bulk of their workforce to a remote-working model, leading them to drastically reduce their office commitments.

At a minimum, the economic upheaval has appeared to spur a newfound sense of caution in tech companies that have grown rapidly in recent years. Alphabet called off negotiations to expand its San Francisco offices by over 2 million square feet in recent weeks, according to a report from The Information.  

Tech has been a big driver of demand for office space

In recent years the tech industry had become one of the most voracious takers of space in the city, helping to push up commercial rents and spur the construction of new office space.

In 2019, tech firms accounted for 24.5% of the 31.6 million square feet of leasing activity in Manhattan, eclipsing the financial industry as the city's biggest space-taking sector for the first time, according to data from the real estate services and brokerage firm CBRE.

In 2010 tech leasing comprised just 4% of the 24.2 million square feet that was leased in the Manhattan market that year, CBRE said.

"Nothing has buoyed the confidence of landlords more in recent years than tech tenants," said Sacha Zarba, a leasing executive at CBRE who specializes in working with tech firms. "It didn't matter where your building was. If it was attractive to tech, you would stand a good chance to lease your space. If that industry retrenches a bit, it removes a big driver of demand."

The Manhattan office market has slowed rapidly in recent weeks as the virus crisis has battered the economy and shut down daily life.

About 844,000 square feet of space was leased in Manhattan in April, according to CBRE, 64% lower than the five-year monthly average. In the first four months of the year, nearly seven million square feet was leased, a decline of 30% for the same period a year ago. 

So far, however, there are signs that tech continues to snap up space.

After scuttling plans to develop a 25,000 person second headquarters space in Long Island City last year, Amazon purchased 424 Fifth Avenue, a former flagship department store for Lord & Taylor, for nearly $1 billion in March. That property totals about 660,000 square feet. Late last year, before the pandemic hit U.S. shores but had flared in China, Amazon also leased 335,000 square feet at 410 Tenth Avenue.

The commitments of major tech companies absorb millions of square feet in the city, but they also help fuel a larger ecosystem of tenants that occupies an even larger footprint. That means that a decrease in the real estate of just a few big tech players could be multiplied across the market as smaller players in the sector follow suit.

"Those big tech firms do a fantastic job of training and credentialing tech talent on the city," said Matt Harrigan, a co-founder of Company, a space incubator at 335 Madison Avenue that provides offices and community for both startups and more established tech firms. "Google and Facebook spin off talent who start or join other tech ventures that take space. That's what's so important about having the large presence of those companies here."

Have a tip? Contact Daniel Geiger at dgeiger@businessinsider.com or via encrypted messaging app Signal at +1 (646) 352-2884, or Twitter DM at @dangeiger79. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

SEE ALSO: What to expect when you're back in the office: 7 real-estate experts break down what the transition will look like, and why the workplace may never be the same

SEE ALSO: Major tenants are delaying big leases in NYC as they re-think their office space needs for the post-coronavirus world

SEE ALSO: As WeWork and flex-space rivals stumble, 18 million square feet of space in NYC is at risk. Here's what that means for the real-estate market.

SEE ALSO: BI Prime Edit in Viking Neiman Marcus just filed for bankruptcy, and it could mark a major blow to NYC's glitzy Hudson Yards — one of the most expensive mega-malls in US history. Here's why.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: We tested a machine that brews beer at the push of a button




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These 19 enterprise tech companies are still hiring during the coronavirus crisis — including AWS, Slack, Box, and Okta

  • Business Insider surveyed enterprise technology companies to determine who's still hiring amid the coronavirus pandemic.
  • Companies like Amazon Web Services, Slack, Okta, Box, and Zoom are actively hiring, while others like Microsoft, Google, and SAP have slowed hiring to prioritize recruiting in key areas.
  • Below is a list of 19 enterprise tech companies that are hiring, and the types of roles they are trying to fill.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As companies across industries slow or stop hiring amid the public health and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus, Business Insider surveyed enterprise technology companies to find out who is still hiring, and the types of roles they're trying to fill.

The results include companies actively hiring — such as Amazon Web Services, Slack, Okta, Box, and Zoom — while others like Microsoft, Google, and SAP have slowed hiring to prioritize recruiting in key areas.

Responses come directly from companies, but be aware that hiring alone may not paint a complete picture of what's going on at each one. VMware, for example, told Business Insider that it's hiring, particularly in a few key areas related to its cloud business — but also told employees in an internal memo that it was freezing all salaries.

Oracle, Nvidia, and Palo Alto Networks declined to comment on whether they are still hiring. Workday, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Stripe, Qualcomm and HP did not reply to requests for more information.

Here are 19 enterprise companies still hiring in some form amid the pandemic, and what they're looking for:

Amazon Web Services is actively hiring, with no hiring freezes in place, the company says. Amazon at large has more than 20,000 job postings in US corporate roles.

 

 

 



Slack is "actively hiring," in a range of positions including engineers, data scientists, designers and customer experience experts, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

The company has moved to a virtual hiring process – all interviews are conducted over video and onboarding happens remotely.

Slack has 213 open positions listed on its website at the time of this writing.



Box is "currently hiring," a spokesperson said, across roles in engineering, sales, marketing, customer success, finance, compliance, business operations, product and product design.

Box's website listed 76 open jobs at the time of this writing.

In additional to moving interviews online, the company has introduced new practices like virtual coffee chats with candidates and videos from employees to learn more about Box's culture. For new hires, the company has switched start dates to once per month and started a buddy system to help with onboarding.

 



Zoom is hiring across the US and internationally for positions including in sales, engineering, legal, and security.

"We did have an extremely ambitious hiring goal already for this year," Lynne Oldham, Zoom's chief people officer, recently told Business Insider. "So where we're seeing additional need is around the places that we touch the customer."

The company had 81 open positions listed on its website as of this writing.



DocuSign "has moved forward with its hiring as previously planned," a spokesperson said, and is hiring in roles across customer services, sales and business development, engineering and IT, marketing, finance, legal, and workplace teams.

The company is also continuing its internship program virtually and plans to bring on more than 100 interns this summer.

DocuSign had 338 positions listed on its careers website as of this writing.



Dell-owned VMware is still hiring, a spokesperson said, and has "hundreds of open roles across R&D, IT, sales, customer services and support, marketing, finance, HR, legal, and business administration."

But the company is also freezing salaries and suspending retirement matching, according to a memo obtained by Business Insider. A spokesperson confirmed that "there have been a number of cost management changes impacting the VMware workforce."

VMware interviews take place virtually.



Microsoft has frozen hiring for some roles, citing uncertainty related to the coronavirus crisis.

"We continue to seek industry-leading talent in a range of disciplines as we continue to invest in certain strategic areas," a Microsoft spokesperson told Business Insider last month. "However, in light of the uncertainties presented by COVID-19, we are temporarily pausing recruitment for other roles."

Microsoft declined to provide more information about for which positions it's still hiring, and which roles are seeing a pause in hiring.

Microsoft's subsidiaries include LinkedIn and GitHub.



German software giant SAP is still hiring in essential areas, but has pledged to reduce hiring and discretionary spending as "precautionary measures" during the pandemic.

The company "will continue to hire carefully selected people into roles that will rapidly contribute to our competitive edge,"a spokesperson said, which it said include in "essential areas" such as innovation, and research and development. 

SAP said its candidate selection has remained the same, but the interviews are conducted virtually. New hires are onboarded virtually and sent SAP-issued equipment to their private addresses so they don't have to go to the office.



Google is slowing down hiring for the remainder of the year, CEO Sundar Pichai told the company in an email seen by Business insider.

Pichai said the company is enacting a hiring freeze on all but a select few "strategic areas" for the remainder of 2020. He wrote in the email that the company needed to "carefully prioritize" recruiting employees to serve its "greatest user and business needs."



Dell Technologies is not "hiring broadly," but subsidiary companies like VMware and Secureworks still are, a Dell spokesperson told Business Insider.

Dell Technologies is still continuing its early-in-career programs and summer internships, although they've become remote. 

"We are constantly evolving our hiring strategy based on business needs," the spokesperson said.



Okta is still actively hiring, Okta's chief people officer Kristina Johnson confirmed to Business Insider.

"We're continuously evaluating what we need as a business during this time, listening to customers, and tailoring our hiring plans to meet those needs," Johnson said. "Okta is in a unique position during this uncertain time in that we had the right infrastructure in place from the get-go to make remote work and remote on-boarding fairly routine."

Okta's main hiring focus areas are in customer service, engineering, and sales, Johnson said. 



Dropbox has temporarily halted its recruiting efforts to figure out the process for onboarding people remotely.

"What we actually ended up doing was we took a pause to just take stock of our onboarding and our approach to onboarding because we wanted to make sure that we weren't bringing people on and that they actually weren't effectively able to onboard," Dropbox COO Olivia Nottebohm told Business Insider.

It's still hiring but has slowed down, only hiring for targeted roles, meaning it's up to managers to hire for key, business critical roles.

"We're trying to just be prudent and nd not get ahead of ourselves given the macro environment that we're in, but we are moving forward to hiring targeted roles," Nottebohm said.

While Dropbox plans to honor pending offers and ongoing interview processes, interviews for new applicants have been put on hold. The college internship program will also take place in the summer remotely.

"Fully remote recruiting and onboarding into a new company comes with unique challenges — bringing new hires into Dropbox takes a great deal of collaboration between many teams, including hiring managers, learning and development, IT, benefits, and recruiting," a Dropbox spokesperson told Business Insider.  

"In order to ensure we're onboarding new hires effectively and managing the strain on these teams during the shelter-in-place orders in effect across the globe, we've paused recruiting efforts temporarily," the spokesperson added.  



In April, ServiceNow promised not to lay off any of its 11,000 employees and also said it plans to keep hiring worldwide this year.

"With this new no layoffs pledge for its 11,000-plus global workforce, ServiceNow continues to take a leading role in how technology companies are responding to this health crisis by helping its own employees and customers get through these challenging and uncertain times," Shane Driggers, vice president of Global Talent Acquisition at ServiceNow, said in a statement to Business Insider.

The company expects to create and fill more than 1,000 new jobs in the US and more worldwide by the end of the year, Driggers says.

"We are leaning into hiring for engineering and sales roles as well as other functions across the business," Driggers said.



Splunk is still hiring for a number of positions across the organization, a spokesperson told Business Insider. Open roles include positions in engineering, sales, finance, accounting, and information technology.



Square is still hiring and focusing on roles like software engineering, data science, product design, sales, marketing, operations, and finance, a spokesperson told Business Insider.

"We are continuing to hire in the US and internationally, focusing on roles that we believe will be the most important to our customers and our business in the coming months," a Square spokesperson said. 

Currently, Square has over 100 open roles. 



Twilio is still hiring across the board and not slowing down, a company spokesperson told Business Insider. There are still open roles in engineering, services, sales, product, and more.



Intel has slowed down external hiring, a spokesperson said. "We have slowed external hiring, but we currently have approximately 1000 open positions that we are actively hiring for."

 

 



Atlassian is still hiring across the board, a spokesperson confirmed. This past March was its strongest month of hiring in its history, the company said, as it brought on about 200 new hires. At the end of March, Atlassian had 4,457 employees.



Zendesk is still hiring roles that are "key to our business," but "deprioritizing" the ones that are not as critical.

Zendesk is still hiring roles that are "key to our business," but "deprioritizing" the ones that are not as critical, a Zendesk spokesperson said.

"In response to the global COVID-19 pandemic, Zendesk has been focused on helping our employees, customers, and community at large navigate their immediate needs and plan for the future in this new world," the spokesperson told Business Insider.

The spokesperson said that Zendesk is continuously looking at how to manage its operations to become more efficient and productive, while minimizing disruption to customers. 

"This is standard for all businesses that are looking at their immediate and long-term strategies in order to position themselves for growth," the spokesperson said. "We believe in the strength of our business and our employees, and the resiliency of our customer base, and are in a good position to weather this crisis and emerge as a better, stronger company."






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Softbank-backed delivery startup Rappi is testing out robots for contactless delivery — take a look

  • Colombian delivery app Rappi is testing pilot robot deliveries in Colombia.
  • Rappi operates in several Latin American countries, and last year SoftBank invested one billion dollars into the startup.
  • Deliveries are made using Kiwibot, a delivery robot from a Colombian owned company in California.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Colombian delivery app Rappi is yet another company turning to robots to reduce reliance on human workers during the coronavirus pandemic. 

In addition to Colombia, Rappi operates in Mexico, Peru, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina, and Brazil. Last spring, SoftBank invested $1 billion — one-fifth of its Innovation Fund for Latin America — in the startup. It was founded in 2015, and other investors include Sequoia Capital, Andreesen Horowitz, and Y Combinator.

Colombia is currently under a lockdown set to end in May, though it may be extended again. Earlier this month, Bloomberg reported on the lack of coronavirus testing throughout Latin America, making it difficult to assess how widespread the virus is in the region.

Like in other countries, the Colombian delivery app is using robots to complete orders at a time when people are at risk of catching the virus from interacting with others. So far, the robots are part of a pilot in Medellin, with potential to expand.

Here's what it looks like. 

SEE ALSO: Nonprofits, truck drivers, food banks, and others are turning to a little-known Google Maps feature to navigate life amid the coronavirus pandemic

Rappi is using robots for deliveries in Medellin, the capital of Colombia.



Typically, Rappi works similarly to GrubHub or DoorDash, with delivery drivers picking up orders and bringing them to customers' doors.



As the coronavirus spread between people, options for contactless delivery became more popular.



Deliveries in the pilot program use Kiwibot robots, from a California company with a Medellin office.



The four-wheeled delivery robots have orange flags to call attention from walkers, drivers, and bikers.



Customers stuck at home because of the coronavirus can order and pay for meals digitally, and then last mile delivery is completed by the robots.



Robots can carry deliveries up to five square inches in size, and are disinfected between orders.

Source: The Star



Kiwibots have a stereo camera system to sense its surroundings as it moves.



The sensor system allows it to react to lights and obstacles.



Kiwibots are equipped with corner recognition, which allows them to create safe paths on sidewalks.



Kiwibot emphasized its robots ability to "seamlessly mesh into the fabric of urban landscapes," with technology like street crossing mode.

Source: Kiwibot



Rappi says it completes about 120 deliveries each day with the 15 robots in the pilot area.

Source: The Star



It plans to run the program until July, and then potentially expand to other cities.



Kiwibots have previously been used for deliveries at colleges including UC Berkeley, and Kiwibot says it has made more than 30,000 deliveries since it started in 2017.

Source: The New York Times






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Silicon Valley VCs have a new obsession that perfectly captures the grave danger facing startups : How long is your 'runway'?

Startups are facing what could become the worst economic downturn in several decades, and VCs are begging them to take drastic measures to improve their chances of making it through. 

Most Americans who lived through the 2008 financial crisis will know that a savings stockpile or rainy day fund can mean the difference between surviving and thriving during tough times, but as recent studies have shown, many tech startups and VC firms don't have a similar first-hand experience; many have only known boom times and are now venturing into uncharted waters.

One thing VCs agree on is that startups need to quickly rein in growth plans — ideally as soon as yesterday — and start scrutinizing expenses. Anything nonessential should be cut or suspended indefinitely, headcount should be reduced, and pricey office leases eliminated if possible, all with the goal of extending a startup's "runway."

In Silicon Valley, runway refers to how much cash a startup has on hand to put against its operating expenses. If, for example, a startup has roughly $100,000 in monthly operating expenses and has $1 million in the bank, they are looking at a 10-month runway, assuming revenue stays roughly flat.

In the days before the coronavirus pandemic, a startup's runway dictated when it had to start looking for additional funding. Instead of cutting expenses, the popular solution was to simply put more VC money in the bank. This helped high flying startups like Uber and Airbnb expand at a breakneck pace — VC dollars kept pouring in and the companies remained unprofitable as they chased growth at all costs.

But now, VCs are saying that's no longer an option. Founders Fund general partner Keith Rabois said on a podcast recently that profitability is now being rewarded much more than high-growth. 

For startups that aren't profitable, that means hunkering down and ensuring there are enough reserves to last through the crisis.

So how long does the runway need to be? 

Many VCs that Business Insider has spoken to are advising their startups to have at least 18 months of runway. But some VCs say startups should have upwards of 3 years' of expenses saved up. 

The length of time can vary depending on the startup, one investor told Business Insider, pointing to the startup's age and industry as important factors. An early-stage company with a handful of employees and low-overhead costs might easily stretch a $500,000 seed check, whereas a growth-stage biotech startup with hundreds of employees, expensive hardware, and pricey office space might struggle to make tens of millions of dollars in funding make it through 12 months. Those that can't cut costs will be forced to fundraise with poor terms and risk the dreaded downround

"You can always easily dial back up the aggressiveness and risk profile if we get more optimistic visibility, but if you don't take action right away — to preserve capital, cut your burn rate, have fundamentally attractive unit economics, edit the product to make more sense in the new world order — if you don't do those right away, the opportunity to do those things and survive is probably lost forever," Rabois said in the April Talkshow broadcast.

Rabois is in the camp of pessimists, generally speaking, who think the economic downturn will not only drag on through 2020, but could eventually turn into an economic depression the likes of which could rival the Great Depression of the 1930s. He said that his VC peers are starting to rein in the freewheeling deal-making that has defined the last two decades of the Silicon Valley startup ecosystem, and are now treading cautiously. It's time that startups do the same, he said.

SEE ALSO: Lower valuations and a long wait for funding: Two top early-stage VCs dish on how they are counseling startups to withstand long-term economic uncertainty

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Pathologists debunk 13 coronavirus myths




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Dock workers in Belgium are wearing monitoring bracelets that enforce social distancing — here's how they work

  • Dockworkers in Belgium are wearing bracelets to enforce social distancing.
  • The bracelets were already used to detect if someone fell into the water, but now they will sound an alarm if workers get to close to each other.
  • Manufacturers say there is no privacy issue and the bracelets don't track workers' locations, despite concerns.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Quarantine and social distancing are going high-tech as countries and companies embrace wearables. In Antwerp, Belgium, dockworkers are instructed to wear bracelets that enforce social distancing rules while they work.

Europe, where more than 100,000 people have died from COVID-19, is slowly starting to reopen in some places. Stay at home orders are expiring in many countries, while nonessential travel has stopped across the EU, and countries look towards the summer to anticipate what kind of travel might be possible. 

People are beginning to go back to work, which in some sectors means inevitable close contact, especially in many essential jobs. Social distancing bracelets in Belgium are one idea bing tested to see what the future of work might look like after coronavirus.

Here's how it works. 

SEE ALSO: People arriving in Hong Kong must wear tracking bracelets for 2 weeks or face jail time. Here's how they work.

The black, plastic bracelets are worn on the wrist like a watch.



They're made by Belgian company Rombit, which says that they are "a fully integrated personal safety and security device, specifically designed for highly industrial environments."

Source: Romware



Rombit already made bracelets useful in the port setting, which could be used to call for help if a worker fell into the water or another accident occurred.



Europe is slowly starting to go back to work, but fears of a second wave are making officials cautious.



Contact tracing is one solution being explored around the world, and the manufacturers of the bracelet believe it could also be used for contact tracing.

Source: The Associated Press



European health guidances say to wash hands, wear masks, and keep at least 1.5 meters, or about five feet, apart.



When two workers are less than five feet apart, the bracelets will sound warnings.



Rombit CEO John Baekelmans told Reuters that the bracelets won't allow companies to track employees' locations, because the devices are only connected to each other. He says there is no central server.

Source: Reuters



Workers in the control tower will be the first to test the bracelets early this month.



Then, the Port of Antwerp will likely expand the devices to tug boat workers.



Baekelmans told Reuters that Rombit already had hundreds of requests in 99 countries, and is hoping to ramp up production to 25,000 in a few weeks.






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Facebook's fight against coronavirus misinformation could boost pressure on the company to get more aggressive in removing other falsehoods spreading across the social network (FB)

  • Facebook is taking a harder line on misinformation related to coronavirus than it has on other health topics in the past.
  • This decision may increase the pressure on the company to act more decisively against other forms of harmful falsehoods that spread on its social networks.
  • Facebook is banning events that promote flouting lockdown protests, and is removing the conspiracy theory video "Plandemic."
  • But false claims that vaccines are dangerous still proliferate on Facebook — even though they contribute to the deaths of children.

Amid the pandemic, Facebook is taking a harder line on misinformation than it has in the past. That decision may come back to haunt it.

As coronavirus has wreaked havoc across the globe, forcing lockdowns and disrupting economies, false information and hoaxes have spread like wildfire on social media. Miracle cures, intentional disinformation about government policies, and wild claims that Bill Gates orchestrated the entire health crisis abound.

In the past, Facebook has been heavily criticised for failing to take action to stop its platform being used to facilitate the spread of misinformation. To be sure, coronavirus falsehoods are still easily found on Facebook — but the company has taken more decisive action than in previous years:

But Facebook's actions to combat COVID-19 misinformation may backfire — in the sense that it has the potential to dramatically increase pressure on the company to take stronger action against other forms of misinformation.

The company has long struggled with how to handle fake news and hoaxes; historically, its approach is not to delete them, but to try to artificially stifle their reach via algorithmic tweaks. Despite this, pseudoscience, anti-government conspiracy theories, and other falsehoods still abound on the social network.

Facebook has now demonstrated that it is willing to take more decisive action on misinformation, when the stakes are high enough. Its critics may subsequently ask why it is so reticent to combat the issue when it causes harm in other areas — particularly around other medical misinformation.

One expected defence for Facebook? That it is focused on taking down content that causes "imminent harm," and while COVID-19 misinformation falls into that category, lots of other sorts of falsehoods don't.

However, using "imminence" as the barometer of acceptability is dubious: Vaccine denialism directly results in the deaths of babies and children. That this harm isn't "imminent" doesn't make it any less dangerous — but, for now, such material is freely posted on Facebook.

Far-right conspiracy theories like Pizzagate, and more recent, Qanon, have also spread on Facebook — stoking baseless fears of shadowy cabals secretly controlling the government. These theories don't intrinsically incite harm, but have been linked to multiple acts of violence, from a Pizzagate believer firing his weapon in a pizza parlour to the Qanon-linked killing of a Gambino crime boss. (Earlier this week, Facebook did take down some popular QAnon pages — but for breaking its rules on fake profiles, rather than disinformation.)

And Facebook is still full of groups rallying against 5G technology, making evidence-free claims about its health effects (and now, sometimes linking it to coronavirus in a messy web). These posts exist on a continuum, with believers at the extreme end attempting to burn down radio towers and assault technicians; Facebook does take down such incitements to violence, but the more general fearmongering that can act as a gateway to more extreme action remains.

This week, Facebook announced the first 20 members of its Oversight Board — a "Supreme Court"-style entity that will review reports from users make rulings as to what objectionable content is and isn't allowed on Facebook and Instagram, with — in theory — the power to overrule the company. It remains to be seen whether its decisions may affect the company's approach for misinformation, and it still needs to appoint the rest of its members and get up and running.

For now, limits remain in place as to what Facebook will countenance in its fight against coronavirus-specific misinformation.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company would immediately take down posts advertising dangerous false cures to COVID-19, like drinking bleach. It is "obviously going to create imminent harm," he said in March. "That is just in a completely different class of content than the back-and-forth accusations a candidate might make in an election."

But in April, President Donald Trump suggested that people might try injecting a "disinfectant" as a cure, which both has the potential to be extremely harmful, and will not cure coronavirus.

Facebook is not taking down video of his comments.

Do you work at Facebook? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.

SEE ALSO: Facebook announced the first 20 members of its oversight board that will decide what controversial content is allowed on Facebook and Instagram

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Meet the 10 Oracle execs backing CEO Safra Catz and founder Larry Ellison in the tech giant's cloud offensive against Amazon, Microsoft, and Google (ORCL)

  • Oracle's bid to become a bigger player in the cloud has become more aggressive in the COVID-19 crisis, highlighted by a new partnership with Zoom.
  • The tech giant is up against stronger rivals led by Amazon, Microsoft and Google, but the need for more cloud capacity sparked by the sudden pivot to remote work has created opportunities for the Silicon Valley behemoth.
  • Here are the 10 Oracle executives who are playing key roles in CEO Safra Catz and founder Larry Ellison bold cloud offensive.
  • Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Oracle has been through some jarring changes in the last seven months. 

The tech giant lost a well-regarded and experienced co-CEO when Mark Hurd died in October after taking leave for health reasons, leaving Safra Catz as the solo CEO. Now, like other major tech companies, Oracle is grappling with the impact of the coronavirus crisis.

But Oracle has been through tough times in its 43-year history. In fact, the Silicon Valley giant has been known to seize opportunities during rough spots. It's already seen some success during this crisis, too: Oracle just scored a big win when videoconferencing company Zoom — suddenly facing a surge in demand — chose to expand on Oracle Cloud, instead of other platforms like top cloud provider Amazon. Oracle is generally considered a smaller player in the cloud wars, behind giants Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Alibaba.

Yes, Oracle still has a long way to go to match its rivals' reach, but its strategy of expanding its capacity by building more data centers seems to be paying off, IDC President Crawford Del Prete told Business Insider.

That increased capacity and Oracle's "world class" applications are key in the cloud words, Del Prete said: "Oracle is one of the few companies able to deliver both at scale in order to compete."

While Catz and founder, executive chairman, and chief technology officer Larry Ellison the lead company, they're also relying on key top executives, including cloud veterans from rival Amazon, to advance Oracle's cloud strategy. 

Nearly all are white men, something Oracle has criticized for in the past: Over 30 members of Congress slammed the company late last year about the lack of diversity in its leadership team and on its board.

Meet the 10 top executives playing important roles in Oracle's cloud offensive:

SEE ALSO: Oracle is known for making bold M&A moves in a recession and it's sitting on a fresh $20 billion. Here are the 7 companies experts think it could acquire as the coronavirus crisis drives down valuations

SEE ALSO: Experts lay out five moves that Oracle founder Larry Ellison, one of tech's best tacticians, might take in a coronavirus-driven downturn

Don Johnson left Amazon to focus on Oracle's cloud infrastructure.

Title: Executive vice president, cloud infrastructure

Reports to: Larry Ellison

Johnson  played a key role in Amazon's dramatic expansion in the cloud before joining Oracle in 2014.

He was instrumental in setting up Oracle's cloud engineering development center in Seattle and in the tech giant's expanding data center footprint.  Johnson has also led another major Oracle initiative: forming a cloud partnership with Microsoft.

 



Oracle's chief corporate architect Edward Screven has been with the company since 1986.

Title: Chief corporate architect

Reports to: Larry Ellison

Screven is an Oracle veteran who helped lead the company through all of the major industry changes of the past 30 years.

He admits that cloud market-leader Amazon had a head start, but says that there are benefits to following it. 

"We definitely started after Amazon: The bad news is they have market share, the good news is we get to learn a lot," he told Business Insider in an interview in May 2019. "Mindshare, that may be their biggest asset. But there is no technology they have that is concerning to me at all."

As one of Oracle's top technologists, he's focused on making Oracle's cloud infrastructure more secure, with more sophisticated and efficient ways to manage data. 

"We have hundreds of thousands of customers that store their most important data in Oracle databases," Screven said. "We could do a far better job for them than any other cloud provider. We are doing a far better job for them."

 



Clay Magouyrk leads cloud infrastructure engineering and played a key role in forging Oracle's new alliance with Zoom.

Title: Executive vice president, cloud infrastructure engineering

Reports to: Don Johnson

Magouyrk is another veteran of Amazon Web Services who joined the Oracle team in Seattle in 2014. 

He was Oracle's point-man in forging its new partnership with Zoom, which was seen as a major victory for Oracle.

"They needed capacity," Magouyrk told Business Insider last month "They reached out to us and we were like, 'Awesome, we can work with you.' Within a day, we had their application up and running."

Magouyrk was a founding team member of Oracle's cloud engineering development center in Seattle, which is spearheading the company's cloud infrastructure efforts.

 



Ariel Kelman left Amazon Web Services to become Oracle's chief marketing officer.

Title: Chief Marketing Officer

Reports to: Safra Catz

One of the biggest hurdles for Oracle is the public perception that it's a minor player in the cloud. In other words, it's a marketing problem.

This is where Kelman comes in. Before Oracle brought him on board in January 2020, Kelman led rival Amazon's cloud marketing efforts, and served as a marketing executive at Salesforce for six years before that.

"Ariel is a super smart hire for Oracle," analyst Ray Wang of Constellation Research told Business Insider. "He brings the cred in the market and understands how to counter all of Amazon's tactics and long-term strategy. He has the ear of Larry and Safra and is making progress with some great hires on his team."



Juergen Lindner left SAP to lead Oracle's software-as-a-service marketing strategy.

Title: Senior vice president, software-as-a-service marketing

Reports to: Ariel Kelman, chief marketing officer

Lindner spent most of his career helping SAP outsell Oracle in the traditional business software market: both dominated teh market for software installed in private data centers. 

He switched sides and roles four years ago to support Oracle's bid to become a stronger player in cloud software, also referred to as software-as-a-service, where businesses access applications through cloud platforms and pay via a subscription, usually based on the number of users granted access. 

Lindner has said it became clear to him that Oracle had a better strategy for the cloud-software era.

"Oracle has architected a very sustainable cloud infrastructure and applications strategy," he told Business Insider last year.



Steve Daheb left Citrix to lead Oracle's cloud marketing strategy.

Title: Senior vice president, cloud go-to-market

Reports to: Ashley Hart, senior vice president, global marketing cloud platform and database

Daheb joined Oracle in 2015 after serving as the chief marketing officer of Citrix, a cloud pioneer that first let businesses set up computing networks on web-based platforms instead of on-premise data centers, leading to dramatic IT cost savings.

Daheb witnessed the unexpected rise of Amazon in cloud computing, which began in the early : 2000s when the online retail giant realized it could make some extra money by giving businesses access to its massive but underutilized computing infrastructure, hosted from its data centers.

"Amazon had spare computing resources to rent out," he told Business Insider last year. "It's like, 'Hey, man, I got an extra room in the house during the summer when it's not spike retail time. There's nobody in there, so why don't I put this thing on Airbnb and see if anybody wants it?'"

Amazon Web Services has led the industry ever since. 

Like others on the Oracle team, Daheb thinks the software giant's technology and track record of working with major players across industries will eventually propel it to the front of the cloud pack.

"There's a level of understanding we have and a level of empathy we have for enterprise users: We serve the major banks, we serve transportation, we serve healthcare," he said. "We brought this enterprise mentality to it."



Juan Loaiza, who has been with Oracle since 1988, is in charge of mission-critical database technologies.

Title: Executive vice president, mission-critical database technologies

Reports to: Larry Ellison

Loaiza is another Oracle veteran who has been with the company for more than 30 years and is currently focused on its bid to expand the reach of its flagship database product.

The tech giant's cloud-based automated data-management platform Autonomous Database uses machine learning to quickly repair and update itself.Loaiza has compared the status of this fairly new initiative to the development of the self-driving car:

"It took a long time to get to a point where we are now and say, 'The next step is a self-driving car,'" he told Business Insider last year. "It's got to be safe. It has to have seatbelts and airbags and a navigation system. All that stuff was necessary before you take it to the next stage." 

The database is ready for that next stage. 



Jason Williamson left Amazon to lead Oracle's outreach to startups.

Title: Vice president, Oracle for Startups

Reports to: Mamei Sun, Ellison's chief of staff

Startups have played an important role in the growth of cloud computing and Oracle has launched a big push to establish closer ties with these smaller companies, given that they could eventually become the biggest power players. 

Williamson has been the company's point-man in this effort, as he develops ways to make Oracle's products and services more accessible to startups.

Williamson is another veteran of Amazon Web Services where he led the cloud giant's private-equity team before joining Oracle in 2017.

 



Evan Goldberg cofounded NetSuite, which is now part of Oracle.

Title: Executive vice president, NetSuite

Reports to: Safra Catz

Goldberg is part of the elite club of Oracle alums who went on to launch successful enterprise-software companies. (Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff is perhaps the best-known.)

Goldberg left a long career at Oracle in the late 1990s to launch NetSuite, a cloud-based provider of financial- and accounting-management services. He was the chief technology officer alongside CEO Zach Nelson, another Oracle alum, and Ellison was actually one of their early backers.

Oracle acquired the company in 2016 and it now has more than 18,000 customers. 



Steve Miranda has been with Oracle since 1992 and leads cloud-applications development.

Title: Executive vice president, applications product development

Reports to: Ellison

Miranda is an Oracle veteran in charge of different aspects of the company's cloud-software business, including product development and strategy.

This covers applications used for major business operations, like supply-chain management, human resources, and enterprise performance management.






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Blackstone's real-estate dealmakers; the investment banker of the future

 

 

Welcome to Wall Street Insider, where we take you behind the scenes of the finance team's biggest scoops and deep dives from the past week. 

If you aren't yet a subscriber to Wall Street Insider, you can sign up here.

For certain corners of Wall Street, dealmaking is happening faster than ever. While M&A activity has plunged, bankers primed to help companies navigate the financial fallout, especially restructuring and debt-raising specialists, have been crushed with demand.

Alex Morrell took a look at how top bankers — known for putting in long hours curating a white-glove experience for clients — are finding they can still provide service from afar. It turns out, when you take away the time spent at airports and restaurants, and when Zoom calls can be arranged in minutes, things can move at lightning speed. 

Read the full story here: 

'Stunning efficiency': How remote dealmaking could mean a permanent lifestyle change for some bankers

Meanwhile, it's been a tale of two approaches to job cuts in recent days. On Tuesday, Airbnb CEO and cofounder Brian Chesky emailed staff about sweeping layoffs that were impacting 1,900 people, highlighting where the company will focus in the future and what exit packages employees should expect. You can read the full email here

Over at WeWork, things have been rolling out gradually. Meghan Morris and Dakin Campbell wrote about a leaked WeWork document that revealed a huge reorg under way for people who manage its buildings. Here's how the new structure works — and the complex process for staff to save their jobs. Alex Nicoll and Meghan also reported that Flatiron School has slashed at least 100 jobs, building on their scoop last week that WeWork started making cuts in several key departments, with IT alone losing some 200 jobs. 

Keep reading for a preview of changes in store for Bloomberg terminals, a rundown of Blackstone's giant commercial real estate business, and a look at how PIMCO stocked up with $5.5 billion for private-credit strategies since the beginning of the year.

Have a safe and healthy weekend, 

Meredith 


Inside Blackstone's massive CRE business

Blackstone is the largest commercial real-estate investor in the world, with $160 billion in investor capital. Alex Nicoll chatted with Blackstone real estate's three heads of acquisition, and its head of debt origination, to learn more about their business. 

They spoke about some of their most interesting deals, and why Blackstone's global scale and thematic investing style is a huge advantage. 

Read the full story here: 

Meet the 4 dealmakers driving Blackstone's $325 billion commercial real estate portfolio. They walked us through how they're thinking about opportunities in the downturn.


A Facebook office deal is a key test 

The coronavirus crisis has thrown into question whether tenants will ever occupy office space the same way again as companies and workforces around the world grow accustomed to remote work.

Facebook has been in negotiations for months to lease over 700,000 square feet at the Farley Building on Manhattan's West Side. The rapid expansion of tech in recent years has propelled the city's office market, and Dan Geiger spoke with real-estate execs who laid out why Facebook's deal is a key barometer. 

Read the full story here:

A blockbuster Facebook office deal is a make-or-break moment for the future of commercial real estate. 3 leasing experts lay out the stakes.


Coming soon to a terminal near you

As remote work becomes a long-term reality, a technology staple of Wall Street is in store for a makeover. Mark Flatman, global head of core terminal at Bloomberg, told Dan DeFrancesco that the financial technology giant is considering ways to revamp its ubiquitous terminal.

One particular area of focus for Flatman and his team has been screen space, as many customers aren't working with the typical four-screen display. Another area that has gotten increased attention is mobile, where usage has jumped. 

Read the full story here: 

Bloomberg is eyeing big changes to its iconic terminals to make work-from-home easier. The exec leading its strategy laid out how he's rethinking screen space and mobile features.


A new pile of cash for private credit

Industry observers expect a surge in interest in specialized credit shops that have proven to be winners in distressed situations. And Bradley Saacks revealed how PIMCO has tapped into that demand, with sources saying that the fixed-income giant has raised $5.5 billion in private-credit strategies since the beginning of the year.

PIMCO's nearly $4 billion Tactical Opportunities fund lost roughly 15% in March, but was able to avoid forced selling, sources tell Business Insider, and even added to positions in the month. That fund alone has raised $250 million — and is just one of several private-credit funds that PIMCO has raised money for.

Read the full story here: 

PIMCO has raised $5.5 billion for private-credit funds despite a hellacious March — and is telling investors it's the best opportunity in a decade


A tax break for big companies with heavy debt

As Michael Rapoport writes, a tax break for debt-ladened companies, part of the CARES Act enacted in March, cuts their tax bills by allowing them to deduct more of the interest they pay on their debt. 

But some tax experts are concerned that the tax break is too indiscriminate: In addition to helping troubled companies, they say, boosting tax deductions on interest payments is going to give a lift to companies that aren't being hurt by the pandemic, or whose problems have nothing to do with the coronavirus. 

Read the full story here:

A $13 billion tax break tucked into the coronavirus stimulus plan will save some big companies tens of millions — even if they aren't ailing. Here's how it works and who could benefit.


On the move

Dakin Campbell reported that Goldman Sachs has hired the distressed-situations and bankruptcy expert Kurt Hoffman as a managing director in a business that handles one-off loans for clients. The move comes just as industries battered by the economic shutdown are in need of emergency financing. 


Investing and hedge funds

Careers

Real estate 

Fintech and e-commerce

 

Join the conversation about this story »

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Goldman Sachs is going through a huge transformation under CEO David Solomon

  • The storied investment bank is seeing leadership shakeups under CEO David Solomon and a slew of partner departures. 
  • Goldman has been moving away from high-risk businesses like trading and is making pushes into more stable areas like consumer lending, wealth management, and transaction banking. 
  • There have been big cultural changes, too. Solomon is looking to create a more transparent workplace, while new tech execs are taking cues from Silicon Valley heavy-hitters. 
  • At Business Insider, we are closely tracking the latest developments at Goldman. You can read all of our Goldman coverage on BI Prime.

Storied Wall Street bank Goldman Sachs is going through some massive changes under CEO David Solomon.

It's taken big steps involving transparency and inclusion to change up its culture. It has seen a slew of partner departures — many in the securities division. And it's making big pushes into businesses like wealth management and transaction banking.  

The latest people moves

Culture and talent

Coronavirus response

Consumer push, transaction banking, wealth management

Technology

Trading

Alternatives

Deals

Investor day 2020

Careers 

 

Join the conversation about this story »

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Elon Musk says Tesla will 'immediately' leave California after coronavirus shutdowns forced the company to close its main car factory (TSLA)

  • Elon Musk says Tesla may leave its Palo Alto headquarters and Fremont, California factory. 
  • In a tweet Saturday morning, the chief executive continued his outrage against shelter-in-place orders that have forced most non-essential businesses to close. 
  • Last week, Musk likened the rules to fascism, and urged leaders to "give people their goddamn freedom back." 
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

After a week of decrying coronavirus shelter-in-place orders that have left Tesla's main factory shuttered and unable to produce vehicles, Elon Musk says the company may move its factory out of the state.

"Tesla is filing a lawsuit against Alameda County immediately," the chief executive said on Twitter Saturday morning. "The unelected & ignorant 'Interim Health Officer' of Alameda is acting contrary to the Governor, the President, our Constitutional freedoms & just plain common sense!"

That was followed up with a threat to move Tesla's headquarters outside the state.

"Frankly, this is the final straw," he replied. "Tesla will now move its HQ and future programs to Texas/Nevada immediately. If we even retain Fremont manufacturing activity at all, it will be dependent on how Tesla is treated in the future. Tesla is the last carmaker left in CA."

It wasn't immediately clear if a suit had yet been filed, or in which court Tesla will file the lawsuit. Most state and federal courts are closed on weekends and do not allow filing. In a subsequent Tweet, Musk alsourged shareholders to file a class action suit for damages caused by shutdown. 

Tesla's press relations department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Alameda County did not immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Alameda County — the East Bay locale which includes Fremont, California, and Tesla's gigafactory about 30 miles southeast of San Francisco — extended its shelter-in-place order on April 29 "until further notice." Local authorities have not allowed Tesla to reopen the factory, and all manufacturing remains prohibited under the order.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Tesla was planning to resume some manufacturing operations at the factory as soon as last Wednesday, May 6. Local officials said it did not have permission to do so.

"Right now, the same health order is in place so nothing has changed," Fremont Police Department spokeswoman Geneva Bosques told Business Insider at the time. "Operating the assembly line was determined early on to be a violation."

Last week, following Tesla's first-quarter earnings announcement, Musk decried the shutdowns as a substantial risk to the company's financials.

"Frankly, I would call it forcible imprisoning of people in their homes against all of, their constitutional rights, in my opinion," he said on a conference call. "It's breaking people's freedoms in ways that are horrible and wrong and not why they came to America or built this country. What the f---. Excuse me. Outrage. Outrage."

"If somebody wants to stay in their house, that's great and they should be able to," he continued. "But to say they cannot leave their house and that they will be arrested if they do, that's fascist. That is not democratic — this is not freedom. Give people back their goddamn freedom."

Some states, including Texas, Georgia, and others, have begun to slowly allow certain businesses to re-open in recent weeks.

Musk praised counties neighboring Alameda, like San Joaquin for what he said were more "reasonable" responses. In a podcast released May 7, he told Joe Rogan that the company had learned from the coronavirus in China, where it briefly forced Tesla to close its Shanghai factory — a claim he repeated on Twitter Saturday. 

"Our castings foundry and other faculties in San Joaquin have been working 24/7 this entire time with no ill effects. Same with Giga Nevada," Musk said. "Tesla knows far more about what needs to be done to be safe through our Tesla China factory experience than an (unelected) interim junior official in Alameda County." 

As Musk began to complain about factory shutdowns in April, workers at Tesla's Fremont factory told Business Insider that the comments made them anxious.

"I'm for going back to work, but only if it is safe for me, my family, coworkers," said one production employee. "I don't feel like I'm being forced to stay home or that my freedom has been taken away. It's for the good of California."

Join the conversation about this story »

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John Cusack apologizes for anti-Semitic tweet — after defending why he posted it

In a string of tweets, the actor apologized for retweeting an anti-Semitic meme.




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Actor Adam Scott and Sen. Mitch McConnell’s social media team are in a Twitter fight

The actor responded unfavorably to a tweet by McConnell's campaign, and the beef didn't stop there.




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‘Real Housewives of Potomac’ star Ashley Darby welcomes a son

The reality TV star wrote that she and her husband, real estate developer Michael Darby, are "savoring every moment."




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Alyssa Milano faces backlash for supporting a Marianne Williamson fundraiser: ‘I know. I know.’

The "Charmed" actress defended her decision to help raise money for the controversial Democratic candidate, saying Williamson is addressing the "soulful ache of the nation."




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After Nicki Minaj backs out of concert in Saudi Arabia, Janet Jackson, 50 Cent and others join lineup

Human rights advocates have urged artists not to perform in the country because of its dismal human rights record.




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Trump pledges to help ASAP Rocky as rapper’s detention in Sweden approaches its third week

The rapper was arrested earlier this month after an altercation in Stockholm.




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Which politician actually said that Ruth Bader Ginsburg would be dead soon?

The 86-year-old Supreme Court Justice repeated a regular clap back she's reserved for those who've counted her out. She isn't going anywhere.




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During the Mueller hearing, the hallway was really the place to be

Outside the committee room Wednesday, several lawmakers got to see and be seen.




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Trump sends envoy for hostage affairs to Sweden ‘on a mission’ to bring back A$AP Rocky

The president wants the rapper, who is accused of assault, returned to the United States.




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Mario Lopez criticized for saying it’s ‘dangerous’ for parents to accept their young kids as transgender

The “Saved by the Bell” star later apologized for stirring controversy in a resurfaced interview with conservative Candace Owens.




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Kacey Musgraves, the rare country singer to address gun control, says ‘hold your politicians accountable’

The musician pointed out that she hails from Texas and is familiar with hunting and gun culture, but she said the recent tragedies deserve a different response.




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Sean Spicer’s casting on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ draws backlash — including from the show’s host

Tom Bergeron tweeted that he thought the producers had agreed the show should be “free of inevitably divisive bookings from ANY party affiliations.”




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In response to Taylor Swift’s advocacy, Kellyanne Conway starts singing one of her songs

Swift called on the White House to respond to her petition in support of the Equality Act, which would explicitly outlaw discrimination based on gender and sexual orientation.




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Laura Ingraham’s brother is attacking her after she compared Greta Thunberg to the ‘Children of the Corn’

“Clearly my sister’s paycheck is more important than the world her three adopted kids will inherit,” Curtis Ingraham wrote on Twitter.




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James Comey and Trump will face off again in new miniseries starring Jeff Daniels and Brendan Gleeson

The CBS Studios show will be based on the former FBI director's best-selling memoir.




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‘Why do guys feel so threatened by the idea of a woman president?’ Warren-backing John Legend wonders

Sen. Elizabeth Warren embraced her latest celebrity endorsements. "Looking forward to the day @chrissyteigen doesn't have to fight with the president of the United States on Twitter," she said.




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Donald Trump Jr. and Kimberly Guilfoyle face a barrage of tough questions on ‘The View’

During a somewhat combative episode, Megan McCain asked the president's son about the "pain" his family has caused.




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Drag queen Pissi Myles causes a stir with unexpected appearance at the impeachment hearings

Myles stole the show with a towering blonde wig and shiny red mini-dress.




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Alyssa Milano on why she went to Trump’s impeachment trial, and how Schiff’s presentation was like ‘watching a one-man show’

The actress and activist wants to encourage the public to get involved because “showing up is participating in how this all works.”




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Democracy is under attack. But how to protect it while Trump is in the White House?

Review of 'Ill Winds" by Larry Diamond and 'The Democracy Fix' by Caroline Fredrickson.




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How to become an ex-black man

Review of 'Self-Portrait in Black and White: Unlearning Race' by Thomas Chatterton Williams




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Cruise Packing Tips

Discover the 9 most important packaging tips for your next cruise. The things you need to think about, what to take and also what you should and can leave behind on your cruising vacation, and why. In this I also look at what you should be packing and taking in your hand luggage and check in bags, and why. These are the 9 most important things you need to prepare and do when packing for your next cruise. I cover topics that include what clothes to bring, bathroom essentials, electronics, allowances and exclusions by the cruise lines and essentials for your cabin to make the cruise more enjoyable and run smoothly.




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9 Top Cruise Hacks, Tricks And Tips For 2019 / 2020

I reveal my top and best cruise hacks, tips and tricks that will help you make the most of your cruising vacation in 2019 and 2020. These cruising tips are things that I have learnt to help me get better cruise fares, save money on board a cruise ship, pack better and smarter, find the best cabin, find and save money on excursions and lots more. These are all proven and should help you. Enjoy these cruising hacks, tips and tricks.

** Subscribe to my channel: http://bit.ly/TFT_YouTube2
** Buy one of my unique Cruise T-shirts: http://bit.ly/TFTStore
** Get great cruise deals via CRUISEDIRECT.COM: http://bit.ly/TFTBookCruise

Gary Bembridge's Tips For Travellers aims to help you make more of your precious travel time and money on land and when cruising the oceans or rivers of the world. To help you, in every video I draw on my first-hand tips and advice from travelling every month for over 20 years and 60+ cruises.

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- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/garybembridge
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