Intel CEO says chip shortage could last until 2023

One of the leading voices in the semiconductor industry sees the chip-supply problems stretching as far as 2023.

It could take one or two years to get back to a reasonable supply-and-demand balance in the semiconductor industry, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal after the company posted second-quarter earnings on Thursday. "We have a long way to go yet," he said. "It just takes a long time to build [manufacturing] capacity." READ MORE

Identifying the root of employee underperformance

For most professionals, performance management evokes thoughts of feedback, weekly check-in’s, annual reviews and key performance indicators that measure productivity, efficiency and ability. While these activities and outcomes are important, they do not provide a clear story about what causes an employee to underperform or what intervention is best for improving the employee’s performance. READ MORE

SEC Rule 10b5-1: Trading Plans, Recent Lessons and Likely Reforms to Come

Last month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) released its 2021 regulatory agenda that included the affirmative defense provisions of Rule 10b5-1 among the areas in which the agency may take additional rulemaking action.1 This release followed an announcement by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler (“Gensler”) on June 7, 2021, that he had directed SEC staff to consider both tougher restrictions on securities trading by corporate insiders pursuant to Rule 10b5-1 trading plans and increased transparency for such trading. Gensler expressed his concern that abuse of Rule 10b5-1 plans has led to a gap in insider trading laws and undermines investor confidence in the markets. READ MORE

Parler Parler CEO: Big Tech's COVID censorship – it's so much worse than we thought

Over the past year, examples of Big Tech censorship have multiplied, particularly around the topic of COVID-19. Questioning the wisdom of forcing children to wear masks, or even sharing news articles that challenged social distancing rules were enough to engage the social media giants’ censors. Facebook, Twitter, and others flagged posts, blocked certain content, and even banned some users for daring to question the established positions. READ MORE

What it's really like to negotiate with ransomware attackers

The most critical moment in a ransomware negotiation usually comes long before the victim and the hackers discuss a price.

By the time the two sides start talking, the hackers have already gained significant control of a company's network, most likely securing access to sensitive account data, business contracts, and other key details of an organization. The more they steal, the greater the leverage they have. READ MORE

No Total Ban on Non-Competes Expected, Despite Biden Executive Order

A presidential executive order issued late Friday raised expectations among lawyers and recruiters that the federal government will soon make it harder for employers to enforce employment agreements’ non-compete provisions.

But that doesn’t mean the government will necessarily ban the tactics entirely, or drill down specifically on ones commonly used by firms in the advisory industry, including non-solicitation clauses. READ MORE

Authors of new book depict 'Facebook's dilemma and its ugly truth'

With scrutiny of Big Tech intensifying every single week, an ambitious new book is measuring Facebook's missteps and miseries. As the title indicates, it's not pretty.

"An Ugly Truth" is the name of the book, co-authored by Sheera Frenkel and Cecilia Kang, both of whom report for the NYT. The book comes out on Tuesday. As I perused an early copy, I was struck by the vastness of the story. Facebook is, as Kang and Frenkel write, an "unstoppable profit-making machine," affecting all of Earth, from the US to Myanmar. The authors have produced a valuable record of what went wrong, when, where, why, specifically in the last five years. READ MORE

Bill Gates was 'total a**hole' at Sun Valley...

Bill Gates opened up about his messy divorce at the exclusive Allen & Co. “summer camp for billionaires” last week in an “emotional” session that one attendee said had the Microsoft founder on the verge of tears.

During an “off the record” Q&A session that followed Gate’s talk on climate change, CNBC host Becky Quick asked the billionaire about his divorce from Melinda, his wife of 27 years, and the future of the Gates FoundationREAD MORE

Microsoft to acquire cybersecurity firm RiskIQ as cyber threats mount

Microsoft on Monday announced that it's buying cybersecurity firm RiskIQ to help companies better protect themselves as ransomware and other cyber attacks become increasingly disruptive.

Microsoft (MSFT) said the acquisition will help its customers address the unique risks created by remote work and relying on cloud computing amid "the increasing sophistication and frequency of cyberattacks." READ MORE

Broadcom in talks to buy software firm SAS

Broadcom Inc. is in talks to buy SAS Institute Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, in the latest move by the acquisitive technology giant to beef up in enterprise software.

A deal, which would value closely held SAS in the range of $15 billion to $20 billion, could be finalized in the coming weeks assuming the talks don’t fall apart, the people said. That number is so-called enterprise value, some of the people said, which typically includes assumed debt and is adjusted for cash on the target’s balance sheet. READ MORE

Barry Diller declares the movie industry dead, 'will never come back'

The coronavirus pandemic shut down movie theaters worldwide and there has been much debate about whether the industry will come back from its 15-month hibernation, but IAC Chairman Barry Diller seemed to lay the argument to rest Friday, telling NPR that the business as he knows it is dead. 

"The movie business is over," Diller told the news outlet at the Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference in Idaho. "The movie business as before is finished and will never come back." READ MORE

United Airlines CEO says travel won't fully recover until 2023 as business demand lags

Travel isn’t likely to recover in full from the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic until 2023 as business demand continues to lag, United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby said Sunday.

Kirby addressed the state of travel on CBS’ "Face the Nation," saying that while the pent-up leisure demand has exceeded 100 percent, business demand is still off by about 60 percent as some borders around the world remain closed. READ MORE

Jobs are hard to fill, and ideology makes it hard to understand why

Telling one story about why employers are struggling to hire workers doesn’t come close to explaining what is going on with the job market.

Economists expect Friday’s employment report to show that the economy added 706,000 jobs in June, a step up from May’s 559,000 and what would in normal times be a big number. These aren’t normal times, though. The U.S. is still 7.6 million jobs short of what it had before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, and earlier this year there were hopes that, as more Americans got vaccinated, the job market would be closing that gap far more quickly than it has. READ MORE

Cash-laden companies are on a mergers and acquisitions spree

Businesses spent $1.74 trillion on mergers and acquisitions involving U.S. companies during the first six months of the year—the highest amount in more than four decades—as finance chiefs tapped into cheap funding options to acquire technologies, services and other assets.

Such transactions surged in value in the first six months of the year, up from $511.79 billion during the year-ago period and $1.28 trillion in the first six months of 2019, before the pandemic, according to data provider Refinitiv, which began tracking deals in 1980. The total number of deals with U.S. involvement, at 9,725, also was higher than in comparable periods in 2020 and 2019, Refinitiv said. READ MORE