What happened in tech this week?
This week, we got a mixed bag of new jobs, rollercoaster earnings and a scuffle between two tech billionaires. But first, let’s take a trip down memory lane…
Paint is staying — for now. 🎨
At the start of the week, we woke to gasps after Microsoft released plans to ditch Paint after 32 years. Fans weren’t happy that the program, which has been around since the first version of Microsoft, was getting the boot. Luckily, the tech giant said it wasn’t erasing it completely — it would just live on the Microsoft Store for free.
Want a job? Amazon has thousands up for grabs. 🙋🏽
Amazon announced it would hold a bonanza of a hiring event dubbed “Amazon Jobs Day” on August 2. There will be 50,000 open positions with tens of thousands of these for full-time roles. What kinds of jobs you ask? Everything from packing and sorting through to managerial positions.
Jeff Bezos was the richest man in the world — for a moment. 💰
Cha-ching. The CEO of Amazon clipped past Microsoft founder Bill Gates after a surge in Amazon’s stock price on Thursday. His net worth surpassed $90 billion. By the end of the day after Amazon reported lackluster earnings, it had slipped back to $88.8 billion — about a billion behind Gates. The brief moment of glory caps off a big week for Bezos after Amazon hit a milestone of $500 billion in market value on Wednesday.
Can I get a retweet? 🐦
People are starting to stray from Twitter. The company took a tumble in its most recent quarter when its monthly user base fell from 70 million to 68 million in the U.S. And that’s not the only hiccup for the social networking service. Revenues also dropped 5% from the same period a year earlier.
More jobs are coming to Wisconsin. 🇺🇸
Wisconsin — say hello to 3,000 new jobs. Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn is set to open a $10 billion manufacturing plant for LCD panels in Wisconsin by 2020. Foxconn makes electronics for the big guys in tech including Apple, Microsoft and HP. President Donald Trump said during his campaign he would “get Apple to build their damn computers and things“ in the U.S.
And more one thing: ever wondered what it’s like when two tech billionaires clash? 💥
That’s exactly what happened when Tesla’s Elon Musk called Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg’s understanding of artificial intelligence “limited” on Twitter. Oof.
Were you keeping up with the news this week? Take our weekly quiz here.
