Elon guts Twitter, Google shutters Hangouts, and the tech layoffs proceed • TechCrunch

Hey, all — welcome again to Week in Overview, the publication the place we sum up essentially the most learn TechCrunch tales from the previous week. And oof, what every week it was.

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Mass layoffs at Twitter: It was Elon’s first full week because the boss of Twitter post-$44 billion acquisition. Sweeping layoffs had been mentioned to be on the way in which — and, properly, they’ve begun. After a painfully impersonal heads-up e mail went out Thursday night, whole groups are waking as much as discover their entry immediately revoked. With experiences suggesting layoffs may impression as much as half the corporate, Twitter workers have reportedly taken to referring to the entire thing as “the snap” (à la Thanos). A category motion lawsuit has already been filed alleging that Twitter isn’t following the correct authorized processes right here.

Layoffs in every single place: In the meantime, information of tech business layoffs continues to pour in. Lyft let go of 13% of its workforce, Stripe reduce 14%, Opendoor lowered its workforce by 18%, Chime parted methods with 12%, and extra. In the meantime, each Apple and Amazon have reportedly gone into hiring freezes.

Google kills Hangouts: We knew it was coming, however this week Google put the ultimate nail in Hangouts’ coffin, shutting down the chat-focused internet app (the Hangouts Android/iOS apps had been shuttered final 12 months) in favor of Google Chat. In fact, given Google’s historical past with chat apps, I anticipate a minimum of two extra to be launched and/or shuttered by the point I end this article.

Falcon Heavy returns to area: This week SpaceX launched its Falcon Heavy rocket for the primary time since 2019, lastly shifting ahead on a mission that had been delayed (“as a consequence of payload readiness points”) since late 2020.

Amazon expands its Music service: “The corporate mentioned it’s going to now supply Prime subscribers a full music catalog with 100 million songs, as an alternative of the beforehand extra restricted number of simply 2 million songs,” writes Sarah, “and can make a lot of the high podcasts on its service accessible with out advertisements.”

audio roundup

Whats up in TC podcast land this week? Right here’s a few of the highlights:

• The Fairness crew chatted concerning the ever-evolving function of the enterprise capitalist, and our pal Melia Russell from Enterprise Insider stopped by to fill us in on her latest story about how “buyers are rewriting the playbooks with regards to maternity go away insurance policies at their companies.”
• Amanda joined Darrell on the TC Podcast to debate Elon’s “questionable plans” to alter up how identification verification works on Twitter
• The Chain Response crew dive into the rising checklist of troubles which have developed for Bitcoin miners in the previous few months.

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Not part of TechCrunch+ but? Right here’s what TC+ members had been studying most behind the paywall:

Pilot’s CEO tears down their $60 million Sequence C deck: Printed in early 2021, this one blew up for some cause this week! Only a few weeks after elevating an enormous Sequence C, Pilot CEO Waseem Daher sat down with Lucas Matney to interrupt down what labored about their pitch deck.

The commonest pitch deck errors: Talking of pitch decks, TC’s resident pitch knowledgeable, Haje Jan Kamps, has a listing of the errors he’s uninterested in seeing in decks, having reviewed 1000’s of them.