NEWS
summer edition
The bonuses will cost Microsoft about $200 million and are a gesture to show appreciation for efforts that employees made with customers and partners in the past year. At the end of the first quarter, the company had over $125 billion in cash, equivalents, and shortterm investments.
Verizon and Mastercard partner to bring 5G contactless payments Verizon and Mastercard announced a partnership focused on 5G contactless payments for consumers, as well as small and medium-sized businesses. They hope to have some innovations from the partnership by 2023.
Kathleen Hogan, Microsoft’s chief people officer, announced the news about bonuses in a message to employees, noting that the bonuses will go out in July or August 2021 to employees in the US and abroad, although Microsoft’s corporate vice presidents won’t receive them, nor will employees of Microsoft’s GitHub, LinkedIn, and Zenimax subsidiaries.
The collaboration aims to enable businesses to use emerging payment technologies to turn smartphones into cash registers, to turn wearables like watches as payment devices, and to facilitate touchless retail similar to Amazon Go stores. The partnership looks to further digitize and disrupt global consumer spending at retailers and other merchants, which the payments giant estimates to be around $50 trillion annually. “5G will enable the small-and-medium business to handle transactions more quickly and focus on what they are really delivering to customers,” noted Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg. “You can use 5G to create more frictionless ways of transacting with your customers and focus on your business. In the end, the way I look at it from our businesses, we’re building a long-term market for us to grow into.”
Vauxhall owner Stellantis to invest $35,5bn in electric vehicles The world’s fourth-biggest carmaker — Stellantis — which was formed in January from the merger of Italian-American firm Fiat Chrysler and France’s PSA, is gearing up to compete with electric vehicle leader Tesla and other big car manufacturers. It plans to invest at least $35,5 billion in vehicle electrification and new software/technologies through 2025. The company said it expects to have 55 electrified vehicles in the US and Europe by 2025. That includes 40 all-electric models and 15 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. It’s a different strategy from other automakers such as GM that has announced plans to eventually only offer all-electric vehicles. Stellantis said it would build at least five battery plants in Europe and the US to support its strategy.
Microsoft plans to give a $1500 pandemic bonus to employees worldwide Microsoft will give out $1500 bonuses to many of its employees after more than a year of impact from the coronavirus. The gesture is part of an effort by technology companies to keep employees happy during the pandemic and make sure they stick around while many are still away from offices.
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It has already announced two plants in France and Germany, and the third will be in Italy in Termoli. The company said it wanted to focus on keeping the vehicles affordable and sustainable. However, a spokesman declined to indicate what sort of prices Stellantis intended to charge for passenger cars. “This transformation period is a wonderful opportunity to reset the clock and start a new race,“ Stellantis chief executive Carlos Tavares said. “The group is at full speed on its electrification journey.“
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