In a message to employees Wednesday morning, CEO and co-founder Zach Perret said the San Francisco-based company had hired aggressively due to an influx of new customers and increased product usage by existing customers. He now admits the hires came “ahead of revenue growth,” adding that “the current economic slowdown has meant that this revenue growth did not materialize as quickly as expected.” (The Logic)
London-based Bluebell Capital Partners is calling for BlackRock CEO Larry Fink to step down, arguing he has taken an inconsistent approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies, putting clients’ investments at risk. Bluebell also accused BlackRock of imposing its “ideological beliefs on the corporate world,” inspiring pushback to the ESG investing movement. (The Logic)
The Quebec City-based company will work with General Motors dealers to put its Level 2 EV chargers in locations like workplaces, multi-unit dwellings, event venues, colleges and universities in the U.S. and Canada. They will mostly be built in Michigan and the company’s Quebec plant will provide support. (The Logic)
The Victoria-based Bitcoin company, which made headlines in 2021 for its involvement in El Salvador’s efforts to make the cryptocurrency legal tender and a funding round that valued the company at US$3.2 billion, is seeking new funding at a valuation that may be below US$1 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter. (Bloomberg)
Legislation from Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota would have followed Australia’s and Canada’s lead by requiring companies like Meta and Google to negotiate payment deals for news organizations that produce content linked from the platforms. The language is not in the final version of the defence-spending bill the Senate had shoehorned it into, released Tuesday night. (The Washington Post)
Inflation was still high in October, the bank said in announcing its decision to keep making borrowing more expensive. That’s despite its rapid interest-rate hikes since the start of 2022—from 0.25 per cent to 4.25 per cent now. (The Logic)
The European Data Protection Board (EDPB) said Tuesday it had ruled on three cases involving whether Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp can require users to accept behavioural advertising based on personal information the platforms gather to offer their services. Sources told The Wall Street Journal the group decided the three Meta services can’t. (The Logic, Wall Street Journal)
The Toronto-based crypto-buying platform launched a dashboard Tuesday tracking key data points like weekly trading volumes, a record of all the crypto Bitbuy holds on its customers’ behalf, financial statements and an annual “proof of reserve” document to certify its holdings. (The Logic)
The federal government worked hard and fast to procure and distribute COVID-19 vaccines and to get financial support programs running in the early stage of the pandemic, auditor general Karen Hogan reported in a pair of audits released Tuesday. But it ended up with a $1-billion oversupply of doses and millions that expired, $4.6 billion in support payments to ineligible recipients and a further $27.4 billion in payments that need more investigation. (The Logic)
The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, which manages $392 billion, will reach a “tipping point” in 2024 where it’s paying out more money to retirees than it’s receiving in contributions from workers, said CEO Charles Emond in remarks at the Canadian Club of Montreal on Monday. “We’ll arrive in 2024, for the first time in our history, in a situation of net withdrawal,” he said. (Bloomberg)