Microsoft's Silicon Valley staff to work from home amid coronavirus fears

Microsoft asked many of its employees in the Seattle region near its headquarters and the San Francisco Bay Area to work from home if possible until March 25.

Microsoft Corp on Wednesday joined the growing number of US companies asking employees to work from home in order to limit exposure to the spreading coronavirus outbreak, as it responded to cases near its Seattle headquarters and in California.

Microsoft asked many of its employees in the Seattle region near its headquarters and the San Francisco Bay Area to work from home if possible until March 25.

"Taking these measures will ensure your safety and also make the workplace safer for those that need to be onsite," Executive Vice President Kurt DelBene told employees in a blog post.

The post said that some employees for whom "it is essential to be in the office or other work environments" - such as data center and retail employees - should continue to go to their work locations and that the company would follow government guidelines for disinfecting its sites for essential personnel.

Microsoft also asked employees to suspend any business travel to the areas "unless essential for the continuity of Microsoft."

Microsoft also said employees should cancel non-essential travel to areas with active coronavirus cases - which includes much of Europe, Asia and the Americas - and that employees were not required to travel if they had concerns about doing so.

In the greater Seattle area, the total number of coronavirus cases climbed to 39 on Wednesday and 10 deaths, up from 27 cases and nine deaths a day earlier, the Washington State Health Department announced. The first death in California from the coronavirus was announced on Wednesday.

The Seattle area has the largest concentration of coronavirus cases detected to date in the United States. Several cases were connected to a long-term care facility for the elderly.

Microsoft also implemented new guidelines for employees who do come to its offices. It recommended "limiting prolonged close interactions with people" by keeping in-person meetings as short as possible and staying at least 6 feet, or 1.8 meters, away from others.

WeWork: The last unicorn or a black sheep?

WeWork's valuation, $47 billion in a private funding round last January, could be set as low as $12 billion.

Business Standard : The WeWork’s roadshow is set to begin this week, perhaps as soon as today. Such corporate processionals through the ranks of blue-blooded Wall Street institutions are usually a triumph for buoyant, young companies. WeWork’s roadshow, on the other hand, will likely more closely resemble Cersei Lannister’s humiliating march to the Red Keep in Game of Thrones.

Shame! WeWork’s valuation, $47 billion in a private funding round last January, could be set as low as $12 billion.

Shame! Shame! Investors will no doubt be distrustful of any evidence of apparent self-dealing by the chief executive officer, Adam Neumann, such as buying properties and leasing them to the company. (WeWork took additional steps on Friday to change some of the unorthodox aspects of its governance structure and seek an independent

board member.)

As the nine-year-old office-sharing startup continues its stumble to the public markets, some prognosticators see this moment as something more significant: that a WeWork belly-flop portends the end of the unicorn era in Silicon Valley.

The argument goes like this: SoftBank, the Japanese conglomerate and its $100 billion Vision Fund, has become an engine pushing the technology market to its limit. If it’s forced to retreat on its $10 billion commitment to WeWork, SoftBank will reconsider the nearly blind sanguinity that has perverted incentives for founders and distorted valuations in the industry over the last few years.

In this seductive vision of a calamitous—and cleansing—WeWork initial public offering, modesty will once again return to Silicon Valley; humbled venture capitalists will stop bidding the valuations of unprofitable startups into the stratosphere; and the unicorns—those magical startups worth a $1 billion or more—will be put out to pasture, their legendary horns clipped like the tusks of poached African elephants.

But that’s probably wishful thinking.

The current cycle in tech started more than a decade ago, fueled by excitement over the iPhone, Facebook Inc. and the infusions of cash from a new generation of VCs like Andreessen Horowitz and Y Combinator. Business cycles tend to last seven to 10 years in Silicon Valley, and the resulting boom should have ended by now. But that was before the longest bull market in American history and a seemingly never-ending supply of venture capital from an array of new sources, including wealthy Chinese investors and Saudi Arabian oil money.

Nexus, Omidyar, Owl Ventures invest $10 mn in ed-tech start-up WhiteHat Jr

WhiteHat Jr helps children of ages six to 14 to build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online using the fundamentals of coding.

Education technology (ed-tech) start-up WhiteHat Jr on Tuesday announced raising $10-million Series-A funding from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India. Owl Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based ed-tech focused venture capital fund, also participated in this round.

Founded by former Discovery Networks CEO Karan Bajaj, WhiteHat Jr helps children of ages six to 14 to build commercial-ready games, animations and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. The company, started in November 2018, had earlier raised $1.3 million in seed funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India.

WhiteHat Jr has developed its coding curriculum, which is centered on product creation, and imparts lessons via 1:1 interactive online classes. The proceeds will be used to strengthen its technology platform, expand the course curriculum and increase consumer awareness.

Over the past few months, the company claims its online platform has seen over 150,000 student trials, 500 teachers coming on board, and students and revenue doubling every month.

Commenting on the development, CEO Karan Bajaj said, "We want to harness the natural creativity of kids and shift their mindset from an early age -- from being consumers to creators of technology."

Anup Gupta, managing director, Nexus Venture Partners, said, "We are excited to strengthen our association with WhiteHat Jr's mission of creating the next generation of innovators and thinkers."

Amit A Patel, managing director, Owl Ventures, said, "WhiteHat Jr has created something that is unique, scalable and very relevant, not only in India but across other markets."

Namita Dalmia, principal-investments, Omidyar Network India, added, "We invested in WhiteHat Jr with an aim of improving cognitive skills and we are heartened to see the impact of its curriculum on kids through improvements in creativity, concentration and logical thinking as well as teachers who are highly educated women tech professionals returning to the workforce."

Business Standard