Mozilla cuts a quarter of its workforce

Mozilla is laying off 250 employees in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Firefox makers are letting go of a quarter of the company’s workforce and the coronavirus pandemic is said to have contributed to a big loss of revenue.

Mozilla CEO Mitchell Baker said the company will reduce spending in areas like expanding the abilities of the web and improving tools for developers.

“Economic conditions resulting from the global pandemic have significantly impacted our revenue. As a result, our pre-COVID plan was no longer workable,” the CEO said in a statement.

“I desperately wish there was some other way to set Mozilla up for long term success in building a better internet.”

Tim Cook joins Billionaire Club

Apple CEO Tim Cook has joined the billionaire club as the company is set to become the US’s first $2tn company.

Apple is said to be nearing a valuation of $2tn, as the company crushes all expectations in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Cook is said to own 847,969 shares in Apple, worth about US$375m with the current stock price.

When Cook took over, after founder Steve Jobs was stood down, Apple was valued at about US$350bn. Then two years ago, the company became the first publicly-listed enterprise to be worth US$1tn.

Tesla reportedly getting into the smartwatch business

A Federal Communications Commission (FCC) filing in the US has revealed Tesla is developing a new smartwatch.

Tesla is named in the FCC filing by Xplora Technologies, a Norway-based company that develops smartwatches for children.

In a letter to the FCC, Xplora CTO Sanghyo Kim reportedly mentions Tesla’s involvement.

“Those documents contain detailed system and equipment description and related information about the product which XPLORA Technologies AS considers to be confidential proprietary, a custom design and, otherwise, not releasable to the general public,” the letter reads..

“Since this design is a basis form which future technological products will evolve, Tesla Motors, Inc. considers this information would be of benefit to its competitors, and that the disclosure of the information in these documents would give competitors an unfair advantage in the market.”

The filing relates to a Xplora smartwatch to be released for children.