Posts Tagged: million

Twitter’s former CEO and other execs are suing Elon Musk and X for $128 million in unpaid severance

A group of former Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, are suing Elon Musk and X over millions of dollars in unpaid severance benefits. The claims date back to the chaotic circumstances surrounding Musk’s takeover of the company in October 2022.

When Musk took control of the company, his first move was to fire Agrawal, CFO Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sean Edgett. According to the lawsuit, Musk had “special ire” for the group because of the role they played in the months-long court battle that forced Musk to follow through with the acquisition after he attempted to back out of the deal. According to the lawsuit, Agrawal is entitled to $ 57.4 million in severance benefits, Segal is entitled to $ 44.5 million, Gadde $ 20 million and Edgett $ 6.8 million, for a total of about $ 128 million.

The lawsuit cites Musk biographer Walter Isaacson’s account of the events, which explains that Musk rushed to close the Twitter deal a day early so he could fire the executives “for cause” just before their final stock options were set to vest. According to Isaacson, Musk bragged that the legal maneuver saved him about $ 200 million. 

“Musk doesn’t pay his bills, believes the rules don’t apply to him, and uses his wealth and power to run roughshod over anyone who disagrees with him,” the lawsuit states,“Because Musk decided he didn’t want to pay Plaintiffs’ severance benefits, he simply fired them without reason, then made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to uphold his decision.”

X didn’t respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit. Of note, it’s not the first time former Twitter employees have sued the company for failing to pay severance benefits. A separate lawsuit claimed Twitter owed former workers more than $ 500 million in unpaid severance. Agrawal, Segal and Gadde also previously sued the company over unpaid legal bills as a result of shareholder lawsuits and other investigations that resulted from Musk’s takeover,

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/twitters-former-ceo-and-other-execs-are-suing-elon-musk-and-x-for-128-million-in-unpaid-severance-231428042.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Amazon to pay $1.9 million to settle claims of human rights abuses of contract workers

Amazon will pay out $ 1.9 million to more than 700 migrant workers to settle claims of human rights abuses following exploitative labor contracts, as reported by CNBC. The impacted laborers were working at two of the company’s warehouses in Saudi Arabia.

Amazon acknowledged the issue in a blog post, saying it hired a third-party labor rights expert to investigate warehouse conditions. The organization found numerous violations of Amazon’s supply chain standards, including “substandard living accommodations, contract and wage irregularities and delays in the resolution of worker complaints.”

This follows an Amnesty International report from last October that detailed various alleged human rights abuses experience by those contracted to work in Amazon facilities in the region, and noted that many of the impacted laborers were “highly likely to be victims of human trafficking.” The report also suggested that Amazon was aware of the high risk for labor abuse when operating in Saudi Arabia but still “failed to take sufficient action to prevent such abuses.”

Simultaneous reports by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism offered detailed accounts of the conditions that these laborers allegedly suffered under, according to NBC News. The investigations found that workers had to pay illegal recruitment fees of up to $ 2,040 to get hired. This forced the migrant workers, many of whom were from Nepal, to take out loans with high interest rates.

Investigators also learned that these workers were living in squalid conditions, with one laborer saying he was living “in a crowded room with seven other men, jammed with bunk beds infested with bed bugs.” The water was said to be salty and undrinkable. Amnesty International echoed these findings, saying that the accommodations were “lacking even the most basic facilities.”

The combination of the exorbitant hiring fees, along with the associated loans, amounted to “human trafficking for the purpose of labor exploitation as defined by international law and standards,” Amnesty alleged in its report. 

Amazon has stated that it has “remediated the most serious concerns” involving the two Saudi warehouses, including an upgrade to housing accommodations. “Our goal is for all of our vendors to have management systems in place that ensure safe and healthy working conditions; this includes responsible recruitment practices,” the company wrote.

It’s worth noting that though that $ 1.9 million number seems high, it breaks down to around $ 2,700 per employee. Amazon made $ 576 billion in 2023, which comes out to more than $ 1.5 billion each day.

Amazon doesn’t have a great track record when it comes to labor. It’s regularly accused of breaking labor laws, particularly at its many product warehouses. The company is also rabidly anti-union, as many of these complaints involve attempts to stop workers from unionizing. Amazon faces multiple ongoing federal probes into its safety practices, and it has been fined by federal safety regulators for exposing warehouse workers to unnecessary risks.

However, the company remains defiant in its efforts to chip away at worker’s rights. Amazon recently filed a legal document that claims the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is unconstitutional, joining Elon Musk’s SpaceX and grocery giant Trader Joe’s. The NLRB is an independent arm of the federal government that enforces US labor law and has been operating since 1935.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/amazon-to-pay-19-million-to-settle-claims-of-human-rights-abuses-of-contract-workers-192237377.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Bluesky barrels toward 1 million new sign-ups in a day

Social media app Bluesky has picked nearly a million new users just a day after exiting its invitation-only beta and opening to everyone.
Digital Trends

Some Vizio TV owners can claim a share of a $3 million settlement over misleading marketing

Vizio TVs’ “effective” refresh rates have been confusing customers for years, and the company may now owe payments to some buyers who were misled by the term. As spotted by The Verge, Vizio recently agreed to settle a class action lawsuit in California over what plaintiffs claim is “false and misleading” advertising. While some Vizio TVs are marketed as having a “120Hz Effective Refresh Rate” or “240Hz Effective Refresh Rate,” that describes a result achieved using motion clarity technology. Their actual, native refresh rate in most cases is 60Hz.

Vizio has denied any wrongdoing on its part, but agreed to a $ 3 million settlement covering all Vizio TVs purchased in California that were advertised with the above descriptions, going back to April 30, 2014 and up until the final court judgment. The final approval hearing is right now set for June 20, 2024. People may be entitled to payments of up to $ 50, but claims must be in by March 30, 2024. The claim form can be found here. Vizio also agreed to stop marketing its TVs this way and to “provide enhanced services and a limited one-year warranty to all Settlement Class Members.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/some-vizio-tv-owners-can-claim-a-share-of-a-3-million-settlement-over-misleading-marketing-220925933.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Google ordered to pay $1 million to female exec who sued over gender discrimination

Google will have to pay over $ 1 million to an executive who alleged the company discriminated against her based on her gender and later retaliated when she spoke up about it. Ulku Rowe, a Google Cloud engineering director, accused the company of hiring her at a lower level, lower paid position than men with less experience who were hired for similar roles at the same time, according to Bloomberg Law. She also claimed she was passed over for a promotion in favor of a less qualified male colleague.

A New York jury on Friday decided that Google did commit gender-based discrimination, and now owes Rowe a combined $ 1.15 million for punitive damages and the pain and suffering it caused. Rowe had 23 years of experience when she started at Google in 2017, and the lawsuit claims she was lowballed at hiring to place her at a level that paid significantly less than what men were being offered.

It comes nearly five years after some 20,000 Google employees organized a walkout to demand changes around the company’s handling of sexual misconduct and discrimination. While the company pledged to do better on sexual harassment, its response still left a lot to be desired on the topics of bias. According to Bloomberg Law, the Rowe lawsuit is the first such case Google has faced since the protests.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-ordered-to-pay-1-million-to-female-exec-who-sued-over-pay-discrimination-214702002.html?src=rss

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Sega completes purchase of Rovio for $776 million

Sega Sammy has completed its purchase of Angry Birds developer Rovio, officially plunking down a cool $ 776 million to acquire the company. The deal was first floated back in April, but both companies had to jump through some finalization and regulatory hoops. Sega’s hoping the purchase will give them a stronger foothold in the mobile space, despite the golden days of Angry Birds fandom passing almost 15 years ago.

However, Rovio is not just the one IP. Beyond Angry Birds and its many spinoff games, the company is known for the match-three puzzler Sugar Blast and the narrative mystery title Small Town Murders. Okay, those aren’t exactly high-profile IPs, but Sega gets something beyond recognizable franchise titles with this purchase. It gets a ready-made infrastructure for developing, publishing and advertising mobile games. This means it can hit the ground running when making mobile titles based on its own IPs, like Sonic, Samba de Amigo, Persona, Football Manager and others. There’s also hundreds of older games just waiting for mobile ports.

Back in April, CEO Haruki Satomi said that “the mobile gaming market has especially high potential, and it has been Sega's long-term goal to accelerate its expansion in this field.”

Beyond Sega’s pre-existing franchises, the company will likely continue with more Angry Birds mobile games. Despite losing some of that late 2000s luster, Angry Birds is still a fairly hot commodity, with related movies, TV shows and even a bizarre restaurant in New York City. Maybe pairing up those annoyed avians with a certain blue hedgehog will bring the one-time mobile smash back into the collective consciousness. Now, who’s up for flinging Knuckles into a bunch of pigs?

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/sega-completes-purchase-of-rovio-for-776-million-191525883.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

‘Elden Ring’ has sold more than 20 million copies

In little more than a year, Elden Ring has sold approximately 20.5 million copies. That’s according to an investor report spotted by a ResetEra forum user (via Eurogamer). “Repeat sales of existing titles such as Elden Ring were strong, especially overseas, [with] worldwide sales reaching 20.5 million,” Bandai Namco writes in the document. The publisher adds that it expects “a pullback” in repeat sales of the game. However, if Elden Ring can sell a few million more copies, it will land among the best-selling games of all time, a list that includes titles like God of War (2018) and Grand Theft Auto V.

The milestone comes a year after Elden Ring had the best-ever opening for a FromSoftware title. In just 18 days, Bandai Namco sold more than 12 million copies of the action RPG. Pretty good for a game that was expected to sell about 4 million copies in five days. The ongoing strong performance of Elden Ring bodes well for FromSoftware’s next game, Armored Core VI. When it arrives this August, the title will be the first entry in the Armored Core series in nearly a decade.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/elden-ring-has-sold-more-than-20-million-copies-215824304.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Google removes 5 million file creation cap for Drive after backlash

Google has changed its tune and removed the file creation limit it quietly implemented for Drive over the past weeks. In a Twitter announcement (via Android Police), the Google Drive account said it's rolling back a "system update to… item limits" that was made to "preserve stability and optimize performance." The tech giant said it only ever impacted a small number of users, but it's now exploring alternative approaches to ensure stable performance for all. 

Several Drive users have encountered an error showing their upload had failed and that they couldn't exceed a creation limit of 5 million items since February. A Google spokesperson recently confirmed to Ars Technica that it had instituted a 5 million file creation cap to "prevent misuse of [its] system in a way that might impact [its] stability and safety." While Google didn't mention the cap in its new announcement, that's precisely how it described the change it has decided to roll back. 

Google caught flak not just for putting a ceiling on how many files a user can make, but also for not warning people about it. The creation cap affected paying users, after all, even those subscribed to the highest Google One tier that's supposed to provide up to 30TB of storage. It was very much possible to hit the file number cap before reaching that storage limit for those who frequently make or upload smaller files. In addition, Drive doesn't have a counter that could warn users that they're approaching the 5 million file creation cap.

Bottom line, it wasn't the best approach to prevent Drive misuse, and not telling users about it beforehand was perhaps as bad the limit itself. Google promised in its announcement that if it decides to incorporate changes to the cloud storage service in the future, it will communicate them to users in advance. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/google-removes-5-million-file-creation-cap-for-drive-after-backlash-114501891.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Jury reduces Tesla’s $137 million racism lawsuit penalty to $3.2 million

Back in 2021, a San Francisco court ordered Tesla to pay Owen Diaz, a former Black contract worker who accused the company of enabling a racist workplace, $ 137 million in damages. It was one of the highest amounts awarded to an individual suing on the basis of discrimination, but the appeals that followed had lowered it significantly. While US District Judge William Orrick affirmed the jury's original verdict, he found the original damages awarded to Diaz "excessive" and lowered the total to $ 15 million. Now, a San Francisco federal jury has reduced the amount even further and has ordered Tesla to pay Diaz $ 3.2 million only. 

The former elevator operator at Tesla’s Fremont assembly plant rejected the $ 15 million award Orrick had proposed and instead sought for a retrial. In the latest hearing, Diaz again recounted his experiences working for Tesla, where he said he and his fellow Black workers were subjected to racial slurs. He also said that he was made to feel unsafe at work and that other workers left drawings of swastika and racist graffiti, such as Inki the Caveman, in his workspace and the company restrooms. 

Diaz's lawyers urged the jury to penalize Tesla, a company currently worth over $ 600 billion, an amount that will get its attention. But Tesla's lawyer Alex Spiro reportedly argued that Diaz should only be awarded half his salary. He apparently characterized Diaz as a liar in court, who misstated how long he worked at the automaker and who exaggerated his testimonies and the abuse he suffered to gain a bigger payout. 

We may not be seeing the end to this case, though. According to the Los Angeles Times, Diaz's lawyer believes the jury decided on awarding him only $ 3 million in punitive damages and $ 175,000 in non-economic damages because he was wrongly attacked by the defense. He said Tesla's strategy to "minimize and sanitize" worked and that he has already filed a request for a new trial due to "misconduct."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/jury-reduces-teslas-137-million-racism-lawsuit-penalty-to-32-million-060414307.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Grubhub ordered to pay $3.5 million to settle Washington DC deceptive practices lawsuit

Grubhub has been ordered to pay $ 3.5 million to settle the lawsuit filed against the company by the District of Columbia over "deceptive trade practices." Washington DC Attorney General Karl Racine has announced that his office has reached an agreement with the food delivery service "for charging customers hidden fees and using deceptive marketing techniques." If you'll recall, his office sued the company earlier this year, accusing it of charging hidden fees and misrepresenting Grubhub+ subscription's offer of "unlimited free delivery," since customers still have to pay a service fee.

The DC Attorney General's office also accused the company of listing 1,000 restaurants in the area without their permission by using numbers that route to Grubhub workers or creating websites without the eateries' consent. A previous TechCrunch report said the company had already ended those practices. Racine also said at the time that Grubhub ran a promotion called "Supper for Support" at the beginning of the pandemic and then "stuck restaurants with the bill" that cut into their profit margins.

Grubhub called the lawsuit frivolous at the time of its filing and said that the company was "disappointed [the AG's office has] moved forward with [it] because [the service's] practices have always complied with DC law, and in any event, many of the practices at issue have been discontinued."

Under the terms of the settlement, Grubhub will pay affected customers in the DC area a total of $ 2.7 million. Their cut will be credited to their accounts, and it will be sent to them as a check if it remains unused within 90 days. In addition, the company has to pay $ 800,000 in civil penalties to the District of Columbia and has to clearly mark additional fees people have to pay with their order going forward.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Google to pay $392 million to 40 states in location-tracking settlement

In what is reportedly the biggest multistate privacy settlement to date, Google will pay $ 392M to 40 U.S. states to settle a dispute over location tracking.
Digital Trends

‘Death Stranding’ has been played by 10 million people since launch

For a project that was divisive among critics and players alike, Death Stranding has done pretty well for itself. With the game celebrating its third anniversary today, Kojima Productions revealed that more than 10 million people have played the studio’s first game. The milestone takes into account all the platforms where Death Stranding is available, including PC Game Pass. “It makes me happy to think that there are over 10 million “Sam one” players around the world, all loosely connected,” creator Hideo Kojima said on Twitter.

It might seem obvious that a game from the creator of Metal Gear Solid would find commercial success, but it didn’t always look that way. By some accounts, Death Stranding was a flop when it first came out. According to one ResetEra post from 2020, Sony was reportedly unhappy with the game’s sales, with the author of the post claiming 3 million copies of Death Stranding were sitting in warehouses as of March of that year. But then the critical reevaluation of the game began, helped first by the pandemic and then its arrival on PC. In Death Stranding, a lot of people found an experience that helped them make sense of a world that had changed overnight and by July 2021, the game had sold 5 million copies.

As for Death Stranding’s future, actor Norman Reedus recently said in an interview that Kojima Productions is working on a sequel. In the past weeks, the studio has also begun teasing a game that will star actors Elle Fanning and Shioli Kutsuna.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Google is paying a historic $85 million fine after illegally tracking Android phones

Google will be paying an $ 85 million settlement to Arizona over a lawsuit that claims the company illegally tracked Android users without their permission.
Android | Digital Trends

[Promoted] BLUETTI AC500 Has Crowdfunded $5 Million on Indiegogo Within Two Weeks

BLUETTI, a leading company of clean energy storage systems, has recentlylaunched a crowdfunding initiative on Indiegogo for its newest flagship productAC500. At the time of writing, BLUETTI has raised $ 5 million in two weeksunder the aegis of 1,300+ backers. The crowdfunding is expected to hit a record highby the end of October 15, 2022. Stretch Goals & Gifts […]

Come comment on this article: [Promoted] BLUETTI AC500 Has Crowdfunded $ 5 Million on Indiegogo Within Two Weeks

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Meta ordered to pay $175 million in patent infringement case

Meta is facing a hefty bill after losing a patent infringement lawsuit. A federal judge in Texas has ordered the company to pay Voxer, the developer of app called Walkie Talkie, nearly $ 175 million as an ongoing royalty. Voxer accused Meta of infringing its patents and incorporating that tech in Instagram Live and Facebook Live.

In 2006, Tom Katis, the founder of Voxer, started working on a way to resolve communications problems he faced while serving in the US Army in Afghanistan, as TechCrunch notes. Katis and his team developed tech that allows for live voice and video transmissions, which led to Voxer debuting the Walkie Talkie app in 2011.

According to the lawsuit, soon after Voxer released the app, Meta (then known as Facebook) approached the company about a collaboration. Voxer is said to have revealed its proprietary technology as well as its patent portfolio to Meta, but the two sides didn't reach an agreement. Voxer claims that even though Meta didn't have live video or voice services back then, it identified the Walkie Talkie developer as a competitor and shut down access to Facebook features such as the "Find Friends" tool.

Meta debuted Facebook Live in 2015. Katis claims to have had a chance meeting with a Facebook Live product manager in early 2016 to discuss the alleged infringements of Voxer's patents in that product, but Meta declined to reach a deal with the company. The latter released Instagram Live later that year. "Both products incorporate Voxer’s technologies and infringe its patents," Voxer claimed in the lawsuit.

Meta denied Voxer's claims in a statement to TechCrunch. It plans to fight the ruling. “We believe the evidence at trial demonstrated that Meta did not infringe Voxer’s patents,” a spokesperson said. “We intend to seek further relief, including filing an appeal.”

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Samsung’s foldable shipments near 10 million, and it’s not because of the Z Fold

Samsung claims to have sold 10 million foldable phones so far, with the clamshell Flip line accounting for nearly 70% share of that achievement. Here’s what lies ahead.
Mobile | Digital Trends

Mining Capital Coin CEO indicted in $62 million crypto fraud scheme

Mining Capital Coin CEO and founder Luiz Capuci Jr. was — in an indictment unsealed yesterday — accused by the DOJ of allegedly running a $ 62 million global investment fraud scheme. He's the latest of severalcrypto company heads who have recently been similarly charged.

Through his company, Capuci convinced investors to purchase “Mining Packages," a global network of cryptocurrency mines that promised a certain return on investment every week. But instead of using investors’ funds to mine cryptocurrency as he promised, the DOJ alleges that Capuci diverted the funds to his own cryptocurrency wallets. Another MCC product known as “Trading Bots” operated under the same false pretenses. Capuci claimed that the bots operated in “very high frequency, being able to do thousands of trades per second” and promised investors daily returns.

“As he did with the Mining Packages, however, Capuci allegedly operated an investment fraud scheme with the Trading Bots and was not, as he promised, using MCC Trading Bots to generate income for investors, but instead was diverting the funds to himself and co-conspirators,” wrote the DOJ in its indictment.

MCC seemed to have all the workings of a pyramid scheme. Capuci recruited affiliates and promoters to lure investors. In return, he promised the promoters a number of lavish gifts, including Apple watches, iPads and luxury vehicles.

Currently the FBI’s Miami Field Office is investigating the case. The DOJ has charged Capuci, who is from Port St. Lucie, Florida, with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud and conspiracy to commit international money laundering. If found guilty, he faces a maximum sentence of 45 years.

In a review of the cryptocurrency mining platform, crypto blogger Peter Obi noted that the combination of MCC’s $ 50 monthly fee for membership and its steep 3% withdrawal fee meant that investors were unlikely to make a profit unless they referred other investors. He pointed out that such a referral process was “particularly worrying” because it was consistent with other past crypto scams.

Indeed, a number of crypto leaders have been accused by authorities of running Ponzi schemes in recent years. Earlier this year the DOJ indicted Bitconnect founder Satishkumar Kurjibhai Kumbhani for allegedly running a $ 2 billion Ponzi scheme — believed to be the largest virtual currency pyramid scheme in history.

Capuci never registered his company with the SEC. The agency today issued a fraud alert for the company. According to the SEC press release, Capuci and his associates successfully convinced 65,535 investors to purchase mining packages worldwide and promised daily returns of one percent, paid weekly for over a year. In total, the group netted $ 8.1 million from the sale of the mining packages and $ 3.2 million from initiation fees.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Riot Games settles class-action gender discrimination lawsuit for $100 million

Riot Games has agreed to pay $ 100 million to settle a class-action lawsuit filed in November 2018 by former employees alleging gender discrimination, sexual harassment and retaliation. The League of Legends publisher was only going to pay $ 10 million per the preliminary settlement in 2019, but the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing went to court to block the agreement. $ 10 million was much too small, the agency argued, and the women suing the company could be entitled to as much as $ 400 million.

The lawsuit was originally filed by Melanie McCracken and Jess Negrón after a Kotaku report exposed the developers' "men-first" and "bro" company culture. In the report, Kotaku detailed employees' experiences within the company, such as instances of "genital grabbing" and senior leaders passing around lists of employees they would sleep with. One former employee who left the company due to sexism said working for Riot was like "working at a giant fraternity."

Under the terms of the settlement, $ 80 million will go towards members of the class-action lawsuit, while $ 20 million will go towards the plaintiffs' legal fees. All employees and contractors in California who identify as women and who worked at Riot between November 2014 until present day qualify for a payout. Those who've been with the company longer will get a bigger cut than newer workers. And there are quite a lot of newer ones — while only around 1,000 workers were qualified for a payout in 2019, there are now around 2,300 eligible personnel. In a statement, the developer told The Washington Post:

"Three years ago, Riot was at the heart of what became a reckoning in our industry. We had to face the fact that despite our best intentions, we hadn’t always lived up to our values. As a company we stood at a crossroads; we could deny the shortcomings of our culture, or we could apologize, correct course, and build a better Riot. We chose the latter… While we'e proud of how far we’ve come since 2018, we must also take responsibility for the past. We hope that this settlement properly acknowledges those who had negative experiences at Riot."

In addition to paying $ 100 million, Riot Games is also required to get a third-party expert to conduct "sex/gender equity analysis of total compensation, assignment and promotion outcomes for California employees." Riot must also allow pay transparency and will have to be monitored by a third party, who'll keep an eye on things like HR complaints and pay equity, for three years. The monitor will be able to recommend changes to the company that Riot can implement. 

Genie Harrison, the women's rights attorney who represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement:

"This is a great day for the women of Riot Games – and for women at all video game and tech companies – who deserve a workplace that is free of harassment and discrimination. We appreciate Riot’s introspection and work since 2018 toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive company, its willingness to take responsibility for its past, and its commitment to fairness and equality in the future. Along with the DFEH and DLSE, the brave women of Riot who carried the torch of justice have achieved a precedent-setting result that stands as a beacon for other women and as a warning that employers had better pay and treat women fairly, or else be held accountable."

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Crypto exchange BitMart loses $196 million to hackers

Large-scale cryptocurrency heists remain a significant headache. According to Coindesk, the crypto exchange BitMart has lost the equivalent of $ 196 million (originally estimated at $ 150 million) to a hack. The intruder breached Ethereum and Binance wallets with a flood of transfers starting around 2:30PM Eastern on December 4th, followed by an exodus of tokens two hours later that included Shiba and USDC.

Founder Sheldon Xia said only a "small percentage" of BitMart's assets were at risk. Even so, the company has frozen withdrawals "until further notice" and is reviewing security.

It's not clear who was responsible, but the culprit may have been knowledgeable The stolen funds have been sent to an Ethereum mixing service that could make it difficult to trace the funds. Crypto thieves aren't always that astute. The Poly Network attacker, for instance, offered to "surrender" and wound up returning all their loot. They claimed they were contributing to Poly's security, but that might also have been an attempt to avoid repercussions after researchers obtained potentially identifying data.

While this isn't the biggest digital heist (the Poly attacker grabbed $ 610 million, for instance), Coindesk notes this is one of the larger centralized exchange hacks to date. It also underscores the growing issue of cryptocurrency theft — the technology makes it all too feasible to steal large sums with few repercussions.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Robinhood reports data breach affecting 7 million customers

Online stock trading platform Robinhood has been hit by a data breach affecting seven million of its customers, the company revealed on Monday, November 8.
Mobile | Digital Trends

Tesla must pay $137 million in discrimination lawsuit

Tesla has been ordered to pay $ 137 million in damages to a former Black worker who accused the company of turning a blind eye to discrimination and racial abuse at the company's EV plant in Fremont California, the Washington Post has reported. A San Francisco federal court jury awarded the judgement — reportedly one of the largest in an individual race discrimination employment case — to Owen Diaz, an elevator operator who worked as a contract employee in 2015 and 2016.

In the lawsuit, Diaz alleged that he faced discrimination "straight from the Jim Crow era," in which he was subjected to racial slurs. He alleged that Tesla employees left drawings of swastikas, racist graffiti and offensive cartoons around the plant, while supervisors neglected to halt the abuse. "Tesla's progressive image was a façade papering over its regressive, demeaning treatment of African-American employees," according to the lawsuit. 

The jury awarded Diaz $ 6.9 million for emotional distress, but the majority, $ 130 million, was punitive damages against Tesla. "It's a great thing when one of the richest corporations in America has to have a reckoning of the abhorrent conditions at its factory for Black people," said the lawyer for Diaz, Lawrence Organ. 

"It took four long years to get to this point,” Diaz told the New York Times. “It’s like a big weight has been pulled off my shoulders.”

In response to the verdict, Tesla downplayed the allegations in a blog post written by human resources VP Valerie Capers Workman. "In addition to Mr. Diaz, three other witnesses (all non-Tesla contract employees) testified at trial that they regularly heard racial slurs (including the N-word) on the Fremont factory floor,” she wrote. “While they all agreed that the use of the N-word was not appropriate in the workplace, they also agreed that most of the time they thought the language was used in a ‘friendly’ manner and usually by African-American colleagues.”

Tesla added that it was responsive to Mr. Diaz's complaints, firing two contractors and suspending another. She said that while the facts didn't justify the verdict, the company was "not perfect" in 2015 and 2016, "but we have come a long way." The company has yet to say whether it plans to appeal.

Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics

Facebook labeled 180 million posts for election misinformation

Facebook just offered its first look at the scale of its fight against election misinformation. In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, Facebook slapped warning labels on more than 180 million posts that shared misinformation. And it remove…
Engadget

The ‘Resident Evil’ series has sold over 100 million copies

Capcom just reached a major milestone for itself and the survival horror genre: the developer has sold (via PC Gamer) over 100 million copies of Resident Evil games since the franchise kicked off in 1996. It didn’t break down the sales by series, but…
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Apple will reportedly team up with Martin Scorsese on a $180 million movie

After teaming up with Netflix last year for The Irishman, director Martin Scorsese’s next major flick will reportedly have backing from Apple. Variety, The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline all report that Apple is in final talks with Paramount to join…
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Xbox Game Pass clears 10 million subscribers

Microsoft's bet on subscription gaming appears to be paying off. The company has revealed that more than 10 million people now pay for Xbox Game Pass, a buffet-style service with an ever-changing library of first- and third-party titles. Microsoft la…
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Travis Scott’s ‘Fortnite’ concert drew 12.3 million concurrent viewers

The first showing of Travis Scott’s in-game Fortnite concert has concluded, and according to Epic Games, more than 12.3 million players logged in at once to experience it. A few captured streams of the event, so if you’d like to check it out without…
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Google’s $800 million COVID-19 relief effort includes 2 million face masks

Google's support for the fight against COVID-19 includes more than advisories and a search hub. The internet firm is making a $ 800 million-plus investment in multiple areas to aid treatment, support businesses and keep the public informed. This inc…
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Google.org, Susan Wojcicki and her husband, Dennis Troper, support families experiencing homelessness with $1.35 million grant

San Francisco Mayor London Breed and Susan Wojcicki

Today, CEO Susan Wojcicki stood with San Francisco Mayor London Breed at Hamilton Families, a nonprofit organization that supports families experiencing homelessness, and announced a combined grant of $ 1.35 million to the program. The grant comes from Google.org and from Wojcicki and her husband, Dennis Troper.

Here are her remarks from this afternoon:

“Thank you, Mayor Breed. I’m so glad to be here with you, and all of your leadership in fighting homelessness. I also wanted to say thank you to everyone here at Hamilton Families and the impact you’ve had in our community and in the lives of so many families.

Sometimes the scale of an issue can make us feel like it’s impossible to solve.

And even though we know it’s important, we wind up doing nothing because it feels overwhelming for us.

The work at Hamilton Families shows how we can make a difference in a tangible way, one family at a time.

Over the years, I’ve always recognized how serious a problem of homelessness is in the Bay Area, and I’ve contributed  along with my husband — to support many local organizations that help meet the needs of people experiencing homelessness.

I’m here today because of an idea that first started with a school project. Earlier this year, my daughter worked on a project about homelessness.

As I listened to her questions and reactions, I realized I didn’t have a lot of answers for something that was so important and affecting so many families. We spent time researching different solutions, including coming here, and that’s how we got in touch with Hamilton Families.

We were impressed by the services offered here that give families a fresh start.

And that’s why we’re gathered today  to announce a new grant to further support all the incredible efforts done by Hamilton Families to find families permanent homes, and along the way meet their needs by providing shelter, meals, and more. We appreciate everything you do, from offering counseling and job resources to giving children the chance to succeed at school.

Today, Google.org is contributing $ 850,000. And together with my husband, Dennis, we’re contributing $ 500,000  for a total of $ 1.35 million to boost the work of Hamilton Families.

Over the next year, this grant will make an impact in our communities, and it will help Hamilton serve 700 families and find housing for another 200.

And it will also fund an outreach effort  a series of videos and podcasts  that will tell the stories of individuals who are facing homelessness.

Our goal is to help the community understand the problems that can lead to homelessness and also inspire others to get involved in whatever way they can.

Sometimes, the greatest gift we can offer is our time. And in that spirit, next year, we will organize an event for the YouTube employees to come to the shelter. We’re very excited about that.

Homelessness is an incredibly complicated challenge for our society. But if we all come together to look out for one another, our combined contributions can make a big difference.”


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‘Apex’ crosses 70 million players as EA focuses on ‘live services’

Other than the news that NBA Live will take the 19/20 season off, EA's quarterly earnings call reported revenue is up from last year, thanks largely to the games it's published as "live services." Those are the ones where it's continually rolling out…
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The first ever black hole image lands scientists $3 million prize

The scientists that captured the first image of a black hole are being rewarded with a $ 3 million prize. The Breakthrough prize, known as the "Oscars of Science," is sponsored by Silicon Valley execs such as Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin, and recog…
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Netflix signs a $200 million deal with ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners

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Google Files celebrates 100 million users with dark mode

Google Files is apparently really popular. It’s amazing that Android has never really had much in the way of a native file manager app until Google decided to roll out Files, leaving the market entirely to third-party app developers and phone makers. Turns out that tons of us were itching for an official solution from […]

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Auction for a laptop full of malware closes at $1.2 million

Today, bidding on a laptop packed with some of the world's most dangerous malware closed at $ 1.2 million. Dubbed "The Persistence of Chaos," the Samsung NC10 contains six viruses that have caused an estimated $ 95 billion in damages. Despite what you…
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First American security flaw leaked 885 million real estate documents

First American Financial Corporation left as many as 885 million real estate documents dating as far back as 2003 exposed, according to Krebs on Security. The company, one of the largest real estate title insurance firms in the US, has already fixed…
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‘Game of Thrones’ premiere was pirated nearly 55 million times in one day

It won't surprise you to hear that Game of Thrones is a pirate magnet, but the sheer scale of that piracy may be reaching new heights. The analytics company MUSO has determined that people pirated the show's season eight premiere just shy of 55 mill…
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Peloton slapped with a $150 million lawsuit for playing unlicensed music

Music publishers are suing Peloton, the maker of the connected exercise bike, for failing to license songs it plays in its streaming spinning classes. The lawsuit was filed on Tuesday by the National Music Publishers Association in the U.S. District…
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Owning a Call of Duty eSports franchise could cost $25 million

Activision Blizzard is apparently making headway with the launch of the city-based Call of Duty League it announced in February. According to ESPN, an esports executive from the company has already been meeting with prospective buyers — namely profe…
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Spotify is reportedly in talks for a $200 million podcast purchase

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Intel and ESL extend their esports alliance with a $100 million deal

Intel and ESL have been esports buddies for years, but they're deepening that commitment as 2018 winds to a close. The two have extended their partnership with a $ 100 million deal that will last through 2021. Intel will provide the computing power…
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Another Google+ data bug exposes info for 52.5 million users

Google's semi-defunct social media platform Google+ has suffered its second data breach in three months and, as a result, will be completely shuttered in April, four months earlier than previously planned.
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ChargePoint hopes to operate 2.5 million EV chargers by 2025

ChargePoint currently operates around 54,000 EV charging points — sure, it's but a fraction of the number of gas pumps in the world, but it's relatively plenty. Even Tesla's growing Supercharger network only has 11,013 chargers at this point in time…
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2 million T-Mobile customers had their data breached on August 20th

T-Mobile has announced that a few days ago on August 20th, their information systems were compromised and hackers were able to swipe some data from 2 million customers, which is around 3% of the carrier’s total customer base. Data breaches like this are always bad news, but this one could be worse. The carrier reports that […]

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Huawei aims high, wants to ship 200 million phones in 2018

Last year, Huawei managed to ship around 150 million phones globally. That’s really good and confirmed Huawei as one of the biggest smartphone manufacturers on the planet. But you can’t keep growing as a company by shipping the same amount of phones every year, so what’s the next goal for Huawei? Try 200 million. Don’t forget to […]

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Huawei’s P20 Series has sold 6 million units globally

We reviewed the Huawei P20 and P20 Pro a little while back and were impressed by the camera chops of the larger P20 Pro as well as its outstanding battery life. Having launched towards the tail-end of March at a lavish event in Paris, the question is what sort of sales figures Huawei’s P20 series has managed […]

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Signal Messenger receives $50 million from WhatsApp co-founder

WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton left Facebook in 2017 to start a non-profit. Turns out that non-profit involves another messaging app: Signal. In a blog post, Signal chief Moxie Marlinspike has announced the launch of Signal Foundation, a 501(c)(3) n…
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Over 1.3 million anti-net neutrality FCC comments are likely fakes

It's no secret that bots flooded the FCC with comments supporting its plans to kill net neutrality. But just how many comments were fraudulent? All too many, according to data scientist Jeff Kao. He recently conducted a study that used natural langua…
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FCC approves $77 million to fix communications in Puerto Rico and VI

Two weeks after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the FCC has approved a measure providing up to $ 77 million to restore networks there and in the US Virgin Islands. It said that as of yesterday, 88 percent of cell sites were still down in Puert…
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Verily’s answer to Fresno’s mosquito woes is 20 million more

Last year, executives of Alphabet's life science arm, Verily, discussed a project aimed at controlling invasive mosquito populations, the results of which are now going into effect. To combat the mosquito species that carries viruses like Zika and de…
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Vizio is filing a huge $100 million lawsuit against a flailing LeEco

LeEco is going out with a bang, not a whimper. After trying and failing to acquire Vizio, the company started tumbling downhill in the financial department pretty quickly. We’ve seen desperate financing attempts, layoffs, and all kinds of other moves that paint a pretty clear picture that LeEco is in deep trouble. To make matters […]

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Former Epix exec pleads guilty over $7 million fraud

In 2009, Viacom, Lionsgate and MGM joined forces to launch a premium movie channel called Epix, with Emil Rensing as its Chief Digital Officer. Turns out hiring Rensing was a bad move: according to the Justice Department, he has just pleaded guilty t…
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