Business Titbits

Pay Equity – Finally!! :                    Starbucks says it has reached 100% pay equity among genders and races in the U.S. The coffee chain said the 10 years’ worth of work it has put to achieve pay equity as well as block any systemic bias has worked. The chain has also vowed to offer upfront pay information to candidates instead of asking for their candidate salary history before. The company’s next goal is pay equity among all employees globally.

Money in the air :             Top bosses of the largest American companies are set to have another year of receiving record compensations, according to a Wall Street Journal. CEOs receiving an average pay of $11.6 million. The windfall is said to be the result of a strong economy and surging stock market. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has, as expected, come up with the most outrageous plan even in this area as well. He got a plan approved by shareholders that will see him receive a 10-year pay package valued at more than $50 billion, if he hits all targets for the period.

Time Magazine..anyone? :           The publishers of Time Magazine, Sports Illustrated, Fortune and Money magazines are putting them up for sale. The owner of these magazines will also cut an additional 1,000 jobs in the next 10 months, after laying off 200 this week. The aim is to save $400 million to $500 million in costs with the job cuts. This comes just a few months after the publisher acquired Time Inc. for $2.8 billion.

Facebook:           CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized for Facebook’s handling of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. “We let the community down and I feel really bad and I’m sorry about that,” Zuckerberg said, in an interview with Recode. He also said he was “open” to testifying before Congress about how Facebook uses member data.  Mr. Zuckerberg promised to implement several changes, including limiting user data shared with developers and removing access for apps that haven’t been used in three months.

BlackBerry:         BlackBerry and Jaguar are joining forces where BlackBerry will supply technology for the car maker’s new vehicles. The multiyear deal will involve BlackBerry engineers working with the software maker’s security technology on Jaguar cars. BlackBerry also announced this week that it was partnering on a mobile security project with Microsoft. Since the fall of BlackBerry as a leading phone manufacturer, its new CEO John Chen implemented a turnaround strategy which includes providing software for car companies.