Good Friday morning! Jordan Parker Erb here, reporting to you from the Big Sky state. I've had a grand ole time in Montana, in part because I'm seeing my family and pets, but also because I got to drive around in a Tesla for the first time this week — but more on that in a bit.
Before we talk Tesla, Oracle employees dished on how the company lost the marketing cloud war to Salesforce.
Now, let's get to it.
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1. Inside Oracle's $4 billion fumble. Since 2014, the cloud giant spent billions of dollars creating an ad and marketing products behemoth — but failed to meet its goals, and in August, the company laid off scores of people. Former employees gave us an inside look at what went wrong.
- The goal was to acquire leading marketing and adtech startups to build Oracle Marketing Cloud, and about a year later, Oracle Data Cloud, which would later become Oracle Advertising.
- But former employees said under Rob Tarkoff, the Oracle executive VP who was appointed to lead the two businesses, the company failed to invest in Marketing Cloud, which caused Oracle to lose ground to Salesforce's competing product.
- Oracle Advertising suffered from a lack of investment too, sources said. Employees also said they were demoralized by leadership that dismissed their concerns.
How Oracle lost the marketing cloud war to Salesforce.
In other news:
2. A Tech CEO, who gained fame after paying all employees at least $70,000, just resigned to fight what he calls "false accusations" of assault. Dan Price faces sexual assault and violence allegations from multiple women, including his ex-wife. As per the New York Times, Price allegedly used social media to launder his public persona and avoid reproach.
3. From El Salvador to South Africa, crypto evangelists are trying to persuade the world's poor to use bitcoin. While bitcoin is still a volatile currency, its defenders argue it can help build savings and beat inflation — but critics worry they're doing more harm than good.
4. Elon Musk told Republicans the party should welcome immigrants. While at a GOP retreat, the Tesla CEO said the party should show more compassion and stay "out of people's bedrooms," Axios first reported. More on Musk's musings.
5. Scores of Facebook contractors just lost their work with the company. Workers told Insider they found out about the layoffs through a video call with anonymous representatives, who said an "algorithm" chose roughly 60 random people to cut. Here's what we know so far.
6. Google will soon take a big swipe at webpages it deems "unhelpful." Next week, the company will release an update to its search engine that deranks pages its systems believe aren't offering users high-quality information. Google's in-house Search expert shares tips on how to survive as the "helpful content" update kicks in.
7. Social media companies are preparing for the 2022 midterm elections. Earlier this week, Facebook announced it'd be bringing back its weeklong ban on political ads leading up to the elections, and TikTok rolled out a new "Election Center." Everything else TikTok is doing to fight misinformation.
8. A leaked Salesforce org chart shows the 13 most important execs reporting to co-CEOs Marc Benioff and Bret Taylor. Following a reorganization at the company, Taylor oversees 11 top executives, while Benioff only oversees two. Plus, Brian Millham was elevated to chief operating officer. Read our full scoop on the shakeup.
Odds and ends:
9. I drove a Tesla for the first time this week — and I was shocked by how much I enjoyed the zippy little EV. Through the car-sharing app Turo, I rented a brand-new Tesla Model 3, and drove it around Montana. Here's everything that surprised me about driving a Tesla.
10. Dodge just unveiled its electric muscle car concept. After announcing it'd be sunsetting its gas-powered Charger and Challenger models, Dodge gave us a glimpse of a concept EV with an exhaust system that mimics the roar of a 797-horsepower Hellcat. Take a look at the Charger Daytona SRT.
The latest people moves in tech:
- Mozilla has hired Steve Teixeira as its new chief product officer of core products.
- Gopuff operations chief, Amazon veteran Tim Collins, departed the company.
- Amazon has hired Claire Peters, a senior executive from the Australian grocer Woolworths, as VP of Fresh.
- LinkedIn's global head of community and creators, Andrei Santalo, is leaving 15 months after joining the company.
Keep updated with the latest tech news throughout your day by checking out The Refresh from Insider, a dynamic audio news brief from the Insider newsroom. Listen here.
Curated by Jordan Parker Erb in New York. (Feedback or tips? Email [email protected] or tweet @jordanparkererb.) Edited by Hallam Bullock (tweet @hallam_bullock) in London.