Tag: laid
Ann Summers boss Jacqueline Gold laid to rest with brand’s famous rabbit etched into coffin
ANN Summers boss Jacqueline Gold is laid to rest yesterday — with her brand’s famous rabbit etched into her coffin.
The lingerie trailblazer was celebrated by celebrity mourners including The Apprentice’s Karren Brady, TV host Eamonn Holmes and late footballing great George Best’s ex-wife Alex.
Mourners packed out the historic Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich, South London, to say goodbye to the retail giant, who died of breast cancer aged 62 last month.
Her dad, David, died weeks earlier.
Her company, Ann Summers, paid tribute to their boss in an online post, yesterday which read: “Today we celebrate all that she was, tomorrow (& everyday) we continue her legacy.”
Jacqueline Gold was one of the most successful businesswomen in the UK.
The tycoon transformed the retailer into a multi-million pound business after joining the company aged just 19.
She had the idea to transform the brand from a standard sex shop into a more female-friendly chain as part of the Party Plan concept.
She was appointed Ann Summer’s chief executive in 1987 and the brand now has 140 stores across the UK and Republic of Ireland.
Her success also led to appearances on the celebrity edition of The Apprentice and ITV show Fortune – Million Pound Giveaway.
Jacqueline’s family announced her death via social media, writing: “It is with unspeakable sadness I’m writing to let you know that my incredible sister – our amazing Ann Summers Executive Chair, Jacqueline, passed away yesterday evening with Dan, Scarlett, Nick and I by her side on the final steps of her incredible journey.
“Jacqueline courageously battled stage 4 breast cancer for 7 years and was an absolute warrior throughout her cancer journey.
“In life she was a trailblazer, a visionary, and the most incredible woman, all of which makes this news that much harder to share.
“As a family, we are utterly heartbroken at the loss of our wife, mum, sister and best friend. I appreciate so many of you will want to pay your respects to our incredible Jacqueline, but for now, we ask for time to grieve this huge loss to our family, privately.”
Dover ferry queues: Extra overnight English Channel crossings laid on to clear backlog
Funko Has Laid Off Most Of Mondo, Killing Off Its Movie Poster Business – Report
It’s the end of an era for movie fans, as Mondo will reportedly no longer produce unique and stylish movie posters. Mondo’s parent company, Funko, has apparently laid off most of the staff at the Austin-based company and killing off its poster division. [Update: While the layoffs have been confirmed, a representative also told GameSpot that Mondo’s poster business will continue.]
According to sources who spoke to TheWrap, Mondo co-founders Rob Jones and Mitch Putnam were also laid off and the company’s division for cutting-edge experiences and products, The Lab, has been shut down. Only the toys and records divisions remain, but as the sources explained, it’s not clear how long they’ll be around for.
Funko purchased Mondo less than a year ago from Alamo Drafthouse, adding a brand to its portfolio that had built a cult following over the years by producing cinematic fine art across limited-edition movie posters, vinyl records, and licensed action figures. Some of Mondo’s movie posters have become highly sought-after in the collector’s community, and the company’s recent venture into records saw it put an artistic spin on famous movie soundtracks, packing these discs in beautifully designed slipcases.
400 Twitch employees have been laid off amid more huge Amazon cuts
After laying off more than 18,000 people in January, Amazon is shrinking its workforce again, this time by cutting 9,000 jobs in their cloud service, human resources, and advertising divisions. A further 400 Twitch employees will be affected, according to a brief memo from Twitch’s new CEO Dan Clancy.
Over 200 Apex Legends QA testers have been abruptly laid off by EA
On Tuesday, EA abruptly laid off over 200 quality assurance testers at their LA office Baton Rouge, who were primarily working on their free-to-play battle royale Apex Legends. This news comes from a report by Kotaku which says the layoffs happened over a last-minute Zoom call, according to three of their sources. EA later confirmed the news, calling the layoffs part of their “ongoing global strategy” to expand the “distribution of our Apex Legends testing team.”
Twitter has reportedly laid off product manager Esther Crawford
For at least the fourth time since he said the company was done with layoffs, Elon Musk is reportedly cutting more of Twitter’s workforce. According to The Information, the social media website laid off “dozens” of employees on Saturday evening. The outlet put the number of affected staffers at approximately 50, a number Platformer’s Zoë Schiffer later said was likely much higher.
“Hearing that the Twitter layoffs last night were well above 50 and hit multiple departments including engineering,” Schiffer tweeted on Saturday, subsequently adding that product manager Esther Crawford was among those Twitter let go on over the weekend. Crawford’s departure is notable for a few reasons. Outside of Musk himself, she was one of the most recognizable faces at “Twitter 2.0.” She led the company’s Twitter Blue redesign and oversaw work on its upcoming payments platform. At one point, she even shared a photo of herself sleeping on the floor of Twitter’s office.
Look, you’re gonna feel pretty silly about this once you get canned with 0 severance.
— cliff@leaninto.it on mastodon (@moonpolysoft) November 2, 2022
The company’s latest cuts claimed at least one other prominent employee. On Saturday morning, Revue founder Martijn de Kuijper tweeted he was among those who had lost their job. “Waking up to find I’ve been locked out of my email,” he said. “Looks like I’m let go.” Twitter shut down Revue at the start of this year. Musk did not address the cuts on Twitter. “Hope you have a good Sunday,” he tweeted early Sunday afternoon. “First day of the rest of your life.” Since his takeover of the company last year, it’s believed Twitter has cut more than 80 percent of its full-time staff. As of January, the company’s daily revenue was reportedly down 40 percent year-over-year.
‘Our love will last forever’: Firefighter who died tackling blaze at historic building to be laid to rest
Daily Crunch: Hundreds of Salesforce workers laid off in January just discovered they were out of work today
Hello, friends, and welcome to Daily Crunch, bringing you the most important startup, tech and venture capital news in a single package.
Daily Crunch: Hundreds of Salesforce workers laid off in January just discovered they were out of work today by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch
Voice AI company SoundHound has reportedly laid off half its workforce
SoundHound, the company that once said it wanted to challenge Amazon and Google’s dominance in the AI voice market, has reportedly cut about half its workforce. According to Gizmodo, the firm laid off about 200 employees last week as part of a company-wide restructuring. If Gizmodo’s reporting is accurate, the mass layoffs would mark the second staff reduction SoundHound has undertaken in less than a year. In November, the company reportedly laid off 10 percent of its workforce. Before the first round of cuts, SoundHound employed approximately 450 people.
A trio of former employees who spoke to Gizmodo described a “pitiful” severance package contingent on the company raising more money. They claim the package includes no healthcare and only two weeks of severance. The company did not immediately respond to Engadget’s request for comment. SoundCloud went public via a special-purpose acquisition company in early 2022. According to data from CrunchBase, the firm has raised more than $300 million to date. SoundHound customers include Pandora, Mercedes-Benz and Snap.
In an email obtained by Gizmodo, SoundHound CEO and co-founder Keyvan Mohajer blamed the layoffs on recent macroeconomic conditions. “When we set course in early 2021 to become publicly listed, high-tech companies like SoundHound were the darlings of the investor community. Companies who could achieve high growth, despite high costs, were seen as engines of a future economy, ” he wrote. “However, as a result of changing economic conditions, including high interest rates, rising inflation, and fears of recession, companies with our profile became much less desirable.” Mohajer reportedly went on to add investors “were concerned” SoundHound did “not have the heart to let go of its people.”
In the last few months, mass layoffs have been a frequent occurrence at many tech companies. At the start of November, Facebook parent Meta cut about 13 percent of its workforce, a move that saw more than 11,000 people lose their jobs. More recently, Amazon expanded the scope of its company-wide layoffs to affect more than 18,000 employees.