Daily Tech Snippet: Thursday, February 16

• Uber Gives Restless Employees a Way to Cash Out: Many longtime employees of Uber Technologies Inc. are multi-millionaires, at least on paper. But with no initial public offering in sight and a strict policy blocking most private share sales, they’re stuck in limbo. However, there’s a little-known option available to Uber loyalists looking to cash out. Those who work at the San Francisco company for at least four years can sell as much as 10 percent of their shares, people familiar with the matter said. The program has a built-in incentive to entice staff to stick around. The seller gets paid out over many months and must remain at Uber during that time, said the people, who asked not to be identified because they weren’t authorized to discuss the program publicly. The formal plan, which has been in effect for a couple years but was previously unreported, caps buybacks at well below $10 million per employee, one of the people said. Fewer than 200 of the some 10,000 people employed by Uber currently qualify for the program, the person said. Although well-compensated by any rational standard, startup employees often take pay cuts compared with what they could receive at Facebook Inc. or Google. They join knowing a chunk of their pay is tied to the fortunes of their employer and could become worthless. What many workers hadn’t bargained for was how long they’d have to wait to find out what would happen. Airbnb Inc. and Pinterest Inc. were founded around the same time as Uber, achieved valuations in excess of $10 billion and yet remain private. But the two companies have at times allowed their employees to sell shares to interested buyers and even facilitated some of those transactions. Uber, the world’s most valuable tech startup at $69 billion, has been more restrictive about who gets to buy its shares.

• Dubai is planning to launch autonomous, one-passenger drone taxis this summer: Pilotless drones capable of carrying a person will begin to soar through Dubai’s airspace this July, according to an announcement made Monday by Mattar Al Tayer, the chief of Dubai’s Roads & Transportation Agency, at the World Government Summit. The country is turning to a Chinese-made drone, the Ehang 184, which can carry a passenger weighing up to 220 pounds for about a 30-minute trip. The egg-shaped aircraft hovers using eight propellers — two attached to each of the drone’s four arms. Test flights have already been conducted in Dubai, and the taxi service is expected to launch in July, says Al Tayer.

• Facebook is rolling out job postings and applications: Facebook is entering the job market. The social network will now let employers post jobs directly to their Page, and users can apply for those jobs on Facebook. Applications are pre-populated with a user’s Facebook data (though it can be altered), then sent to the employer via Messenger. Facebook hopes employers and prospective employees will then use Messenger to communicate throughout the courting process. Posting a job is free for employers, and there's no limit to how many posts a Page can have. Businesses were already posting jobs to their Pages, according to Andrew Bosworth, Facebook's VP of ads and its business platform. The hope is that now it'll be easier to find those postings and apply for them. The news is not so great for existing job platforms like LinkedIn, which charges recruiters to post and promote jobs on its platform. Facebook isn't necessarily the first place you think of when looking for a new job, but it could certainly offer some competition to LinkedIn and has a much larger user base. The new feature will start to roll out beginning Wednesday, but only in the U.S. and Canada.

• TripAdvisor revenue misses estimates, shares slip: Travel review website TripAdvisor reported lower-than-expected quarterly revenue, hurt by a fall in display advertisements on its websites and a drop in subscription revenue. Shares of the company, which owns websites such as TripAdvisor.com and Oyster.com, fell 5.1 percent to $49.99 in extended trading on Wednesday. TripAdvisor's total revenue in the fourth quarter was $316 million. The company's revenue from display-based advertising and subscription fell 2.8 percent to $69 million. Needham, Massachusetts-based TripAdvisor, which aggregates reviews and opinions about destinations and hotels, said its referral and transaction revenue was $154 million, flat from last year. TripAdvisor's referral revenue has been under pressure since the company rolled out its instant booking feature, which allows booking of hotel rooms directly through the company's website. 

• Verizon close to Yahoo deal, price cut of $250-350 million: sources: Verizon Communications Inc (VZ.N) is close to a revised deal to buy Yahoo Inc's (YHOO.O) core internet business for $250 million to $350 million less than the original agreed price of $4.83 billion, according to a source briefed on the matter. Since last year, Verizon had been trying to persuade Yahoo to amend the terms of the acquisition agreement to reflect the economic damage from two cyber attacks. A source told Reuters that the deal, which could come as soon as this week, will entail Verizon and Yahoo sharing the liability from potential lawsuits related to the data breaches.