Daily Tech Snippet: Wednesday, October 14

• Twitter to Cut More Than 300 Jobs: Twitter announced on Tuesday that it was laying off as many as 336 employees, or 8 percent of its work force, to streamline and refocus as it tries to find ways to attract new users to its social network. “We are moving forward with a restructuring of our work force so we can put our company on a stronger path to grow,” Mr. Dorsey, one of the founders of Twitter, wrote in an email to employees. “We feel strongly that engineering will move much faster with a smaller and nimbler team, while remaining the biggest percentage of our work force. And the rest of the organization will be streamlined in parallel.” The cuts, one of the first major moves by Mr. Dorsey since he was named chief executive, received a mixed reaction from Wall Street. News of the impending layoffs leaked out Friday, after the market closed, and Twitter’s shares fell nearly 7 percent on Monday. After the staff cuts were announced Tuesday morning, the stock rebounded briefly and ended the day at $29.06, up 1 percent. “Cutting 8 percent of your work force is a little jarring,” said Mark Mahaney, an Internet analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “You don’t normally see job cuts at this early stage for growth companies unless there is something materially going wrong with the operations or the strategy.” Twitter’s work force has grown quickly in recent years, through acquisitions and hiring. As of June 30, the company, which is based in San Francisco, had about 4,100 employees, an increase of more than 800 people, or 24 percent, from the previous June. Twitter said Tuesday that revenue and adjusted profit for the third quarter would meet or exceed previous forecasts. The high end of the company’s previous forecast predicted revenue of $560 million and adjusted earnings of $115 million. The company said it would provide “generous” exit packages to those who are losing their jobs, including 60 days of pay for San Francisco employees, which is required under a provision of state law governing large layoffs. Twitter intends to take a pretax charge of $5 million to $15 million in the fourth quarter in connection with the layoffs. Demand for software engineers is intense in Silicon Valley, and former Twitter employees were quick to reach out to those laid off and urge them to join them at other companies.

• It’s not just Twitter: Snapchat is laying off workers, too: Snapchat, the app that's best known for its disappearing messages, is stepping back from creating Netflix-style original content. You might not have realized Snapchat was even in the business of creating scripted shows. But in a move that likely reflects its poor performance, the effort has been shut down — and now the 15-member team responsible for it is being disbanded. Among those leaving? Marcus Wiley, a former Fox comedy executive whom Snapchat hired to run its program planning and development. Snapchat's "Snap Channel" was one of a number of content streams available on the company's app. It appeared on the Discover tab, running alongside partner channels from CNN, BuzzFeed and ESPN, among others. As those companies ran their content on their Snapchat feeds, Snapchat itself produced shows such as "Literally Can't Even" and "Pillow Talk," a casual talk show set in a bedroom where the host and guests appeared on camera in their pajamas. Unfortunately for Snapchat, these shows weren't enough to keep the channel going. After less than a year, the company made the decision to shut down the Snap Channel, a move that convinced Wiley it was time to go.

• Starbucks Is Testing Coffee Delivery to Office Workers in the Empire State Building; Opens a 'secret' kitchen on the ground floor: ree weeks after rolling out mobile ordering in its U.S. stores—a service that lets people pay for drinks in a branded app and pick them up in stores—Starbucks is bringing coffee delivery to the office door. Today, the coffee chain launched its first foray into food delivery with a store on the bottom floor of New York's Empire State Building, which houses 12,000 workers. The program—dubbed "Green Apron Delivery"—lets staffers in 150 offices order food and drinks through a website that only tenants in the iconic building can utilize, meaning that tourists will not be able to participate in the program.  The new store isn't your typical Starbucks, though, mainly because you can't walk inside. Instead, it's more of a kitchen where baristas whip up a small menu of drinks and food. Once someone places an order, a barista makes the drink and delivers it to an office within 30 minutes. Through October, the delivery option is free, and it will cost $2 per coffee run starting next month. Starbucks was quick to emphasize its project in the skyscraper is only a test, but it's the latest example of how the company wants to make digital ordering mainstream. Last month, the coffee chain launched mobile payment at 7,400 stores, and later this year, it will launch another pilot program in its Seattle hometown as part of a partnership with on-demand app Postmates. 

• In Boost to Uber, Ola, India Said to Issue Guidelines for Ride-Hailing Apps: The rules, which aren’t binding, if implemented by the states will be a boost for Uber Technologies Inc. and its bigger competitor Ola that have faced bans in some cities such as capital New Delhi. This month China also proposed rules for ride-booking services that also ask operators to obtain licenses from local authorities and offer cars that are registered for commercial use. The guidelines, prepared by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, mandate ride-hailing companies obtain permits from respective state transport departments to operate in a region, the people said asking not to be identified before a public announcement. The states may set the maximum fares to be charged to provide a level playing field with taxis, according to the advisory. The vehicles to be offered must be equipped with a location tracking device as well as an emergency safety button. Drivers, who offer their services on multiple platforms, will need to have a commercial license and the company will have to obtain a police verification certificate.

• Intel’s Earnings Beat: $14.5B Revenue Despite Shrinking PC Market Reflect Move to Cloud Computing; Shares Flat: Intel’s net income for the third quarter was 64 cents a share, above the projections of Wall Street analysts. According to a survey by Thomson Reuters, analysts thought Intel would make 59 cents a share, down from 66 cents a year ago. Revenue was $14.5 billion, down slightly from $14.6 billion a year ago, and above projections of $14.2 billion. Intel shares were down about 3.5 percent in after-hours trading, in part because of a projected fourth-quarter dip in demand from cloud companies. Intel became the world’s biggest producer of semiconductors thanks mostly to personal computers, which eventually led to chips for server computers. Now, the new hot trend of cloud computing — data centers filled with tightly connected servers — is remaking Intel. On Tuesday, Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., said that in the three months that ended Sept. 26, PC chips brought in $8.5 billion and chips for servers in cloud computing data centers brought in $4.1 billion. A year ago, PC chips brought in $9.2 billion and data center chips brought in $3.7 billion. Making PC chips is still a big business, but not the way it once was. The data center group also has much higher profit margins: Operating profit from PC chips was $2.1 billion, down 20 percent from a year ago, while data center chips had an operating profit of $2.1 billion, up 9 percent. Intel’s mix of cloud-computing customers shows how much influence is wielded by just a handful of big operations. Of 200 cloud company customers that Intel tracks, just seven take one-third of those chips: Google, Amazon Web Services, Microsoft and Facebook, as well as Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent of China. While the rest are now growing at twice the rate of the top seven, Ms. Bryant said, the big companies are unusually demanding customers, even designing their own chip modifications to make their global clouds work better.

• Facebook Is Building Its Own YouTube Inside Facebook: Facebook has started serving up billions and billions of videos to its users by placing the clips in their feeds, between pictures of your friends’ kids and stories about people who don’t have kids. But what if you wanted to watch a video on Facebook, without looking at kids or reading about them? Like you can on YouTube? Now Facebook is going to let you do that, too: The social network says it is testing a “dedicated place on Facebook for people to go when they exclusively want to watch video,” which will help “people discover, watch and share videos on Facebook that are relevant to them.” Just like you can do on YouTube, the world’s biggest video site. The parallels between the two platforms aren’t a coincidence, and Facebook’s announcement is one that video industry insiders have expected for at least a year, starting when Facebook began its video push in earnest: If Facebook was going to really take on YouTube for video viewers’ time — and, eventually, advertisers’ dollars — then it would have to offer an experience like YouTube, where you could go look for things you want, instead of waiting for Facebook to show you something you didn’t know you wanted.

• Apple loses patent lawsuit to University of Wisconsin, faces up to $862M in damages: Apple Inc could be facing up to $862 million in damages after a U.S. jury on Tuesday found the iPhone maker used technology owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madison's licensing arm without permission in chips found in many of its most popular devices. The jury in Madison, Wisconsin also said the patent, which improves processor efficiency, was valid. The trial will now move on to determine how much Apple owes in damages. Representatives for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) and Apple could not immediately be reached for comment. WARF sued Apple in January 2014 alleging infringement of its 1998 patent for improving chip efficiency. The jury was considering whether Apple's A7, A8 and A8X processors, found in the iPhone 5s, 6 and 6 Plus, as well as several versions of the iPad, violate the patent. Cupertino, California-based Apple denied any infringement and argued the patent is invalid, according to court papers. Apple previously tried to convince the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to review the patent's validity, but in April the agency rejected the bid. According to a recent ruling by U.S. District Judge William Conley, who is presiding over the case, Apple could be liable for up to $862.4 million in damages. He scheduled the trial to proceed in three phases: liability, damages, and finally, whether Apple infringed the patent willfully, which could lead to enhanced penalties.