Fortune 500

Assaf Rappaport took a leap of faith when he left Microsoft after four years at the tech giant. And it just so happened that he took that jump in March 2020. Of course, upending his life to embark on his own project coincidently during lockdown proved nerve wracking. “It felt like the most horrible decision ever,” Rappaport said at #BrainstormTech. Part of the problem was that Rappaport was departing a role and company that he truly enjoyed. “I was on the mothership,” Rappaport said. “I truly, I love Microsoft. I had a great job, great impact on security,” he continued. Even so, Rappaport was feeling like it was time for a change. Read more: https://lnkd.in/egBWvWSW

Google offered a group of European Union-based cloud firms a package worth about €470 million ($512 million) in a failed attempt to derail their antitrust settlement with Microsoft Corp. bit.ly/4cUyhK2 Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe, or CISPE, last week ditched a complaint at the EU’s antitrust arm over Microsoft’s software licensing processes after brokering a deal to get fairer access to the US firm’s technologies. CISPE had previously argued Microsoft made it too difficult for customers to change cloud providers by tying its business software to its Azure cloud services. Google’s offer was conditional on CISPE maintaining its EU antitrust complaint into Microsoft’s allegedly abusive activities, and was also boosted by about €6 million in financial contributions from Amazon Web Services, as part of its ongoing partnership with the association. Read more: bit.ly/4cUyhK2

A major internet outage affecting Microsoft is disrupting flights, banks, media outlets and companies across the world, with problems continuing hours after a flawed update caused its systems to malfunction. bit.ly/46eSCaD CrowdStrike Holdings Inc. Chief Executive Officer George Kurtz posted on X on Friday that the fault had been identified and “a fix has been deployed,” adding that it wasn’t a cyberattack. The scale of the disruption reflects the enduring ubiquity of Microsoft’s Windows, and the sizeable adoption of CrowdStrike’s security software. Windows is installed on more than 70% of machines and CrowdStrike is the global leader in modern corporate protection software. Read more: bit.ly/46eSCaD

After being widely considered the winner of the streaming wars, there were some questions as to what extent Netflix’s industry dominance would continue. bit.ly/3A0sEeU Instead, it has impressed investors with another quarter that highlighted its ability to add new subscribers in a saturated market, while growing revenues and expanding margins. Netflix reported 27% margins for the quarter, a five percentage point increase compared to the second quarter of 2023. A paid subscriber base inching closer to 300 million globally, a crackdown on password sharing, the launch of an ad-supported tier and live events like The Roast of Tom Brady all drove results. Netflix also drove significant numbers of new subscribers through its ad-supported tier, first launched in 2022. Read more: bit.ly/3A0sEeU

“From a role model perspective, for my two daughters, for all the women that I interact with, my goal is to show everyone that anything’s possible." There isn’t an official roadmap to building one’s career. But Yanela Frias followed her passion for business, which has led to a 27-year career at Prudential Financial, founded in 1875, and her becoming the insurance giant’s first female CFO. Frias began her tenure as EVP and CFO of Prudential, a Fortune 100 company, in March, succeeding Ken Tanji. Stepping into this role has “incredible significance,” she told Fortune. “There are no limits other than what you apply to yourself," Frias says. Keep reading in the #CFODaily newsletter: https://lnkd.in/gfzgvdim

“We’re starting to speak directly with employees who haven’t regularly been spending meaningful amounts of time in the office,” Amazon spokesperson Rob Munoz told Fortune. bit.ly/3WtRz3p According to leaked Slack messages viewed by Business Insider, Amazon employees across different teams have been set a minimum-hour obligation on in-office days. Some teams have reportedly been told that a minimum of two hours per visit is required to count as office attendance, others six. The toughened stance comes as research shows that workers are increasingly dodging in-office mandates by scanning their badge so it looks like they came to the office, before swiftly returning home. Read more: bit.ly/3WtRz3p

“You should partner with people who know things you don’t.” In an interview at Fortune’s #BrainstormTech, Jeff Dean, chief scientist at Google DeepMind and one of Google’s first employees, shared his tips on how to succeed at work. See more coverage from #BrainstormTech here: bit.ly/465Qwd4

It’s a tense moment for air travel. As consumers grow increasingly weary of bad customer service experiences, Boeing’s frightening safety failures of the last few years continue to echo in the public consciousness. For David Neeleman, who founded JetBlue 25 years ago and now leads Breeze Airways, the string of recent aviation mishaps doesn’t invalidate the broader safety gains achieved in air travel. The company is looking to solve for some of the most salient customer service flubs in the airline industry. In an interview at Fortune’s #BrainstormTech conference, Neeleman says that Delta and United ate beating Southwest because passengers don’t want to fight for a seat.” “They want to pay a little extra to have extra legroom. They want to be able to pay a little extra for a first class seat,” Neeleman said. See more coverage from #BrainstormTech here: bit.ly/3WqKCQM

Blaine Raddon, a self-proclaimed Tesla superfan, found himself in a tight spot when he realized his Cybertruck was too big to fit into his apartment complex’s garage. bit.ly/3SdpomY Thanks to a “vehicle order agreement” specific to the Cybertruck, Raddon couldn’t sell the truck within one year of delivery without incurring a $50,000 fine and a lifetime ban from buying Tesla products. Raddon took to X to complain about the policy in a now-deleted post that soon gained traction online and caught the attention of news outlets. Finally, Tesla’s team reached out to him and overturned its rule against customers reselling the Cybertruck. Read More: bit.ly/3SdpomY

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon has a surprising message for disgruntled clients: keep the complaints coming. bit.ly/3WcXLvc “I always tell a client, ‘When you complain to us, you’re doing us a favor. If we’re torturing you, we’re probably torturing another 10,000 or 100,000 people,’” Dimon revealed in LinkedIn’s “This is Working” video series last week. It’s why, he insisted, that leaders can’t do their job from their corner office. Having led JPMorgan since 2006, Dimon is acutely aware of how customers’ needs and wants change over time—and that leaders who don’t remain on the pulse of what that means for their business get left behind. Read more: bit.ly/3WcXLvc