Axios

Uber has shot down the allegations that the company has secretly downloaded and copied confidential information from Google's self-driving car company, Waymo, first reported. An Uber spokesman described the lawsuit as "baseless," first in a statement to Business Insider and later to Axios:

"We are incredibly proud of the progress that our team has made. We have reviewed Waymo's claims and determined them to be a baseless attempt to slow down a competitor and we look forward to vigorously defending against them in court. In the meantime, we will continue our hard work to bring self-driving benefits to the world."

Full plate: This allegation is just one of many recent knocks on Uber's reputation. More than one PR professional has told Axios they wouldn't wish this stressful stretch even on their worst business enemy.

A number of leading tech firms plan to file a brief in favor of transgender rights in a case due to be heard next month in the Supreme Court, Axios has learned.

Apple has been among those leading the charge on the effort, along with the LGBT group Human Rights Campaign. Among the other companies that have signed on are Affirm, Box, Ebay, GitHub, IBM, Microsoft, PayPal, Salesforce, Slack, Tumblr, Yelp, Salesforce, sources said.

Apple had already spoken out on the Trump Administration's move to pull back on Obama-era guidance that interpreted existing law to require schools to let students use the restroom that matches their gender identity. The Supreme Court case, involving Virginia high school student Gavin Grimm, asks the court to weigh in on the same question.

Why it's a big deal: The case is the first time the Supreme Court has heard a case involving transgender rights and comes as both society and legislators weigh how to incorporate the reality that sex and gender are more complicated than once assumed.

Who's not on the list? Facebook and Google are two big ones that have yet to sign on, but names are still being gathered and others may yet join.

Amazon is reportedly working to compete with Microsoft and Google's business tools for email and file-storage, according to a report from The Information citing anonymous sources. The company is looking to upgrade its existing services—WorkMail and WorkDocs—and possibly bundle them into packages, along with its new video-calling app, Chime.

Beyond AWS: Amazon debuted its cloud service, Amazon Web Services, more than a decade ago, and while it directly competes with similar services from Microsoft and Google, the company never put much emphasis on adding work software tools like its competitors. This could be changing, according to the report.

Competitive edge: AWS is still the leader in its market, but Microsoft and Google are increasingly gaining ground. Google, for example, counts Snap and Spotify among its customers. Additional cloud services make Amazon even more appealing to large customers if it can take care of all their cloud needs—from computing services to email and file storage and video-conferencing for employees. But Amazon still doesn't have a word processor to compete with Microsoft's Office Word and Google Docs, though it's unclear whether the company plans to build one.

More than 100 female engineers working at Uber leveled blunt criticism at CEO Travis Kalanick about the company's culture that has come under fire after a bombshell essay by a former engineer revealed wide-spread sexism, BuzzFeed reports.

According to a recording of the hour-long meeting obtained by Buzzfeed, the women told Kalanick he needed to "start listening to his own people" about the company's "systemic problem."

Uber is no stranger to controversy and dust-ups with the law and critics of its business practices, but this week it was particularly shaken. In fact, more than one PR professional has told Axios they wouldn't wish this stressful of a week even on their worst business enemy. Here's a recap of Uber's biggest headlines since Sunday:

• A former female employee made explosive allegations of sexual harassment and discrimination in a blog post published on Sunday. CEO Travis Kalanick quickly vowed to investigate the matter and fire those involved.
• Uber enlisted former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder, along with board member Arianna Huffington, to help investigate the matter.
• The #DeleteUber campaign on social media returned.
• A scathing report from the New York Times outlined further incidents at Uber, including a manager groping female employees in Las Vegas, and another threatening to beat an underperforming subordinate.
• Mitch and Freada Kapor, investors in the company since 2010, published an open letter to Uber expressing their concerns and frustrations with its management and culture.
• Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit, filed a lawsuit against Uber alleging it stole trade secrets through its acquisition of Otto, a company building self-driving trucks.
• Raffi Krikorian, one of Uber's top self-driving technology engineers, is stepping down.
• On Thursday, Kalanick met with more than 100 Uber female engineers who told him that "there is a systemic problem here," according to a recording of the meeting BuzzFeed obtained.

The largest conference in the mobile industry starts this weekend, with upwards of 100,000 people expected to descend on Barcelona. However, this year's Mobile World Congress may lack the punch of past gatherings.

That's because Samsung is expected to debut only a new tablet and save its flagship S8 for a March introduction. And, since Apple never introduces products at the show, that means little new from the two companies that account for majority high-end phone sales.

Plus, the lack of any big breakthrough technology means that this year's phones may look a lot like last year's models, with only a few new bells and whistles.

Waymo, the self-driving car unit recently spun out of Alphabet, has filed a lawsuit against Uber for stealing trade secrets when it acquired a startup founded by former employees, according to a lawsuit filed in San Francisco federal court on Thursday. Alphabet's investment arm, GV, is a long-time investor in Uber.

The details: According to the complaint, Waymo says that Anthony Levandowski and other employees secretly downloaded and copied confidential information about the company's LiDAR system and other technology before leaving to start their own startup focused on autonomous driving. The new startup, Otto, was subsequently acquired by Uber just a few months later in August for $680 million.

As the week following the emergence of explosive allegations of sexism at Uber continues, early investors and well-known diversity advocates Mitch and Freada Kapor have penned an open letter to the company outlining their concerns, including the independence of the investigation team and Uber's patterns when dealing with such crises.

"Independent" investigation: As the Kapors point out, the team assembled to investigate the former employee's claims and Uber's overall culture is already closely tied with the company.

"This group is not set up to come up with an accurate analysis of the culture and a tough set of recommendations."

• Former U.S. attorney general Eric Holder has advocated against fingerprinting requirements on behalf of Uber in the past.
• Arianna Huffington has been on Uber's board of directors for a year now, "and is deeply invested in the company weathering the PR crisis," write the Kapors.
• HR chief Liane Hornsey reports to CEO Travis Kalanick's team, as does associate general counsel Angela Padilla.

Uber is in the midst of dealing with its latest controversy, this time allegations of sexual harassment and sexism by a former employee. But it's far from the first Silicon Valley tech company to face criticism for its treatment of female employees.