The Japan-based video game giant Nintendo — founded in 1889 as a playing-card company, and responsible for household names like Mario, Donkey Kong and Pokémon — announced a profit jump amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The state of play: In March, Nintendo "not only sold more units of their Switch console than during its launch in 2017, but sold the most consoles in a month for any platform in a decade," the Washington Post's Jon Irwin writes.
Facebook's acquisition of Giphy, the platform for sharing animated images, could raise antitrust questions for the social network at a time when it is already under intense scrutiny.
The big picture: State and federal agencies are investigating Facebook for potential anticompetitive actions. The Federal Trade Commission is also reviewing a decade's worth of smaller acquisitions by Facebook and other tech giants.
The big picture: Google, along with Facebook, Apple, and Amazon, has faced scrutiny from regulators over a variety of concerns, including allegations of privacy violations, anti-competitive practices, political bias, and failure to limit the spread of misinformation.
Tech companies are gaming out how to bring employees back to the office, but many are expecting a new normal in which a significant portion of their workers stay home for good.
Why it matters: Some tech firms may find they are just as productive with a remote workforce. But a shift away from in-office work will have profound impacts on everything from the commercial real estate market to the vast number of support jobs that were built around serving Silicon Valley's sprawling campuses.
As they hope to weather the coronavirus crisis despite severe dips in business, Airbnb and Lyft have both made new hires focused on safety and community.
Driving the news:Airbnb announced yesterday it has hired AppleCare chief Tara Bunch as its new head of global operations, while Lyft recently brought on Jennifer Brandenburger as its first director of community safety.
Airbnb has hired Tara Bunch as its new head of global operations, overseeing customer service, trust and safety, and payments. Bunch is currently Apple's vice president of AppleCare.
The big picture: Bunch is filling a crucial gap since the departure of Airbnb's chief operations officer Belinda Johnson last year, especially as Airbnb, which has been hit hard by the collapse of the travel business during the pandemic, starts trying to make consumers comfortable staying in other people's homes again.
