Stocks have plummeted for a seventh straight day amid growing panic about the novel coronavirus.

The drop isn't expected to have a lasting effect on average investors, whose portfolios are expected to recover as stocks bounce back with time. Some billionaires, however, might not be so lucky.

The world's 500 richest people saw $139 billion wiped off their collective net worths on Monday alone, Bloomberg reported. Markets across the globe have continued to fall since then. The S&P 500 is down 10% from where it was when the week began, The New York Times reported. 

Falling markets knocked $1.8 billion off the net worth of former Alibaba CEO Jack Ma, the richest person in China, in the past week, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Chinese citizens may be shouldering the brunt of the public health crisis, but the economic fallout has not been as contained. No one lost more money than French billionaire and LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault in Monday's market drop, Bloomberg reported. Arnault lost $4.8 billion on Monday and another $1.5 billion on Tuesday, then regained $900 million on Wednesday, before losing an additional $2.7 billion on Thursday, leaving him with a net worth of $46.2 billion, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index shows. Business Insider's Mary Hanbury previously reported that the coronavirus could reduce the sale of luxury goods by as much as $43 billion this year due to reduced spending in China.

Jeff Bezos shouldered the second-largest drop on Monday, losing a total of $10 billion in the past week, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Over 83,000 people have been infected by the novel coronavirus and over 2,800 have died, Business Insider reported. While there are now confirmed cases on every continent except Antarctica, the vast majority are in China. Researchers believe the virus originated in bats and may have jumped from animals to people at a market in the Chinese city of Wuhan.

Billionaires fared worse than ordinary 401k millionaires during the stock market meltdown at the end of 2018, Business Insider reported. Billionaires across the globe lost 7% of their collective net worth in 2018 due to market instability at the end of that year, Wealth-X found in its 2019 Billionaire Census. It was the first time in seven years that high net worth individuals saw their fortunes shrink, according to French technology consulting firm Capgemini.

In its 2019 World Wealth Report, Capgemini found that individuals with net worths between $1 million and $5 million lost less than those with net worths over $30 million and billionaires during that market rout.

"It's the risk versus reward scenario," Capgemini's Deputy Head of the Global Financial Services Market Intelligence Strategic Analysis Group Chirag Thakral told Business Insider in July. "Where in a good market [billionaires] are the ones leading the growth, in a bad market, they're the ones who are affected the most."

Original author: Taylor Nicole Rogers

Micro USB cables are still handy for charging up everything from phones and tablets to headphones and speakers.The Anker PowerLine Micro USB cable is the best one you can buy, and it's less than half the original price.

Although USB-C cables and connectors are becoming the standard for charging and data transfer, Micro USB is still prevalent. In fact, devices still rely on it — everything from budget phones and tablets to Bluetooth headphones and speakers — and it will be some time before they're completely extinct.

The best part is that Micro USB cables are now much less expensive, even high-end options. Our top pick, the Anker PowerLine Micro USB cable, is now less than half its original price tag on Amazon, and it's a durable cable from a well-known brand that we trust.

We've also rounded up the best super-long cable, the most durable, and a nifty retractable option that stretches from 2 to 33 inches.

Micro USB cables are affordable, but you should still opt for well-known brands to avoid any problems (like potentially frying a connected device) and ensure some longevity.

Prices and links are current as of 02/28/2020. Replaced Fuse Chicken Titan Travel with Fuse Chicken Titan as our durable option. We are currently researching and testing products for the best universal and best multi-pack categories. Updated by Steven Cohen.

Original author: Malarie Gokey

A new technology is making it easier for sneaker resellers to weed out fakes.Product authentication technology provider Entrupy released its Legit Check Tech (LCT) solution earlier this month, which uses artificial intelligence to determine whether a sneaker is counterfeit or not.The technology is meant to equip high-level resellers and marketplaces with a quick way to authenticate sneakers.Counterfeiting is a big problem for sneaker resellers. Authorities recently busted a counterfeiting operation that shipped $470 million worth of fake Nikes to the US.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

One of the biggest problems in the sneaker resale market may now be more manageable. 

Earlier this month, product authentication technology provider Entrupy released its Legit Check Tech (LCT) solution, a device that uses artificial intelligence to determine whether a sneaker is counterfeit or not — and it only takes about a minute to use.

Fake pairs of popular Nike and Adidas sneakers are rampant in the resale sector. Authorities recently busted a counterfeiting operation that shipped $470 million worth of fake Nikes to the US.

"You have a sense of betrayal when you buy something and you're scammed off of it," Entrupy cofounder and CEO Vidyuth Srinivasan told Business Insider. "And I think that's really what we're trying to address."

Resale marketplaces and consignment shops like StockX and Urban Necessities use trained human authentication specialists to verify sneakers in-house. But for independent resellers that don't use middleman marketplaces to sell their goods, the threat of counterfeit sneakers is a serious problem that can be detrimental to business.

Counterfeit sneakers are pervasive on websites like eBay that lack authentication specialists, and at trade shows like Sneaker Con. For the most part, it's up to resellers and buyers to determine whether a pair is authentic or not.

For Entrupy, which already provides an authentication solution for luxury handbags, the plan is to sell the new sneaker authentication devices to retailers and high-level resellers. Instead of replacing humans, the goal is to equip authentication specialists with the technology to diminish any possible errors in the verification process. According to Srinivasan, the device is designed to help save high-volume resellers time and money while instilling their business with credibility.

"Nothing has slipped through our system, and we've tested hundreds of fakes of multiple different qualities," Srinivasan said.

Entrupy has not released details on the price of each device, but a representative said that the company will likely use a pricing model that corresponds with each seller's monthly transaction volume.

Though perhaps not the intended purpose, the device will likely enable independent resellers to grow their business without the help of a middleman authentication specialist. 

"Maybe with this, everyone can create their own marketplace," Srinivasan said.

Here's how the device works to catch counterfeit shoes in a matter of seconds:

Original author: Shoshy Ciment

San Francisco's main tourism industry group told attendees of the now-postponed Game Developers Conference that the health department says "the risk to the general public is low" – the actual quote is "the risk to the general public is currently low, the global picture is changing rapidly." The GDC web page devoted to giving attendees the latest virus updates fails to mention San Francisco's state of emergency and links to old health department information.Tourism agency responds that "We quoted sources directly and did not in any way misrepresent the facts." Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A San Francisco tourism industry association released a letter this week to people registered for the now-postponed  Game Developers Conference that sought to allay coronavirus fears while using partial and selective quotes from city officials.

The quotes used by the San Francisco Travel Association appeared to play down the city's assessment of the risks, while organizers of the conference — the largest annual event for video game developers — have failed to mention San Francisco's recently declared state of emergency in the updates posted online about the conference and the coronavirus.

The travel association responded Friday that "We quoted sources directly and did not in any way misrepresent the facts." 

The situation underscores the fluid and quickly evolving nature of the coronavirus epidemic and the efforts by businesses and industry groups to respond to a health crisis that threatens to wipe out millions or more in lost business. The GDC gaming conference is one of several large upcoming tech events in San Francisco, and comes after the cybersecurity-focused RSA conference saw several large companies drop out due to coronavirus fears.

Large companies including Microsoft, Sony, Electronic Arts, Facebook, and Amazon dropped out of the GDC conference, which was scheduled to take place from March 16 to 20.  On Friday, conference organizers announced that it was "postponed" until "later in the summer."

In a letter dated February 25, San Francisco Travel Association CEO Joe D'Alessandro told registered attendees of the GDC show that "We want you to know that, according to the San Francisco Department of Public Health, 'There are zero confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in San Francisco, and the risk to the general public is low'." 

The health department website that D'Alessandro's letter links to said:

"Although there are zero confirmed cases of novel coronavirus in San Francisco residents, and the risk to the general public is currently low, the global picture is changing rapidly and we need to step-up preparedness." (Italics added.)

The quote D'Alessandro used was published in gaming blogs this week and his letter was linked to by The Washington Post. 

D'Alessandro said the health department updated their online statement since the letter was sent, and that the agency's website still says there is no recommendation to cancel social gatherings at this time. He noted that his letter linked to the Centers for Disease Control, the Department of Public Health and the Department of Homeland Security. "If our intent were to obfuscate or sugar-coat this situation, would we have been so forthcoming with this information?" he asked. 

Dr. Grant Colfax, San Francisco's director of health, said this week that "This is a global outbreak that is entering a new phase, and we must be prepared." He added, "This is not business as usual."

The health department told Business Insider on Friday morning that its current statement about the city's virus situation is: "Although there are still zero confirmed cases in San Francisco residents, we are stepping up our preparedness in case that changes. The global picture is changing rapidly, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm."

Patients are being treated at University of California, San Francisco Hospital after being taken from a Japanese cruise ship and then to Travis Air Force Base. A whistleblower complaint from a federal healthcare employee says evacuations at the air base were done unsafely. Northern California reported its second case of community transmission of the coronavirus in two days on Friday.

The coronavirus death toll surpassed 2,900, with more than 85,000 infected.

The same day that D'Alessandro's letter was published, San Francisco Mayor London Breed declared a state of emergency in the city due to the coronavirus, which the travel ssociation's letter noted. Breed and the department of health stressed that the emergency declaration is to help the city prepare in case the virus situation there worsens.

But the city's emergency declaration, albeit a proactive measure, was not included on a web page published by the GDC conference organizers designed to "keep the GDC community appraised of the latest updates" and "new information." The web page links to a February 4 letter from the health department stating that it is "not recommending the cancellation of public events at this time." 

GDC did not respond to a request for comment on its posted virus updates. 

Breed's office said Friday that "There have not yet been any cases of novel coronavirus originating in San Francisco and the City continues to encourage people to attend events and conferences, while taking steps to reduce the likelihood of getting sick by washing hands with soap and water, covering coughs and sneezes, and staying home in case of illness."

D'Alessandro's tourism group reports San Francisco convention attendees spend an average of $567 per day. 

Original author: Jeff Elder

Amazon has instructed its 798,000 employees to avoid "non-essential travel" domestically and internationally because of concerns about the coronavirus outbreak, a spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider. Earlier, The New York Times reported that Amazon had told its worldwide operations team not to arrange any meetings requiring travel until at least April, the report said.Amazon had already restricted employee travel to China and has been frantically trying to address prospective inventory shortages.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Amazon told all 798,000 of its employees on Friday to avoid "non-essential travel" domestically and internationally because of concerns about COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, a spokesperson for the company confirmed to Business Insider.

Earlier on Friday, The New York Times reported that employees on Amazon's worldwide operations team, which oversees much of the company's technology and logistics globally, received a separate email from the senior vice president in charge of the team, Dave Clark, telling them not to plan any meetings requiring travel until at least April, when the company hoped to have a better sense of the outbreak's impact.

The spokesperson confirmed that the guidance on avoiding nonessential travel was sent to all employees, including those on the worldwide operations team.

Amazon had already announced restrictions on travel to and from China in January, telling workers who had been to the region to work from home for two weeks upon returning and seek medical attention if they showed symptoms, in-line with guidance from companies like Apple, Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.

However, as the outbreak has worsened — killing nearly 2,900 people and infecting at least 83,000, with most cases and deaths in China — companies have been forced to take additional measures to protect workers. Facebook's annual developer conference and the largest smartphone conference were both recently canceled because of the coronavirus. On Friday, a Google employee in the company's Zurich office tested positive for the coronavirus.

Companies' operations are also beginning to feel the impact. Amazon has been frantically stockpiling products made in China as concerns grow about how its supply chain could be affected and trying to prevent sellers from jacking up prices for highly sought-after supplies like face masks.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker

You can add emojis to Slack messages by using the emoji menu, or by manually typing in the name of the emoji you want to use.If you have permission, you can also add custom emojis for anyone in your organization to use.The method for adding emojis to your text on Slack varies slightly between the desktop and mobile versions of the app. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Who ever said you can't have fun at work? And if there's anything that can make your work more fun to read, it's a perfectly chosen emoji.

Used well, an emoji can convey a message more quickly than even the finest words, lighten the mood during a tense period, or just be for fun, no drama needed.

Here's how to add emojis to your Slack messages, using both the desktop app for Mac or PC and the mobile app for iPhone and Android devices.

Check out the products mentioned in this article:

MacBook Pro (From $1,299.99 at Best Buy)

Lenovo IdeaPad 130 (From $299.99 at Best Buy)

iPhone 11 (From $699.99 at Best Buy)

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How to add emoji on Slack 

The method for adding emojis to your text is very simple.

If you're using Slack on your Mac or PC:

1. Open the channel or direct messaging thread that you want to send a message in.

2. At the bottom-right of the chat box, click the smiley face icon.

3. This will open a menu filled with emojis. Click any from the list that you want to add it.

4. As you scroll through the emojis, you'll note that each one has a name. You alternatively can add emojis to your text by typing the name of any emoji, bracketed by colons. In other words, ? would become :smile: and so on.

Original author: Steven John

While gaming may not seem like the natural birthplace for a construction-technology startup, that was the genesis of Fieldwire, which sells software for construction teams. 

Founders Yves Frinault and Javed Singha met at video game production company Ubisoft before they decided to use their experience in gaming to build digital tools for construction workers.

With proptech funding booming and experts predicting that housing prices will continue to rise in the 2020s, a new slew of construction technology — or contech, for short — startups like Fieldwire have emerged that are aiming to make building cheaper, easier, and safer.

While the sector hasn't received nearly as much attention as fintech or its cousin, proptech, it has received at least $27 billion in funding since 2008, according to McKinsey Partner Jose Luis Blanco. 

Fieldwire raised $33.5 million in funding last September led by Menlo Ventures and others, according to a press release. At the time, it had raised $40.4 million to date.

At Ubisoft, Frinault and Singha worked together to restructure part of the company. Frinault, a product manager, said that his time at Ubisoft was his first entrepreneurial experience. 

"Running a game team inside a company is very similar to running a company," Frinault said, highlighting the challenge of recruiting the best internal talent and keeping a budget as some of the overlaps. 

While they met in gaming, Frinault had an MS in construction engineering management from Stanford University, inspired by his family's history of purchasing and remodeling residential real estate. As Frinault and Singha kept talking, they realized that they wanted to make technology for construction workers in the field.

"We wanted to replicate tools that are available to us in gaming to the construction space," Frinault said.  

They used some of the principles of the gaming industry to inform their design. 

"We were putting a product together that we can deliver directly to them, and that they can work on immediately without any training," Singha said, explaining that the need for rapid adoption in the field made a simple user interface and design extremely important. If they can't convince the workers in the field to use their product, it would be impossible for the product to grow. 

Another asset was their shared experience working on social games at Ubisoft, where they had to make sure that the games worked for both mobile and desktop users. They wanted Fieldwire to be totally functional in the field, and that experience designing cross-platform was invaluable. 

Singha said that his biggest challenge was making sure that he understood enough about their potential users, construction workers on the ground, to design a product that was actually useful to them.

"It was a rough crash course for me personally," Singha said. "I had to learn a whole new lingo." 

Original author: Alex Nicoll

A Google employee who was in the company's Zurich office has tested positive for the coronavirus.The tech firm is restricting employee travel to Italy, Iran, Japan, and South Korea.The infected employee was not symptomatic while they were in their office, and their current condition is unknown.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

A Google employee has tested positive for the coronavirus, and the company is further restricting its employee travel as concerns around the outbreak grow.

On Friday, the California-based search giant emailed its employees to inform them that an employee who had been in the Zurich office has tested positive for the virus, which causes the disease COVID-19, a source familiar with the matter told Business Insider. That employee was not symptomatic while in the office.

Google is preventing employees from traveling to Iran, as well as two Italian regions where the virus is spreading, Lombardy and Veneto. From March 2, the company will also ban travel to South Korea and Japan.

The identity and condition of the Google employee who tested positive for the coronavirus is not known.

In a statement, a Google spokesperson said: "We can confirm that one employee from our Zurich office has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. They were in the Zurich office for a limited time, before they had any symptoms. We have taken — and will continue to take — all necessary precautionary measures, following the advice of public health officials, as we prioritize everyone's health and safety."

Since the coronavirus outbreak began in December, nearly 83,000 people have been infected, and more than 2,800 have died.

Google is continuing to prohibit travel to China unless employees are returning home, and all international travel over the next 90 days will require review.

CNN reporter Kerry Flynn also reported on Friday that Google was canceling its Google News Initiative Summit in the Bay Area, a conference geared toward the media industry.

This story is developing ...

Original author: Rob Price

A fan of Elon Musk's tweeted at the billionaire alerting him to a fan theory that the billionaire has a historical doppelganger called Raymond Collishaw.Collishaw was a distinguished Canadian fighter pilot during World War I.Musk jokingly replied, "full disclosure, I'm actually a 3000-year-old vampire."Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Fans of modern-day billionaire Elon Musk think they've found a historical doppelganger for him.

Responding to a Twitter thread stemming from Musk talking about SpaceX's Starship rocket, a fan pointed Musk to a picture of a World War I Canadian fighter pilot called Raymond Collishaw.

Born in 1893, Collishaw was one of Canada's foremost naval fighter pilots during World War I, according to the Canadian Encylopedia. Collishaw was also a commander during World War II and died in Vancouver in 1976.

Musk replied to the tweet: "Full disclosure, I'm actually a 3000-year-old vampire. It's such a trial assuming all these false identities over the centuries!"

This isn't the first time Musk has been compared to Collishaw. Both a YouTube video from 2017 and a Medium blog from 2019 comment on the resemblance.

Musk isn't the first celebrity to be presented with a historical twin, actor Keanu Reeves also answered a fan theory in 2017 after fans noticed a striking resemblance between him and a nineteenth-century French actor. Climate activist Greta Thunberg has also been compared to a young, female Klondike gold miner photographed in 1898.

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Apple's iPhone XR was the most-shipped smartphone of 2019, a new report suggests.According to tech-focused market research firm Omdia's Smartphone Model Market Tracker report, 46.3 million iPhone XR units were shipped last year.Apple also took second place on the list, with its iPhone 11 shipping 37.3 million units.Samsung rounded out the top five with its mid-range A-series of smartphones.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple's iPhone XR was the most widely-shipped smartphone of 2019, new figures show.

According to Omdia's Smartphone Model Market Tracker report, 46.3 million iPhone XR units were shipped last year. 

Apple also had the second most-shipped model, with the iPhone 11 shipping 37.3 million units.

It likely didn't hurt that both devices are considered Apple's two best-value iPhone models right now.

The iPhone XR was released in October 2018, starting at $749. The price dropped in late 2019 to $599.99. The iPhone 11, released a year later, had an even lower starter price of $699.99.

Third, fourth and fifth places on the list were all occupied by Samsung devices, with the Korean firm's Galaxy A10, Galaxy A50 and Galaxy A20 phones shipping 30.3 million, 24.2 million and 19.2 million units respectively. Of the 10 best-selling phones on the list, only one – Xiaomi's Redmi Note 7 – wasn't made by either Apple or Samsung.

The report further indicates that shipments of the iPhone XR more than doubled in 2019, up from 23.1 million units the previous year.

A note about the figures: shipment figures don't necessarily equal sales, though they're a good indication of demand. Shipments tend to refer to the number of phone units that have made it to carrier or retail channels. Units sold refers to how many customers actually bought devices.

Samsung and Apple are the world's preeminent smartphone makers, with recent research suggesting they're practically neck-and-neck when it comes to total smartphone sales worldwide.

70.7 million Apple smartphones in the fourth quarter of 2019, according to research by Strategy Analytics, while Samsung shipped 68.8 million.

Apple's overall smartphone shipments have declined for two consecutive years, Omdia's report estimated, dropping by 4.6% in 2019.

Apple has sought to build out its software offering to counteract the effect, but still relies heavily on iPhone revenue. The company warned in February that it would be negatively impacted by the novel coronavirus, thanks to store and factory closures in China.

Still, Apple has maintained a bullish stance towards critics who claim the smartphone industry has peaked.

During a December 2019 interview with Nikkei, the tech giant's CEO Tim Cook said he "know[s] of no one who would call a 12-year-old mature," appearing to reference the 12-year period since the first iPhone launched.

Original author: Charlie Wood

Facebook will take down ads promising to cure coronavirus. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday.

Facebook is banning ads that promise to cure the coronavirus. A spokesperson told Business Insider that Facebook will also take down ads which try to create a "sense of urgency" around the outbreak.Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block has stepped down from his role as co-CEO. Marc Benioff will again be the company's sole CEO, while Block will stay on as an adviser to him through February 25, 2021.Amazon is reportedly deleting some third-party listings that jack up surgical mask prices as the coronavirus creates a shortage. Most states in the US have "price gouging" laws which prevent businesses from taking of advantage of consumers by charging exorbitant amounts of money during emergencies.People are selling medical face-masks on Facebook in bulk amid coronavirus fears. Public health experts have warned that stockpiling masks could make it harder for medical professionals to get the supplies they need.Google apologized after its Nest security cameras stopped working during a 17-hour outage. The issue unfolded during a planned update of the server's storage software.Airbnb is encouraging hosts to install sensors that detect high humidity and noise in an attempt to crack down on parties. The short-term rental company is offering discounts on three "party prevention" devices ranging from $100 to $150.Expedia announced it will cut around 12% of its workforce as it aims to "simplify" its business. In an internal email sent Monday, unnamed executives said the company had been "pursuing growth in an unhealthy and undisciplined way."The world's biggest iPhone factory is reportedly offering $1,000 bonuses to lure workers after being shut down over coronavirus. Foxconn's massive Zengzhou facility is offering bonuses worth more than double its average monthly wages.Uber is going to start putting video ads on top of its cars, and starting with 1,000 vehicles across three US cities. This marks a major new stream of revenue for the ridehailing giant, which is yet to become consistently profitable.The National Transportation Safety Board said both Tesla's Autopilot and an inattentive driver were likely factors in a fatal 2018 crash. The 2018 incident raised questions about how Tesla has marketed Autopilot, and whether drivers are capable of using it responsibly.

Have an Amazon Alexa device? Now you can hear 10 Things in Tech each morning. Just search for "Business Insider" in your Alexa's flash briefing settings.

You can also subscribe to this newsletter here — just tick "10 Things in Tech You Need to Know.

Original author: Isobel Asher Hamilton

Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block has stepped down from his role, less than 2 years after he first ascended to the role in the summer of 2018.Analysts say that it was always a strange choice for Salesforce to have a co-CEO: While they respect Block's success at the company, experts say that his lofty title didn't necessarily give him more power over the company than founder and CEO Marc Benioff, known for doing things his own way.Block's departure could clear the deck for a new generation of leadership at the company, analysts say: The company is in a good position today, thanks in no small part to Block's efforts, they say, but Benioff and cofounder Parker Harris could be looking to the future.Rising stars at the company include Bret Taylor, promoted to COO last fall, and Adam Selipsky, CEO of Tableau, which Salesforce recently acquired to add more data analysis chops.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The sudden and surprising departure of Salesforce co-CEO Keith Block after only about a year and a half on the job could signal that Marc Benioff — now the sole CEO of the $161 billion cloud software giant once more — is clearing the decks for a new generation of leadership.

Since joining Salesforce in 2013 as head of sales, getting promoted to COO, and then moving on to the co-CEO role, Block played a crucial role in building out Salesforce's sales strategy — particularly in building traction in selling to specific industries like healthcare and government. He had over 26 years of experience at Oracle before coming to Salesforce.

There's evidence that Block had a lot of success: Salesforce's revenue just about quadrupled from $4 billion annually when he joined in 2013, to doing about the same in a quarter now. 

Even so, Rebecca Wettemann, an analyst at Valoir, said its not surprising that Block is stepping down. The ever-bombastic Benioff and his cofounder and CTO Parker Harris are still very much involved in the day to day operations of the company.

She suggests that despite Block's lofty title, the two founders still wielded outsized power over the company, and that their more freewheeling style never fully meshed with Block's more traditional approach to business.

"People talked about Keith as the heir apparent to Marc, but Marc is still firing on all cylinders and he and Parker continue to be the key leadership figures for Salesforce," Wettemann told Business Insider. "While he was doing a great job, Salesforce has never marched to the traditional enterprise software drummer, and Keith was the perfect drummer boy." 

Dan Newman, an analyst at Futurum Research agrees, and said he always found it interesting that Salesforce decided to have someone share the CEO role with Benioff. "I felt from the beginning it would be hard for the two to be equals, but it was a fascinating experiment," he told Business Insider. 

He added that while Block seemed to be indispensable to the company's operations, Bret Taylor seems to already be fulfilling some of the operational duties left vacated. Taylor, formerly the CTO of Facebook and a key engineer at Google, was named chief operating officer last fall, taking over Block's old job.

The next generation

Steve Koenig, an analyst at Wedbush, said that while Block was a great asset to the company, Benioff might be looking to pave the way for a future generation of leaders — like Taylor. 

"I think bigger picture, my guess is that Marc is looking forward into the future and looking at what he needs to do put in place the next generation of leadership at the company," Koenig told Business Insider, adding that Taylor is one example of that kind of talent. 

Koenig adds that he could see Salesforce putting Taylor into a CEO role in the future, something that others have speculated before as well. Taylor came to the company when Salesforce acquired his startup Quip, and he quickly rose though the ranks, reporting directly to Benioff once he joined. 

Another person who represents the type of leadership talent Benioff could be looking for is Tableau CEO Adam Selipsky, Koenig said. Salesforce acquired Tableau for $15.3 billion last year. Selipsky was previously an executive at Amazon Web Services and took over Tableau in 2016.

Koenig said Selipsky has done a "remarkable" job reviving Tableau when it was having trouble and "propelling it forward and then taking Tableau to the next level."

While Block had a huge impact on the company, he built a sales organization that can continue doing the work, so analysts said they don't expect much to change with the day to day operations.

"I really don't see any significant impact on the external perception of the business based upon this move. Internally, Block appeared to be pivotal to operations and this could see a transitional period where the company will have to make adjustments in Block's absence," Newman said.

Salesforce has also hired Gavin Patterson, formerly CEO at BT, as the new president and CEO of Salesforce International, responsible for the company's operations outside the US. 

Rob Oliver, an analyst at Baird, said that Salesforce has a strong bench of executives, so while Block leaving is certainly a big deal, he's not worried about the company's future performance.

"If there's any company that can withstand the departure of one person it's Salesforce, because Marc Benioff has built a culture of surrounding himself with great people," Oliver said. 

The Vlocity acquisition

Additionally, Wetteman said she sees the acquisition of Vlocity, a startup that makes industry-specific cloud and mobile software that is built on the Salesforce platform, to play a key role here. Salesforce said it acquired Vlocity at the same time it announced Block was leaving. 

The acquisition will help Salesforce increase its focus on a industry specific sales strategy, tailoring its products to industries like financial services, healthcare and government — a strategy that Block spearheaded. 

"They get not only the vertical IP, but also [Vlocity CEO] David Schmaier, who is positioned to have a great leadership role there if he wants to do it. David knows the market, he knows the customers, from an industry perspective, he could be a great person to bring on to central leadership of Salesforce," Wetteman said. 

Oliver said that the Vlocity acquisition gives reassurance that Salesforce's industry specific sales strategy will continue to grow, even though Block is leaving the company. He added that Salesforce has acquired "one of the best vertical plays on the Salesforce platform."

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Original author: Paayal Zaveri

Facebook is tightening up its rules on ads that reference the coronavirus outbreak.It is banning ads that mentioned it if they attempt to "create a sense of urgency" around the virus or promise to cure it.Like other tech platforms, Facebook is has seen a wave of activity relating to the COVID-19 outbreak, including misinformation.The company has also said it will take down false posts about the coronavirus entirely if they put people at risk.

Facebook is tightening up its rules on ads that reference the novel coronavirus, in an attempt to curtail misinformation and fearmongering about the outbreak.

The social network will now ban ads that mention it if they promise to cure or prevent the virus, or attempt to "create a sense of urgency" about it.

In a statement, a spokesperson told Business Insider: "We recently implemented a policy to prohibit ads that refer to the coronavirus and create a sense of urgency, like implying a limited supply, or guaranteeing a cure or prevention. We also have policies for surfaces like Marketplace that prohibit similar behavior."

Facebook, like other tech platforms, is currently grappling with a surge of panicked conversation and sometimes outright misinformation about COVID-19, which has sickened more than 79,000 people globally and killed more than 2,600 over the last few months.

Facebook utilises fact-checkers to check dubious claims and subsequently suppress them in its newsfeed, and in late January announced it was taking the additional step of outright removing false information about the outbreak "that have been flagged by leading global health organizations and local health authorities that could cause harm to people who believe them."

Meanwhile, Facebook users are turning to groups on the social network to buy and sell medical face masks in bulk — something that risks hindering medical professionals' ability to combat the outbreak.

Other tech companies are also experiencing a surge of unwelcome activity around the outbreak. On Tuesday, Wired reported that some third-party sellers on Amazon have been attempting to price-gouge customers looking for masks, jacking up their prices to many times what they would normally retail for.

Do you work at Facebook? Got a tip? Contact this reporter using a nonwork device via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), standard email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice) or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). PR pitches by standard email only, please.

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Original author: Rob Price

Private equity firms have become major players in the startup market.Last year, 20% of all startups that had a successful exit — meaning they either went public or were acquired — were bought in a private equity-related deal.Startups still see lots more money from IPOs and corporate acquisitions than from private equity deals, but PE firms are spending increasing amounts.The top 10 biggest private equity purchases of startups are listed below.Click here for more BI Prime stories.

The vast majority of startups don't go public. They get acquired — assuming they don't go out of business first.

Traditionally, the acquirers of venture-backed startups have been other, independent companies in the same industry, whether they are established players or other startups. But more and more startups these days are being acquired by private equity firms.

Last year, about 20% of all startups that had a successful exit — meaning they were either acquired or went public — were purchased either directly by a private equity firm or by a company that was owned by one, according to PitchBook. That was up from just 5% in 2003.

Startup backers still see lots more money from the public markets and corporate buyers than they do from private equity firms. But the amounts that PE firms are spending on startups is steadily increasing and in some cases has gotten quite large.

Last year, such firms spent $6.3 billion buying up startups — up from $690 million seven years earlier. And three private equity buyouts over the three years topped $1 billion.

Here, according to PitchBook, are the 10 largest private equity purchases of startups over the last three years:

Original author: Troy Wolverton

The coronavirus outbreak has led to a shortage of protective masks and other medical supplies, leading some sellers to significantly increase prices.Amazon has been trying to prevent the practice on its platform, alerting sellers who may be in violation of its pricing policies, according to Wired.Most states in the US have "price gouging" laws which prevent businesses from taking of advantage of consumers by charging exorbitant amounts of money during emergencies.Authorities in countries such as China and Italy have also received complaints about price gouging since the outbreak, while Amazon has faced similar challenges before.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

As people across the world try to protect themselves from the Wuhan coronavirus, which has now claimed 2,700 lives and infected another 80,000, demand for medical supplies has spiked. As a result, prices for products like surgical masks have jumped to several times what they normally cost, with businesses and individuals selling masks in bulk at a premium on sites ranging from Facebook to Craigslist. 

However, Amazon has been cracking down on potential price-gouging on its platform, according to Wired. The report said third-party sellers have received emails from Amazon alerting them about masks that are "not in compliance" with the company's fair pricing policy, which bans sellers from charging "significantly higher than recent prices offered on or off Amazon."

Wired also reported that some listings advertising overpriced masks have been deleted from Amazon, while noting the issue of price-gouging has been fiercely debated on the Amazon seller forums.

A majority of the states in the US have laws against raising prices excessively during emergencies such as natural disasters, in order to prevent businesses from taking advantage of people in need of basics like food, gas, and shelter. However, some experts argue such laws can backfire at times by encouraging people to hoard supplies.

Since the outbreak, Chinese officials have received at least 274 complaints about price-gouging and hoarding, according to Reuters. In Italy, which has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus outbreak compared with other European countries, authorities have opened an investigation into high prices for surgical masks, according to Reuters.

This issue isn't a first for Amazon. Following Hurricane Irma in 2017, Amazon faced criticism after customers reported wildly inflated prices, at which point it said it would begin taking action against vendors.

Amazon could not immediately be reached for comment.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker

In "Facebook: The Inside Story," author Steven Levy offers an unprecedented look into how Mark Zuckerberg built Facebook into the world's largest social network.Levy, a writer at Wired magazine, says Zuckerberg  "vowed to make privacy a core component" of Facebook from its early days, but noted he often fell short of that aim.However, the book leaves out a series of messages sent by Zuckerberg, first reported by Business Insider in 2010, where he calls people "dumb f--ks" for trusting him with their information.The exchange offers crucial additional insight into Zuckerberg's early thoughts on privacy, as Facebook continues to draw criticism for how it handles users' data.Levy told Business Insider that he included examples of Zuckerberg's actions that were "more illustrative" than words, like when he accessed users' accounts to hack their emails.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

One of the most salient topics surrounding Facebook is privacy. It has been at the center of many of the company's biggest scandals, from Cambridge Analytica to breaking Apple's App Store rules so it could pay people to spy on them, with Facebook's privacy missteps ultimately netting it a $5 billion fine from the Federal Trade Commission.  

In his new book about the rise of the internet giant, "Facebook: The Inside Story," Wired editor and writer Steven Levy offers insightful details about CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg's approach to privacy, especially in Facebook's early days.

But the book leaves out one particularly noteworthy instant message exchange that suggests Zuckerberg's privacy views weren't exactly straightforward. 

In 2003, while Zuckerberg was still at Harvard and experimenting with online social networks, he spun a prank website called "Facemash" that showed pictures of classmates and asked students to vote on who was most attractive.

The catch? Zuckerberg had hacked into the university's computer system to download the photos, without consent from any students.

Administrators quickly cut off Zuckerberg's internet access and threatened to expel him, the school's newspaper, The Harvard Crimson wrote at the time. In the immediate aftermath, the Crimson also penned an editorial grilling Zuckerberg for his lack of concern for students' privacy.

"Zuckerberg took the editorial to heart, and vowed to make privacy a core component" of the social media network he was quietly working on, Levy wrote.

However, just a year later, Zuckerberg hacked the emails of student journalists at the Crimson by accessing their Facebook login information, a story first reported by Business Insider. 

Shortly after launching "The Facebook" from his dorm room, Zuckerberg sent the following messages to a friend, originally reported by Business Insider in 2010:

Zuckerberg: Yeah so if you ever need info about anyone at Harvard

Zuckerberg: Just ask.

Zuckerberg: I have over 4,000 emails, pictures, addresses, SNS

[Redacted Friend's Name]: What? How'd you manage that one?

Zuckerberg: People just submitted it.

Zuckerberg: I don't know why.

Zuckerberg: They "trust me"

Zuckerberg: Dumb fucks.

While the exchange suggests Zuckerberg's attitudes toward privacy were somewhat flippant even in the network's early days, the book's author Levy doesn't draw the same parallel.

"If you're talking about Facebook in 2020, there's limited value to holding up an email from when he was 19," Levy told Business Insider by phone, explaining his decision to leave the incident out of the book. Levy said examples like the Crimson email hacking were "more illustrative" of Zuckerberg's approach to privacy.

Zuckerberg told Levy that he regretted the messages and chalked them up to immaturity. But he also expressed frustration, in a text to Levy, that "'old instant messages and emails from from when I was a kid kept getting surfaced out of context.'"

Zuckerberg and Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Original author: Tyler Sonnemaker

Chris Lattner, the senior vice president of platform engineering at SiFive, started building the programming language Swift in 2010 when he still worked at Apple, and it's now used by companies like Lyft, Uber, Airbnb, and Square.Lattner said it was still too early to say if he would work with Swift at SiFive, but he is still involved in the Swift community.He says the future of Swift is in data science and machine learning.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When former Apple engineer Chris Lattner first started building the iOS programming language in 2010, it was just a nights-and-weekends side project.

Since its launch in 2014, Swift has quickly become the top language for building new iOS apps, and it's used by companies like Lyft, Uber, Airbnb, Square, and Apple itself. Lattner said when he first started building Swift, he didn't expect it to be adopted as quickly as it did. At the time — when it was still just a hobby project — he just wanted to learn and see what could be done. 

Since leaving Apple, Lattner has held stints at Tesla and Google. Recently he joined the artificial-intelligence-chip startup SiFive as its senior vice president of platform engineering. Lattner said it was still too early to say whether he would work with Swift at SiFive, but he maintains connections with the core team that maintains Swift and is still involved in the community.

"Swift is not just me," Lattner told Business Insider. "I started it and managed it and drove it and cared for it for a long time, but it's actually the result of a tremendous team."

'A lot of ideas have been battle-tested'

Lattner started the project because of challenges he had working with C Plus Plus, an older programming language. 

"C Plus Plus is a complicated language," Lattner said. "Coming out of this, I was burned out, and I thought, 'There has to be a better thing. C Plus Plus and Objective-C, neither of them are bad. They're products of the circumstances they came from. We can do something way better.'"

Later, when he realized that Swift could be a better alternative, he started asking for funding and growing a team at Apple to work on it. And by the time it launched in 2014, he said he had "a pretty good sense it would be really popular."

"One of the great things about Apple culture is it's very analytical," Lattner said. "They ask questions because they're trying to shape things. That really does shape a product ... It's been four years in, and a lot of the ideas have been battle-tested. A lot of the hard questions had been answered." 

'The reception of it blew me away'

Before Swift, the main language for building iOS apps was Objective-C. Lattner doesn't expect Objective-C to ever disappear, as many existing projects are still written in it. But most new iOS projects he sees are in Swift, including at Apple. 

"Are people still choosing to write projects in Objective-C?" Lattner said. "That's kind of game over for Objective-C."

Looking forward, Lattner said the data-science and machine-learning community was quickly changing. Most people in that community use Python, but more people are starting to use Swift. 

"Swift is far more approachable and allows people to be productive," Lattner said. "It pulls in more people from the community."

Lattner said Swift was "very Apple-centric" when it first began, but now he sees developers using Swift to write all sorts of projects and tools, including in servers and machine learning.

"We knew we were on the right track and thought it would be exciting and popular," Lattner said. "The reception of it blew me away."

Original author: Rosalie Chan

Co-CEO Keith Block is leaving Salesforce, where he's been since 2013.The company has given him a warm public goodbye, allowing him to say farewell to investors on the quarterly conference call.But even as he was talking to Wall Street analysts and saying warm good-byes, Salesforce had already taken steps to move past him.His bio was immediately deleted from Salesforce's leadership website.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

On Tuesday, Salesforce announced a shocker, even as the company announced a better than expected fourth quarter: Keith Block, co-CEO of the cloud software giant, is leaving, 

Block's resignation is effective immediately, but he's agreed to stay on for a year as an advisor, allowing his unvested stock tranches to continue to accrue.  He had only been in the co-CEO role since August 2018, although he had been with the company since 2013, first as head of sales, then as COO.

Block also spoke on the quarterly phone call with a warm goodbye message. All of the executives, including Marc Benioff, heaped praise on him and hinted that Block had something in mind for the next phase of his career besides his role as advisor. "I am his biggest supporter. I'm his close friend," Benioff said. "You'll always be part of our Ohana," Benioff said, using the Hawaiian word for family.

But despite the public love-fest, Salesforce gave one hint that, whatever Block's plans on, he's really truly gone from Salesforce. His executive biography was immediately deleted from the Salesforce leadership website. It was gone, even as Block was talking to analysts on the quarterly conference call. 

Salesforce

 

Original author: Julie Bort

San Francisco Mayor London Breed has declared a state of emergency in the city.Breed said the city is "taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm."The coronavirus outbreak, which began in China, has spread in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. There are now 53 confirmed cases in the US. Worldwide, more than 2,700 people have died from COVID-19 with more than 80,000 infected.On Tuesday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued a warning that an outbreak in the US was inevitable.Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

San Francisco's mayor has declared a state of emergency in the city over the coronavirus outbreak.

Mayor London Breed announced Tuesday afternoon that while there haven't been any confirmed cases of the coronavirus disease, COVID-19, in San Francisco so far, the city needs to be prepared in case the virus spreads to the area. The San Francisco Chronicle was the first to report the news.

"The global picture is changing rapidly, and we need to step-up preparedness," Breed said in a statement. "We see the virus spreading in new parts of the world every day, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm."

The mayor's state of emergency allows the city to ramp up emergency planning, redirecting employees and resources in the case of an outbreak in San Francisco. While zero cases of the disease have originated in San Francisco so far, three people have been treated at local hospitals for COVID-19, according to the Chronicle. On Tuesday, officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that a coronavirus outbreak in the United States would be inevitable. 

San Francisco is not the only city in California to use this strategy to combat the virus. Earlier this month, San Diego declared public health and local emergencies, which would redirect state and local funds in the case of an outbreak. 

San Francisco's proximity to China and the volume of travel between the two areas were factors in declaring the state of emergency. Tech workers in the area have already been affected by fears of the virus spreading: Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz has been asking visitors to avoid handshakes due to the coronavirus outbreak, and other tech companies are taking action by halting business travel to China, according to Recode. 

Original author: Avery Hartmans and Katie Canales

Fears around the novel coronavirus have created a bustling market in medical face masks on Facebook.People are buying and selling huge quantities of the masks via dedicated Facebook groups with tens of thousands of members.Public health experts have warned that stockpiling masks could make it harder for medical professionals to get the supplies they need.There have been 79,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and more than 2,600 deaths.

As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow, fears are mounting — and for some entrepreneurial Facebook users, that means business is booming.

Over the last few weeks, as the novel coronavirus outbreak has spread across the globe, bustling groups have popped up on Facebook with tens of thousands of members dedicated to buying and selling large quantities of medical face masks, Business Insider has found.

The practice illustrates how Facebook has become the go-to platform for people in times of crises, whether it's utilized to check the safety of loved ones or to make a quick buck reselling medical supplies — and it could hamper medical professionals' attempts to combat the outbreak.

Facebook users in the groups don't typically specify the reason they're seeking to buy or sell the masks, and in some cases they might be attempting to source them for medical institutions. But in cases of stockpiling, public health experts have warned that panic-buying protective gear can make it harder for those who need it most, medical professionals, to get their hands on it. 

In a statement, a Facebook spokesperson said: "While we allow people to buy and sell masks on Facebook, we are taking a closer look at this Group. We recently implemented a policy to prohibit ads that refer to the coronavirus and create a sense of urgency, like implying a limited supply, or guaranteeing a cure or prevention. We also have policies for surfaces like Marketplace that prohibit similar behavior."

(Names and identifying information has been redacted.) BI

One group, "N95 mask surgical mask supplier," was created on January 30, 2020, and advertises itself as a way to "protect yourself from killer CORONA virus." It has more than 14,000 members, and more than a thousand posts a day.

FB

Another group, "Surgical Mask and N95 suppliers Lounge," was created on February 1, 2020, and boasts 4,000 members posting 300-plus times a day.

BI

Those looking to sell post photos of their wares — huge stacks of boxes of masks — and typically indicate where they are, how much they have, and how much they're charging for them. 

FB

Others are in the market to buy — and vendors are happy to oblige.

FB

Business Insider did not buy or verify the sellers' advertised masks, and it's possible that some are scammers looking to take advantage of people's desperation to buy — a suspicion shared by some Facebook users in the comments of some of the posts.

Facebook is not the only tech platform experiencing a surge of activity around face masks. On Tuesday, Wired reported that some third-party sellers on Amazon have been attempting to price-gouge customers looking for masks, jacking up their prices to many times what they would normally retail for.

There have now been more than 79,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, and more than 2,600 deaths. US health officials have warned that they expect to eventually see "community spread" in the US, and that it may cause "significant disruption."

Do you work at Facebook? Got a tip? Contact this reporter using a nonwork device via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), standard email (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice) or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). PR pitches by standard email only, please.

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Original author: Rob Price