Business

The Company Brief: Fast takes on today’s big business moves

Vernon Pillay and Reuters|Published

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Wake up to the shifts shaping the future.

From boardroom shakeups and billion-dollar bets to the latest tech breakthroughs rewriting the rules, The Company Brief is your front-row seat to the stories moving markets and mindsets.

We cut through the noise so you can stay ahead of the curve, one bold business move at a time.

These are the major stories you should not miss: 

Amazon targets as many as 30,000 corporate job cuts

Amazon is planning to cut as many as 30,000 corporate jobs beginning on Tuesday, as the company pares expenses and compensates for overhiring during the peak demand of the pandemic, according to three people familiar with the matter. The figure represents a small percentage of Amazon's 1.55 million total employees, but nearly 10% of its roughly 350,000 corporate employees. This would mark Amazon's largest job cut since late 2022, when it started to eliminate around 27,000 positions. Amazon has been trimming smaller numbers of jobs over the past two years across multiple divisions, including devices, communications and podcasting. The cuts beginning this week may affect a variety of divisions, including human resources, known as People Experience and Technology or PXT; operations, devices and services; and Amazon Web Services, the people said.

Musk could leave Tesla if $1 trillion pay plan is rejected

Elon Musk could leave Tesla as CEO if his proposed $1 trillion pay package was not approved, Chair Robyn Denholm warned in a letter to shareholders on Monday. The appeal comes ahead of the November 6 annual meeting, with Tesla's board having faced repeated criticism for not acting in shareholders' best interests and governance experts and advocacy groups questioning its independence and oversight of Musk's influence. The proposed performance-based plan was designed to retain and motivate Musk to continue leading Tesla for at least another seven-and-a-half years, Denholm said in the letter.

Investors dump Pick n Pay

Investors sold a large number of Pick n Pay shares on Monday. The retailer's stock dropped 6% after a sharp 8% intraday decline because the scale and complexity of its turnaround are becoming clearer and more daunting. Investors, it seems, cannot wait the 2 years it will take for the retailer to turn around. This is the time frame CEO Sean Summers has laid out. He is of the view that the turnaround of Pick n Pay's core business to profit will still take at least another two years. Costs and store closures remain a significant burden for Pick n Pay, and trading expenses across the group rose 6.2%. 

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