5 ms·

Of the five largest tech companies in the world, the CEOs of four of them have come out against the Executive Order targeting specific immigrants: GOOG/MSFT/FB/

by ziszis 10y ago

Of the five largest tech companies in the world, the CEOs of four of them have come out against the Executive Order targeting specific immigrants: GOOG/MSFT/FB/AAPL. AMZN and Jeff Bezos have strangely been absent even though he was the most critical pre-election.

CamelCaseName 10y ago
Any thoughts on why Bezos abstained from comment?
- loafa 10y ago
  He already bought the WaPo as his personal blog.
adventured 10y ago
Not to mention the man Bezos regards as his father, Miguel Bezos, was an immigrant from Cuba. Bezos is a pretty quiet individual in general, he always has been (but if you do some digging, he and his wife are active politically behind the scenes, giving money etc to causes they support). If you compared his public activities around interviews, it's a small fraction of that of other CEOs over his tenure. I'm not surprised he isn't saying much yet, but I'd bet on them issuing a statement at some point, once they sort out the political risks (also Bezos with Blue Origin, which is dependent on Trump and the Republicans now in various ways).
potatosoup 10y ago
Bezos bought WaPo and that has been his anti-Trump mouthpiece for the past months. Doesn't need to make a separate statement.
- pg314 10y ago
  Do you have any evidence Bezos is influencing the editorial direction of the WaPo? All statements I have seen of people working for or having worked for the WaPo say that there is a clear separation between Bezos and the editorial board.
  - tobtoh 10y ago
    I can't remember which ex-newspaper editor said this, but it was in regard to a Murdoch paper and it was a discussion about the influence of newspaper owners and editorial boards, his commment was along the lines of: If the Editor can't figure out the editorial line that the owner wants without talking to the owner, he would never have become the Editor in the first place.
KVFinn 10y ago
>AMZN and Jeff Bezos have strangely been absent even though he was the most critical pre-election. Trump on Bezos: "Amazon is getting away with murder, tax-wise. "[Bezos has] got a huge antitrust problem because he's controlling so much. Amazon is controlling so much of what they're doing," Trump said, describing Amazon as a "monopoly" and complaining that "the whole system's rigged." "Believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems. They're going to have such problems." http://fortune.com/2016/05/13/trump-attacks-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos/ http://fortune.com/2016/05/13/trump-attacks-amazon-ceo-jeff-... https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/703296870521528320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/703296870521528320?ref_sr... Seems like he's trying to keep his head down to avoid retribution.
- CobrastanJorji 10y ago
  Oh yeah, he's done a great job keeping his Washington Post quiet about Trump.
  - gotchange 10y ago
    Trump is targeting him specifically for this to silence WaPo and force it to "change its tunes" singing his praise turning into another Breitbart clone but I don't think that this is happening anytime soon.
    - mhneu 10y ago
      This is exactly right. Trump and his White House know it's important to control the media.
fapjacks 10y ago
Just wondering: Do you work in finance?
developer2 10y ago
And? All these companies care about is their H-1 Visas being trampled on. They're worried about importing cheap labor, and being able to lock that talent in at below-market wages with their employees being physically unable to change jobs for fear of being deported. Until we have reasonably well-connected people advocating against the ban, without having any ulterior motive, these PR stunts we're seeing are quite sad. I don't understand anyone who sees tech CEOs as being central to this kind of debate, as if they have any pull with the general population. Their only followers are us geeks. They don't hold any major weight with the population at large. Sadly, you need "popular" politicians and Hollywood actors on one's side to make any kind of dent.
- akiselev 10y ago
  Right, those evil tech CEOs with their underpaid, poor immigrants. /s http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Google http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Google - Median salary: $127,000 http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Microsoft http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Microsoft - Median salary: $119,000 http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=facebook http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=facebook - Median salary: $138,000 http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=apple http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=apple - Median salary: $120,000 Most of the people in America make a quarter of that. For a family of three or four. Compare the above to: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=infosys http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=infosys - $76,000 http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=tata http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=tata - $66,000
  - delroth 10y ago
    And median salary is only part of the equation at these large companies. After ~3 years at Google, 30-40% on top of this with yearly bonus + stock is fairly common. I doubt the situation is the same at Infosys and Tata.
  - anjc 10y ago
    Now show us how un-stagnant wages are in STEM
- codecamper 10y ago

by ziszis 10y ago

CamelCaseName 10y ago

Any thoughts on why Bezos abstained from comment?

loafa 10y ago
He already bought the WaPo as his personal blog.

adventured 10y ago

Not to mention the man Bezos regards as his father, Miguel Bezos, was an immigrant from Cuba. Bezos is a pretty quiet individual in general, he always has been (but if you do some digging, he and his wife are active politically behind the scenes, giving money etc to causes they support). If you compared his public activities around interviews, it's a small fraction of that of other CEOs over his tenure. I'm not surprised he isn't saying much yet, but I'd bet on them issuing a statement at some point, once they sort out the political risks (also Bezos with Blue Origin, which is dependent on Trump and the Republicans now in various ways).

potatosoup 10y ago

Bezos bought WaPo and that has been his anti-Trump mouthpiece for the past months. Doesn't need to make a separate statement.

pg314 10y ago
Do you have any evidence Bezos is influencing the editorial direction of the WaPo? All statements I have seen of people working for or having worked for the WaPo say that there is a clear separation between Bezos and the editorial board.
- tobtoh 10y ago
  I can't remember which ex-newspaper editor said this, but it was in regard to a Murdoch paper and it was a discussion about the influence of newspaper owners and editorial boards, his commment was along the lines of: If the Editor can't figure out the editorial line that the owner wants without talking to the owner, he would never have become the Editor in the first place.

KVFinn 10y ago

>AMZN and Jeff Bezos have strangely been absent even though he was the most critical pre-election. Trump on Bezos: "Amazon is getting away with murder, tax-wise. "[Bezos has] got a huge antitrust problem because he's controlling so much. Amazon is controlling so much of what they're doing," Trump said, describing Amazon as a "monopoly" and complaining that "the whole system's rigged." "Believe me, if I become president, oh, do they have problems. They're going to have such problems." http://fortune.com/2016/05/13/trump-attacks-amazon-ceo-jeff-bezos/ http://fortune.com/2016/05/13/trump-attacks-amazon-ceo-jeff-... https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/703296870521528320?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw https://twitter.com/CNBCnow/status/703296870521528320?ref_sr... Seems like he's trying to keep his head down to avoid retribution.

CobrastanJorji 10y ago
Oh yeah, he's done a great job keeping his Washington Post quiet about Trump.
- gotchange 10y ago
  Trump is targeting him specifically for this to silence WaPo and force it to "change its tunes" singing his praise turning into another Breitbart clone but I don't think that this is happening anytime soon.
  - mhneu 10y ago
    This is exactly right. Trump and his White House know it's important to control the media.

fapjacks 10y ago

Just wondering: Do you work in finance?

developer2 10y ago

And? All these companies care about is their H-1 Visas being trampled on. They're worried about importing cheap labor, and being able to lock that talent in at below-market wages with their employees being physically unable to change jobs for fear of being deported. Until we have reasonably well-connected people advocating against the ban, without having any ulterior motive, these PR stunts we're seeing are quite sad. I don't understand anyone who sees tech CEOs as being central to this kind of debate, as if they have any pull with the general population. Their only followers are us geeks. They don't hold any major weight with the population at large. Sadly, you need "popular" politicians and Hollywood actors on one's side to make any kind of dent.

akiselev 10y ago
Right, those evil tech CEOs with their underpaid, poor immigrants. /s http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Google http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Google - Median salary: $127,000 http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Microsoft http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=Microsoft - Median salary: $119,000 http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=facebook http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=facebook - Median salary: $138,000 http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=apple http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=apple - Median salary: $120,000 Most of the people in America make a quarter of that. For a family of three or four. Compare the above to: http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=infosys http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=infosys - $76,000 http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=tata http://h1bdata.info/index.php?em=tata - $66,000
- delroth 10y ago
  And median salary is only part of the equation at these large companies. After ~3 years at Google, 30-40% on top of this with yearly bonus + stock is fairly common. I doubt the situation is the same at Infosys and Tata.
- anjc 10y ago
  Now show us how un-stagnant wages are in STEM
codecamper 10y ago