Juni 2017 - Seite 178 von 190 - Cloud Computing Köln

This afternoon Apple CEO Tim Cook added his name to an ever-lengthening list of CEOs voicing their disappointment over President Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord. “I spoke with President Trump on Tuesday and tried to persuade him to keep the U.S. in the agreement,” Cook wrote in a memo obtained by BuzzFeed News. “But it wasn’t enough.”

Cook subsequently followed up his internal note to employees with a pointed tweet.

Here's Cook's memo in full:

Team,

I know many of you share my disappointment with the White House’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. I spoke with President Trump on Tuesday and tried to persuade him to keep the U.S. in the agreement. But it wasn’t enough.

Climate change is real and we all share a responsibility to fight it. I want to reassure you that today’s developments will have no impact on Apple’s efforts to protect the environment. We power nearly all of our operations with renewable energy, which we believe is an example of something that’s good for our planet and makes good business sense as well.

We will keep working toward the ambitious goals of a closed-loop supply chain, and to eventually stop mining new materials altogether. Of course, we’re going to keep working with our suppliers to help them do more to power their businesses with clean energy. And we will keep challenging ourselves to do even more. Knowing the good work that we and countless others around the world are doing, there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about our planet’s future.

Our mission has always been to leave the world better than we found it. We will never waver, because we know that future generations depend on us.

Your work is as important today as it has ever been. Thank you for your commitment to making a difference every single day.

Tim

Quelle: <a href="Read Apple CEO Tim Cook's Email To Employees About Trump Pulling Out Of The Paris Accord“>BuzzFeed

2. Juni 2017

da Agency

Blue Apron Just Filed For An IPO

Blue Apron, the company that ships meal kits to customers' homes, filed for an IPO on Thursday.

According to the filing, the company brought in $77.8 million in 2014, $340.8 million in 2015, and $795.4 million in 2016. In the first three months of this year, the company has already generated $244.8 million in net revenue. For context, the restaurant chain White Castle took in about $691.3 million in sales in US sales, according to 2015 data from QSR magazine.

But as the company grows, it loses more money each year — $30.8 million in 2014, then $47 million in 2015, and $54.9 million in 2016.

The rate of growth the company has experienced in recent years is impressive, but its effort to rapidly scale had consequences for some of the workers in Blue Apron's food processing facilities, in addition to financial losses. At the end of last year, Blue Apron put its plans for an IPO on hold, Bloomberg reported at the time.

In the filing, Blue Apron commented on its relationship with workers. “As of April 30, 2017, we had 5,137 full-time employees, of which more than 85% were engaged in fulfillment operations. None of our employees is represented by a labor union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement. We have not experienced any work stoppages, and we consider our relations with our employees to be good.”

Recently, a California food workers union introduced legislation in hopes of regulating workplace safety at companies like Blue Apron that package unprocessed food.

Blue Apron's filing also includes interesting information about how the company thinks about, and markets, itself. In 2016, 18% of the company's expenses went to marketing.

According to the chart below included in the filing, a little more than a third of Blue Apron's customers are between ages 25 and 34, aka millennials. About a quarter are between 35 and 44.

Despite a boom in smartphone usage and online shopping in the US and across the world, few consumer-facing internet companies have gone public in recent years, with the exception of Snapchat’s parent company in February. Tech startups like Uber and Airbnb have been able to raise hundreds of millions — in many cases, billions — of dollars in venture capital, reducing the need to seek cash from public markets.

Blue Apron, which is as much a food and logistics company as a technology company, stands out in contrast to that trend.

Venessa Wong contributed reporting to this story.

Quelle: <a href="Blue Apron Just Filed For An IPO“>BuzzFeed