Applications Software

Electronic Arts Inc. EA 0.99% said it is laying off about 6% of its workforce and reducing its office-space footprint to focus its spending on the best growth opportunities in the videogame industry. The maker of hit franchises such as “Madden NFL” and “The Sims” didn’t specify how many people would be let go or from which departments. In the middle of last year, it said it had nearly 13,000 employees. That would translate into around…

Microsoft Corp. MSFT 1.39% patched a dangerous security issue in Bing last month just days before it launched a new artificial intelligence-powered version of the search engine. The problem was discovered by outside researchers at the security firm Wiz Inc. It was created by a mistake in the way that Microsoft configured applications on Azure, its cloud-computing platform, and could be used to gain access to emails and other documents…

He used to be boss of a tech giant. Now he’s studying fish and rice.After he appeared to fall out of favor with China’s leadership following a 2020 speech he gave that criticized financial regulations, Jack Ma, co-founder of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. , has generally kept a low profile. Outside the public eye, the 58-year-old multibillionaire, who stepped down as Alibaba’s executive chairman in 2019, has been quietly building a life that includes earnest…

Ryan Cohen  took control of GameStop Corp. in 2021 vowing to transform the faltering videogame retailer into an e-commerce juggernaut.Meme-stock investors loved the idea. Ordinary consumers, it turns out, did not. E-commerce sales didn’t take off—they declined. Losses grew, and a succession of online-sales executives Mr. Cohen brought in left.  Last year, to little fanfare, the billionaire investor reversed course and slammed the brakes on the e-commerce push to refocus…

The metaverse that was the hot thing in tech less than two years ago has cooled.  Meanwhile, the price for virtual real estate in some online worlds, where users can hang out as avatars, has cratered. The median sale price for land in Decentraland has declined almost 90% from a year ago, according to WeMeta, a site that tracks land sales in the metaverse. Meta’s name change in October 2021 spurred excitement about metaverse experiences, products and platforms. But slow user adoption, driven in part by…

If ChatGPT is your crazy Uncle Leo, Google’s Bard is your goodie-two-shoes Aunt Martha. You know, the one who covers her couch with plastic.On Tuesday, Alphabet Inc.’s GOOG -2.83% Google released its artificial-intelligence chatbot contender, an answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft Corp.’s Bing chatbot, which uses OpenAI technology. As with those others, you type a prompt into Bard and out pops prose that’s likely better than your last texting convo. It can answer…

Lyft Inc., LYFT -2.74% grappling with competition and a battered stock price, is tapping a board member as its chief executive, and its two co-founders will step back from managing the company, the ride-sharing company said Monday. David Risher, who had management stints at Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. before starting a childhood-reading…

Tech giants are touting new artificial intelligence tools that they say will revolutionize work, learning and creativity. They also have something else in mind: rejuvenating sales in their cloud-computing businesses. That chatbot was unveiled in November by OpenAI, a startup in which Microsoft has invested billions of dollars and has wowed users with its ability to perform functions like drafting memos and producing computer code at near-human levels of sophistication. Microsoft Chief Executive…

Salesforce managed to ease some activists’ concerns earlier this month when it posted strong fourth-quarter earnings. Photo: Cam Pollack/The Wall Street Journal…

Want to advance your career? Learn to complain well.Stay silent and you’ll stew in resentment and let burgeoning problems fester. Speak up and you can alert leaders to hidden issues, fix the frustrating parts of your job and show you’re ready for the next step up.Of course, you have to do it gracefully—or risk becoming the department whiner. “You really don’t want to come in as, ‘Woe is me,’” says Dina Denham Smith, a San Francisco-area executive coach who works with clients such as DocuSign…