• Starbucks announced an expansion of its partnership with DoorDash, "with new delivery service launching today in Northern California, Texas, Georgia, Florida and other select markets. Starbucks delivery with DoorDash will expand to additional markets over the coming months, with full nationwide availability anticipated in all 50 states by March 2023."
According to the announcement, "This expansion follows on the heels of positive feedback from a successful pilot in Atlanta, Houston, and Sacramento, and additional market expansion in Seattle, Portland, and New York City last year."
• The Information reports that "Microsoft is preparing to lay off as many as thousands of staff in multiple divisions starting as soon as Wednesday, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. The percentage of staff that would be impacted couldn’t be learned … Among the new cuts will be teams within a group led by executive Omar Abbosh that help Microsoft’s sales teams pitch customers on Azure cloud services, this person said. Teams that don’t generate revenue or whose roles don’t carry specific sales quotas are especially vulnerable, the person said. Some of the roles Microsoft is eliminating are expected to be outsourced to consultants that work with the company."
The layoffs are happening despite the fact that "Microsoft hasn’t been under the same pressure as other companies making cuts because it didn’t hire as aggressively during the pandemic."
• From TechCrunch:
"Amazon is quietly piloting a new tier for its Prime membership in India, providing customers with access to popular benefits such as free two-day delivery and ad-supported Prime Video in standard definition at a lower price.
"The new tier, called Prime Lite, is currently available to select customers at a discounted annual price of $12 (999 Indian rupees). This is a cost-effective alternative to the regular Prime membership, which is priced at $18 (1499 Indian rupees) per year, or $2.20 (179 Indian rupees) per month.
"Amazon’s Prime membership has been available in India since 2016. It was priced at $12 a year for some time, though the company increased its pricing to $18 in December 2021. In the U.S., the Prime subscription is available at $139 per year or $14.99 per month."
