Activity

Ericsson pleaded guilty and paid $206 million for violating the FCPA's anti-bribery provisions, after breaching a 2019 DPA. The original 2019 settlement totaled over $1 billion for bribery in Djibouti, China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Kuwait. In 2022, the company admitted it couldn't rule out that bribes paid in Iraq between 2011-2018 ended up with the Islamic State terrorist group.

FTC banned BetterHelp from sharing health data for advertising after finding the company revealed consumers' sensitive mental health data (email addresses, IP addresses, health questionnaire responses) to Facebook, Snapchat, and other advertisers without consent. This was the first FTC action returning funds to consumers whose health data was compromised. About 800,000 people received refund notices.

Salesforce established robust DEI programs centered around Equality Groups, with more than 50% of employees and contingent workers participating as members or allies, and membership growing 20% year-over-year. The company launched a Supplier Diversity Academy, a six-month accelerator for small businesses owned by underrepresented minorities, women, veterans, disabled, or LGBTQ+ individuals. Its Warmline employee advocacy program for underrepresented groups reduced attrition by 80% since 2020 and was named a DEI Lighthouse by the World Economic Forum in 2023.

ARM China, which contributed 24.5% of ARM's $2.68B revenue in fiscal 2023, experienced a major governance crisis when CEO Allen Wu refused to share ARM China's financial results with ARM and blocked the company's planned March 2023 NYSE IPO. Wu held the company's seal, preventing ARM from firing him. Since April 2022, Wu lodged several lawsuits in Chinese courts challenging corporate governance. ARM holds only 4.8% effective interest in ARM China through a 10% stake in an intermediate entity, while Chinese parties control the majority. In October 2023, key staff left to form competing chip design startup Borui Jingxin with government backing.

In 2023, Signal Foundation president Meredith Whittaker publicly stated Signal would leave the UK market rather than comply with the Online Safety Bill's provisions that could require breaking end-to-end encryption. The UK government ultimately backed down from requiring backdoors.

The Wikimedia Foundation pursued a years-long legal challenge against the NSA's Upstream surveillance program, arguing it violated the First and Fourth Amendment rights of Wikipedia users and editors. Research had documented a measurable chilling effect on Wikipedia traffic to sensitive topics following the 2013 Snowden revelations about NSA surveillance. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case on February 21, 2023, ending the legal challenge. Despite the loss, the Foundation's sustained effort demonstrated commitment to defending user privacy against government surveillance.

In February 2023, Tesla recalled 362,000 vehicles equipped with Full Self-Driving Beta following an NHTSA safety investigation. The agency concluded the FSD system did not adequately adhere to traffic safety laws, including running stop signs, traveling through intersections during yellow lights, and not adequately responding to speed limit changes. Tesla issued an OTA software update to address the issues.

In February 2023, more than 30 employees at Tesla's Buffalo Gigafactory were fired one day after workers publicly announced their intent to unionize with Workers United. Workers alleged the firings were in retaliation for union activity. The NLRB later dismissed the retaliatory firing charge but found merit in charges regarding workplace surveillance and captive audience meetings. In April 2024, the NLRB filed a complaint alleging Tesla unlawfully implemented policies to prevent unionizing at the Buffalo plant.

In February 2023, Christine Wilson, the sole remaining Republican FTC Commissioner, announced her resignation citing Khan's 'willful disregard for the rule of law and due process.' In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Wilson criticized Khan's 'disregard of congressionally imposed limits on agency jurisdiction, her defiance of legal precedent, and her abuse of power to achieve desired outcomes.' Wilson specifically criticized Khan's decision not to recuse herself from the Meta/Within case despite having publicly argued before joining the FTC that Meta should be prevented from acquiring any other firms.

In February 2023, GitLab announced a 7% workforce reduction affecting approximately 120 employees. CEO Sid Sijbrandij attributed the decision to conservative enterprise software spending. Employee Glassdoor reviews alleged the company had been trying to push people out before the formal layoff announcement, and described management as fostering 'distrust and anxiety.'

In February 2023, the U.S. Department of Transportation opened an investigation into Neuralink over the potentially illegal movement of hazardous pathogens. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) obtained documents suggesting unsafe packaging and transport of implants removed from monkey brains that may have carried infectious diseases including antibiotic-resistant staphylococcus and herpes B virus, in violation of federal hazardous materials law. In January 2024, DOT issued a fine of $2,480 for the violations.

In February 2023, GitLab reduced headcount by 7% (about 130 positions), with CEO citing 'tough macroeconomic environment.' Offered 4 months base salary severance. Employees reported suspicions GitLab was 'trying to push people out' after over-hiring without paying 'absurdly good severance,' with many getting written up for unclear expectations. Glassdoor reviews described management as 'exceptionally toxic, leading with an ego and fostering an environment of distrust and anxiety.' Entire SMB team dismissed with minimal compensation. Stock dropped 12% on announcement.

Despite Musk declaring child safety his 'top priority' after acquiring Twitter, independent investigations found the situation worsened. X disbanded its Trust and Safety Council (which included 12 groups advising on child exploitation), and nonprofit Thorn terminated its contract with X after the company stopped paying invoices. A February 2023 NYT investigation found CSAM was easy to find and X was slower to action reports. NBC News found in 2025 that automated accounts were flooding hashtags with child exploitation content using the same methods identified in 2023, indicating persistent failure to address the problem.

Microsoft announced a $2.1 billion investment in a cloud datacenter region in Saudi Arabia in February 2023. Human Rights Watch and 17 other human rights organizations called on Microsoft to suspend plans, citing Saudi Arabia's surveillance laws, targeting of dissidents, and use of spyware. Microsoft refused to make its human rights assessment public and proceeded with the project, completing construction in December 2024.

Dell Technologies eliminated approximately 25,000 jobs between 2023 and 2025, including a 6,650-person layoff in February 2023 (13% of workforce) and additional rounds in 2024-2025 affecting sales and engineering teams.

In February 2023, Activision Blizzard agreed to pay $35 million to settle an SEC investigation into the company's failure to properly disclose workplace misconduct information to investors. The SEC found that Activision required departing employees who signed separation agreements to notify the company if regulators contacted them, violating federal whistleblower protections. The SEC had subpoenaed documents from Kotick and senior executives, including board meeting minutes and Kotick's communications about harassment complaints.

160 migrant workers delivering for Delivery Hero's Talabat subsidiary in Qatar faced wage theft by subcontractors, with some unpaid for up to 8 months including during the 2022 World Cup. Workers who filed labor complaints were deported. One worker died in January 2023 reportedly following an accident during non-payment period. Workers employed by Infinity Delivery Services and subcontracted to Talabat.

Binance terminated an internal investigator who discovered evidence of $300 million in wash trades by Sigma Chain, a CZ-affiliated market maker, raising concerns about retaliation against whistleblowers.

Quintessential Capital Management published a 70-page report alleging potential accounting errors at Darktrace, including 'channel stuffing' and 'round-tripping' to inflate revenue. The report referenced practices similar to those that sank Autonomy, the company founded by Darktrace investor Mike Lynch. EY's independent review found only 'small number of errors and inconsistencies' not material to financial statements.

In January 2023, PayPal CEO Dan Schulman announced the company would lay off approximately 2,000 employees, representing about 7% of its total workforce. The layoffs were part of broader cost-cutting measures across the tech industry. This was followed by another round of approximately 2,500 layoffs (9% of workforce) in January 2024, representing consecutive years of major workforce reductions.

In January 2023, Snap launched its Privacy and Safety Hub (values.snap.com), a centralized resource for privacy and safety materials. The company restricted users under 18 from creating public profiles, defaulted teen accounts to friend-only communication, redesigned its Privacy Policy for clarity with plain language and summaries, and partnered with IAPP and Future Privacy Forum on privacy education tools. In 2024, Snap further updated its privacy policy to lead with user data controls for access, download, and deletion.

Between 2019 and 2023, Microsoft invested approximately $13 billion in OpenAI across multiple rounds ($1B in 2019, ~$2B in 2021, $10B in 2023), becoming its exclusive cloud provider via Azure and gaining rights to commercialize OpenAI's models. The partnership made Microsoft the dominant platform for frontier AI deployment. By October 2025, Microsoft's stake was valued at approximately $135 billion representing ~27% on a diluted basis.

On January 20, 2023, Sundar Pichai announced layoffs of approximately 12,000 employees (6% of workforce). Many received automated emails in the middle of the night and were locked out of corporate accounts immediately, including decades-long veterans, an employee on health leave, and an employee in labor. Pichai later admitted in December 2023 that it was 'not the right way to do it' and that it created 'a big impact on morale.' Over 1,300 employees later signed a job security petition. Workers asked for voluntary redundancies before compulsory ones, and freezing new hires.

In January 2023, state-backed entities took stakes in two Alibaba subsidiaries overseeing a video platform and web browser. The 'golden shares' allow state-backed entity to install board member with veto rights over content review processes. Alibaba confirmed a state-owned multimedia entity has the right to appoint a director with veto power over content decisions. Cyberspace Administration of China requires elaborate AI model reviews.

In 2022-2023, several Sequoia Capital India portfolio companies were embroiled in corporate governance scandals. BharatPe, where Sequoia held 19.6% shares as largest shareholder, faced allegations of financial irregularities. GoMechanic's founders were found to have committed fraud, leading Sequoia to write off its investment. Trell and Zillingo also faced governance issues. Sequoia publicly stated it would 'not tolerate any financial irregularity' and engaged Ernst & Young for audits. The pattern raised questions about Sequoia's portfolio oversight and due diligence practices in its India operations.

Stability AI built its Stable Diffusion image generation model using the LAION dataset of 5 billion images scraped from the internet without creator consent or licensing. Visual artists filed a class action (Andersen v. Stability AI) in January 2023, and Getty Images sued in February 2023 over infringement of 12 million+ photographs. A leaked Midjourney spreadsheet cataloged 4,700+ artist names whose styles were specifically targeted. Trial is set for September 2026.

Coinbase conducted major workforce reductions: 1,100 employees (18% of workforce) in June 2022 and 950 employees (20% of remaining workforce) in January 2023. CEO Brian Armstrong stated they 'grew too quickly' during the bull market. The technology and development division saw a 24% headcount reduction. Restructuring costs were $149-163 million in Q1 2023.

In January 2023, Ant Group announced restructuring so Jack Ma no longer controlled the company. Ma's voting rights fell from over 50% to 6.2%. Ten major shareholders began using voting rights independently, no longer acting in concert. Changes came as Ant neared completion of two-year regulatory restructuring. Chinese authorities imposed $984 million fine on Ant and units in July 2023 for allegedly breaking consumer protection and corporate governance rules.

New York state regulators levied a $50 million fine against Coinbase for failing to build and maintain a functional compliance program to prevent money laundering. Regulators found significant deficiencies in Coinbase's anti-money laundering controls and know-your-customer procedures.

In January 2023, CEO Marc Benioff announced the dismissal of approximately 7,000 employees, roughly 10% of Salesforce's workforce. The announcement was made via a two-hour all-hands meeting over a video call, a method Benioff later admitted had been a 'bad idea.' Benioff attributed the layoffs to over-hiring during the pandemic, stating 'I hired too many people leading into this economic downturn.'