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Twitter’s mass layoffs hit Canadian office (BETAKIT)

While it is unknown at this time how many Twitter Canada employees were affected, the cuts extended the top levels of the firm’s Canadian team, including managing director and director of public policy.

Meanwhile, Vancouver social media management firm Hootsuite has made additional staff cuts since August, laying off five percent of its team.

First Week of Elon Musk’s Twitter Was Chaos and Confusion for Employees (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)

Inside Twitter Inc. in the week after Elon Musk took it over, almost no one seemed to know for sure what was going on.

As Mr. Musk opined and joked on the platform about possible product changes, the mood among many inside the company was anxious and grim, according to interviews with employees. The one thing that seemed certain to employees was that many of them would soon lose their jobs, they said.

1Password acquires Texas-based Passage to fuel push into passkeys (BETAKIT)

The move comes as competition in the online authentication space has been heating up. Recently, attention has shifted away from traditional passwords towards ‘passkeys’—also known as passwordless sign-in. In May, tech giants Apple, Microsoft, and Google announced plans to build support for passkeys across all of the mobile, desktop, and browser platforms they control, implementing the FIDO standard (for its part, 1Password joined the FIDO Alliance in June).

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Apple is now valued more than Alphabet, Amazon and Meta combined (INSIDER)

At the same time, the market caps of its three tech giant peers added up to $2.306 trillion at the close of trading Wednesday. Google parent Alphabet’s market cap stood at $1.126 trillion, Amazon’s at $939.78 billion and Facebook parent Meta’s at $240.07 billion, Yahoo Finance data showed.

Snowflake opens Toronto HQ, engineering hub to expand investment in Canada (BETAKIT)

Shannon Katschilo is the country manager for Snowflake Canada, having joined in October after the recent departure of Bilal Khan, who was OneEleven’s founding CEO until 2018. Prior to his departure, he told The Globe and Mail that Snowflake’s footprint could double as the company scales up its operations, adding that it will likely have a hybrid work model.

Lyft cuts 13% of its workforce (CNBC)

In an email to employees obtained by CNBC, CEO Logan Green and President John Zimmer pointed to what they called “a probable recession sometime in the next year” and rising rideshare insurance costs. But Lyft is not currently changing the guidance it gave last quarter.

How Canada can get a big slice of the trillion-dollar global semiconductor market (BETAKIT)

A mix of record-low venture investment for software companies and the economic opportunity of hardware has put renewed importance on building things (literally). And it’s an opportunity Canada can’t afford to miss.

Check out these Q3 Canadian tech venture funding reports:

F.T.C. Accuses Ed Tech Firm Chegg of ‘Careless’ Data Security (THE NEW YORK TIMES)

In a legal complaint, filed on Monday morning, regulators accused Chegg of numerous data security lapses dating to 2017. Among other problems, the agency said, Chegg had issued root login credentials, essentially an all-access pass to certain databases, to multiple employees and outside contractors.

Uber stock pops 11% on revenue beat, strong guidance (CNBC)

Uber reported a net loss of $1.2 billion for the third quarter, $512 million of which was attributed to revaluations of Uber’s equity investments, according to a company release. Revenue was up 72% year over year.

Voilà! closes $13.75 million Series A to help combat labour shortages across Canada, United States (BETAKIT)

The funding will bolster the company’s growth as it plans to combat labour shortages and expand across Canada and into the United States. Voilà expects to hire for more than 50 additional jobs in software and business development within the next two years.

How startup CFOs can prepare for their rapidly changing role expectations (BETAKIT)

With global turbulence as a driver, the role of the CFO in a growing, tech-enabled business has now fundamentally changed. In a webinar hosted by Sage Intacct, Daniel Oh, VP of Medium Segment, Sage Canada, and Pamela Steer, President and CEO, CPA Canada, discussed the evolving role of the CFO and the challenges that come along with change.

What If Rumble Is the Future of the Social Web? (THE ATLANTIC)

The most serious of the “alt-tech” social-media platforms appealing to right-wing “anti-censorship” voices often slides under the radar.

Audette raises $12.8 million CAD to ‘level up’ decarbonization of buildings (BETAKIT)

Victoria-based Audette has raised $12.8 million CAD in seed funding to ‘level up’ the decarbonization of buildings, with a plan to launch across 150 North American cities over the next two years. Meanwhile, over in Gatineau and Ottawa, satellite component testing firm Connektica and hopeful Evernote competitor Nook Technologies have secured $2.7 million and $2.39 million, respectively.

The post S|W: The SaaS Weekly – Elon had one hell of a first week at Twitter first appeared on BetaKit.