Slack outage: If you weren’t ready to return to work on Monday morning, you weren’t alone: neither was Slack, apparently. The communication and collaboration service suffered a widespread outage just as workers were returning to their virtual workstations after the long holiday. As of press time, Slack is back for some users, but the company acknowledges that performance is degraded for some. See the latest status updates here.
Could this be an opening for Slack alternatives? Some media organizations are looking to the outage as an opportunity to test Discord and Microsoft Teams. “I've heard bosses at various newsrooms have mulled pulling the plug on Slack over the last year. I suspect some will see this as a controlled experiment,” writes New York Times media columnist Ben Smith. The issue has larger implications for Salesforce, which is in the process of acquiring Slack for $27.7 billion, joining forces against Microsoft in the enterprise tech market.
Haven to shut down: The healthcare joint venture led by Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JP Morgan Chase is ending operations next month. Unveiled three years ago, Haven did not seek a profit, aiming instead to improve healthcare services for its employees, eventually planning to share solutions with others. Earlier reports indicated that duplication with Amazon’s own internal healthcare initiatives emerged as one of multiple stumbling blocks for Haven. Read more.
Banner year for tech stocks and IPOs: It was a big year for big tech on Wall Street, and Seattle tech stocks followed the broader trend. Despite parts of the economy shuttering due to COVID-19, many stocks soared. The technology sector led the way, with Nasdaq showing its best year since 2009. GeekWire’s analysis of 28 publicly-traded tech stocks with headquarters or major operations in Washington state shows only one that posted a decline.
On a related note, 2020 marked the second-best year for IPO deals and dollars in the past decade.
Thanks for reading, welcome back from the holiday break, and see all of our latest headlines below. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, editor@geekwire.com, and managing editor Taylor Soper, taylor@geekwire.com.
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