Curated Intel from the Talent Tech Industry
August 5-11, 2024:
• Offering a new watercooler: ZipRecruiter acquires UK job comparison site Breakroom;
• Angering investors can be dicey: Wells Fargo fake job interview class action can go forward;
• Feeling the heat: A Federal judge rules Google illegally abused its monopoly in search industry;
• Making matches better: Impactpool AI career matching secures $4M series A funding;
• Muscling out the competition: Recent Google hires fuel concerns over Big Tech power in AI.
PLUS
Get both worldclass content and business-building connections at TAtech Europe & The EMEA Job Board Forum. Register right now for the only conference in the EMEA market that is specifically designed both for job board and talent technology company CEOs, their direct reports and rising stars and to accelerate the bottom-line growth of their enterprises. Why the rush? Because the conference will be held September 17-19, 2024 in Paris at Cercle National des Armées, and it has a limited seating capacity. So, register today and accelerate the success your company achieves, today, tomorrow and into the future!
ZipRecruiter Acquires People-Powered Job Comparison Site Breakroom
ZipRecruiter, a leading online employment marketplace, today announced that it has acquired Breakroom, a UK-based employer review platform focused on frontline industries such as retail and hospitality. In line with its mission to actively connect job seekers with their next great opportunity, ZipRecruiter plans to launch Breakroom in the United States to empower workers with the job insights they need to apply with confidence. Breakroom will continue to operate as an independent brand. Breakroom collects data from frontline workers on pay, hours, flexibility, work conditions, culture, and more to provide community-powered ratings for jobs. These ratings give an authentic and transparent view of what it’s like to work for different employers, which, in turn, helps job seekers apply for the right jobs for their individual needs.
Misrepresentation claims survive in Wells Fargo fake job interview class action
A federal judge ruled early Monday morning that class action claims accusing some Wells Fargo employees of conducting fake job interviews to get around the company’s diversity guidelines could proceed. The class plaintiffs are former investors of Wells Fargo, who filed suit in 2022 after the New York Times published articles in May and June 2022 detailing Wells Fargo’s practice of conducting interviews with diverse candidates for positions that had already been filled or for positions the company knew the candidate was not qualified for. After the New York Times’ articles were published, Wells Fargo’s common stock price plummeted, causing the plaintiff investors to suffer significant losses and damages, they claim.
The Case Against Google
A federal judge has ruled that Google illegally abused its monopoly in the search industry, violating antitrust laws. The ruling stems from a 2020 lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice and several states. Judge Amit Mehta found that Google maintained its dominance by paying billions to companies like Apple and Samsung to be the default search engine on their devices, controlling nearly 90% of web searches. Google plans to appeal the decision. While acknowledging Google's high-quality search engine, the court concluded that the company shouldn't be allowed to make it so easily available. The judge also determined that Google has monopoly power in general search text ads, enabling it to charge inflated prices. However, the ruling didn't find a monopoly in the broader search advertising market. No specific remedies have been imposed yet, but potential outcomes could include operational changes or divestiture of certain business segments. A separate ad tech case against Google is scheduled for September.
Impactpool AI career matching secures $4M series A funding
Stockholm based Impactpool, a leading AI-driven career matching platform, has successfully secured $4M in Series A funding. The funding round was spearheaded by Mediahuis, with continued support from Fort Knox and other existing investors. This investment will significantly enhance Impactpool’s AI job-matching capabilities, furthering its mission to connect top talent with organisations addressing global challenges. The impact sector is dedicated to driving positive change in the world by addressing critical societal challenges such as health, environmental sustainability, and equality. Organisations in this sector strive to develop innovative solutions to these pressing issues, both for the present and the future. However, they often face significant hurdles in attracting the right talent.
Google hires top start-up team, fueling concerns over Big Tech’s power in AI
Google hired the co-founders of Character.ai, a prominent artificial intelligence start-up whose personalized chatbots were popular among young people, reigniting concerns that even well-funded start-ups can’t compete with the dominant tech companies that hold sway over the technology expected to rewire work and play. Noam Shazeer and Daniel De Freitas, two highly respected AI researchers, left Google in 2022 to start Character and in March last year the company was valued by investors at $1 billion. They will now return to Google, along with some of their employees, the start-up said in a blog post Friday, and Google will pay Character to access its AI technology. The start-up will in the future tap AI systems developed by other companies in addition to its own.
The Extraordinary Value Proposition of TAtech Europe
Get both worldclass content and business-building connections at TAtech Europe & The EMEA Job Board Forum. Register right now for the only conference in the EMEA market that is specifically designed both for job board and talent technology company CEOs, their direct reports and rising stars and to accelerate the bottom-line growth of their enterprises. Why the rush? Because the conference will be held September 17-19, 2024 in Paris at Cercle National des Armées, and it has a limited seating capacity. Whether your company is a niche or general job board, aggregator, talent marketplace, online classifieds business, programmatic platform, chatbot, conversational AI solution, ATS, recruitment marketing solution, CRM platform, interviewing or assessment system or talent technology consultancy, this event will supercharge your sales and your profits. So, register today and accelerate the success your company achieves, today, tomorrow and into the future!