In her debut column for GeekWire, longtime Microsoft watcher Mary Jo Foley digs into the recent wave of reorgs, hiring freezes, and leadership shakeups in Redmond, and asks whether it's business as usual or something bigger for Satya Nadella & Co.
Read more. Snap picks up the pieces of Rec Room. After the Seattle-based social gaming company announced Monday that it will shut down on June 1, the Snapchat parent confirmed to GeekWire that it has acquired select assets from Rec Room Inc. Some Rec Room team members will join Snap's hardware subsidiary to work on its AR glasses.
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Rec Room raised $294 million and was once valued at $3.5 billion, but said it never found a way to turn its popularity into a profitable business. Read more.
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"I don’t think anything will ever replace Rec Room.” The despair is real among players who took to Discord and Reddit to share how much they’ll miss the gaming platform.
Delta and Amazon: Amazon Leo reached a deal with Delta Air Lines to provide satellite Wi-Fi on 500 aircraft starting in 2028. The agreement gives Amazon's fledgling satellite internet venture a big new partner as it races to catch up with SpaceX's Starlink. Read more.
The latest round of layoffs at Meta will impact 168 employees in Washington, according to a new state filing. The employees are primarily based in Seattle, Redmond and Bellevue, with 39 working remotely within the state. Read more.
Custom AI models FTW? Seattle startup Oumi, founded by a lineup of former Google and Microsoft engineers, is betting that smaller, specialized models will beat general-purpose alternatives from the likes of OpenAI and Anthropic. The company launched its commercial platform Tuesday morning, building on the momentum of its open-source work. Read more.
The milestone mission to send four astronauts on a round-the-moon journey is getting a push from Seattle-area companies. U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell toured two of the contractors for NASA’s Artemis moon program, including Karman Space & Defense’s manufacturing facility in Mukilteo, Wash., and an L3Harris facility in Redmond, above. Read more.
Tech Moves: C-suite exec leaves Microsoft for Alaska Airlines; Amazon leaders depart; HashiCorp CTO resigns; and more personnel changes.
Hot Links:
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Microsoft and LinkedIn released the new book, “Open to Work,” a practical guide urging workers to lean into AI-era skills and shape the future of their careers. (Microsoft Blog)
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The UK is investigating whether Microsoft’s software licensing and AI integrations unfairly dominate the cloud market. (CNBC)
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Amazon’s Alexa+ now lets users order from Grubhub and Uber Eats in a natural, continuous conversation that minimizes the usual back‑and‑forth with a voice assistant. (Amazon News)
- “I broke up with my Kindle.” How Amazon’s control over ownership of e-books led a reader to go in search of an alternative device. (Washington Post)
Thanks for subscribing, and have a great day. — GeekWire editor Todd Bishop, todd@geekwire.com, and reporter Kurt Schlosser, kurt@geekwire.com. 
