• The Trump administration recently said it's considering placing a ban on TikTok, the viral app with ties to China through its parent company, ByteDance.
• In the wake of the threatened ban, competing short-video apps — like Dubsmash, Byte, and Triller — have seen an uptick in their download numbers as TikTok users prepare to migrate to other platforms.
• The situation has also opened a window for tech companies, including YouTube and Instagram, to roll out new formats and features reminiscent of TikTok in the hopes they can eat into the app's dominance. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The imminent threat of TikTok disappearing from the US thanks to the Trump administration's suggestion of a ban has signaled panic among users, and tech companies are taking advantage of the chaos to lure the app's loyal following to their competing platforms.

In just the past week, up-and-coming platforms such as Byte — a product of Vine's cofounder — and Dubsmash, best known for housing the original "Renegade" dance, have risen to the top of app charts. And more established tech giants including Snapchat and YouTube have debuted new features — all which heavily borrow from TikTok's short-form video and scrolling format. 

The day President Trump threatened to ban TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, for what he said was punishment for the coronavirus, competing apps that have historically dwindled in TikTok's mainstream shadow saw their download numbers spike dramatically. Byte saw an 126% jump in downloads on July 8, and took No. 1 on the App Store's charts, after generating an average of 1,000 new downloads a day, according to data from app analytics firm Sensor Tower. Data provided to Reuters showed noticeable spikes in downloads for Dubsmash, Triller, and Likee. 

Established tech companies no longer see TikTok — with an estimated US userbase at as high as 80 million— as a rising startup, and instead recognize it as a worthy competitor. Big names like Facebook and Google had toyed with creating TikTok competitors in the past, but have only just recently started rolling out viable products. YouTube has started testing its in-app feature for short-form video with a "small group" of people, and developers have discovered Snapchat could be switching out its horizontal swiping motion for TikTok's signature vertical swipe.

Instagram, meanwhile, is currently testing a new TikTok-like format inside of Stories, called Reels, in select countries. Although Reels is not yet available in the US, Instagram told Business Insider it rolled out the feature last week in India — a country that makes up 30% of all TikTok downloads, and where the government recently banned new TikTok downloads amid a border dispute with China.

Although a ban on TikTok in the US may be nothing more than a threat, creators have formulated contingency plans, and are encouraging fans to follow them to other platforms. A timely glitch last week that briefly made video views and like counts reset to zero only added to the panic. 

Since TikTok came to the US in 2018, it's been a dominant force, outperforming US-based apps that have attracted younger audiences, like Snapchat and Instagram. The app has since faced scrutiny over how much access and influence the Chinese government is afforded over user data and content moderation. TikTok has been able to brush off lawmakers' calls for investigations and national security experts' warnings. In June, TikTok appointed a US-based CEO in June to try to distance itself from its Chinese roots.

SEE ALSO: Inside the rise of TikTok, the viral video-sharing app that US officials are threatening to ban due to its ties to China

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NOW WATCH: How 'white savior' films like 'The Help' and 'Green Book' hurt Hollywood

• NBCUniversal will launch it's new streaming service, Peacock, on July 15 with thousands of hours worth of TV shows, movies, original series, live sports, and news programs.
• While the basic version of Peacock is available for free, you'll need a Peacock Premium subscription to watch all of the platform's new exclusive shows and movies.
• Peacock Premium costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.
• Below, we've included a brief synopsis for every Peacock original series and movie you'll find once the service launches on July 15.

After months of anticipation and a three-month early access period, NBCUniversal's ad-supported streaming service, Peacock, is finally ready to launch nationwide. Peacock will be available on July 15 with free, premium, and ad-free subscription tiers. The platform will compete with a growing field of on-demand services that includes the likes of Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and HBO Max.

Peacock's catalog includes a mix of new and classic NBC shows, like "Saturday Night Live" and "Parks and Recreation," along with movies from Universal films and live events broadcast by NBC Sports. Premium subscribers will also have access to new shows that are exclusive to Peacock, including an adaptation of the classic novel "Brave New World," and the critically acclaimed British crime drama "The Capture."

How do I watch Peacock original shows and movies?

While a few of the originals will be available for free, you'll need a Peacock Premium subscription to watch the full selection of original series and movies.

Peacock Premium costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year. People who pre-order a Peacock Premium subscription can get a 40% discount if they sign up for a full year, dropping the annual price to $29.99.

The pre-order discount is available through July 14. Meanwhile, if you already subscribe to Xfinity internet or cable you get Peacock Premium for free with your current subscription.

However, Peacock Premium still has commercials. If you want to watch Peacock Premium without ads, you need to upgrade to the Peacock Premium ad-free plan for $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. If you pre-order an annual Peacock Premium ad-free subscription, you can receive a 20% discount on your first year, bringing the price down to $79.99. This promotion will be available through July 14.

Below, you can find every original show and movie available on Peacock:

"Brave New World"

"Brave New World" is a dystopian sci-fi series based on Aldous Huxley's book of the same name. "Brave New World" depicts an alternate future where the world has united under a single culture based on logic, forgoing common notions of race, religion, marriage, and national identity.

Though citizens of the World State believe they're living in a utopia, Huxley's characters rely on a drug called soma to maintain happiness and struggle to rise above their predetermined status in society. Their utopia is further called into question when World State citizen Bernard Marx encounters a young man raised in the outside world. The show stars Alden Ehrenreich, Jessica Brown Findlay, and Harry Lloyd.

"Cleopatra in Space"

A teenage version of the famous Egyptian queen is sent 30,000 years into the future to battle an alien space ruler in this kid-focused adaptation of the comic book series created by Mike Maihack.

"Curious George"

Peacock will be the exclusive home for new seasons of the "Curious George" TV show, which began on PBS Kids in 2006. The show follows the young ape on a series of adventures and teaches young kids how to safely explore the world around them.

"Where's Waldo"

"Where's Waldo" will launch its second season on Peacock after premiering on Universal Kids in 2019. The show brings viewers to a new city around the world in each episode with the intention of teaching kids about different cultures.

"Psych 2: Lassie Come Home"

"Psych" was a successful mystery-comedy series that ran for eight seasons on the USA Network from 2006 to 2014. James Roday plays Shawn Spencer, a psychic detective who fakes his abilities but still manages to solve mysteries with the help of his friend Gus (Dulé Hill) and police detective Carlton "Lassie" Lassiter (Timothy Omundson).

"Psych" returned in 2017 with a made-for-TV movie that continued the story three years after its conclusion. "Psyche 2: Lassie Come Home" will move the show from the USA Network for the very first time, and creator Steve Franks said he'd be willing to do up to six "Psych" movies.

"In Deep with Ryan Lochte"

After earning six gold medals over the course of his Olympic career, swimmer Ryan Lochte is working to repair an image that was tarnished after he was arrested in Brazil following the 2016 Olympics and suspended in 2018 for violating US anti-doping policies.

Now 35-years-old, the documentary will track Lochte's past and his efforts to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

"Lost Speedways"

Narrated and produced by NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr, "Lost Speedways" traces the history of America's car racing culture through the decades, unearthing forgotten tracks where the sport found its origin.

"The Capture"

In this British crime drama, a detective works to uncover if a military veteran is being framed for the murder of a judge after the accused is seemingly captured committing the crime on camera. The suspenseful six-episode drama has already received high praise in the UK after airing on BBC, and it will be available exclusively on Peacock in the US.

"Intelligence"

"Friends" actor David Schwimmer stars in this British sitcom about an NSA agent who finds himself in over his head while working as a liaison to the British government. The first season aired in the UK and a second has already been confirmed, but the series will be exclusive to Peacock in the United States.

More shows coming to Peacock in the future

Peacock has a long list of original series and movies planned for the future, including reboots of "Battlestar Galactica" and "Punky Brewster."

Peacock renewed the sitcom "A.P Bio" as an exclusive after two seasons on NBC.  The third season will be exclusive to Peacock in September 2020.

Future international programming on Peacock includes the British comedy "Hitmen" releasing August 6, the Australian drama "Five Bedrooms" premiering on August 13, and the Canadian crime-drama "Departure" which will debut on Peacock on September 17.

We'll keep updating this list as new original shows are added, and you can find out what else comes with your Peacock subscription in our full breakdown.

• Netflix, the global leader in streaming TV, is having a moment now that more people are staying home.
• But it still faces pressure to hold on to its standing as legacy-media and tech rivals pursue their own streaming plays.
• Business Insider spoke with current and former Netflix employees, as well as industry experts, to identify the 56 most powerful executives leading key growth areas at the company.
• They include influential execs such as Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos and new Chief Marketing Officer Bozoma Saint John, as well as some less familiar names, like Rochelle King, the vice president of creative production, and Ty Warren, the head of physical production.
• View Business Insider's exclusive interactive chart below.
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Netflix is having a moment now that more people are staying home.

The streaming-video service's global audience surged to 183 million paid subscribers in March. And Netflix's stock reached new heights in July as evidence from analysts and third-party data pointed to another strong quarter.

That was despite new rivals like Disney Plus, HBO Max, and Apple TV Plus, which dented Netflix's growth last year.

Netflix's past decade of unrivaled subscriber growth and an equally impressive stock climb forced legacy media to take streaming seriously or risk irrelevance and tech titans to vie for a piece of the streaming-TV pie.

By the end of 2020, Comcast, AT&T, and ViacomCBS will have unveiled new streaming strategies to challenge Netflix and keep up with the viewer shifts it spurred.

Business Insider spoke with current and former Netflix employees, as well as industry experts, to identify the 56 most powerful executives leading key growth areas at the company. Netflix has many leaders — not all of whom are included here — but this list gives an inside look at whom to watch in 2020.

Netflix declined to comment on this story.

At the top of the company is CEO Reed Hastings, who cofounded Netflix in 1997 as a hub for online movie rentals, oversaw its move into streaming video 10 years later, and drove the company to become the first truly global TV service.

Hastings' core leadership team includes influential execs like Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos, who oversees the company's colossal content budget; Chief Product Officer Greg Peters, who is responsible for every aspect of the platform from its price to the option to turn off autoplay video; and Bozoma Saint John, Netflix's newly appointed chief marketing officer— and its third in the last year — who brings with her experience from Endeavor, Uber, and Apple Music.

There are also execs driving key initiatives within Netflix whose names might not be as familiar as those in its C-suite.

They include Ty Warren, Netflix's head of physical production who is adapting to TV- and film-production stoppages around the world; movie boss Scott Stuber, who is turning the company into a major player in Hollywood; top animation exec Melissa Cobb, who is helping Netflix compete with Disney Plus; creative production lead Rochelle King, who is managing one of the fastest-growing teams at Netflix this year; Vice President of Product Todd Yellin, who is pushing Netflix to evolve entertainment with new formats like "Black Mirror: Bandersnatch"; and Bela Bajaria, who is developing content for crucial international audiences.

Each leader plays their part to get people to spend more time with Netflix, which will be a key factor in keeping viewers around as new platforms launch.

"The real measurement will be time," Hastings said at The New York Times' DealBook conference in November. "How do consumers vote with their evenings?"

This chart is interactive. Click on "core team" to get the full list of names.

This post was last updated on July 14, 2020.

Do you have tips about working at Netflix? Email this reporter at arodriguez@businessinsider.com. Email for Signal number.

Business Insider asked Netflix insiders how to get a job at the streaming company. See our coverage on BI Prime:

• Exactly what it takes to get a job at Netflix, according to its head of hiring, former employees, and recruiting experts: Insiders share their best tips for navigating the hiring process, from how to prep for an interview to what to do if you don't get the job.
• Netflix's recruiting boss reveals the team the company is staffing up the most in 2020: Netflix's creative production team will be its biggest hiring priority.
• How to get noticed by Netflix job recruiters who can help you get hired, according to company insiders: The first step is to craft your online persona to tell your professional story.
• How to get a job interview at Netflix with the help of employee referrals — and what to avoid doing, according to company insiders: Recommendations from Netflix employees can get prospective candidates noticed by Netflix recruiters. Former employees shared their top tips on getting referrals and using them to land a job.
• Netflix's 5 toughest job-interview questions, according to company insiders: These are some of the job-interview questions candidates should be prepared to answer at any stage of the hiring process.
• What to do if Netflix rejects you for a job the first time around, according to its head of hiring: One employee was interviewed at Netflix three separate times before being hired, Netflix's vice president of talent acquisition said.
• The top 10 slides from Netflix's groundbreaking first culture deck that experts say had the most impact: Netflix's culture deck is a must-read for candidates. Recruiters explain what sets Netflix's culture apart from other tech companies.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Swayze Valentine is the only female treating fighters' cuts and bruises inside the UFC octagon

• Jyoti Bansal founded AppDynamics during the 2008 recession — and sold it a decade later for $3.7 billion.
• He says the recession was good for AppDynamics, and give the startup focus during a tough economic period. 
• Now Bansal is launching a new cybersecurity startup, Traceable, which searches applications' computer code for security issues.
• Bansal says persisting while rivals fade, bringing a product quickly to market, and improving the product with customers' is a winning formula.  
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Jyoti Bansal founded AppDynamics during the economic downturn of 2008. He thrived in the hard times, and got an offer many would have jumped at in a recession – to sell the company for $350 million. He turned the acquisition offer down, and in 2017 sold the company to Cisco for $3.7 billion (on the eve of AppDynamics' pending IPO, no less). 

Now he's launching a new startup – once again in the middle of a pandemic-besieged economy – with strategy for success in hard times that worked wonders before. 

This week Bansal is launching Traceable, a cybersecurity startup that focuses on apps and the code they use to connect with computer systems via application programming interfaces (APIs). The startup came out of stealth mode Tuesday with a $20 million Series A funding round from Unusual Ventures and BIG Labs, Bansal's own startup incubator. Bansal is joined by Sanjay Nagaraj, a former AppDynamics vice president, as chief technical officer and co-founder.

Why would a wealthy tech success story want to launch another startup during a challenging time? Because he says a recession can be the best thing for a startup — a lesson he learned in 2008.    

"We were a small startup with ten employees, zero revenue, and zero paying customers when  Lehman Brothers collapsed," he says of the failure of the investment banking giant, thought by many to have set off the 2008-2009 recession. The venture capital market froze and some of our competitors started running out of cash and shut down."

But that economic downturn helped his startup, Bansal says. "I actually feel that the recession was a great thing to happen to AppDynamics. It shaped who we were as a company."

Bansal's formula for launching a company at a tough time is to persist as competitors fade during hard times, focus on bringing a simple and effective product to market quickly, and work with customers to make sure the company is effective. Startups in downturns need to be "product-focused, scrappy, super-competitive and customer-obsessed," he says. 

Keep the company focused on a few things

"The primary lesson I have learned is to keep the organization focused on a few key things that matter. We are going to bring the same focused approach here at Traceable, recession or not."

He says his new company uses artificial intelligence to study how computer code is supposed to work in apps and APIs, where they connect to other programs. When a hacker tries to break into a system, Traceable notes the disruption in the code and alerts the company, suggesting a solution. 

"If you're on an online banking website, you don't care about the bank's computer network. You  care about that application that you're using, and whether it's secure," Bansal says. "That depends on the computer code, and it's a huge problem." 

The new startup counts Google's former head of security, Gerhard Eschelbeck, as an advisor. "The broad use of APIs in cloud-native applications has greatly expanded" security vulnerabilities, Eschelbeck says, and "until now, there hasn't been a solution."

What if Traceable blows up the way AppDynamics did? Will he finally take it easy? 

"Hey, I tried to retire," he says of the 2017 sale of AppDynamics. "My wife and I had a list of all the places we wanted to go. For six months we traveled. I got tired of beaches and started itching for a new challenge."  

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why American sunscreens may not be protecting you as much as European sunscreens

• Major tech companies like Apple and Facebook are starting to send some employees back to the office.
• But public health experts warn that an office is an inherently risky environment for spreading COVID-19. especially as cases in much of the country, including in California, continue to rise.
• How a workplace will handle COVID-19 in its ranks is often left up to the company. There is little mandate from federal or state governments in how companies should deal with and communicate infections to employees, though there are guidelines.
• Federal and local health departments recommend employers notify workers who come in contact with an infected person and advise sick and potentially sick employees to stay home. There are no obligations to close offices or tell employees of a confirmed COVID-19 case among staff, should one happen.
• With so much of the response left up to businesses, the question becomes: What will your company do if someone gets sick?
• Melissa Perry, a public health researcher at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, advises employers to be flexible about reopening and to do so on a trial basis. "It makes no sense to get entrenched in the decision to return no matter what, because that's putting people in greater risk," she told Business Insider.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

When tech's long-dormant offices begin to reopen their doors to employees, life will look significantly different. Gone will be the heaping self-serve buffets, the on-site massages, and the access to gyms and sleep pods. In their place will be boxed lunches, spaced-out desks, and temperature checks. 

Some companies, like Apple and Facebook, have already begun sending a limited number of employees back, allowing the rest of their workforces to continue working at home.

But with people planning to return to office buildings — where the virus can much more easily spread from person to person— it raises the question: What happens if an employee gets sick?

Right now, guidelines vary slightly by region for what an office has to do. At the moment, there are no mandates for employers to shut down, or even to tell employees that there's been a confirmed COVID-19 case among their colleagues. But as offices begin to reopen in the coming months, it's a question that every business will have to grapple with.

'A very easy route of transmission'

None of the major tech companies have plans to send all employees back to work right away — Twitter's Jack Dorsey has gone as far as to say that employees can work from home forever. Other companies have said workers won't be required back through the end of the year — in Facebook's case, Mark Zuckerberg recently told employees that eventually, as many as half of the company's total employees will likely work from home. Amazon isn't requiring workers return to the office until at least October. 

Still, many major tech companies have already made public their plans for reopening. At Salesforce, the company wrote a 21-page handbook of reopening guidance. CEO Marc Benioff told The New York Times that Salesforce's offices would be more "sterile" and "hospital-like" and that more light-hearted touches like trinkets on desks and "huge jars of gummy bears everywhere" would be eliminated. 

At Apple, which has been operating since May, the company is having employees work from the office only a few days per week and mandating temperature checks and providing optional COVID-19 tests. 

Almost across the board, tech firms are revamping their office designs, separating work stations and closing meeting rooms or other shared workspaces. While these changes mitigate the potential of spreading the coronavirus, they don't eliminate it.

Melissa Perry, a public health researcher at George Washington University's Milken Institute School of Public Health, points out that offices are inherently risky when it comes to spreading the virus.

"In the workplace, it only follows that if you're working in close proximity and handling objects and interacting closely with each other, it's a very easy route of transmission for germs, viruses, bacteria," Perry told Business Insider.

The decision to reopen those riskier spaces, Perry said, should be influenced by what's happening locally in terms of virus trends and transmission. In California, for example, the state has seen a recent surge in virus cases, particularly in Southern California. Last Tuesday, the state hit a record high of 9,500 recorded infections, the most on a single day since the start of the pandemic. On Monday, the governor said California would roll back reopening.

That surge in cases led Google, which had planned to start sending employees back July 6, to change its plans. Now, its US offices will stay closed until at least September 7. 

"If you're in a hotspot state, it really sends a strong message that [reopening] is not in the best interest of your workplace and in the best interest of the health of the population of the state," Perry said. 

Working in an office has already proven to be an easy way to spread the virus. In March, nearly half of all employees at a single call center in South Korea tested positive for COVID-19. A seating chart created by the South Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed just how easily the virus spread from person to person in the densely populated open-floor-plan office. 

That's not to mention situations like elevators, which are often unavoidable in high-rise office buildings in cities like San Francisco, Seattle, and New York, where many tech companies have headquarters. Elevators could easily spread the virus, especially "if they are crowded and people ride in them for a long time, like a minute or more, several times a day," Linsey Marr, an aerosol scientist at Virginia Tech, recently told Business Insider's Hilary Brueck and Shira Feder.

"The virus needs people to transmit between," Maria Van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization's technical lead for COVID-19, said during a press conference in May. "If people are in close contact with one another and you have an infected person, it will transmit to another person through these respiratory droplets."

But with coronavirus cases surging in some states and companies still planning to reopen, the question stops becoming if offices will reopen, and starts to become: What will companies do when offices reopen and someone gets sick?

Representatives for Google and Apple did not respond to multiple requests for comment on their reopening plans. Facebook declined to comment.

An Amazon spokesperson told Business Insider the employees who can work from home can do so until at least October 2.

"We are working hard and investing significant funds to keep those who choose to come to the office safe through physical distancing, deep cleaning, temperature checks, and the availability of face coverings and hand sanitizer," the spokesperson said.

Guidelines vary by region, but if someone in your office gets sick, there's no mandate to shut down — or to notify employees 

If a worker contracts COVID-19 once they've returned to the office, employers have to decide how to manage the situation. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that employers alert anyone who may have come into contact with the infected person. But much of the responsibility of how to proceed lies with employers, who must determine who else to inform and how to tell them, what extra safety and cleaning measures to implement in the office, and whether they must shut down their offices completely — if at all.  

In places like the Bay Area, which was the first to issue stay-at-home orders in March, some office reopenings appear to be going forward as planned. Local officials have guidelines in place for offices, both in terms of changes to the physical spaces and how employers should communicate with the employees who return.

But even with these guidelines, a company's mandate for how to react isn't clear. Perry, the public health researcher, urges companies to be flexible with shutting down, but a lot of the decision is left up to company itself. 

Salesforce, for example, has come up with a response plan for what do if any employee tests positive for COVID-19. A company spokesperson told Business Insider that Salesforce would run a manual contact tracing program to determine who the infected person came in contact with, followed by a "hard closing": Every employee in the building will be notified of the positive case and either part or all of the office will be shut down. Salesforce won't allow any employees into the building until it cleans and disinfects the space. 

The spokesperson noted that even once the office reopens, employees will have to complete a daily wellness check in order to return to the office, and workers will still have the option to work remotely until the end of 2020. 

While Salesforce has opted to include an office shut-down in its plans, however, it's not required to by its local health department. In San Francisco, where Salesforce is based, the Department of Public Health has issued guidelines for what employers should do if an employee gets sick. The department advises employers to ask anyone who came into close contact with a person diagnosed with COVID-19 within 48 hours of symptoms developing to stay home for the two weeks following. Others working in the office should monitor themselves for symptoms and the office should be cleaned and disinfected, the department says. 

The department also created a one-page advisory sheet that can be distributed to workers at an office where an employee tests positive.

In New York City, where many Bay Area-based tech companies have offices, there is also no mandate for offices to shut down if an employee tests positive for the virus. The city's health department encourages employers to report a positive COVID-19 test to the city's Test and Trace Corps and to alert employees who came into contact with the infected person that they may have been exposed to the virus.

In King County, Washington, where Amazon is based, the health department also doesn't require a reopened office to shut down after a positive COVID-19 test.

"In most cases, you do not need to shut down your facility," the health department advises. "If it has been less than 7 days since the sick employee has been in the facility, close off any areas used for prolonged periods of time by the sick person."

While healthcare and social service businesses should report cases to local officials, other type of businesses don't need to unless they think the virus may be spreading through their workplace. In all cases, employers may not reveal the identity of the infected person under federal law. 

OSHA does not advise employers to close down if a worker becomes infected — instead, OSHA's COVID-19 guidance for workplaces urges isolating a person who shows symptoms of the virus from other employees in a room with closed doors until that worker can be safely removed from the building. Employers should also provide masks to sick employees to help contain the spread of the virus, per OSHA. 

The CDC offers similar guidance, urging employers to isolate sick employees until they can be moved home or to a healthcare provider, but advising that it's unnecessary to shut down. Workplaces should then try to increase air circulation by opening doors and windows and disinfect any areas the infected person might have used. 

Perry, the George Washington public health researcher, said she thinks the best course of action for employers is to reopen their offices on a trial basis, not a permanent one, because organizations need to be flexible about staying open in such a "rapidly evolving situation." 

"It makes no sense to get entrenched in the decision to return no matter what, because that's putting people in greater risk," she said. 

"I'm just hopeful that the workplaces and the business leaders are being as mindful about the things that companies need to do, seeing their role in contributing to preventing further outbreak and further spread," Perry said. "They have a real role to play here, as we all do."

SEE ALSO: How tech companies from Google to Salesforce are planning to reopen offices and bring employees back to work in the wake of the coronavirus crisis

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What it takes to be a PGA Tour caddie

• Postmates' original pitch deck, put together by founder Bastian Lehmann, was leaked this week to Business Insider.
• The pitch deck makes clear Lehmann's broad ambitions for his startup; he wanted to created a general-purpose local courier service, not just a food delivery company.
• Lehmann ended up building one of the top food delivery companies in the space, outlasting competitors and raising $900 million in funding.
• Last week, Uber announced plans to buy Postmates for $2.65 billion.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Long before Postmates became one of the top four food delivery services in the US and agreed to be purchased by Uber for $2.65 billion this month, it was little more than an idea for a low-cost courier service.

The concept originated with Bastian Lehmann, a German entrepreneur, whose efforts creating a social media company called Curated.by was struggling to gain interest from investors. Lehmann decided to pivot and focus on what he saw as a better opportunity — local delivery of goods. 

The company he created from that idea in 2011 — Postmates — clicked with consumers and VC investors, gaining popularity as one of the pioneering app-based services for restaurant food delivery. 

But in the early days when the market for restaurant delivery apps was not yet proven, Lehmann and his cofounders needed to convince venture capital investors that the idea had potential.

Postmates' first pitch deck — leaked to Business Insider this week, but put together by Lehmann before the company raised its first round of seed funding back in 2011 — shows Lehmann's broad ambitions to build a new kind of general purpose courier service.

At the time, according to the deck, Postmates was running a small trial in San Francisco. And food delivery was just one of multiple ideas for what Lehmann believed Postmates could provide. The headline on one slide reads "Why stop with one market?" and then lists nearly 30 different types of industries or products Postmates could eventually serve or deliver. A Postmates representative declined to comment on the pitch deck.

Lehmann's ambition paid off. He built a billion-dollar company that outlasted numerous competitors. Although he failed to lead his company through a hoped-for initial public offering, he sold his company to Uber this month at a valuation that's nearly three times the $900 million that was invested in the company over the years.

Here's the pitch deck Postmates used to raise its first seed round back in 2011:

SEE ALSO: How Postmates went from multiple IPO setbacks to a $2.65 billion takeover by Uber

Got a tip about a startup or the venture industry? Contact Troy Wolverton via email at twolverton@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @troywolv, or send him a secure message through Signal at 415.515.5594. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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• Amazon's $1.2 billion deal to buy Zoox shows just how hard building a self-driving car still is —and why even more startups could become buyout targets
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The smart speaker has been a runaway success in the handful of years since it hit the market, catapulting from obscurity to the peak of sales lists and cementing itself in the public consciousness.

According to primary survey data from Business Insider Intelligence, as many as half of US respondents reported living in a home with a voice-enabled AI device.

The prevalence of smart speakers is changing how companies in a range of spaces — media, e-commerce, smart home, banking, and more — interact with consumers.

For companies looking to sell these speakers and brands looking to engage with their customers through the now-critical medium, it's important to understand how the voice ecosystem works in practice and how it's being used. 

To learn more about adoption and habits, we surveyed 2,000 US consumers regarding factors like smart speaker ownership, what brands consumers use, and what they use the devices to do. Our survey data offers critical insights for key stakeholders at companies aiming to promote and use the smart speaker to reach customers.

In TheSmart Speaker Report, Business Insider Intelligence examines the fast-evolving smart speaker market. First, we provide a glimpse into smart speaker adoption in the US, both overall and by particular demographics. Then, we look at the characteristics of device owners, including how many speakers they own, which types, how often they use them, and what they use them to do. We also break down the top smart speaker use cases and the reasons why they are or aren't resonating with consumers, and advise brands looking to reach their users via this medium how best to do so.

The companies mentioned in this report are: Amazon, American Express, Apple, Deezer, Google, Nest, Pandora, Samsung, Spotify, and TuneIn.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

• 5 years since the first device in its category launched, the smart speaker may be demonstrating one of the fastest rates of consumer adoption of any technology device in history, outpacing even the smartphone, per our data.
• More than half of US respondents who said that they live in households with a smart speaker reported having multiple speakers in their household, and nearly all living in households with speakers use them at least once a week.
• Media playback, general information, and communication are among the most commonly used features of smart speakers for device users.

In full, the report:

• Provides a snapshot of the current state of smart speaker adoption.
• Highlights the most important ways that consumers are using the devices and looks at what will come next in key segments.
• Identifies key trends in smart speaker and voice assistant design and usage and offers guidance for companies and brands looking to use the platform moving forward.

Interested in getting the full report? Here's how to get access:

1. Purchase & download the full report from our research store. >> Purchase & Download Now
2. Join thousands of top companies worldwide who trust Business Insider Intelligence for their competitive research needs. >>Inquire About Our Enterprise Memberships
3. Current subscribers can read the report here.

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• Hackers took over dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts Wednesday and used them to post messages urging people to send thousands of dollars in bitcoin.
• The scam began when several high-profile cryptocurrency Twitter accounts were compromised and posted malicious links.
• Dozens of high-profile verified accounts, including those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, Kim Kardashian West, and Elon Musk — which seemed to be compromised by hackers — posted tweets claiming they would double people's contributions of $1,000 in bitcoin.
• The bitcoin account linked in the scam tweets appeared to have racked up over $100,000 within an hour of the tweets starting to be posted online, though scammers are known to transfer their own money into accounts to make them appear more legitimate.
• Twitter said it temporarily disabled features, including tweeting, from accounts as it investigated the hacks.
• Twitter said in a statement the company was aware of a "security incident" and "investigating" what happened.
• "We all feel terrible this happened," CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted Wednesday evening.
• Later Wednesday evening, Twitter announced that it had detected "what we believe to be a coordinated attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts were apparently hacked Wednesday as part of a cryptocurrency scam. This included the accounts of the billionaires Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Mike Bloomberg, and Warren Buffett, as well as numerous tech startups and cryptocurrency-related sites. The Twitter accounts of former President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were also compromised.

The affected accounts posted messages urging their followers to send $1,000 in bitcoin to a specific address, promising to double the contributions in return. The messages appear to employ a common scam tactic used to fleece people out of money by falsely promising to send a bigger sum in return for a payment.

Several of the scam tweets were deleted shortly after they were posted, only for similar tweets to come out of the accounts minutes later.

Later in the evening, the company said it had uncovered "what we believe to be a coordinated engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools." Those with access to those tools, "ostensibly Twitter employees," can reset email addresses associated with accounts, as TechCrunch reported.

"Our investigation continues and we hope to have more to share there soon," a Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider.

As hacks persisted, Twitter appeared to temporarily disable verified accounts from tweeting shortly after 6:15 p.m. ET. Twitter said in a subsequent tweet that while it investigated the incident, it would "limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities."

"Tough day for us at Twitter. We all feel terrible this happened," CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted about the incident Wednesday evening. "We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened."

The scam messages started to pop up shortly after malicious links were tweeted from Twitter accounts for several high-profile cryptocurrency companies, including KuCoin, Binance, and Gemini, the MalwareTech blog said. The website used in the links, titled CryptoForHealth, was pulled offline shortly after the tweets were posted.

Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao tried to warn his followers that the tweets were a scam shortly after they were posted, The Block first reported — but his account was apparently also compromised, and hackers quickly hid the warning.

Twitter accounts for CoinDesk and Gemini were also compromised. Both companies said on Twitter they had multifactor authentication enabled on their accounts, meaning hackers were able to bypass traditional login attempts, perhaps through an exploit in Twitter itself.

After hitting cryptocurrency-related companies and outlets, the hackers also accessed the accounts of billionaires and philanthropists, tech companies, music artists, and presidential hopefuls. Hackers also hit influential social-media figures including MrBeast, Kim Kardashian West, and the Twitter personality @TheTweetOfGod.

Bitcoin-transaction receipts appeared to show that the address listed in the scam tweets received almost 13 bitcoins — or about $118,000 — as of Wednesday evening, but it's possible that some or all of the transactions were carried out by the scammers to make their account appear more legitimate.

Check out the full list of Twitter accounts that were hacked as part of the Bitcoin scam.

SEE ALSO: TikTok's under pressure from the US government, and competitors like Snapchat, YouTube, and Instagram are capitalizing on the app's uncertain future

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• The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera offers high quality video at up to 2K resolution, with night vision and two-way audio.
• It has a 125-degree field of view, but can also pan to cover 360 degrees horizontally and tilt through 95 degrees vertically.
• Smart features include person and pet detection, automatic tracking of movement, and support for Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa.
• At $49.99, the Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera has a lot to offer, and you can use a MicroSD card or network-attached storage (NAS) for local storage or subscribe for cloud storage.
• Check out our guide to the best home security cameras for more options.

An indoor security camera is a great way to keep tabs on your home when you're away. You can check up on your kids, your pets, or just have a little peace of mind that there are no unexpected visitors. Most indoor security cameras will offer motion alerts and allow you to have conversations with two-way audio, some are capable of a lot more than that.

The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera is $49.99, so it's not the cheapest option around, but it offers an impressive array of features that you would generally expect to pay a lot more for. There's video at up to 2K quality with all the basics, but this camera also offers person and pet detection, sound detection, automatic motion tracking, and pan and tilt controls that enable it to cover even the largest of rooms.  

It can be mounted on a wall or ceiling, or placed on a table or shelf, provided you can reach a power outlet. The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera connects directly to your Wi-Fi router, and you can insert a MicroSD card to record video or use a NAS device. Eufy offers cloud storage, but it requires a subscription at $3 per month per camera or $30 for the year. 

 After testing the Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera in my home, I'm convinced it's one of the best indoor security cameras currently available. I encountered a couple of minor issues, and there's still a little room for improvement, but this is an excellent security camera for the price.

 Specifications 

• 2K resolution 
• 125-degree field of view
• Night vision with infrared
• Two-way audio
• MicroSD storage up to 128GB (not included)
• NAS support
• 30-day cloud storage $3 per month or $30 per year per camera
• Activity zones
• Automatic motion tracking
• Pan and zoom control
• Person and pet detection

 Design

In the box you get the camera, mounting brackets and screws, a 2-meter (6.5-foot) power cable, and a power adapter.

With a flat base and a classic, rounded, matte white dome top containing a black sphere inside that houses the camera, the Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera looks much like any traditional pan and tilt camera. A circular LED below the Eufy logo glows blue to show it's working and turns red when it's tracking or recording something. 

The camera measures 2.95 by 2.95 by 4.25 inches and weighs 7.6 ounces. To insert a MicroSD card you must turn the camera off, which causes the lens to roll up and reveal a hidden slot. There are speaker grilles on either side of the base, and the power cable plugs into the Micro USB port on the back. 

Fairly easy setup 

Setup is a breeze. Install the Eufy Security app for Android or iOS, create an account, and scan the QR code on the bottom of the camera to link it. The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera connects directly to your Wi-Fi router, but it requires a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi network and doesn't work with 5GHz networks. Surprisingly, it can't currently connect to Eufy's HomeBase hubs.

I ran into a slight snag during setup because the camera required a software update. The update failed twice, but after I factory reset the camera and restarted the mobile app it was third-time lucky. It ended up taking me around half an hour in total, but it should be a five-minute task.  

The mobile app

The Eufy Security app works well and opens to a view of all your cameras with a screenshot from the last recorded video. You can tap on the camera to jump into the live feed or choose to sleep for a set period, review recorded videos, or dig into the settings. 

When you load up the live feed, you'll see the camera view with controls that allow you to pan around horizontally or tilt vertically. The horizontal pan has limits to its movement left and right, though it goes far enough to give you the full 360-degree view. The vertical tilt is more limited at 96 degrees, so placement is important. You'll either want to put the camera on a table or shelf that isn't too high up, or consider a ceiling mount and flip the view, which is an option in the app.

It's important to calibrate the camera when you first place it. I found the view was too high until I hit the calibration icon in the app. There are the usual options for recording video, taking screenshots, sound, and alarm. There's also a 360-degree look option, automatic night vision, tracking, and the option to hold the microphone icon to speak.

Digging into the settings, you'll find that the Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera is very customizable. You can choose to turn the LED circle on the front off, you can set the pan and tilt speed, you can change the sensitivity of motion detection, and you can dictate activity zones. There's also a motion tracking feature, which enables the camera to pan and tilt automatically to track a subject. 

Motion detection works well and can distinguish quite accurately between a person, pet, or general motion, which means you can have alerts triggered only by people if you prefer. 

There's also a sound detection option with a sensitivity setting that can be triggered by any sound, or specifically by a crying baby, which is a handy option for new parents. There's even a pet command option that allows you to set an activity zone and then trigger an audio command, that you can record yourself, when they go into that zone. This might be handy for trying to keep the dog off the bed, for example.  

Continuous recording is an option if you insert a MicroSD card or connect a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device and use Real Time Streaming Protocol (RTSP). You do need to provide your own storage. The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera accepts MicroSD card up to 128GB in size. 

 If you want to set up cloud storage, you can do it in the app, but you're looking at paying $2.99 per camera per month, or $29.99 for the year, which gets you 30 days of rolling video history. There's a Premier plan for up to 10 cameras at $9.99 per month or $99.99 for the year.

Performance

The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera records 2,304 x 1,296-pixel resolution video at 15 frames per second (fps) in full color. It also has 8x digital zoom and uses the motorized pan and tilt to track subjects. 

I found the video quality to be sharp and detailed, though a higher frame rate would be appreciated. Sometimes when panning or tracking there's a bit of blur and pixelation, but the footage is crisp and clear when the camera is stationary. There's no HDR so bright areas can appear overexposed at times. 

While the camera has a decent 125-degree field of view, the pan and tilt allow it to cover a much wider area and it should serve you well, even in a large room. The automatic tracking is effective at following movement, but you'll want to make sure to set a default view that covers doors or whatever areas you're keen to keep an eye on. The night vision works well and produces detailed black and white video.

The default sensitivity seems spot-on. I've been testing with only person detection turned on, which is how I imagine most people will want to use this camera, and despite having two cats in the house, I've yet to get a false positive. 

 I appreciate the fact that the camera records video for the entire time that it detects motion or sound. You also have the option to turn continuous recording on, but at 2K quality you'll want to make sure you have plenty of bandwidth or it will slow your network down. The alert notifications are helpful and come with a screenshot attached that generally picks out the subject of the video quite well.

Audio is clear through the mobile app, provided the person is quite close to the camera and facing it when they talk. I found it was worth cranking the speaker volume up from the default. There's a slight lag, but it's easy to have a two-way conversation. The alarm is loud enough to scare someone, but probably not loud enough that a neighbor would hear it.

Both Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa work with the Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera. I could view the live feed on an Echo Show with a simple voice command, and I was able to add the camera to Google Home. Eufy has promised Apple HomeKit support is coming within days at the time of writing.

Sadly, there isn't any If This Then That (IFTTT) support, and there are no plans to add it. Since there's no geotagging either, that means you can't have the camera switch on or off automatically based on whether you're at home, you must do it manually. 

The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera had no problem reconnecting when I tested it by cutting power and Wi-Fi and then turning them on again. 

Cons to consider

The relatively low frame rate and blurring on motion detracts from the overall quality of the video this camera captures. Interestingly, Eufy told me that HomeKit mode, when it's added, will support up to 24fps. It would also be nice if it had HDR to deal better with light coming through windows on sunny days. 

It's a little weird that you can't connect to a Eufy HomeBase unit, which you'll likely want to do if you already have a Eufy camera system in your home. Eufy confirmed it will be adding HomeBase support in a future update, but does not have a specific timeline for that yet.

For now, Eufy only offers two-factor authentication (2FA) in Canada and Germany. That means anyone who has your email and password could potentially log into your camera. This is something Eufy is working on adding for the US, and it should be rolling out within the next two weeks, which is promising because this is a considerable security and privacy concern, particularly with an indoor camera.

The bottom line

 The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera is an impressive device for $50. It boasts a solid design, sharp quality video, and automatic motion tracking. The ability to distinguish between people, pets, and other motion is useful, and there are some potentially handy extras. 

With the option to insert a MicroSD card or stream to a NAS device, there's no need to pay for a subscription, though it's good that the option is there for those who want it. 

Should you buy it?

Yes, the Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera is a versatile device that works very well, and it offers a lot for the money. 

Which model should you get?

The Eufy Security Indoor 2K Pan and Tilt Camera costs $49.99. If you're covering a smaller area and don't need the pan and tilt functionality, then you could save yourself $10 by opting for the Eufy Security Indoor 2K Camera at $39.99. It offers all the same features minus the pan and tilt. 

What are your alternatives?

The budget Wyze Cam V2, at just $19.99, offers good quality 1080p video, and many of the same features and the rotating Wyze Cam Pan at $29.99, makes up for the relatively narrow 110-degree field of view with the ability to physically rotate. 

The Amazon Blink Mini at $34.99 seems cheaper at first glance, but it also requires a Sync Module 2 at $34.99 for local storage, or you're looking at paying $3 per month or $30 per year for cloud storage. 

If you want the smartest indoor security camera, and money is no object, then the Google Nest Cam IQ Indoor does all the basics well and offers facial recognition, but it costs $300 and you'll need a subscription on top of that price.

Pros: Pan and tilt, 2K video, two-way audio, automatic tracking, person and pet detection, sound detection, local storage 

Cons: Cloud storage requires subscription

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• Bill Gates, Elon Musk, and Jeff Bezos appear to have had their Twitter accounts hacked as part of a colossal cryptocurrency scam. 
• The tech moguls' accounts began sending tweets Wednesday afternoon offering to double bitcoin payments sent to their addresses.
• Tech companies like Apple and Uber also appeared to have their accounts hacked. It is unclear who is behind the hack or how it happened.
• The hack appeared to have been active for multiple hours after it started, with hackers continually gaining control of Musk's account. Twitter appeared to disable posting from verified accounts as it investigated the situation.
• "We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter," the company wrote on Twitter. "We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly."
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Elon Musk, Bill Gates, and Jeff Bezos appeared to have been hacked as part of a widespread bitcoin-giveaway scam that took place over several hours on Wednesday afternoon.

Musk posted multiple tweets containing what the posts claimed to be his bitcoin address, saying he was "feeling generous because of COVID-19." Gates' account sent a nearly identical tweet minutes later, followed by a post on Bezos' account.

Musk's account followed up with another tweet saying, "You send $1,000, I send back $2,000!" The tweet added that would go on for the following 30 minutes.

Bezos' account was compromised about 5 p.m. ET on Wednesday, with the exec tweeting that he would pay only "a maximum of $50,000,000" in bitcoin giveaways.

The billionaire investor Warren Buffett's account was also hacked about 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, tweeting similarly to Musk that he would "send back $2,000" if a user sent $1,000.

The tweets on all four accounts have each stayed up only a few minutes before being removed.

Musk's, Gates', Bezos', and Buffett's accounts aren't the only ones that have been compromised. The hack appears to have targeted verified Twitter accounts, meaning a blue checkmark accompanies their profiles.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama were also victims of the hack.

Several high-profile financial-services and crypto-exchange accounts, such as Cash App, Ripple, Binance, and Coinbase, were affected on Wednesday as well. According to CoinDesk, the attackers hacked the account of Changpeng Zhao, Binance's CEO, after he attempted to warn users of the scam. Several of the entities that were hacked, including CoinDesk, had multifactor authentication turned on, the site reported.

Accounts for tech companies like Apple and Uber also appeared to have been hacked as part of the same bitcoin scam. Those tweets have since been deleted.

A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider the issue was "being looked into." In a tweet, the company reiterated that it was working to fix the problem. 

On Wednesday evening, Twitter said it had disabled some features, including tweeting, for some accounts while it investigated. Many verified accounts were unable to tweet during that time period.

Representatives for Bezos and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but a Gates spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider that the tweet was not sent by Gates.

Musk is frequently the target of cryptocurrency scams, with scammers impersonating his account in an attempt to get followers to send them digital currency. He tweeted in February about the ongoing issue, saying, "The crypto scam level on Twitter is reaching new levels. This is not cool."

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NOW WATCH: Why thoroughbred horse semen is the world's most expensive liquid

• UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs Ige will be broadcast live on Saturday, July 15, through the ESPN cable channel and the ESPN+ streaming service.
• Featherweight contenders Calvin Kattar and Dan Ige headline a list of fighters looking to work their way up the roster in this midweek event.
• The prelims are set to start at 7 p.m. ET, and the main card is scheduled to begin at 10 p.m. ET.
• Every UFC Fight Night event is included with an ESPN+ subscription, which costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.

Top UFC featherweight contenders Calvin Kattar and Dan Ige will face off in the main event of this week's UFC Fight Night. You can watch UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs Ige on ESPN starting at 7 p.m. ET on July 15 or stream it live on ESPN+.

While UFC pay-per-view matches normally cost $64.99, this UFC Fight Night event will be available as part of an ESPN+ subscription, and the entire event will be aired on TV wherever ESPN is available.

The UFC Fight Island campus spans six square miles on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi, and features training and medical facilities for fighters and staff. Fans will not be in attendance for UFC Fight Night or any other upcoming UFC Fight Island events as a result of the pandemic. According to the AP, about 2,000 people are working under UFC's Fight Island quarantine bubble.

Two more UFC events are set to take place on Fight Island through July 25 before the organization returns to the UFC Apex in Las Vegas in August. However, UFC President Dana White told the Associated Press that UFC could return to Yas Island for additional events later this year.

UFC has implemented at least 18 different safety precautions during the pandemic, including advanced medical screenings, regular testing, temperature checks, and social distancing guidelines.

Updated on 07/15/2020 by Kevin Webb: This article has been revised to include details for the UFC Fight Night event scheduled for July 15.

Here's the match schedule for UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Ige

Prelims — 7 p.m. ET, 4 p.m. PT on ESPN+ and ESPN

• Jared Gordon versus Chris Fishgold [Featherweight]
• Modestas Bukauskas versus Andreas Michailidis [Light Heavyweight]
• Ricardo Ramos versus Lerone Murphy [Featherweight]
• John Phillips versus Khamzat Chimaev [Middleweight]
• Diana Belbita versus Liana Jojua [Women's Flyweight]
• Jack Shore versus Aaron Phillips [Batnamweight]

Main Card  — 10 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. PT on ESPN+ and ESPN

• Abdul Razak Alhassan versus Mounir Lazzez [Welterweight]
• Molly McCann versus Taila Santos [Women's Flyweight]
• Jimmie Rivera versus Cody Stamann [Featherweight]
• Tim Elliott versus Ryan Benoit [Flyweight]
• Calvin Kattar versus Dan Ige [Featherweight]

How to watch UFC Fight Night matches on ESPN and ESPN+

UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs Ige will be broadcast live on ESPN, and streamed live via ESPN+.

ESPN+ subscribers can watch every UFC Fight Night event live and also gain access to a huge catalog of classic UFC matches and recent highlights. ESPN+ costs $4.99 per month or $49.99 for a full year, and it's available as an app on most mobile and streaming devices. Here's a full breakdown of additional features and details for ESPN+.

Leading up to major PPV events, ESPN+ typically offers a special deal that bundles one UFC PPV fight and an annual ESPN+ subscription for a total of $84.98. This bundle deal gives you an overall discount of $30 if you plan on following the UFC closely for the rest of the year.

In addition to ESPN+, you can also watch UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs Ige on the standard ESPN network through various cable and satellite packages. ESPN is also available as a channel through several live TV streaming services, including Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, AT&T TV, and Youtube TV.

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• Virgin Galactic has a new CEO in Michael Colglazier, the now-former president and managing director of Disney Parks International.
• Outgoing CEO George T. Whitesides will assume a new "Chief Space Officer" role for the company.
• Colglazier is to run the suborbital space tourism side of the company while Whitesides pushes to leverage Virgin Galactic's growing expertise into high-speed travel and orbital spaceflight businesses.
• Virgin Galactic's chairman said the company is "months away" from commercial launches with passengers.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Virgin Galactic, the suborbital rocket company founded by Richard Branson in 2004, has brought on a former Disney boss as CEO to operate a real-life "Space Mountain" ride.

Effective Monday, Michael Colglazier — the now-former president and managing director of Disney Parks International — will step into his new job as CEO of Virgin Galactic, according to a press release sent to Business Insider on Wednesday. Colglazier is also joining the publicly traded company's board of directors.

In his new gig, Colglazier will oversee Virgin Galactic's forthcoming space tourism business and operations. He will earn a $1 million annual salary to start, plus a performance bonus of up to 150% of his salary, generous stock options, and other benefits, according to a new 8-K filing with the SEC.

After 16 years of spaceship research and development, Virgin Galactic is shifting its focus to operations — and making good on its promise to fly people to the edge of space for $200,000 or more per seat. Colglazier's experience is expected to make those rides the luxury experience customers will expect.

"I am thrilled to join the talented team at Virgin Galactic at this inflection point in the Company's journey," Colglazier said in the release. "Like so many others, including hundreds of signed-up customers, I have been inspired by this purpose-driven, world-class brand and the incredible opportunity it offers to open space to change the world for good." 

George T. Whitesides, Virgin Galactic's former CEO since 2010, is stepping down from his old executive role and the board of directors. However, Whitesides, who arrived at Virgin Galactic after serving as NASA's chief of staff, is not leaving the company. Instead, he'll be its first "Chief Space Officer."

Meet Virgin Galactic's new 'Chief Space Officer'

In the newly created executive role, Whitesides will focus on "developing the Company's future business opportunities, including point-to-point hypersonic travel and orbital space travel," the company said. Those new avenues could become multi-billion-dollar businesses, Whitesides has said. He will also chair the Virgin Galactic's Space Advisory Board.

Virgin Galactic is entering a final phase of testing and regulatory clearances before it starts flying passengers, which explains the C-suite transition. The company has seen numerous setbacks, including a crash that killed a test pilot, in achieving its goal of routine civilian spaceflight, which Branson had predicted would start more than a decade ago. Virgin Galactic plans to unveil the interior design of its centerpiece suborbital rocket ship, SpaceShipTwo, later this month.

Colglazier said on a Wednesday conference call with investors that he'd always dreamed of becoming an astronaut as a kid and that he "is going to be flying" on SpaceShipTwo in the future.

In a recent interview, Whitesides said Virgin Galactic hopes to claim a fraction of the airline industry's premium long-haul travel business, which totals about $300 billion a year.

"If we can just capture 5% or something like that, then it's still a huge number. I mean, $10 to $15 billion of revenue is is a massive opportunity," Whitesides told Business Insider in May, adding that he believes people will pay to travel faster in smaller vehicles. "The things that we're working on are very much part of our aviation future."

The field for such operations is wide open, given that the supersonic airliner Concorde retired in 2003. That's not to say it will be easy or inexpensive to reclaim, improve, and expand. But Whitesides thinks Virgin Galactic is up to the challenge, even in the face of prior failures to create new supersonic and even hypersonic passenger vehicles.

"The words 'many companies have tried' is music to my ears," Whitesides has said. "People said we couldn't build up human spaceflight company. People say we couldn't go public."

In a statement, Branson lauded both men for taking on the new roles:

"I want to thank George for his outstanding leadership of Virgin Galactic over the last decade. He has shown dedication and determination as its first CEO to build the Company from early stage development through to space flight, the first from American soil since the retirement of the Space Shuttle. In the past year, George has taken the Company public and moved it to Spaceport America. He transitions into his new role as Chief Space Officer having created substantial value as CEO and with Galactic poised for an exciting next chapter."

"At the same time, we are delighted to welcome Michael as the new Chief Executive to lead Galactic into commercial operations. I believe Michael's long and distinguished career at one of the world's leading customer experience brands provides a natural fit with Virgin's culture as well as Galactic's requirements as it prepares for commercial service."

During Wednesday's call, Chamath Palihapitiya, chairman of Virgin Galactic, said Colglazier's skills and experience in building multi-billion-dollar consumer-facing businesses is exactly what the company needs to move forward as customers and their families begin traveling to Spaceport America in the deserts of New Mexico for once-in-a-lifetime experiences.

In his statement, Palihapitiya also hinted that Virgin Galactic could see its first passenger flight — that of Branson himself — before the end of 2020.

"[Colglazier will] be, frankly, an invaluable addition to our company as we are now within months of commercial operations," Palihapitiya said. "I'm really confident he's going to create an amazing customer experience for our future astronauts. ... We've all talked about how we can create an incredible experience not just for the astronauts, but everybody that comes to Spaceport America. I think Michael understands how to do that."

SEE ALSO: Virgin Galactic and Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin may soon be rocketing NASA scientists to the edge of space

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NOW WATCH: How SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Virgin Galactic plan on taking you to space

• Apple just sent out its first public tweet – and it was a Bitcoin scam.
• The iPhone maker has been present on Twitter since 2016 but has to date only sent out promotional tweets. This was the first time it sent a public tweet from the main account.
• Apple has joined Joe Biden, Kanye West, Elon Musk, and a raft of other high-profile Twitter accounts in tweeting out the same bitcoin scam.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Apple joined Twitter in 2016 so it could blanket us all with promoted tweeted, but the company has never actually tweeted anything publicly from its account – until today.

Apple's first-ever public tweet was ... a bitcoin scam. Apple was one of several high-profile Twitter accounts that apparently got hacked by Bitcoin scammers.

Elon Musk and Bill Gates were the first to fall victim, but Apple soon followed with a tweet of its own asking people to send bitcoin to an address in the tweet.

The tweet was quickly removed, but not before it picked up a fair amount of traction.

The scam claims it will double any Bitcoin amount sent to the address in the tweet. Joe Biden, Kanye West, and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos were also hacked.

A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider that the platform is "looking into" the apparent scam activity.

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NOW WATCH: Why electric planes haven't taken off yet

• Dell said Wednesday it may spin off VMware, the software powerhouse it acquired five years ago in the EMC merger.
• Dell currently owns 81% of VMware.
• Dell said the plan would benefit shareholders, customers and partners of both companies, but would not happen before September 2021 to minimize federal tax implications.
• However, Dell said it is also considering other options, including maintaining its ownership of VMware.
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Dell is considering splitting from VMware, just five years after the tech giant acquired the enterprise software powerhouse.

The Texas tech giant announced Wednesday that it is exploring "a potential spin-off of its 81% ownership" of VMware which it bought in 2015 through a merger with EMC. VMware had been owned by the data storage company.

Dell's acquisition of EMC and VMware transformed it into a bigger tech player, but the transaction saddled the company with a sizeable debt. 

Dell said a spinoff could be beneficial to both Dell and VMware shareholders, customers and partners. But such a move would not happen before September 2021 in order "to qualify as tax-free for US federal income tax purposes."

Dell said it is also considering other options, including maintaining its VMware ownership.

"Regardless of the options we are exploring to create additional value, we are accelerating our strategy,  which remains unchanged," Dell CEO Michael Dell said in a statement. "We are focused on winning in the consolidating markets where we operate."

Dell shares rallied more than 7% in after-hours trading.

Got a tip about Dell or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentelor send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

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• CB Insights, the tech market intelligence platform that makes predictions about the startups that could become unicorns, said Wednesday it acquired VentureSource's data from Dow Jones on tech, startups, and venture capitalists going back to 1983. 
• As many tech companies are slashing headcount amid plummeting revenues, CB Insights said it continues to hire through the pandemic, and its multi-million dollar revenue is growing. 
• The acquisition of this data, for an undisclosed amount, will help CB Insights clients make informed decisions, such as choosing which lawyers, bankers, and accountants to work with and when, the company says. 
• Anand Sanwal, CEO and co-founder of CB Insights, hinted that additional acquisitions may be on the company's horizon. 
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

CB Insights, the market intelligence platform that is known for predicting which startups will become unicorns, said Wednesday that is has acquired VentureSource's data assets from Dow Jones for an undisclosed amount. Dow Jones VentureSource, a pioneer in the data field, has been collecting important information on tech, startups, and investors since 1983 — well before the first dot-com boom. 

The acquisition of VentureSource's data assets comes at a time when CB Insights is seeing multi-million dollar revenues that keep growing, the firm says. The New York-based company, which was founded in 2008 by Anand Sanwal and Jonathan Sherry, has continued to hire during the pandemic. The startup acquired the VentureSource data without raising any additional funds, CEO Anand Sanwal told Business Insider in an interview.

The coronavirus pandemic has been "a shot in the arm" for CB Insights, Sanwal said, referring to the company's rising revenue. CB Insights, which mostly helps large enterprises make technology decisions, has seen a surge in demand. Sanwal said that the startup's clients are in the market for new technologies so that they can implement social distancing in workplaces such as factories and call centers. 

Sanwal, who had previously worked with VentureSource's data assets, said that the acquisition will include an influx of "peculiar dirty data," such as PDFs and handwritten documents. While most companies won't touch this sort of information, Sanwal said that CB Insights has a "high pain tolerance" for working through old-school information. 

The pain might be worth it. CB Insights, whose data is mostly from 1999 and after, hopes to become the largest database for private company data. This fresh data from VentureSource will give clients access to additional information about how private companies are run, including which lawyers, bankers, and accountants worked with which companies, and when. The data set also includes information about almost half a million management personnel, Sanwal told Business Insider. 

Sanwal hinted that another acquisition might happen later this year. And while the company has recently focused on revenue rather than seeking outside funding, the CEO hinted that CB Insights might raise some funds to help with another acquisition later this year. He said the company is looking to expand further into data as well as into B2B media and hyper vertical search technology.

As CB Insights eyes future acquisitions, Sanwal said that he is always thinking about what is in the best interest of his clients.

"Customers are your investors," he said. Seeing customers in this way can give "a lot of clarity around who you need to support," Sanwal said. "We want to make sure that we're not doing this for an ego gratification," he added. 

It'll take the company some time to sift through the freshly acquired data and make it useful for CB Insights clients, but Sanwal said that the company plans to integrate the data into its database by August. 

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• Citrix and Microsoft are teaming up to help businesses adapt to a hybrid workplace by enabling businesses to move to the cloud faster and use virtualization software to access their networks virtually, the tech giants announced this week.
• Citrix CEO David Henshall said the tech giants are joining forces amid continued uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis which is forcing businesses to adapt to a new normal.
• "It's going to be a rough environment until there is a vaccine," he told Business Insider, with companies only sending employees into a physical location when they have to and work primarily remaining remote. 
• Click here for more BI Prime stories.

Citrix CEO David Henshall said the tech giant is teaming up with Microsoft to help businesses adapt to a hybrid workplace amid the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus crisis.

The partnership is geared towards enabling businesses to move to the cloud faster and use software to access their corporate networks virtually, the tech giants announced Tuesday. 

Citrix and Microsoft are joining forces as businesses explore plans for reopening their offices after a jarring pivot to remote work, even as they grapple with what has become a resurgent pandemic.

"Returning to the office will not mean returning to normal," Henshall told Business Insider. "It's going to be a rough environment until there is a vaccine."

The partnership focuses on the two areas where Microsoft and Citrix play dominant roles. One is the cloud, which lets businesses run applications and networks on web-based platforms and scale back or even abandon private, on-premise data centers. The other is virtualization software, which enables businesses to access and run disparate computer systems, which cuts down the need for network hardware.

Under the agreement, Citrix will help clients move to Microsoft Azure. Though Microsoft is the second most dominant cloud platform after Amazon Web Services, it scored a big win in April when it surpassed Amazon for the first time in a Morgan Stanley survey of preferred cloud vendors.

In turn, Microsoft will encourage customers to use Citrix's virtualization technology to enable their employees to work across different devices. Citrix is a major player in virtual client computing software, which lets IT departments provide employees access to virtual PCs hosted from their network.  The company reported in April that it saw a surge in demand due to the sharp shift to remote work.

Henshall said the partnership is based on the view that businesses will likely move cautiously toward a hybrid model of working — where employees go into a physical location when they have to, but primarily work remote  — where the cloud and virtualization software will play critical roles. 

Health remains a top concern for most businesses given the continued spread of the coronavirus, he said.

"Going to the office used to be fun – you could see your colleagues and have those watercooler conversations," he said. "Now you're going to have to wear PPE and maintain social distancing with no access to gyms and cafeterias. And a lot of people just don't want to deal with that."

Got a tip about Citrix or another tech company? Contact this reporter via email at bpimentel@businessinsider.com, message him on Twitter @benpimentelor send him a secure message through Signal at (510) 731-8429. You can also contact Business Insider securely via SecureDrop.

Claim your 20% discount on an annual subscription to BI Prime by clicking here.

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• A widespread Twitter scam has hacked into dozens of high-profile accounts, including that of Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
• A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider that it's "looking into this," but in the meantime, it's unclear which accounts hackers still have planned to target.
• As a precaution, it might be a good idea to log out of Twitter if you have multiple open sessions. Here's how to do that.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Hackers behind a cryptocurrency scam took over the Twitter accounts of multiple high-profile individuals on Wednesday afternoon.

The accounts of Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Kanye West, among others, published tweets asking people to send thousands of dollars in Bitcoin, a payment that they said they would then double in return.

A Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider that the site is "looking into" the issue. 

So far, high-profile individuals have proven to be targeted in the scam, but it's unclear who is behind the hack or who could still be targeted. So if you have active Twitter sessions on multiple devices, now may be a good time to log out in order to clear apps and browsers that were logged in (and aren't cleared by just changing your password).

Click on the "More" button on the left-hand banner. Navigate to "Apps and sessions" underneath Data and permissions.

Then click on "Log out of all other sessions."

Logging out of a session will prevent you from being able to tweet and like or reply to posts.

SEE ALSO: Zoom wants you to buy a $600 second screen to use exclusively for videoconferencing

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Dozens of high-profile Twitter accounts were hacked on Wednesday as part of an elaborate bitcoin scam.

Accounts belonging to billionaires, music artists, politicians, and tech founders and startups were all hacked. After more than an hour of bitcoin scams coming from large accounts, Twitter appeared to temporarily disable verified accounts from posting to the site as it looked into the issue.

"We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter," the company wrote on Twitter. "We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly."

Here are some of the most high-profile Twitter accounts hit in Wednesday's bitcoin scam:

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First the Cash app, owned by Square, along with several cryptocurrency-related accounts

Billionaire philanthropist and Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk

Billionaire investor Warren Buffett

Elon Musk, several more times.

Apple

Uber

Kanye West

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

Billionaire and former presidential candidate Mike Bloomberg

Former Vice President and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden

Music artist Wiz Khalifa

Former President Barack Obama

Fast food chain Wendy's

Boxer Floyd Mayweather

YouTuber MrBeast

Music artist XXXTentacion, who died in 2018

Twitter personality God (aka David Javerbaum)

Kim Kardashian West

Elon Musk wants to give you free bitcoin — at least, that's what his Twitter account says.

Don't trust him.

The Tesla account is one of numerous high-profile accounts on the social network that have been compromised as part of a remarkable, far-reaching hack, in an attempt to scam people using digital currency bitcoin.

As of writing on Wednesday, there's still a whole lot of unknowns. But here's what we do and don't know so far.

Who's been hacked?

Tons of people. And some companies.

Joe Biden, Jeff Bezos, Apple's official account, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian, Uber, Wiz Khalifa, Floyd Mayweather, Cash App, MrBeast, XXXTentacion, parody account TheTweetOfGod ... the list goes on and on.

The only common thread between the accounts appears to be that they're all, well, very famous. The hacker(s) appears to be targeting high-profile accounts that will spread the scam as far as possible.

How did they get hacked?

Late Wednesday evening, Twitter said it had uncovered "what we believe to be a coordinated engineering attack by people who successfully targeted some of our employees with access to internal systems and tools." Those with access to those tools, "ostensibly Twitter employees," can reset email addresses associated with accounts, as TechCrunch reported.

What do the hacked messages look like?

Like this:

What's Twitter saying about all this?

In a fairly unenlightening statement via tweet, Twitter's Security team confirmed there were shenanigans happening and that it was looking into it. "We are aware of a security incident impacting accounts on Twitter. We are investigating and taking steps to fix it. We will update everyone shortly," they wrote.

CEO Jack Dorsey chimed in on the incident in a tweet later on Wednesday evening, calling it a "tough day for us at Twitter."

"We all feel terrible this happened. We're diagnosing and will share everything we can when we have a more complete understanding of exactly what happened," Dorsey said.

Later on Wednesday, however, the company asserted that, once it became aware of the attack, it "locked down the affected accounts and removed Tweets posted by the attackers." As a precaution, it also limited access for a larger group of accounts — verified users ("blue checks") were unable to post for some time.

Despite the company's actions, hacked posts remained on the site long after many of its users realized things were awry.

"Our investigation continues and we hope to have more to share there soon," a Twitter spokesperson told Business Insider.

What's Twitter doing to stop it?

Many verified users, including this reporter, said that they were unable to tweet, but could retweet others' posts. Twitter's Security team eventually followed its original tweet with updates confirming that users might not be able to tweet or reset their passwords while it looked into things.

Around 9:30 p.m. ET, they returned to say that the account restrictions should be lifted.

"Most accounts should be able to Tweet again. As we continue working on a fix, this functionality may come and go. We're working to get things back to normal as quickly as possible," it tweeted.

Later on Wednesday, the company said that "Internally, we've taken significant steps to limit access to internal systems and tools while our investigation is ongoing."

What's the scam?

Generally, the compromised accounts are posting a tweet saying they're feeling generous (or some other similar motivation), and falsely claiming that if people send them bitcoin to their address, they'll resend them double back. 

Should I send them bitcoin?

No.

Who's behind the hack?

We don't know yet. 

Got a tip? Contact Business Insider reporter Rob Price via encrypted messaging app Signal (+1 650-636-6268), encrypted email (robaeprice@protonmail.com), standard email (rprice@businessinsider.com), Telegram/Wickr/WeChat (robaeprice), or Twitter DM (@robaeprice). We can keep sources anonymous. Use a non-work device to reach out. PR pitches by standard email only, please.

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• Twitter was hit with a massive hack on Wednesday, and many people with verified accounts reported being unable to tweet following the incident.
• Twitter's support account said that some users may be unable to tweet or change their password as it was investigating the issue. 
• The hack prompted accounts of high-profile figures like former president Barack Obama, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and rapper Kanye West among others to spread a bitcoin scam.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Twitter was hit with a massive hack on Wednesday that caused the accounts of high-profile public figures such as former president Barack Obama and companies like Apple and Uber to tweet out messages about bitcoin donations. 

Shortly after the accounts were compromised, many people with verified Twitter accounts discovered that they couldn't tweet. It's unclear precisely why this occurred, but Twitter's support account said that some people might be unable to tweet or change their password as the company looks into the situation. 

"We're continuing to limit the ability to Tweet, reset your password, and some other account functionalities while we look into this," says the company's most recent tweet on the matter. "Thanks for your patience."

The hack, and the subsequent disabling of the tweet functionality for verified users, caused major disruptions among business and individuals. There were even reports that certain public services with verified accounts were unable to post important notices.

At the time of writing, some verified users, who have a distinctive blue check mark alongside their names, appear to be able to tweet again, while others are still being blocked.

Verified users who are still experiencing issues are seeing an error message saying their action is being flagged as "suspicious" when they attempt to send a tweet.

The troubles occured after a bitcoin scam swept across Twitter on Wednesday, in which all affected accounts published similar messages urging their followers to send money to a specific bitcoin address.

Many of the tweets were deleted soon after publication, but the hack affected the official accounts of Apple and Uber, as well as Joe Biden, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Kanye West, Kim Kardashian West, and many others. Twitter has said it's aware of the security incident and is currently taking steps to fix it.

The hack appears to have occured after several cryptocurrency shared malicious links on Twitter.

Twitter has not shared additional information why some verified users may be having trouble tweeting other than the statements shared above.

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