SAN FRANCISCO — Apple on Friday announced it has hired Lillian Rincon, who spent nearly a decade at Google overseeing the company’s shopping and assistant products, as vice president of AI product marketing, reporting to head of marketing Greg “Jos” Jozwiak.
The hire comes as Apple prepares an improved version of Siri, its virtual assistant rebuilt using technology from Alphabet’s Gemini AI model, for release this year. Reuters
Bickert, head of metacontent policy, leaves to join Harvard University
SAN FRANCISCO — Monica Bickert, Meta’s longtime head of content policy who oversaw the creation and enforcement of Facebook’s content policies and played a role in the company’s approach to user safety issues, is leaving the company to take a job at Harvard Law School.
Bickert will stay at Meta until August and work on transition planning with Kevin Martin, who oversees Meta’s global policy team, he wrote in an internal post seen by Reuters on Friday, noting that he had long been interested in teaching. Reuters
BlackRock CEO Fink’s compensation jumps to $37.7 million
BENGALURU — BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s 2025 compensation has increased to $37.7 million, a proxy filing from the asset manager revealed on Friday, following a stellar year for the world’s largest asset manager.
The salary package included a base salary of $1.5 million and a bonus of $10.6 million, according to the filing. Mr. Fink’s total salary in 2024 was $30.8 million. The increase was driven by a $6.5 million increase in stock compensation awarded to Fink.
“We enter 2026 with increased momentum and are well-positioned for significant future opportunities,” Fink said in a letter to investors. Reuters
(Reuters/Reinhard Krauss)
KPMG UK to reduce audit staff due to low turnover rate
BENGALURU — KPMG’s UK unit said on Saturday it plans to cut jobs in its audit department, following a Bloomberg News report that it expects up to 440 people to leave the business if a round of job cuts goes ahead.
“We expect to see regular attrition in our audit business. However, current market conditions mean that turnover in certain parts of our audit population is very low. We are therefore proposing to right-size these areas,” a KPMG UK spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The statement did not say how many layoffs there may be. Reuters
Austria delays approval, casting uncertainty on Ceconomy’s JD.com trading schedule
MEXICO CITY – German electronics retailer Seconomy said on Friday that regulatory approval in Austria for its planned deal with Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com remains uncertain, raising questions about whether it can complete the deal in the first half of this year.
Austrian authorities have not yet approved the deal and have expressed concerns, Seconomy said. Authorities under the Austrian Federal Ministry of Economy, Energy and Tourism have so far refused to take part in joint talks aimed at resolving these concerns, the company said. Reuters
Severstal cuts investment and employment due to decreased demand due to economic downturn
MOSCOW—Severstal, one of Russia’s top four steelmakers, plans to cut investment by a fifth and cut labor costs by 5% in 2026, citing a drop in steel demand due to the economic downturn, the company’s CEO announced Friday.
Demand for metals from Russia’s main customers, Russia’s construction, energy, auto and machinery manufacturing sectors, is shrinking as high interest rates aimed at curbing inflation cause companies to suspend investment. The metal industry has also been hit by Western sanctions, with some factories targeted by Ukrainian drones. Reuters
Raiffeisen acquires Romania’s Garanti division, expanding beyond Russia
MEXICO CITY—Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank announced Saturday that it will buy Galanti BBVA’s Romanian operations for 591 million euros, its first major acquisition in years.
This agreement marks a turning point for Raiffeisen. Raiffeisen has long been under pressure to withdraw from Russia due to the invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions against Russia.
The bank said the acquisition would make it the third largest bank in Romania’s banking market by total assets. Reuters
