Larry Ellison steps down, and we reflect on the moment. Microsoft has another round of layoffs and Google is ready to drop some big cash on YouTube stars.

Plus legit Netflix streaming is coming to Linux soon & more!

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Larry Ellison steps down as Oracle CEO, appointed CTO, chairman; Mark Hurd and Safra Catz now co-CEOs

Oracle Corp. (ORCL)‘s Larry Ellison stepped down as chief executive officer of the software maker he founded, making way for a new generation of executives after one of the most profitable runs for a leader in business history.

Mark Hurd and Safra Catz, currently co-presidents of Oracle, were both named CEO to succeed Ellison, the company said today. Hurd will run sales, marketing and strategy, while Catz will remain chief financial officer and oversee legal and manufacturing operations. Ellison will become chairman, replacing Jeff Henley, and also take on the title of chief technology officer.

Ellison, who turned 70 last month, guided the Redwood City, California-based company for more than 35 years to make it the world’s largest database-software company and one of the biggest providers of business programs. Oracle’s products have become the backbone of modern commerce and industry. The company has a market capitalization of more than $185 billion and produces annual revenue of $38 billion.

Microsoft lays off 2,100, axes Silicon Valley research | Reuters

Microsoft gave notice to 2,100 employees on Thursday, 747 of those in the Seattle area, a company spokesman said. That is in addition to 13,000 laid off in July, which means a further 2,900 are set to be laid off over the next nine months or so.

News of the closure of the Microsoft Research lab at the company’s campus in Mountain View, California, was first made public on Twitter by employees. The company later confirmed the move and said it would involve the loss of 50 jobs.

A spokesman said Microsoft Research, which has over 1,000 scientists and engineers worldwide working on new product ideas, will consolidate its U.S. work at Microsoft’s main campus in Redmond, Washington, and in offices in New York and Boston.

Newest Androids will join iPhones in offering default encryption, blocking police – The Washington Post

The next generation of Google’s Android operating system, due for release next month, will encrypt data by default for the first time, the company said Thursday, raising yet another barrier to police gaining access to the troves of personal data typically kept on smartphones.

Now Google is designing the activation procedures for new Android devices so that encryption happens automatically; only somebody who enters a device’s password will be able to see the pictures, videos and communications stored on those smartphones.

“For over three years Android has offered encryption, and keys are not stored off of the device, so they cannot be shared with law enforcement,” said company spokeswoman Niki Christoff. “As part of our next Android release, encryption will be enabled by default out of the box, so you won’t even have to think about turning it on.”

YouTube Funding Original Content Again | Re/code

YouTube is planning to invest millions in some of its biggest stars, in deals intended to create high-quality content for the site. The deals are also designed to encourage those stars to keep working on YouTube instead of migrating to other platforms.

The plan comes a couple years after YouTube spent more than $100 million on a push to get video makers to create “channels” of programming for the site in an effort to make it more like TV.

Many of those efforts fizzled, but YouTube is taking a different approach this time: Instead of courting people from outside the YouTube ecosystem, like Madonna, it is focusing on “endemic” stars who already have big followings on the site. And it is going to pay them to create specific shows, instead of a suite of programs, and is promising to promote them to its billion-person audience.

Video producers and distributors who are discussing deals with YouTube executives say the site is talking about investing in different kinds of formats and different lengths; in some cases, YouTube is talking about pairing talent with more traditional Hollywood producers. The one constant is that they want to work with talent that is already popular on YouTube, like fashion star Bethany Mota.

YouTube has discussed spending “single-digit millions” to help fund a 10-part series, says one video producer who is talking to the company. “The idea is to help them make more ambitious projects than they can make with the money they’re making from YouTube right now.”

Netflix Offers to Work with Ubuntu to Bring Native Playback to All – OMG! Ubuntu!

In an e-mail sent to the Ubuntu Developer mailing list Netflix’s Paul Adolph explains the current situation:

“Netflix will play with Chrome stable in 14.02 if NSS version 3.16.2 or greater is installed. If this version is generally installed across 14.02, Netflix would be able to make a change so users would no longer have to hack their User-Agent to play.”

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