Open Source: What it means to be ‘RA’d’ at IBM | Jackson vs. Bishop on TikTok | MrBeast!
I’m Brian Gordon, tech reporter for The News & Observer, and this is Open Source, a weekly newsletter on business, labor and technology in North Carolina.
“Do you want a free car?”
On a rainy day in 2020, a crew of 20-something guys ran around downtown Raleigh trying to gift strangers automobiles. Whoever gave away a vehicle first would earn $10,000.
Standing on the corner of Wilmington and Cabarrus, one held a blue and pink sign reading “Free Car!” Another approached two pedestrians near Moore Square with the same offer, no strings attached, but they passed. He even threw in an iPad to no avail. After more failed proposals to bewildered passersby, someone finally accepted a blue sedan.
To understand why any of this makes sense, you need to know that Jimmy Donaldson lives in Greenville, North Carolina, and that Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, is the most popular YouTuber ever. Still only 25, his channel has 244 million subscribers, second most worldwide behind an Indian record label. And the gap is shrinking.
This week, I wrote about Donaldson and his economic and social reach across his Eastern North Carolina hometown. I visited his “top-secret” studio (from the outside) and spoke to those who’ve won cash, jewelry, even a private island in his videos. I also heard from a woman who sold her house to Donaldson and wasn’t entirely pleased about it.
More than anything, I tried to chronicle MrBeast’s rise from a self-described awkward North Carolina teenager to one of Time magazine’s 100 most influential people. And after watching dozens of videos, I think the car giveaway in Raleigh is instructive to understanding this evolution.
By 2020, Donaldson was on the cusp of being too famous to do such on-the-street stunts. In fact, he was even recognized by a passenger near the start of the video. Within two years, Donaldson would open a $14 million filming studio, expanding his stunts to bigger-budget productions filmed away from the public. Contestants had to apply.
So, the car giveaway is a latter entry from an earlier MrBeast era — a time when Greenville or (in this case) Raleigh residents might obtain random riches just by walking down the street.
Onto the rest of this week’s news:
Jeff Jackson backs potential ban on TikTok, Dan Bishop doesn’t. Huh?
A bill to ban TikTok (unless its Chinese owner sells) swept through the U.S. House this week, with all but one of North Carolina’s 14 representatives voting for it. The one exception wasn’t Jeff Jackson, the congressman most famous for his mass TikTok following, but Jackson’s GOP opponent in the race for North Carolina attorney general, Dan Bishop.
In a speech before Congress this week, Bishop described the TikTok legislation as an attack on free speech while throwing an indirect jab at Jackson.
“I don’t use TikTok,” he said. “I think it’s ill advised to do so. Members of this body are famous on TikTok, and I think that’s unwise, but I respect the choices of 170 million users in the United States.”
Jackson, a Democrat, has 2.4 million followers on the short-form video streaming platform. On Wednesday, he released a TikTok with his thoughts on the bill, including why Congress fears the Chinese government could tinker with the algorithm to influence what Americans see.
“I don’t think TikTok is going to be banned,” he said, adding “TikTok may be sold to another company, but it will continue to operate.”
Getting ‘RA’d’ from IBM
IBM apparently doesn’t do layoffs. It does “resource actions.” And many employees don’t say they were laid off from Big Blue; they make it a verb and say they were “RA’d.”
On Tuesday, IBM workers were informed of RAs in the marketing and communications divisions, according to a CNBC report. A Triangle-based employee, search engine optimization strategist Phil Buckley, confirmed to me that he was let go this week.
IBM is one of the largest Triangle-area employers, the fifth biggest in Durham County (which encompasses most of Research Triangle Park.) It employed 9,000 area workers as of last year, according to Wake County Economic Development, though the company won’t confirm local headcounts.
Asked if any of this week’s cuts will impact Triangle-based workers, IBM spokesperson Michael Cable in an email told me IBM will not “break anything out by region/country, etc.” Cable had the same response when IBM announced a total of 3,900 cuts in January 2023.
Buckley wasn’t told the extent of the layoffs either, but he noted IBM’s marketing staff in Research Triangle Park wasn’t huge.
Cable said “IBM disclosed a workforce rebalancing charge” in January that would affect a “very low single digit percentage of IBM’s global workforce.” He added IBM expects “to exit 2024 at roughly the same level of employment as we entered with.”
Credit to Triangle Business Journal for bringing the “resource action” phrasing to my attention.
Short Stuff: Epic Games praised at Oscars, then files a motion against Apple
The fast-casual Swedish clothier H&M launched a venture called Syre to convert old textiles into recycled polyester. And it will do so in North Carolina. This month, Syre announced it will build a production plant in the state, which it hopes to open sometime this year. Precisely where the plant will be is TBD; a Syre spokersperson said it will give the location soon.
March 10 was the first anniversary of the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Raleigh’s First Citizens Bank turned heads a few weeks afterward when it scooped up the remains. Last fall, I checked in on how the new SVB was doing under FCB.
And the Oscar goes to Epic Games. The Cary-based company got a shout out during last weekend’s Academy Awards because its visualization platform, Unreal Engine, was used to make the animated short film winner “War is Over!” Epic told me this is the first animated film made with Unreal Engine to nab an Oscar. It’s possible that a previous live action winner has used Unreal Engine in its filmmaking, but Epic doesn’t require such filmmakers to report if they’ve used the platform.
After 30 years, an automotive technology plant will shutter in Roxboro, affecting at least 247 jobs in the rural area 30 miles north of Durham.
And back to Epic, where its protracted struggle with Apple is hard to keep straight. In last week’s newsletter, I wrote that Apple had denied the Epic Games Store from launching on iOS devices in Europe. Well, that same day, Apple reversed course. So, both sides are good?
Perhaps in Europe, but not over here, where on Wednesday, Epic filed a motion accusing Apple of violating the final court order from the companies’ three-year legal battle that made it to the doorstep of the Supreme Court. In short, Epic says Apple continues to prevent developers from steering users to potentially cheaper payment systems while also levying new fees.
National tech happenings
Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says he’s gathering an investor group to buy TikTok from China’s ByteDance.
The European Union has passed the world’s first comprehensive set of AI laws. I’ve heard a few local experts bemoan how much farther Europe is than the United States in setting AI rules.
And capping things off with more China fears, there’s evidence Chinese cranes at U.S. major ports pose espionage threats.
Thanks for reading!
