Business News Roundup, March 24
An integration with Facebook will allow small businesses that use Square to process payments to buy and personalize Facebook advertising using Square’s software.
Square will make subscription fees off the new product.
Small businesses can benefit from the move because Facebook ads bought through Square’s platform are directly connected to sales activity and data, Square said.
“There’s a lot of excitement around buying Facebook ads, but the critical missing link is, if I put down $5, how do I know if it worked?” said Saumil Mehta, Square’s customer engagement lead.
San Francisco’s Square hired Mehta and his colleagues from LocBox, which specialized in online marketing for small and local businesses, to work on similar advertising technology at Square.
Amazon.com said Wednesday that there’s no gender or ethnic imbalance in how it pays its employees, heading off pressure from activist investors who wanted the Seattle company to prepare a detailed report on the issue.
A recent review of its 2015 compensation showed that women earned 99.9 cents for every dollar men earned in the same jobs, the company said.
The review comes in the wake of pressure by activist investors who asked Amazon and other tech companies to prepare a report on policies and goals to reduce the gender pay gap.
The shareholders proposal cited a report suggesting that a category of women software developers at Amazon made about $10,000 less a year than men, and that women account for only a quarter of the leadership roles.
The California Public Employees’ Retirement System announced Wednesday that it has agreed to buy up to 25 percent of Desert Sunlight Investment Holdings, which owns two solar energy facilities in Southern California.
CalPERS says its infrastructure investments diversify the pension fund’s portfolio and provide predictable returns with moderate protection from inflation.
Coming off record earnings, American Airlines says it will make profit-sharing payments to employees.
American said Wednesday that it will share 5 percent of its pretax earnings with all employees, except top management, starting in early 2017 based on 2016 results.
A company that makes breathing masks for people with sleep apnea has agreed to pay $34.8 million to settle claims it paid kickbacks to suppliers that sold its products.
Suppliers that sold masks made by competitors had to pay for the call center services, which made the suppliers more likely to use Respironics masks, according to the Department of Justice, which announced the settlement Wednesday.