Americans for Prosperity Calls Out Oracle for Reported Layoffs While Receiving Taxpayer Money

Following a report that tech company Oracle has begun laying off workers from its Nashville location, the libertarian conservative political advocacy group Americans for Prosperity is calling on state and local leaders to scrutinize the company especially after it received “nearly a quarter of a billion dollars in taxpayer money.”

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Culture Clash: Exec Chairman Of Pro-Trans Oracle Backs Ortagus as Tennessee Leaders Work to Support Birth Gender Distinctions, Parental Rights

The executive chairman, and chief technology officer, of software giant Oracle, was revealed as the sole contributor to Tennessee Conservatives PAC, the Super PAC backing GOP Tennessee-5 House hopeful Morgan Ortagus, presents a clash of Silicon Valley values, such as attacks on those defending birth-gender in the Volunteer State.

Lawrence J. “Larry” Ellison donated $1 million to the Super PAC, according to the committee’s Friday filing posted on the Federal Elections Commission website at 12:19 p.m.

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Silicon Valley Billionaire Larry Ellison Donated the $1 Million That Funds SuperPAC Backing TN-5 Carpetbagger Candidate Morgan Ortagus

Silicon Valley billionaire Larry Ellison, the executive chairman and chief technology officer of Oracle, donated $1 million on March 21 to the recently-formed SuperPAC supporting TN-5 carpetbagger candidate Morgan Ortagus, according to Federal Election Commission records obtained by The Tennessee Star on Friday.

That SuperPAC, the Tennessee Conservatives PAC, has already begun running a $100,000 radio ad buy in the district in support of Ortagus.

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Tennessee Agrees to $65 Million Economic Grant for Oracle to Come to Nashville

In a unanimous vote, state leaders approved a measure to provide approximately $65 million in economic incentives for Oracle, the cloud technology company that provides computing infrastructure and software, to build a new campus in Nashville.

The grant from the state, meant to offset some of the cost of the $1.2 billion investment, was approved from the “Fast Track Economic Fund.”

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Nashville Officials Debate Project That Would Attract Technology Company Oracle, Create New Jobs

Metro Nashville officials are evaluating whether to spend $13.8 million in new infrastructure costs to allow a private company, Oracle, to set up shop in Davidson County. Metro Nashville At-Large Council Member Steve Glover told The Tennessee Star that council members on Tuesday approved an agreement — on the second reading — to invest the money. They then referred it for a final reading.

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Top Silicon Valley Company Leaves California for Nashville

Revance Therapeutics (Revance), a premiere biotechnology company, announced its plans to relocate its headquarters from Newark, California to Nashville. It is the fourth prominent company to depart from Silicon Valley this month.

Governor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe shared the news in a joint press release with Revance. According to them, the company will invest over $10 million and create approximately 150 jobs.

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Supremes Hear Google, Oracle Case of Copyright Clash

The topic was high tech: the code behind smartphones.

But on Wednesday the Supreme Court looked to more low tech examples, from the typewriter keyboard to restaurant menus, try to resolve an $8 billion-plus copyright dispute between tech giants Google and Oracle.

The case, which the justices heard by phone because of the coronavirus pandemic, has to do with Google’s creation of the Android operating system now used on the vast majority of smartphones worldwide. In developing Android, Google used some of Oracle’s computer code.

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Federal Judge Blocks TikTok Ban, Giving Chinese App an Opening to Settle Deal with Oracle

A federal judge blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to block TikTok Sunday, giving the Chinese social media platform an opportunity to forge a deal with Oracle.

The decision gives TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, more time to approve a deal with Oracle and Walmart, media reports show. Judge Carl Nichols’s decision came hours before President Donald Trump’s ban of the video-streaming app was expected to take place.

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Trump Approves TikTok Deal with Oracle and Walmart, Wants the App to Support Pro-US Education Program

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he approved a transaction between Oracle and TikTok that allows the Chinese application to stay in the United States.

Part of the arrangement requires the newly U.S.-based TikTok company to direct $5 billion toward teaching American children “the real history of our country,” Trump told reporters at the White House, Bloomberg reported Saturday. The president later told rally attendees in North Carolina Saturday that he is establishing a “large fund for the education of American youth.”

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Sen. Hawley Wants TikTok Deal with Oracle Rejected, Says Move Allows for China’s Control Over the App

Sen. Josh Hawley called on the Trump administration Monday to reject the partnership proposal Oracle reached with TikTok.

The Missouri Republican argued in a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that the partnership won’t prohibit the Chinese Communist Party from controlling the app. Hawley said the Treasury Department’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which is responsible for approving or rejecting the deal, should reject anything other than a complete break from China.

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Commentary: The Google v. Oracle Supreme Court Case Could Have Lasting Effects on the Music Business and Tennessee’s Economy

With the COVID-19 pandemic, racial justice protests and the looming presidential election dominating the headlines, the upcoming Supreme Court case, Google v. Oracle, has been all but forgotten.

It may seem like an inconsequential lawsuit between two Silicon Valley rivals fighting over a coveted piece of technology. But that analysis is wrong. The case has enormous potential consequences, not just for the two companies in dispute, but for countless Tennesseans and the state’s economy.

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