News Bits: Reeling from scandals of several varieties (PRNP, Feb. 27, Mar. 27), Uber could use some calm. Sorry, not happening. A legal altercation between it and Google is getting heated. Anthony Levandowski, who heads Uber’s self-driving effort and is accused of stealing trade secrets from Google, invoked his Fifth Amendment rights, the legal equivalent of “no comment,” refusing to release documents pertaining to the case. The former head of Google’s driverless unit, Levandowski is concerned about being charged with a crime, the NY Times reports Mar. 31. PR pros know how warmly media and the public accept pleas of no comment. Courts feel the same way about the Fifth Amendment. There’s a potential rift between Uber and Levandowski. Apparently Uber wants him to turn over relevant documents as part of the discovery process. Is Uber about to have another high-profile executive departure on its hands? – Speaking of Uber, driverless vehicles and unwanted publicity, the ride-hailing company suspended tests of such cars in three cities Mar. 25 after one of them crashed in Tempe, AZ. No injuries were reported. Uber’s driverless car testing program has had a mixed record—in addition to successes there have been crashes and a procedural mishap: The company began testing its cars in San Francisco without registering for permits. Oops. – This is not an April Fools joke. Superstar hedge fund manager William Ackman apologized (PRNP, Oct. 17, 2016). Honest. The maverick billionaire penned a Mar. 28 letter to Pershing Square Capital Management investors admitting his doubling down on Canadian pharma brand Valeant (PRN, Apr. 18, 2016) was a “huge mistake…I deeply and profoundly apologize.” Ackman’s support—he joined Valeant’s board last year—had been a ray of hope for the brand, whose troubles included misstating financial figures in a press release and raising drug prices precipitously. Shares in the former Wall St darling fell to $12 earlier this month after having reached $250 in May 2015. Ackman dumped his Valeant holdings Mar. 13, resulting in a $4 billion loss. – The Reputation Institute’s annual RepTrak 100,which measures consumers’ emotional bonds with 800 companies, found the top five U.S. brands are Rolex, Amazon.com, Sony, LEGO Group and Hallmark. The findings are based on a survey of 42,000+ consumers.
Deals: Cision acquired Bulletin Intelligence, a provider of customized briefings to CEOs and C-suites. Terms were not released. – Former HGTV and DIY Network host Matt Muenster has co-founded Spoke612, a video production firm, based in Minneapolis.
Platform Prater: Twitter Mar. 30 made good on a 2016 promise not to count the characters in usernames when a user replies to someone or a group. It’s another way Twitter is easing the 140-character limit for tweets. Last September 19, Twitter stopped counting photos, videos and GIFs. – Snapchat and NBC again will collaborate on Olympics content. NBC and BuzzFeed will produce content for Snapchat Discover during the 2018 winter games from S. Korea. NBC is an investor in BuzzFeed and Snap; the trio teamed during the Rio Olympics, too. – Facebook is imitating Snapchat. Again. This time it’s Facebook Stories, which like the original, Snapchat Stories, and Facebook-owned imitators Instagram Stories and Messenger Day, will feature photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours. While the feature is not yet offered on Facebook’s business pages, it’s expected to be soon.
People: Congrats to our good friend and veteran cable communicator Bobby Amirshahi, who was named SVP, corporate communications at Univision Communications, parent of Univision, the Spanish-language TV network. Based in NY, he’ll report to Univision EVP/CCO Rosemary Mercedes. Amirshahi has held senior posts at Time Warner Cable, MTV and Cox. – Burson-Marsteller said Geoffrey Mogilner, Neil Barman and Kona Barrasso joined its corporate and financial practice as managing director, senior director and senior director, respectively. Mogilner most recently was at Baxalta. Barman joins from Deloitte Consulting and Barrasso from A.T. Kearney. – Congrats to indie French/West/Vaughan, which celebrated 20 years in business last week. – FleishmanHillard named SVP and senior partner Kristin Kryway Hollins to lead its corporate reputation practice group in the Americas.
Sad News: The father of modern financial PR, Gershon Kekst, passed Mar. 17, aged 82. Known for being a person of few words and a calming influence, the Kekst & Co.founder sold his firm to Publicis in 2008. – Pam Edstrom, the E in WE Communications, passed Mar. 28 after a battle with cancer, aged 71. Her partnership with Melissa Waggener Zorkin, the W in WE, spanned some three decades. Besides co-founding WE, Edstrom is known for being Microsoft’s first PR director.