BUSINESS NEWS ROUNDUP

Pivotal sets offering price

Pivotal Software, a San Francisco company controlled by Dell Technologies, is expected to begin trading Friday on the New York Stock Exchange after setting a price of $15 for its initial public offering of shares.

The company had said in a Wednesday filing that it anticipated selling shares for a price between $14 and $16.

Pivotal was created in 2013 when EMC, which merged with Dell in a 2016 deal worth $67 billion, and VMware, a Palo Alto subsidiary of EMC, formed a new entity that specializes in software and services for cloud computing.

After the offering, which is expected to raise approximately $555 million, Dell will retain more than 95 percent of the voting power in Pivotal.

‘Fearless Girl’ statue moving

New York’s “Fearless Girl” statue that has become a global symbol of female business prowess will be moved from her spot staring down Wall Street’s bronze “Charging Bull” to a new home facing the New York Stock Exchange.

And the bull, a longtime tourist attraction at the foot of Broadway, may wind up following in her footsteps.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said “Fearless Girl” will be moved this year.

Qualcomm cutting jobs

Qualcomm will cut 1,500 jobs in California, the majority at its San Diego headquarters, according to documents filed with the state.

Some 1,231 positions will be eliminated in San Diego with terminations starting about June 19, the company said in a Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification notice. Companies are required to make such a state filing when they reduce their workforce by 50 or more employees within a 30-day period. At the same time, about 269 workers will lose their jobs at the company’s Santa Clara and San Jose locations.

The largest maker of chips used in smartphones pledged in January that it would slash $1 billion in expenses.

Drivers can change lawsuit

Lyft drivers can revise a lawsuit alleging that Uber spied on them as part of a scheme to gain a competitive edge.

A San Francisco federal magistrate judge dismissed most of the lawsuit on Wednesday, but allowed the drivers to file an amended complaint, leaving the door open for them to pursue the case. The suit seeks to represent drivers nationwide who were targeted.

The drivers alleged violations of privacy and wiretapping laws, as well as unfair competition. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley preserved a claim under California’s unfair competition law, and said that the driver who filed the suit, Michael Gonzales, “has sufficiently alleged that he lost revenue as a result of Uber’s programs to decrease the supply of Lyft drivers.”

According to the lawsuit, Hell spyware, used from about 2014 to 2016, allowed Uber employees or its contractors to pose as Lyft customers and access the locations of drivers through their unique Lyft IDs. The goal was to identify drivers who worked for both companies so they could be targeted with incentives to primarily work for Uber, according to the complaint.

Lawyers for Uber didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the ruling.

Chronicle News Services