Wall St.Journal 27Feb2020

B4| Thursday, February 27, 2020 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

TECHNOLOGY WSJ.com/Tech

As Tesla has expanded pro-

duction of its cars, it has sought

ties with other battery makers.

It struck a deal with China’s

Contemporary Amperex Tech-

nologyCo., or CATL. to furnish

batteries for Tesla’s new car

plant in Shanghai where it

builds Model 3 cars. Tesla also

has a battery-supplier agree-

ment with South Korea’sLG

ChemLtd.

Panasonic last year down-

graded its car-parts business,

previously seen as a growth

driver, to the category of units

needing improvement. These

developments suggest that

both sides of the Tesla-Pana-

sonic relationship are dialing

back its strategic importance.

Both companies said the

Buffalo decision wouldn’t affect

their joint venture in Nevada.

Howard Zemsky, chairman

of Empire State Development,

the New York economic devel-

opment authority that oversees

the factory, said Tesla planned

to hire as many of the 380 Pa-

nasonic employees working

there as possible. Panasonic

said it would help find jobs for

any workers that Tesla didn’t

hire.

“We understand that Pana-

sonic has made a corporate de-

cision to move away from

global solar products, but this

action has no bearing on

Tesla’s current operations nor

its commitment to Buffalo and

New York state, according to

Tesla,” Mr. Zemsky said.

Tesla, in partnership with

Panasonic, began operations at

the Buffalo plant in April 2018.

The company leases the facility

from the state for $1 a year

over 10 years and has commit-

ted to spending $5 billion on

capital and operating expenses

in the state. Tesla faces a $41.2

million penalty if it doesn’t em-

ploy 1,460 people in western

New York by April.

The memo said Tesla had

1,500 full-time employees and

contractors working in the fac-

tory with a starting hourly

wage of $17. The figures don’t

include Panasonic’s workers,

the memo said.

—Sean McLain

contributed to this article.

PanasonicCorp. will end its

partnership withTeslaInc. that

produces solar panels at a fac-

tory in Buffalo, N.Y., the latest

fissure between the two com-

panies that have been close

partners in their push to sell

electric cars.

The Japanese company on

Wednesday said it would stop

production in May and exit the

factory by September. Tesla as-

sured New York officials—the

state spent $959 million to

build and equip the factory—

that it would continue produc-

tion of its solar roof in Buffalo

and had exceeded required job

counts, according to a memo

sent to these officials on Tues-

day that was reviewed by The

Wall Street Journal.

A Tesla spokesman didn’t re-

spond to an email seeking com-

ment.

Tesla and Panasonic have

been working together closely for

years, principally with the Japa-

nese company providing batter-

ies for the electric vehicles the

Silicon Valley automobile maker

has been producing. Tesla owns a

multibillion-dollar battery fac-

tory in the Nevada desert, known

as the Gigafactory, which pro-

duces lithium-ion batteries for

Tesla cars and represents a push

for the Japanese electronic giant

more broadly to power electric

vehicles.

But the relationship between

the two partners has become

strained. The companies have

sparred over battery costs and

the running of the Gigafactory,

amid production delays. More

recently, though, Tesla Chief

Executive Elon Musk praised

the Nevada facility for “massive

growth” in battery-cell produc-

tion.

BYTIMHIGGINS

ANDJIMMYVIELKIND

Panasonic Breaks

Ties With Tesla on

Solar-Panel Plant

$959

Inmillions,whatNewYork

statespenttobuildthefacility

The car makervowed to continue production at the site.

ANDREW HARRER/BLOOMBERG NEWS

The head ofUber Technolo-

giesInc.’s food-delivery busi-

ness is leaving the company, a

departure that comes as the

unit works to exit markets

where it isn’t a dominant

player in a bid to boost profits.

Uber said the departing ex-

ecutive, Jason Droege, will be

succeeded at Uber Eats by the

head of its international rides

business, Pierre-Dimitri Gore-

Coty. Mr. Gore-Coty joined the

company in 2012.

Uber didn’t say why Mr.

Droege, who came on board the

San Francisco company in 2014

to spearhead new ventures,

was leaving. Mr. Droege will be

available until June to help

with the transition, Uber said.

Eats has helped Uber boost

revenue, but has weighed on

The company is now valued at about $4 billion. Above, the Roblox Developer Conference in Burlingame, Calif., last August.

IAN TUTTLE/GETTY IMAGES FOR ROBLOX

BYSARAHE.NEEDLEMAN

Chief of Uber Eats Is Leaving

As It Exits Some Markets

its bottom line. The unit

posted an adjusted loss before

interest, taxes, depreciation

and amortization of $461 mil-

lion for the three months

ended Dec. 31.

To stem such losses, Chief

Executive Dara Khosrowshahi

has been pulling Eats out of

markets where it isn’t among

the top two food-delivery ser-

vices. Last month Uber agreed

to sell its Indian food-delivery

unit to a local rival. Last year

the company pulled out of

South Korea.

Uber has also been seeking

to shore up its finances, possi-

bly by merging with a compet-

itor such as DoorDash Inc. or

Postmates Inc. So far, though,

discussions haven’t resulted in

any deals.

Mr. Khosrowshahi has said

the Uber Eats exits are helping

put the company on a faster

path to profitability. On an

earnings call earlier this

month, he said he now sees

the company being profitable

on an adjusted Ebitda basis by

the end of this year.

Uber has said it expects

pricing in food delivery, its

second-biggest business after

ride-hailing, will become more

reasonable and the discounts

and promotions will begin to

fade. The company is already

starting to keep more money

from each meal-delivery trans-

action. Adjusted net revenue,

which excludes driver incen-

tives and referral bonuses for

Eats, was $1.38 billion in 2019,

up 82% from a year earlier.

Uber still faces challenges.

Its core ride-sharing business

is under regulatory scrutiny in

some of its most lucrative mar-

kets. In California, which ac-

counts for about 9% of Uber’s

gross bookings, a new law may

require the company to reclas-

sify its drivers as employees,

which would dramatically raise

costs. And in London, which

makes up about 5% of its ride

bookings, the company was

stripped of its license to oper-

ate in November, a ruling by

local authorities it is appealing.

—Preetika Rana contributed

to this article.

The company

didn’t say why

Jason Droege,

who came on

board in 2014,

was leaving

Uber.

Making job interviews more

challenging could be a cost-ef-

fective way for employers to

entice new hires, according to

new research from job-review

website Glassdoor.

Young

workers were

more recep-

tive than

older workers to tough job in-

terviews, with accepted offers

among candidates ages 25 to

34 rising 3.1 percentage points

after more difficult screenings.

Glassdoor parsed data from

nearly 100,000 job candidates

who used its website between

January 2018 and November

2019, capturing their careers

moves and asking them to

rate their interview experi-

ences.

“Research clearly shows the

interview has a huge effect on

how candidates see you as a

company,” said Daniel Zhao,

Glassdoor’s senior economist

and a co-author of the re-

search.

“Skills and career develop-

ment are a priority for youn-

ger workers, and interviews

are an opportunity for them to

MANAGING

YOUR CAREER

Investors inRobloxCorp. say

it has the potential to become

one of the world’s most popular

online hangouts.

It is now valued at about $4

billion after closing a new fund-

ing round led by venture-capital

giant Andreessen Horowitz, ac-

cording to a person familiar

with the matter.

Roblox was last valued at

more than $2.5 billion in Sep-

tember 2018. On Wednesday it

said it raised $150 million and

launched a tender offer to buy

up to $350 million of common

and preferred shares. Existing

investors including Altos Ven-

tures, Meritech Capital and Ti-

ger Global Management also

participated in the funding

round.

Andreessen Horowitz, known

for investing early in technology

lion in funding overall and

counts itself among gaming

companies that have raised

hundreds of millions of dollars

from venture-capital investors

in recent years, according to

PitchBook Data. Companies like

Fortnite developer Epic Games

and Pokémon Go developer

Niantic secured private valua-

tions well over $1 billion by de-

veloping innovative games that

have been attracted interna-

tional followings while compa-

nies like Unity Technologies and

online chat application Discord

created popular platforms used

to make games and communi-

cate during game play, respec-

tively.

Roblox will use the new

funding to expand its mostly

teenage and preteen user base

and investing in efforts to keep

them safe, said finance chief Mi-

chael Guthrie.

other by typing messages into

the platform’s chat function. Us-

ers can also spend real money

on virtual currency called

Robux to purchase in-game

perks such as virtual weapons

or to customize their avatars.

Roblox has been continuing

to grow its user base, moving to

more than 115 million monthly

active users world-wide from

about 70 million in 2018, the

company said.

Last year Roblox ranked as

the third highest-grossing

“game” across iOS and Android

devices in the U.S. and Canada,

according to data from industry

trackers NPD Group Inc. and

Sensor Tower Inc. Also last

year, Roblox was the fifth most-

watched “game” on Google’s

YouTube, with nearly 30 billion

views, according to the Alpha-

bet Inc. unit.

Roblox has raised $335 mil-

companies such as Facebook

Inc., hadn’t previously backed

Roblox. Its investment comes

from a $2.2 billion late-stage

fund that the firm created in

May.

“What gets us really excited

and where we see the most up-

side is in the long-term vision,”

said David George, general part-

ner at Andreessen Horowitz.

“We think there is a real chance

for Roblox to become the meta-

verse,” referring to a shared vir-

tual world as described in

works of fiction like “Ready

Player One.”

Roblox, released in 2006,

isn’t a single game: It is a free

online hub with tens of millions

of games, all of which were

made on the platform with tools

the company provides. Players

log in through mobile devices,

gaming consoles and comput-

ers, and can socialize with each

BYSARAHE.NEEDLEMAN

Roblox Closes New Funding Round

see if the company they’re ap-

plying for will equip them

with the experience they

want,” he said.

Among candidates for pro-

fessional and technical jobs,

raising the interview diffi-

culty by even one level, as

rated by job seekers on a

five-point scale, was enough

to lift acceptance rates by 2.6

percentage points, Glassdoor

data show.

Having candidates complete

skills tests as part of the vet-

ting process raised acceptance

rates by 2.5 percentage points.

In contrast, taking a personal-

ity quiz as part of an interview

lowered acceptance rates by

2.3 percentage points.

While many employers be-

lieve higher salaries and richer

benefits are the chief way to

entice more workers to join

their organization, Mr. Zhao

said tougher and more trans-

parent interviews now appear

to be a cost-effective route.

Job seekers, especially youn-

ger ones, want the chance to

perform and be assessed “for

the unique skills they bring to

the table,” he said.

Hiring in the current labor

market is particularly fraught,

because the U.S. unemploy-

ment rate is near a 50-year

low.

That means companies have

to lure most new employees

from jobs they already hold.

Around the U.S. and across all

industries, 17.3% of job offers

extended to potential candi-

dates were rejected, Glassdoor

data show; the average rejec-

tion rate was higher among

professional and technical

jobs, at 19.4%.

Certain jobs have particu-

larly high rejection rates. For

instance, 22.6% of insurance

job offers are turned down,

while Java developers pass on

31.7% of offers.

Entry-level roles in market-

ing have among the highest

rejection rates, with 41.1% of

offers for marketing assistant

jobs declined.

At the other end of the

spectrum, jobs in food ser-

vices, travel and tourism, arts

and entertainment, and retail,

had much lower rejection

rates, ranging from 10.6% to

13.1%.

Server and machine opera-

tor roles had the lowest rejec-

tion rates, at 4.1% and 4%, re-

spectively.

BYKATHRYNDILL

Tough Interview Process Is Linked

To a Higher Job-Acceptance Rate

The University of Pennsyl-

vania’s Wharton School named

Erika James of Emory Univer-

sity as its next dean, the first

woman and African-American

to head the business school in

its 139-year history.

Ms. James, who has led Em-

ory’s Goizueta school since

2014, will take over the role

July 1. She succeeds Geoffrey

Garrett, who is leaving Whar-

ton to become dean of the Uni-

versity of Southern California’s

Marshall School of Business.

Ms. James takes over the

top-ranked Ivy League pro-

gram as applications to some

of America’s most elite busi-

ness schools have been declin-

ing. Applications to U.S.

M.B.A. programs have fallen

for five straight years as

young professionals have

questioned the wisdom of tak-

ing two years out of a hot job

market to go back to school.

During her time at Emory,

Ms. James led an effort to

build an innovation and entre-

preneurship lab and grew Goi-

zueta’s faculty, Wharton said.

BYPATRICKTHOMAS

Wharton

Chooses

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