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Comment by ejb999 | Hacker News Reader

Possibly is a result of the SEC rules regarding insider information - not sure a company as big as MSFT or AMZN can give a heads up to 'insiders' before investors for something that may materially affect the company - and big layoffs definitely qualify as impactful - for better or worse.

...and because the huge companies are so closely followed on wall street and financial news, once news is released to the media - they are going to run with it as soon as they get it - not wait until employees get notified first.

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The ‘Insider information’ framework needs to be updated for the modern world.

Hedge funds tracking parking lots with low orbit satellites have more insider information than any official channel.

Even tweeting information to the whole world simultaneously can breach II rules when it doesn’t really apply since it automatically puts everyone on more equal footing.

> Hedge funds tracking parking lots with low orbit satellites have more insider information than any official channel.

That's not an example of an insider abusing their inside position for their benefit, it's an example of a hedge fund deciding that investing in low-orbit satellite photography gives them an edge in estimating market movement.

Exactly right, thank you for saying this. I will never forget back in the 00s, when electronic market makers were squeezing out floor traders and the pits were closing down, an outraged floor trader exclaimed to me: “They’re using .. COMPUTERS! To trade!”, in a tone that suggested how grossly unfair and (in the spirit of many a hacker news comment) how insider-trader-y it was.

Every employee is an investor too. It could be orchestrated within reason, or at least attempted.

But what I'm talking about is there were layoffs in the news and not a single peep about it in my email inbox or slack channel, nor even during 1:1 with my direct manager later that week.

Ok so it breaks to the news first, it seems common courtesy for the person managing your career path to check your pulse.

It is, but in Microsoft we are in the same boat (zero communication)

TIL teams at Microsoft use slack and not MS teams.

Grandparent said that not only was the layoff unmentioned before it happened (pretty common) but also not discussed afterward (not normal).

> Possibly is a result of the SEC rules regarding insider information

SEC insider information laws were the same during the DotCom boom/bust of 2000. Yet firing practices were quite different despite the fact that employees also had stock options/shares like they have now.

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