Jeff Bezos’ exit, ransomware attack hits up to 1500 businesses, Teneo appoints Ursula Burns as Board Chair

Julie Hyman breaks down Tuesday’s business headlines, including: Andy Jassy becoming CEO of Amazon after Jeff Bezos steps down, Teneo Holdings LLC appointing corporate veteran Ursula Burns as chairwoman, Neighborhood social network Nextdoor announcing plans to go public via SPAC sponsored by Khosla Ventures, and the U.S. information technology firm Kaseya reports between 800-1500 businesses have suffered ransomware attacks.

Video transcript

JULIE HYMAN: Taking a look at some other business headlines now, hackers in the latest ransomware attack to target businesses are demanding $70 million to free the computers affected. That's according to the Wall Street Journal. Kaseya is a software provider with hundreds of small and medium-sized business clients. It was the target and conduit for the attack. It said up to 1,500 of its clients were affected. The hackers may be the same gang behind the JDS attack last month, Reuters said, citing a researcher at cybersecurity firm Huntress.

Jeff Bezos no longer the CEO of Amazon. We've been talking about that this morning, as the shares rise to about a three-month high. Bezos stepped down yesterday in a planned succession with 24-year Amazon veteran Andy Jassy stepping into his place. Jassy has led Amazon Web Services since its inception in 2003. Bezos, of course, isn't leaving the company. He'll remain as chairman. He's scheduled to travel to the edge of space on board a Blue Origin rocket on July 20th.

In other executive news, Ursula Burns will become chairwoman at Teneo, the consulting firm that's in transition after the resignation of Declan Kelly as CEO and chairman. Kelly reportedly apologized after drunkenly touching women without their consent at a charity event in May. Burns, the former CEO of Xerox, is a trailblazer, as the first Black woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.

And Nextdoor is going public, the neighborhood social network for babysitter suggestions and lawn mowing complaints. It's combined with Khosla Ventures Acquisition Company, too, in a deal valued at $4.3 billion. So it's going to be a pipe as well, private investment of about $270 million. And Sozz, you already had a chance to look at the investor presentation here. What stands out to you?

BRIAN SOZZI: Yeah, I'm looking right at page 35, the financials at the company. And it's interesting to see revenue growth slowed during the pandemic. So last year, total sales rose 49% to 123 million. That's slower than the 62% seen in 2019. For 2021, Nextdoor is estimating 44% sales growth to $178 million. But the adjusted operating profit loss is expected to be $50 million.

Now the company is also now putting out, I would say, wild expectations, like other SPACs. But they are still expecting to lose money next year. Next year, they see $249 million in sales. Revenue up about 40% year over year, looking at a $45 million adjusted operating loss. So the company has not been profitable, but it will be interesting to see how this one comes to market, given all the focus on SPACs and the sell-off in those SPACs.

Also worth noting, I mean, you have two heavy hitters on this board here. You have Bill Gurley over at Benchmark. He's on the board. Mary Meeker, a longtime tech industry insider. She's, in fact, on this board. And you have [INAUDIBLE] too. She joined Nextdoor in 2018. She's famously Square's former CFO. She sits on the board at Walmart. She sits on the board at Slack. Very accomplished executive in her own right. I'm kind of fascinated to see how this one debuts on the market.

MYLES UDLAND: I just found the ticker KIND quite interesting, considering that I don't find Nextdoor to be a particularly kind place for commentary and complaints about one's neighbors, complaints about putting in AstroTurf. There's been a lot of conversation recently about gas leaf blower bans, Julie. I know you're hot on this story as well in our area, various towns banning them from 9:00 to 5:00. People are quite unhappy about that.

The other thing that I've seen on there, which I don't really care for, is people taking screenshots of someone that they think was stealing packages, like, off their front steps and then blasting it into Nextdoor and saying, have you seen this criminal? Are you the police? Do you know that this person did that? Now you're blasting this person on the internet.

I mean, whatever. I'm sure it's all fine. But we've monetized worse things than sort of nimbyism and our animosity towards people who are in our-- near our home at all. But it's just not the kindest thing I've ever seen on the inter--