AT&T Sued Over Blocked Diversity Vote

/in /tarafından

AT&T is facing a lawsuit from four New York City public pension funds that claim the company improperly prevented shareholders from voting on a proposal related to workforce diversity disclosures.

The funds allege that AT&T refused to include their proposal in its 2026 annual shareholder meeting agenda. The proposal sought public disclosure of the demographic breakdown of the company’s 133,000 employees by race, ethnicity, and gender.

According to the complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, AT&T justified the exclusion by citing a recent U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission policy change that allows companies to omit shareholder proposals if they believe there is a reasonable basis to do so.

The pension funds argue that SEC rules do not permit such a move and claim the decision harms shareholders by limiting transparency. They are seeking to block AT&T from distributing proxy materials that exclude the proposal.

The complaint notes that AT&T previously disclosed workforce diversity data publicly between 2021 and 2023, but stopped doing so in 2024 without explanation, despite continuing to submit the information to federal regulators.

German Drone Startup Stark Hits Unicorn Status

/in /tarafından

German defence startup Stark has surpassed a valuation of 1 billion euros following a recent funding round backed by international investors.

According to reports, Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund invested a double-digit million euro sum, alongside several European backers, pushing the drone maker into unicorn territory.

The investment comes as Germany prepares to strengthen its defence capabilities. Government documents indicate plans to order strike drones worth 536 million euros from Stark and fellow defence contractor Helsing.

The funding signals growing investor confidence in Europe’s defence technology sector amid rising demand for autonomous military systems.

Capgemini Beats Revenue Target on AI Push

/in /tarafından

Capgemini reported stronger-than-expected 2025 revenue, driven by accelerating demand for AI-powered business services following the integration of newly acquired WNS.

The French IT services group posted revenue of 22.47 billion euros, surpassing its own growth guidance as fourth-quarter sales jumped 10.6%. Contributions from WNS and Clou4C played a major role in boosting performance.

Generative and agentic AI made up more than 10% of total bookings in the final quarter, doubling from earlier in the year. Capgemini has already identified around 100 cross-selling opportunities with WNS and secured a major intelligent operations contract valued at over 600 million euros.

Looking ahead, the company expects revenue growth of up to 8.5% in 2026, with acquisitions contributing nearly five percentage points. Operating margins are also forecast to improve slightly.

Capgemini plans to invest heavily in restructuring to align its workforce with rising demand for AI-driven services, positioning itself as a key enabler of enterprise-wide AI adoption.