Is it ‘Day 2’ at Amazon? | More layoffs at Rad Power Bikes

“It’s past time to admit that Amazon is not the same place it was when I was there, and someplace along the way of becoming the everything store, they forgot their playbook.”

• John Rossman, a former Amazon executive, wrote a guest commentary that details his proposed turnaround plan for the Seattle tech giant. Read it here. 

This just in: The FTC is suing Microsoft over its massive $69 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard.

• The FTC said the acquisition “would enable Microsoft to suppress competitors to its Xbox gaming consoles and its rapidly growing subscription content and cloud-gaming business.” Read more.

Rad Power Bikes conducted layoffs for the third time this year, citing the need to reduce costs amid the economic downturn.

• The cuts come a day after the Seattle-based e-bike company announced the launch of a new three-wheeled bicycle. Read more.

Amazon expanded its senior leadership team with four additional leaders.

• With the latest additions, Amazon’s senior leadership team numbers 28 people. Read about the new “Steam” members. 

The Pentagon split a giant cloud contract among Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Oracle.

• The U.S. Department of Defense’s “Joint Warfighting Cloud Capability” will have a potential value of up to $9 billion for the companies. Read more.

AlphaCode, from Google’s DeepMind, has proven that it can keep up with the average human software coder.

• The performance in standardized programming contests points to a new frontier in AI applications as AlphaCode relies on a “data-driven” approach to writing code. Read more.

Tech Moves:

• GitHub hires an AWS veteran; ex-RealSelf leader joins Oggvo; former Adaptive Biotechnologies CFO joins Capella Space; and more key personnel changes. 

Seattle startup fundings:

• Health tech startup Pebble landed $17.3 million and publicly launched its software that creates health benefits plans for small companies.

• Engineering company First Mode and mining company Anglo American have followed through on a $200 million business combination agreement. 

• Cabana raised $3 million to fuel production of its luxury travel vans.

Zillow Group acquired VRX Media to broaden its suite of listing services that it sells to agents and brokers.

• The Milwaukee-based marketing service offers real-estate focused content such as drone photography, virtual staging, 3D tours and more. Read more.

Photos: Recapping the GeekWire Gala and rebooting two techies with a style makeover. 

• Our annual holiday party for Seattle’s tech community returned in epic fashion on Wednesday night as we danced, sang, toasted and more. Read the recap.

• Two lucky winners had a day of pampering at Nordstrom, where they were made over and dressed for success before attending the big party. See the before and after looks.