Will the capital gains tax drive business out of Washington? 

Now that Washington state’s new capital gains tax has the legal green light, many business leaders are sounding the alarm.

• The state Supreme Court ruling Friday prompted a one-sentence press release from Camas, Wash.-based Fisher Investments: “In honor of the Washington State Supreme Court’s wisdom and knowledge of the law, and in recognition of whatever it may do next, Fisher Investments is immediately moving its headquarters from Washington State to Texas.”

• Whether the 7% tax on capital gains of more than $250,000 causes an exodus of entrepreneurs and CEOs from Washington state remains to be seen. Some studies show that most wealthy people don’t move to avoid paying high taxes. (Above: GeekWire Illustration) Read the story. 

Microsoft made another 559 job cuts in the Seattle region on Monday, bringing the regional total to 2,743 layoffs since the company started making cuts in January.

• The latest cuts, in Redmond and Bellevue, Wash., are part of the 10,000 global layoffs announced by Microsoft on Jan. 18. Read more.

Online jewelry retailer Blue Nile is also cutting jobs in the Seattle area.

• The company, acquired by Signet Jewelers last year, is closing a Seattle fulfillment center. Read more. 

Microsoft previewed new technology that uses artificial intelligence to defend against hackers by identifying, analyzing, and understanding the inner workings of malicious cyberattacks.

• The new “Security Copilot” is Microsoft’s latest integration of OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology. Read more. 

Amazon says its Sidewalk community wireless network, formed by pooling internet bandwidth from users of Amazon devices, now covers 90% of the U.S. population.

• Amazon made the announcement Tuesday as it opened Sidewalk to developers to test, create, and adapt devices for the network. GeekWire has been testing one of the development kits for the past several days in Washington state and Northern California. Read more.  

Is this the pivot that sticks? Seattle employee engagement startup Mystery rebranded as Glue and now uses software and AI to drive retention for companies.

• Glue launched as Mystery, a dating service of sorts, five years ago. The company changed course when the pandemic hit, but the goal has always been to make people happy. Read more.

Sonoma Biotherapeutics partnered with Regeneron on a $75 million deal to co-develop cell therapies for Crohn’s disease and other autoimmune conditions.

• The deal builds on $265 million raised in 2021 by Sonoma, a three-year old startup that operates in Seattle and South San Francisco. Read more. 

Submit your vote for Startup of the Year.

• The finalists for Startup of the Year at this year’s GeekWire Awards —  Arrived Homes; Lexion; Phaidra; Shipium; and WhyLabs — come from a variety of industries, but all share a common trait: they are innovating, executing, and making a difference. Vote here.