Amazon Alexa under financial pressure | Lessons from Windows Vista

Alexa under financial pressure: Internal Amazon accounting techniques overestimated the financial benefit from Alexa and Echo on the company's revenue from other services, according to a Wall Street Journal report. The new details provide the backdrop for reports that Amazon plans to launch a paid tier for Alexa along with a new conversational AI engine. Read more.

Remember Windows Vista? Inspired by a new episode of the hit podcast Acquired, delving into Microsoft’s history from 1995 to 2014, we dug up an archive of internal Microsoft emails to glean lessons from one of the toughest chapters in the company’s history. Read more.

• COMING SATURDAY: Acquired’s Ben Gilbert will be our guest on the GeekWire Podcast, discussing Acquired’s growth, and takeaways from their latest deep dive on Microsoft. Subscribe to GeekWire in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.

CrowdStrike aftermath: In a vivid example of the fallout from last week's massive IT outage, Seattle-based Bloodworks Northwest said computer problems resulted in the cancellation of nearly 250 blood donations, and appealed to people in the region to donate blood. Read more.

• Microsoft released a tool to help IT departments recover from the outage. 

• Among the major U.S. airlines, Delta continues to struggle to recover. 

• Members of Congress called on CrowdStrike’s CEO to testify.

Amazon is leasing a new industrial building on the former Weyerhaeuser campus in Federal Way, Wash., which it plans to use as a logistics site for customer fulfillment. Read more.

First Mode cuts: The Seattle-based company, which is aiming to reduce carbon emissions in mining and other heavy industries, alerted employees to a significant round of layoffs expected to unfold in early August. Read more.

Fresh funding:

• Vancouver, B.C.-based Clio landed a massive $900 million funding round, valuing the legal software company at $3 billion.
• QA Wolf, a Seattle startup that helps companies spot bugs in software, raised $36 million.
• RevealDx, a Seattle startup that uses machine learning techniques to help clinician diagnose lung cancer, raised $4.25 million.
• See all recent fundings for Pacific Northwest startups.

Hot Links:

• Amazon redesigned the content navigation bar on Prime Video and added new personalized recommendations. (Amazon; The Verge)

• Keeping cookies: Google is reversing course on its plan to ditch third-party cookies in a move with wide-ranging implications for advertisers and the broader internet. (CNBC)

• Meta released its newest open-source AI models. Microsoft and Amazon announced availability of Llama 3.1 on their respective cloud platforms. (Washington Post; Microsoft; Amazon)

• Warner’s TNT is challenging Amazon in a battle for NBA media rights. (Wall Street Journal)

• AI-generated deepfakes haven’t become a massive problem — not yet, at least. (Axios)

• Melinda French Gates is supporting Kamala Harris. “I want her fighting for our country for the next four years.” (LinkedIn)