#Mustreads From Other Sites: Microsoft Layoffs, Comcast's Customer Service Problem

Good morning! Here are some of the links getting passed around the Re/code newsroom:

1. Bloomberg reports that Microsoft will cut a huge chunk of its staff — as much as five percent of its workforce — as part of a company-wide restructuring.
2. Comcast, which is trying to convince regulators to let it buy Time Warner Cable, finds itself in hot water yesterday after gdgt co-founder and AOL executive Ryan Block released an eight-minute recording on Soundcloud of his attempt to disconnect his service against the very strong wishes of a Comcast customer service representative. Comcast told Vice’s Motherboard they were “very embarrassed” by the whole thing. The Awl’s John Herrman says we should feel equal sympathy for Block and the customer service rep.*
3. VentureBeat, one of the pioneering tech blogs, is trying something new: VB Insight, which appears to be an app store for analyst research. The site has raised $2.6 million to help launch the project.
4. If you’re looking for a longread, Wired takes a deep dive into “Project Zero,” Google’s hacker team tasked with going after bugs and security lapses all over the web. And Benjamin Wallace profiled Re/code co-executive editor Kara Swisher for New York Magazine.
5. In The Daily Beast, Kyle Chayka examines “the right to be forgotten” online, and how a company called Forget.me is trying speed that process up.

If you see any stories you’d like to send our way (or have any questions/comments about stories we’ve recommended), feel free to shoot an email to noah.kulwin@recode.net. * Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is an investor in Re/code.

Update: This version of the post clarifies that it was not Benjamin Wallace-Wells who wrote the New York Magazine profile, but rather Benjamin Wallace.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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