
Tech CEO caught with company's HR head on Coldplay kiss cam resigns
In a post on Linkedin, the software startup said: 'Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted.'
It added: 'As stated previously, Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability, and recently, that standard was not met.'
The development comes after the firm said on Friday that Byron and the company's HR head, Kristin Cabot, had been placed on leave, Axios reported.
They had been caught canoodling on the Jumbotron camera at the Coldplay concert in Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is south-west of Boston.
The incident took the internet by storm.
Byron has been the head of Astronomer since 2023. In 2024, Cabot joined the company as its head of HR. In an announcement about Cabot's hiring, Byron said: 'Kristin's exceptional leadership and deep expertise in talent management, employee engagement and scaling people strategies will be critical as we continue our rapid trajectory.'
Astronomer's message on Saturday indicated it was now trying to move on from the scrutiny over the video: 'Before this week, we were known as a pioneer in the DataOps space, helping data teams power everything from modern analytics to production AI.
'While awareness of our company may have changed overnight, our product and our work for our customers have not. We're continuing to do what we do best: helping our customers with their toughest data and AI problems.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
41 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Dave Portnoy: WNBA players SHOULD get paid more... it's a sporting scandal that morons are missing
Barstool Sports chief Dave Portnoy has taken aim at 'morons' as he weighed in on the WNBA 's pay scandal in a fiery rant. Caitlin Clark and her fellow WNBA stars took a stand during Saturday night's All-Star game when they called out the league with a pointed jibe over its failure to pay them what they believe they deserve. The league's All-Stars took to the court in T-shirts telling league bosses to 'pay us what you owe us' talks over a new collective bargaining agreement stalled in Indianapolis this week. However, the players faced backlash on social media with fans questioning why players should be paid more when the league has been operating at a loss. Yet Portnoy, who has become heavily invested in the WNBA over the past year as a staunch supporter of Clark, fired back as he defended the players over the scandal. 'I see lots of morons trying to act like WNBA players don't deserve more money,' the media mogul, who inked a deal with Fox Sports this week, began in a fiery rant on X. 'They are throwing around this 'lost 50 million' number that nobody even knows where it comes from. The finances of the league are a mess, tied in with NBA and purposely murkey. The owners don't want to say how the league is doing cause then you gotta pay more going into bargaining agreement. 'The league is exploding. Franchise values are exploding. Ticket sales, merch, tv rights all exploding. The players have an opt out in their CBA. Of course they took it. 'It's all about leverage in re-negotiations and for the 1st time in history of league players have power. The players make virtually nothing while the entire league explodes. Of course they deserve more money. 'Just the values of the team pay for it without all the other stuff. If somebody told me I could buy a Boston team for 250 million I would do it without blinking. That's all you got to know about the WNBA finances.' Negotiations between the WNBA and Women's National Basketball Players Association continued in Indianapolis this week but failed to reach a deal and erase the friction between the two sides. In fact, many WNBA players were disappointed in the lack of progress of an in- person session on Thursday that was attended by 40 players. The negotiations certainly didn't narrow the gap between the two sides. 'I think (Thursday's) meeting was good for the fact that we could be in the same room as the league and the Board of Governors,' said Liberty star Breanna Stewart, a union vice president. 'But, I think, to be frank, it was a wasted opportunity.' The dispute began when the players union announced after the 2024 season that they would opt out of the CBA on October 31, 2025. With television revenues on the rise - largely due to the presence of Clark - the players want a larger piece of the financial pie. The Barstool Sports chief shared a lengthy rant to social media about the issue on Sunday The players' top priorities are greatly increased salaries and a revenue sharing plan. In the WNBA, players reportedly only receive 9.3 per cent of league revenue which is way less than athletes in most other sports leagues. But, as a New York Post article in October pointed out, the WNBA was set to lose $40million last season and NBA owners were starting to get frustrated by it. The NBA owns nearly 60 per cent of the league and owners were pressing commissioner Adam Silver for answers on when they can expect a return on their investment. There's a lot of money coming into the league over the next few years with a new 11-year media rights deal worth over $2.2billion, three new expansion teams that each paid $250m in fees and many new sponsors. According to Sports Illustrated, WNBA salaries roughly range from a minimum of $66,000 to a super maximum contract of around $250,000. For reference, Clark will earn $78,000 in the 2025 season while All-Star rival Napheesa Collier has an average annual salary of $184,000. Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings has the highest average annual salary in the WNBA at $241,000. Players can supplement their income through commercial deals and it's thought Clark, the Indiana Fever sensation, earned $11million in 2024. The deadline to reach a new agreement is just three-and-a-half months away. 'Rev sharing is truly transformational,' Los Angeles Sparks guard Kelsey Plum told reporters. 'We want a piece of the entire pie. Not a piece of part of the pie. We're a resilient group. We know the unity it takes to be able to get the outcome desired.' Chicago Sky second-year forward Angel Reese termed the negotiations as 'disrespectful.' 'Obviously, women's basketball is skyrocketing,' Reese told reporters. 'And it's important for us to get what we want now, not just now, but for the future as well. ... 'It was an eye-opener for me ... hearing the language of things, not things that I was happy to hear. It was disrespectful -- the proposal that we were sent back.' 'We're on a time crunch. No one wants a lockout,' said Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier, another vice president of the WNBPA. 'But at the end of the day, we have to stand firm, and we're not going to be moved on certain topics. So hopefully the league comes back quickly so that we can get have more dialog, more conversations and can get the ball rolling.' Collier and Stewart were co-founders of Unrivaled, a 3-on-3 league that debuted last offseason. The fact that both players are part of the WNBPA negotiating party while having significant financial investments in a rival league would appear to be a conflict of interest, though Collier has fought back against that narrative. That also is part of the discussions as the WNBA wants its league to be prioritized among the players, some of whom play overseas. Players point out that Unrivaled's pay scale was better for most players than what they receive in WNBA salary. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert described the negotiations as 'very constructive dialog.' Engelbert said she remains optimistic that a deal with get done.


The Independent
2 hours ago
- The Independent
Less selection, higher prices: How tariffs are shaping the holiday shopping season
With summer in full swing in the United States, retail executives are sweating a different season. It's less than 22 weeks before Christmas, a time when businesses that make and sell consumer goods usually nail down their holiday orders and prices. But President Donald Trump 's vacillating trade policies, part of his effort to revive the nation's diminished manufacturing base and to reduce the U.S. deficit in exported goods, have complicated those end-of-year plans. Balsam Hill, which sells artificial trees and other decorations online, expects to publish fewer and thinner holiday catalogs because the featured products keep changing with the tariff — import tax — rates the president sets, postpones and revises. 'The uncertainty has led us to spend all our time trying to rejigger what we're ordering, where we're bringing it in, when it's going to get here,' Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill parent company Balsam Brands, said. 'We don't know which items we're going to have to put in the catalog or not." Months of confusion over which foreign countries' products may become more expensive to import has left a question mark over the holiday shopping season. U.S. retailers often begin planning for the winter holidays in January and typically finalize the bulk of their orders by the end of June. The seesawing tariffs already have factored into their calculations. The consequences for consumers? Stores may not have the specific gift items customers want come November and December. Some retail suppliers and buyers scaled back their holiday lines rather than risking a hefty tax bill or expensive imports going unsold. Businesses still are setting prices but say shoppers can expect many things to cost more, though by how much depends partly on whether Trump's latest round of 'reciprocal' tariffs kicks in next month. The lack of clarity has been especially disruptive for the U.S. toy industry, which sources nearly 80% of its products from China. American toy makers usually ramp up production in April, a process delayed until late May this year after the president put a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, according to Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of the Toy Association, an industry trade group. The U.S. tariff rate may have dropped significantly from its spring high — a truce in the U.S.-China trade war is set to expire on Aug. 12 — but continues to shape the forthcoming holiday period. Manufacturing activity is way down from a year ago for small- and medium-sized U.S. toy companies, Ahearn said. The late start to factory work in China means holiday toys are only now arriving at U.S. warehouses, industry experts said. A big unknown is whether tariffs will keep stores from replenishing supplies of any breakout hit toys that emerge in September, said James Zahn, editor-in-chief of the trade publication Toy Book. In the retail world, planning for Christmas in July usually involves mapping out seasonal marketing and promotion strategies. Dean Smith, who co-owns independent toy stores JaZams in Princeton, New Jersey, and Lahaska, Pennsylvania, said he recently spent an hour and a half running through pricing scenarios with a Canadian distributor because the wholesale cost of some products increased by 20%. Increasing his own prices that much might turn off customers, Smith said, so he explored ways to "maintain a reasonable margin without raising prices beyond what consumers would accept.' He ordered a lower cost Crazy Forts building set so he would have the toy on hand and left out the kids' edition of the Anomia card game because he didn't think customers would pay what he would have to charge. 'In the end, I had to eliminate half of the products that I normally buy,' Smith said. Hilary Key, owner of The Toy Chest in Nashville, Indiana, said she tries to get new games and toys in early most years to see which ones she should stock up on for the winter holidays. This year, she abandoned her product testing for fear any delayed orders would incur high import taxes. Meanwhile, vendors of toys made in China and elsewhere bombarded Key with price increase notices. For example, Schylling, which makes Needoh, Care Bear collectibles and modern versions of nostalgic toys like My Little Pony, increased prices on orders by 20%, according to Key. All the price hikes are subject to change if the tariff situation changes again. Key worries her store won't have as compelling a product assortment as she prides herself on carrying. 'My concern is not that I'll have nothing, because I can bring in more books. I can bring in more gifts, or I can bring in just things that are manufactured in other places,' she said. 'But that doesn't mean I'm going to have the best stock for every developmental age, for every special need." The retail industry may have to keep taking a whack-a-mole approach to navigating the White House's latest tariff ultimatums and temporary reprieves. Last week, the president again reset the rates on imports from Brazil, the European Union, Mexico, and other major trading partners but said they would not take effect until Aug. 1. The brief pause should extend the window importers have to bring in seasonal merchandise at the current baseline tariff of 10%. The Port of Los Angeles had the busiest June in its 117-year history after companies raced to secure holiday shipments, and July imports look strong so far, according to Gene Seroka, the port's executive director. 'In my view, we're seeing a peak season push right now to bring in goods ahead of potentially higher tariffs later this summer," Seroka said Monday. The pace of port activity so far this year reflects a 'tariff whipsaw effect' — imports slowing when tariffs kick in and rebounding when they're paused, he said. 'For us consumers, lower inventory levels, fewer selections and higher prices are likely as we head into the holidays.' Smith, who co-owns the two JaZams stores with his partner, Joanne Farrugia, said they started placing holiday orders two months earlier than usual for 'certain items that we felt were essential for us to have at particular pricing.' They doubled their warehouse space to store the stockpile. But some shoppers are trying to get ahead of higher prices just like businesses are, he said. He's noticed customers snapping up items that will likely be popular during the holidays, like Jellycat plush toys and large stuffed unicorns and dogs. Any sales are welcome, but Smith and Farrugia are wary of having to restock at a higher cost. 'We're just trying to be as friendly as we can to the consumer and still have a product portfolio or profile that is gonna meet the needs of all of our various customers, which is getting more and more challenging by the day,' Smith said. Balsam Brands' Harman said he's had to resign himself to not having as robust a selection of ornaments and frosted trees to sell as in years' past. Soon, it will be too late to import meaningful additions to his range of products. 'Our purpose as a company is to create joy together, and we're going to do our very best to do that this year," Harman said. 'We're just not going to have a bunch of the items that consumers want this year, and that's not a position we want to be in."


Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Daiso set to open new locations in 8 states
Dollar Tree rival Daiso is set to open new locations in eight states, including its first two Arkansas stores. The Japanese retailer is in the process of opening 15 locations, bringing this year's US store launch count to 44. The next grand opening will take place on July 19 in La Quinta, California. The other states debuting new stores over the next few months are Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Oregon, Texas and Utah. Daiso has been coming for its rivals like Dollar Tree since expanding to the US in 2005. It may have a way to go after Dollar Tree's acquisition of bankrupt 99 Cent Only stores helped it surpass 9,000 North American stores. Fellow competitor Five Below is also planning to open 150 US locations this year. Daiso has been successful with its overseas expansion since debuting its first store outside Japan in Taiwan in 2001. Today, over 1,000 Daiso locations are operating in 25 countries and regions outside of Japan. If all goes as plan for the chain, there could be 1,000 Daiso stores throughout the US by 2030. Most of the existing locations are in California, which is also the state with the highest number of new Daiso stores this year. Dollar Tree has over 800 locations in California, the most out of any US state. While many retailers have managed to survive inflation and fears of a looming recession, others have struggled. Daiso competitor Family Dollar has been in trouble for quite some time, even before its 2015 merger with Dollar Tree. After failing to make the merger work, Dollar Tree agreed to sell the chain for around $1 billion, which was finalized on July 7. The acquisition was finalized just a year after Family Dollar shuttered hundreds of stores. Outside of discount variety stores, pharmaceutical chains have also been in hot water financially. Rite Aid has shuttered hundreds of stores and sold off assets since filing for bankruptcy in May for the second time in two years. CVS is also planning to close up to 270 stores. With the additional impact of tariffs, the nation is bracing itself to lose 15,000 stores by the end of the year. has reached out to Daiso for comment about its new US stores.