Daily Digest: 1,000 S.F. City Hall layoffs reported, Nvidia is market cap king again

Business Journals

29-05-2025

Happy Thursday, Bay Area. In national news, a federal court in New York on Wednesday ruled to block President Trump from imposing widespread tariffs on imports under an emergency-powers law. However, Trump might still be able to temporarily launch import taxes of 15% for 150 days on nations with which the U.S. runs a large trade deficit, Bloomberg reports, as the ruling stipulates that a president has such authority. In aviation, United Airlines Holdings Inc. and JetBlue Airways Corp. agreed to a new partnership this week that will allow travelers to use loyalty points and book flights across the two carriers. Through the partnership, United will also be gaining access to New York's JFK airport, Boston and the Caribbean. In retail news, the Bay Area-born chain Mountain Mike's Pizza is entering the Washington, D.C., market amid a franchise-driven expansion, having struck a three-unit deal. Friends and co-owners Chris Britt and Ed St. Geme, who did their undergrad work at Stanford University in Palo Alto, opened the original parlor next to the campus in 1978. Also in food chains, Morgan Hill gets its first Chick-fil-A location on Thursday as the Atlanta-based chain is set to open its doors at 18599 Sutter Blvd., the 29th location in the Bay Area. And finally on Wall Street, Nvidia Corp. shares (Nasdaq: NVDA) jumped about 4% after the company posted positive earnings. The Santa Clara designer and manufacturer of graphics processing units, or GPUs, has seen its stock rise about 30% over the past month, helping it take back the crown of as the world's most valuable company by overtaking Microsoft Corp. Apple Inc. is third followed by Amazon.com Inc. and Google parent company Alphabet Inc.
Here's the rest of the day's money matters in both government and the private sector.
GET TO KNOW YOUR CITY
Find Local Events Near You
Connect with a community of local professionals.
Explore All Events
New Oakland financial forecast highlights expected two-year shortfall
A newly released Oakland budget report — a five-year financial forecast typically put out ahead of the city's biannual budget cycle — now predicts the city's annual deficits through 2030 will range from $115 million to $126 million in the general purpose fund, the East Bay Times reports. 'Regardless of this forecast or what actually happens in the economy, the city remains underfunded with regard to meeting (pension) obligations for current and past city employees to the tune of more than $1.2 billion,' according to the city report, which was prepared by Oakland's budget officials. In positive news, though, the new forecast places the expected two-year shortfall at $245 million as opposed to the previous estimate of $265 million.
expand
Barbara Lee was recently sworn in as Oakland's new mayor.
Christie Hemm Klok/
San Francisco's budget deficit comes with layoffs
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie intends to eliminate roughly 1,000 jobs to close the city's $782 million gap, the SF Standard reports, noting that most of those positions are currently vacant or occupied by employees slated for retirement. But the cuts could also include eliminating positions in up to 17 departments. The details of the mayor's budget were shared in a Wednesday meeting between the mayor's staff and communications directors for city departments, according to the report.
expand
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie
Adam Pardee
S.F. hotel room rates expected to increase in 2025
In hotel news, a new CBRE report anticipates that San Francisco's hotel room rates are expected to hit 8.4% this year, outpacing the expected national average of 1.3%. Sacramento's predicted growth rate came in second among Northern California markets at 4.5%, followed by San Jose at 4.4%, Oakland at 2.9% and Napa wine country at 2.2%.
S.F. telehealth company revises IPO terms
San Francisco virtual health care provider Omada Health on Thursday set IPO terms to 7.9 million shares at $18-$20. It would have a $1.2 billion fully diluted market value, were it to price in the middle, and plans to list on the Nasdaq under the symbol "OMDA." Omada raised around $450 million in VC funding from Revelation Partners, USVP, a16z, Cigna Ventures, aMoon and NVP. It is expected to begin trading the week of June 9.
Sign up for the Business Times' free morning and afternoon daily newsletters to receive the latest business news driving change in San Francisco. Download the free San Francisco Business Times app for breaking news alerts on your phone.
Funding Watch
Chalk, a San Francisco data platform for AI, raised $50 million in Series A funding. Felicis led, joined by Triatomic Capital and insiders General Catalyst, Unusual Ventures and Xfund.
M&A Watch
Santa Clara's AMD (Nasdaq: AMD) acquired Enosemi, a Sacramento-based maker of photonics subsystems whose backers included Convergent Ventures and Pack Ventures.
People on the Move
Billionaire Elon Musk's more than 114-day long tenure as a DOGE special government employee officially ended on Wednesday. The Tesla CEO departed a day after he called a Republican bill to fund Trump's agenda "disappointing."
Roblox Corp. has hired Sebastian Barrios to lead its engineering for user, discovery, ads and brands and economy. He previously served as CTO at Cabify, Spain's first unicorn, and as SVP of Technology at Mercado Libre, Latin America's most valuable public company.
San Jose-based PayPal Ventures named Ian Cox Moya as managing partner, succeeding James Loftus, who joined Velocity Global as CFO, Axios reports.
Layoff Watch
The Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., or HPE, earlier this month laid off 61 employees at 6280 America Center Dr. in San Jose.
Advanced Pressure Technology is laying off 89 employees at 687 Technology Way in Napa, effective July 26.
Real Estate Watch
Known as the Williams-Sonoma House, the longtime home of the late W. Howard Lester, former president and CEO of Williams-Sonoma, is now on the market for $9.25 million. The three-bedroom home sits on nearly nine acres adjacent to Jack London State Park in the Sonoma County town of Glen Ellen. It's listed by Daniel Casabonne and Gina Clyde with Sotheby's International Realty – Wine Country - Sonoma Brokerage.
expand
A peek inside 1500 Morningside Mtn. Rd. in Glen Ellen.
Zillow Media Experts for Sotheby's International Realty
Final thought …
Thinking about selling your old Bay Area home? It could cost you. A lot, actually. As the spring home selling season moves into its final stretch of 2025, a perfect storm of new regulations and norms have made it more expensive than ever to get that home ready for market. Here are five reasons why.
DOWNLOAD the free SFBT app for breaking news alerts on your phone.