THE NEWS WRAP: Microsoft rolls out pilot program to hire people with autism

Microsoft is rolling out a new program that will see the company hire people living with autism.

 

The initiative, which is in a pilot stage, will see people with autism hired full-time and based at Microsoft’s Redmond operations in Washington.

 

Microsoft’s corporate vice president of worldwide operations, Mary Ellen Smith, said in a statement the program was part of the company’s broader push to build a more diverse workplace.

 

“People with autism bring strengths that we need at Microsoft, each individual is different, some have amazing ability to retain information, think at a level of detail and depth or excel in math or code,” she said.

 

“This represents only one of the ways we are evolving our approach to increase the diversity of Microsoft’s workforce.”

 

Publishing platform RebelMouse snaps up $US6 million

 

Publishing startup RebelMouse has raised $US6 million in funding in order to improve its product and boost its sales staff.

 

The round was led by previous investors Softbank Capital and Oak Investment Partners, with participation from Buddy Media.

 

Founder and chief executive of RebelMouse, Paul Berry, told TechCrunch the funding will be used to boost sales in order to compete with online publishing platforms that are household names.

 

“Hiring on the sales team and going for more media and brands is our most important focus right now,” he said.

 

The latest capital injection brings the company’s total funding to date to $US18.8 million.

 

US startup rolls out Twitter search engine

 

Digital indexing startup Kifi has released a new tool for Twitter that allows users to easily search for previous tweets.

 

Mark Yoshitake, vice president of product at Kifi, told TechCrunch the new tool will allow people to more easily retrieve information they post to Twitter.

 

“One of the huge problems that we’ve found is that people have a hard time recalling the wealth of information they’ve found and shared on social networks,” he said.

 

To date the startup has raised $US11 million.

 

Overnight

 

The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 117.61 points, rising 0.66% to 17,880.85. The Aussie dollar is currently trading at around 76 US cents.

 

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