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In a repeat of the short program standings from the 2026 Olympics, Germany’s Minerva Hase and Nikita Volodin won the Pairs short program competition at the 2026 World Championships over Georgian and Canadian pairs.

The “video game winter” might be thawing, but survival of the fittest has never been more brutal in the gaming industry.Epic Games, the developer of the renowned game Fortniteand the architect of the industry-standard Unreal Engine, confirmed a massive workforce reduction on March 24, affecting over 1,000 employees. In a candid memo to its employees, CEO Tim Sweeney laid bare Fortnite’s declining prominence since 2025 and the financial pressures facing the company. Sweeney noted that the company has been struggling to consistently deliver “Fortnite magic.”The Fortnite Paradox: High revenue, shrinking marginsWhile Fortnite remains a cultural behemoth, the latest data from Business of Apps illustrates the volatility the game, and consequently its maker Epic Games, is navigating. After a 2018 peak of $5.4 billion in annual revenue, Fortnite saw several fluctuations, dipping to $3.5 billion in 2023 before attempting a recovery through adjustments and expansions, including mobile.Fortnite is a major revenue generator for the company, and with a “downturn in Fortnite engagement”, visibly a huge plunge, CEO Sweeney posted that the layoff of 1000 employees, together with “$500 million of identified cost savings” in contracting and marketing, has helped put the company in a more stable position.ore Layoffs:Major grocery store supplier delivers harsh message to workers4 signs your company is quietly planning layoffsLuxury retail giant cuts more than 1,200 jobs after bankruptcy filingDespite the game’s massive footprint, Sweeney noted that the company had been spending significantly more than it was making, necessitating the cuts to keep its head above water.This is not the first time for Epic Games. Back in 2023, after a successful pandemic jump, the company laid off 830 employees, 16% of its workforce, in a similarly labelled move to become financially stable.And once again, as the company is grappling through the “winter” of the gaming community, Sweeney said that some challenges are unique to Epic.

Epic Games layoffs 1,000 employeesShutterstock

The return to mobile here refers to Epic’s earlier beef with the iOS App Store and Google Play Store, during which the company claimed that Apple and Google took 30% cut of in-app sales, which was unfair. As a result, Epic Games lured customers away from the app with purchase discounts. It resulted in being pulled from these app stores.And only recently, on March 19, Fortnite returned to the Google Play Store.A strategic pivot from developer to platformAt the core of Epic’s financial strain is the evolving nature of its player base.According to a report from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), the past three years have been “winter” for the gaming community. But a transition is underway, and BCG projects the total market to reach $353 billion by 2030, a 6% increase from the 2026 estimate of $281 billion.But the path implies a platform shift, and BCG expects growth to come from these places:Cloud gaming revenue.User Generated Content (UGC): BCG notes that UGC payouts from platforms like Roblox and Fortnite will exceed $1.5 billion this year.The AI (dis)connect: While many layoffs in 2026 have been linked to AI, Sweeney has been quick to state that was not the case at Epic Games.To better understand this, in the gaming industry, UGC refers to content created by users, such as playable maps and virtual worlds, rather than the social media content we often consume as gaming advertisements.So when games like Fortnite rely on UGC, they are investing in wider audiences and increased player engagement while cutting down on money spent on in-house developers. Effective December 2025, Fortnite has changed some of its earlier guidelines, increasing its bet on UGC. According to it, creators can:Sell durable and consumable goods from Fortnite islandsIncentives for players when they bring new or previously inactive playersCreators get an ad-revenue share of 100% for creations for a yearThe Unreal Engine and the Disney factorDespite the layoffs, Epic remains a strategic player in the tech sector due to its Unreal Engine. BCG predicts that cloud gaming revenues will grow from $1.4 billion in 2025 to around $18.3 billion in 2030. And with Epic’s transition from Unreal Engine 5 to Unreal Engine 6, Epic stands to benefit from its proprietary 3D engine, which is a gold standard for developers, Hollywood studios, and industrial designers alike.While the platform is free to use and open source, Epic does take a 5% royalty on all lifetime gross revenue above $1 million. Thus, it stands to benefit more based on BCG’s projection of rising cloud gaming revenue, as developers continue to make gaming more phone-centric and accessible.Furthermore, Epic’s $1.5 billion partnership with The Walt Disney Company, which effectively gives it 9% stake in the game developer, is integral to its next era of growth. This partnership opens up avenues for a Disney universe in Unreal Engine, unlocking intellectual property ecosystems, and has helped affirm Epic’s reputation.What happens to the employees?CEO Sweeney has been upfront in clarifying that the layoffs are not related to AI and that the company takes pride in hiring the best developers in the world.The company is ensuring that its employees leave happy despite the setback with these terms for the severance package:Four months of base payMore salary based on the tenure of service. Extended Epic-paid health coverage, 6 months in the US.Accelerated stock options vesting through Jan 2027 and extend equity exercise options for up to two years.

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For many years, Amazon had a massive infrastructure lead over Walmart. The online company often plunged its profits back into building its shipping and warehousing network — at first to deliver two-day shipping and later to offer, in many cases, one-day delivery.That’s something Walmart clearly opted to fix back in 2016, when it decided to spend $3.3 billion to acquire Marc Lore’s Jet.com. As part of the move, Lore, a digital pioneer who also sold Diapers.com to Amazon, took over the chain’s digital and infrastructure operations.”The acquisition will build on and complement the significant foundation already in place to serve customers across the Walmart app, site, and stores and position the company for even faster e-commerce growth in the future by expanding customer reach and adding new capabilities,” the company shared in a press release.Those efforts worked, and you can now argue that Walmart’s delivery ability now rivals Amazon’s.Walmart leaned on its storesLore helped shift the mindset at Walmart from being a brick-and-mortar store to being an omnichannel retailer. He talked about those changes during a 2019 Walmart shareholders’ meeting.”Today, they [customers] have so many options to save money AND time. They can shop in our stores, order online and pick it up…OR they can get free 2-day delivery to their door,” he said.Lore also laid out future plans for the chain.”But, we’re not stopping there. A few weeks ago we announced NextDay delivery. It allows customers to quickly receive up to two hundred thousand of our top items. The incredible thing is, it costs us less to deliver orders the next day, because items come from a single fulfillment center located near the customer, and orders arrive in one box,” he added.Now, seven years later, Walmart’s current executives shared just how far the chain has come during its fourth-quarter earnings call.Walmart has become a digital playerWalmart leveraged its existing store and warehouse assets to grow its digital business.The chain’s CFO John David Rainey shared how much digital sales have grown globally during the quarter. “E-commerce sales were strong across markets, with growth up 24%. We’re using our unique assets, stores and clubs, distribution centers and fulfillment centers, and last-mile delivery networks to get orders to customers faster and more efficiently,” he said.More WalmartWalmart’s new partner brings iconic brand to the retail giantWalmart shares disturbing news about its customersWalmart fires OpenAI in playbook-changing moveRainey explained how the company achieved that growth.”Remove friction from the experience, and accelerate our sales momentum,” he added.The proof of that success is in the numbers. “In Walmart U.S., e-commerce sales grew 27%, with 35% of store fulfilled orders delivered in under three hours. In China, e commerce grew 28% and represented more than 50% of the sales mix in that market. Flipkart is delivering orders in less than fifteen minutes across more than 30 cities in India. And Sam’s Club US doubled their growth in club fulfilled delivery sales,” he said.

Walmart can ship from its stores.Icatnews/Shutterstock.com

Walmart has built on its strengthsWalmart has had this capacity for years, but has struggled to communicate the depth and breadth of its offering.“If I could change anything about how we’re perceived today, it’d be that more people know about our breadth of assortment online and our increasing delivery speed,” former CEO Doug McMillon said on its fourth quarter 2025 earnings call regarding the company’s delivery fulfillment program.The chain uses all of its assets to support digital sales. “Walmart uses stores, and store delivery is practically all of their same-day deliveries; Amazon doesn’t have stores, so it is optimizing its fulfillment network,” said Juozas Kaziukėnas, founder and CEO of business intelligence firm Marketplace Pulse, SupplyChainDive reported.The retail chain’s growth has been strong and steady.”Walmart delivered five billion items on the same day they were ordered last year, double the number delivered in 2023. It can now deliver most of the 120,000 products in its sprawling supercenters, including meat, eggs and milk, to 93% of U.S. households the same day, sometimes in hours,” The Wall Street Journal reported.Amazon still controls 41% of all U.S. e-commerce, while Walmart has 9%, according to The Journal.Walmart may never catch up to Amazon, but it can be competitive.”I don’t think that Walmart will ever really get to the sheer size Amazon has online,” Blake Droesch, retail analyst for Emarketer, which tracks e-commerce told The Journal. “But Walmart is one of the only retailers that’s had the capital and strategy to marshal a true defense.”Related: Walmart sees troubling shift in consumer behavior

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TheStreet aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.Why we love this dealCitizen is a watch brand that’s steeped in history and revered worldwide. The Japanese watchmaker has been wowing collectors for over a century, and it’s made the world of luxury watches more exciting and more approachable. The brand has ushered in some of the biggest technological innovations in timekeeping history and its watches capture the imagination of anyone lucky enough to own them. At the moment, you could be one of the lucky few who knows what it feels like to have a Citizen watch on your wrist. Thanks to the Amazon Big Spring Sale, the Citizen Armor Titanium Watch is on sale for only $450, which is 38% off the regular price of $725. If you’ve been dreaming of the day when you can wear a luxury watch to work, to a formal event, or just on your day off, you can finally make it happen with this deal.Citizen Armor Titanium Watch, $450 (was $725) at Amazon

Courtesy of Amazon

Shop at AmazonWhy do shoppers love it?As an avid watch geek, there aren’t a lot of timepieces that I would categorize as truly unique. This is one of those special instances. For starters, the material used in the case and bracelet are Citizen’s proprietary Super Titanium. It’s hardened using the company’s Duratect surface-hardening process, which makes it far more scratch-resistant than regular titanium and five times harder than standard stainless steel. It also has a modern, almost industrial look to it, giving the watch a one-of-a-kind aesthetic.Adding to the beauty of the piece, the dial has an attractive dark gray matte finish. In the center there is a wide cross-pattern that breaks up the dial nicely and accentuates its symmetry. There are two subregisters in the center of the dial that measure .2-second increments and minutes for the chronograph function. Each subdial hand as well as the large running seconds hand have a beautiful gold-tone coating, as do the three o’clock date window frame and the Citizen logo at the nine o’clock position. Overall, this is one of the most attractive and sophisticated-looking dials you’ll find in this, or any price range.  On the inside, the watch is powered by a Japanese Citizen Eco-Drive movement. It’s a solar-powered quartz-regulated movement. That means that it’s far more accurate than most mechanical Swiss luxury watches, and it’s constantly recharging whenever it’s exposed to light. According to Citizen, you should never need to purchase a new battery for the entire life of the watch. The Eco-Drive movement is that effective and efficient. Furthermore, you’ll know it’s safe and sound even when you take it for a swim in the ocean. That’s because it has 100 meters of water resistance. Related: Amazon is selling an Android 16 tablet for $90 that ‘holds a charge forever’Details to knowCase diameter: 44 millimeters.Material: Citizen’s proprietary Super Titanium.Water resistance: 100 meters.Movement: Citizen quartz-regulated Eco-Drive movement.Amazon shoppers were very pleased with this timepiece. One called it a “tough, elegant watch,” before adding that it’s “beautiful” and “met all expectations.” Watch collectors are a notoriously fickle bunch, so that’s definitely high praise. Shop more deals Citizen Promaster Sea Eco-Drive Dive Watch, $290 (was $475) at AmazonCitizen Eco-Drive Weekender Brycen Watch, $208 (was $425) at AmazonBulova Marine Star Series B Watch, $290 (was $525) at AmazonIf you’re ready to strap your first luxury watch on the wrist, then there’s no better brand to do it with than Citizen. For just $450 The Citizen Armor Titanium Watch could be yours. That’s not an everyday deal, so grab yours while you still can. 

In business since 1911, International Business Machines (IBM) became one of the world’s leading technology companies through generations of visionary scientists and engineers. These highly skilled workers shaped the company from a data-processing business into a mainframe computing giant and, more recently, a dominant force in hybrid cloud and artificial intelligence (AI).Under the leadership of current CEO Arvind Krishna, a quantum computing expert with a PhD in electrical engineering, IBM acquired Red Hat, an open-source software giant, in 2019. Doing so transformed the aging powerhouse into a major player in the hybrid cloud infrastructure sphere and enabled it to compete with OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google.Shares climbed 40% in 2025 alone.But this strategic shift came at a price: reshaping its present-day workforce. The tech giant has cut thousands of jobs over the past few years as it has pivoted towards higher-growth areas, such as cloud and AI.In many ways, this embodies economist Joseph Schumpeter’s concept of “creative destruction,” when old ways of working are dismantled to create new, more efficient ones.So, how big is IBM’s workforce now?How many employees does IBM have in 2026?According to IBM’s most recent annual report, the company’s workforce totaled 286,800 employees as of December 31, 2025. This number includes workers at IBM (264,300), its less-than-wholly-owned subsidiaries (8,700), and temporary and part-time workers (13,800).In 2024, IBM reported a total count of 293,400 workers, which included employees at IBM (270,300), its less-than-wholly-owned subsidiaries (8,900), and temporary and part-time workers (14,200).This suggests the company reduced its workforce by around 2%, making cuts across its wholly owned and less-than-wholly owned subsidiaries, while at the same time increasing its temporary and part-time headcount.Related: Is Chevron a good long-term investment? Its buy-and-hold prospects explainedWhere are IBM’s employees located?IBM, also known as Big Blue because of its massive size and the color of its logo, has its corporate headquarters in Armonk, New York, about 35 miles from Manhattan.The company also has offices and research labs on campuses in more than 170 countries across Europe, Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Australia.Its United States office locations include New York City, Austin, Research Triangle Park (North Carolina), Silicon Valley, and Rochester (Minnesota).IBM’s global hubs are located in Tokyo, Montreal, and Munich.Related: How many employees does Apple have? A deeper look at the tech giant’s workforceInside IBM’s recent layoffsOn November 4, 2025, IBM announced it would be cutting thousands of workers by the end of the year.“We routinely review our workforce through this lens and at times rebalance accordingly,” a company spokesperson told Bloomberg. “In the fourth quarter, we are executing an action that will impact a low single-digit percentage of our global workforce.”Dow company histories:History of Microsoft: Company timeline & factsHistory of Coca-Cola: Timeline, facts & milestonesHistory of Nike: Company timeline and factsBut Fortune noted that not one week prior, Krishna had gone on CNN emphasizing he would be increasing hiring among college graduates, who have faced particularly strong headwinds recently in launching their careers, stating, “People are talking about either layoffs or freezing hiring, but I actually want to say that we are the opposite. I expect we are probably going to hire more people out of college over the next 12 months than we have in the past few years, so you’re going to see that.”“On the net mix, it’s a plus for us,” he added, meaning that the company foresaw creating more roles than it would be reducing.In 2023, IBM laid off approximately 1,900 workers, according to Reuters, as part of the spinoff of its Kyndryl business.However, on February 13, 2026, Bloomberg reported that IBM plans to “triple entry-level hiring in the US in 2026.” IBM did not disclose specifics, but the roles are expected to be in customer engagement and AI management.Related: Who owns Salesforce in 2026? A look at its largest shareholders & leadership stake