Business & Technology Developments

November 24, 2025 – From major policy shifts in Washington to milestone moments on Wall Street and surprising stories from the tech world, recent days have brought a flurry of notable developments. This week’s news underscores how innovations and decisions in tech and business are reshaping industries, education, and even everyday life. Here’s a comprehensive roundup of the latest in business and technology.

White House Moves to Restructure Education Department, Raising Concerns

In a controversial policy development, the White House has initiated a plan to dismantle or dramatically reorganize the U.S. Department of Education, distributing its functions across other federal agencies. This unprecedented move has sparked widespread concern among educators and state officials about potential disruptions to schools and students.

State education leaders from Washington, California, and Maryland have voiced alarm at the proposal. Washington state’s education chief warned that “the plan increases bureaucracy fivefold,” which would “undoubtedly [create] confusion and duplicity” for educators and families. His counterpart in California criticized the plan as “clearly less efficient” and cautioned that it “invites disruption.”

Education policy experts note that the U.S. Department of Education, established in 1979, oversees federal student loans, education funding, civil rights enforcement, and data collection. Critics argue that parceling out these functions could complicate how states access federal support and lead to delays and miscommunication. Proponents, however, claim that downsizing federal oversight could return more control to states.

Education leaders react: “The plan increases bureaucracy fivefold… undoubtedly creating confusion and duplicity,” warned Washington’s schools chief. Another state superintendent called it “clearly less efficient,” and a third cited “the challenges of coordinating efforts with multiple federal agencies.”

So far, no detailed timeline has been announced, and the overhaul may require congressional approval. Teachers’ unions and education advocacy groups are mobilizing against the proposal, arguing it could disrupt funding for essential school programs.

Eli Lilly Becomes First $1 Trillion Health-Care Company

In a historic business milestone, American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Co. (NYSE: LLY) has seen its market capitalization soar past $1 trillion, making it the world’s first dedicated health-care company to reach this valuation. The stock’s remarkable rise, covered by CNBC, underscores the booming potential of the biotech and pharmaceutical sector.

Investor confidence in Eli Lilly has surged, largely driven by the success of its new diabetes and weight-loss drug Mounjaro and a promising pipeline of innovative therapies. The global demand for effective weight-management drugs has sent biopharma stocks skyrocketing, lifting Lilly’s valuation into a club previously reserved for Big Tech giants like Apple and Microsoft.

Market analysts hail Lilly’s achievement as a validation of technology's growing importance in healthcare, particularly AI-powered drug discovery and large-scale genomic data analysis. The milestone reflects Wall Street’s optimism about the future of health technology and the burgeoning market for obesity drugs.

Tech Workplace Drama: Employee Quits Over NVIDIA GPU Prize

In an unusual story highlighting the intersection of workplace culture and tech perks, an employee reportedly quit his job after a dispute over a high-end NVIDIA graphics card. According to a Tom’s Hardware report, the staffer won an NVIDIA RTX 5060 GPU on an all-expenses-paid business trip. Upon returning, management asked him to hand over the prize, presumably considering it company property. Rather than relinquish the GPU, the employee chose to resign.

The RTX 5060 GPU is one of NVIDIA’s latest graphics cards, highly sought-after for gaming and professional applications. The story went viral, sparking debate about corporate policies on employee perks. One commenter joked, “I mean, I wouldn’t jeopardize my career even for a 5090, but he did,” referencing NVIDIA’s top-tier card to emphasize the situation's absurdity. The incident serves as a curious reminder of how valuable cutting-edge tech gadgets have become.

Cautionary Tale: EA App Bug Deletes a Whole Hard Drive

Video game giant Electronic Arts (EA) is facing a disastrous bug in its new PC game app. A user discovered that uninstalling an old game, MySims (2007), could inadvertently delete an entire hard drive’s contents.

In a widely shared warning on Reddit, a gamer detailed the harrowing experience. After attempting to uninstall the game from their secondary D: drive, they found their entire 1TB drive had been wiped clean.

tl;dr: “Absolutely do not under any circumstances uninstall MySims (2007) from EA's app directly or it'll nuke whatever drive you had it on.”

The glitch appears to stem from a flaw in the uninstallation script, possibly related to how the EA App handled the game’s folder name after a recent re-release. Until EA issues a fix, gamers are advised to avoid uninstalling the game via the app and to ensure they have regular data backups.

Tech Enthusiasts Embrace DIY Servers in “Self-Hosting” Trend

Highlighting the growing empowerment of individual users, a detailed blog post by developer Robin Ingelbrecht showcases how tech-savvy enthusiasts are building their own home servers to self-host applications and services. Ingelbrecht turned a $319 mini PC into a personal server running Ubuntu, hosting everything from a personal wiki for documentation to a custom dashboard for all his services.

His setup uses tools like Tailscale for secure VPN access, Cloudflare for DNS management, Traefik as a reverse proxy to handle web traffic, and Let’s Encrypt for free HTTPS certificates. For monitoring, he uses Uptime Kuma and the notification service ntfy.sh to get real-time alerts if any service goes down.

Recognizing the risk of data loss, he follows the “3–2–1 backup strategy,” using software to automate backups to three separate destinations: the local server, an external USB drive, and off-site cloud storage. This DIY trend reflects a desire for more control over personal data and services, blurring the lines between consumers and creators of technology.

IBM Shutters Brazil Research Lab, Dozens of Top Scientists Laid Off

In another significant development, IBM has decided to close its IBM Research lab in Brazil, resulting in layoffs affecting around 100 employees, including senior researchers and engineers. Founded in 2010, the lab was a key R&D center in Latin America, contributing to fields like AI and natural resources optimization.

The closure was met with shock and disappointment, with affected employees and the regional tech community lamenting the loss. “Regardless of opinions about IBM or corporate decisions, it’s sad to see one of the few advanced industrial research labs in Latin America disappear,” one researcher wrote in a LinkedIn post.

Industry analysts speculate the move is part of IBM’s ongoing restructuring to streamline operations and focus on core areas like cloud and AI. The closure is seen as a setback for local innovation and raises concerns about a potential brain drain from the region.

Graduate Job Market and the Future of “Boring” 9-to-5 Work

A lively online discussion is brewing over whether “boring” 9-to-5 office jobs still exist in today’s tech-driven economy. Many traditional entry-level white-collar roles have dwindled due to automation and other technological efficiencies. As one commenter noted, “It’s no secret technology cuts jobs.”

The anxiety is widespread among new graduates facing a hyper-competitive job market. While technology creates new jobs in fields like data science and AI, it is also automating many traditional roles. This shift demands greater adaptability and tech-savviness from the modern workforce, as the nature of work evolves toward remote, gig-based, and AI-augmented models.

Hasbro Under Fire for Dumping Toy Archives in Landfill

Toy giant Hasbro is facing a public relations mess after reports surfaced that its CEO ordered company archives to be dumped in a landfill during a headquarters relocation. According to a viral post on Reddit, truckloads of historical materials, including vintage Transformers and My Little Pony items, were discarded.

The decision has outraged collectors and fans, who fear that irreplaceable pieces of toy history have been lost forever. Many questioned why the archives weren't donated to museums. “Just another despicable stain on [the CEO’s] horrible tenure,” one fan wrote. The incident is a reminder to corporations of the value of their cultural heritage and the passionate response from consumers when that heritage is threatened.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1: Why is the White House trying to dismantle the Department of Education? A: The current administration has proposed a plan to significantly restructure or eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, aiming to streamline the federal government. The idea is to redistribute the Department’s responsibilities to other agencies (and possibly to state governments) in an effort to reduce federal oversight. This could be driven by political ideology favoring smaller federal government, or as a cost-cutting and efficiency measure. However, implementing such a change would likely require legislation and has met with significant opposition from educators and many lawmakers. State education leaders are concerned that dismantling the department could lead to “confusion and duplicity” by forcing schools to coordinate with multiple different federal agencies for funding, regulations, civil rights enforcement, and other concerns that the single department used to handle.

Q2: Has any other healthcare or pharmaceutical company ever reached a $1 trillion market valuation? A: No – Eli Lilly is the first pure-play health care or pharmaceutical company to achieve a $1 trillion market capitalization. In the past, the exclusive “trillion-dollar club” has been dominated by technology companies like Apple, Microsoft, Alphabet (Google’s parent), Amazon, and others, as well as one global oil company (Saudi Aramco). Some diversified conglomerates with healthcare divisions (like Johnson & Johnson) have high market values, but even they have not reached the $1T mark as of the time of Eli Lilly’s milestone. Lilly’s achievement, as reported by CNBC, underscores the growing financial might of the biotech/pharma sector, driven by breakthroughs in medical technology and drug development.

Q3: What drove Eli Lilly’s stock to $1 trillion in value? A: Eli Lilly’s stock surge has been propelled by the success of its new drugs and therapies, most notably its breakthrough treatment for diabetes and obesity, Mounjaro (tirzepatide), which has shown remarkable effectiveness for weight loss. The company also has a strong pipeline of potential new drugs, including promising treatments for conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. Better-than-expected earnings reports and bullish forecasts led investors to bid up the stock price. As a result, the company’s total market value (share price times number of shares) crossed the $1 trillion threshold. This growth reflects investor confidence that advances in biotechnology, AI-driven drug discovery, and a rising global demand for innovative health treatments will continue to fuel pharmaceutical revenue in the coming years.

Q4: Why would an employee quit their job over a graphics card? A: In the unusual case reported by Tom’s Hardware, an employee (or intern) won an NVIDIA RTX 5060 graphics card during a company-sponsored event. Some companies have policies regarding gifts or prizes won on work trips – they might consider expensive items won during business events as company property or require employees to report them. In this case, the company asked the individual to hand over the GPU, which likely led the employee to feel it was unfair since he won it as a personal prize. High-end graphics cards like NVIDIA’s RTX series are prized by tech enthusiasts for their performance (especially for gaming or AI tasks), and the RTX 5060, while not the very top of the line, is still a valuable piece of hardware. The employee decided he would rather resign than give up the GPU. While extreme, the story resonated online, prompting discussions about employer gift policies and the lengths to which people will go for coveted tech gadgets.

Q5: What should I do if I have MySims (2007) installed via the EA App? A: If you currently have the 2007 PC game MySims installed through EA’s new desktop app (which replaced Origin), do not use the app’s uninstall function to remove the game. According to user reports on Reddit, a bug in the uninstaller can cause it to delete the entire contents of whatever drive the game is installed on. This means if MySims (2007) is on, say, your D: drive, using the EA App to uninstall it might wipe everything on D:. Until Electronic Arts releases an official fix, the safest approach is to leave the game installed or manually delete the game files (after carefully backing up any important data on that drive). Always ensure you have current backups of your data. EA has been made aware of the issue by users, but as of now, there isn’t an official patch or acknowledgment from the company. If you’ve already experienced this problem, you should contact EA Support. This incident is a good reminder of why adhering to a 3-2-1 backup strategy is important for all users.

Q6: What is “self-hosting” and why are tech enthusiasts talking about it? A: “Self-hosting” means running your own web services or applications on equipment you control (like a home server or private server) rather than relying on third-party cloud providers. A recent blog post, “There’s no place like 127.0.0.1 – my complete setup”, details how to set up a home server using a small mini PC to host applications like file sharing, media streaming, and more. Enthusiasts are drawn to self-hosting for several reasons:

• Privacy and Data Control: You maintain direct control over your data.
• Cost Savings: A one-time hardware investment can be cheaper than recurring subscription fees.
• Customization: You can configure the server exactly to your needs.
• Learning and Fun: It's an educational hobby for learning about system administration, networking, and security. Self-hosting requires maintenance, security updates, and backups, but the growing interest reflects a broader DIY tech movement empowering users to leverage technology on their own terms.

Q7: Why did IBM decide to close its Research lab in Brazil? A: IBM has not provided a public, detailed explanation for shutting down IBM Research Brazil, but it appears to be part of a larger corporate restructuring and refocusing of research efforts. In recent years, IBM has been concentrating on strategic areas like cloud computing and artificial intelligence while scaling back other divisions. The closure may be motivated by cost-cutting measures or a decision to consolidate research in fewer locations. Unfortunately, this means that around 100 highly skilled employees in Brazil are losing their positions, raising concerns about the impact on innovation and potential brain drain in Latin America.

Q8: What’s the controversy with Hasbro’s toy archive being dumped? A: The controversy stems from reports that Hasbro’s CEO, Chris Cocks, allegedly ordered the disposal of a large portion of the company’s historical toy archive—including classic Transformers and My Little Pony items—during a headquarters move. Fans are upset because these items are considered cultural artifacts and represent decades of toy history. The idea that they would be thrown into a landfill has been met with shock and anger from the collector community. Many feel the items should have been preserved or donated to museums. Hasbro has not released a statement clarifying the situation, which has fueled fan outrage and created a public relations challenge for the company.

Q9: Are “tech cuts jobs” and “tech creates jobs” both true? A: Yes – technology has a complex, dual impact on employment. On one hand, automation and digitization have eliminated certain jobs (like bank tellers or clerical roles) by streamlining routine tasks. On the other hand, technology also creates new jobs and industries, leading to demand for roles like app developers, data scientists, and AI specialists. The net effect depends on how quickly workers can adapt and acquire new skills. For new graduates, competition can be fierce as traditional entry-level jobs disappear, but new opportunities emerge in tech-driven fields. The key challenge for society is ensuring the workforce is prepared for the jobs of the future while supporting those displaced by automation today.