At a flashy tech conference for a San Francisco security software company this week, a familiar — and probably very pricey — face will make an appearance: former President Barack Obama. After yoga and a networking breakfast Wednesday, attendees will watch Obama spend an hour onstage in Las Vegas with Okta CEO Todd McKinnon at the company’s sixth annual user conference, Oktane. The ex-president is expected to answer questions about leadership, innovation and his time in office.

In the spotlight: Klout is out, Google is cloudy, and Xapo’s wallet expands It’s hard to remember, but there was a time when Klout was a thing. A decade ago, the San Francisco startup promised to measure your online popularity by tracking interactions on every social network imaginable — and before Facebook took over everything, there were a lot of them to measure. (Last.

Cupertino is exploring a tax on Apple and other companies based on the size of their workforce. The tax would probably be structured similar to a proposal in Mountain View, said David Brandt, Cupertino’s city manager. Cupertino has paid a firm to begin polling residents about the tax and how any revenue from it should be spent, Brandt said. Apple did not immediately return a request for comment. The company has more than 25,000 employees in the Bay Area.

New York, New Jersey and Connecticut have already passed bills intending to circumvent the new $10,000 limit on the federal tax deduction for state and local taxes. California, which has the highest state income tax rate in the nation, hasn’t passed any workaround bills, although two are making their way through the Legislature. It’s unclear why California isn’t moving as quickly as other high-tax states on this hot-button issue.

The Westfield San Francisco Centre could be getting more office space as part of a $75 million renovation project. The plans include 49,999 square feet of office space on the mall’s seventh and eighth floors, replacing retail, storage and meeting space in the wing at 5th and Market Streets, according to Westfield.

Kink.com has seen plenty of belt-tightening over the years, with people tied to objects like chairs in the name of bondage. But in recent years, the straps have become snugger financially, too, as free pornography dug into its business. Now, the bondage video company — part of San Francisco’s tech and sex scene — is undergoing a transformation, with a new CEO, a different headquarters and a shift from porn video production to content distribution and e-commerce.

Cathay House, hailed by The Chronicle when it opened in 1939 as the “fanciest” restaurant in Chinatown, quietly closed this spring. Now the Yeo family, which owns Straits Restaurant and Sino in San Jose, is taking over three of the building’s four floors and reopening as two separate restaurants, Cathay House and 601 Dupont. Within a month of the original Cathay House’s opening, Dr.

Huge tech companies have long carved out their turf in Silicon Valley. Apple has Cupertino. Google has Mountain View. Facebook has Menlo Park. But as those behemoths keep expanding, their offices are spilling into other parts of the region. One of the most desirable new spots is Sunnyvale, a once-sleepy orchard turned suburban city that abuts Mountain View and Cupertino.

Facebook is expected to sign a lease at the 43-story Park Tower at 250 Howard St., greatly expanding its San Francisco real estate, according to a person familiar with the deal. The company will take up 750,000 square feet — the tower’s entire office space, according to the person, who was not authorized to speak about the deal publicly.

A relatively unknown visa program often used as a path to an H-1B visa — one which may see changes under the Trump administration — experienced a surge in usage between 2004 and 2016, a new report found. The Optional Practical Training program grants foreign students a period of time to work in the U.S. after they graduate. Nearly 1.5 million foreign graduates of U.S.