The Wall Street Journal reporter who exposed a start-up bio-tech firm for misleading its customers has found himself the target of a ‘Space Invaders’ style video game where employees take turns shooting at him.
Business Insider recently published a video of employees playing the homemade game on a large screen in the company’s manufacturing facility. In the footage, several small images of John Carreyrou’s head moves across the screen as a player tries to shoot him.
The person who sent Business Insider the video said it was filmed a while ago.
Carreyrou was already aware of the game tweeting a screenshot of it last week and revealing the official title is ‘Haters Gonna Hate v1.5’.
Employees at the scandal-hit company Theranos were caught on video playing a game where they shot at Wall Street Journal reporter John Carreyrou
Carreyrou said in a tweet that the game was called ‘Haters Gonna Hate v1.5’
‘Just learned of a priceless anecdote (so too late to include it in the book): At a company party, Theranos employees played a video game modeled after Atari’s Space Invaders: The gun was the minilab, the bullets the nanotainers and the invader being shot at: Yours Truly!’ he tweeted.
In a separate tweet, Carreyrou said that he also received a copy of the game, created by a former Theranos employee. The unnamed worker said the game was not a company sanctioned game.
‘Nor was it an official project with a bunch of engineers working on it. It was just a way for me to learn Python, and try to cheer up my former co-workers.’ the former employee told Carreyrou.
In an emailed statement to Business Insider about the game, Carreyrou said he was happy he got ‘big screen treatment’.
‘There are many more eye-opening anecdotes and revelations in my book, ‘Bad Blood,’ he continued.
Theranos, a consumer healthcare technology company that claimed it had changed the industry by creating revolutionary blood tests that used very small amounts of blood, was once worth $9billion.
That was before Carreyrou wrote a series of stories in 2015 claiming that the company’s technology was faulty and it administered almost all of its blood tests using equipment from its competitors.
Carreyrou exposed the company in 2015 writing a series of reports for the Wall Street Journal saying that Theranos’ technology was faulty after the company claimed it had revolutionized blood tests by creating tests that used very small amounts of blood
The company, started by CEO Elizabeth Holmes (pictured), was once worth $9billion but is now facing major financial issues
According to Business Insider, the company is now struggling financially and will close its doors for good this summer unless it can raise more money.
Employees at the company are pointing their finger at Carreyrou for Theranos’ current troubles.
During an employee meeting, the outlet reports, workers chanted ‘F*** you, Carreyrou!’ The bio-tech company also enlisted a lawyer to threaten the Wall Street Journal with legal action.
Carreyrou has written about the scandal in his book ‘Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup’, expected to hit shelves May 21.