PRESS DIGEST -Wall Street Journal - April 1

April 1 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories in the Wall Street Journal. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

- Oracle ORCL.N began to significantly reduce its workforce Tuesday, while it continues to build out costly data centers for artificial-intelligence development.

- AT&T T.N agreed to a deal worth up to $2 billion to improve the federal emergency cellular network it runs for the Commerce Department, promising system upgrades and lower rates in exchange for faster government approvals.

- Activist investor Irenic Capital Management has built a roughly 2.5% stake in Snapchat SNAP.N and is asking the company's leadership to make a series of changes to boost the company's valuation, including laying off employees and closing or spinning off its Specs business.

- Biogen BIIB.O agreed to acquire Apellis Pharmaceuticals APLS.O for approximately $5.6 billion, expanding its portfolio in immunology and rare-disease medicines.

- U.S. firm Virtus Minerals has acquired Congolese cobalt and copper producer Chemaf, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Economic Affairs Jacob Helberg said on Tuesday.

- Bernard Looney, former BP chief executive, is taking on the chief executive role at Prometheus Hyperscale, an AI data-center developer.