Meta Platforms Inc., the parent company of Facebook, has entered into a series of commercial AI agreements with prominent news publishers, including USA Today, People Inc., CNN, Fox News, The Daily Caller, Washington Examiner, and Le Monde, the company announced Friday. The partnerships will allow Meta to provide “real-time” news and updates through its AI Read More…
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) has agreed to sell its iconic studio and streaming assets to Netflix (NFLX) for $72 billion, a blockbuster deal that will reshape Hollywood and create a vertically integrated media powerhouse. The deal ends a weeks-long bidding war with Paramount Skydance and Comcast, coming amid sweeping changes in the media industry as Read More…
Google on Friday withdrew its European Union antitrust complaint targeting Microsoft’s cloud computing practices, just a week after EU regulators opened an investigation into whether Microsoft should face scrutiny under rules designed to curb market dominance in the sector. The EU’s move, announced last week, signaled growing concern about Microsoft’s influence in cloud services, including Read More…
Warburg Pincus has reached an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Raptor Technologies from private equity firm Thoma Bravo, in a transaction valuing the school safety software provider at roughly $1.8 billion, according to people familiar with the negotiations. Sources said the deal could be announced imminently. They requested anonymity because the details are Read More…
The blockbuster WarnerMedia-Discovery deal is especially good news for HBO Max, billionaire media mogul John Malone told CNBC’s David Faber. In an interview that aired Monday, Malone said his previous reservations about HBO Max’s ability to be a dominant player in the crowded digital-streaming landscape will be addressed once the AT&T-owned service is under the same roof as Discovery. READ FULL Read More…
French fashion tycoon Bernard Arnault is the world’s richest person this Monday morning, with an estimated net worth of $186.3 billion—putting him $300 million above Jeff Bezos, who is worth $186 billion, and Elon Musk, worth $147.3 billion. Arnault’s fortune has jumped from $76 billion in March 2020 to $186.3 on Monday, a massive rise of over $110 billion Read More…
Amazon is reportedly in discussions with MGM about purchasing the movie studio. According to Variety, the deal could be worth a reported $7 to $10 billion. The Information reported that MGM’s extensive library includes James Bond movies, the “Rocky” franchise, “The Terminator,” “The Handmaid’s Tale,” and “Survivor.” READ FULL STORY
Three years ago, AT&T Inc. executives were in a federal courthouse fighting the Justice Department to defend their takeover of Time Warner Inc., a more than $80 billion foray into the entertainment business. AT&T won the court battle, but lost in the marketplace. Now, at the behest of Chief Executive John Stankey, the telecom giant Read More…
Coca-Cola is saying goodbye to its energy line just over a year after it launched. Coca-Cola Energy will be discontinued in North America due to petering sales, CNN reported. “An important component to this strategy is the consistent and constant evaluation of what’s performing and what’s not,” the company said in a statement to the outlet. Read More…
Warren Buffett is seeing inflation among Berkshire Hathaway’s collection of businesses as the economic recovery from the Covid pandemic kicks into high gear. “We are seeing very substantial inflation,” the Berkshire chairman and CEO said at the conglomerate’s annual shareholder meeting Saturday. “It’s very interesting. We are raising prices. People are raising prices to us and it’s being accepted.” Read More…
Chicken-lovers are going to have to wing it through the Great Poultry Crisis of 2021. America’s biggest fast-food companies reported earnings this week, and executives from KFC to Wingstop stressed a dire situation — there’s simply not enough chicken to go around. A meat-processing slowdown caused by pandemic safety measures along with a surge in Read More…
Verizon Media Group, the media division within Verizon, has 3 million people that pay for subscriptions across its portfolio of Yahoo-related products, like Yahoo Fantasy, Yahoo Finance and others, executives tell Axios. Why it matters: Moving forward, the goal will be to rebrand most of its media franchises as Yahoo products, and to focus on selling Read More…
LAS VEGAS—Inside a strip mall here, blackjack students practiced flipping cards onto tables empty of gamblers. Nearby, a few people leaned over a craps table, the thrill of the game replaced by quiet study as the dice rolled. At CEG Dealer School, an academy for would-be casino dealers, the pipeline of workers aiming to join Read More…
Boeing CEO David Calhoun declined a salary and performance bonus for most of last year but still received stock benefits that pushed the estimated value of his compensation to more than $21 million, according to a regulatory filing Friday. The aerospace giant struggled last year with the continuing fallout from two deadly crashes involving its Read More…
Hertz‘s unsecured creditors are proposing a restructuring of the car-rental firm that clashes with the company’s plan to exit from bankruptcy via a sale to two investment funds, Bloomberg reported Thursday. As part of the planned shakeup, the lenders want to convert their holdings in the bankrupt firm into shares of the reorganized company which could be taken Read More…
LAS VEGAS, March 3, 2021 /PRNewswire/ — Las Vegas Sands Corp. (NYSE: LVS) today announced that it has entered into definitive agreements to sell its Las Vegas real property and operations, including The Venetian Resort Las Vegas and the Sands Expo and Convention Center (collectively, “The Venetian”) for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $6.25 billion. Under the terms of the agreement, Read More…
Moet Hennessy is acquiring a 50% stake in rapper and entrepreneur Jay-Z’s Champagne brand in an effort to up its cool factor and expand distribution. Terms of the deal, which was announced Monday, weren’t released. Armand deBrignac, known familiarly as Ace of Spades because of its distinctive label, is produced in France’s Champagne region by a Read More…
Making money in your sleep sounds too good to be true, given many of us find it hard enough to earn a living while we’re awake. But many influencers are jumping on a new trend that’s rising in popularity: the “sleep stream.” Among the best-known sleep streamers is one who goes by the name Asian Read More…
Bitcoin’s price broke above $50,000 for the first time in history Tuesday, continuing its blistering rally as major companies appear to be warming to cryptocurrencies. The world’s largest digital currency by market value rose more than 3% to an all-time high of $50,487 at about 7:30 a.m. ET, according to data from Coin Metrics. It later Read More…
Thomas Donohue, the president and CEO of the Chamber of Commerce, will reportedly be leaving his role. The chamber is expected to name Suzanne Clark as his successor, according to Axios, which cited people familiar with the matter. Donohue, a longtime confidant of Republican presidents who has been at the Chamber of Commerce since 1976, faced criticism Read More…
Tesla announced Monday it has bought $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin. In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it bought the bitcoin for “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash.” Tesla also said it will start accepting payments in bitcoin in exchange for its products “subject to applicable Read More…
Uber on Tuesday announced an agreement to buy Drizly, a Boston-based alcohol delivery startup, for $1.1 billion in cash and stock. Why it matters: This could represent a strategic departure for Uber, in that Drizly doesn’t hire delivery drivers itself. Instead, it provides the backend infrastructure for local liquor stores to provide their own delivery services. Read More…
Facebook is readying an antitrust lawsuit against Apple, according to a report from The Information. Facebook has been preparing the case for months alongside external legal experts, sources told the outlet. The lawsuit specifically alleges that Apple abused its market power by forcing third-party developers, including Facebook, to follow a different set of rules that Apple’s Read More…
Retail brokerages restricted trading on Thursday in GameStop and other stocks caught in a frenzy that has captivated Wall Street and caused big losses for hedge funds. Free-stock trading pioneer Robinhood and Interactive Brokers said that in some cases, investors would be able to sell only their positions and not open new ones. Both brokerages raised margin Read More…
WASHINGTON — Lockheed Martin-owned Sikorsky and Boeing have pitched a tweaked version of the team’s coaxial technology demonstrator — the SB-1 Defiant — which it plans to submit for the U.S. Army’s Future Long-Range Assault (FLRAA) competition, according to the companies. The modified, competition-ready aircraft design is being called Defiant X, taking the same surname as little Read More…
Fast-food workers in 15 cities around the country will be walking out Friday in a strike for the federal government to increase the national minimum wage to $15 an hour. The strike is being organized by Fight for $15 and a union. “Fast-food workers are going on strike January 15, on what would be MLK’s 92nd Read More…
(Bloomberg) — While the jury is still out on whether Bitcoin is a bubble, one thing is certain: it’s unlike any other bubble we’ve seen. Previous speculative asset-inflation episodes were either a one-off, like tulip mania in the 17th century, or the boom-doom cycle took many years, like gold. Bitcoin, by comparison, has survived three Read More…
MENLO PARK, Calif. – Facebook has reportedly sent out an internal memo about employee safety, warning staff to avoid wearing or carrying company branded items in public. According to Business Insider, the Menlo Parked-based social media company sent out the memo on Monday, stating, “In light of recent events, and to err on the side of caution, global Read More…
There are 123 teams among the Big Four North American Men’s Sports Leagues (MLB, NFL, NBA and NHL). Only one of them received a loan under the Paycheck Protection Program. That team is the Pittsburgh Penguins, who received a loan of $4.82 million through the program authorized by the CARES Act. According to the Small Read More…
Grocery chain Kroger announced Tuesday that is plans to hire 1,000 people to administer coronavirus vaccines at the chain’s 2,200 pharmacies and 220 clinics. Kroger’s vaccine program launches this week in the state of Alaska as health care workers in Anchorage and Juneau will be vaccinated by Kroger staff. Kroger says that it is working Read More…
Move over, Europe. Tucked in near the end of the 130-page antitrust lawsuit Texas filed against Google last week are claims that could force the search giant to pay out trillions of dollars in damages, dwarfing previous levies against the company. That would be a serious blow even to a company as large as Google, with Read More…
NFL legend Tom Brady’s sports company TB12 INC. secured an almost $1 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan from the federal government amid the coronavirus pandemic. Though reports of Brady’s PPP loan was initially revealed in July, the amount was unknown. Data released by the U.S. Small Business Administration in December revealed that TB12 received $960,855. The PPP loan Read More…
Italy’s competition authority on Monday fined Apple €10 million for misleading consumers about the water-resistance of its iPhones. Apple advertised several iPhone models as resistant to water for up to 30 minutes, even a few meters under water, but it didn’t make clear that this is only true under specific conditions (pure water in a laboratory), which Read More…
Comcast is adding a data cap for some of its home-internet plans starting in January. The telecommunications giant recently confirmed it’s introducing a limit of 1.2 TB on Xfinity Internet plans in 14 states and the District of Colombia. If customers that don’t have unlimited plans go over that cap, they must pay $10 for Read More…
The U.S. Supreme Court turned away a bid by Walmart Inc. to start selling liquor at its Texas stores, leaving intact for now a state law that bars such retail sales by publicly-owned companies. The rebuff, which came without comment, sends Walmart’s challenge back to a federal trial court, where the world’s largest retailer will Read More…
As COVID cases surge across the US, Waffle House CEO Walt Ehmer does not want to shut down indoor dining. And, he really does not want the government to force him to do so. “A lockdown is going to put a lot of people out of work,” Ehmer told Business Insider. “It’s really not about Read More…
Fox News viewers appear to be deserting the network in droves as they tune into Newsmax TV. Nielsen data confirms the trend in the post-election period last week. During Wednesday through Friday last week, Newsmax TV led Fox Business and CNBC in all key day parts. Newsmax is also seeing a terrific surge across its media Read More…
McDonald’s chief executives joined Walmart’s CEO in calling for another stimulus package. “We need a stimulus measure, I think that is very clear,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an interview with CNBC on Tuesday. Kempczinski called for President-elect Joe Biden and Vice president-elect Kamala Harris to address the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, as well Read More…
The New York Times Co. for the first time Wednesday reported higher revenues from its digital business than its print operations, a “watershed moment” in the newspaper’s nearly 170-year history, according to CEO Mark Thompson. “And we don’t think it’s likely we’re going to go back from this moment,” Thompson said on CNBC’s “Power Lunch.” The Times reported Read More…
HOUSTON, Texas — Just in time for the holiday, Amazon is doing a mega-seasonal hiring event, which includes new jobs available in Houston. According to a release, the company is adding 100,000 new seasonal jobs across the U.S. and Canada, to complement its regular full- and part-time positions. Some 2,800 of those positions are in Read More…
Graphics chip giant Nvidia mopped up the floor with its competition in a benchmark set of tests released Wednesday afternoon, demonstrating better performance on a host of artificial intelligence tasks. The benchmark, called MLPerf, announced by the MLPerf organization, an industry consortium that administers the tests, showed Nvidia getting better speed on a variety of Read More…
The Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday voted to subpoena Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify about allegations of anti-conservative bias, ratcheting up GOP pressure on the social media companies’ content policies before the November elections. How the vote went down: The Judiciary Committee voted 12-0 to authorize the subpoenas, with all Read More…
Southwest Airlines has asked its unionized workers to take pay cuts in an effort to stave off layoffs and furloughs during the coronavirus pandemic. Southwest CEO Gary Kelly made the request in a Monday message to employees after rival carriers American and United started furloughing more than 32,000 workers last week following the expiration of a $25 Read More…
New York (CNN)One of Berkshire Hathaway’s largest units, BNSF Railway, just named Kathryn Farmer as its first female CEO. This appointment makes Farmer the first woman in America to lead a major railroad operator, the company announced Monday. Farmer is taking the place of Carl Ice, who has worked at Berkshire Hathaway (BRKA) for 42 years. Farmer has been Read More…