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☆ Lyft’s Defensive Driving Stalls Out
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Laura Forman | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Lyft said its active riders were still down about 11% in the fourth quarter from prepandemic highs. When Lyft says it is taking aggressive steps to better compete in ride-hailing, all investors hear is that the service is losing. Lyft’s shares fell 30% in after-hours trading Thursday after its fourth-quarter results suggested that—compared with competitor Uber Technologies, at least—its business is now running on fumes. Lyft, whose single-lane focus relative to Uber’s more diversified and global business helped it achieve the holy grail of (adjusted) profits before its competitor, is now scrambling to play catch up.

☆ Secretive Society Keeps Watch Over Arizona’s Holy Grail of Cactus
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Eliza Collins | Photographs Ash Ponders For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

PIMA COUNTY, Ariz.—Millions of saguaro cactuses grow in the Sonoran Desert, yet only an estimated one in 200,000 exhibits the spectacular crown of the crested saguaro. Its rare beauty spawned the needle-in-a-haystack mission of Arizona’s secretive Crested Saguaro Society. With the zeal of birders, the society’s 10 members are out to find as many of the crested saguaro as time and energy allow. They hunt in a desert that stretches across 100,000 or so square miles.

☆ Illumina fights EU order to divest Grail
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, Feb 8 (Reuters) - U.S. life science company Illumina (ILMN.O) on Wednesday took its case to senior EU and national antitrust officials at a closed hearing to argue against an EU antitrust order that it divests cancer detection test maker Grail Inc (GRAL.O). Illumina had completed a takeover of Grail in August 2021, without securing European Union regulatory approval. The European Commission ordered Illumina in December to unwind the deal, three months after it had blocked the merger on concerns the deal would stifle innovation. "Any divestment order should be stayed until our appeal of the Commission's prohibition decision has been resolved," it said. Companies usually take the opportunity at such hearings to persuade senior EU and national competition officials of the pro-competitive advantages of their deals.

☆ All you need to know about ChatGPT, the A.I. chatbot that's got the world talking and tech giants clashing
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Ryan Browne | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

ChatGPT is an AI chatbot developed by San Francisco-based startup OpenAI. These are tools that allow users to enter written prompts and receive new human-like text or images and videos generated by the AI. With a whopping 175 billion parameters, GPT-3 is one of the largest and most powerful language processing AI models to date. watch nowWhat makes ChatGPT so impressive is its ability to produce human-like responses, thanks in no small part to the vast amounts of data it is trained on. No generative AI application has quite managed to achieve the kind of influence and virality that ChatGPT has.

☆ Nike, Rumpl and Instant Pot: Best online sales right now
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-03 | by ( Caroline Curran | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

This weekend, you’ll find a deal on the Philips SmartSleep sunrise lamp, a discounted Instant Pot and savings on Crap Eyewear sunglasses. Instant Pot Duo Plus $150 $110 at Amazon Instant Pot Score a variant of our favorite pressure cooker, the Instant Pot Duo Plus, up to 27% off, alongside a range of other models from the brand. Rumpl 30% off Original Puffy Football Blankets Rumpl Versatile and machine-washable, Rumpl blankets are durable enough for the outdoors yet cozy enough for the couch. Deals you may have missedKindle Paperwhite $150 $110 at Amazon Amazon Our pick for the best budget e-reader, the Kindle Paperwhite boasts a lightweight design and a glare-free screen with adjustable warmth to reduce strain on your eyes. Right now you can score our pick for the best full-size low-profile keyboard at an all-time low price on Amazon.

☆ Illumina Makes Its Interim CFO Permanent
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Kristin Broughton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +3 min

Gene-sequencing company Illumina Inc. on Wednesday named Joydeep Goswami as chief financial officer, giving its interim CFO the role on a permanent basis. Mr. Goswami joined Illumina in 2019 as chief strategy and corporate development officer, overseeing strategic partnerships and acquisitions. Illumina CFO Joydeep Goswami. He added that he received a crash course in traditional areas of finance, including treasury, tax and audit, while serving as interim CFO. As CFO, Mr. Goswami plans to keep Illumina’s spending on innovation roughly constant as a percentage of revenue.

☆ A top UK private school is changing its approach to homework amid the rise of ChatGPT, as educators around the world adapt to AI
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Pete Syme | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A highly-rated private school in London is changing its approach to homework, partly due to ChatGPT. Alleyn's School is moving towards "flipped learning," where students prepare at home and do essays at school. "Flipped learning" sees students focus on preparing for lessons rather than doing essays and answering questions traditional homework. "It's a bit like a holy grail," Lunnon told Insider of "flipped learning." "A number of us had a play and were like 'this is astonishing'," Lunnon told Insider.

☆ This small-cap fund has been killing it over the last 10 years. Here's how they do it
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Alex Harring | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

That approach aligns with the firm's Private Capital Management Value Fund (VFPIX), which focuses on holding and deeply understanding a handful of small-cap companies. Meanwhile, the broader S & P 500 lost 19.4% in 2022, while the small-cap focused Russell 2000 dropped about 21.6%, according to FactSet. About one-third of the fund's assets today are from the retirement plan assets of Private Capital Management employees. Though fund leadership understands small-caps can trade with more variability, they don't equate that with exposure to more risk. He said there are more companies to choose from, with many stocks' market caps slashed into small-cap territory in 2022's bear market.

☆ A ChatGPT bot passed a Wharton business school exam, but a professor says he would've only graded the effort a B or B-minus
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-23 | by ( Lakshmi Varanasi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Wharton professor Christian Terwiesch tested ChatGPT with questions from his final exam. Terwiesch found that ChatGPT could answer basic questions well but sometimes made "surprising mistakes" in simple calculations. Terwiesch concluded that ChatGPT might earn a B or B- on his final exam. Based on an analysis of similar retailers, the founders expect to turn their inventory 1.5 times per year. To achieve an annual revenue of $3,000,000, how much inventory expressed in $'s should the founders expect their operation to require?

☆ Illumina CEO: Genomics in children's hospitals will be the biggest part of the market
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailIllumina CEO: Genomics in children's hospitals will be the biggest part of the marketFrancis Desouza, Illumina CEO and Disney board member, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss the future of gene sequencing and what Illumina is doing, the promise behind Illumina's GRAIL and more.

☆ Glossier changed its beloved lip balm, igniting fury among its most loyal fans
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Avery Hartmans | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Glossier reformulated Balm Dotcom, a star product and fans are voicing their frustration. Some fans say the lip balm no longer works as well and are accusing the company of ignoring its customers. Glossier has gone through several changes over the past year, including a new CEO and a deal with Sephora. The reformulated balm, or BDC as fans call it, will have a redesigned applicator tip and a "new clinically-tested hydrating, vegan formula," Glossier wrote in an Instagram post. In addition, Glossier is discontinuing the cherry-flavored balm, a popular flavor that had a sheer, red tint.

☆ Illumina challenges EU order to keep Grail separate
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

BRUSSELS, Jan 10 (Reuters) - U.S. life sciences company Illumina (ILMN.O) on Tuesday challenged an EU antitrust order to keep biotech firm Grail (GRAL.O) separate, ratcheting up its fight against EU regulators which blocked a merger deal last year. Following its veto, the European Union competition enforcer renewed an interim measure last October requiring Illumina to keep Grail as a separate entity so the company can unwind a takeover it had completed without waiting for the deal to get EU approval. "Today, we appealed the European Commission's interim measures order to hold separate Illumina and Grail," Illumina said in a statement. The EU executive said in emailed comment it would defend its case in court. Illumina has three appeals pending in the Luxembourg courts, Europe's top courts, against the EU enforcer's ruling that it jumped the gun by closing the deal without securing approval, the EU's subsequent veto and the EU decision to examine the case.

☆ Stocks making the biggest moves midday: Bed Bath & Beyond, Coinbase, Virgin Orbit and more
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( Michelle Fox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Discovery — Shares of the media company jumped more than 6% after Bank of America added the stock to the "US1" list. Coinbase — Shares jumped almost 6% after the cryptocurrency exchange shared plans to trim its workforce by 20%. Bed Bath & Beyond — The retailer jumped nearly 19%. Frontline — Shares of the shipping company jumped 26% after Frontline announced that it was terminating a deal to combine with Euronav. Agilent Technologies — Shares rose more than 4% a day after the company announced a $2 billion share repurchase program.

☆ Renewable Companies Strive for 24-Hour Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Phred Dvorak | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Wind and solar developers are concocting elaborate plans to provide round-the-clock renewable power, the industry’s holy grail as countries around the world shift to green energy. Renewable energy is notoriously unreliable, generating electricity only when the wind is blowing and the sun is shining. Project developers, utilities and grid operators are trying a mix of options to overcome that challenge, including building huge amounts of renewable capacity, storing excess power on batteries, and using algorithms to make project economics work.

I can often get Disney gift cards at a discountBuying gift cards at a discount means paying less for the gift card than the face value of the card. If you pay any amount less than $50 for a $50 gift card, then that's a discounted gift card. If I buy a $100 Disney gift card at Target each month, I'll have $1,200 after a year. However, if a customer does not have a Cash App Card, they can instead convert their gift card to cash in the app. While Costco doesn't sell Disney gift cards, they sometimes have Landry's gift cards, which can be used at the Rainforest Café and T-Rex Café at Disney World.

"It's a combination of the FTC and (Justice Department) being willing to litigate and the fact that companies are fighting back," Grosberg said. More recently, they have lost four attempts to block mergers in court, though they are appealing two of the cases. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Break-up fees that acquirers agree to pay their targets if their deal gets shot down by antitrust regulators are also on the rise. Many companies facing merger challenges say they will fight on, emboldened by the four court losses of the Justice Department and FTC.

Economists are sounding the alarm bells about a likely recession in 2023.Insider spoke to five personal finance experts to get their tips on preparing for a downturn. Insider spoke to five personal finance experts to uncover the key steps to help you bulletproof your finances ahead of a rocky new year. "Drop-shipping" — acting as an intermediary between a supplier and customers – affiliate marketing, and earning advertising income from websites are some ways you can build passive income streams. Olamide Majekodunmi, founder of All Things Money, a financial education blog for millennials, said it's important not to sink too many up-front costs into passive income streams in the hope they'll bear fruit. And Chen said it still takes lots of work to get to a point where you can enjoy passive income.

☆ Buyout barons will court the panicking masses
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-20 | by ( Jonathan Guilford | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Since they’ve already scoured traditional funding sources like pension funds and insurers, they’ll make a priority of tapping wealthy individuals in 2023. Even those slower to embrace the trend, like Carlyle (CG.O), are getting about 10% of inflows from individuals. Pension plans and other stalwarts have seen their stocks and bonds slump in value, potentially leaving them overexposed to buyout funds, private credit, real estate and infrastructure. These investors don’t always have the resources or stomach to lock up their money for half a decade or longer. Third-party platforms like Moonfare are proliferating, pooling retail capital into vehicles that buy stakes in buyout funds.

"The jury is still out," on which technology will dominate, said Dr. Sadik Esener, director of the Cancer Early Detection Advanced Research Center at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute in Portland, Oregon. He added it could take as long as 20 years to show that an early cancer detection test saved lives. If proven to work, early cancer detection tests could help doctors identify cancer risk in patients long before symptoms or other indicators develop. DIFFERENT APPROACHESSeveral of the leading contenders take vastly different approaches to cancer detection and it is not yet clear which methods will prove most useful or when. Some are working on blood tests to detect different markers of early cancer, including proteins.

☆ Guardant DNA blood test finds 83% of colorectal cancers in trial, shares fall 39%
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Deena Beasley | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Cologuard, a stool-based DNA test, identifies 92% of colorectal cancers and 42% of pre-cancerous polyps, according to data from Exact Sciences (EXAS.O), which markets the test. Guardant said that a subsequent colonoscopy ruled out colon cancer in 10% of people who tested positive with its DNA blood test. "This is a huge unmet clinical need," Talasaz said of a blood test for detecting colon cancer. "There are still 50 million people out there who are not complying with colorectal cancer screening." Guardant is currently enrolling patients in a different trial of its DNA blood test for detecting lung cancer, Talasaz said.

☆ A Silicon Valley biotech just showed a simple blood test can detect a hidden and deadly type of cancer. But the results fell short of investors' hopes.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Leah Rosenbaum | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Guardant Health said that its blood test to screen for cancer caught 83% of colorectal cancer cases. On Thursday, Silicon Valley-based biotech Guardant Health announced that its blood-based cancer screening test correctly caught colorectal cancer cases in 83% of people who had the disease. The company already has several products on the market, including Guardant360CDx, an FDA-approved blood test to test cancer genomic markers that could help show what treatments the cancers are susceptible to. Colonoscopies are still the gold standard of colorectal cancer screening, despite involving sedation and hours of unpleasant physical preparation. And while colorectal cancer is the first cancer that is being studied for a blood-based screening, it certainly won't be the last.

☆ Moderna's CEO predicts how the biotech's work in cancer vaccines could transform healthcare, starting with your annual physical
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Andrew Dunn | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Personalized cancer vaccines could provide a new way to fight early cancer cases. Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel told Insider he thinks cancer vaccines can upend cancer care. In an interview, Bancel shared his vision on how these personalized cancer vaccines could transform cancer care. Based off the blood work, Moderna would design vaccines that target the genetic mutations in cancerous cells that stand out from healthy cells. The blood tests could find cancer before it grows too much, and mRNA vaccines could squash it.

"The legal precedent is not on the side of the FTC," said Andre Barlow, an antitrust lawyer at Doyle, Barlow & Mazard PLLC. Barlow pointed to three recent mergers challenged by the FTC or Justice Department that were ultimately allowed to proceed. Those cases share something else in common with the proposed Microsoft deal: in each instance, a company would merge with a supplier in a so-called "vertical" merger. "Vertical merger challenges are really difficult to win so it will be an uphill battle for the FTC," said Roger Alford, who teaches law at the University of Notre Dame. Reuters reported last month that Microsoft was expected to offer remedies to EU antitrust regulators in the coming weeks to stave off formal objections to the deal.

☆ EU Tells Illumina How to Unwind Deal to Buy Cancer-Test Developer Grail
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Kim Mackrael | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Margrethe Vestager, the head of the EU’s competition watchdog, which blocked Illumina’s acquisition of Grail in September. BRUSSELS—The European Union on Monday set out the details of an order requiring Illumina Inc. to unwind its $7.1 billion acquisition of cancer-test developer Grail Inc. The European Commission, the bloc’s competition watchdog, prohibited the acquisition in September over concerns that it would stifle innovation and hurt consumer choice. Illumina, which makes genetic-sequencing products, completed the acquisition in August 2021.

☆ EU charge sheet tells Illumina to swiftly unwind Grail deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Foo Yun Chee | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BRUSSELS, Dec 5 (Reuters) - EU antitrust regulators on Monday proposed measures for U.S. life sciences company Illumina (ILMN.O) to unwind its acquisition of biotech firm Grail (GRAL.O), three months after blocking the deal on concerns that it would hurt competition. Illumina completed the takeover of Grail in August 2021, without securing European Union regulatory approval. The European Commission said in a September veto decision that the company failed to offer adequate remedies to allay its worries and opened a separate case to force Illumina to unravel the deal. Illumina said the EU proposal was out of proportion and that any divestment should wait for the outcomes of two lawsuits launched by the company against the Commission. "We believe divestment is not proportional to the speculative harm alleged by the Commission," Illumina said in a statement on Monday.

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