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☆ If Live Nation gets busted up by the feds, we’ll have Taylor Swift to thank
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

“It is time to break it up.”It is difficult to overstate just how thoroughly Live Nation, which acquired Ticketmaster more than a decade ago, controls live entertainment in America. Through Ticketmaster, Live Nation controls 80% of venues’ primary ticketing for concerts. There’s a fine line between vertical integration and all-out monopoly, and Live Nation is, at minimum, very clearly toeing it. Artists, fans and venues have been complaining about Live Nation and Ticketmaster pretty much since they agreed to merge in 2009. Live Nation, Wolfson said, is likely to come out swinging.

Persons: CNN Business ’, Caitlin Clark, wasn’t, General Merrick Garland, Swift, Taylor, Sen, Richard Blumenthal, Garland, Swiftie, ” Adam Wolfson, Quinn Emanuel, Eventbrite, Wolfson, … we’re, there’s Organizations: CNN Business, New York CNN, Justice Department, Ticketmaster, DOJ, Artists, Senate, Democrats Locations: New York, United States, America, North America, “

☆ Tesla is building a huge battery factory in Shanghai even as US-China trade tensions rise
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The factory, which was announced in April last year, aims to begin production in the first quarter of 2025. The battery facility will be close to Tesla’s Shanghai Gigafactory, which is the company’s largest plant outside the United States, producing almost one million cars a year. Rising tensionsWhile most Western companies are face rising barriers to doing business in China, things have been smoother for Tesla. “Tesla competes quite well in the market in China with no tariffs and no deferential support. I’m in favor of no tariffs,” Musk said.

Persons: Hong Kong CNN — Tesla, Elon Musk, Tom Zhu, Tesla, Wu Xiaohua, ” Musk, Li Qiang, Li, Joe Biden, Musk, “ Tesla Organizations: Hong Kong CNN, Lingang Group, Tesla, Reuters, “ Locations: Hong Kong, Shanghai, China, United States, Beijing, Washington, Tesla’s Gigafactory, Europe, Paris

☆ Are These Drones Too Chinese to Pass U.S. Muster in an Anti-China Moment?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Kate Kelly | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A one-man startup believes it has an answer to U.S. government concerns over the Chinese-made drones that dominate commercial sales in the American market. Anzu Robotics’s chief executive and founding partners are all American, and the company’s headquarters is in Texas. The company’s drones, which are expected to be used by law enforcement agencies, utilities, architects and others, are assembled in Malaysia, and they run on servers sitting in Virginia. There’s just one problem: Anzu has multiple close ties to China and to DJI, the Shenzhen-based firm being targeted by legislative and regulatory efforts to curb sales of Chinese drones in the United States. Anzu licensed the design for its drones from DJI, which receives a payment for every drone that Anzu orders from its manufacturer in Malaysia.

Persons: Anzu, There’s Locations: Texas, Malaysia, Virginia, China, DJI, Shenzhen, United States

☆ Google’s A.I. Search Errors Cause a Furor Online
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Nico Grant | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Last week, Google unveiled its biggest change to search in years, showcasing new artificial intelligence capabilities that answer people’s questions in the company’s attempt to catch up to rivals Microsoft and OpenAI. The incorrect answers in the feature, called AI Overview, have undermined trust in a search engine that more than two billion people turn to for authoritative information. chatbots tell lies and act weird, the backlash demonstrated that Google is under more pressure to safely incorporate A.I. The launch also extends a pattern of Google’s having issues with its newest A.I. In February 2023, when Google announced Bard, a chatbot to battle ChatGPT, it shared incorrect information about outer space.

Persons: Bard Organizations: Google, Microsoft

☆ Some iPhone users eligible for $349 in lawsuit settlement payout over audio issues
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Samantha Murphy Kelly | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —Some iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus owners may be eligible for a payout as part of a $35 million settlement. iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus users who experienced issues related to the audio chip could receive up to $349 in compensation as part of a 2019 lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California. Apple denied the devices had these issues and all allegations of wrongdoing, according to the Settlement Administration website. Eligible users might receive an email or postcard in the mail about the settlement. This isn’t the first lawsuit payout for the iPhone 7 models.

Persons: Siri Organizations: CNN, Court, Northern, Northern District of, Apple, Administration Locations: Northern District, Northern District of California

☆ Google Search’s AI falsely said Obama is a Muslim. Now it’s turning off some results
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

Google earlier this month introduced an AI-generated search results overview tool, which summarizes search results so that users don’t have to click through multiple links to get quick answers to their questions. Another user posted that a Google AI summary said that “none of Africa’s 54 recognized countries start with the letter ‘K’” — clearly forgetting Kenya. Google confirmed to CNN on Friday that the AI overviews for both queries had been removed for violating the company’s policies. CNN also searched: “data used for google ai training.” In its response, the AI overview acknowledged that “it’s unclear if Google prevents copyrighted materials from being included” in the online data scraped to train its AI models, referencing a major concern about how AI firms operate. Google’s Search Labs webpage lets users in areas where AI search overviews have rolled out toggle the feature on and off.

Persons: Barack Obama, Obama, Colette Garcia, we’ve Organizations: New, New York CNN, Google, CNN, Gemini, Walmart, ” Locations: New York, Kenya, White

Apple | Spotify | Amazon | YouTube Listen to and follow ‘Hard Fork’This week, more drama at OpenAI: The company wanted Scarlett Johansson to be a voice of GPT-4o, she said no … but something got lost in translation. Then we talk with Noland Arbaugh, the first person to get Elon Musk’s Neuralink device implanted in his brain, about how his brain-computer interface has changed his life. And finally, the Times’s Karen Weise reports back from Microsoft’s developer conference, where the big buzz was that the company’s new line of A.I. PCs will record every single thing you do on the device. Guests:Noland Arbaugh, the first Neuralink patientKaren Weise, technology correspondent for The New York TimesAdditional Reading:

Persons: Scarlett Johansson, Noland Arbaugh, Elon Musk’s, Karen Weise Organizations: Apple, Spotify, The New York Times

☆ ‘It sucks for all of us.’ Charles Barkley says the quiet part aloud as TNT’s NBA future in doubt
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —The situation at Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT network “sucks, plain and simple,” Charles Barkley bluntly said Thursday. Barkley, who said he feels “so bad for the people” he works with, laid blame at the feet of the “clowns” atop WBD. Wall Street has responded quite negatively to the possibility WBD, which has built a programming slate around the NBA, could lose the rights to air the games. And TNT has built a programming slate around the NBA games, most notably the highly rated “Inside the NBA” show. Losing the rights to NBA games could throw aspects of that business partnership into question.

Persons: ” Charles Barkley, NBA ”, Dan Patrick, ”, Barkley, ” Barkley, David Zaslav’s, Adam Silver, Turner, Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw, WBD, “, Shaw, ” Shaw, Joe Flint, Amol Sharma, Isabella Simonetti, Zaslav, Venu, That’s, Gunnar Wiedenfels, Wiedenfels, ” Wiedenfels, there’s, you’ve Organizations: CNN, Warner Bros, TNT, NBA, Turner, Comcast, WSJ, WBD, NCAA, MLB, NHL, NASCAR, College Football, ESPN —, Disney, Fox Corp, Morgan’s Technology, Media & Communications Locations: WBD

☆ Live Nation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, sued in groundbreaking monopoly lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Brian Fung | Hannah Rabinowitz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Washington CNN —The US government and dozens of states sued Live Nation in a groundbreaking antitrust lawsuit on Thursday, alleging that for years the parent company of Ticketmaster abused its industry dominance to harm concertgoers nationwide. It is time to break up Live Nation-Ticketmaster.”In a statement, Live Nation called the DOJ’s allegations “baseless.”“The DOJ’s lawsuit won’t solve the issues fans care about relating to ticket prices, service fees, and access to in-demand shows,” Live Nation said in a statement. The lawsuit highlights how regulators now believe, more than a decade on, that the behavioral modifications Live Nation agreed to have failed. According to the lawsuit, Live Nation directly manages more than 400 artists, controls around 60% of concert promotions at major concert venues across the country, and controls more than 265 concert venues in North America. And through Ticketmaster, the suit says, Live Nation controls roughly 80% or more of major concert venues’ primary ticketing for concerts.

Persons: Taylor Swift’s, ”, General Merrick Garland, Swift, Robert Smith, Zach Bryan, Minnesota Democratic Sen, Amy Klobuchar, Connecticut Democratic Sen, Richard Blumenthal, Klobuchar, Blumenthal, John Cornyn, Ted Cruz, Biden, ramping Organizations: Washington CNN, Ticketmaster, Justice Department, Prosecutors, ”, “, DOJ, Regulators, Minnesota Democratic, Connecticut Democratic, Texas Republican, District of Columbia, Court, Southern, of Locations: New York, United States, Texas Republican Sens, North America, Arizona , Arkansas , California , Colorado , Connecticut, Florida , Illinois, Maryland , Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota , Nevada , New Hampshire , New Jersey , New York, North Carolina , Ohio , Oklahoma , Oregon , Pennsylvania, Rhode Island , South Carolina , Tennessee , Texas, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia , Wisconsin , Wyoming, of New York

☆ Oreo-maker Mondelez fined $366 million for rigging European markets
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Olesya Dmitracova | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

London CNN —Mondelez, the maker of Oreo and Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate, has been fined €337.5 million ($366 million) for hindering the trade of chocolate, cookies and coffee between European Union countries in order to keep prices high. Margrethe Vestager, the EU’s competition chief, said in a statement Thursday that Mondelez had illegally limited cross-border sales within the EU to maintain higher prices for its products. The European Commission, which started looking into the case in 2019, found that Mondelez International (MDLZ) had deliberately restricted cross-border trade and abused “its dominant position” in some national markets for the sale of chocolate bars. Mondelez made an accrual for the fine last year and no further measures will be necessary to finance it. In another case, Mondelez required a customer to charge higher prices for exports compared with domestic sales.

Persons: London CNN — Mondelez, Margrethe Vestager, Mondelez, “, Mark Thompson Organizations: London CNN, Cadbury, Union, European Commission, Mondelez International, EU Locations: Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Bulgaria, Romania

☆ The Washington Post publisher disclosed the paper lost $77 million last year. Here’s his plan to turn it around
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Oliver Darcy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Lewis’ plan, however, included more than just revamping The Post’s subscription offerings. While The Post clearly plans to bet big on infusing its products with A.I., it wants to emphasize the human element of its journalism. Whether the multi-pronged initiative is enough to turn The Post around, of course, remains to be seen. But the new publisher voiced confidence that these measures will put The Post on track for success. “I really hope at some point in the future, when you look back on this day,” he told staffers, “it’s actually quite a significant day in the history of our company.”

Persons: Will Lewis, strode, Lewis, “, ” Lewis, I’m, Axios, we’ve, ” Karl Wells, Lewis ’, Vineet Khosla, ”, Sally Buzbee, Kathy Baird, “ it’s Organizations: New York CNN, The Washington Post, Brit, Apple, POLITICO, Silicon Locations: New York

☆ Pinduoduo: Americans are flocking to Temu and making its Chinese owner very rich
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

The Shanghai-based company reported Wednesday that net profit soared 246% to 28 billion yuan ($3.9 billion) in the first quarter of 2024, more than double the average analyst estimate of 12.62 billion yuan ($1.7 billion), according to LSEG data. Revenue jumped 131% to 86.81 billion yuan ($12 billion) in the period, also comfortably beating expectations. He is still the company’s biggest shareholder, with a stake of 25% stake, and ranks as China’s second richest man with a fortune of nearly $52 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Temu, PDD’s international app, was launched in 2022, and as of last November it had acquired nearly 17% of the US online discount store market, according to Earnest Analytics. Last month, South Korean regulators investigated Temu on suspicion of false advertising and unfair ppractices, according to the Yonhap news agency.

Persons: Nomura, PDD, Colin Huang, Pinduoduo, Alibaba’s Taobao, Morgan Stanley, ”, Lei Chen, Chen Organizations: Hong Kong CNN — PDD Holdings, Revenue, Nasdaq, Bloomberg, Data Locations: Hong Kong, Shanghai, “, PDD’s, Alibaba, Hangzhou, Beijing, China, European

☆ Why OpenAI should fear a Scarlett Johansson lawsuit
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +11 min

“It doesn’t matter if OpenAI used any of Scarlett Johansson’s actual voice samples,” Li posted on Threads. Here, Johansson could accuse OpenAI of illegally monetizing who she is by essentially fooling users into thinking she had voiced Sky. But there’s substantial case law — and one very inconvenient fact for OpenAI — undercutting that defense, legal experts say. According to Johansson, OpenAI approached her to perform as Sky; Johansson declined. While California’s publicity law protects all individuals, some state statutes only protect famous people, and not all states have such legislation on the books.

Persons: Will Scarlett Johansson, OpenAI, Johansson, OpenAI’s, Sam Altman, OpenAI didn’t, demoed, Tiffany Li, Scarlett Johansson’s, ” Li, monetizing, John Bergmayer, “, ”, —, Bette Midler, Midler, Tom Waits, Waits, …, James Grimmelmann, Scarlett Johansson ”, Altman, Sky’s, Johansson ”, Samantha, ‘, ” Grimmelmann, Joel Saget, ” Bergmayer, Dana Rao, Adobe’s, we’re, Jennifer Rothman, ” Rothman Organizations: Washington CNN, University of San, Public, Ford Motor Company, Appeals, Circuit, Frito, Cornell University, Getty, Adobe, FAIR, University of Pennsylvania Locations: University of San Francisco, California, Midler’s, Paris, AFP

☆ Nvidia’s incredibly pricey shares are about to get much cheaper
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Samantha Delouya | Clare Duffy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Nvidia announced a 10-for-1 stock split on Wednesday, making buying shares in the red-hot semiconductor company more accessible for individual investors. Five years ago, an investor could have purchased Nvidia stock for less than $50 a share. Nvidia’s (NVDA) announcement, which came in its quarterly earnings report, means that each common share will be split into 10 smaller shares, effectively cutting the price of investing in the company. Nvidia shares rose as much as 4% in after-hours trading following the report. Still, some investors had raised questions ahead of Wednesday’s report about just how long Nvidia could keep the rally going.

Persons: Nvidia’s, ”, Thomas Monteiro Organizations: CNN, Nvidia, Microsoft Locations: China

☆ House Democrats investigate if Big Oil colluded with OPEC to inflate gas prices
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Matt Egan | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

New York CNN —Congressional Democrats are investigating whether leading US oil companies have illegally colluded with one another and with OPEC to inflate prices at the pump, CNN has learned. The Federal Trade Commission earlier this month accused Sheffield, the founder of Pioneer Natural Resources, of conspiring with OPEC and its allies to boost prices. Pallone argued that public data suggests US oil producers did not ramp up drilling during the period that Sheffield was trying to influence his rivals. Pallone sent Exxon additional document demands, including communications between Pioneer employees who were involved in developing production plans and representatives of OPEC and OPEC+. Sheffield was among the oil CEOs who testified before Pallone’s committee during an April 2022 hearing on Big Oil and gas prices.

Persons: Frank Pallone Jr, ”, Scott Sheffield, “, ” Pallone, Sheffield, Hess, Pallone Organizations: New, New York CNN, Congressional, OPEC, CNN, Committee, Energy, Commerce, ExxonMobil, BP, New Jersey Democrat, Federal Trade Commission, Sheffield, Pioneer Natural Resources, FTC, Oil, Exxon, Chevron, Shell USA, Devon Energy, Big, ” Locations: New York, Chevron, Hess, BP America, New Jersey, Texas, OPEC, Russia, colluding, United States, ”, Occidental

☆ DuPont de Nemours to split into three companies
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Samantha Delouya | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —DuPont de Nemours, the American multinational chemical company that traces its history back to 1802, announced plans to split into three publicly traded companies on Wednesday. DuPont’s breakup comes amid other large, multi-national companies announcing breakups in recent years, with many CEOs and corporate boards touting the agility of smaller companies. In a statement, Breen echoed a similar refrain, saying the three smaller companies would have greater flexibility after the spin-off. This is the second DuPont breakup in half a decade. In 2019, DowDuPont, which was created in a DuPont merger with Dow Chemical, broke apart into three separate entities: DuPont, Dow Chemical and Corteva, the company’s agriculture business.

Persons: Lori Koch, Ed Breen, Koch, Breen, ”, “, Kellogg, DuPont Organizations: CNN, DuPont de Nemours, DuPont, ”, General Electric, Dow Chemical

☆ BMW unveils its latest ‘Art Car,’ courtesy of abstract artist Julie Mehretu
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Peter Valdes-Dapena | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Designed and engineered in collaboration with the Italian race car manufacturer Dallara, it’s low and wide with an enormous rear wing and a large vertical rudder. For the commission, which marks the 20th BMW Art Car, Mehretu chose to adapt one of her most famous works: The painting “Everywhen,” which is now in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The first woman to take on a BMW Art Car was South African artist Esther Mahlangu, who in 1991 painted a 525i sedan. In 1996, Holzer covered a BMW Le Mans race car in the words “Protect Me From What I Want,” among other provocative phrases. Esther Mahlangu's 'Art Car' featured the bold colors and geometric patterns used in the traditional arts and crafts of the Southern Ndebele people.

Persons: Andy Warhol, Jeff Koons, Jenny Holzer, Robert Rauschenberg, Julie Mehretu, Mehretu, ” Mehretu, André, Alexander Calder, Hervé Poulain, Poulain, Calder, Roy Lichtenstein, Warhol, Esther Mahlangu, Holzer, Esther Mahlangu's, Enes, Goldman Sachs, “, Marian Goodman, I've, ” Julian Kroehl, BMW Mehretu, Madeleine Grynsztejn, ”, Julie, ” Grynsztejn Organizations: CNN, BMW, Pompidou Center, Le, Dallara, Museum of Modern Art, BMW “, CSL, BMW Le, Daytona, Fine Arts, Rhode Island School of Design, MacArthur, US Department of State, of, Pritzker, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago Locations: Ethiopian American, Paris, New York City, American, African, Southern, Manhattan, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, United States, New York

☆ Strong spending is obscuring an economy that isn’t working for many Americans
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

New York CNN —Even after years of inflation, geopolitical chaos and recession in Europe, the US economy remains robust and resilient. Unemployment rose to 3.9% last month, lower-income consumers are spending less and businesses are limiting employee hours and pay. A recent survey by Santander Bank of its customers found that while inflation fears have largely subsided, middle-income Americans are pessimistic about the economy. Those Americans could still be suffering, but their stories are obscured by data that paints a broad picture of a resilient economy. Piepszak, meanwhile, now leads the company’s newly combined commercial and investment bank with her co-CEO Troy Rohrbaugh.

Persons: ”, Gregory Daco, haven’t, Skyler Weinand, Regan, “, ” Nanette Abuhoff Jacobson, Bryan Mena, What’s, Jamie Dimon, Here’s, Dimon, he’s, —, ” Dimon, can’t, “ Dimon, Marianne Lake, Jennifer Piepszak, Piepszak, Troy Rohrbaugh, Rohrbaugh, Mary Erdoes, Jeremy Barnum, Daniel Pinto, COOs Gordon Smith, Smith, Satya Nadella, Bing Organizations: CNN Business, Bell, New York CNN, Regan Capital, Santander Bank, Hartford Funds, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Federal Reserve, JPMorgan, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Microsoft Locations: New York, Europe, Redmond, Washington

☆ TikTok plans global layoffs in operations and marketing
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Brian Fung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

CNN —TikTok is planning to lay off large swaths of its operations and marketing workforce, current employees briefed on the plans told CNN. The global layoffs are expected to hit teams that handle user support and communications, as well as content and marketing. TikTok’s current global user operations team will be dismantled as part of the move, and remaining employees will be distributed among the company’s trust and safety, marketing, content and product teams. The layoffs had been in the works for some time, perhaps almost a year, but recent turnover in TikTok’s marketing, trust and safety and operations teams prompted delays, one of the employees told CNN. It is unclear how many TikTok employees could lose their jobs.

Persons: Adam Presser, Zenia Mucha, TikTok Organizations: CNN, The, Brand, Communications Locations: United States

☆ Shocking: Some AI developers didn’t listen when a woman rejected their offer
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Back in September, Scarlett Johansson, who played the hauntingly complex AI assistant in the 2013 Spike Jonze film “Her,” got a request from OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman. He wanted to hire Johansson to voice his company’s newest ChatGPT model, “Sky.” She said no. Johansson quickly lawyered up, saying Monday she was “shocked, angered and in disbelief” that Altman would use a voice “so eerily similar” to her own. OpenAI was forced to confront some of those concerns late last week, after two prominent employees left the company. “Being friends with AI will be so much easier than forging bonds with human beings,” wrote Wired editor Brian Barrett in a recent essay about the movie.

Persons: CNN Business ’, you’ve, Scarlett Johansson, Spike Jonze, ”, Sam Altman, Johansson, OpenAI, Altman, Altman —, Jan Leike, OpenAI’s, Ilya Sutskever, ” Altman, “, that’s, Joaquin, Brian Barrett, — CNN’s Clare Duffy, Brian Fung Organizations: CNN Business, New York CNN, Google Locations: New York, Silicon

☆ BuzzFeed stock soars after Vivek Ramaswamy acquires activist stake
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Krystal Hur | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +1 min

New York CNN —BuzzFeed’s stock is soaring after former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramasamy revealed that he’s taken an activist stake in the beleaguered media company in a bid to adjust the firm’s strategy. Shares of BuzzFeed gained about 20% on Wednesday after a securities filing revealed that Ramaswamy has acquired a 7.7% stake in the company. Ramaswamy “believes the securities of the Issuer are undervalued and represent an attractive investment opportunity,” the filing. BuzzFeed’s portfolio of brands includes HuffPost, Tasty and the First We Feast brand that houses its “Hot Ones” YouTube series. Last year, BuzzFeed shuttered its Pulitzer Prize-winning digital news site as part of a broader move to slash the company’s headcount by 15%.

Persons: Vivek Ramasamy, he’s, Ramaswamy, ” Ramaswamy, Tricia McLaughlin, BuzzFeed, Ramaswamy “ Organizations: New, New York CNN, Republican, BuzzFeed, CNN, Networks Locations: New York

☆ U.S. Plans to Sue Ticketmaster Owner, Accusing It of Defending a Monopoly
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( David Mccabe | Ben Sisario | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Justice Department and a group of states plan to sue Live Nation Entertainment, the concert giant that owns Ticketmaster, as soon as Thursday, accusing it of illegally maintaining a monopoly in the live entertainment industry, said three people familiar with the matter. That helped the company maintain a monopoly, raising prices and fees for consumers and limiting innovation in the ticket industry, the people said. The government will argue that tours promoted by the company were more likely to play venues where Ticketmaster was the exclusive ticket service, one of the people said, and that Live Nation’s artists played venues that it owns. Live Nation is a colossus of the concert world and a force in the lives of musicians and fans alike. Its scale and reach far exceed those of any competitor, encompassing concert promotion, ticketing, artist management and the operation of hundreds of venues and festivals around the world.

Organizations: Justice Department, Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster

☆ Inflation is biting into Target’s ‘Tar-zhay’ luster
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Nathaniel Meyersohn | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

New York CNN —Target has spent decades building a reputation for cheap chic home goods, clothing and other merchandise. It was the fourth-straight quarter of sales declines at Target (TGT). More than half of Target’s merchandise is discretionary. Target is trying to lure back shoppers by cutting prices on some key items and adding its own brands. The company also recently created a new house brand called Dealworthy to take on dollar stores and Walmart.

Persons: Target, pare Organizations: New, New York CNN — Target, Walmart, Costco, Target Locations: New York

☆ How Red Lobster choked on its own Endless Shrimp deal
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Allison Morrow | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

First, Red Lobster got screwed by private equity. Back in 2014, the Darden restaurant group spun off Red Lobster to a private equity firm. Thai Union, under Kenny’s direction, elbowed out other shrimp suppliers, “leaving Thai Union with an exclusive deal that led to higher costs to Red Lobster,” according to the filing. And if you’re the exclusive provider of shrimp to America’s biggest seafood chain, what’d be better than making that limited-time all-you-can-eat shrimp deal a permanent menu item? The all-you-can-eat shrimp deal alone didn’t doom Red Lobster, but boy did it do some damage at a time when the chain was already buckling.

Persons: Nathaniel Meyersohn, ”, Management wasn’t, Jonathan Tibus, Tibus, Paul Kenny, Kenny Organizations: New, New York CNN, Darden, Management, Thai Union, CNN Locations: New York, foundering, Bangkok, Thai

☆ Jamie Dimon could step down sooner than expected. Here’s who could run the country’s biggest bank
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Nicole Goodkind | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

New York CNN —JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has bumped up his retirement plans, the longtime head of America’s largest bank said Monday. Over the course of his tenure at JPMorgan Chase, he’s become somewhat synonymous with the largest US bank by assets. But Dimon can’t lead forever, and at 68 years old, the question of succession has grown more important. “Everyone knows they’re going to die, but at one point it’s right here and you realize it’s true and it’s true maybe sooner than you think,” Dimon said. “And so it’s nice to end every day by saying, ‘That was a good day.’ Every meeting, that was a good meeting.

Persons: Jamie Dimon, Dimon, he’s, —, ” Dimon, “, can’t, ”, “ Dimon, Marianne Lake, Jennifer Piepszak, Piepszak, Troy Rohrbaugh, Rohrbaugh, Mary Erdoes, Jeremy Barnum, Daniel Pinto, COOs Gordon Smith, Smith, what’s, hasn’t Organizations: New, New York CNN, JPMorgan, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, CNN, Bloomberg Locations: New York

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