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☆ Opinion | The New Climate Law Is Working. Clean Energy Investments Are Soaring.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( Brian Deese | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +4 min

The largest increase is projected to be in industrial and manufacturing activity for hydrogen, carbon capture, energy storage and critical minerals — areas key to long-term energy security. The law did not provide all the necessary tools to achieve national goals for expanding our supply of clean energy. First, lawmakers must make it easier to build clean energy infrastructure in America. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should more aggressively clear backlogs preventing clean energy projects from connecting to the grid. Policymakers should consider new incentives to expand energy capacity, like conditioning federal assistance to states and localities that reform land-use policies to allow clean energy development.

☆ Temu is America's new dollar store
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-27 | by ( Mary Hanbury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Temu is the internet's new discount store with bargain prices that rival dollar chains. Most of these products wouldn't look out of place at a dollar store. "If Amazon and Dollar Tree had a baby it would be Temu," one Twitter commenter wrote. "Temu is basically an online dollar store," another said. This is especially pertinent as stores like Dollar General and Dollar Tree continue to come under inflation-related pressures and raise their prices.

☆ Peloton aims to rebrand as a fitness company for all with focus on app, tiered subscription pricing
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-23 | by ( Gabrielle Fonrouge | In Gabrielle-Fonrouge | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

The ad solidified Peloton's nascent identity as a high-end bike company reserved for a certain type of person at a certain income level. "This company historically has been thought of as an in-home bike company for fitness enthusiasts but over the years, it has evolved into something that is much more bigger, much broader than that." The relaunch includes a "Gym" function that allows users to take Peloton's app into the gym with them and create custom workouts. 2 among those who have Peloton hardware. It shows how eager users are to consume Peloton content that has nothing to do with its equipment.

☆ Ultra-cheap Chinese shopping site Temu is becoming the new online dollar store
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Mary Hanbury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Temu is the internet's new discount store with bargain prices that rival dollar chains. Most of these products wouldn't look out of place at a dollar store. "Temu is basically an online dollar store," another said. This is especially pertinent as stores like Dollar General and Dollar Tree continue to come under inflation-related pressures and raise their prices. "You're unlikely to find the things you really need on Temu, you're much more likely to find throwaway items, which you won't perhaps always need.

☆ VC firm Sequoia is pulling out all the stops to dominate AI, insiders say. The firm is using everything from 'speed dating' to star studded summits to woo founders.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | Ben Bergman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

It's just one move of many the VC firm has taken to cement its position in the white-hot AI space. Huang and Grady wrote a public blog post on Sequoia's website inviting AI founders to email them their ideas and pitches directly. But the firm has been louder where it counts, investing in splashy AI startups like Harvey and LangChain. Every member of the firm, from managing partner Roleof Botha on down, has made AI a top priority, with Grady, Huang, and Buhler most prominently involved. Both Huang and Buhler now spend over 90% of their time researching AI companies, versus 50% in previous years, they said.

☆ Bitcoin Believers Tone Down the Miami Party
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Caitlin Ostroff | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The crypto collapse started soon after last year’s conference. Between then and the 2023 gathering, bitcoin shed 37% of its value. That price crash meant a less splashy expo floor and fewer parties. Melody Timothee for WSJ

☆ Cathay Pacific’s free tickets to Hong Kong all claimed in 2.5 hours
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( Lilit Marcus | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Hong Kong CNN —Zachary Kussin was ready. The New Yorker had marked the date on his calendar months in advance and checked the Hello Kong Kong website every day for more information, all in hopes of scoring a free airline ticket. At a splashy event in February 2023, city officials announced that some 500,000 free airline tickets would be distributed both to local residents eager for a vacation and international travelers keen to visit Hong Kong. A representative from Cathay tells CNN that the tickets were all snapped up in two and a half hours. “We are very encouraged by the enthusiastic response from our Cathay members who registered for the exclusive ticket offer to Hong Kong,” the rep says.

☆ Cannes Film Festival 2023 kicks off with 'all killer, no filler' line-up
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

"We have 'Indiana Jones,' we've got Martin Scorsese's new film with Leonardo DiCaprio. Festival director Thierry Fremaux pushed back against criticism that Depp was a controversial choice for an opening-night film, telling Variety magazine the actor had not been banned from working. Other jury members include Brie Larson of "Captain Marvel" and Julia Ducournau, one of two women to win the Palme d'Or. Out of competition, Harrison Ford will return as adventurous archaeologist Indiana Jones, 15 years since the last film in the franchise, in the world premiere of "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" on Thursday. Festival organizers are concerned the unrest seen during the pension reform protests could also make its way to the festival, said Roxborough.

☆ We identified the 112 top executives at Warner Bros. Discovery under CEO David Zaslav as the year-old company takes aim at Netflix and Disney
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | Taylor Tyson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Warner Bros. One year after Discovery acquired WarnerMedia, WBD CEO David Zaslav faces economic headwinds and an ad slump. Insider mapped out the 112 most powerful people under Zaslav leading WBD film and TV studios, HBO, CNN, and more. One year after the merger that created Warner Bros. While Kathleen Finch has joined the mix with her portfolio of Discovery channels, top TV execs from the WarnerMedia regime — HBO's Casey Bloys and Warner Bros. TV studios chief Channing Dungey — are still in place.

☆ A pair of sports betting deals has the gaming industry asking, 'Who's next?'
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-15 | by ( Contessa Brewer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Fanatics' splashy $150 million acquisition of PointsBet's U.S. business wasn't the only deal in gambling in recent days — and it could be a sign of more to come. Fanatics on Sunday announced it has agreed to buy PointsBet's U.S. assets, a long-rumored tie-up. Fanatics CEO Michael Rubin previously vowed to launch sports betting operations in every state where it's legal, except New York. For Fanatics, the deal really pays off when it comes to upfront licensing fees it would need to pay in new states. "We're really able to save tens of millions of dollars worth of upfront license fees by leveraging PointsBets footprint versus going at it with a new footprint," said Matt King, Fanatics CEO of Betting and Gaming, on Monday.

☆ Miami’s Love Affair With Crypto Is Souring as Bitcoin Faithful Flock to the City
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-10 | by ( Deborah Acosta | Photographs James Jackman For The Wall Street Journal | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

A year ago, when the annual bitcoin conference opened in Miami, the city was arguably the country’s biggest booster of digital currencies. MiamiCoin traded on a global crypto exchange. The Miami Heat basketball team played at FTX Arena, and cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com was preparing to move its headquarters to a splashy office in the city’s Wynwood neighborhood. Today, as Miami prepares to host Bitcoin 2023 on May 18, none of those things is true anymore.

☆ Drivers unimpressed by F1 plans for more splashy intros
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Steve Keating | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

That over-the-top scene seemed to go down quite well with fans but left drivers unimpressed, with some looking unsure of what to do beyond wave and smile. F1 says it plans similar splashy intros at eight races this season. "I just hope we don't have that every single time, because we have a very long season, so we don't need an entry like that every time," said Verstappen. The idea behind the catwalk is to provide more interaction between drivers and fans. But drivers say that engagement comes at a cost by taking away time they need to prepare to race.

☆ The Metaverse, Zuckerber's Tech Obession, Is Officially Dead. ChatGPT Killed It.
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-08 | by ( Ed Zitron | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +11 min

The Metaverse, the once-buzzy technology that promised to allow users to hang out awkwardly in a disorientating video-game-like world, has died after being abandoned by the business world. After a much-heralded debut, the Metaverse became the obsession of the tech world and a quick hack to win over Wall Street investors. Once the tech industry turned to a new, more promising trend — generative AI — the fate of the Metaverse was sealed. But the short life and ignominious death of the Metaverse offers a glaring indictment of the tech industry that birthed it. Roblox, an online game platform that has existed since 2004, rode the Metaverse hype wave to an initial public offering and a $41 billion valuation.

☆ In a fickle sporting world F1 understands it's "Entertain to Survive"
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Steve Keating | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But the reality for every promoter is that in the world of fickle fans you now need to "Entertain to Survive". Last year the Miami Grand Prix was the hottest ticket in South Beach and, while resale demand has softened, this year's race is again a sellout with 90,000 attending Sunday's race. While the grand prix is the anchor for a weekend of fun, the races themselves are no longer enough to make the event a financial and commercial success. Hard Rock alone hosts three of Florida's biggest sports - the Miami Grand Prix and the Miami Open tennis as well as being home to the NFL's Dolphins. Miami debuted a new driver introduction to the grid that F1 says will be used at eight races this season.

☆ As cost of living crisis bites, some Brits are questioning spending money on glitzy coronation As cost of living crisis bites, some Brits are questioning spending money on glitzy coronation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-02 | by ( Ivana Kottasová | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +18 min

The church operates the cafe alongside a food bank which offers free food, clothes, household items and other necessities to locals who are struggling. When it first opened before the pandemic, the food bank was serving mostly homeless people. Liz Coopey, left, a volunteer at the Given Freely Freely Given food bank in Doncaster, helps local resident Angela Davis with her shopping bags. The Given Freely Freely Given food bank in Doncaster offers its clients other items than just food, including household goods and clothing. Liz Coopey, one of the volunteers there, said she understands the idea of having to rely on a food bank might be scary to many.

NEW YORK, May 1 (Reuters) - Subway, which is exploring a potential $10 billion sale, further shrank last year in the United States as franchisees closed 2.7% of the brand's sandwich shops, squeezing its royalties and fees. The chain shed another net 571 locations in 2022 after even steeper closings in previous years in the United States, its largest global market, according to the latest disclosure document it provides to franchisees who are interested in buying locations. Subway has closed thousands of U.S. locations in recent years due to over-expansion, outdated operations and decor, stale menus and $5 footlong deals that eroded franchisees' profits. Subway franchisees closed more than 1,000 net U.S. locations in 2021 and 1,609 in 2020. At the end of 2022, Subway had 20,576 shops in the United States.

☆ Subway comes up with $5 billion debt plan to clinch $10 billion-plus sale, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

This is weighing on how much the private equity firms are offering to buy companies. So far, bids for Subway have ranged between $8.5 billion and $10 billion, one of the sources said. Barclays, a major player in the market for WBS financing, is one of the banks in discussions about long-term financing, the sources said. JPMorgan's financing package also offers the option of a preferred equity component with a roughly 15% interest rate, the sources said. This is a more expensive route that private equity firms may not opt for, three of the sources added.

☆ How Warner Bros. Discovery plans to take on Disney and Netflix with new streamer Max, according to WBD's top marketing exec
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

"HBO had its limits," Patrizio Spagnoletto, Warner Bros. WBD research showed that to attract new subscribers, the HBO brand was too nichePatrizio "Pato" Spagnoletto is Warner Bros. DiscoveryIn dropping "HBO" from the name, WBD is acknowledging HBO Max has a potent but narrow appeal that could turn off a broader audience. The Max logo has the same vibe as the HBO Max logo, however, and incorporates a few elements of HBO's logo. "Right now, we have very limited capabilities" in that regard, he said of the current HBO Max app.

This is weighing on how much the private equity firms are offering to buy companies. So far, bids for Subway have ranged between $8.5 billion and $10 billion, one of the sources said. This is a more expensive route that private equity firms may not opt for, three of the sources added. To be sure, Subway is allowing bidders to use any financing route they want, as long as they can show they can secure committed financing. TPG and Bain were part of a group that owned Burger King when John Chidsey, who is now Subway's CEO, headed that burger fast-food restaurant chain.

☆ Sam Altman is building his utopia, whether you want it or not
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

Altman told Insider, "We debate our approach frequently and carefully." "I don't think anyone can lose your dad young and wish he didn't have more time with him," Altman told Insider. Altman told Insider that his thinking had evolved since those posts. (When asked about guns, Altman told Insider he'd been "happy to have one both times my home was broken into while I was there.") When asked about this, Altman told Insider in an email: "i can guess what that's about; these stories grow crazily inflated over the years of getting re-told!

☆ He's played chess with Peter Thiel, sparred with Elon Musk and once, supposedly, stopped a plane crash: Inside Sam Altman's world, where truth is stranger than fiction
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Melia Russell | Julia Black | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +41 min

But, "you do at some point need to start having contact with reality," he told Insider. The plan was still only a rough sketch, Blania told Insider, but that didn't seem to matter to his host. "He always wanted to understand everything at a very deep level," Thrun told Insider in an email. (When asked about guns, Altman told Insider he'd been "happy to have one both times my home was broken into while I was there.") When asked about this, Altman told Insider in an email: "i can guess what that's about; these stories grow crazily inflated over the years of getting re-told!

☆ Tiffany: Not Just a Shopping Destination, But a World-Class Museum
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Stephen Wallis | Photography Nagi Sakai For Wsj. Magazine | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

When Tiffany & Co. reopens its New York City flagship on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street this spring, following three years of work, visitors will hardly recognize the street-level sales floor famously featured in Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Where dark-green marble and teak columns once surrounded a bank of art deco elevators, a showstopping painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat now hangs. The canvas was chosen especially for the robin’s-egg-blue background that nearly matches Tiffany’s own trademarked blue. It’s an intentionally placed lure—inviting in those tourists who come to re-create Audrey Hepburn’s dreamy window-shopping scene. In the new-look Tiffany, splashy art abounds: A concave, faceted stainless-steel Anish Kapoor wall sculpture in the third-floor wedding and engagement area seems tailor-made for celebratory ring-shopping selfies.

☆ We mapped out the 113 most powerful people at Warner Bros. Discovery after a blockbuster merger and a tumultuous year of layoffs and cuts under CEO David Zaslav
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Claire Atkinson | Lucia Moses | Taylor Tyson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav is focused on rebuilding but faces economic headwinds and an advertising slump. Insider mapped out the 112 most powerful people under Zaslav leading WBD film and TV studios, HBO, CNN, and more. One year after the merger that created Warner Bros. While Kathleen Finch has joined the mix with her portfolio of Discovery channels, top TV execs from the WarnerMedia regime — HBO's Casey Bloys and Warner Bros. TV studios chief Channing Dungey — are still in place.

☆ The creepy secret behind online therapy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Tanmoy Goswami | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +16 min

Crisis Text Line, now in its 10th year of operations, uses artificial intelligence to respond to people experiencing emotional abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts. 'The vast majority of mental-health apps are exceptionally creepy'BetterHelp, a poster child of online therapy founded in 2013, calls itself "the world's largest therapy platform" and says it has over 2 million users. One of the first popular mental-health apps, PTSD Coach, was launched by the US Department of Veteran Affairs in 2011. But for mental-health companies these practices can undermine the very foundations of mental-health care: dignity, trust, and psychological safety. As Crisis Text Line wrote on its website extolling its deal with Loris: "Why sell T-shirts when you can sell what your organization does best?"

☆ Top Warner Bros. Discovery marketing exec reveals the launch strategy for mega-streamer Max, the challenges ahead, and why HBO was dropped from the name: 'HBO had its limits'
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Lucia Moses | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

Spagnoletto, who goes by Pato, was referring to the market research WBD conducted before settling on the name Max — dropping the HBO from its existing service, HBO Max — for the company's long-awaited mega-streamer that will combine content from HBO Max and Discovery+. WBD research showed that to attract new subscribers, the HBO brand was too nichePatrizio "Pato" Spagnoletto Warner Bros. DiscoveryIn dropping "HBO" from the name, WBD is acknowledging HBO Max has a potent but narrow appeal that could turn off a broader audience. The Max logo has the same vibe as the HBO Max logo, however, and incorporates a few elements of HBO's logo. "Right now, we have very limited capabilities" in that regard, he said of the current HBO Max app.

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