DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ For some millennials, the reality of their retirement plans is that they're a fantasy
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-29 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The documentary chronicles the rise and fall of the movie-ticket-subscription company MoviePass, and is based on award-winning reporting from Business Insider . The big storyRetirement mathGetty Images;Alyssa Powell/BIFor some millennials, the reality of their retirement plans is that they're a fantasy. AdvertisementIt's not the first time we've gotten troubling data about millennials' retirement plans. But it's not just a lack of savings working against millennials' plans of riding off into the retirement sunset. AdvertisementAnd if you're hoping for a Hail Mary in the form of a fat inheritance to jumpstart your retirement plans, that's not looking great either.

Persons: —, MovieCrash, Alyssa Powell, Jacob Zinkula, William Edwards, we've, it's, millennials, Hail Mary, that's, Juliana Kaplan, It's, Johannes Simon, Neel Kashkari, Sam Altman, Justin Sullivan, Oliver Mulherin, Scarlett Johansson, Altman, Jensen Huang, Adam Neumann, Neumann, WeWork, Moviegoing, there's, BI's Peter Kafka, Sheryl Sandberg, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Service, HBO, Max, Business, Hail, Reserve Survey, Consumer, Wall, Minneapolis, UBS, Google, Nvidia, BI, Hollywood, HP Locations: Swiss, BI Denmark, New York, London

☆ Vivek Ramaswamy has a plan for BuzzFeed. There's just one problem.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy announced last week he had been buying up shares in BuzzFeed. Which led to the obvious question: Why is Vivek Ramaswamy buying up shares in BuzzFeed? Related storiesHe's laid it out in a letter to BuzzFeed's board, but if you're in a hurry I can summarize it for you: Ramaswamy wants BuzzFeed to pull an Elon Musk. Another option would be for Ramaswamy to play this out a while longer and watch BuzzFeed shares shoot up based on his saber-rattling. BuzzFeed shares closed at $3 today, up 20% from May 22, when Ramaswamy first disclosed his stake.

Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, Ramaswamy, BuzzFeed —, Elon, Musk, Tucker Carlson, Bill Maher, There's, Jonah Peretti, Peretti, Donald, he's Organizations: Service, Republican, Twitter Locations: BuzzFeed, MAGA

☆ The real reason behind Hollywood's miserable weekend
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-28 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Read previewThis weekend my family went to the movies, twice. This past holiday weekend was the worst Memorial Day showing Hollywood has seen in decades, with ticket sales down a staggering 40% from last year. One thing Hollywood is very good at is generating explanations for a flop — or in this case, multiple flops. (I paid $44.76 for the two Furiousa tickets I bought over the weekend at my local Alamo Drafthouse. I don't think movies or movie theaters are going away.

Persons: —, Max, Matthew Ball, Barbie, Oppenheimer, Tom Rothman Organizations: Service, Garfield, Hollywood, Business, Sony

☆ Why Google is (probably) stuck giving out AI answers that may or may not be right
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-24 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

And that most people don't know or care about search answers that tell people how many rocks to eat. Many of the examples we've seen have been uncommon queries, and we've also seen examples that were doctored or that we couldn't reproduce. What happens if people keep finding Bad Answers on Google and Google can't whac-a-mole them fast enough? Because that would be a really, really big problem. And the thing that's very different between the old Google results and the new ones is the responsibility and authority Google is shouldering.

Persons: —, we've, Katie Notopoulos, Katie, it's, Lara Levin, I've, We've, they'd Organizations: Service, Google, Business Locations: ChatGPT

☆ OpenAI's defense: We're not liars; we're just incompetent. Yikes!
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-23 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Earlier this week, the consensus around OpenAI was that the company was a lying, rapacious soul stealer. A company that wanted to use Scarlett Johansson to promote its product — and when she declined, went ahead and did it anyway, using a fake Scarlett Johansson. Here's the problem: The second version of reality is the one OpenAI itself is pushing. And OpenAI is a relatively young company, with a particularly chaotic history, which includes a foundational fight with Elon Musk and last year's well-publicized Thanksgiving coup-that-wasn't. Now they're telling us they can't handle the most basic stuff, like telling the left hand what the right hand is doing.

Persons: OpenAI, Scarlett Johansson, —, Scarlett Johansson —, Sam Altman, Johansson —, Altman, Joanne Jang, Jang, Mira Murati, Elon Musk, It's Organizations: Washington Post, bumblers, Apple, Microsoft Locations: Washington

☆ 4 totally unverified theories about Vivek Ramaswamy and BuzzFeed
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-22 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Vivek Ramaswamy ran a failed campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . AdvertisementWhy is Vivek Ramaswamy buying up shares of BuzzFeed? Let's start by stating the obvious: It is very funny to type the sentence "Why is Vivek Ramaswamy buying up shares of BuzzFeed?" Ramaswamy, as you may recall, was a fringe candidate in the most recent Republican presidential primary, where his platform consisted of praising Donald Trump and promising to "Take America First further than Trump."

Persons: Vivek Ramaswamy, What's, —, Ramaswamy, Donald Trump Organizations: Republican, Service, Trump Locations: Iowa

☆ What Comcast's new Netflix, Peacock, Apple TV+ streaming bundle tells you about the industry's economics
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-21 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

If you subscribe to Netflix's cheapest plan, and also get Peacock's cheapest plan, and also get Apple TV+, it will cost you $23 a month. So Peacock and Apple would benefit more from being in a bundle with Netflix, so they are more likely to discount their rates to make the bundle work. Digital distributors like Apple have made it very easy for subscribers to turn their streaming subscriptions on and off. Netflix, Comcast, and Apple all declined to comment about bundle economics. AdvertisementSo maybe all streaming subscriptions aren't equal.

Persons: it's, Ted Sarandos, I've Organizations: Service, Apple, Comcast, Business, Netflix, Verizon, Disney

☆ We're reading: Will Google's AI answers mean the end of the web?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-20 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Google is shifting to AI-generated answers for search queries to keep users on its site. This shift raises concerns about the reliability of AI answers and the impact on web traffic. You ask it a question, and it sends you to a site on the internet that can answer that question for you. And now the company is super-sizing that effort with AI-generated answers that are going to be the standard reply for all search in the near future. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: — Organizations: Google, Service, Business

☆ Meme Stock Craze: the Sad Return of Roaring Kitty, GameStop, and AMC
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Emily Stewart | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Gill, who goes by Roaring Kitty on X and YouTube and by DeepFuckingValue on Reddit, was at the center of the 2021 GameStop saga. Shares of AMC, GameStop's fellow meme stock, surged by nearly 80% on Monday and 30% on Tuesday. What's changed is Roaring Kitty is tweeting, and not even really about a company. If you bought GameStop or AMC shares in 2021, it might not be a bad time to consider selling some to break even. Roaring Kitty is back, and people are tossing their money into the GameStop slot machine.

Persons: Keith Gill, Gill, Roaring Kitty, DeepFuckingValue, Davids, — Gill, tweeting, hasn't, me Gill, they're, it's, Robinhood, Bitcoin, Matt Damon, Eminem, Peter Kafka, cryptocurrency, Kitty Organizations: GameStop, YouTube, Porsche, AMC, UFC Locations: Massachusetts, What's, America

☆ Heads-up, Apple and the rest of Big Tech: Disney wants better app store deals.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-16 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Speaking at an investor conference this week, Iger said he's giving up too much money to the Big Tech app stores that distribute Disney-owned streamers like Hulu and Disney+. "Unlike Netflix, we distribute largely through third-party app stores. App stores and app distribution are a meaningful part of many tech companies' business plans. It's also possible that Disney won't need to leave third-party app stores — or threaten to leave — in order to save money. Maybe one of them will include a way to take a bit less from one of the world's biggest video companies.

Persons: Bob Iger, Iger, Michael Nathanson, I've, It's Organizations: Disney, Apple, Google, Big Tech, Hulu, Business, Netflix, signups

☆ An AI agent may soon be at your beck and call, but it might cost you a bit of your privacy
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In today's big story, we're looking at Google's big event that's pitching all the ways AI agents can make our lives easier . Google I/O, the tech giant's biggest developer conference, was heavy on the rise of so-called AI agents , writes Business Insider's Hugh Langley, who was there in person. AdvertisementGoogle's faithful, old search engine got a noticeable facelift with the help of AI , writes BI's Geoff Weiss. Steven Puetzer/Getty, Tyler Le/BIThe stakes for Google are high, as nailing AI agents opens up a massive business opportunity. For AI agents to be so intuitive, they'll need access to seemingly every aspect of our lives.

Persons: —, Tyler Le, you've, OpenAI's ChatGPT, Hugh Langley, Sundar Pichai, Geoff Weiss, Hugh, Alistair Barr, Gregory Wayne, Steven Puetzer, hasn't, Alistair, Demis Hassabis, Minchillo, Keith Gill, Naz Vahid, Andy Sieg's, Noah Berger, Jia Feng, Tingting Ji, Jenny Chang, Rodriguez, BI's Peter Kafka, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Service, Business, Google, Astra, GameStop, AMC Entertainment, JPMorgan, Citi, Amazon Web Services, Walmart, UPS, Nielsen, Cisco Systems, Warner Bros, Discovery Locations: New York, Dublin, London

☆ Why you don't really want Big TV to bring back 'the bundle' for your streaming services like Hulu, Max, and Netflix
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

— pine for the good ol' days of the TV bundle. Like cable TV." The old-timey bundle was also a prerequisite for some things you might want, like HBO or Showtime. And now, let's talk about the new-fangled bundle, which isn't the bundle you're thinking of. They're going to find ways to cut costs wherever they can, and that most certainly includes programming.

Persons: I'm, Discovery, Max, Rupert Murdoch's, They're, Brian Roberts Organizations: Service, Business, Big Media, Disney, Warner Bros, Comcast, Netflix, Apple, Big TV, ESPN, TCM, Fox News, HBO, Showtime, Warner, Discovery Locations: Hulu

☆ Netflix inks a 3-year deal with the NFL to show football games
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-15 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Netflix announced a three-season deal with the NFL. The streamer will show two NFL games on Christmas this year. AdvertisementNo more wondering if Netflix is going to show real live sports: The streamer now has a three-season deal with the most popular sports league in America — the NFL. Netflix will show two NFL games on Christmas Day this year, plus "at least one" game on Christmas in 2025 and 2026, the company and the NFL announced Wednesday. The deal will cost Netflix "less than $150 million per game," Bloomberg reports.

Persons: — Organizations: Netflix, NFL, Service, America —, Bloomberg, Business Locations: America

☆ Apple desperately needs its Next Big Thing
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Paris Marx | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

But after a decade of doing that, iPhone sales are slowing, revenue is down, and the company, again, needs to find its next big thing. Apple's own outlook suggests poor iPhone sales will persist, especially as sales in China rapidly decline. The drawbacks of Cook's divestment from product design and development are now becoming clearer. Both the EU and the US cases would also make some people more likely to switch to a cheaper phone, which would threaten iPhone sales even further. The drawbacks of Cook's divestment from product design and development are now becoming clearer.

Persons: Steve Jobs, Jobs, Apple, Tim Cook, Cook, haven't, Steve, Tripp Mickle, Jony Ive, we've, wouldn't, Let's, aren't, Peter Kafka Organizations: Apple, Apple Watch, IBM, Google, EU, Bloomberg, Nasdaq, Business Locations: China, Asia, India, Indonesia

☆ Why the Big TV companies aren't 100% completely screwed. Yet.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-14 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Big TV used to have a monopoly on our attention — and our wallets. This mirrors the pitch big TV companies are making this week in New York to advertisers. AdvertisementThe Big TV guys are screwed, right? AdvertisementAnd here to make that argument is Nielsen, which has a new way of tracking attention among media companies — including digital upstarts. And in this version, the TV guys are still sticking around.

Persons: aren't, —, They're, Nielsen, It's, it's Organizations: Service, NFL, Business, Netflix, Disney, ABC, ESPN, Hulu, Paramount, CBS, NBC Universal, YouTube, Nielsen Locations: New York

☆ Crypto prices are back. So are the TV ads.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-13 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Read previewOne sign we're in a crypto revival: Crypto prices are roaring again. Another sign: Crypto companies are advertising on TV again. Crypto.com isn't the only one pushing crypto on TV again. It makes perfect sense to run it side-by-side with ads telling you how fun it would be to bet on the very game you're watching (unless you're an NBA player). All that said, the 2024 crypto revival still seems more like an echo of the last boom than a replay.

Persons: —, you've, it's, Eminem, Matt Damon, Damon, Crypto.com, Coinbase cheekily, Crypto, Jack Dorsey, Kitty Organizations: Service, NBA, Business, UFC, GameStop

☆ Netflix said it didn't want to be in sports. Now it could be streaming two NFL games on Christmas.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-10 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Now Netflix looks like it is close to a deal to stream two NFL games on Christmas Day, reports Puck's John Ourand, citing "a bevy of sources." Does that mean Netflix doesn't know how much it will pay for the games? The NFL declined to comment; Netflix didn't respond to a request for comment. If the deal does happen, it will be easy to step back and see how Netflix got there. The NFL now plans on releasing details about its upcoming schedule on May 15 — which also happens to be the day Netflix will host its "upfront" event in New York, catered to advertisers.

Persons: —, Puck's John Ourand, they'd Organizations: Service, Netflix, Business, NFL Locations: America, New York

☆ Why a failed video game cost Warner Brothers $200 million
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Discovery reported a $200 million loss on the game "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League." It's a reminder of how similar the video game business is to Hollywood: big expenses, big rewards, big penalties for missing. AdvertisementDid you play "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League," the video game that came out in February? Discovery, which released the game, is that very few people did, and the ones who did really didn't like it. And that led the company to take a staggering $200 million loss on the game, which it disclosed in its first-quarter earnings Thursday.

Persons: — Organizations: Warner Bros, Discovery, Justice League, Big, Service, Business Locations: Hollywood

☆ Jack Dorsey Explains Why He Left Bluesky
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey helped found Bluesky as a Twitter alternative. But Dorsey says he left Bluesky because it was "literally repeating all the mistakes" Twitter made. AdvertisementWhy did Twitter cofounder Jack Dorsey leave Bluesky, the Twitter alternative he helped create? Because — in Dorsey's telling, at least — Bluesky was "literally repeating all the mistakes [Twitter] made as a company." And later on, when Dorsey got frustrated while running the for-profit version of Twitter, he imagined that Twitter could help start an independent, open-source protocol version of itself — Bluesky.

Persons: Jack Dorsey, Dorsey, —, Bluesky, Mike Solana Organizations: Twitter, Service Locations: Dorsey's

☆ Why a failed video game cost Warner Bros. $200 million
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Discovery reported a $200 million loss on the game "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League." It's a reminder of how similar the video-game business is to Hollywood: big expenses, big rewards, big penalties for missing. AdvertisementDid you play "Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League," the video game that came out in February? Discovery, which released the game, is that very few people did, and the ones who did really didn't like it. And that led the company to take a staggering $200 million loss on the game, which it disclosed in its first-quarter earnings on Thursday.

Persons: — Organizations: Warner Bros, Discovery, Justice League, Big, Service, Business Locations: Hollywood

☆ No, seriously. Where are the TikTok buyers?
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has decided against buying TikTok. That leaves a really tiny list of people who say they want to buy TikTok. AdvertisementWho's going to buy TikTok? [Crickets]Yes, if you Google "potential TikTok buyers" you'll find a bunch of stories — Business Insider has written one, too — speculating about names. They list Mnuchin as well as Shark Tank host Kevin O'Leary, who also likes to go on TV and talk about buying TikTok.

Persons: Eric Schmidt, —, Steve Mnuchin, ByteDance, Kevin O'Leary, Bobby Kotick, OpenAI's Sam Altman, we've, Trump Organizations: Google, Service, Treasury, TV, Street Journal, Activision, Oracle, Walmart, Microsoft, Big Tech, McKinsey, TikTok

☆ Whoops! I just (accidentally) screwed Jeff Bezos out of $130.
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-08 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

I wanted to subscribe to The Washington Post, owned by Jeff Bezos, for $12 every 4 weeks. download the app Email address Sign up By clicking “Sign Up”, you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy . And I definitely wasn't trying to get one over on The Washington Post. But that's just what happened: I tried to pay the Post, owned by the second-richest man in the world, $156 a year. This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers.

Persons: Jeff Bezos, —, Jeff Bezos's Organizations: Washington Post, Service, The Washington, Verizon, Hulu, Netflix, Spotify, Business

☆ Apple wants to give the iPad a boost
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-07 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The tech giant's event will reportedly showcase a new family of… iPads and iPad accessories. But Apple's event , which kicks off at 10 a.m. EST, is looking to give the iPad a boost. iPhone sales have noticeably dipped, which is why you're hearing Apple tout its "services" business , writes BI's Peter Kafka. And the new product Apple wants you to be excited about — the Vision Pro — hasn't lived up to the hype. a16z joins the Big Tech "fake work" debate.

Persons: —, Tyler Le, they're, iPads, Antonio Villas, Boas, BI's Peter Kafka, Peter, hasn't, Katie Notopoulos, Wall, Lauren DeCicca, Tim Cook, Katie, aren't, I'd, we'll, I'm, Alyssa Powell, Danielle DiMartino Booth, James Devaney, Roger Kisby, Jack Dorsey's, Elon, Dorsey, Elon Musk, Satya Nadella, OpenAI, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, a16z, Emily Sundberg, Andreessen Horowitz, David Ulevitch, Vladimir Putin, Dan DeFrancesco, Jordan Parker Erb, Hallam Bullock, George Glover Organizations: Service, Business, Apple, Google, Getty, US Treasury, National Bureau of Economic Research, Images, Penske Media, Microsoft, Tech, Paramount, Berkshire, Big Tech, Walt Disney Company Locations: BREIT, New York, London

☆ Why Warren Buffett's Paramount bet may have cost him $1.5 billion
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Famed investor Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway placed a $2.7 billion bet on Paramount in 2022. But when someone who's worth an estimated $132 billion says "quite a bit of money," it's probably a very big amount. The math: In 2022, Berkshire accumulated 91 million shares of Paramount B shares; Barron's estimates he paid "more than $30" per share. AdvertisementThat left Berkshire with another 63.3 million Paramount shares at the beginning of 2024, and sometime between then and Saturday they have sold off the rest. Add all that up, and it looks like Berkshire sold its Paramount stake for $1.2 billion after paying $2.7 billion for it — a $1.5 billion loss.

Persons: Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, hasn't, — Buffett, —, Warren Buffett, Berkshire Hathaway, Buffett, we've, Berkshire Hathaway hasn't, Berkshire Organizations: Paramount, Service, Sony, Apollo, Berkshire, Bloomberg Locations: Berkshire

☆ Why Apple's ad business isn't what you think it is
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-06 | by ( Peter Kafka | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +1 min

Apple's definition of "services" includes advertising, which Apple routinely says is a major driver of its services growth. NEW LOOK Sign up to get the inside scoop on today’s biggest stories in markets, tech, and business — delivered daily. But as we've pointed out many times, iPhone sales won't grow forever. Which is why, for the last several years, Apple has been taking pains to highlight its growing "services" business. "Services," per Apple's description, is a fast-growing grab-bag of stuff, all of which doesn't directly involve Apple hardware: money Apple makes from App Store sales; money Apple makes selling warranties and cloud storage; and money Apple makes selling you music and TV subscription services.

Persons: —, doesn't Organizations: Apple, Service, Business

Search resuls for: "Peter Kafka"

25 mentions found