DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Car makers like Ford and GM are increasing loan payments, while some rivals are keeping costs down
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( Alexa St. John | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Between March 2020 and December 2022, average monthly loan payments jumped about 29%, according to Dealertrack data Chesbrough shared. "Not everybody has risen their monthly payments in quite the amount." Alfa Romeo, Mini, Subaru, Jaguar, Audi, Kia, Mercedes-Benz, Infiniti, Toyota, and Genesis, made up the 10 brands with the lowest increases in their average monthly loan payments over the same period. Toyota was one of the 10 brands with the lowest increase in their average monthly loan payments since the pandemic began. "We think that there's really not going to be enough demand there at these high prices," Chesbrough said.

☆ Don't overpay for prescriptions—even well-marketed ones
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( Ryan Ermey | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

In times when I felt otherwise unappealing, my hair was always there — thick, coifed and widow's peaked. So at the very first signs my hairline was receding in my mid-20s, I started taking a drug to stop it. In the years since I began preempting my hair loss, a handful of companies have begun marketing to people with similar anxieties to mine. All boast well-designed websites, discreet packaging and messaging providing reassurance that your thinning hair or sexual underperformance can be treated without the awkwardness of seeing your doctor. Had they been around at the time, these are companies I likely would have signed up with.

☆ Sen. Warren warns Tesla board that Musk may have failed to meet his legal duties due to Twitter takeover
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Lauren Feiner | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., wrote to the chair of Tesla's board Robyn Denholm expressing concern that CEO Elon Musk has failed to meet his legal duties since buying Twitter for $44 billion. "This use of Tesla employees raises obvious questions about whether Mr. Musk is appropriating resources from a publicly traded firm, Tesla, to benefit his own private company, Twitter," Warren wrote, adding that it could violate Musk's "legal duty of loyalty to Tesla." She also suggested the arrangements could violate legal requirements to make public employment agreements with executive officers, which Warren said Tesla has not done. Warren added that the debt Musk took on to buy Twitter could also create conflicts, like incentivizing him to have Tesla overpay for Twitter advertising to infuse it with cash. WATCH: Twitter is now Elon Musk's company — Here's how experts responded to the news

☆ Elizabeth Warren is concerned Elon Musk is treating Tesla like a 'plaything' amid his Twitter takeover
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Grace Kay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Sen. Elizabeth Warren wrote to Tesla's board, raising questions over Elon Musk's Twitter purchase. The senator told the board it must ensure Elon Musk does not treat Tesla as a "private plaything." Some Tesla investors have expressed concern that Twitter has become a distraction for Musk. Warren cited reports that Musk has brought in dozen of Tesla employees to assist in his Twitter takeover, saying it could violate the billionaire's "legal duty of loyalty to Tesla." Musk later took aim at Warren, calling her "Senator Karen" and saying she reminded him of a "friend's angry mom."

☆ Lachlan Murdoch biographer breaks down his relationship with father Rupert Murdoch and why a merger of Fox and News Corp is about 'entrenching Lachlan's control'
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-30 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +10 min

A new unauthorized biography of Lachlan Murdoch explores his business profile and family relationships. Its author, Paddy Manning, speculates about who might exit if Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corp and News Corp recombine. Rupert Murdoch remains executive chairman of News Corp and chairman of Fox. Lachlan Murdoch was named Fox's CEO, and James Murdoch, after four years as CEO of 21st Century Fox, was left to carve his own path. If you're looking longer-term about who's going to run the company beyond the merger, if it happens, [News Corp CEO] Robert Thomson is probably retiring.

Mary Meisenzahl/InsiderEarning credit card sign-up bonuses is the fastest way to earn rewards for (nearly) free travel. If you don't think you can meet the spending requirement to earn a card bonus, there are tricks to help you get there (without overspending). Note that credit card lenders may use many different variations of credit score models when considering your application. Let's take a look at a few powerful ways to meet credit card minimum spending requirements. Pay your rent or mortgageThere are a few services that let you pay your rent or mortgage by credit card.

☆ The softening of real estate prices in the hottest pandemic markets only confirms that the surge in remote work created the illusion of a housing shortage
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( Alcynna Lloyd | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Their presence led to a run-up in housing costs and real estate investor activity. But elevated home prices are "being misinterpreted as a shortage" says Erin Sykes, economist for Nest Seekers. "I'm not convinced there is a housing shortage, more so a mismatch of housing types and locations," she told Insider. According to an October housing report from ATTOM, institutional investors nationwide accounted for only 6.7% of housing inventory in the third-quarter of 2022 — down from the 8.4% seen in Q3 of 2021. As homebuyer and investor activity fades, and more employers call workers back into the office, Sykes says the so-called housing shortage could be on its last leg.

☆ Wall Street titan Apollo has a new class of dealmakers. Here's how 3 rose to partner while in their 30s.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-17 | by ( Casey Sullivan | Hayley Cuccinello | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +23 min

He persevered through the brutal all-nighters, the perplexing spreadsheets, and the temperamental bosses who walked the halls of the midtown Manhattan investment firm. At Apollo, executives tend to grow up quickly. Some of their former colleagues have tried to make more money elsewhere, such as the hedge funds run by billionaire personalities that Apollo's executives quietly root against. Associates sometimes dealt with burnout from heavy workloads and demanding bosses by escaping for a walk through Central Park to let off steam, according to the former firm associates. We're Rayman Apollo!'"

The case could have given the justices, had they decided to hear it, a chance to make it harder for consumers and other plaintiffs to receive class action status. The Reston, Virginia-based company, which produces StarKist Tuna, had asked the Supreme Court to consider whether plaintiffs could still win class action status in cases in which some of the members of the class were not injured by a company's alleged wrongdoing. Class action status allows a few plaintiffs to litigate on behalf of a much larger group rather than forcing individuals to litigate separately. Businesses fight to avoid cases winning class action status, which can expose them to massive potential damages and create pressure to settle. In 2019, a trial judge granted class action status to three separate groups of tuna buyers: direct purchasers such as national retailers and regional grocery stores; commercial food preparers; and individual consumers.

☆ Lachlan Murdoch biographer breaks down his relationship with dad Rupert and why his siblings want to change 'destructive' Fox News
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Claire Atkinson | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +9 min

A new unauthorized biography of Lachlan Murdoch explores his business profile and family relationships. Its author, Paddy Manning, speculates about who might exit if Rupert Murdoch's Fox Corp and News Corp recombine. Lachlan Murdoch was named Fox's CEO, and James Murdoch, after four years as CEO of 21st Century Fox, was left to carve his own path. Why did you want to write a book about Lachlan Murdoch? Did you talk to Lachlan Murdoch?

☆ Tech firms can’t swing the axe equally
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Jennifer Saba | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But mass layoffs in other industries suggests that firms should be careful not to over-fire. Mark Zuckerberg’s $253 billion outfit is preparing to slash thousands of workers this week, according to the Wall Street Journal. Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk is blaming a massive drop in revenue as the reason to cull half of the social network’s 7,500 employees. These tech firms, though established, are also largely untested through a downturn. Twitter on Nov. 4 laid off half of its staff, or around 3,700 people, Reuters reported.

☆ Elon Musk idea to charge for Twitter verification draws critics
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Eli M. Rosenberg | Eli Rosenberg Is An Investigative Tech Reporter For Nbc News. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +8 min

Critics of Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover say any plan to charge users for identity verification could make information on the site less trustworthy and more vulnerable to manipulation — devaluing the company. The idea of a monthly fee for the blue verification checkmark by users' names was reported Sunday by Casey Newton’s tech-focused newsletter Platformer. Musk hasn't confirmed a charge will be added but on Sunday tweeted, “The whole verification process is being revamped right now,” on his own verified account. Jeff Jarvis, a prolific Twitter user and journalism professor who studies how information travels in the digital age, worries such a plan could backfire. “Twitter has had many, many people working on issues like user interface design and innovation, testing it with user groups, and people who specialize in working with VITs — very important Twitter users,” she said.

☆ Jeremy Grantham's firm says it's time to buy into small cap stocks. Here are the themes and companies GMO is most bullish on.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Marley Jay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Jeremy Grantham's firm GMO just launched a fund targeting "quality" small-cap stocks. Growing fears about a recession weren't enough to stop small cap stocks from having a great month in October. But small caps seem to have some momentum behind them despite rising interest rates and signs of a slowing economy. They say that quality small caps have outperformed small caps in general by 1.8% a year since 1976, and they've beaten a mix of small-, medium-, and large-caps by 2.8% a year in that time. That's a challenge for any investor, but they say it's harder with smaller companies because their competitive edges fade faster.

☆ Opendoor slashed prices and paid buyers' agents $3,500 a house in a rush to off-load thousands of homes in the third quarter
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-01 | by ( Daniel Geiger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Opendoor cut prices and gave incentives in the third quarter, losing cash on much of its inventory. Opendoor has been offering buyers $15,000 credits and their brokers $3,500 bonuses. A decelerating housing market poses a challenge for iBuying companies like Opendoor, which use home-pricing algorithms to purchase homes. In the third quarter, Opendoor sold between 8,100 and 8,550 homes, according to an estimate by Datadoor, a startup that catalogs Opendoor's acquisition and sales activity across the country. The high end of Datadoor's estimate, 8,550 home sales, would be an 18% decrease in the number of sales Opendoor reported for the second quarter and 32% below the first quarter.

☆ Online real-estate investment firm Fundrise is paying way over housing-market value for some build-to-rent communities. Here's why it says it's still a winning strategy.
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-24 | by ( Alex Nicoll | Lisa Kailai Han | James Rodriguez | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +14 min

Build-to-rent communities skip the intermediary and go straight to the homebuilder. While typical single-family rental strategies, pioneered by Blackstone in the aftermath of the Great Recession, are inherently tied to the housing market, build-to-rent is not. In the eyes of private equity, there's no difference between build-to-rent communities and apartment blocks. If you value Cypress Bay as an apartment building, instead of a collection of homes, Fundrise got a good deal. Fundrise is still working on deals, Miller said, with a deal pipeline stretching out to 2025.

☆ What Cramer is watching Monday — bond yields up, stocks down again as Wall Street on Fed watch
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-19 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Morgan Stanley talks about the need to show why Club holding Salesforce (CRM) should stabilize out of Dreamforce conference. I think that's wrong: it's Club holding TJX Companies (TJX), off-price retailer behind T.J. Maxx, Marshall's and HomeGoods. Bank of America says do not sell Club holding Amazon (AMZN) on FedEx (FDX) warning. How about Club holding Disney (DIS)? As a subscriber to the CNBC Investing Club with Jim Cramer, you will receive a trade alert before Jim makes a trade.

☆ JetBlue to buy Spirit for $3.8 billion in push to become the fifth-largest US carrier
▼ + stars: | 2022-07-28 | by ( Leslie Josephs | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

In this article ULCCJBLUSAVEwatch nowJetBlue Airways has reached a $3.8 billion deal to buy Spirit Airlines in a takeover that would create the country's fifth-largest airline and remove a fast-growing budget carrier from the market. Spirit lacked the shareholder support to win approval of the Frontier merger, which was first unveiled in February. If approved by regulators, JetBlue's takeover of Spirit would leave Frontier as the largest discount carrier in the U.S. It would also be the first major U.S. airline deal since 2016, when Alaska Airlines beat out JetBlue for Virgin America. A JetBlue airliner lands past a Spirit Airlines jet on taxi way at Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport on Monday, April 25, 2022.

Learn moreNew Nvidia and AMD graphics cards have driven a PC gaming boom amid an international chip shortage. International tariffs and resellers on eBay and Amazon have also led to graphics cards getting more expensive in recent years. AdvertisementAdvertisementAMD Radeon RX 7000 series graphics cardsAn AMD Radeon RX 7000 series card. AdvertisementAdvertisementWhere to buy an Nvidia or AMD graphics cardRecommended retailers for an Nvidia or AMD graphics card include Microcenter, Best Buy, Newegg, and Amazon (Nvidia, AMD). Finally, you can always buy a graphics card as a part of a pre-built PC, rather than purchasing a card separately for an upgrade or custom build.

Organizations: Nvidia, AMD, Service, eBay, they're, YouTube, lotto Locations: Wall, Silicon

Search resuls for: "overpay"

18 mentions found