Tag: expansion

Klarna losses triple after aggressive U.S. growth and mass layoffs

Post author By
Post date August 31, 2022

Klarna losses triple after aggressive U.S. expansion and mass layoffs

The logo of Swedish payment provider Klarna.

Thomas Trutschel | photo library | Getty Images

Klarna on Wednesday reported a dramatic jump in losses in the first half, adding to a deluge of negative news for the “buy now, pay later” pioneer.

The Swedish payments firm generated revenues of 9.1 billion Swedish krona ($950 million) in the period spanning January to the end of June 2022. That was up 24% from a year ago.

But the company also racked up hefty losses. Klarna’s pre-tax loss soared more than threefold year-on-year to nearly 6.2 billion krona. In the first half of 2021, Klarna lost around 1.8 billion Swedish krona.

The company, which allows users to spread the cost of purchases over interest-free installations, saw a jump in operating expenses and defaults. Operating expenses before credit losses came in at 10.8 billion Swedish krona, up from 6.3 billion krona year-over-year, driven by administrative costs related to its rapid international expansion in countries like the US credit losses, meanwhile, rose more than 50% to 2.9 billion swedish krona.

Klarna had previously been profitable for most of its existence — that is up until 2019, when the firm dipped into the red for the first time after a hike in investments aimed at growing the business globally.

The company’s ballooning losses highlight the price of its rapid expansion after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Klarna has entered 11 new markets since the start of 2020, and took a number of costly gambits to extend its foothold in the US and Britain.

In the US, Klarna has spent heavily on marketing and user acquisition in an effort to chip away at Affirm, its main rival stateside. In the UK, meanwhile, the firm acquired PriceRunner, a price comparison site, in April. It has also engaged in a charm offensive with British politicians and regulators ahead of incoming regulations.

More recently, Klarna has been forced to cut back. In May, the company slashed about 10% of its global workforce in a swift round of job cuts. The company subsequently raised funds at a $6.7 billion valuation — an 85% drop from its previous valuation — in an $800 million investment deal that defined the capitulation from high-growth tech firms as investors grew wary of a possible recession.

The sharp discount reflects grim sentiment among investors in fintech in both the public and private markets, with publicly-listed fintech Affirm having lost about three quarters of its market value since the start of 2022.

“We’ve had to make some tough decisions, ensuring we have the right people, in the right place, focused on business priorities that will accelerate us back to profitability while supporting consumers and retailers through a more difficult economic period,” said Sebastian Siemiatkowski , CEO and co-founder of Klarna.

“We needed to take immediate and pre-emptive action, which I think was misunderstood at the time, but now sadly we have seen many other companies follow suit.”

Klarna said it plans to tighten its approach to lending, particularly with new customers, to factor in the worsening cost-of-living situation. However, Siemiatkowski said, “You won’t see the impact of this on our financials in this report yet.”

“We have a very agile balance sheet, especially in comparison to traditional banks due to the short-term nature of our products, but even for Klarna it takes a little while for the impact of decisions to flow through.”

Fintech companies are cutting expenses and delaying listing plans amid a worsening macroeconomic backdrop. Meanwhile, consumer-oriented services are losing their appeal among investors while so-called “business-to-business” fintechs attract the limelight.

Klarna says it is now used by over 150 million people, while the company counts 450,000 merchants on its network. Klarna mainly generates income from retailers, not users, taking a small slice of each transaction processed through its platform.

“Ultimately they’ve proven there can be a profitable business there but have doubled down on growing in the US market which is expensive,” Simon Taylor, head of strategy at fintech startup Sardine.ai, told CNBC.

“Market share there will be meaningful for long-term revenue. But it takes time and the funding taps aren’t what they used to be.”

But the company faces stiff competition, with titans in the realms of both tech and finance seeking to capitalize on growth in the buy now, pay later industry. Apple is set to launch its own BNPL product, Apple Pay Later, this case, which will allow users to split the cost of their purchases over four equal monthly payments.

Meanwhile, proposals are afoot to bring the BNPL market under regulatory supervision. In the UK, the government has announced plans to enforce tighter affordability checks and a crackdown on misleading advertisements. Stateside, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau opened a market-monitoring probe into BNPL companies.

Tags Aggressive, expansion, Klarna, Layoffs, Losses, Mass, triple

Politics

Senate Passes $3.5 Trillion Price range Plan, Advancing Sweeping Security Internet Growth

Post author By
Post date August 11, 2021

“You’re spending money like drunken sailors,” declared Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the Budget Committee. “You’re putting in motion, I think, the demise of America as we know it. You’re putting in motion a government that nobody’s grandchild can ever afford to pay.”

The proposed changes, many of which were shot down along party lines, were nonbinding and intended more to burnish a political case against the most vulnerable Democratic senators facing re-election in 2022 than to become law. Some Republicans said the brunt of their proposals would wait until the subsequent legislation was finished, when changes could actually be adopted.

“The next vote-a-rama is the one that really matters, because then you’re firing with live ammo,” said Senator Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania. “So I’m much more interested in that one than this one.”

The hourslong stretch began with a vote that would prohibit funding or regulations to establish the Green New Deal, with Senator John Barrasso, Republican of Wyoming, declaring that any such provision “will reduce the quality of life for American people — millions and millions of Americans will suffer.”

“I have no problem voting for this amendment, because it has nothing to do with the Green New Deal,” Mr. Sanders shot back. The amendment passed unanimously, with the legislation’s Democratic sponsors dismissing it as “a tired and failed Republican attempt to throw speed bumps on the road to climate action.”

Democrats worked to remain in lock step to ward off many of the Republican proposals, including a provision from Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, that would prevent changes to the cap on how much taxpayers can deduct in state and local taxes. Democrats from high-tax states, particularly New York, New Jersey and California, have made raising or repealing the cap a priority, and a partial repeal is under discussion to be included in the final legislation.

Tags Advancing, budget, expansion, net, Passes, Plan, safety, Senate, sweeping, trillion

Business

Luceo Sports activities searching for $5 million funding for growth

Post author By
Post date May 22, 2021

Team LeBron head coach Quin Snyder trains during the 70th NBA All Star game as part of the NBA All Star Weekend 2021 on March 7, 2021 at State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

Jesse D. Garrabrant | National Basketball Association | Getty Images

Luceo Sports, a software company that digitizes and animates sports betting, is looking for investors to expand its business. The company is based in Arizona and has already entered into agreements with professional basketball clubs that use the product.

In an interview with CNBC, Andy Graham, founder and CEO of Luceo, said he was looking for approximately $ 5 million to invest in sales and marketing. With Luceo’s software, teams can insert their game books and terminology and then convert drawings into motion graphics.

“It makes it a game animation so you get that sequence and timing instead of just a picture,” said Graham.

He added Luceo could help younger athletes learn game books faster, and teams could also distribute them to newly acquired players. For example, if a National Basketball Association team makes a mid-season deal, a team using Luceo can quickly create a login and give the player access to digital game books.

“We are focused on the educational aspect of the game,” said Graham. “And we remember that trainers are teachers and try to teach them good educational technology so they can create explanations to reach today’s digital learners.”

The Rosetta Stone of Sport

37-year-old Graham started Luceo in 2016 after spending time with data analytics company Synergy Sports and software company FastModel, which also makes money digitizing pro playbooks. He left FastModel in 2014 after discovering a niche in the market.

“I realized how much technology had advanced in those years (at FastModel) and I wanted to be a part of it all,” said Graham. “Ed-tech, a market that has exploded in the last few decades, and sports at all levels are just a learning and development activity.”

Luceo is a software-as-a-service company, and the company makes money on subscription, ancillary service, and transaction fees. Subscriptions are only $ 2 per month for users, while the premium Professional package is $ 15 per month. The program has an app. However, registrations are only possible through the website to avoid the fees Apple charges for digital subscriptions.

When asked about subscribers, Graham declined to give details, but added that there are around 150,000 people in the company’s “ecosystem”. Hence people who know Luceo and have access to him. The company has agreements with 11 NBA clubs, including the Utah Jazz and three college teams.

Graham also did not disclose any income. He said pro clubs usually sign annual contracts and Luceo targets everyday consumers with subscription pricing. The plan is to attract Generation Z users (ages 6 to 24) and their parents as this population group grows up in a more digitized learning environment. One of the features Graham highlighted is a playoff within the program. The activity allows athletes to use a team’s playbook to practice what to do in critical game situations.

Graham called Luceo the Rosetta Stone – popular language learning software – of sport.

“The most comprehensive digital learning platform for sport,” he said. “The more children feel that they understand the sport, or that fans understand it, or parents, the more likely they are to get involved.”

Targeting the NFL

While at Synergy, Graham said he had improved his product design and business development skills, adding that the insight “is fundamental to what I think of now”. The lessons will be essential to Luceo as the competition is fierce. According to Grand View Research, the ed-tech market is projected to reach $ 377 billion by 2028. Here, too, FastModel is a competitor and is already used by numerous basketball scouts.

The National Football League could support Luceo’s future growth. With its software, Luceo positions itself as a target group for professional football clubs and is currently working on digitized and animated football match books. Graham said he would start small and pursue high schools and college programs first.

Andrew Graham, Luceo Sports

Source: Luceo Sports

“That’s where we go,” said Graham when he finally chased the NFL business.

Luceo is gaining traction in sports and has been featured on NBATV. Sacramento Kings deputy head coach Alvin Gentry is also a supporter of the software. To take the next step, Graham needs to convince investors of Luceo’s potential. It won’t be easy, but Graham says it’s part of the “fun challenge” of running a business.

When asked to provide a brief overview of Luceo, Graham said, “I’ve already built a business that teams in the NBA and NCAA use twice. (Luceo) started small and has been up to for the past five years grown to that point, “he added. “But I have faith in the needs of the market. I know how this business works.”

Tags expansion, investment, Luceo, million, seeking, Sports

Politics

Biden American Households plan excludes Medicare enlargement, drug value cuts

Post author By
Post date April 28, 2021

Biden American Families plan excludes Medicare expansion, drug price cuts

United States President Joe Biden speaks about updated CDC guidelines on masks for people fully vaccinated during an event held outside the White House on April 27, 2021 in Washington, DC.

Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

President Joe Biden’s new plan to strengthen the social safety net would not expand Medicare coverage, an omission that could anger dozens of Democratic lawmakers who urged him to expand the program to more Americans.

The White House on Wednesday unveiled the $ 1.8 trillion plan for American families, the second part of the president’s $ 4 trillion stimulus plan. It calls for paid holidays and free preschool to be expanded, childcare and higher education to be made more affordable, and family tax credits passed under this year’s coronavirus law to be extended.

The plan does not include Biden’s commitments to create a public health insurance option and lower the Medicare Eligible Age to 60 years. It plans to invest $ 200 billion in permanent premium cost reductions for people who buy insurance in the individual market. The guideline was adopted as part of the pandemic aid.

Dozen of Biden’s party lawmakers have urged him to lower the Medicare Eligibility Age as part of the proposal, saying the move would expand coverage to millions more Americans. They also asked him to allow Medicare to negotiate prices with drug companies to cut costs. The new package did not make the determination.

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Seventeen senators wrote to Biden on Sunday asking him to include both guidelines in the family plan. More than 80 House Democrats sent a similar letter to the president on Monday.

Biden plans to outline the restoration proposal ahead of a joint session of the democratically held Congress on Wednesday evening.

When asked Tuesday why the government hasn’t called to lower the Medicare eligibility age or allow direct negotiation of drug prices as part of the plan, a senior administrator pointed out funding to lower the cost of premiums. The policy is “one of the most powerful investments we can make” to bring down prices and expand coverage, said the official, who refused to be named.

“The president was very, very clear that he remained fully committed to negotiating the price of prescription drugs. You will hear him as a top priority and something he thinks is urgent,” he said Officer.

It is now unclear whether the exclusion of health policy will jeopardize Biden’s passage in Congress. With Republicans opposed to both major social security expansion and tax hikes, Democrats may have to approve the proposal themselves through a budget vote.

Health insurance emerged as the top priority in Democratic elementary school last year – even before millions of people lost their private insurance during an economic slump and deadly pandemic. A wing of White House hopefuls, led by Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Called for a deposit system that covers all Americans.

Biden chose to expand gradually, advocating a public option, and then a Medicare eligible age of 60. Despite the intense focus on insurance during the campaign and a health crisis that uncovered loopholes in the current system, the White House has not yet proposed these health plans.

The government has taken steps to protect people during the pandemic. Along with the subsidy increases passed earlier this year, the federal government opened a special registration deadline for Obamacare so that Americans can buy plans.

The Democrats in Congress, who support Medicare’s expansion, have called it a direct tool to both increase insurance coverage and reduce health inequalities. The agents and senators who wrote to Biden suggested an estimate that lowering the eligible age to 60 would allow 23 million more people to qualify for Medicare.

Lowering the threshold to 55 would call 42 million more people into question for the program, lawmakers wrote.

Proponents of direct Medicare price negotiations with drug companies say the change would not only lower costs for consumers, but also free up money for the federal government to pay for their coverage.

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Tags American, Biden, Cuts, Drug, excludes, expansion, Families, Medicare, Plan, Price

Politics

Democrats’ Supreme Court docket Growth Plan Attracts Resistance

Post author By
Post date April 16, 2021

Democrats’ Supreme Court Expansion Plan Draws Resistance

The proponents of the bill hope to generate more support for a possible overhaul.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and chairman of the Justice Committee, said it made sense to enlarge the court given its complex workload and the growth of the federal judicial system since the composition of the Supreme Court last changed in 1869, no the Constitution, and it was amended several times in the nation’s early days.

“Nine judges in the 19th century, when there were only nine cycles, and many of our most important federal laws may have made sense – from civil rights to antitrust, internet, financial regulation, health care, immigration to employee crime – just didn’t exist and didn’t require a decision by the Supreme Court, ”said Nadler, another sponsor of the bill. “But the logic behind only nine judges is much weaker today when there are 13 circuits.”

Republicans immediately attacked the idea, and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, called it a “crazy” bill and found that even liberal members of the court opposed the idea.

“By the way, the public agrees,” he said in the Senate. “You see through this discredited concept.”

Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican from South Carolina and senior judicial committee member, called it a “terrible idea”.

“If this succeeds, it will inevitably result in the number of Supreme Court justices changing every time power shifts,” he said.

Republican politicians were quick to criticize the proposal to expand the court, which also appeared in the Senate in 2020, signaling that the party would try to use the issue to portray Democrats as radical even if the legislation fails.

Tags Court, Democrats, Draws, expansion, Plan, Resistance, Supreme

Business

RH CEO Gary Friedman assured within the retailer’s growth plans

Post author By
Post date March 26, 2021

RH CEO Gary Friedman confident in the retailer's expansion plans

Gary Friedman, CEO of RH, told CNBC on Thursday that he was confident about the company’s expansion vision, even if some may question the luxury furniture retailer’s moves into the European market or into new industries as a whole.

“It takes a long time to build something extraordinary in this world, and we still feel like we’re honestly just warming up,” Friedman said in an interview with Jim Cramer about Mad Money. “We’re more excited than ever and see more opportunities than ever.”

RH, formerly known as Restoration Hardware, plans to open stores in England and Paris next year as the California-based company expands internationally.

With the debut of its RH Guesthouse concept in New York City, the company is also moving further towards the hospitality industry – it already operates restaurants. That is slated to open in the fall, followed by an RH guesthouse in Aspen, Colorado next year. Friedman refuses to refer to them as hotels, saying RH is trying to “create a new market for privacy and luxury”.

In Aspen, RH also has plans to develop homes in its first “RH ecosystem”.

“A lot of the things we’re going to do are just misunderstood at first. And until they’re seen and respected … then you can’t ignore it,” Friedman said.

Confident that the company can thrive in Europe, Friedman points to RH’s experience sourcing locally sourced products and its position as the leading Italian bedding and Belgian linen seller worldwide.

Friedman acknowledged that RH’s foray into new industries like residential real estate may seem strange at first for a company traditionally viewed as a retailer. “But when you’re trying to build one of the most admired brands in the world, when you want to do something extraordinary, you can’t go down an ordinary path,” he said.

Friedman’s appearance on “Mad Money” on Thursday came the day after RH posted fourth quarter revenue and earnings that exceeded analysts’ expectations. RH ended fiscal 2020 with sales of $ 2.85 billion. In a letter to shareholders, Friedman wrote that RH believes “the data supports the RH brand, which hits $ 5-6 billion in North America and $ 20-25 billion globally.”

RH stock rose 9% on Thursday to close at $ 529.08 apiece. The stock is up nearly 400% over the past 12 months.

Tags CEO, confident, expansion, Friedman, Gary, plans, retailers

Business

HBO Max Plans International Enlargement: Stay Updates

Post author By
Post date March 12, 2021

“The problems that beset journalism today are caused in part by a fundamental lack of competition in the search and ad tech markets that are controlled by Google,” said Brad Smith, Microsoft’s president.

Here’s what you need to know:

Credit…Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

Lawmakers on Friday debated an antitrust bill that would give news publishers collective bargaining power with online platforms like Facebook and Google, putting the spotlight on a proposal aimed at chipping away at the power of Big Tech.

At a hearing held by the House antitrust subcommittee, Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, emerged as a leading industry voice in favor of the law. He took a divergent path from his tech counterparts, pointing to an imbalance in power between publishers and tech platforms. Newspaper ad revenue plummeted to $14.3 billion in 2018 from $49.4 billion in 2005, he said, while ad revenue at Google jumped to $116 billion from $6.1 billion.

“Even though news helps fuel search engines, news organizations frequently are uncompensated or, at best, undercompensated for its use,” Mr. Smith said. “The problems that beset journalism today are caused in part by a fundamental lack of competition in the search and ad tech markets that are controlled by Google.”

The hearing was the second in a series planned by the subcommittee to set the stage for the creation of stronger antitrust laws. In October, the subcommittee, led by Representative David Cicilline, Democrat of Rhode Island, released the results of a 16-month investigation into the power of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. The report accused the companies of monopoly behavior.

This week, the committee’s two top leaders, Mr. Cicilline and Representative Ken Buck, Republican of Colorado, introduced the Journalism and Competition Preservation Act. The bill aims to give smaller news publishers the ability to band together to bargain with online platforms for higher fees for distributing their content. The bill was also introduced in the Senate by Senator Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat of Minnesota and the chairwoman of that chamber’s antitrust subcommittee.

Global concern is growing over the decline of local news organizations, which have become dependent on online platforms for distribution of their content. Australia recently proposed a law allowing news publishers to bargain with Google and Facebook, and lawmakers in Canada and Britain are considering similar steps.

Mr. Cicilline said, “While I do not view this legislation as a substitute for more meaningful competition online — including structural remedies to address the underlying problems in the market — it is clear that we must do something in the short term to save trustworthy journalism before it is lost forever.”

Google, though not a witness at the hearing, issued a statement in response to Mr. Smith’s planned testimony, defending its business practices and disparaging the motives of Microsoft, whose Bing search engine runs a very distant second place behind Google.

“Unfortunately, as competition in these areas intensifies, they are reverting to their familiar playbook of attacking rivals and lobbying for regulations that benefit their own interests,” wrote Kent Walker, the senior vice president of policy for Google.

Credit…Lynsey Weatherspoon for The New York Times

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida became the most prominent Republican leader to weigh in on the unionization drive at the Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala., with a surprising endorsement of the organizing effort on Friday.

“The days of conservatives being taken for granted by the business community are over,” Mr. Rubio wrote in an opinion piece published in USA Today.

“Here’s my standard: When the conflict is between working Americans and a company whose leadership has decided to wage culture war against working-class values, the choice is easy — I support the workers,” he continues. “And that’s why I stand with those at Amazon’s Bessemer warehouse today.”

More than 5,800 workers at the Amazon warehouse, outside Birmingham, are voting by mail this month to decide whether to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union. Last week, President Biden posted a video message on Twitter referring to the vote in Alabama and espousing on the importance of unions in helping build the middle class, while excoriating employers who interfere in unionization efforts. He did not mention Amazon by name, but his remarks followed reports that the online retailer was engaged in aggressive anti-union tactics.

“We welcome support from all quarters,” the union’s president, Stuart Appelbaum, said in a statement. “Senator Rubio’s support demonstrates that the best way for working people to achieve dignity and respect in the workplace is through unionization. This should not be a partisan issue.”

Mr. Rubio, who recalls marching in a union picket line with his father, a hotel bartender, accused Amazon of expressing “woke” values, while bowing to Chinese censorship. And he warned the company not to expect Republicans to come to its rescue and condone its anti-union efforts.

“Its workers are right to suspect that its management doesn’t have their best interests in mind,” Mr. Rubio wrote. “Wealthy woke C.E.O.s instead view them as a cog in a machine that consistently prioritizes global profit margins and stoking cheap culture wars. The company’s workers deserve better.”

Credit…Warner Bros. Pictures

HBO Max is going global.

The new streaming platform, currently only available to U.S. subscribers, will launch in 61 other markets starting in June.

The company also plans to launch an advertising-driven streaming service in the United States at the same time. The announcements came Friday as part of a broader presentation outlining a set of goals for AT&T, which owns HBO.

The company hopes to reach between 120 million and 150 million total customers for HBO Max and its traditional HBO TV channel by the end of 2025, a more ambitious target compared with its previous goal of 75 million to 90 million.

The company also expects between 67 million and 70 million customers by the end of 2021. It had 61 million as of the end of December, but the number of people actually watching HBO Max is much smaller. About 41.5 million customers are in the United States, and of that group about 17.2 million have HBO Max accounts. That suggests that of the company’s new subscriber target, not all of them will necessarily be streaming HBO Max.

The company has a complicated setup around HBO Max. People can sign up for the service directly, and those who already pay for the premium cable channel through their cable or satellite provider also have access, but not everyone has set up their streaming account. The service is also offered for free or at a reduced price to AT&T’s wireless customers.

The jump into international markets shows how aggressively AT&T needs to expand its streaming enterprise. The addition of an advertising-based service means the company sees an opportunity to capture the ad dollars that have started to move away from traditional television. It’s unclear if the ad-supported version will be free or whether it will only be available at a reduced price from HBO Max’s current $15 per month cost.

Jason Kilar, the chief executive of WarnerMedia, the unit that manages HBO, said the service is expected to start making money after 2025. It should generate about $15 billion in sales by that year, he added.

HBO Max has become a key part of AT&T’s overall strategy to keep and grow mobile customers, so losing money is less of an immediate concern if it helps AT&T retain its core wireless subscribers. Mr. Kilar emphasized HBO Max’s value to the phone business, citing that 25 percent of HBO Max customers have come via AT&T.

He ended his presentation with a cliché from the Warner Bros. film archives: “It’s the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Credit…Cheng Leng/Reuters

The chief executive of Ant Group, the Chinese internet finance giant, has stepped down, the company said on Friday, a move that came in the middle of a business overhaul meant to address regulators’ concerns about its rapid growth.

Ant said its chief executive, Simon Hu, had asked to resign for personal reasons. The company’s chairman, Eric Jing, was named as Mr. Hu’s replacement, effective immediately. Mr. Jing, who will remain Ant’s chairman, previously served as chief executive until December 2019, when Mr. Hu took over the post.

Hundreds of millions of people in China use Ant’s Alipay app to make everyday payments, sock away savings and shop on credit. Ant, which was spun out of the e-commerce giant Alibaba, has faced rising scrutiny from China’s government, and officials scuttled the company’s plans last year to go public in Shanghai and Hong Kong.

The company had been preparing to raise more than $34 billion by listing its shares in November, in what would have been the largest initial public offering on record. Instead, days before Ant’s shares were scheduled to begin trading, Chinese officials summoned company executives — namely, Mr. Hu, Mr. Jing and Jack Ma, Alibaba’s co-founder — to discuss regulation. The I.P.O. was halted soon after, and financial watchdogs said Ant had taken advantage of gaps in China’s regulatory system and ordered it to revamp its business.

Mr. Hu joined Alibaba in 2005 and was president of its cloud division from 2014 to 2018. He joined Ant as president that year before becoming chief executive in 2019. Mr. Jing, also an Alibaba veteran, has been Ant’s executive chairman since April 2018. They are both members of the Alibaba Partnership, the company’s club of elite management partners.

Ford Motor said two members of the Ford family have been nominated to join the automaker’s board of directors, replacing one family member who is retiring and an independent director who has chosen not to seek re-election.

Alexandra Ford English, 33, daughter of Ford’s chairman, Bill Ford, and Henry Ford III, 40, son of Edsel B. Ford II, a current board member, are expected to be elected to the board by shareholders at the company’s annual meeting on May 13. Both are great-great-grandchildren of Henry Ford, who founded the company in 1903.

Ms. English is a director in corporate strategy at the company. Henry Ford III is a director in investor relations.

They will replace Edsel Ford II, 72, who is retiring after being on the board since 1988, and John C. Lechleiter, 67, who joined Ford’s board in 2013 and is a former president of Eli Lilly, the pharmaceutical company.

Although the Ford family only owns a small portion of the company’s common stock, it retains effective control of the automaker though Class B shares with super-voting rights.

Credit…Courtney Crow/New York Stock Exchange, via Associated Press

The stock of Coupang, a start-up in South Korea that is sometimes called the Amazon of South Korea, drifted after trading publicly for the first time in New York on Thursday.

Coupang — the company’s name is a mix of the English word “coupon” and “pang,” the Korean sound for hitting the jackpot — was founded by a Harvard Business School dropout and has shaken up shopping in South Korea, an industry long dominated by huge, button-down conglomerates.

The initial public offering raised $4.6 billion and valued Coupang at about $85 billion, the second-largest American tally for an Asian company after Alibaba Group of China in 2014. Coupang’s shares rose 6.6 percent on Friday as trading began but ended the day down 2 percent.

Coupang is South Korea’s biggest e-commerce retailer, its status further cemented by people stuck at home during the pandemic and those in the country who crave faster delivery. In a country where people are obsessed with “ppalli ppalli,” or getting things done quickly, Coupang has become a household name by offering “next-day” and even “same-day” and “dawn” delivery of groceries and millions of other items at no extra charge.

Credit…Tony Dejak/Associated Press

Shares of Lordstown Motors, an electric-vehicle start-up, fell more than 19 percent on Friday after an investment firm claimed the company had inflated the number of orders for its pickup trucks and overstated its technological and production capabilities.

The revelations are the latest to call into question the promises made by an electric vehicle company that has gone public by merging with a shell company that has a stock market listing, cash and no operating business. Lordstown, which gained prominence by buying a former General Motors factory in Ohio to make electric trucks for commercial users, completed its merger with a shell company and started trading on the stock market in October 2020.

In a lengthy post on its website, the investment firm, Hindenburg Research, said that Lordstown’s claim of having 100,000 “pre-orders” for its electric pickup truck included tens of thousands from small companies that do not operate fleets, and others who merely agreed to consider buying trucks but made no commitment to do so. Hindenburg said it had bet against Lordstown’s stock by selling its shares short, a maneuver used by some professional investors when they believe a stock is overvalued and poised to fall.

“Our conversations with former employees, business partners and an extensive document review show that the company’s orders are largely fictitious and used as a prop to raise capital and confer legitimacy,” Hindenburg said.

A Lordstown spokesman said the company was working on a response to the report.

One company that Lordstown said was prepared to buy 14,000 trucks, E Squared Energy, appears to be based in an apartment in Texas, have two employees and owns no vehicles. Hindenburg also unearthed a police report that showed a Lordstown prototype caught fire and burned to a shell during a test drive in January in Michigan.

On Friday morning, Lordstown shares were trading at just over $14 a share, down from their close the previous day of $17.71.

Former President Donald J. Trump hailed Lordstown in 2018 when it agreed to buy a plant in Lordstown, Ohio, that General Motors had closed, and former Vice President Mike Pence participated in an unveiling of the company’s truck in June. In September, Mr. Trump hosted Lordstown’s chief executive, Steve Burns, at the White House and praised the company’s technology.

Hindenburg Research gained prominence last year when it released a report saying Nikola, an electric truck start-up, and its executive chairman, Trevor Milton, had mislead investors and exaggerated the capabilities of that company’s technology. The revelations resulted in Mr. Milton’s departure from Nikola, and prompted General Motors to scale back a partnership with the company.

Nikola denied some of Hindenburg’s claims but recently acknowledged to the Securities and Exchange Commission that Mr. Milton had made statements that were “inaccurate in whole or in part.”

Credit…Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

Target, a fixture in downtown Minneapolis, is giving up space in a large office building there, becoming the latest company to permanently allow its staff to spend more time working from home.

The retailer told employees it would cease operations in the City Center building in downtown Minneapolis and that the 3,500 employees working there would relocate to other nearby offices, while also working from home part of the time. More than a quarter of Target’s corporate employees in the Minneapolis area work in the City Center building.

“This change is driven by Target’s longer-term headquarters environment that will include a hybrid model of remote and on-site work, allowing for flexibility and collaboration and ultimately, requiring less space,” the company said Thursday.

Office landlords across the country have been struggling to retain tenants as the pandemic drags on and companies realize their staff has been able to work effectively in a remote setting. Empty office buildings are putting a squeeze on city budgets, which are heavily reliant on property taxes.

Salesforce, the software company based in San Francisco, adopted a flex model in which most of its employees would be able to come into the office one to three days a week. In a bet that more people would work from home after the pandemic ends, Salesforce acquired the workplace software company Slack in December.

After the move, Target said it would still occupy about three million square feet of office space in the Minneapolis area.

“It’s not easy to say goodbye to City Center, but the Twin Cities is still our home after all these years,’’ Target’s chief human resources officer, Melissa Kremer, said in an email to employees.

Credit…Wu Hong/EPA, via Shutterstock

LinkedIn has stopped allowing people in China to sign up for new member accounts while it works to ensure its service in the country remains in compliance with local law, the company said this week, without specifying what prompted the move. A company representative declined to comment further.

Unlike other global internet mainstays such as Facebook and Google, LinkedIn offers a version of its service in China, which it is able to do by hewing closely to the authoritarian government’s tight controls on cyberspace.

It censors its Chinese users in line with official mandates. It limits certain tools, such as the ability to create or join groups. It has given partial ownership of its Chinese operation to local investors.

In 2017, the company blocked individuals, but not companies, from advertising job openings on its site in China after it fell afoul of government rules requiring it to verify the identities of the people who post job listings.

The backdrop to the suspension of new user registrations is not clear. The government has previously blocked internet services that it believes to be breaking the law. In 2019, Microsoft’s Bing search engine was briefly inaccessible in China for unclear reasons. Microsoft also owns LinkedIn.

By: Ella Koeze·Data delayed at least 15 minutes·Source: FactSet

United States

The S&P 500 inched further into record territory on Thursday, rising 0.1 percent. The index gained 2.6 percent this week, its best weekly performance since early February.
The Nasdaq composite fell 0.6 percent, while the Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.9 percent.
The yield on 10-year Treasury notes jumped as much as 10 basis points, or 0.1 percentage points, to 1.64 percent, its highest level in more than a year.
Higher interest rates and tighter central bank policies are now considered to be the single biggest threat to so-called risk assets, mainly stocks, according to a Bank of America survey of fund managers. Investors have grown concerned that the stimulus bill and economic rebound will trigger inflation, prompting central banks to pull back on stimulus measures.

Europe

The Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.3 percent, while the FTSE 100 index in Britain rose 0.4 percent.
Data published on Friday showed that the British economy declined 2.9 percent in January as the country entered its third lockdown, shut schools and left the European Union single market and customs union. Separate data for the same month showed the largest monthly drop in trade since records began in 1997. Exports to the European Union dropped 40 percent and imports fell nearly 30 percent. Some of the fall is because of stockpiling at the end of last year, but many businesses struggled to keep trading as they dealt with new customs requirements.

Credit…Rory Doyle for The New York Times

The economic relief plan that is headed to President Biden’s desk has been billed as the United States’ most ambitious antipoverty initiative in a generation. But inside the $1.9 trillion package, there are plenty of perks for the middle class, too.

An analysis by the Tax Policy Center published this week estimated that middle-income families — those making $51,000 to $91,000 per year — would see their after-tax income rise by 5.5 percent as a result of the tax changes and stimulus payments in the legislation. This is about twice what that income group received as a result of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Here are some of the ways the bill will help the middle class.

Direct checks

Americans will receive stimulus checks of up to $1,400 per person, including dependents.

The size of the payments are scaled down for individuals making more than $75,000 and married couples earning more than $150,000. And they are cut off for individuals making $80,000 or more and couples earning more than $160,000. Those thresholds are lower than in the previous relief bills, but they will still be one of the biggest benefits enjoyed by those who are solidly in the middle class.

Tax credits for parents

The most significant change is to the child tax credit, which will be increased to up to $3,600 for each child under 6, from $2,000 per child. The credit, which is refundable for people with low tax bills, is $3,000 per child for children ages 6 to 17.

The legislation also bolsters the tax credits that parents receive to subsidize the cost of child care this year. The current credit is worth 20 to 35 percent of eligible expenses, with a maximum value of $2,100 for two or more qualifying individuals. The stimulus bill increases that amount to $4,000 for one qualifying individual or $8,000 for two or more.

Cheaper health insurance

After four years of being on life support, the Affordable Care Act is expanding, a development that will largely reward middle-income individuals and families, since those on the lower end of the income spectrum generally qualify for Medicaid.

Because the relief legislation expands the subsidies for buying health insurance, a 64-year-old earning $58,000 would see monthly payments decline to $412 from $1,075 under current law, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

A rescue for pensioners

One of the more contentious provisions in the legislation is the $86 billion allotted to fixing failing multiemployer pensions. The money is a taxpayer bailout for about 185 union pension plans that are so close to collapse that without the rescue, more than a million retired truck drivers, retail clerks, builders and others could be forced to forgo retirement income.

The legislation gives the weakest plans enough money to pay hundreds of thousands of retirees their full pensions for the next 30 years.

Tags expansion, global, HBO, Live, Max, plans, Updates

Business

Ladies’s soccer set viewership data in 2020, paves approach for growth

Post author By Gloria Cote
Post date December 13, 2020

Women's soccer set viewership records in 2020, paves way for expansion

Orlando Pride midfielder Bridget Callahan (22) shoots the ball during the NWSL soccer game between the Orlando Pride and the Washington Spirit on October 5, 2019 at Explorer Stadium in Orlando, FL.

Andrew Bershaw | Icon Sportswire | Getty Images

Women’s football had a great 2020 even in the middle of a pandemic, thanks to broadcast and streaming deals that brought the sport to more viewers than ever before.

Finding viewers outside of a dedicated core fan base and delivering games on a handful of consistent platforms will be key to further growth in 2021. Women’s sport is a feel-good story, but the next phase is about hitting the hard numbers, attracting new broadcast partners and corporate sponsors.

In the summer of 2020, the National Women’s Soccer League was the first U.S. professional sports league to return to activity, breaking its attendance records by nearly 300%. The first and last games of the Challenge Cup, which were the only ones to be shown on CBS and not on the subscription service CBS All Access, drew 572,000 and 653,000 viewers, respectively, on par with an English Premier League game that week and Major League Baseball Game on TBS broadcast in the same time slot. Last year’s NWSL final, which aired on ESPN, only drew 166,000 viewers.

Company sponsors also got on board. The NWSL signed contracts with Verizon, Google and Procter & Gamble before the Challenge Cup.

“The league has done strangely well,” said Lindsay Barenz, VP of Business Development for the NWSL, during the pandemic.

Multi-year partnerships with CBS Sports and Amazon Twitch were “game changers,” added Barenz. For regular playing time, CBS showed some games on its main network, 14 on the CBS Sports Network and the majority on CBS All Access. Twitch would stream all of the games internationally and a handful of free games domestically.

Even as more sports leagues returned to competition in the fall, the NWSL averaged 383,000 viewers for its fall series games, which aired on CBS. According to the league, the games, which were also streamed globally on Twitch, averaged just over 732,000 live views, and the most watched hit hit 1,000,000.

These deals came after the U.S. women’s national team won the 2019 Women’s World Cup and sparked new interest in the sport. In previous seasons, most games could only be streamed online, be it on Google’s YouTube, on teams’ websites or on Verizon’s go90. TV coverage for a handful of major games jumped between Fox Sports’ secondary channels and Disney subsidiary ESPN in various years. And NWSL’s multi-year contract with A&E Networks to broadcast games for life failed when A&E left in 2019, one season earlier. The NWSL only reached another TV deal after the World Cup when ESPN recorded 14 remaining games between ESPNews and ESPN2.

The NWSL was difficult to follow for avid fans and difficult to stumble upon for potential fans. The new rights contracts should ensure consistency and high quality production for the coming seasons.

Then the pandemic hit.

It was far from clear that women’s football could save the year, but it probably helped to be the first to come back with little athletic competition. The NWSL’s month-long Challenge Cup, played in a “bubble” in Utah, began June 27, two weeks before the men’s Major League Soccer returned and a month before the National Basketball Association launched its bubble at Disney World.

When it comes to growth, there is a tradeoff between maximizing sales and reaching the widest possible audience. Under the current contract, most NWSL games are only available through CBS Sports Network or CBS All Access, which are paid subscription services.

But the choice was “part of maturing as a league,” said Barenz. “Part of the maturity of our fans is that there is an economic exchange of values to get access to our games.”

In order to get access to all games in other leagues like the Women’s National Basketball Association and male colleagues, a paid subscription is also required, Barenz emphasized. The NWSL, the longest running professional women’s soccer league in the United States, is now entering its ninth season (as the WNBA will hit its big 25).

Alyssa Naeher # 1 of Chicago Red Stars hits a loose ball during an NWSL soccer game between the Chicago Red Stars and the Orlando Pride at Orlando City Stadium on September 11, 2019 in Orlando, Florida.

Alex Menendez | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images

Go international

A new business model could help increase more broadcasters’ interest in women’s football. This is where the startup Atalanta Media comes in.

Atalanta acquires media rights for smaller women’s sports leagues and offers them to broadcasters free of charge, along with fully produced games. In return, the company retains sponsorship opportunities so that it can also make money. This fall, Atalanta partnered with NBC Sports to bring the FA Women’s Super League, England’s premier women’s league, to a US audience for the first time.

Atalanta aims to break the frustrating stalemate between skeptical investors and leagues in dire need of more investment.

Broadcasters want “more evidence” before buying the rights themselves, said Esmeralda Negron, co-founder of the company and former professional footballer. “But there is no proof of that [women’s soccer has] has never been available week after week on premium channels. “

“If we don’t do that,” Negron said of buying the rights to leagues like WSL, “it wouldn’t be available.”

With the Atalanta partnership, NBC Sports will broadcast 50 WSL season games from September 2020 through Spring 2021, either on the NBC Sports Network channel, the NBC Sports app, or the NBC Sports website.

The first eight WSL games on NBC Sports Network had an average of 63,000 viewers, and the most viewed game reached 100,000 viewers, according to the network. A network manager told CNBC how important it is to tie women’s football to Premier League coverage in order to raise awareness. Given that the US games usually air weekend mornings (given the time difference) and are in an unknown league, this is a good place to start.

NWSL match ball during the 2020 NWSL College Draft at the Baltimore Convention Center on January 16, 2020 in Baltimore, Maryland.

Jose Argueta | Getty Images Sports | Getty Images

Next year

2021 will bring new tests and possibilities. As more sporting leagues prepare to return for the full season and people get more outdoors to do, women’s sports can become more difficult to interest. However, if the Tokyo Olympics go as planned, a strong performance from the U.S. women’s team could also raise awareness of football at the club level.

Next year the NWSL plans to host the Challenge Cup again, followed by a full season. What was originally conceived as a means of saving the year has become valuable property.

The league is also adding teams, including a Louisville club that will play in 2021 and a Los Angeles team that will join the following year. LA club Angel City FC will be majority-owned by women and will be supported by all-star investors like Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian and actress Natalie Portman.

There are also growth opportunities in existing deals. The goal of women’s football is likely to be to show more games on flagship networks like CBS and NBC, not just their sports networks or apps.

“Premium broadcasting plays an important role in enhancing the visibility and profile of leagues and players at the club level,” said Negron. “That never really happened on the women’s side.”

Women’s football needs to benefit from its increased visibility this year or else it risks losing its hard-won momentum. As Negron said, “Audience is what drives everything in this sport.”

Tags expansion, paves, records, set, soccer, viewership, Womens