Employees within Disneyland's characters and parade departments announced plans to unionize with the Actors' Equity Association on Tuesday.
Why it matters: The move comes as the majority of Disneyland Resort's over 35,000 workers have labor unions, while almost 2,000 workers do not, per AP.
Starting a private equity fund wasn't the plan for Jared Kushner when he left the White House, the former White House adviser said at Axios BFD in Miami Tuesday.
Why it matters: Kushner was a major figure in the Trump White House's efforts to broker normalization between Israel and several of its its Arab neighbors.
Tyler Epp, president of F1 Miami Grand Prix, used a head-exploding pop culture reference to describe Lewis Hamilton's upcoming move from Mercedes to Ferrari: "John Lennon going and singing for the Rolling Stones."
Why it matters: Hamilton is one of the most decorated drivers in Formula 1 history and now joins forces with the sport's oldest and most successful team.
Carnival Cruise Line will add a new 180,000-ton ship to its fleet that is expected to set sail in spring 2027, the Miami-based company said Tuesday.
Why it matters: Carnival has rebounded from the pandemic with great demand for cruising, Christine Duffy, president of Carnival Cruise Line, told Axios' Dan Primack at Axios BFD in Miami.
The surprisingly high rate of price increases in January can be traced in part to a continued trend of sticker hikes by some of America's biggest consumer goods companies.
Why it matters: Today's Consumer Price Index figures exceeded expectations and reignited concerns about inflation, triggering a market selloff and ending any holdout hopes for a Fed rate cut in March.
Data: U.S. Federal Trade Commission; Chart: Axios Visuals
This Valentine's Day, keep an eye out for romance scams, Nathan writes.
More than 64,000 cases were reported to the FTC in 2023, with losses totaling $1.14 billion.
Threat level: While frequency has fallen, their median loss of $2,000 per victim makes them the costliest of any form of imposter scam, including business or government, the FTC notes.
How it works: The typical romance scammer contacts their target through social media, feigning love and deceiving people into sending money — often in the form of cryptocurrency or gift cards.
The bottom line: "A good rule of thumb: sad stories are usually scam stories," the FTC says.
The price of Valentine's Day chocolatesis especially bitter this year, Nathan writes.
State of play: Cocoa futures "have skyrocketed," doubling over the last 12 months, CNN reports.
Between the lines: "Climate issues in West Africa – home to more than 60% of global cocoa production — are damaging crop yields, constraining cocoa supply and causing prices to soar," according to CNN.
Candymaker Hershey is cutting up to 5% of its workforce as the increased cocoa prices undermine its profitability, Reuters reported.
What they're saying: "Given where cocoa prices are, we will be using every tool in our toolbox, including pricing, as a way to manage the business," Hershey CEO Michele Buck told investors on Thursday.
💭 Nathan's thought bubble: I've been trying to cut down on sugar lately — little did I know that this would amount to a savings plan, too.
"It's the most complicated governance structure I've ever seen my life," Khosla Ventures managing director Keith Rabois said at Axios' BFD event in Miami of OpenAI's corporate setup. "I can't really figure it out, honestly."
Why it matters: News of co-founder Sam Altman's (brief) ouster as CEO in November took its investors by surprise — including the fact that it could even happen.
Investment advisers approached by Axios were well aware of bitcoin's omnipresence this week at VettaFi's Exchange ETF conference in Miami. They also clearly didn't want to talk about it.
Why it matters: Some investment advisers aren't allowed to talk about the world's largest digital asset with their clients, let alone park their money in it.
The Messenger founder and CEO Jimmy Finkelstein is considering ways to help fired employees, he told Axios, and may also reopen the company's shuttered website.
The intrigue: Finkelstein could have closed The Messenger weeks earlier and used his remaining cash to pay out his 265 employees, many of whom had severance payments guaranteed in their contracts.
The Messenger CEO Jimmy Finkelstein told Axios he did not mislead a New York Times reporter about the company's revenue while he was trying to raise money to save the startup.
What they're saying: In an hourlong sit-down at the Harvard Club in New York City, Finkelstein maintained that the company's business model would have succeeded if only he could have raised money to keep The Messenger afloat until it became profitable.
It wasn't as high scoring an affair compared with prior years, but electric vehicles once again beat their gas-powered counterparts in Super Bowl ads.
Why it matters: The costly buys — millions of dollars for each 30 seconds — reflect "the ability of these spots to drive domestic consumption trends," BloombergNEF analyst Corey Cantor writes.
Diamondback Energy's $26 billion deal for Endeavor Energy Resources will create a new shale powerhouse that will be the largest "pure play" producer in the Permian Basin.
Why it matters: Located in Texas and New Mexico, the Permian region is the most prolific U.S. oilfield. The combined Diamondback-Endeavor entity will have the third largest total production there behind Exxon and Chevron, per Wood Mackenzie.
The Consumer Price Index rose 3.1% in the 12 months through January — a bigger jump than expected —while the monthly gain sped up, the Labor Department said on Tuesday.
Why it matters: While price pressures have moderated overall, getting inflation completely back to normal may be more difficult than economists anticipated.
War is expensive — and, for Israel, the multibillion-dollar bill is coming due.
Why it matters: Israel's financial strength has long been a matter of national pride. Now, its need to fund the war in Gaza has resulted in the country's first-ever credit downgrade.
CBS' broadcast of Super Bowl LVIII on Sunday was the most-watched television event in U.S. history, according to preliminary Nielsen figures — with 123.4 million viewers across CBS, Univision and streaming platforms.
Why it matters: A nail-biter ending in overtime, combined with celebrity sightings and a history-making consecutive win by the Kansas City Chiefs, drove the NFL to make television history at a time when few events are still able to pull large swaths of Americans together.
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