Efforts to remove career advancement barriers for underrepresented workers have become strained over the past year amid broad DEI backlash.
Why it matters: Some of the progress achieved since 2020 in providing access to opportunity — including improvements in hiring and promotion of Black employees — is at risk of being rolled back.
Bitwise Asset Management is giving its much larger peers a run for their coin.
Why it matters: The only small-shop bitcoin ETF issuer in the billion-plus club appears best-positioned to woo crypto natives and serious investors, alike.
AI chipmaker Nvidia topped $2 trillion in market cap on Friday less than nine months after crossing the $1 trillion threshold.
Why it matters: AI-drunk investors have bid up Nvidia, whose advanced chips power AI systems, to bubble-like levels. The company's stock chart parties like it's 1999 — and we all remember what happened to the dotcom era darlings a year later.
In 2007, former Disney CEO Michael Eisnerread that a small activist investor was targeting Topps, the famed maker of baseball cards and chewing gum.
The big picture: Eisner tells Axios that he viewed the situation as somewhat akin to Disney decades earlier, setting in motion a series of transactions that just wrapped up this week.
Capital One will not pay a termination fee to Discover Financial if regulators block their proposed $35.3 billion merger, per a Thursday disclosure.
Why it matters: Capital One just revealed that it lacks confidence in getting over the finish line, despite CEO Richard Fairbank claiming it's "well-positioned for approval."
Washington's NPR affiliate, WAMU, plans to shut down local news site DCist and lay off 15 staffers as part of a strategic shift focused on audio.
The big picture: The shift away from digital publishing will allow WAMU to focus on its core radio products, as well as new digital audio opportunities like podcasts and live events, WAMU general manager Erika Pulley-Hayes told Axios.
Why it matters: The bull market has been running since October 2022, but the near-euphoria surrounding all things AI seems to be provoking renewed feelings of friskiness among investors.
The big AT&T network outage was a productivity catastrophe for commuters across the country Thursday, but remote workers were totes fine, Bloomberg reported.
State of play: Without cellular access on their train rides, commuters apparently resorted to reading books — the paper kind! — instead of making calls, checking email, frantically Slacking, etc.
A line in the obituary for 92-year-old Hal Buell, who led AP's photo department from darkroom to digital over four decades, captured in nine words a book's worth of teaching on living better longer:
"I had the greatest job in the whole world," he said when doctors and others asked him about his long life in his final days.
Vice Media CEO Bruce Dixon on Thursday said the company planned to lay off "several hundred positions" amid "fundamental changes" to its strategic vision.
Why it matters: The move follows a chaotic bankruptcy buyout last year, that saw the elimination of dozens of roles, consolidation of departments and canceling of news shows.
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