Americans are losing interest in cardio equipment — and that's causing fitness companies to sweat.
Why it matters: The home fitness industry was already reeling from slumping sales when exercisers returned to the gym after pandemic shutdowns — and now comes a shift in how people want to work out.
Leaner inventory at Target stores has meant fewer markdowns and should translate into stronger future profits, company officials said today.
Why it matters: The Minneapolis-based retailer said its comparable sales declined for the third quarter in a row but shared a plan to grow sales by relaunching its Target Circle loyalty program.
Small college endowments skew toward public equities over alternatives like venture capital, and it helped them perform better than larger counterparts last year, according to the latest annual NACUBO-TIAA endowment study.
Why it matters: Barriers to accessing venture capital are usually seen as an investment disadvantage — while access as the driver behind the eye-popping returns of larger institutions.
Sometimes there's a simple solution to an intractable problem. The sort of thing that feels obvious, but only in retrospect.
The problem: Online publishers and other content creators face an existential crisis, as AI eventually will help search engines provide contextual, ad-supported answers instead of link-based traffic.
Joe Wall — a longtime, well-known Goldman Sachs official in Washington — will join BlackRock in late spring as head of U.S. government affairs and public policy, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: BlackRock is working to "expand coverage and deepen our impact" with policymakers, John Kelly, BlackRock's global head of corporate affairs, says in a forthcoming announcement.
Deel, a San Francisco-based payroll and HR platform valued by VCs at over $12 billion, agreed to buy South Africa-based rival PaySpace.
Why it matters: This reflects a dizzying amount of consolidation within the payroll sector, in which large providers are seeking to quickly add both services and geographies.
LinkedIn is investing more in journalism and news amid a broader pullback by tech rivals from the industry, the company's editor-in-chief and vice president Dan Roth told Axios in an interview.
Why it matters: LinkedIn alone won't be able to make up for the dramatic reduction in traffic referrals from social media sites to news publishers, but it does offer outlets and journalists a platform to meaningfully grow their audiences amid a broader tech crackdown on news content.
Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high, breaking its prior nominal record of $69,225 hit on November 10, 2021, on Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S.
With the upcoming launch of the all-electric Dodge Charger Daytona, Stellantis is targeting a skeptical and perhaps even downright hostile audience: muscle car fans.
Why it matters: Electric vehicles (EVs) have already hit the mainstream — even some pickups run on battery power now. Muscle cars represent the last bastion of the gasoline era.
Less than two weeks after acquiring Complex for $108 million, NTWRK, the celebrity-backed e-commerce startup, now says it plans to fold its brand and business into Complex, NTWRK CEO Aaron Levant told Axios.
Why it matters: It's part of a larger overhaul of Complex's business post-acquisition that will also include reviving the outlet's print magazine and rehiring some of Complex's earliest executives to transform the brand for the e-commerce era.
The union-backed Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) that waged a boardroom battle against Starbucks has withdrawn its campaign one week before the shareholder vote.
Why it matters: The withdrawal signals that the coffee chain and its union workers made enough progress to avoid pushing the proxy fight to a vote.
In an era of expensive money, you look for deals. And they're happening in the convertible bond market.
The big picture: For most of the last decade, convertible bond issuance has been dominated by earlier-stage growth companies with no credit ratings — a backdoor way to raise equity and establish credit market history at the same time.
Restructuring sovereign debt after a default is hard — but New York state legislators think they have a solution. They've revived a bill, first proposed last year, to reshape how these workouts are done.
Why it matters: Sovereign debt is one of the world's largest securities markets, where economies from across the globe access much-needed capital from private investors.
Summer vacations in colder climates like the Arctic are getting more popular, travel experts say, as people turn to "coolcations" to avoid record-breaking heat.
Why it matters: Despite the wince-inducing name, "coolcationing" could potentially reshape the travel and resort industries — as well as real estate investments, as climate change alters where people choose to recreate.
OpenAI is expanding its communications function with the addition of new product, policy and partnerships comms leads, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: The OpenAI PR team, which has doubled in size over the last year, is focused on winning over audiences amidst increased regulatory pressures, legal woes and skepticism among the general public.
Elon Musk was hit with a lawsuit Monday from four former senior Twitter executives, including former CEO Parag Agrawal, who allege he owes them more than $128 million in unpaid severance.
The big picture: The former executives claim in the complaint that he fired them soon after he led the takeover of the company now known as X "without reason, then made up fake cause and appointed employees of his various companies to uphold his decision."
