The Federal Trade Commission is accusing certain grocers of taking advantage of customers during the pandemic by raising prices unfairly, Nathan writes.
The big picture: The FTC acknowledged that supply chain issues caused "sustained stress" but said the price hikes stemming from those challenges exceeded the related cost increases.
"Some firms seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further hike prices to increase their profits, and profits remain elevated even as supply chain pressures have eased," the FTC said today in the report.
It also noted that supply chain disruptions during the pandemic showed how "powerful retailers" can "distort product allocations ... to entrench their market power."
Reddit shares soared in the company's stock market debut on Thursday, opening at $47 per share a day after its IPO raised $748 million.
Why it matters: The listing is the first social media IPO in nearly five years, and it's a high-profile offering whose trading performance could set the tone for future tech and media deals.
Reddit believes having an IPO in registration for more than two years "was one of the best things that's happened to the company," chief financial officer Drew Vollero told Axios, shortly after shares began trading.
Why he matters: Vollero is no stranger to social media IPOs, having served as CFO for Snap when it went public in 2017.
Why it matters: The rule of thumb for criminal sentencing is that "the larger the loss, the longer the potential sentence," Ray said, pushing back against SBF's recent claim that there weren't actually any losses to begin with when his crypto exchange collapsed.
I askedMichael Flaherty,an Axios Pro editor who has covered activist investing for years, to explain how proxy fights work.
Here's his quick take ...
First, activists find an undervalued stock. They won't launch a campaign unless they see a positive return for the effort. The best defense against activists is a rising stock price.
Nobody wants a proxy fight. They're expensive and time consuming. So activists will try to get the company to make changes the investors deem necessary to jack up the stock price. Sometimes the company heeds the advice.
Often, though, the company says, "Thanks for the advice, but we got this." From there, the agitation escalates.
Trian Partnersis also using the power of public relations in the lead-up to next month's shareholder vote.
Driving the news: Peltz has stepped even further into the spotlight, with CNBC interviews and other press appearances.
The New York Times ran a 5,000-word profile on Peltz and Barron's hinted at Peltz's winning strategy, regardless of how the votes shake out.
Between the lines: The Wall Street Journal published a profile on ESPN boss and potential Iger successor, Jimmy Pitaro, and Bloomberg ran a piece on Disney's overall succession plan.
What to watch: Of interest is how Disney positions Iger's heir apparents, given that one of Trian's main knocks against it is poor succession planning, Axios Pro reporter Tim Baysinger points out.
Succinct, a startup building tooling for zero-knowledge proof technology, raised $43 million from Paradigm to make it easier for others to use advanced cryptography in their blockchain applications.
Why it matters: Zero-knowledge proof technology, or ZK, has been seen as a key part of the roadmap to get major blockchains, such as Ethereum, fast enough that they can onboard the masses.
As chief corporate affairs officer of Chime, Jennifer Kuperman is responsible for shaping the fintech company's reputation and sharing its story.
Why it matters: She established Chime's corporate affairs function by bringing together the external and internal communications, public affairs, government affairs and community impact functions.
Companies are under heightened scrutiny from a growing band of activist investors who attack a range of issues, including leadership, mergers and acquisition plans, strategy, and ESG policies.
Why it matters: When an activist investor enters a company's stock, clear communication is key.
Institutional Shareholder Services recommended Nelson Peltz for Disney's board, providing a boost for hedge fund Trian Partners in its proxy fight against the Hollywood giant.
Why it matters: The influential firm holds heavy sway over institutional shareholders, whose Disney board director votes will be tallied on April 3.
For decades, the Department of Justice pushed for more competition in the real estate market — now the agency might be getting its way.
Why it matters: Pressure from the DOJ's antitrust division likely played a role in getting to the game-changing class action settlement announced by the National Association of Realtors last Friday.
You wait five years (since Pinterest) for a new social network to be listed, and then two — Reddit and Truth Social — come along.
Why it matters: In a curious coincidence, the two share prices — and the implied valuations — are similar. What's more, both could start trading in earnest within a few days of each other.
In about two weeks, Cleveland will kick off a series of big tourist events this year, including the NCAA women's Final Four and a total solar eclipse.
Why it matters: Those events, along with the Pan-American Masters Games, Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Induction, WWE SummerSlam and more are expected to bring hundreds of thousands of visitors to town and generate more than $150 million throughout 2024.
More than 83% of U.S. flights departed on time in December 2023, per a new Axios analysis of the latest Transportation Department data.
Why it matters: It's a big upswing compared to December 2022, when Southwest Airlines' epic meltdown dragged the industrywide average down to about 70% for the month.
Elon Musk shared video from his computer-brain interface company Neuralink announcing the "first-ever" human user of its brain implant, a 29-year-old man with quadriplegia who said the device has enabled him to play online chess and video games.
The big picture: It's one of several brain-computer interface devices being developed that companies hope will someday treat neurological disorders.
Chevron has agreed to pay more than $13 million in penalties for past oil spills in California, two state agencies announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: One of the fines was for $5.6 million for the company's oil spills in Kern County in 2019, which the California Department of Conservation said in a statement brought "hazardous conditions for the environment and public health."
The Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani's interpreter Wednesday following allegations of "massive theft."
Why it matters: Ippei Mizuhara, the interpreter who has been alongside Ohtani since his Major League Baseball debut in 2018, is accused of using funds from the two-way player's bank account to cover gambling debts incurred with an illegal bookmaker.
Campbell Soup was hit with a lawsuit from the Department of Justice and another from environmental groups on Wednesday over allegations that its plant in northwestern Ohio pollutes Lake Erie.
The big picture: The DOJ accuses Campbell of since 2018 violating pollution restrictions outlined in permits for the Napoleon factory along the Lake Erie tributary Maumee River by discharging contaminants including phosphorous and bacteria.
/2024/03/21/1711042445492.gif?w=3840)
