CBS News has reached a settlement with three women who accused the network of not doing enough to stop anchor Charlie Rose from sexually harassing them.
Why it matters: The settlement coincides with an internal investigation into sexual harassment allegations against former CEO and chairman Les Moonves. Rose was fired last year after three women, two who worked at CBS and one who was his assistant, came forward in a report from the Washington Post. A CBS News spokesperson said that "the matter has been resolved," and at the plaintiff’s request, the settlement amount is confidential.
The 4 biggest companies in the S&P 500 are tech companies, and even if you go back to the height of the dot-com bubble in 1999, you won't see this degree of tech dominance in the index.
Why it matters: The companies that have become central to our lives and our politics are now also central to our markets.
The data breach at Marriott's Starwood hotel chain that exposed the personal information of as many as 500 million customers was the work of a Chinese intelligence-gathering effort that hacked health insurers, other hotels and the security clearance files of millions more Americans, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters, from Axios' Joe Uchill: Tying the Marriott hack to the Chinese adds yet another layer of strife to the charged U.S.-China relationship, which already includes allegations of economic espionage, a Chinese executive arrested for violating trade sanctions and a burgeoning trade war.
After Spotify successfully went public in April via a direct listing, we didn't see any copycats. But that might be changing.
The big picture: Recode's Teddy Schleifer reports that both Airbnb and Slack are seriously weighing the prospect of direct listings, having gone so far as to have reached out to top Spotify executives for insights. We also hear that Pinterest is among several other "unicorns" to have at least kicked the direct listing tires.
Murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi and a group of other journalists who have faced death or imprisonment for their work have been named as Time's 2018 Person of the Year.
Details: The group has been labeled by the magazine as "The Guardians and the War on Truth." Beyond Khashoggi, it includes the Capital Gazette newspaper staff, which lost five members in a newsroom shooting this year; jailed Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo, imprisoned in Myanmar for their coverage of the Rohingya crisis; and Filipino journalist Maria Ressa, who was arrested after criticizing President Rodrigo Duterte's administration.
No one has yet built a “QVC for millennials,” but that’s not stopping entrepreneurs from trying to put a uniquely tailored twist on home shopping.
The bigger picture: A slew of companies are working to marry millennials’ affinities for online video and shopping — and capitalize on their arrival as the most populous generation.
As tensions with China grow deeper, media giants could look to further ties in India, where the mobile economy is booming.
Why it matters: India is one of the fastest-growing internet markets in the world. But few consumers have the disposable income to pay for multiple services, which will make it hard for some companies to conquer the country.
As rural America gets left behind by the rise of coastal superstar cities and the chasm between the richest and the rest widens, one entity is heavily profiting from the blight: the dollar store.
Why it matters: Economic signs point to a coming recession, and U.S. discount stores, which have boomed even in the strong recent economy, will only grow more — becoming the sole retail option for an increasing share of Americans.
