For the next 8 weeks, some of the best-known minds in the study of the future of work will be appearing at MIT.
What's next: It's a free online course led by MIT's Thomas Kochan and Elisabeth Reynolds, and it will track technological history going back to the 19th century, income inequality, labor groups, automation, German manufacturing and more. In the final 4 weeks, students look at the social contract coming out of WWII and create a new one for the new age of automation, Kochan tells Axios.
SmileDirectClub, a provider of at-home teeth straightening systems that lets users bypass the orthodontist's office, has picked bankers for an upcoming IPO, Axios has learned.
Details: The Nashville-based company expects to file its S-1 document by the end of June, with J.P. Morgan listed as lead manager. It was launched 6 years ago and expects to do at least $1 billion in 2019 revenue.
President Trump's former director of the National Economic Council Gary Cohn let his feelings about the president's tariff battle with China be known in an interview on Freakonomics Radio released Wednesday night.
"When you put tariffs on goods that people in the United States consume every day, it's a consumption tax. So all the tariffs did is they made products that Americans were going to buy more expensive. And in fact we got the final trade data numbers ... And lo and behold [in 2018], we hit an all-time record-high trade deficit globally, and with China."
AT&T says it will begin charging consumers an additional $10 for its digital skinny bundle package of live TV channels. It will also streamline its DirecTV NOW service to offer two package options as opposed to five.
Why it matters: AT&T is most likely increasing the prices to drive profits. These bundles are typically much cheaper than the Pay-TV live packages consumers get through AT&T. Analysts predict the move could push subscribers to purchase competitor packages like YouTube TV or Hulu with Live TV.
Jumia, a pan-African e-commerce platform, filed for an IPO that would see it trade on the NYSE (JMIA) with Morgan Stanley as lead underwriter. The filing is for $100 million, but Renaissance Capital estimates that it may seek to raise five times that amount.
Why it matters: Jumia is considered to be Africa's first tech unicorn, even though it was founded by two Frenchmen and is headquartered in Germany. And, like so many U.S. unicorns, it has massive losses without a visible road to profitability.
CNN became the second news outlet sued by Nicholas Sandmann's representatives over their coverage of his January encounter with a Native American elder in Washington, D.C. And the Covington Catholic student's lawyer told Fox News’ "The Story with Martha MacCallum" Tuesday night they plan to file more lawsuits.
