Video games are the next entertainment industry undergoing a major disruption, all the way down to the consoles and controllers.
Details: "In the past, you plunked down $60 at GameStop for a copy of Grand Theft Auto or Madden NFL and played it out — after which you could trade it in or let it gather dust," the AP reports. "Now, you’ll increasingly have the choice of subscribing to games, playing for free or possibly just streaming them over the internet to your phone or TV."
President Trump on Thursday walked back his previous threat to close the U.S.-Mexico border this week, telling reporters he is giving Mexico a "1-year warning" to stop illegal immigration and what he calls "massive" amounts of drugs entering the country through the southern border.
In response to a story in the New York Times claiming that members of special counsel Robert Mueller's team believe that the Mueller report is more damaging that Attorney General Bill Barr has indicated, President Trump lashed out on Twitter and called the Times a "Fake News paper" with no "legitimate sources."
"The New York Times had no legitimate sources, which would be totally illegal, concerning the Mueller Report. In fact, they probably had no sources at all! They are a Fake News paper who have already been forced to apologize for their incorrect and very bad reporting on me!"
The big picture: The Times story, which has been corroborated by the Washington Post and NBC News, reports that Mueller investigators have expressed frustration to associates about Barr's summary of his "principal conclusions" of the special counsel's findings. One source told the Washington Post: "It was much more acute than Barr suggested." The Justice Department released a statement on Thursday clarifying that Barr's letter was not intended to be a summary of the full Mueller report.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
Tradeweb Markets, a New York-based electronic bond and derivatives trading platform, raised nearly $1.1 billion in its IPO. The company priced 40 million shares at $27, versus original plans to offer 27.3 million shares at $24-$26, for an initial market value of around $6 billion.
Why it matters: It's the second billion dollar+ IPO in the past two weeks, after a five month drought. It's also a nice IPO rebound for top shareholder The Blackstone Group, after its Alight float fizzled.
Pandora CEO Roger Lynch has been named the global chief executive for Condé Nast, as the publisher of Vogue, Vanity Fair, GQ and the New Yorker begins to merge its U.S. and U.K. operations.
Our thought bubble, via Axios' Sara Fisher:Lynch has a history of managing companies in transition. He led Dish’s SLING TV through it’s launch — the first real digital TV “skinny bundle” in the U.S. — and Pandora through its sale process to Sirius XM last year. It was announced he would exit Pandora, along with other executives, after the sale to Sirius was final. Condé Nast, which has built up a sizable content licensing business through Condé Nast Entertainment, will benefit from Lynch’s experience in digital TV rights negotiations.
As powerful as artificial intelligence can be, its abilities are extremely narrow: An AI that beats a chess grandmaster can't recognize a face or drive a car. And a robot that carries out flawless eye surgery can't do so unless positioned precisely first.
Why it matters: It turns out that humans have a similar failing — put them in front of a problem they've never solved, and they often come up short. But in the future of work, when automation assumes responsibility for up to half or more of current jobs, such ability will be a huge human advantage — and possibly necessary.
Accenture Interactive, the digital marketing arm of international consulting firm Accenture, announced on Wednesday that it is acquiring acclaimed advertising creative agency Droga5. Deal terms weren't disclosed, but Accenture Interactive says Droga5 is its biggest acquisition in 10 years.
Why it matters: The acquisition will help Accenture Interactive expand its advertising creative business, specifically around "experiential marketing," which includes things like custom events, executions and partnerships that help people experience a brand in a more intimate way, as opposed to just seeing an ad on TV.
iHeartMedia, the country's largest commercial radio broadcaster, has filed for an initial public offering.
Why it matters: This is the latest chapter in a complex corporate saga that began when iHeart (then known as Clear Channel) was acquired in 2006 for $18.7 billion. That deal was so contentious that the private equity sponsors Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee Partners had to sue their lenders to get the deal closed, but then the whole thing ended up collapsing under a wall of debt.
U.S. job growth fell to an 18-month low in March, according to a Wednesday report from ADP and Moody’s Analytics. Private payrolls increased by 129,000 in March, missing the 173,000 economists expected.
"The job market is weakening, with employment gains slowing significantly across most industries and company sizes," said Moody's Mark Zandi in a statement.
The bottom line: The ADP jobs report is seen as an important precursor to Friday's official government jobs report. The numbers don't bode well for those fearing that the booming jobs market is slowing down — especially after February's dismal report that showed only 20,000 jobs were added to the U.S. economy.
Leading business executives' optimism about the current state of the global economy has tanked, and prospects that next year will be better are falling fast too, according to Deloitte's quarterly survey of more than 100 chief financial officers.
Why it matters: One of the biggest risks to the stock market and the economy itself is the fear of a recession, much more so than a recession itself, as we've written before. Executives that think economic prospects are only going to get worse can delay big projects which will further hurt growth.
Stock market investors and huge pension plans in pursuit of boom-era returns are chasing just about anything with a growth story, regardless of whether the underlying company actually makes any money.
Why it matters: The market demand pushing up sky-high valuations for companies like Lyft, Uber, Airbnb and others is akin to the housing bubble in the early aughts, says Karl Dasher, CEO and co-head of fixed income at investment firm Schroders.
Whitehouse whistleblower Tricia Newbold told NBC News Tuesday a supervisor left her feeling "humiliated' after she reported the Trump administration had reversed 25 security clearance denials.
What she's saying: The White House whistleblower told NBC’s Peter Alexander the supervisor moved files to a shelf beyond her reach. "It was definitely humiliating," said Newbold, who has been a White House security adviser for 18 years and has a rare form of dwarfism. "But it didn’t stop me from doing what was right."
