Spotify has inked an exclusive deal to distribute Kim Kardashian West's new podcast, a spokesperson confirmed to Axios.
Why it matters: The deal, unlike Spotify's purchase of "The Ringer" in February and its exclusive arrangement to distribute "The Joe Rogan Experience" beginning this fall, includes female producers and hosts, which could lure a more diverse, female-centric audience to the platform.
A proprietary machine-learning platform has driven more than $100 million in portfolio-company investments for the venture capital firm EQT Ventures, according to numbers first seen by Axios.
Why it matters: EQT Venture's home-brewed Motherbrain platform represents a notable effort to adapt machine learning to the failure-prone process of picking and choosing early-stage tech investments.
U.S. taxpayers have funded more than half a trillion dollars in federal bailouts to small businesses affected by the coronavirus pandemic, but the White House is fighting disclosure of who got what.
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) joins the Axios Re:Cap podcast to discuss why she and many colleagues are pushing for Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to reverse course.
Twitter said Wednesday that it will add voice messages to tweets — allowing up to 140 seconds of audio.
Why it matters: Twitter is already the go-to platform for breaking news in the U.S. and often around the world. Voice Tweets will add a new dimension to breaking news for the site, as users can record what's happening around them or record their thoughts and reflections immediately and post them as events unfold.
Advocate Aurora Health and Beaumont Health have started formal merger discussions, the systems said today. The combined system would control 34 hospitals across Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin, and would generate $17.5 billion in annual revenue, which would be larger than companies like Salesforce or Mastercard.
Why it matters: This transaction — which is being initiated during a pandemic that hospitals say has stretched them financially — would create one of the largest hospital systems in the Midwest. But the evidence has been thorough in showing hospital mergers don't lower prices and don't improve care quality.
SoftBank Group confirmed it will sell most of its $30 billion stake in T-Mobile US (Nasdaq: TMUS), which it acquired via T-Mobile's recent purchase of Sprint. Word is the moves could begin as early as next week.
Why it matters: This is part of SoftBank's mad dash for cash — partially driven by write-downs from its $100 billion Vision Fund — and could fund around half of its planned $40 billion in divestitures.
Chris Sacca was one of the past decade's most successful venture capitalists, with a run that included early bets in such companies as Instagram, Twitter and Uber. Then, in 2017, he quit.
Driving the news: Sacca is good at investing, but bad at retiring. He's now running a new firm called Lowercarbon Capital, focused on startups that are developing "technologies to reduce CO2 emissions, remove carbon from the atmosphere, and actively cool the planet."
Quaker Oats announced Wednesday that it will rebrand and rename its Aunt Jemima products, saying it recognizes that the brand's "origins are based on a racial stereotype," NBC News reports.
Why it matters: In the wake of protests over systemic racism and police brutality, private companies are being forced to reckon with how their consumer products or branding may be harmful or offensive to communities of color.
This week's Supreme Court ruling that American companies cannot fire workers for their sexual orientation "is good news for the U.S. economy," Paul Donovan, chief economist at UBS Global Wealth Management, writes in a note to clients. In fact, he says, "The impact is potentially quite big."
The big picture: The decision provides employment security to an additional 5% of American workers and gives the U.S. an international comparative advantage.
Mortgage applications rose 8% from one week earlier for the week ending June 12, with applications to buy a home hitting the highest level in more than 11 years, according to data from the Mortgage Bankers Association.
What they're saying: "The housing market continues to experience the release of unrealized pent-up demand from earlier this spring, as well as a gradual improvement in consumer confidence," Joel Kan, MBA’s associate vice president of economic and industry forecasting, said in a statement.
With the deadline for businesses to secure funding from the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) less than two weeks away, the most high profile portion of the $2 trillion CARES Act looks to have left out the people who needed it most.
Driving the news: Fed chair Jerome Powell said during his testimony to the Senate Banking Committee Tuesday that despite the nearly $700 billion program, the coronavirus pandemic was "presenting acute risks to small businesses."
Second-quarter S&P 500 earnings are expected to decline by 43.5%, with revenues falling by 11.5%, according to FactSet, the largest year-over-year drop since Q4 2008 (-69.1%).
By the numbers: Estimated earnings per share for the second quarter have decreased by 36.2% since March 31.
The European Union's move to open antitrust investigations of Apple Tuesday is a reminder that the attack against tech giants over their market power is not limited to America's borders.
Why it matters: Tech companies have historically faced some of their harshest criticism and judgments from Europe, though companies including Microsoft, Facebook and Google have been able to largely absorb the punishments levied. But a wider antitrust press by the EU could inform the accelerating U.S. probes, pry additional data and concessions from the companies, and add pressure on U.S. regulators to act.
