The New York Times has struck a deal to acquire Serial Productions, the maker of the hit true crime podcast "Serial," the New York Times announced Wednesday night.
Why it matters: The deal speaks to The Times' commitment to grow its audio footprint. Earlier Wednesday, The Times named COO Meredith Kopit Levien as its new CEO. In an interview with Axios, Levien said the company would continue to expand its audio ambitions.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk announced on an earnings call Wednesday that the company would build a second U.S. factory on 2,000 acres near Austin, Texas, where it plans to employ more than 5,000 workers, according to AP.
Why it matters: The company needs a second manufacturing site to build its fast-growing portfolio of electric vehicles like the Cybertruck pickup and Tesla Semi truck, as well as additional capacity for its mainstream Model 3 sedan and newly introduced Model Y crossover utility.
Hedge fund titan Bill Ackman on Wednesday raised $4 billion in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. But it wasn’t for a company, or even for the firm that controls his hedge funds. It was for something called a SPAC, and it was the largest SPAC IPO of all time.
Axios Re:Cap digs into Wall Street's latest craze with Ackman, who was ahead of his time in 2012 when he used a SPAC to bring Burger King public.
Existing home sales jumped by 20.7% in June over the prior month, the National Association of Realtors (NAR) said in a report released Wednesday.
Why it matter: It's the largest recorded monthly increase since 1968, when NAR began collecting data on single-family houses, and comes amid mass unemployment and an economy battered by the coronavirus pandemic, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Hedge fund manager Bill Ackman on Wednesday raised $4 billion via an IPO for a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), the largest such offering in history.
Why it matters: SPACs, publicly traded shell companies designed to acquire other companies, are flooding Wall Street — creating new paths to the public markets for everything from DraftKings to Virgin Galactic to health insurance software giant MultiPlan.
Senate Republicans and negotiators from the Trump administration are considering a short-term extension of supplemental unemployment benefits, which are set to expire on July 31, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) confirmed to reporters Wednesday.
Why it matters: A chaotic Senate Republican lunch on Tuesday revealed that the White House and GOP senators remain far apart on key priorities in the next economic package and that it's unlikely a bill will be passed by the end of next week.
HCA Healthcare, the largest for-profit hospital chain in the country, smashed Wall Street's second-quarter profit expectations even though the coronavirus outbreak forced hospitals to halt elective procedures for several weeks during the quarter.
The bottom line: Medical claims and revenues noticeably declined among hospitals during the height of the pandemic, which has benefited health insurers. But that didn't prevent hospitals from making a lot of money, a large chunk of which was directly subsidized by taxpayers in the form of bailout funds.
The Trump administration has agreed to pay Pfizer $1.95 billion for 100 million doses of the experimental coronavirus vaccine the company is developing along with German biotech company BioNTech. The deal also gives the government the right to buy another 500 million doses.
Why it matters: The federal government is betting that Pfizer and BioNTech's vaccine will effectively stave off the coronavirus and therefore is worth buying before more definitive clinical trial data come out. The Department of Health and Human Services made a similar deal for Novavax' vaccine.
The best way to save ByteDance, the world's most valuable tech "unicorn," may be to break up ByteDance.
Driving the news: Some of the Chinese company's U.S. investors are discussing a carve-out of all or part of TikTok, which is under growing geopolitical pressures, according to The Information.
CalypsoAI, a machine learning startup with its roots in the defense industry, has raised $13 million to help make government and corporate AI systems more secure and free of bias.
Why it matters: Making AI systems that are free from bias, secure and explainable are all key goals as the technology gets used for increasingly important tasks.
More than half of tech workers in the Bay Area are concerned about being laid off or furloughed in the next six months, or their salaries hitting a plateau or dropping, according to a new report from Hired.
Why it matters: The tech industry has generally fared better than other sectors in the pandemic downturn, offering more chances to work from home and fewer layoffs. However, there are concerns that companies won't be willing to pay Bay Area salaries if remote workers decide to relocate to less expensive areas.
The New York Times announced Wednesday that veteran publishing executive Meredith Kopit Levien, the paper's current COO, will become its next president and CEO, succeeding Mark Thompson, on September 8.
Why it matters: Levien, 49, is credited with turning the Times' business around from being mostly dependent on advertising to now getting most of its money from subscriptions. She's also restructured the business team in recent years to put an increased emphasis on product, data and technology.
Changing a team name is a complicated process and typically takes years, but the Washington Redskins are trying to do it in a matter of weeks, amid a pandemic, while concurrently conducting an internal sexual harassment investigation.
The state of play: The last NFL team to change its name was the Tennessee Oilers — now the Titans — in 1999, but that stemmed from the franchise having moved from Houston.
The number of mortgages in forbearance programs fell for the sixth week in a row to its lowest level in two months as of July 12, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
The state of play: MBA’s estimates show 3.9 million homeowners now in forbearance plans. Demand also has risen significantly as mortgage application volume jumped 4.1% last week with applications to purchase a home 19% higher than a year ago — the ninth straight week of annual gains.
The New York Fed's Weekly Economic Index (WEI) is reversing course, showing real-time, high-frequency economic data is again turning negative after climbing back from April and May's coronavirus-driven swoon.
Why it matters: The index is one of many that show the economy is getting worse in a trend that could be picking up steam.
United Airlines announced Wednesday that it will require customers to wear face masks in all airport spaces, warning that those who do not comply could face a ban as long as mask requirements remain in place.
The state of play: The rule — in addition to United's inflight mask mandate — applies throughout customers' time in the airport, including while checking in, spending time in lounges, at service counters and during boarding.
In a new book 10 days before the inauguration, former FBI Director James Comey will take aim at politicization of the Justice Department under President Trump, who fired him.
"Saving Justice: Truth, Transparency, and Trust," out Jan. 12, is a follow-up to Comey's No. 1 New York Times bestseller, "A Higher Loyalty." A press release from Comey’s publisher, Flatiron, says he'll also discuss his career prosecuting mobsters in New York. Comey famously compared Trump to a mob boss in his last book.
Employees at major newspapers are urging their bosses to reevaluate how their opinion sections operate after a slew of controversies in recent months.
Why it matters: Critics allege that mainstream news companies are sacrificing their journalistic integrity by pandering to conservative voices in an attempt to produce balanced coverage in the Trump era. Employees fear that such efforts, combined with journalistic errors, tarnish the newsrooms' reputation.
President Trump has been good for the stock market — but not as good as most of his predecessors.
Why it matters: Americans with substantial wealth tied up in stocks have an incentive to vote for the candidate who will be best for their portfolio. Presidents don't have a huge effect on the stock market, but overall Democrats have outperformed Republicans in recent history.
Waymo's self-driving technology will soon be available in small commercial trucks, not just robo-taxi minivans, under a new agreement with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.
Why it matters: Stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic have highlighted the exploding opportunity for automated delivery, even as robo-taxis seem further away. Waymo and many other self-driving tech developers are shifting their focus to prioritize the commercial trucking market.
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