Sports arenas in cities like Atlanta, Charlotte and Detroit will be converted into polling places this November to reduce wait times while enabling social distancing. It's an effort being led by More Than A Vote, a nonpartisan voting rights group formed by NBA and WNBA players like LeBron James, in the wake of George Floyd's murder.
Axios Re:Cap digs in with Renee Montgomery, a point guard for the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream and co-founder of More Than A Vote. We discuss the election, last night's player strike, and why she opted out of this season to focus on social justice issues.
This was a big week for you, if you're a Facebook billionaire looking to take your money-losing post-Facebook company public by doing a direct listing of shares on the New York Stock Exchange.
Details: Asana was founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz in 2008; Palantir was founded by Facebook investor and board member Peter Thiel in 2003. Both companies released their full financials this week.
For all its weakness as a stock-market gauge, the Dow Jones Industrial Average continues to tell us a lot about the state of corporate America, as opposed to the state of the equity market.
Why it matters: The Dow is a slice of America masquerading as a stock-market index.
Today is a truly historic day in Fed history — one that will have a transformative effect on U.S. monetary policy for the foreseeable future.
Driving the news: For decades, the main job of central banks has been to keep inflation down. The Fed has now effectively changed that policy, to instead prioritize maximum employment.
Now that we're in the pandemic habit of ordering everything online, delivery drivers are swarming streets and clogging curbs.
Why it matters: That wasn't a huge problem last spring when few people were on the road. But now that people are driving and venturing out more, curb congestion is worsening again.
Lindblad Expeditions, an adventure travel company known for its Alaska and Galapagos Island cruises, agreed to raise $85 million in convertible preferred stock from an investor group that includes MSD Partners and Durable Capital.
Why it matters: The deal came together in just two days and was 3x oversubscribed, Lindblad chairman Mark Ein tells Axios. This reflects growing investor faith that the travel market is poised for a COVID comeback, with pent-up demand only continuing to grow.
Microsoft is working with Walmart on its efforts to buy TikTok's U.S. business from China's ByteDance, Axios has learned from multiple sources close to the process.
The state of play: The idea would be to helpturn TikTok U.S. into more of an e-commerce app for creators and users, much like what TikTok parent company ByteDance does with a similar app in China.
Flipboard on Thursday said it would bring its ad-supported video service "Flipboard TV" for free to Android and iOS devices.
Why it matters: The new venture expands and strengthens Flipboard's relationship with publishing partners and provides users with a new way to consume news and information on the app.
The Federal Reserve said Thursday that, going forward, it is willing to allow inflation to drift higher than its typical 2% target for periods of time — and won't be tempted to hike rates to offset rising prices when the unemployment rate gets too low.
Why it matters: It's a historic shift in the Fed's strategy. For decades, the central bank operated with the thinking that low unemployment rates lead to inflation. That never panned out during the record-long economic expansion that ended when the pandemic hit, as inflation has remained persistently below its target since the financial crisis .
Warby Parker, a New York-based eyeglasses designer and retailer, raised $245 million in new funding at a $3 billion valuation, Axios has learned from a source familiar with the company's finances.
Between the lines: Warby had been widely viewed as a 2020 IPO candidate, but seems to have opted to remain private longer due to both the pandemic and some struggles for other direct-to-consumer personal product brands.
Salesforce announcedon Wednesday it is cutting roughly 1,000 jobs, though it said it continues to hire for some growth areas.
Why it matters: The move comes just a day after the company announced blowout earnings and raised its guidance, sending shares up 26% on Wednesday. Salesforce had also pledged in March not to lay off employees for at least 90 days, but that was five months ago.
The merger of L.A.'s Broadway Federal Bank and Washington's City First Bank, announced Wednesday, "will create the nation’s largest Black-controlled bank and the first with assets of more than $1 billion," reports the New York Times.
Why it matters: Both banks "are Community Development Financial Institutions, which are lenders that focus on low- and moderate-income areas and typically serve minority borrowers and entrepreneurs who lack the assets to get traditional loans."
Kevin Mayer resigned Wednesday as CEO of TikTok, the popular video app that's in the spotlight amid U.S.-China tensions, and which has been ordered by President Trump to sell its U.S. operations to a domestic buyer.
Why it matters: Mayer took the job just three months ago after 27 years on-and-off at Disney, where he most recently headed online streaming, including the debut of Disney+, and was long considered a potential successor to former CEO Bob Iger.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday approved the New York Stock Exchange's rule change that will allow companies to raise new capital as part of a direct listing.
Why it matters: Though there's been growing interest in direct listings, especially from Silicon Valley tech companies, it has not been an appropriate path to going public for many companies that need to raise capital as part of the process.
