We're eight days away from Black Friday, but this year the event might be about more than bargains and doorbuster stampedes. Instead, the date could help determine whether certain retailers will survive past 2020 or hold on to physical stores.
Axios Re:Cap talks with Fortune senior reporter Phil Wahba about which retailers have the most to gain or lose next week and the broader future of retail.
Cities like Atlanta, Houston and Orlando helped buoy merchants' coffers in October, according to a snapshot from Mastercard, which looked at retail sales in the 20 largest U.S. metropolitan areas during the first 10 months of the year.
Why it matters: So far it looks like cities that stayed open the most during the pandemic notched bigger gains, according to Mastercard, which tracked all types of transactions (not just credit and debit cards).
BuzzFeed has agreed to buy progressive news website HuffPost from Verizon Media in an all-stock deal, the companies announced Thursday.
Why it matters: HuffPost was once one of the most-trafficked news websites on the internet, but an over-reliance on social media distribution and a lack of strategic vision stripped the site of relevance in recent years.
Facebook says it removed more than 265,000 pieces of content from Facebook and Instagram in the U.S. for violating its content policies on voter interference leading up to the election.
Why it matters: The company was much more proactive this election cycle than last in taking down and labeling content attempting to disrupt the election.
Facebook said it took action on 22.1 million pieces of hate speech content to its platform globally last quarter and about 6.5 million pieces of hate speech content on Instagram. On both platforms, it says about 95% of that hate speech was proactively identified and stopped by artificial intelligence.
Details: In total, the company says that there are 10–11 views of hate speech for every 10,000 views of content uploaded to the site globally — or .1%. It calls this metric — how much problematic content it doesn't catch compared to how much is reported and removed — "prevalence."
As the pandemic causes many to rethink their housing choices, accessory dwelling units (ADUs) — or granny flats — are seen as viable options for multigenerational housing or singles who want to get out of apartment buildings.
Driving the news: Cottage, a San Francisco-based startup that sells ADUs to homeowners in the Bay Area, has raised $3.5 million in seed funding led by Susa Ventures and Base10.
Fuse Media, an English-language media company that serves mostly Latino and multicultural audiences, has sold a majority stake to a Latino-led management group, led by Fuse Media CEO Miguel “Mike” Roggero, alongside several other Fuse executives.
Why it matters: The move speaks to a growing trend of having Latinos control more of the decisions made at American media companies that target that demographic. Univision added four new independent directors to its board last week, all of whom are Hispanic.
In an “Axios on HBO” interview, Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly told Axios’ Felix Salmon he believes the Boeing’s 737 MAX is safe — but will work to reassure customers of its safety.
Why it matters: Fliers may not just be wary because of COVID-19. They may also be afraid to board that MAX, after its software malfunctioned causing two crashes that killed hundreds.
Today it's whatever adjective best describes the compulsion to slam your head against a concrete wall.
The difference between now and then is that we can see a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, thanks to vaccine trial results from Pfizer and Moderna.
While many developers will benefit from Apple's move Wednesday to cut commissions for companies earning less than $1 million per year in App Store revenue, the company's critics derided the move as a cynical attempt to distract from what they see as Apple's broader anticompetitive business practices.
Why it matters: Apple's move appears designed to appease concerns from critics and regulators, but it's unclear how far it will go to assuage them. Thus far, not very.
Google announced a significant expansion of its Google Pay service on Wednesday, adding peer-to-peer payments to its contactless payment system as well as a partnership with banks to incorporate banking and checking services next year.
Why it matters: Contactless payments can be a gateway to other financial services, as Apple has shown by expanding from Apple Pay to Apple Card.
The VC firm Brown Venture Group has agreed to invest seed funding in Ecolution kWh, a startup looking to commercialize tech that stores and dispatches kinetic energy from vehicle motion, the companies said Wednesday.
Driving the news: The amount of Brown Venture Group's financing was not disclosed, but the firm will be the lead investor in a seed round that's targeting at least $3 million, according to Ecolution.
Fund managers surveyed by Bank of America are more optimistic about the stock market now than they’ve been in more than two years. The bank surveyed 216 fund managers who collectively oversee $573 billion.
Worth noting: The survey began as U.S. election results trickled in. It was still in progress when Pfizer and BioNTech released promising data about the efficacy of their coronavirus vaccine.
President Obama's "A Promised Land" (list price: $45) sold nearly 890,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada in its first 24 hours, putting it on track to be the best selling presidential memoir in modern history, AP's Hillel Italie writes.
Why it matters: Obama's book is the highlight of publishing's holiday season, and for some independent bookstores, the potential difference between remaining in business or closing.
Tom Donohue — CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and longtime confidant of Republican presidents — tells Axios that Joe Biden is president-elect and President Trump "should not delay the transition a moment longer."
What he's saying: "President-elect Biden and the team around him have a wealth of executive branch experience that should allow them to hit the ground running," Donohue said in a statement.
The big picture: The rise of remote work has been disastrous for WeWork, which placed a hugely expensive bet on offices. Now the company is trying to find its place in the future of work by making its office space available on demand.
Bitcoin's market cap — the amount of bitcoin in the world multiplied by its current price — is at an all-time high.
Driving the news: A recent embrace by PayPal and other mainstream figureheads along with expansionist Fed policy and a weaker dollar have sent individual bitcoin prices yesterday to a 2020 high of $18,350.
Former President Barack Obama's memoir "A Promised Land" sold more than 887,000 copies, including preorders, across all formats in the U.S. and Canada on its Tuesday release date, publisher Penguin Random House announced Wednesday.
Why it matters: The memoir has sold more copies on its first day of sale than any other book published by Penguin Random House. It looks set to be the best-selling presidential memoir in modern history.
Executives and senior managers say they will prioritize hiring candidates who have skills in automation and AI, according to a survey first shared with Axios.
Why it matters: Automation hasn't yet transformed the business world, in part because companies don't yet know how to harness these new technologies. If that's going to happen, they'll need workers who know how to use AI.
