A new study makes the case that as funding for university research shifts from government to private firms, entrepreneurship suffers.
Why it matters: The share of research funding to universities from the federal government has declined as private companies make up a bigger proportion of R&D spending. Far from encouraging the development of new companies, the shift may be slowing the pace of valuable innovation.
Roblox, a San Francisco-based gaming platform for kids and teens, has postponed its IPO due to regulatory concerns over how it recognizes revenue, according to Reuters.
Why it matters: Roblox is one of the most highly anticipated IPOs of 2021, having recently raised private funding at a $29.5 billion valuation, but this is its second setback in as many months.
Robinhood spent yesterday taking from its credibility and giving to its critics, in one of the most inexplicable self-immolations Silicon Valley has ever seen.
The latest: Robinhood is racing to raise $1 billion from existing investors, ahead of plans to reopen trading of GameStop and other '90s nostalgia stocks.
Chevron posted another quarterly loss Friday in the latest sign of how the pandemic is still weighing on oil companies despite some price recovery during the second half of the year.
Driving the news: The oil giant reported a $665 million loss for the October-December period, but it shrinks to $11 million on an adjusted basis after considering charges on its acquisition of Noble Energy and "foreign currency effects."
General Motors (GM) is racing to prepare itself for a president and a world that takes climate change more seriously — and putting the Trump era behind them in the process.
Driving the news: GM yesterday announced an ambitious plan to end global sales of internal combustion vehicles by 2035. It's part of their wider new pledge to be carbon neutral by 2040.
The Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday warned Robinhood and other brokerages that it will "closely review" actions they took on Thursday that prevented investors from buying stock in GameStop and other popular Reddit-fueled stocks.
Why it matters: The move from Robinhood generated anger across the political spectrum and among small investors who wanted to participate in one of the most exciting stock-market trades of the moment.
The U.S. economy shrank by 3.5% last year, the Commerce Department reported, with the country seeing both its largest quarterly GDP decline and its largest quarterly GDP increase in the second and third quarters, respectively.
Where it stands: The 3.5% decline is the worst year for the U.S. since at least the end of World War II, and the economy is more than $473 billion smaller than it was before the pandemic hit.
It's probably fair to say that Thursday was one of the crazier days in the history of financial news.
What happened: Robinhood, which has become synonymous with retail trading and the parabolic rise of stocks like GameStop and Tesla, shut down the ability of its users to buy (but not to sell) some of the platform's most popular names.
Nerdy, the parent company of online learning platform Varsity Tutors, announced on Friday that it will be acquired by a SPAC called TPG Pace Tech Opportunities at a valuation of $1.7 billion. Axios had previously reported on the deal talks.
Why it matters: This is the first tech SPAC deal affiliated with private equity giant TPG, and comes as more and more legacy investment firms are hopping on the blank check bandwagon.
Almost never does a stock trade more than twice its market value in a single day. It never happened in 2001, for instance, and never happened in 2003, and only happened once in 2002.
Driving the news: It has happened 7 times this week already, and 20 times this month. In the past 12 months,it's happened 84 times, which is more than all of the previous occurrences going back to November 1998.
The next big thing in transportation could be electric flying taxis — think of a drone crossed with a helicopter — that would ferry people and goods high above congested roadways.
Why it matters: Air taxis are billed as a cheaper, faster, cleaner mode of transportation, and an important link between remote areas and population centers. But there are still technical and regulatory challenges to overcome — not to mention public skepticism.
The stock-trading app Robinhood has an arsenal of political power brokers it can deploy on its behalf as it faces congressional inquiries over its role in an internet-fueled market manipulation frenzy.
Why it matters: The populist, discount trading platform is going to need that firepower because its decision to suspend trading of stock in GameStop and a number of other companies on Thursday has sparked criticism and promised inquiries from both sides of the aisle.
