ViacomCBS said in a regulatory filing on Friday evening that the company has settled with ex-chair and CEO Les Moonves over his $120 million severance payment.
The state of play: Moonves left the company in the wake of sexual harassment and assault allegations. ViacomCBS, at the time, revoked his $120 million severance package. Moonves entered into arbitration months later to fight for the money and the settlement ends that bitter dispute after more than two years.
Consumers' year-ahead expectations for inflation hit the highest level since 2008, according to a key survey by the University of Michigan.
What they're saying: Shoppers referred to higher prices for homes, cars and other goods on average more "than any time since the last inflationary era in 1980," per the survey's chief economist Richard Curtin.
One of the most confounding parts of last week's abysmal jobs report was the disconnect between the unemployment numbers and the help wanted signs plastered in the windows of almost every restaurant and retail store.
Axios Re:Cap goes deeper with Brian Niccol, CEO of Chipotle Mexican Grill, which just announced average starting wages of $15, to discuss pay, labor shortages and the CDC's new indoor masking guidance.
Gas stations in 12 states and the District of Columbia are still experiencing fuel shortages after Colonial Pipeline resumed service following a ransomware attack that caused the pipeline to shutdown, according to crowdsourced data collected by GasBuddy.
The state of play: Colonial Pipe said in a statement Wednesday it would take several days for the product delivery supply chain to return to normal following its restart.
Why it matters: In a message from a cybercrime forum, the group said it had lost access to the infrastructure needed to carry out its extortion operations and that a cryptocurrency account it uses to pay its affiliates had been drained.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the Mississippi River reopened on Friday after a large crack in a bridge near Memphis, Tennessee, forced authorities to shut down traffic on the river Thursday, according to Reuters.
Why it matters: The shutdown of the vital waterway caused a backlog of more than 1,000 barges carrying shipments of oil and corn, and it came as certain crop prices were at their highest in more than eight years.
Deal-making in the pandemic felt like a supercharged version of business as usual, minus the plane trips and closing dinners. But there were some significant changes inside of the deal structures, according to a new report from advisory firm SRS Acquiom.
Between the lines: Many buyers hedged their bets, offsetting high valuations with lengthy earnouts.
Clarios, a car battery maker owned by Brookfield Asset Management, filed confidentially for an IPO that Bloomberg reports could value the company north of $20 billion.
Why it matters: The Wisconsin manufacturer claims to power one out of every three cars in the world, producing both lead-acid and lithium-ion batteries. It's also one of the world's largest battery recyclers.
April retail sales in the U.S. were unchanged from March, which saw a surge revised up to 10.7%, according to the latest Commerce Department report published Friday.
Why it matters: The U.S. has been entering a period of growing optimism in the wake of the vaccine rollout, falling new COVID-19 cases and deaths, and a slowly recovering labor market. Retail sales were up 51% year-over-year compared to April 2020.
Delaware State University announced this week that it will cancel more than $730,000 in student debt for recent graduates who struggled financially during the pandemic.
The big picture: DSU — an historically Black university — used stimulus funds it received from President Biden's American Rescue Plan. The Education Department updated guidance in March allowing institutions to use that money for different needs, including cancelling some student debt, Forbes reports.
Just over half of investors (53%) are bullish on the S&P 500 over the next three years — even as the index sits at or near record levels, according to a bi-weekly sentiment survey released Thursday by Boston Consulting Group.
Why it matters: Strength in long-term market views was on full display over the past week, as stocks largely shrugged off seemingly negative data.
The Libor benchmark interest rate is going away soon and the transition to a replacement has been a bit bumpy.
The intrigue: Why anyone cares about this particular saga is related to the fact that trillions of dollars in corporate and consumer debt are pegged to it.
Wells Fargo is no longer viewed as the least ethical big company in America. That's the big lesson from the most recent Axios Harris reputation poll.
Why it matters: After hitting extreme Axios Harris lows in 2017, Wells Fargo embarked upon a massive public rehabilitation campaign in 2018. It seems to have worked.
Distressed hedge funds that raised record amounts of cash last year to invest in COVID-hit businesses are sitting on a mountain of cash and competing for crumbs to invest it in.
Why it matters: Government stimulus programs, and the Federal Reserve’s intervention in markets, caught many Wall Streeters by surprise last year with their magnitude. They effectively cut short the distress wave that these hedge funds have been waiting on for over a decade — leaving many now scrambling for what to do next.
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