Axios

The Biden administration is considering an extension of its moratorium on student loan payments and will announce its decision later this week, an Education Department spokesperson tells Axios.

Why it matters: Federal student loan payments are currently on pause until Jan. 31. An additional extension would bring relief to millions of borrowers.

Air passengers who display unruly behavior could lose their TSA PreCheck privilege under a new partnership between Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and Federal Aviation Administration, the FAA announced Tuesday.

Why it matters: Airlines have seen increasingly contentious passenger behavior in the past year, with the Federal Aviation Administration confirming over 5,500 cases of unruly passengers in 2021. Most involved mask-related incidents.

OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely announced Tuesday he is stepping aside from the creator platform known for its adult content.

Driving the news: The platform has named Ami Gan, a former spokesperson for the company, as its new CEO. Stokely, who created OnlyFans in 2016, will become an adviser for the company, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the story.

2021 isn't quite over yet, but it's already been a record-shattering, eviscerating, gralloching year for mergers and acquisitions.

Driving the news: Global M&A topped $5.5 trillion through last Thursday, including more than $2.4 trillion for U.S. targets, per Refinitiv.

The Washington Blade, the oldest LGBTQ newspaper in the U.S., has become the first LGBTQ publication to be assigned a designated seat in the White House briefing room.

Driving the news: The White House Correspondents Association, which is responsible for seating assignments, said in a memo that it had rearranged the seats "to enhance diversity in the briefing room." Seat assignments were given to “organizations that target Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ audience” as well as publications “across the ideological spectrum,” per the Washington Blade.

Jimmy Finkelstein, most recently the owner of The Hill, is planning to launch a new media company, sources tell Axios.

Why it matters: Finkelstein sold The Hill, a D.C.-based political newspaper, to Nexstar in August for $130 million.

SupplyShift, a company founded by two climate scientists that seeks to help companies reduce their supply chain emissions, has raised $10 million.

Driving the news: As more companies make far-reaching emissions reduction goals, they can quickly run out of opportunities to limit direct emissions from their offices, stores and shipping.

AT&T is selling its ad tech unit Xandr to Microsoft. Terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Why it matters: AT&T has been scrambling to get Xandr off its balance sheet. Sources told Axios earlier this year that Xandr loses tens of millions a year and has been grossly mismanaged.

Hydrogen-electric truck startup Nikola agreed to pay $125 million in a deal with the SEC after the agency accused the company's founder of misleading the public.

Driving the news: The SEC announced the settlement Tuesday but said it would continue its investigation, which has already led to fraud charges against former Nikola boss Trevor Milton.

Investment firm GSV is working on a bid to buy Forbes Media at a $620 million valuation as an alternative to Forbes' announced SPAC merger, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: BuzzFeed's public listing last week added to growing skepticism about the SPAC market for media companies. Its shares are down roughly 40% from its opening price, and 94% of investors redeemed their stock following the merger news.

The Build Back Better bill might be dead, but it isn't buried. The progressive agenda remains, and substantial parts of it will reappear in Congress in the new year.

• If those parts are focused in such a way as to minimize costs, they're likely to feature fewer subsidies and more of an emphasis on increasing the supply of crucial services.

Taboola, a content recommendation company, is launching an audience network for advertisers looking to place native ads on the open web.

Why it matters: Firms like Facebook, Amazon, Google and Spotify launched audience networks to extend their advertising reach across areas where they're dominant, like social, commerce, search and audio. Taboola's building an audience network that reaches people outside those big platforms.

This past fall, surging energy prices were one of the most visible and alarming side effects of the world’s monumental effort to reopen economies all at once.

• But just a few months later, a warm start to the winter — and worries that the Omicron variant will cause a slowdown — have cut the price of one of America’s main fuel sources nearly in half from its peak.

“Supply chain,” “inflation” and “variant” were among the new top words mentioned at least once on Wall Street calls this year, according to an analysis of transcripts by Sentieo, a research firm.

Why it matters: All the chatter about bottlenecks, rising prices and variant spread that led to more factory shutdowns is another sign of just how big of a headache it was for corporate America (and consumers) this year.

Movie theaters were bustling last weekend as "Spider-Man: No Way Home” delivered smashing results, but it's too early to call it a comeback.

Catch up quick: Disney's Marvel movie spun up the second biggest weekend ever for a new film in North America, reaping an estimated $260 million in ticket sales, according to Comscore.

Why it matters: Movie theaters have been desperate for customers since the pandemic cratered their business and empowered studios to bypass the big screen for streaming services. Spider-Man's performance would've been cause for celebration, even in pre-pandemic times — but the omicron variant may yet spoil the plot of the movie theater comeback.

• “Omicron is the big unknown here,” Tuna Amobi, media and entertainment analyst at CFRA Research, tells Axios. “To what extent does it role back some of the gains we’ve seen remains unclear.”

With Spider-Man’s ticket sales, the domestic box office is poised to top $4 billion this week, nearly doubling 2020’s full-year performance, according to Box Office Mojo.

• Yes, but: We’re a long way off from 2019’s $11.3 billion.

Our thought bubble: With all due respect to Peter Parker, we need to see more before we declare Spider-Man’s performance more than a one-off success. The underwhelming showings for recent non-superhero flicks — and the less-than-pre-pandemic performance of other superhero films like “Black Widow” and “Shang-Chi” — do not inspire confidence.

State of play: Shares of AMC and Cinemark jumped on Friday after initially promising box office reports and rose further Monday despite the broader stock market's selloff.

• AMC’s stock has been vacillating since it became a favorite of meme stock traders on social media earlier this year. So it’s hard to say whether the stock’s movement is reflective of moviegoing trends.

Flashback: AMC narrowly escaped bankruptcy in 2020 after deep cost cuts and a series of financial maneuvers, including repeated fundraising, helped the company ride out pandemic shutdowns. But others weren’t so lucky, like Alamo Drafthouse, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The bottom line: Expect turbulence to continue. But "what’s pretty clear is there’s a significant amount of pent-up demand waiting to be released," Amobi said.

The Chinese government increasingly is using its economic weight to reshape global behavior and strengthen its own authoritarianism. And democratic governments have left companies to fend for themselves.

Why it matters: Global businesses and nonprofits learned the hard way this year that taking a stand for democratic values can cause massive revenue losses in the Chinese market.

California officials filed a lawsuit against Walmart on Monday, alleging the retail giant illegally dumped hazardous waste in state landfills. Walmart said it will fight the lawsuit, which it called "unjustified," per AP.

Why it matters: The suit alleges Walmart unlawfully disposed of about 159,600 pounds in items each year over the past six years in landfills not equipped to handle toxic waste in violation of state environmental laws and regulations.

Venture capitalists are known for spotting and investing in promising upstarts, but an alternative approach is growing in popularity: incubating.

Why it matters: With startup investments pricier and competition stiffer, some investors are setting up startup studios or incubating companies — a trend that's expected to continue accelerating.