With New Year's resolution season in full swing, the fitness studio and gym industry is firmly back on its feet, having survived the existential crisis brought by the pandemic.
Why it matters: Early in the pandemic, about 1 in 4 health and fitness facilities permanently closed due to stay-at-home orders and people exercising at home, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association.
Elon Musk will try to defend himself against claims of securities fraud over 2018 tweets saying he had secured funding to take Tesla private in a trial that began this week in a San Francisco federal court.
The big picture: The trial comes at a perilous time for Musk and Tesla, whichmissed its goal of achieving 50% growth year-over-year in 2022 and has recently drastically cut vehicle prices. It also comes after Musk's chaotic first few months as CEO of Twitter, which he acquired for $44 billion.
Twitter is planning to run content sponsorship deals with more than three dozen news outlets, media companies and sports leagues in the first half of this year, according to a schedule of events shared with ad partners and seen by Axios.
Why it matters:Elon Musk's leadership style has caused many advertisers to flee, but media companies, newsrooms and sports leagues are reaping too much revenue and marketing advantage to quit the platform.
Much of the high-level discussion at the World Economic Forum in Davos this year centers on the sense that there is a uniquely ominous moment afoot, both in global economics and geopolitics.
The WEF released a report that dubbed the decade as the "turbulent twenties" and the "age of the polycrisis," with persistent and concurrent economic shocks related to inflation, geopolitical conflict, climate change and more.
Retail trading platform Robinhood is launching an independent media brand called Sherwood that will be led by veteran tech editor and media entrepreneur Joshua Topolsky.
Why it matters: The entity will build on the success of Robinhood's popular daily markets newsletter, Snacks, and will serve as a branding and customer acquisition tool.
Customers who put their cash and cryptocurrency into Gemini Earn thought it was secure, akin to a savings account at a bank. "It sounded really safe," Peter Chen, a data scientist in San Diego, who started putting money in Earninlate 2021, told Axios.
Why it matters: Chen was especially reassured when Gemini customer service sent him an email and mentioned FDIC insurance — the protection that keeps bank deposits safe in the U.S. But his money, since converted to cryptocurrency, wasn't safe.
The power of Davos is its guest list. Attendance this week at the first full-fledged gathering in three years appears robust — though many of the biggest names in global politics and business are missing.
Why it matters: Beyond the panels and Alpine views, the World Economic Forum's annual meeting is basically the world's greatest hotel lobby: Power players can pack their schedules with high-level meetings, sip champagne with clients and keep up with their competitors.
