Southwest Airlines has been in damage-control mode since its December cancellations meltdown, working to defend its reputation. Now, that episode has an actual price tag.
Driving the news: The airline said today the snafu cost it $800 million in the fourth quarter (around $620 million on an after-tax basis), driving it to a net Q4 loss.
Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda is stepping down from his post and becoming chairman amid questions about whether the automaker has moved quickly enough on electric vehicles.
Why it matters: Toyota is a powerful force in the auto industry, ranking as the best-selling automaker in the world in 2021.
More than two dozen people have been charged for their involvement in a scheme to sell fraudulent degrees and transcripts from Florida-based nursing schools to aspiring nurses, according to newly unsealed court documents.
Driving the news: The wire fraud scheme distributed over 7,600 fake diplomas, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
Michelle Chiu was among the roughly 950 people who were laid off from Coinbase in the firm's most recent round of cuts earlier this month. Just weeks later, Chiu tells Axios, "the stress and uneasiness" about her abruptly halted career has slipped off.
Why it matters: Chiu is one of the more than 29,000 people in crypto that have lost their jobs since April. The technology sector at-large is going through something of a reckoning, paying the price for recent over-hiring and adjusting to new economic realities.
The number of Americans filing unemployment claims remains extraordinarily low and signals the opposite of a recessionary jobs market.
Driving the news: The Labor Department said this morning that only 186,000 people filed new claims for jobless benefits last week, the lowest since April of last year.
At first glance, fourth quarter GDP appears fairly upbeat: The economy grew at a 2.9% annualized pace in the final months of 2022, even better than analysts anticipated.
But a look at some of the underlying details suggests the economy is actually losing momentum — more evidence that the Federal Reserve's campaign to put a brake on growth is having an impact.
Moments of disruption are an opportune time for companies to rethink their brand and positioning. Due to transformative shifts caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, more than half of U.S. businesses have attempted to reposition themselves within the last three years, according to an UpCity report.
Why it matters: Consumers, employees and shareholders increasingly want to know what a company stands for and expect corporate values, messaging and branding to align.
Alan Sexton, chief communications officer of Prudential Financial, is shepherding the nearly 150-year-old institution into the digital age.
Why it matters: Sexton's team is revamping the way Prudential engages with its stakeholders across the globe — particularly its digitally savvy employees and young consumers.
Keeping up with the news is like drinking from a firehose, but the question remains: How thirsty are readers?
Driving the news: Axios got an exclusive look at Memo's first State of Media and Readership Report, which shines a light on how and when people consume news.
NEA said Thursday that it's raised just over $6.2 billion for a pair of new funds; comprised of $3.05 billion for its 18th fund, now focused on early-stage deals, and $3.18 billion for its debut growth equity fund.
Zoom in: That represents a little more than it originally planned to raise for the flagship, and a bit less for the growth equity (reflecting how market conditions changed during the fundraising process).
Sequoia Capital in Decembersent an unusual letter to limited partners in two of its funds, informing them that management fee percentages would be reduced and applied to called capital instead of to committed capital.
Why it matters: Sequoia, despite some recent stumbles, remains the VC industry's most venerable firm, and its move sparked some LP calls for other firms to follow suit.
SAP is exploring a sale of its remaining 71% stake in Qualtrics, a Utah-based maker of survey and customer experience software, as part of a broader restructuring that includes 3,000 job cuts.
Why it matters: It would be the end of a complicated partnership that began in late 2018, when SAP agreed to buy Qualtrics for $8 billion in cash. At the time, it was the largest-ever acquisition of a VC-backed enterprise software company.
Dotdash Meredith, one of the largest print and digital publishers in the country, is laying off 274 people, roughly 7% of its staff, its CEO Neil Vogel told employees in a note obtained by Axios Thursday morning.
The big picture: It's the latest media company to cut staff in the wake of the economic uncertainty plaguing the advertising market.
The U.S. economy grew at an annualized 2.9% rate in the final months of 2022, the Commerce Department said on Thursday.
Why it matters: Economists are bracing for a significant slowdown in economic activity as the Federal Reserve's interest rates hikes take hold, but that certainly wasn't the case in the final months of last year.
Last year’s sell-off in the investment-grade corporate bond market — where the most creditworthy U.S. companies borrow money — was one of the worst in history. This year: There aren't enough bonds to go around.
The big picture: A possible end to the current rate hike cycle — and the downward pressure those hikes put on bond prices — is coming into sight.
Move over, locavores: A slew of new labels — from "climavore" to "reducetarian" — reflect the trend of people eating with sustainability in mind to reduce their climate "foodprint."
Why it matters: Food manufacturers, restaurants, and supermarkets are racing to cater to the zeal for lower-carbon eating choices, which has people eschewing plastic packaging, ingredients flown in from afar, and foods that are environmentally damaging to produce.
In reinstating former President Donald Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts, Meta is also pushing Trump toward a moment of decision about the fate of his financially troubled social media app, Truth Social.
Why it matters: Trump raised hundreds of millions of dollars to create Truth Social after he got barred from many social platforms following the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. Now he must decide between recommitting to his new company or reaping the benefits of getting back on Facebook and Instagram.
