Axios

The leading hardware wallet maker, Ledger, announced a new feature on Tuesday that has crypto diehards in an uproar.

Driving the news: Ledger Recover is an opt-in system enabled on the Ledger Nano that will allow a user to recover a private key in a relatively safe way — in theory.

The biggest mattress maker is acquiring the biggest mattress seller in the latest shakeup for an industry that has been roiled by upheaval in recent years.

Why it matters: Tempur Sealy's deal to acquire Mattress Firm, announced last week, will allow the Tempur-Pedic maker to exert more control over the manufacturing, distribution and sale of mattresses throughout the country.

The Department of Justice announced Tuesday five criminal cases involving people accused of stealing or illegally transferring U.S. technology to businesses and governments in China, Russia and Iran.

Why it matters: The cases, and four arrests associated with them, were the first enforcement actions taken by a new DOJ team meant to prevent nation-state adversaries from stealing critical U.S. technologies.

Former Silicon Valley Bank CEO Greg Becker and two former executives from Signature Bank were grilled by a Senate committee Tuesday and skewered for the failures of the financial institutions they led.

Why it matters: It was Becker's first public appearance in the wake of SVB's failure — a shocking collapse that set off a mini-banking crisis that the system is still sifting through.

Retail sales are on the upswing for the first time since January.

Why it matters: Shoppers had been pulling back on spending, raising fears that the American consumer's habits — the bedrock of the economy — were starting to show cracks.

• April's numbers, however, show shoppers picking up momentum.

The Federal Reserve is more interested in cooling the economy down than it is in speeding it up. As a result, it might have to jettison the tools it's been using since 2008 and pick up some even older ones.

Why it matters: Tools like forward guidance were invented for use during crises, and global policymakers are now debating whether they're a good idea during normal times.

Austin Russell, the 28-year-old American CEO of electric vehicle tech company Luminar Technologies, plans to put in only $10 million of his own money as part of his bid to buy 82% of Forbes for $656 million, two sources familiar with the deal told Axios. The rest is almost all coming from foreign investors.

Why it matters: The relatively small personal financial commitment from Russell supports Axios' previous reporting that the deal to buy Forbes, which was hastily announced last Friday evening, is structured in a way that obscures how much money foreign investors may put in.

Denver-based gold miner Newmont has agreed to buy Australian rival Newcrest to US$17.5 billion in stock.

Why it matters: Newmont already is the world's largest gold miner, and adding Newcrest would give it nearly double the output of second-place Barrick Gold. Plus lots of copper.

NewLimit, a longevity pharma startup co-founded by Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong and former Google Ventures partner Blake Byers, on Tuesday announced that it's raised $40 million in Series A funding.

The big picture: There's an old VC joke about all the big companies that would be rendered worthless if just one could develop Star Trek-style teleportation. Now that's getting a biotech spin.

The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday sued to block pharma giant Amgen from buying rare disease drugmaker Horizon Therapeutics for $27.8 billion.

Why it matters: This is the first time in more than a decade that the FTC has sued to stop a big pharma merger, and reflects the Biden administration's expansive view of antitrust law.

Dotdash Meredith, one of the largest internet publishers in the country, will debut a new ad targeting tool called D/Cipher that doesn't rely on internet tracking cookies or first-party data, the company's CEO Neil Vogel told Axios.

Why it matters: The deprecation of internet cookies has forced most web publishers to rely on cookie replacements or first-party data, or data that publishers collect from users directly, to target ads. Dotdash Meredith's new solution won't rely on individual user data.

A little-known web3 infrastructure upstart founded just last year has closed a large deal.

Driving the news: Silicon Valley-based Auradine raised $81 million in its initial round of fundraising led by venture capital firms Celesta Capital and Mayfield, a noteworthy sum given the dearth of tech and crypto deals lately.

A record share of Americans believes it's a bad time to buy a house, according to a Gallup survey released Tuesday morning. The percentage hasn't been this high since Gallup started asking the question in 1978.

The big picture: The decision to buy a house is personal, and dependent on one's own finances and location, of course — still, the survey respondents have a point.

You hear it everywhere. "The U.S. has never defaulted on its debt."

Yes, but: It’s not true. By the most basic definition of default — not making agreed-upon payments to those you owe — the U.S. has indeed defaulted, arguably on multiple occasions.

Signs of economic stress are flaring up for young adults, write the authors of a new report from Moody's Investors Service.

Why it matters: High inflation was already hurting younger folks, who have less wealth and lower savings and earnings. Now as credit starts to tighten, things could be more painful.

Farmers, airport operators, pipeline operators and others looking to shoo away unwanted avian pests are turning to a suite of new high-tech tools, including drones designed to look like threatening hawks and lasers meant to humanely disperse crop-eating or airplane-threatening flocks.

Why it matters: Birds are a major economic threat to farmers — some of whom use anti-bird netting that can unintentionally trap or harm birds — a hazard for aircraft, and a nuisance to industrial sites.

Scandals, strikes and slowed sales have rocked the television industry ahead of its most critical business week of the year.

Why it matters: Cord-cutting was already eating at the TV industry's business model. Recent setbacks are making it harder for networks to sell success.

Striking Writers Guild of America members announced Monday night they won't picket next month's Tony Awards, but emphasized they won't negotiate an interim agreement or a waiver for the event.

Why it matters: It means the show celebrating Broadway's big night can go on with a televised broadcast on CBS and live-streamed by Paramount+ as scheduled on June 11 — albeit without scripted segments, per Broadway World.

Twitter appears to have made its first deal of the Elon Musk era: buying a job-matching tech startup called Laskie, Axios has learned.

Why it matters: This is the company’s first known acquisition under Musk’s leadership, as well as a transaction that helps fulfill the billionaire's aspirations to turn Twitter into a "super-app" that offers users multiple functions — including payments.