Magazine publisher Meredith Corp. has hired bankers to sell several of the titles it recently acquired from Time Inc., according to Reuters.
On the block: Time, Fortune, Money and Sports Illustrated.
Bottom line: This isn't much of a surprise, since Meredith has always focused more on lifestyle content than on news. The bigger question is if Meredith can find a willing buyer, particularly for the entire portfolio.
Toys "R" Us formally launched its liquidation process shortly after midnight, via a bankruptcy court filing. This came hours after more than 33,000 U.S. employees were told their jobs are likely to disappear.
Bottom line: There is plenty of blame to go around, including for the private equity firms that bought Toys "R" Us in 2005, the senior lenders who control it now and an increased focus on toys by generalist retailers like Amazon and Wal-Mart.
"Major U.S. airlines are hiring pilots at a rate not seen since before 9/11, and that is encouraging more young people to consider a career in the cockpit," AP's David Koenig reports from Dallas.
Why it's happening: "Hiring is likely to remain brisk for years. Smaller airlines in the U.S. are struggling with a shortage that will continue as they lose pilots to the bigger carriers, which in turn will need to replace thousands of retiring pilots over the next few years."
iHeartMedia, the holding company of iHeartRadio Inc., the biggest operator of radio stations in the United States, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The San-Antonio-based group reached an in-principle agreement with creditors to restructure an overwhelming amount of debt that had compounded since a private-equity buyout over a decade ago.
Why it matters: iHeartRadio, which owns over 850 radio stations throughout the country, has seen advertising revenues fall flat to major technology companies — much like others in the traditional media landscape.
NBC is planning to launch a streaming platform for younger viewers, executives told reporters Wednesday. The network is also revamping its digital strategy to focus on platforms that value curation and editorial judgement.
Why it matters: The efforts are part of a wider push by the company to invest in younger viewers, as linear TV audiences migrate towards digital news consumption.
Univision is eliminating some roles, including Fusion Media Group CEO Felipe Holguin, as it integrates its English-language assets.
Why it matters: According to sources within the company, the move is part of plans to restructure its business in light of a cancelled IPO, which was triggered by difficult market conditions that have led to consolidation within the industry.
Why it matters: The Amazon effect is one reason for the iconic chain's misery. But the other is the $6.6 billion in debt that Vornado, Bain Capital and KKR laid on Toys R Us after a leveraged buyout in 2005, some $5.2 billion of which remains.
Harvard economist Ed Glaeser says something dark is going on within a chunk of U.S. geography stretching north from Louisiana to Michigan. The "Eastern Heartland," as he calls it, is an "epicenter of troubled America, an epicenter of hopelessness."
Why it matters: Some of the nation's most stubborn social problems are concentrated in the 12-state Eastern Heartland, and Glaeser argues there needs to be a new approach to attacking them.
The parents of Seth Rich, the former DNC staffer who was murdered in 2016, have filed suit against Fox News, reporter Malia Zimmerman, and guest commentator Ed Butowsky over a retracted 2017 article that tied his death to a conspiracy theory that Rich had a hand in WikiLeaks' release of hacked DNC emails. They allege that the "sham story" exploited their son's murder "through lies, misrepresentations, and half-truths."
The details: The filing claims Fox News and the writers are liable for "intentional infliction of emotional distress" with the story's publication. The Rich family is seeking monetary and compensatory damages to be determined in a court of law. Fox News declined to comment on the allegations, citing pending litigation.
The Securities and Exchange Commission is charging Jun Ying, a former executive at Equifax, with insider trading after he profited nearly $1 million by selling his shares ahead of the company's data breach announcement. Ying avoided roughly $117,000 in losses by selling before the breach that affected nearly 148 million U.S. customers, according to a report from the SEC.
What they're saying: “Corporate insiders who learn inside information, including information about material cyber intrusions, cannot betray shareholders for their own financial benefit,” said Richard R. Best, Director of the SEC’s Atlanta Regional Office.
Dropbox is expected to go public later this month, or three years after the IPO of enterprise-focused rival Box. Each company has a distinct business model, but they often get lumped together due to their fundamental focuses on file storage and sharing. Well, plus those three shared letters in their names.
Axios spoke with Box founder and CEO Aaron Levie about what surprised him in the Dropbox numbers, how the market should view Dropbox vis-à-vis Box and what he makes of Salesforce buying into the IPO.
President Trump's firing-via-tweet of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, following his sudden imposition of tariffs, reflects the president's increasing comfort with solo use of his awesome power over policy, personnel and politics.
Why it matters: White House officials tell us that it's getting ever more difficult for aides to disagree with Trump, or stand up to him about the consequences of decisions great and small.
