- Convoy, a Bezos-backed trucking tech company valued at $3.8 billion last year, is shutting down: ‘Today is your last day at the company’ Fortune
- Bezos-backed freight firm Convoy shuts down after slashing hundreds of jobs. Read the CEO’s memo to employees CNBC
- Convoy collapse: Read CEO’s memo detailing sudden shutdown of Seattle trucking startup GeekWire
- It’s over: Convoy shutting operations, no strategic white knight to the rescue FreightWaves
- Bezos-backed Convoy to lay off staff, close operations The Seattle Times
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Valued
Estee Lauder to buy Tom Ford in a deal valued at $2.8B
The Estee Lauder Cos. is acquiring luxury powerhouse Tom Ford in a deal valued at $2.8 billion, marking the beauty firm’s biggest acquisition yet.
As part of the deal announced Tuesday, Ermenegildo Zegna Group and Marcolin S.p.A. will enter long-term license agreements for Tom Ford fashion and Tom Ford eyewear, respectively.
While Estee Lauder said the deal values the total enterprise at $2.8 billion, the New York-based beauty company is expected to pay roughly $2.3 billion, after a $250 million payment from Italian eyewear manufacturer Marcolin SpA.
The purchase, subject to regulatory approvals, is slated to close in the first half of 2023.
Under the agreement, Tom Ford, founder and CEO of Tom Ford International, will remain the brand’s creative visionary through the end of 2023. Domenico De Sole, chairman of Tom Ford International, will stay on as a consultant until that same time.
Estee Lauder introduced its Tom Ford Beauty line in 2006. In Estee Lauder’s fiscal year that ended June 30, the brand’s net sales grew nearly 25% compared to the prior year. The beauty company said that in the next few years it expect the beauty line to bring in net sales of $1 billion.
“This strategic acquisition will unlock new opportunities and fortify our growth plans for Tom Ford Beauty,” said Fabrizio Freda, president and CEO of Estee Lauder in a statement. “It will also further help to propel our momentum in the promising category of luxury beauty for the long-term, while reaffirming our commitment to being the leading pure player in global prestige beauty.”
Estee Lauder said it aims to finance the acquisition through a combination of cash, debt and $300 million in deferred payments to sellers that become due beginning in July of 2025.
Estee Lauder to buy Tom Ford in a deal valued at $2.8B
Hobby Lobby founder and CEO David Green joined ‘Varney & Co.,’ Monday, to explain his decision to give away ownership of his company and, instead, “choose God.”
Luxury cosmetics firm Estée Lauder is acquiring designer fashion house Tom Ford in a deal worth $2.8 billion, the company has announced.
The deal would be Estée Lauder’s biggest acquisition to date.
As part of the deal announced Tuesday, Ermenegildo Zegna Group and Marcolin S.p.A. will enter long-term license agreements for Tom Ford fashion and Tom Ford eyewear, respectively.
AMAZON’S NEW TELEHEALTH SERVICE TO OFFER CARE FOR COMMON CONDITIONS
FILE PHOTO: Designer Tom Ford arrives at the In America: An Anthology of Fashion themed Met Gala at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, U.S., May 2, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly (Reuters/Andrew Kelly / Reuters Photos)
While Estée Lauder said the deal values the total enterprise at $2.8 billion, the New York-based beauty company is expected to pay roughly $2.3 billion, after a $250 million payment from Italian eyewear manufacturer Marcolin SpA.
The purchase, subject to regulatory approvals, is slated to close in the first half of 2023.
ESTEE LAUDER IN TALK TO BUY LUXURY BRAND TOM FORD
In a joint statement with Estée Lauder, Tom Ford said, “I could not be happier with this acquisition”.
He said the Estée Lauder companies had been “an extraordinary partner from the first day of my creation of the company, and I am thrilled to see them become the luxury stewards in this next chapter of the Tom Ford brand.”
Tom Ford himself will remain in his current position as creative director until 2023 at least, the companies announced. Domenico De Sole, chairman of Tom Ford International, will stay on as a consultant until that same time.
An Estée Lauder cosmetics counter is seen in Los Angeles, California, U.S. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson / Reuters)
Since 2006, the US beauty firm has licenses Tom Ford fragrances and cosmetics.
In Estée Lauder’s fiscal year that ended June 30, the brand’s net sales grew nearly 25% compared to the prior year. The beauty company said that in the next few years it expects the beauty line to bring in net sales of $1 billion.
Estée Lauder said the acquisition would “unlock new opportunities”.
“This strategic acquisition will unlock new opportunities and fortify our growth plans for Tom Ford Beauty,” said Fabrizio Freda, president and CEO of Estée Lauder in a statement. “It will also further help to propel our momentum in the promising category of luxury beauty for the long-term, while reaffirming our commitment to being the leading pure player in global prestige beauty.”
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Estée Lauder said it aims to finance the acquisition through a combination of cash, debt and $300 million in deferred payments to sellers that become due beginning in July 2025.
The Associate Press contributed to this file.
Microsoft launches Designer, its answer to highly valued startup Canva
Microsoft is launching a simple graphic design app called Designer that will be available for free and as part of Office productivity software subscriptions, the company said Wednesday.
The software represents an alternative to Canva, a design app boasting more than 100 million monthly active users. Based in Sydney, Canva is one of the world’s most valuable startups, boasting a $40 billion post-money valuation as of last year. But one of the startup’s investors, Blackbird Ventures, reportedly lowered its valuation of the company to $25.6 billion earlier this year as inflation and recession fears caused software stock prices to tumble.
Microsoft has sought to demonstrate the value of Office subscriptions by adding new capabilities, and earlier this year it raised the prices of some bundles aimed at businesses. Office controls the market, and companies are constantly attempting to topple the leader in the category. The closest competitor is Google. On Tuesday Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said Workspace had more than 8 million paying subscribers, up from over 6 million as of April 2020.
Increasingly, Canva is going after core parts of Office. It introduced an alternative to the PowerPoint slide development program in 2021, and in September it brought out a tool to edit documents, challenging Word. Canva says it has 55,000 paid teams using its software including at Amazon, FedEx, PepsiCo, Pfizer and Salesforce.
With its Designer app, Microsoft is initially aiming at consumers, a spokesperson told CNBC in an email. But the application could also prove useful to workers inside of companies, government agencies and schools, where Microsoft has a larger base of users. Microsoft could expand Designer to additional markets, including enterprises, if it perceives sufficient interest, the spokesperson said.
In the current economy, some companies have sought to save money by reducing the number of software providers they count on, and adding Designer to commercial Office subscriptions at some point might help companies cut out payments to Canva, for one.
“No company is better positioned than Microsoft to help organizations deliver on their digital imperative so that they can do more with less,” as Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said on a conference call with analysts in July.
The launch of Designer might also make Microsoft bump up against Adobe, which fields the free Adobe Express tool that features templates and stock images. Canva is “where beginners get started before they come to Adobe,” Jonathan Vaas, Adobe’s vice president of investor relations, said at a Bank of America event in January.
But Microsoft has a close partnership with Adobe, and the two companies have more than 30 product integrations. “Adobe remains our key, at-scale strategic partner and this new consumer design application does not change our engagement with Adobe in any way,” a Microsoft spokesperson told CNBC in an email.
People can draw on templates to come up with social media posts in Designer, Liat Ben-Zur, a Microsoft corporate vice president, wrote in a blog post. Social media is also probably the most popular medium for which people design in Canva, said Cliff Obrecht, the startup’s co-founder and operating chief, in an interview last month. But Obrecht said Canva is “not competing against Microsoft.” Its primary competitor is Adobe, he said.
Designer can automatically come with visual designs when people enter text, thanks to an integration with DALL-E 2 artificial intelligence software from Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI. The two companies don’t want Designer to surface inappropriate content. OpenAI took out the most explicit sexual and violent content from AI training data for the system, while Microsoft recently implemented a change that helps to generate more diverse results, Ben-Zur wrote.
For now, people can join a waiting list for the free preview of Designer online. Once the app becomes generally available, Microsoft will maintain a free tier, along with a premium version for those with Microsoft 365 Personal and Microsoft 365 Family subscriptions, the spokesperson said.
WATCH: Two-minute drill: MSFT, UPS & PXD
HBO’s Marketing Campaign Valued At $100M+ – Deadline
EXCLUSIVE: For all the noise about David Zaslav’s quest to find $3 billion in cost-saving initiatives at the newly merged Warner Bros Discovery, what remains important to the new CEO is to spend on content where those dollars pay off.
And where is that? Why, on the launch of HBO’s near $200M Game of Thrones spinoff series, House of the Dragon, premiering this Sunday on both the linear pay-TV channel and streaming service HBO Max. Sources inform Deadline that HBO’s biggest marketing campaign ever is valued at over $100M in media spend (that’s a combo of ad spot value and hard cash shelled out). That’s a theatrical tentpole-sized marketing budget by all accounts, not some thrifty, Netflix-type push to subscribers on its menu. And as Zaslav pointed out today in his congratulatory memo to staffers (obtained by Deadline) before House of the Dragon‘s debut, it’s already paid off with the series campaign having “reached nearly 130 million people in the US alone,” while also repping a united front across a majority of brands in the Warner Bros Discovery empire to tubthump this new show.
Getty
In speaking to Deadline, Pia Barlow, EVP of HBO Originals Marketing, said the m.o. of the House of the Dragon marketing campaign was to “galvanize both new and existing fans,” that demo being men and women, 18-54.
“The House of the Dragon campaign is really about generating big, broad awareness and interest throughout the summer, but to also make sure we’re signaling to existing fans as well as new fans alike that this is a new Game of Thrones story coming to HBO Max,” Barlow adds.
“It has also been exciting to see teams across the company work collaboratively with the HBO team in what has been an unprecedented cross-promotional campaign. And we’ve done all of this in just a few short months, clearly showing what we can accomplish when our networks, streaming platforms, digital and social channels all work collectively in support of one shared priority,” Zaslav emphasized this AM. He outlined the conglom’s plan to micro target viewers in a marketing push that has spanned social media, outdoor, digital, traditional TV spots and splashy promotions on such distribution partners like Xfinity cable (where there’s a HOTD destination on their X1 and Flex video platforms) and Roku, which also produced a special episode of their content buzz show, The Roku Rundown.
HGTV
If the House of Targaryen is rich in dragons, then Warner Bros Discovery has an embarrassment of riches when it comes to ad space, with HOTD getting pumped across such channels, per advertising stat org iSpot, as TBS (20.9%), Discovery (9.1%), TNT (7.7%), CNN (7.4%) and Food Network (6.6%). If you were watching HGTV, you’d catch a fire-breathing dragon popping up in the bottom of the screen during your favorite show in a banner to promote the Ryan J. Condal co-created series. iSpot also reports that 99.1% of HBO’s promo TV ad impressions since July 20 came from HOTD.
Another notable mention in the teamwork for HOTD among Warner Bros Discovery channels was the exclusive look at the Martin series on the debut night of Discovery’s Shark Week on Sunday, July 24. Want more cross-promotion? How about the members of TNT’s All Elite Wrestling team sitting on the new GOT throne from HOTD at the San Diego Comic-Con experience (read down).
In regards to the future success of HBO Max, Zaslav has made it clear that it’s in the catalog of series and marquee Warner Bros theatrical titles hitting the service 45 days after they’re in cinemas. Warner Bros Discovery bean counters see zero upside to distributing movies directly to HBO Max like the previous WarnerMedia regime under Jason Kilar. It’s a tremendous waste of money, and their availability in theaters and homes simultaneously diminishes their patina, as well as their resonance in subsequent ancillary windows.
Not to mention there’s research out there to prove that frosh subscribers come for a movie, then bail on the service. It’s the weekly drop of a hot episodic series such as HOTD which keeps subs locked in. Not to mention, windowed theatrical films on HBO Max click better than day-and-date. We’ve heard that the first weekend of Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore on HBO Max after its 45 days in theaters ($95M domestic box office) drove close to 20% of the traffic to the OTT service, while in the pic’s first week, it was responsible for a third of HBO Max’s traffic.
In addition, third-party streaming measurement org Samba TV reported that the first week of The Batman on HBO Max (after its 45-day theatrical run) pulled in 4.1 million households, besting the first week of such day-and-date Warner movies as The Suicide Squad (3.5M), Wonder Woman 1984 (3.2M), The Matrix Resurrections (3.2M) and Dune (2.3M).
The HOTD campaign kicked off with two teaser trailers released on Oct. 5, 2021 (17.1M YouTube views) and May 5, 2022 (14M YT views). But then the marketing mojo kicked into high gear heading into San Diego Comic-Con, which saw a walk-up trailer drop (July 20, 18.8M YT view), the Hall H panel with the cast, Condal, and an extended trailer; the DracARys dragon-egg hatching app, and The House of the Dragon: Dragon’s Den live experience; the latter pulling in 4k attendees who walked through the series’ castle world adorned with actors in cosplay. All of these efforts continue to shine for HBO’s social media; SDCC being “the gift that keeps on giving,” says Barlow, yielding 102M impressions and 128K new followers on the House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones social channels.
“Select the (dragon’s) egg wisely” #HouseoftheDragon #SDCC pic.twitter.com/1aB6mcYoFx
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) July 21, 2022
Learning the way of the dragon #HouseoftheDragon #SDCC pic.twitter.com/ZbQcb6q9tD
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) July 21, 2022
Says Barlow about HOTD’s big footprint at Comic-Con, “The timing couldn’t have been more perfect. It was right in our launch window, and because it was the first time we were going to be back truly in full force after a few years, we knew that there was going to be this pent-up demand and excitement from fans, and we’ve had pretty significant presence in the past with Game of Thrones at Comic-Con. So, there was almost an expectation that we also wanted to make sure we were fulfilling for fans.”
Social media analytics firm RelishMix clocked how loud the volume was for HOTD, saying HBO “took an solid organic approach to engaging fans of the GOT franchise social network of 44.1M — as early as casting in preproduction to engaging them with new social channels for HOTD, now built across Facebook Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok.” Add in HBO Max’s followers and the social media universe reach for the new Westeros World series stands at close to 313M.
“Material hasn’t been flooded, but selectively posted, with only 12 videos on Facebook at 11.1M views and fewer on YouTube with 134.2M views, all cross-posted on earned channels,” says RelishMix in their latest report to Deadline. “The Comic-con announcements and live panel spiked a wave of materials leading-up to the streaming premiere weekend.”
Also happening this Sunday on the day of the premiere is a new Snapchat selfie + world facing AR lens which will run throughout the course of the first season. AR developers who are members of Snap’s global Lens Network are building custom Landmarker AR experiences in their local markets, which include AR renderings of the HOTD dragons as they take over global landmarks. The Landmarker lenses will be unlockable via the Lens Carousel when Snapchatters are near a notable location. The lens will be available in such territories as Australia, parts of Europe, India, the Middle East and Northern Africa, North America, and more. The custom Landmarker AR experiences will launch in Chennai, London, Los Angeles, Mumbai, Prague and Rio de Janeiro this Sunday.
Among the promo partners for HOTD, there’s Bose, which had their sound system featured throughout the Dragon’s Den at SDCC, and Duolingo, which kicked off on July 19, with fans learning High Valyrian ahead of the HOTD premiere. The app’s TikTok viral mascot made an appearance at the HOTD Comic-Con activation, where he reminded attendees to complete their lessons with life-size push notifications and signs with dragon commands in High Valyrian.
In addition, among the promo partners, there’s a month-long pop-up experience for the series at the Natural History Museum of LA from Aug. 5-Sept. 7. Inspired by the exhibits one might see exploring the relics and traditions of real-life regimes such as ancient Rome or ancient Egypt, the HOTD exhibit features props, costumes, and specially-designed displays to highlight the history of Daenerys Targaryen’s ancestors.
It would be an understatement to say that the stakes are high here in the rollout of House of the Dragon, not only from a future GOT development franchise angle, but also in regards to ratings. The final season of Game of Thrones left big shoes for House of the Dragon to fill, and that was before HBO had the power of HBO Max. GOT in its final season averaged 46M per episode domestically, and RelishMix notes there’s chatter on social media of those who are “still not satisfied with the ending.” Euphoria Season 2 episodes, by comparison, which had the added advantage of HBO Max, averaged 19.5M viewers each across all platforms.
Still, RelishMix notes social chatter where there’s an “excitement for the new journey back in time 200-years before GOT — from protective dragon lovers who insist that ‘no dragons were hurt in the making of the show’ and feel that they are the core of tale — to Matt Smith super fans who are on the edge — to HBO fans who relish the history of quality programming.”
A ratings windfall for HOTD will no doubt be one of the early wins for Zaslav’s management style, which looks to break down the walls between all Warner Bros Discovery brands and amp up their synergies to the nth degree.
Beamed Zaslav in the conclusion of his company email today, “We are committed to building one team with one mission – the third of three strategic priorities I highlighted in our recent earnings call – and the efforts in support of the launch of House of the Dragon are a great indication of how strong we are and what we can do when we work together.”
Taylor Hawkins’ wife thanks fans in first statement since drummer’s death: “Taylor valued his dream role in Foo Fighters every minute of his 25 years with them” | Guitar.com
Taylor Hawkin’s wife Alison has made her first public statement since the drummer’s tragic passing, telling fans “I want to share how much you meant to him.”
In a statement shared on Foo Fighters‘ Facebook page, Alison wrote, “My deepest thanks and admiration go out to the global Foo Fighters community and Taylor’s fans far and wide for the outpouring of love each and every one of you have shown our beloved Taylor. Your kindness has been an invaluable comfort for my family and me during this time of unimaginable grief.”
“As Taylor’s wife, and on behalf of our children, I want to share how much you meant to him and how dedicated he was to ‘knocking your socks off’ during every performance. Taylor was honoured to be a part of the Foo Fighters and valued his dream role in the band every minute of his 25 years with them. We consider every band member and the extended Foo Fighters team our family.”
“Taylor’s endearing spirit and deep love of music will live on forever through the collaborations he so enjoyed having with other musicians and the catalogue of songs he contributed to and created.”
“In celebration of his life, it is now up to all of us who loved him most to honour Taylor’s legacy and the music he gave us. Thank you all again for your love and sympathy. Taylor loved all of you & we love you too.”
Hawkins’ Foo Fighters bandmates along with his family have recently announced two tribute concerts in his honour: one in Wembley Stadium in the UK, and one in the Kia Forum in Los Angeles with an “all-star” lineup that has not yet been revealed.
Hawkins passed away in March at the age of 50 while the band was on tour in South America, leading to the band cancelling all upcoming tour dates as they grieved the loss.
Elon Musk’s The Boring Company now valued at nearly $5.7 billion
The Boring Company’s new funding, announced Wednesday, comes from venture capital firms as well as real estate companies. Sequoia, a prominent Silicon Valley firm that’s invested in Musk before, co-led the investment with Vy Capital. The deal values the Boring Company at nearly $5.7 billion.
Loop is a mostly underground transportation system that offers point-to-point trips between stations where people board Tesla SUVs. One Loop system is already operating in Las Vegas with two stations that are about a mile apart at the Las Vegas Convention Center. There are plans to expand the system throughout the Vegas strip, with 51 stations over 29 miles.
The Boring Company is also developing a project in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and is in conversations with San Antonio, Texas. It’s previously announced projects in Chicago, Washington, DC and Los Angeles, but has not completed them. It faced a lawsuit from unhappy Los Angeles neighbors, and fell out of favor when Chicago elected a new mayor. Permits have not been completed for its DC to Baltimore project, which dates back to 2017.
“We’re still very enthusiastic, and want to move forward,” Fort Lauderdale Mayor Dean Trantalis told CNN Business on Thursday.
He said the government is collaborating with the Boring Company on engineering issues on the project, which would connect downtown and a nearby beach. They’re working to align the route on a right of way that the city has more control over. He declined to say when it might be completed.
Critics have questioned if essentially running a subway system, but with cars rather than trains, is an efficient use of tunnels, which can cost as much as $1 billion per mile to build. The Boring Company says it’s developing cheaper tunneling technology, and argues its system is superior to traditional subway systems because trips will be point-to-point, and not make any planned stops, like at other stations. (But they could potentially be slowed by tunnel traffic ahead of them.)
Musk, the CEO of Tesla, previously pitched a more grandiose vision for the Boring Company, with people being whisked through cities in dedicated autonomous vehicles at speeds up to 120 mph. But the reality so far, in Las Vegas at least, has involved human drivers operating what resemble standard Teslas at 35 mph.
The Boring Company still says it plans to eventually transition to fully autonomous operations, which will reduce the cost of operations.
Sequoia said in a blog post that the Boring Company is at an “inflection point.”
“The next few years are about 10x’ing performance by making their systems rapidly reusable and fully autonomous,” it wrote.
The Boring Company says its next generation machine for digging tunnels is designed to be capable of operating remotely and autonomously, requiring no one in the tunnel. Its current iteration of the machine, called Prufrock, is designed to dig up to a mile per week. Digging tunnels quicker is critical to lowering costs.
The Boring Company has said it also plans to build utility and freight tunnels. It did not respond to a request for comment.
Quarterback market: Misdirection is perfect play when it comes to decisions about NFL’s most valued position
You can get yourself in trouble in this league taking people at face value. Especially this time of year.
We are in peak pre-draft season, every word is being chosen carefully and parsed on multiple levels, and secrecy and subterfuge and smokescreens are all the rage. Particularly when it comes to the men who play the most important position in all of professional sports. Quarterback. Maybe you’ve heard about them, since they are all the rage in this league and we’ve seen more trades, transactions (unretirement?) and contract extensions with them the past few weeks than seemingly ever before.
They make this league go around, and we are on the cusp of another fertile time for QBs on the NFL calendar, with the draft just ahead and, quite likely, four of them about to be selected in the first round alone, to say nothing of other trades involving established quarterbacks who are still looming (Baker Mayfield and Jimmy Garoppolo, for starters).
You have to tread carefully when decision-makers speak about quarterbacks these days. Not all is as it seems, or certainly not all that’s going on is being revealed by those who are speaking about them. There are delicate situations, and unique circumstances surrounding several young passers in this league, and there is leverage to potentially be gained or lost depending on how teams manage to handle some of these matters. Words matter, and often what is left unsaid resonated more loudly than what is actually expressed.
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No one wants to tip their hand in a way that cedes potentially more money than necessary or scuttles a potential trade and/or gives others a read on what the club’s actual intent is regarding the draft. People in this league work long and hard to do just the opposite. Which brings me to three of the more interesting interactions between NFL decision-makers and the media regarding quarterbacks in the last week.
And I am here as a public service to decode and interpret what is really going on here. Consider me a translator of sorts. I’ll say what these guys can’t say out in the open and shine some light in. I’ll expound where they, for the most part, would prefer to ascribe to the “less is more” philosophy, for obvious reasons. And please feel free to play along at home (or at work, or wherever you happen to be reading this):
Lions coach Dan Campbell, holding the second overall pick, on the need for a star quarterback in the modern NFL: “No, I don’t think you need that. I think that those guys like that are obviously, they’re special. And they certainly can give you a better chance. But no, I don’t believe you have to have one of those guys to have sustained success.”
What he means: Hey, I’m also the guy who told you we’d be eating kneecaps, and you didn’t take that literally, did you? We just took on a brutal contract on a borderline QB a year ago to extract as much draft pick value as possible in return. Follow what we do and not what we say. I might be stuck with Jared Goff for another year, and even if we do draft a kid at 2, he’s probably not ready to play right away. So I have to tap dance a little here (maybe a lot).
And, with this draft not having the same QB appeal as some recent drafts, what do I gain by gushing about Malik Willis or Kenny Pickett or anyone else? Why throw any flowers that way. Chances are no one is trading up to 2 to get them, but if we make it seem like we aren’t in the QB market, maybe someone trades up to land a tackle or pass rusher and we get even more draft capital and still get our QB there? What’s that, you say I’m a dreamer? Yeah, well I’m not the only one. But don’t be shocked if we grab a QB somewhere in the first round.
Packers president Mark Murphy on the future of recent first-round pick Jordan Love in Green Bay: “We think he can be a good player, but we haven’t seen enough. So I think this preseason will be good for him.”
What he means: It will be good for us if we can get anything in return for him in a trade that is even remotely close to what we surrendered to move up and overdraft him in the first place. Yeah, with any luck this will be a huge preseason for him … trying to win a starting job in Seattle, or Carolina or Atlanta or somewhere. Do you think the Panthers and Falcons are definitely taking a QB in the top 10, by the way?
OK, anyway, so I assume you saw the one regular-season game he started, right? You think there is a way we could doctor that game film? And if I keep talking enough about our rich history of developing quarterbacks and how we managed to transition from Brett Favre to Aaron Rodgers, and how our backup is often better than your starter, then some GM might actually buy into that spiel and give us a 2 for this kid? Because we all know he’s not going to be cool with sitting out his entre rookie deal backing up our wacky starter. Dude, we gave Rodgers $102M over two years; he may fancy himself Kung Fu walking the earth and solving problems, but he ain’t walking away from that money. That takes us at least until 2024. What first-round pick sits for four years? So, yeah, about that game film …
Ravens coach John Harbaugh on the team’s ability to do a long-term deal with Lamar Jackson as he plays out his fifth-year option: “He’s a unique guy. People have been scratching their heads and trying to figure out Lamar probably for a long time, you know, ever since he was a kid. And he’s got his way of going about doing things. But that’s what you love about him, it’s what I love about him. Get him in here and ask him. Maybe he’ll tell you.”
What he means: I want nothing more than to win a Super Bowl with Lamar. Heck, we altered our entire identity on the fly to try to put him and us in the best position to do that ASAP. But this one is above my paygrade. Deshaun Watson might be suspended half the year and he just got $230M fully guaranteed over five years. Jimmy Haslam is putting $180M in an escrow account just for the right to throw enough money at Watson to finally convince him to go to Cleveland.
Now Derek Carr is making over $40M a year. Kirk Cousins got another $70M fully guaranteed. So what’s Lamar worth – $240M fully guaranteed? $250M? You think I have that kind of money? This one is all about Steve Bisciotti. I do a lot around here, and everyone knows what I think of Lamar and how much I want him around here for as long as possible, but I’m not the dude who will have to stroke that check. And if Lamar doesn’t want an agent, and his focus is on being the best QB he can be and not on negotiating a new contract right now, and he’s willing to keep gambling on himself, it’s not my place to try to convince him otherwise. It’s my job to win as many football games with him as possible, and we’ve done an awful lot of that together. I have a draft to prepare for and a season to prepare for, and the only way you are going to contend in this conference is with stellar QB play. Lamar gives us that. But I don’t negotiate the contracts. And the guys who do seem to have their work cut out for them in this case.
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Amazon CEO Andy Jassy’s compensation valued at $213 million in 2021
Here are your FOX Business Flash top headlines for April 1.
Amazon. com Inc. Chief Executive Andy Jassy received compensation valued at $212.7 million in 2021, his first year as head of the tech and e-commerce giant.
The majority of his compensation was in stock awards to the tune of $211.9 million.
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According to Amazon’s proxy statement filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission, the 61,000 shares that make up the stock awards represent the special grant for his promotion to president and chief executive officer.
Mr. Jassy was named CEO in February 2021, succeeding founder Jeff Bezos after he announced his move from CEO to the role of executive chairman. Mr. Jassy officially stepped into the role in early July.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy. Amazon announced Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2021, that Jeff Bezos would step down as CEO. Amazon says Bezos will be replaced in the summer by Jassy, who runs Amazon’s cloud business. (Isaac Brekken/AP Images for NFL, File) (AP Newsroom)
Amazon said more than 80% of the shares are scheduled to vest in five to 10 years, and is expected to represent most of Mr. Jassy’s compensation for the coming years, the company said.
“Faced with the first CEO succession in the company’s history,” Amazon said in a filing that its compensation committee “determined it important to provide for clarity and stability through an award that is designed to establish a long-term owner’s perspective and encourage bold, long-term initiatives.”
AMAZON SUBJECT OF CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATION OVER WAREHOUSE COLLAPSE
The company said it considered compensation data for CEOs at large tech companies and others, as well as one-time awards for CEO promotions, in structuring Mr. Jassy’s compensation.
Mr. Jassy’s base salary in 2021 was $175,000, the same as it was in 2020, when he was head of the Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud-computing business. In 2020, his total compensation was $35.8 million.
An independent group formed by former and current Amazon workers voted this week to unionize a company warehouse in New York City. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File) ((AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File) / AP Newsroom)
Amazon recently more than doubled its maximum base pay to $350,000.
Mr. Bezos’ total compensation was valued at roughly $1.7 million. That amount, essentially unchanged for years, is mostly used to cover security for Mr. Bezos.
News about the company’s executive pay comes as workers at a New York facility voted to establish the tech giant’s first union in the U.S.
AMAZON WORKERS AT STATEN ISLAND FACILITY VOTE IN FAVOR OF UNION, FIRST IN COMPANY’S HISTORY
The CEO change at Amazon marked the company’s first major leadership shift in its history. Mr. Bezos had been CEO since he started the company in a Washington state garage.
Mr. Jassy joined Amazon in 1997 and quickly earned his stars as a right-hand man to Mr. Bezos, credited with helping with the creation of Amazon Web Services, one of the company’s most profitable centers.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 3,271.20 | +11.25 | +0.35% |
In the company’s fourth quarter, which included the critical holiday period, Amazon nearly doubled its profit to $14.3 billion from $7.2 billion in the prior-year period as revenue rose 9.4% to $137.4 million.
AWS contributed around $17.8 billion to the company’s revenue in the quarter, rising about 40% in the period.
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Amazon’s financial results surprised some analysts who expected a more subdued performance as Amazon dealt with rising costs across a number of fronts.
Write to Adriano Marchese at Adriano.Marchese@dowjones.com
Coinbase rival FTX U.S. valued at $8 billion in first funding round
Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder and chief executive officer of FTX, in Hong Kong, China, on Tuesday, May 11, 2021.
Lam Yik | Bloomberg | Getty Images
FTX U.S., the American affiliate of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, said Wednesday it has raised $400 million in its first external fundraising round.
The investment gives FTX U.S. a valuation of $8 billion, placing it among the world’s most valuable private crypto firms. Investors in the round include Temasek, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board and SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2.
The deal shows that start-up investors’ confidence in the nascent digital asset industry hasn’t been shaken, even as the prices of bitcoin and other tokens have fallen sharply.
Bitcoin and ether, the world’s two biggest virtual currencies, have both roughly halved in value since reaching record highs in November, while smaller tokens like solana and cardano have suffered even steeper declines.
The slump has led some to fear a more dramatic downturn known as “crypto winter” could be on its way. Brett Harrison, president of FTX U.S., said the market turbulence shows how crypto is a “volatile asset class.”
“Volatility cuts both ways,” he said. “With all of the large upturns that we’ve seen in crypto, we have to expect that there are going to be downturns as well. And we’re definitely in that period right now.”
Harrison said the phenomenon is “not specific to crypto” — stock markets have taken a tumble as well. “I think that we are going to eventually see a bounce back,” he added.
FTX was set up in Hong Kong in 2019 by 29-year-old crypto entrepreneur Sam Bankman-Fried. The wider company, recently valued by investors at $25 billion, has since moved its headquarters to the Bahamas.
Bankman-Fried established FTX U.S. as the American sister to distinguish it from his main exchange, as officials in Washington began taking a closer look at the digital currency market. Trading launched on the platform in May 2020.
In a trading update Wednesday, FTX U.S. said average daily volumes on its platform grew sevenfold in 2021, peaking at more than $800 million in November after bitcoin notched a record high of almost $69,000.
The company facilitated more than $67 billion in spot crypto trades last year. It now has around 1.2 million registered users in total.
FTX U.S. hopes the investment will help it gain an edge over rivals like Coinbase and Robinhood. Like FTX, the company is making a push into derivatives — contracts that allow investors to speculate on the performance of an asset. It acquired LedgerX, a crypto futures and options exchange, in October.
Harrison says the U.S. market for crypto derivatives pales in comparison to the international marketplace. Investors see that there’s “an enormous opportunity for us to bring much of that volume onshore,” he added.
Coinbase is looking to make similar moves beyond spot trading, agreeing a deal to buy derivatives exchange FairX earlier this month.
Regulation is coming
Still, regulators are growing concerned by the rapid rise of the crypto industry. They fear certain aspects of the market may pose the threat of contagion across financial markets, and that consumers are getting into crypto investments without knowing the risks involved.
President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly expected to deliver an executive order calling for regulation of digital assets as early as next month.
Harrison said officials in Washington have two primary concerns with crypto — stablecoins and oversight of exchanges.
Digital currencies like tether and Circle’s USD Coin are meant to be pegged to the U.S. dollar, but it’s not that simple. Tether has admitted its reserves include short-term debt obligations and other assets as well as dollars. And, up until recently, USD Coin’s reserves had included assets other than cash and U.S. government bonds.
Meanwhile, crypto exchanges are currently regulated in the U.S. as money transfer businesses. Harrison says that’s “not a sustainable long-term future” and wants stricter oversight with rules against market manipulation, a major source of concern in the crypto market.