fortune--2020-05-15--Facebook buys GIF library Giphy for $400 million

Facebook acquired Giphy, a library of video clips and animated images known as GIFs that can be attached to messages to express emotion, adding features that could encourage users to communicate through its apps.
Giphy will join the Instagram group within Facebook, according to a blog post on Friday, and the social-media giant has extended offers to more than 100 Giphy employees, a spokesperson said. The acquisition price was about $400 million, according to people familiar with the matter. Axios earlier reported the deal and its price. Facebook didn’t disclose terms.
Facebook already offers Giphy’s library of clips in its messaging products, and said owning the service outright will make it “easier for people to find the perfect GIFs and stickers” in Stories and direct messages. About 50% of Giphy’s traffic already comes from the Facebook family of apps, and half of that from Instagram alone, the company said. The talks started after money-losing Giphy reached out to Facebook a few months ago in hopes of landing an investment, then shifted to talking about an acquisition instead, according to a person familiar with the conversations, who asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations.
Giphy provides GIF search functions for other apps, like Twitter and TikTok, and it will keep up those integrations — potentially giving Facebook insight into activity on competitors’ platforms. That could mean additional scrutiny from regulators for Facebook, which is currently under antitrust investigation by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission, the Department of Justice and 47 state attorneys general.
Giphy could also help increase sharing on Facebook’s apps. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has made private messaging a priority in recent years, and eventually plans to enable messaging between all of Facebook’s services, including WhatsApp, Messenger and Instagram. The Menlo Park, California-based company has also spent a lot of time and money trying to encourage its almost 3 billion users to share more often with features like face filters and stickers. With users home during the coronavirus pandemic, usage of Facebook’s communications products has surged.


fortune--2020-05-15--Quibi ‘losing the attention game,’ analyst says

Drive-in theaters are back .
These are the movies you can see , and where you can see them

The mobile-optimized, well-funded, and highly pedigreed entertainment startup Quibi launched on April 6 after more than a year of drumbeating by its two leading executives, CEO Meg Whitman and chairman Jeffrey Katzenberg.
It quickly fizzled.
Why? In a recent newspaper interview, Katzenberg placed blame on the novel coronavirus pandemic, which quickly eroded the “in-between moments”—at the doctor’s office, at the post office, on commutes—that the company’s short-form (less than 10 minutes) video content was built to fill.
But there’s more to it than that, according to one analyst.
In an essay published Friday, Loup Ventures managing partner (and former Piper Jaffray research analyst) Douglas Clinton writes that the company’s launch content just isn’t good enough to stand out from the pack.
“Given the demands on our time, we pay attention to new things that elicit some emotion. Things that bore us elicit no emotion, and we ignore those things. Things that excite us elicit emotion, and we often share those things,” he writes. “Quibi’s content isn’t bad, it’s perfectly fine. It’s just hard to get the attention of a new audience without very compelling content.”
Among the series on Quibi’s launch slate: feel-good celebrity surprise Thanks a Million starring Jennifer Lopez and Kevin Hart; legal comedy Chrissy’s Court starring Chrissy Teigen; raunchy comedy Dummy, starring Anna Kendrick; pop culture review Memory Hole starring Will Arnett.
The company’s release strategy is also not working, Clinton adds. Trickling episodes out on a daily basis, versus all at once à la Netflix, makes it harder for users to binge—and therefore more difficult for the company to keep new customers’ attention once it’s initially captured.
“When an attention game player gets someone’s attention, they should keep it as long as possible to create an attachment between the user and the platform,” he writes, adding that the episodic model “may have worked with traditional TV, but it’s much tougher when that attention time is under constant pressure from every other platform listed above.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Why Katzenberg and Whitman are Hollywood’s odd couple
—“I’m a millennial, and I don’t understand what Quibi is trying to do”
—Watch Quibi’s Whitman and Katzenberg speak at Fortune Brainstorm Tech
—Why the coronavirus has become the great corporate smokescreen
—Jeffrey Katzenberg and the future of Hollywood


fortune--2020-05-15--J.C. Penney faces a tough road ahead as it mulls bankruptcy protection

The inevitable for J.C. Penney could be approaching: After years of dwindling sales, massive debt, and customer defections, not to mention a pandemic that has idled stores, the iconic retailer has reportedly been considering filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
The struggling 118-year-old department store said on Friday it had made a $17 million interest payment but was still considering unspecified “strategic alternatives,” which could include the bankruptcy filing. Penney had another payment due on Friday.
If the company does go the Chapter 11 route, that would give it some much needed breathing room for its umpteenth turnaround attempt; fixing its business faces long odds. Penney, at the top of the retail heap alongside Sears as recently as the 1980s, is now a chain of cluttered stores selling tired store brands or merchandise easily found elsewhere, poorly supported by a subpar e-commerce operation.
The bankruptcy filing will lower Penney’s mammoth debt, incurred in 2013 when it narrowly staved off insolvency after sales plunged 25% as a result of an ill-advised attempt to be a hipper store. It will also enable it to close about 200 of its 850 stores—and it reportedly will.
Those things will help but won’t eliminate the fact that J.C. Penney faces a far more primordial challenge well beyond getting through the COVID-19 crisis: getting customers to care again.
Over the years, it has lost its once mighty hold on shoppers. In 2019, net sales were $10.7 billion, barely more than half their high-water mark hit 13 years earlier. In the interim, there have been innumerable reinvention attempts, most notably in 2012 by onetime Apple retail guru Ron Johnson, who tried to make Penney cool and got rid of the discounts and coupons that supported the department store’s business. Sales fell more than 33% in the wake of that attempt.
All the while, many Penney shoppers went elsewhere. Some traded up to Macy’s, which is now also in grave danger, or went to stores like T.J. Maxx or Nordstrom Rack which offered better designer merchandise at lower prices. Many turned to Target for its hip but inexpensive clothes and home furnishings in stores away from malls, which Americans frequent less and less. The result is a retailer that is a shell of its former self.
It’s not hopeless. Penney is still a $10-billion-a-year retailer with a legion of shoppers that continue to go there out of habit, and it sells quality products. Here are the five main areas Penney has to fix if it hopes to make a case to shoppers it still deserves their consideration.
1. Fix store brands
Penney gets about 46% of sales from its store brands, which include apparel lines St. John’s Bay and Stafford and home goods line JCPenney Home. For decades, Penney was well ahead of rivals like Target, Kohl’s, and Macy’s in developing its store brands, establishing its first overseas sourcing office in 1959 and becoming a powerhouse in developing new brands. But nostalgia cannot sustain a business, and Penney’s brands have grown stale, too broad to really have a clear identity with shoppers. Contrast that with Target, which had the courage to dump many faded brands in recent years but quickly created several new clothing lines—notably Cat & Jack for kids—turning them into billion-dollar names within one year of launch. Private brands offer higher profit margins and give shoppers a reason to choose one store over the other. But for that to hold, shoppers have to actually want those brands.
Even with national brands, Penney is losing its luster with top names tired of its years of decline. A case in point: Last year, Levi Strauss started selling its red tab jeans at Target, its first foray into mass retail with its better jeans. Other brands like Nike have been focusing much more on their own stores.
2. E-commerce
It’s hard to believe how far ahead of Macy’s J.C. Penney once was in the e-commerce wars. In 2005, it was already a $1 billion business for Penney. The chain had long had a catalog business, which gave it a head start. But under Johnson, the e-commerce and store businesses were separated, something the digital business never quite recovered from. Marvin Ellison, now CEO at Lowe’s, spent much of his time as CEO from 2015 to 2018 struggling to bring Penney’s e-commerce up to standard but couldn’t get there. For a long time, Penney didn’t even offer basics like free in-store Wi-Fi. Its website was a mess in terms of search. And Penney offered in-store pickup of online orders well after Kohl’s did. Penney CEO Jill Soltau has said an up-to-date digital business is a top priority in her turnaround plan. At this point, that should be table stakes. According to Bloomberg Intelligence, Penney gets 19% of sales online, compared with 25% at Kohl’s and Macy’s, a damaging shortfall at a time when stores have been mostly closed. Penney has opened a lab store in Texas, but it’s not clear how quickly it could implement good ideas with its limited financial means.
3. Better stores
One of the biggest downsides to Penney’s massive debt has been its inability to invest in its stores, many of which can look like flea markets with overflowing racks that are hard to reach amid a sea of “40%-off” signs. To save money on staffing, Penney has done things like put far more inventory on the store floor so it needs fewer people to go back and forth to restock shelves.
The result is messy stores: If shoppers want that environment, they can go T.J. Maxx where they will at least get designer brands. During the Ron Johnson debacle, the one saving grace was a period of reinvestment in stores, which looked great for a while.
But at the same time, closing stores is no panacea. Penney has closed 300 stores since 2016, and its downward trajectory has only worsened because of how weak the brand is. Only 100 of Penney’s 650 mall-based stores are in quality malls, according to Green Street Advisors, a real estate research firm. “A smaller store fleet is not going to solve J.C. Penney’s core issues,” the firm wrote last month.
4. Broader merchandise mix
Penney still gets about 60% of sales from clothing and accessories, areas where there are countless and arguably better options for shoppers. The chain should consider going back to its roots when it sold a much broader variety of goods as a general discounter. (Penney, which sold things like hunting rifles in the 1970s, doubled down on fashion in the early 1980s to differentiate itself from Sears, which dominated hard goods.) But it would have to tread carefully here: The debacle with its return to selling appliances between 2016 and 2019 after three decades away from the category showed how risky it is to go up against stronger rivals (Home Depot, Lowe’s, and Best Buy in this case.)
But trotting out the same kinds of clothes year after year and offering home goods shoppers can find at a million other places is not working. Proof? The one constant bright spot this past decade for Penney has been the Sephora shops within its stores, the first of which opened in 2006. Customers are coming in to get their beauty products but clearly not spending much time shopping the rest of the store. A more exciting presentation of more interesting goods could change that.
5. Standing for something
All department stores are hurting badly right now. But at least Penney’s rivals have carved out some sort of identity and are investing in reinventing themselves. Macy’s had been investing in its best stores to beautify them, attract better vendors, and was even planning a new small-store format with eateries—at least until COVID-19 wrecked its plans. Kohl’s has teamed up with Amazon to operate return centers for its online rival and has brought in a ton of new brands.
To be fair, there has been no shortage of attempts by Penney to carve out a niche. It was one of the first to see the opportunity in the plus-size market for women. But so many of its efforts are haphazard or are not well supported with marketing. Its loyalty program is rudimentary compared with those at rivals like Kohl’s and Macy’s, not to mention Ulta Beauty and Target.
There isn’t anything Penney sells that shoppers can’t easily find elsewhere, and that will be job number No. 1 for Soltau as she moves to save Penney yet again.


fortune--2020-05-15--To aid social distancing—and cut air pollution—London’s mayor declares stretches of the capital will

To aid social distancing—and cut air pollution—London’s mayor declares stretches of the capital will be car-free

Traveling through central London—a bustling amalgamation of finance, tourism, culture, and shopping, all threaded with winding, often narrow medieval streets—is about to get a lot, well, slower.
As the British capital inches towards reopening from seven weeks of lockdown, London’s mayor announced on Friday that large stretches of the city would become effectively car-free—making space for citizens to walk, and cycle, instead.
“COVID-19 will fundamentally change the way we travel around our city,” Mayor Sadiq Khan said in a Twitter post on Friday. The plan will make “central London one of the largest car-free zones in any capital city in the world, increasing walking and cycling and improving our air quality,” he said.
JUST ANNOUNCED: our plans to make central London one of the largest car-free zones in any capital city in the world, increasing walking and cycling and improving our air quality.
London's road to recovery cannot be clogged with cars. https://t.co/31Ym0OBF9q — Sadiq Khan (@SadiqKhan) May 15, 2020
On Friday, the city’s transport authority—Transport for London—said that alongside limits to cars, public transit in large stretches of the city must be used only “as a last resort,” with workers in the city center told to travel by foot or bicycle to their final destination after arriving in the city from major rail lines. The bus and tube will still be operational in central London. The new rules will start to go into effect on Monday, leaving London’s workforce little time to plan.
Some streets will be limited to pedestrian and cycle traffic only, while other major thoroughfares—including, potentially, London Bridge—will allow only buses. That bridge is a key route from south London to “the City,” the capital’s main financial hub—a compact warren of streets that is host to half a million workers per day.
On Sunday, British leader Boris Johnson said in a national address that those who must go back to work should avoid public transit if possible, and use cars, bikes, or walk instead.
It was quickly pointed out that in a sprawling city of nearly 9 million, which is also the major hub for all of southeast England, walking, and even cycling, all the way to work is an option for the privileged few. Workers who can are still being advised to work from home.
Meanwhile, low car ownership in the capital means traveling by auto is also not an option for most, while congestion and lack of parking spaces—see: narrow medieval streets, above—has often made traveling by car through central London difficult even under normal circumstances.
To address the risk of London streets becoming “unusably busy” as a result, Khan has gone for the jugular: remove most cars, entirely. Levies on vehicles in central areas of the city will be reinstated—many were dropped during lockdown—while some delivery trucks will be required to make drop-offs on off-hours, the announcement said. Sorry, Amazon Prime customers.
On Friday, Khan acknowledged that the new plan would be “incredibly difficult for many Londoners,” adding, “it will mean a fundamental reimagining [of] how we live our lives in this city.”
But he said that the redesign offered a chance to “repurpose” the city’s streets for the people, and address toxic air pollution levels, “to make sure we don’t replace one public health crisis with another.”
That’s not just a post-lockdown move—it’s a chance to push forward Khan’s years-long agenda of dramatically lowering London’s air pollution levels, which have frequently exceeded the legal limits on what is safe. And it’s likely that he’s capitalizing on one of the few silver linings of a spring spent in lockdown: Within days of the country going into quarantine, pollution levels across the city dropped dramatically, and Londoners reported noticeably cleaner air and bluer skies.
Potential links between high levels of air pollution and vulnerability to COVID-19 have also pushed policymakers toward addressing how air pollution affects health systems long term.
London is not the first city to use the pandemic to make bold urban changes that many expect will be permanent. Milan has also announced a scheme to dramatically reduce car use as the city reopens, through the rapid expansion of dedicated lanes and cycling routes.


fortune--2020-05-15--Another ‘Star Trek’ series is coming to CBS All Access

Get ready for more Star Trek on CBS All Access. The streamer has picked up new series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, featuring the characters of Spock, Captain Pike, and Number One.
The three, currently portrayed by Ethan Peck, Anson Mount, and Rebecca Romijn, were introduced on Star Trek: Discovery during its last season. The new show will focus on the trio during the decade before Captain Kirk got on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Citing fans’ appreciation for the characters, Julie McNamara, executive vice president and head of programming for CBS All Access, said in a statement Friday that the “new series will be a perfect complement to the franchise, bringing a whole new perspective and series of adventures to Star Trek.”
“Speaking just for myself, I have never received more love from a fan base than I have from the Star Trek family,” said Mount in a video announcement featuring the actors.
The new series joins Star Trek: Discovery, Star Trek: Picard, and the upcoming animated Star Trek: Lower Decks as one of the various series from the beloved sci-fi franchise on CBS All Access. Another series for younger audiences is also being developed at Nickelodeon. The announcement also comes about a week after ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish confirmed “major changes coming this summer” as the company works on an expanded streaming service combining CBS and Viacom programming.
No series premiere date has been set yet.


fortune--2020-05-15--What to watch on Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, and more this weekend

Between traditional television, video-on-demand releases, and a growing number of streaming services, it can be hard to keep up with what one should watch week to week. Fortune is here to help you keep track of new releases as well as the occasional older title worth checking out. Take a look at this weekend’s notable arrivals, a couple you may have missed earlier in the week, and what else is coming soon:
Hulu
The Great: If you’re looking for an irreverent comedy series about Catherine the Great (who isn’t?), this new show debuting on Hulu May 15 could be the one for you. Starring Elle Fanning as Catherine—before she actually became “the Great”—and Nicholas Hoult as Peter III of Russia, the series springs from the mind of The Favourite cowriter Tony McNamara.
Amazon Prime Video
The Last Narc: The docuseries delves into the 1985 kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique “Kiki” Camerena. The lead investigator, Camerena’s widow, Mika, and cartel insiders all participate in the documentary, which comes to Amazon on May 15.
Netflix
White Lines: The new series from Alex Pina (Money Heist), which arrives May 15, centers on a woman’s quest to understand her dead brother’s disappearance in Ibiza. Filming took place in Mallorca and Ibiza.
She-Ra and the Princesses of Power: The fifth and final season of this animated series—a reboot of the 1980s cartoon—arrives on the streaming service May 15.
As mentioned last week, limited series The Eddy, the second season of Dead to Me, and a new interactive The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt special are also all available to watch on the streamer.
On VOD
Scoob!: If you’re in need of something kid-friendly, the computer-animated Scooby-Doo movie will be available May 15 via a video-on-demand 48-hour rental for $19.99; or it can just be purchased for $24.99.
Capone: Tom Hardy stars as the infamous gangster in this VOD release that dropped earlier this week with prices varying depending on whether you choose to rent or buy the flick. (Reviews have been largely brutal, but that might make it all the more entertaining for some viewers.)
On TV
Daveed Diggs (left) and Jennifer Connelly with Sam Otto and Alison Wright in the background. The TNT adaptation of “Snowpiercer” premieres May 17. Justina Mintz—TNT
The Snowpiercer TV adaptation finally arrives on TNT after years in development. The show premieres at 9 p.m. ET/PT on May 17. (Read Fortune’s interview with showrunner Graeme Manson and season one production designer Barry Robison here.)
ABC will show the Taylor Swift “City of Lover” Concert special on May 17 at 10 p.m. before it hits Hulu and Disney+ the next day.
CBS continues Sunday movie nights with Mission: Impossible at 8 p.m. on May 17.
Among the season finales airing this weekend:
The Blacklist will air its part live action, part graphic novel–style season finale (a result of the coronavirus-induced production shutdowns) on NBC, Friday, May 15, at 8 p.m.
On The CW, both Batwoman (8 p.m.) and Supergirl (9 p.m.) will air their season finales Sunday, May 17.
On ABC, American Idol will wrap up its season May 17 at 8 p.m. with its first remote finale.
Coming Soon
New series Stargirl premieres on DC Universe May 18, followed by a May 19 premiere on The CW at 8 p.m.
Break out your best Olivia Pope wineglasses: Scandal is moving from its old home on Netflix to Hulu on May 20. The Shondaland series about fixer Pope (Kerry Washington) was on ABC for seven seasons before coming to an end in 2018.
And perhaps taking a page from CBS and its Sunday night programming, ABC is reviving its “Wonderful World of Disney” for four Wednesdays in a row at 8 p.m. The beautifully animated Moana kicks things off on May 20.


fortune--2020-05-15--Retail sales plunge a record 16.4% in April—the worst drop in history

April 2020 was one for the record books for U.S. retailers. And not in a good way.
Hampered by massive store closings, economic uncertainty, and soaring unemployment as the coronavirus idled huge swaths of the U.S. economy, retail spending fell a record 16.4% in April from March, the Commerce Department reported on Friday.
Hit particularly hard were clothing stores, where business was down 78% compared with March (and 89% compared with April 2019). Other big losers last month were electronics and appliances (-60.6%), furniture and home furnishings (-58.7%), sporting goods (-38%), and bars and restaurants (-29.5%).
On a more positive note, online sales rose 21.6%, though that is only a few percentage points higher than e-commerce had been growing in the past year, suggesting that the digital boom is not doing all that much to mitigate the pain of in-store sales declines. Grocery sales were also down compared with March, as panic buying slowed, yet they were up compared with April 2019, as people have stayed home and cooked more since restaurants last month were largely dark across the country.
The results suggest who some of the big winners and losers will be in the first quarter, as the major U.S. retailers start to report quarterly results next week.
The decline in apparel sales, which followed big drops in the second half of March, promises to be punishing for companies like Gap Inc., Kohl’s, Nordstrom, and Macy’s, but they have strong e-commerce firepower to mitigate some of that with curbside pickup. They get more than 25% of sales online. Neiman Marcus and J.Crew recently filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, while J.C. Penney is reportedly considering making the same move.
The drop in some previously strong categories, notably electronics and home furnishings, where sales were up early in the pandemic as people prepared their homes and offices for a long period of work from home, reflects the restrictions some retailers have placed on how many shoppers can come in at a time. Best Buy, for one, has just recently allowed people to come into stores again, but only if they have an appointment.
Even the biggest retail winners in this pandemic—Walmart, Target, and Costco Wholesale at the top of that list—are seeing a slowdown as they, too, have to limit traffic inside stores and as sales of essentials begin to return to normal, even as demand for discretionary items remains weak. Target, for instance, said last month that e-commerce had nearly quadrupled in April, while in-store sales were down by a mid-teens percentage.
While April is likely to be the worst of it, as stores and malls around the country start to reopen gradually, retailers are in for a lot more pain this year.
“The pace of opening is slow, and many shoppers remain in financial distress. As such, May will not be a month of celebration. Nor will June. Nor July. Nor probably the rest of this year,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail.


fortune--2020-05-15--‘Percy Jackson’ series in development for Disney+

Rick Riordan, American author of the popular Percy Jackson series for young adults, announced Thursday that he and wife Becky were at work on a live-action series for streaming platform Disney+.
“After a lot of hard work and a lot of support from you guys, Percy Jackson is coming to Disney Plus,” the pair announced in a brief video published on Twitter. “More later.”
They added in an additional statement: “We can’t say much more at this stage, but we are very excited about the idea of a live-action series of the highest quality, following the story line of the original Percy Jackson five-book series, starting with The Lightning Thief in season one. Rest assured that Becky and I will be involved in person in every aspect of the show.”
The first of the five-book fantasy-adventure fiction series, The Lightning Thief, arrived on the scene in 2005 to broad acclaim. Sequels soon followed like clockwork: The Sea of Monsters (2006), The Titan’s Curse (2007), The Battle of the Labryrinth (2008), The Last Olympian (2009). The entire series, officially called Percy Jackson and the Olympians, loosely draws from Greek mythology and has sold tens of millions of copies worldwide.
The core series, published by Disney Hyperion in the U.S. and Penguin/Puffin in the U.K., Australia, and New Zealand, has been supplemented by additional companion books as well as adaptations of the original stories for the screen and the stage alike. The film adaptations alone—2010’s The Lightning Thief and 2013’s The Sea of Monsters—grossed more than $400 million in box office sales worldwide despite middling reviews.
More must-read stories from Fortune:


fortune--2020-05-15--A new chip factory is coming to America, but at what cost?

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
Here’s a fundamental but inconvenient truth about the silicon chips that make the magic possible in our iPhones, Thinkpads, Xboxes, and even Teslas: It’s gotten so wildly expensive and difficult to build a factory to make cutting-edge chips that almost no one can do it. We’ve gone from hundreds of chip makers to dozens to two years ago when we dropped to just three: Intel, Samsung, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing.
That’s not to say it’s not a vibrant industry. When one of those three advances in cramming ever more transistors onto the same size chip, the benefits flow across the tech ecosystem. Nvidia’s unbelievably fast graphics chips unveiled on Thursday are made possible by TSMC’s new 7-nanometer chip manufacturing process, for instance.
But the lack of competition at times stifles innovation or pushes up chip prices. And if just one of those companies stumbles, as Intel has over the past five to 10 years, that can hold back performance across whole sectors of the tech landscape.
The pandemic, in particular, ignited some discussion of tech’s global supply chain vulnerabilities, which sort of made sense when the outbreak was concentrated in one region, but became moot as the virus shut down factories worldwide.
Now, the issue that has risen to the headlines is the fact that two of the three companies, TSMC and Samsung, have most of their chip factories near China.
The Trump administration’s fear-mongering around all things China, which wreaked havoc on global trade before the pandemic, has now turned to that fact, though each already has a plant in the United States as well.
It seems like less of a concern in reality. If China moved to cut off chip supplies, presumably in an unlikely act of war, could not production shift to factories in the U.S., Ireland, Israel, or any other countries? Ironically, the Chinese also believe they are deeply at risk because the leading companies that make the machines that make the chips are all based in the U.S. and Europe.
No matter. Under a deal announced on Thursday, the administration will help TSMC build its next cutting-edge plant in Arizona, at a cost of $12 billion over eight years. We don’t know much yet about what our government is paying, with TSMC saying only it has “mutual understanding and commitment to support” from the federal and state governments. Hopefully, the tax breaks and subsidies will work out better than the plan to bring a Foxconn factory to Wisconsin, but I’m not optimistic.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com
NEWSWORTHY
Not just a flickering, black-and-white myth on a screen. As speculation heats up about Apple's plans to release an augmented- and virtual-reality wearable device, the company made another acquisition in the field. Apple said on Thursday it bought VR content producer NextVR for an undisclosed price. And in other M&A news, Microsoft is furthering its ambitions to cozy up to the telecom industry by acquiring telecom software developer Metaswitch Networks, also for an undisclosed price.
Keeps going and going. Good news for your laptop battery from Google today. The company says it will update the Chrome browser app to start blocking web ads that use too much processing power or require excessively large data downloads.
End of an era. One of the oldest names in wireless is headed for the gallows. T-Mobile says it will begin unifying customers and stores from its just acquired Sprint unit under its own name starting this summer, with rumors pegging August 2 for the brand merger.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
We are barely comprehending the permanent changes that will emerge from our current time. Bloomberg reporter Sarah Frier takes a deep dive into the scenario of tech workers in Silicon Valley moving to more affordable parts of the country.
Christy Lake, chief people officer at San Francisco-based Twilio Inc., says several employees have already approached their managers and HR representatives to discuss plans to relocate. The cloud communications company expects more than 20% of its office-based employees will transition to working remotely in the long term. “It’s percolating big-time,” Lake says. She expects the company will have to come up with formal policies and maybe offer a relocation bonus to employees who decide to make the jump.
But the trend raises complicated questions. If employees move to a less expensive location, should Twilio adjust their salaries accordingly? “It’s probably not great business practice to pay Bay Area comps in Michigan,” Lake says. And when it comes time to promote, would those employees have the same opportunity to advance as everybody else? “We need to think proactively,” she says.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few long reads that I came across this week:
Inside HBO Max, the $4 Billion Bet to Stand Out in the Streaming Wars (Variety)
A starry group came together for a meeting at Courteney Cox’s Malibu beach house on Oct. 5, 2019. Had the paparazzi gotten wind, pandemonium would have surely ensued. Cox invited her five “Friends” co-stars — Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — for a rare reunion dinner.
How Albert Einstein's Son Tamed the Mississippi River (Wired)
Multiple structures now keep the river from roaring into the Atchafalaya—but they may be inadequate against climate change.
Thirty-six Thousand Feet Under the Sea (The New Yorker)
The explorers who set one of the last meaningful records on earth.
America’s ‘fried chicken war’ (BBC)
How immigration, ingenuity and the American spirit shaped a US fried chicken “war” that’s been simmering for four generations.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
How Syndio’s CEO raised $7.5 million for pay equity software with 6 kids at home By Emma Hinchliffe
How selling $133 million worth of face masks in April helps Etsy long term By Phil Wahba
Peacock announces original programming tied to its national launch in July By Radhika Marya
Takeaways from the Seattle business community’s Back to Work toolkit By Erika Fry
Review: How great are Apple’s new keyboards? By Aaron Pressman
As probe into Senate stock sales heats up, Richard Burr steps down as Senate Intel Committee chair By Rey Mashayekhi
Congress is ignoring the best solution for troubled companies: bankruptcy By Jared A. Ellias and George Triantis
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. There is a 50% discount for our loyal readers if you use this link to sign up. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
Software developer Daniel Luu has an interesting side gig. He created a site called Nookazon as a place for people who play Nintendo's Animal Crossing to trade the various items they need or want to further their village ambitions. The game's own currency of bells is too common for Nookazon, where most players now use more rare items such as gold nuggets and star fragments as currency. I'll be spending the weekend collecting them, I guess, to save up for that Lily of the Valley that someone around here wants. See you back here on Monday.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com


fortune--2020-05-15--Richard Branson’s Virgin empire is out for cash

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Pressed on all sides by the coronavirus pandemic, the travel-focused Virgin Group diaspora is scrambling to raise cash.
Virgin Atlantic, the U.K.-based airliner majority-owned by Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, is reportedly in talks to raise some $916 million from Deutsche Bank and others as the virus razes travel.
It follows on the heels of other Virgin Group subsidiaries in the fiefdom in damage control mode: Virgin Australia Holdings has received bids from potential buyers including Brookfield, Bain Capital, and BGH Capital after filing for bankruptcy protection last month, per reports. Subsidiary Vieco 10 meanwhile said earlier this week that it may sell up to 25 million (worth about $400 million) of its shares in space travel company Virgin Galactic to support its leisure and holiday businesses. Branson himself has gone as far as to put his private island up as collateral.
Branson has cultivated something of a daredevil image with his high-flying stunts and broken world records, his ownership of a private Carribean island only adding to the package of an eccentric and glitzy billionaire. Now that same persona is a reason for hesitation among governments being asked for aid from the Virgin companies.
Notably, Virgin Atlantic is still negotiating with the British government for rescue funding, while Australia refused to provide financial aid to Virgin Australia over concerns that it amounted to a bailout of its foreign owners.
Private equity under a spotlight: U.S. department store chain J.C. Penney is expected to file for bankruptcy protection as early as today, following on the likes of other large clothing retailers J. Crew and Neiman Marcus struggling to pivot to e-commerce as shoppers stay off the streets during the pandemic coronavirus. J.C. Penney is reportedly in talks to secure $450 million from existing lenders for the potential filing.
The spate of retail bankruptcies could also put more public and political pressure on the private equity firms that back them, as this New York Times piece points out. Certainly the coronavirus has been unkind to most of retail, but concerns that some private equity firms placed too much debt on these companies, badly preparing them for a downturn, persist.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- DigitalOcean, a New York-based cloud for developing apps, raised $50 million in Series C funding. Access Industries led the round, and was joined by investors including Andreessen Horowitz.
- Commsat, a Chinese commercial satellite company, raised RMB270 million ($38.1 million) in Series B funding. Beijing Wealth Capital led the round and was joined by investors including AVIC Capital. Read more.
- Immunai, a New York-based company mapping the immune system, raised $20 million in seed funding. Viola Ventures and TLV Partners invested.
- Envoy, a San Francisco-based workplace management platform maker, raised $30 million in funding from TriplePoint Capital.
- Homeward, an Austin-based lender to homebuyers, raised $20 million in funding from Adams Street Partners. Read more.
- Liongard, a Houston-based automation software company, raised $17 million in Series B funding. Updata Partners led the round and was joined by investors including TDF Ventures and Integr8d Capital.
- Deep Labs, a San Francisco-based AI decisioning and risk systems maker, raised an initial $16 million in funding. Serendipity Capital, Gramercy Ventures, and Gunnar Overstrom are among the investors.
-Rebag, a New York-based platform for buying and selling luxury handbags, raised $15 million in a Series D funding. Novator led the round and was joined by investors including General Catalyst.
- Neo Medical, a Swiss medtech company developing solutions for spinal surgery, raised CHF 13.2 million ($13.4 million) in funding. 4FO Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Credit Suisse Entrepreneur Capital and Investiere.
- Span, a San Francisco, Calif-based smart panel company, raised $10.2 million in Series A funding. ArcTern Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Capricorn Investment Group and Incite Ventures.
- Envelop Risk, a Bristol, U.K.-based underwriting and risk analytics company, raised $6 million in Series A funding. Alpha Intelligence Capital led the round and was joined by investors including MS Amlin and Dymon Asia Ventures.
- GoodWork, a Philippines-based home services e-commerce platform, raised $1.6 million in seed funding. Chaac Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Elysium Venture Capital, Kairos K50, and angel investors.
- Ettitude, a Los Angeles-based direct-to-consumer startup making sustainable bedding and sleepwear, raised $1.6 million in funding from Drumbeat Ventures and TA Ventures.
- Xona Space Systems, a San Mateo-based satellite services company, raised $1 million in “pre-seed” funding. 1517 led the round and was joined by investors including Seraphim Capital, Trucks Venture Capital, and Stellar Solutions.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Single Digits, backed by GI Partners, acquired Inviacom, a Charlotte, N.C.-based provider of Wi-Fi for senior living communities. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Apple acquired NextVR, an AR and VR company. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Tikehau Capital entered into exclusive negotiations to acquire Star America Infrastructure Partners, an independent asset management company specializing in mid-market infrastructure in North America. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Goldman Sachs Group (GS:NYSE) plans to acquire Folio Financial, a boutique wealth management custodian and technology company, per Reuters. Read more.
- Venafi agreed to acquire Jetstack, an London-based open source machine identity protection software for Kubernetes and cloud native ecosystems. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
IPOS
- Jaws Acquisition, a Miami Beach, Fla.-based blank check company founded by Starwood Capital founder Barry Sternlicht and Brown University endowment CEO Joseph Dowling, now plans to raise $600 million via an IPO. It previously sought to raise $400 million. The company plans to acquire a business outside of real estate and lodging, as well as oil and gas and energy infrastructure. Read more.
- ADC Therapeutics SA, a Switzerland-based biotech focused on antibody therapies for cancer, raised $233 million in an offering of 12.2 million shares priced at $19 apiece. It posted revenue of $2.3 million and losses of $116.5 million in 2018. Auven Therapeutics (42.8% pre-offering) and AstraZeneca (7.1%) back the firm. It plans to list on the NYSE as “ADCT.” Read more.
- Calliditas Therapeutics, a Stockholm-based biotech developing therapies for kidney disease, filed for a $75 million IPO. It posted sales of $184.8 million in 2019 and a loss of $32.6 million. Stiftelsen Industrifonden (14.9% pre-offering), Linc (12.5%), and Investinor (10.7%) back the firm. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “CALT.” Read more.
EXITS
- Deutsche Bank is weighing the sale of its German online bank Norisbank, per Reuters citing sources. Read more.
- BT Group is in talks to sell a multi-billion pound stake in subsidiary Openreach, per the Financial Times. Read more.
- AppLovin, backed by KKR, agreed to acquire Machine Zone, a developer of mobile games including Game of War: Fire Age. Y Combinator Management, Anthos Capital, Menlo Ventures Management and JPMorgan Chase backed Machine Zone. JPMorgan will remain invested. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Microsoft will acquire Metaswitch Networks, a U.K.-based maker of virtualized network software and voice, data, and communications solutions for operators. Francisco Partners backs Metaswitch. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
F+FS
- Blackstone raised $4.2 billion for its fifth life sciences fund. Read more.
Rubicon Technology Partners closed Rubicon Technology Partners III at over $1.25 billion.
- Leeds Equity Partners is seeking to raise $1 billion for its seventh fund. Read more.
Fintop Capital closed FINTOP Fund II with $126 million.
- Novastar Ventures closed $108 million in new commitments to launch its Africa Fund II. Read more.
- Mantis, a firm formed by musician group the Chainsmokers, plans to invest $50 million in startups. Read more.
- The National Basketball Association tapped Neuberger Berman’s Dyal Capital Partners to raise a fund that will acquire minority interests in teams in the league, per Bloomberg. Read more.
PEOPLE
- Conversion Capital named former Blend CTO and Co-founder Eugene Marinelli as a partner.
- HKW named Jeff Bistrong as a partner. He previously led the Technology, Media & Telecom Group at Harris Williams.


fortune--2020-05-15--Plant-based food sales see greatest gains yet as meat shortage fears grow

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With the meat processing industry in a tailspin amid Tyson and Smithfield plant closures owing to outbreaks of COVID-19, there is a potential nationwide meat shortage looming. This shortage, coupled with consumer uncertainty during this anxious time, has seemingly contributed to a surge in demand for plant-based alternatives.
“With the major meat manufacturers very hard hit during these times, and because consumers have grown weary of the meat supply on store shelves, they are naturally looking towards alternatives and plant-based foods,” says Doug Hines, founder and chairman of Atlantic Natural Foods, which oversees a portfolio of dairy- and meat-free brands, including Tuno (a fish-free tuna alternative), Loma Linda (plant-based meal starters), and Neat Egg (a non-GMO, gluten-free, and soy-free egg alternative).
While only 4% of Americans identify as full-time vegetarians and 2% are fully vegan, results from a 2019 survey conducted by The Harris Poll suggest nearly half the general population now leans toward meatless dishes when dining out. Approximately 46% of the country eats at least some vegetarian meals when ordering at a restaurant or fast food station, and almost half (43%) of those patrons are eating entirely vegan meals, according to the survey.
“There is strong incentive for producing vegan dishes,” writes Charles Stahler, codirector of the nonprofit Vegetarian Resource Group, in the report. “However, based on our other experiences outside this poll, it’s not enough just to offer meatless items, but businesses have to cater to various needs, which may include price, health, convenience, source of ingredients, taste, religious requirements, etc. And since there is a large segment who did not say they consume vegetarian meals, marketing is more complex because of such different audiences.”
Forager Project stresses that cashews (especially compared with other nuts) require zero irrigation, making them a prime alternative to not only dairy but also almond milk. Courtesy of Forager Project
Accordingly, sales of vegetarian and vegan products have grown significantly in the past few years. Grocery sales of plant-based foods that directly replace animal products have grown 29% in the past two years, fueling a now $5 billion market, according to The Good Food Institute. But those shopping habits have already accelerated radically since the outset of the pandemic.
Fresh meat alternatives, in particular, saw an increase of 255.3% year over year for the week ended March 28, according to Nielsen. Beyond Meat, maker of some of the top-selling plant-based burger and sausage alternatives, achieved net revenues of $97.1 million during the first quarter of 2020, an increase of 141% compared with the first quarter last year.
According to NPD data, for the first quarter of 2020, Beyond Meat’s dollar sales to U.S. food service locations were up 51.9%, compared with the category’s 18.4%. Courtesy of Beyond Meat
While its U.S. household penetration stands at slightly less than 4%, according to NPD data, Beyond Meat is making strides with grocery stores and restaurants as its vegan-friendly patties and links are available at approximately 94,000 food service and retail outlets in 75 countries worldwide—25,000 in the United States alone. Some of its fast food and fast casual partners include Dunkin’, Carl’s Jr., and Del Taco.
“We see this as a pivotal moment,” says Stuart Kronauge, Beyond Meat’s chief marketing officer. “I do think there is a shift in the way consumers are thinking about health, wellness, and nutrition. It’s a significant opportunity for our brand. Consumers want food that not only tastes great but is better for them from a health perspective, and we are very deliberate about the ingredients we choose to put into our products.”
In the short term, Kronauge says, Beyond Meat will make some tactical adjustments, including exploring different retail pack sizes, including value packs, as consumers are making less frequent trips to the store and instead are doing “stock up” trips. “Our new value packs available for retailers will be priced very competitively,” she adds. Long term, Beyond Meat plans to have at least one product in one category that can underprice animal protein by 2024.
Loma Linda meal starters pack in six to nine grams of plant-based protein per serving, and are non-GMO and gluten-free. Courtesy of @upbeetandkaleingit
Atlantic Natural Foods sales grew 40% year over year in the first quarter of 2020 alone, with e-commerce sales up 187% annually. Hines attributes part of this to “panic purchases” as seen in March when many Americans flooded grocery stores nationwide, clearing out shelves at the onset of the shelter-in-place mandates. Hines suspects the wider customer base is a mix of people already looking to follow the plant-based movement and people looking for shelf-stable options owing to the pandemic. (Some dairy-free milks, for example, can be stored in a cupboard, rather than taking up precious refrigerator real estate, for several weeks up to a few months so long as they are still factory-sealed.)
Before COVID-19 upended the economy, Atlantic Natural Foods forecasted year-over-year growth of 30%, but now the range is between 38% and 42%. However, drastically higher sales aren’t always a perfect win. Hines admits the brand does not have the supply chain capabilities to service greater demand and has to stay within existing limits for the time being.
“The pandemic has consumers reevaluating how and what they eat, making the link between the food they eat and health,” says Michael Watt, CEO of Daiya Foods, a Canadian dairy alternative food brand. “Staying at home and spending more time in the kitchen, consumers have been learning to cook and experiment with new recipes and new ingredients.”
Daiya already saw sales going up in January and February—before the pandemic hit and likely owing not only to gradual rising interest in plant-based foods over the past few years but also to healthier food trends that tend to kick up after the New Year. The Vancouver company specializes in food products that aim to take the “guilty” out of “guilty pleasure,” such as dairy-free cheese pizzas with gluten-free crusts as well as a new line of breakfast burritos.
“During the last six weeks, based on Daiya sales increases, along with some negative press on the meat and poultry processing industry, we are seeing consumers evaluating and changing their eating habits,” Watt says. “With people having more time indoors, it is no surprise that many are taking this time to create new meals without animal products.”
As the coronavirus began impacting consumer behavior at the grocery store, Tofurky, one of the most established brands in the plant-based aisle, saw spikes in sales at 50% above capacity on core items, such as deli slices, and surges as high as 600% on seasonal holiday items, like Easter Ham Roasts. Sales have since started to level out to a 40% increase year over year in conventional, mass-market grocery stores, while in natural food retailers, sales have increased 26% in the past 12 weeks compared to this time last year.
“I have no doubt that the effects of this pandemic will impact people’s purchase behavior in the long term, as consumers think more mindfully about what they’re eating and serving their families,” says Tofurky CEO Jaime Athos. “The looming meat shortage especially has encouraged people to look beyond what they typically eat, and turn to plant-based options as convenient, environmentally friendly alternatives to meat.”
As summer grilling season approaches, Tofurky anticipates another boom in sales for its new meatless burgers, which have become available in more than 1,500 new stores this month, along with products like meatless sausages and hot dogs. “Brands also used to spend small fortunes on demo programs to introduce people to their food,” Athos says. “Now, as people at home seek new culinary experiences, they’re going out of their way to try plant-based proteins.”
Daiya’s gluten-free, dairy-free, and soy-free pizzas, its Cheezy Mac, and overall cheese portfolio are touted as comfort food options that taste delicious and are easy and quick to prepare. Courtesy of Daiya
Oat milk might be the new almond milk, which was the new soy milk, and so on. But there are a bevy of dairy-free producers developing milks and creamers based on a variety of other fruits and nuts.
Forager Project, a dairy-free creamery in California that leans heavily on cashew bases, says it has seen increased demand across its staple categories: yogurt, milk, cereal, and sour cream. “Everyone is trying to navigate this as best we can,” says Stephen Williamson, cofounder and CEO of Forager Project. “Hopefully this experience encourages people to examine their food, where it comes from, and how it gets to them.”
Mooala, a producer of dairy-free, banana-based milk, was already off to a strong year, up double digits versus 2019, prior to mid-March when COVID-19 began to have a significant impact in the United States. The last couple of weeks in March were particularly intense for the brand, Mooala CEO Jeff Richards recalls, as most of its customers at least doubled their orders during that time. Since then, on average, same-store sales are up about 20%, though Richards says it depends on the channel and retailer specifically.
“Since plant-based milk is largely consumed at home, I think the growth is reflective of consumers having more opportunities for at-home use occasions,” Richards says. “While this new pop in demand will unwind somewhat over time, I think some portion stays intact over the long term as consumers are quickly becoming conditioned to preparing more meals on their own and have been able to save significant money doing it. That will be important if the pandemic drives a long recession.”
Chloe’s CEO Michael Sloan expects COVID-19 will significantly increase sales in plant-based alternatives. And specifically in the ice cream and novelties space, 2020 will see more plant-based options on shelves than in years past. Courtesy of Chloe’s
Despite the peak fervor around meatless diets, there are still some obstacles for purveyors in this market. Aside from any ideological or educational barriers, there’s also a socio-economic barrier to meat alternatives for many communities.
Michael Sloan, CEO and cofounder of dairy-free frozen-fruit treat maker Chloe’s, says that it has been “a tale of two worlds” since the pandemic started. The first world, “phase one,” he says, was all about panic shopping and stocking up the pantry—notably with staples such as pasta, rice, chicken, beans, and, of course, toilet paper.
“To keep up with demand, retailers and distributors throttled back the availability of nonessential items, such as ice cream and novelties, to allow these staple items to get to the consumer faster and in larger quantities,” Sloan explains. So, during phase one, consumers would have had a harder time purchasing frozen oat milk pops like those made by Chloe’s from their local grocery stores.
But we’re now in what Sloan refers to as “phase two,” which—like everything else in pandemic life—is evolving on a daily basis. But it’s also shaking out to more normalized buying patterns, less pantry stocking, and more day-to-day meal planning. “With families, and especially those with kids, spending more time at home, treats like Chloe’s are becoming go-to snacks throughout the day,” Sloan explains. “And while we loved baking cookies every night with our kids during phase one of the lockdown, we don’t see that trend continuing long term.”
Heading into the hot summer months, Chloe’s expects to see larger spikes in sales—especially as family time at home continues to be the norm and as many ice cream shops might remain closed.
The last couple of weeks in March were intense for banana-milk maker Mooala, as most of its customers at least doubled their orders during that time. Courtesy of Lexie Graben Photography
Long-term growth for plant-based foods will also be largely dependent on the industry’s ability to continue to keep interest high while bringing costs down.
“Before COVID-19, it was ‘the good times’ for plant-based,” Mooala’s Richards explains. “Disposable income and interest in plant-based was way up. Retail buyers were taking more risks with more new items and were rewarded with growing baskets.” Richards thinks plant-based sales will continue to grow, but if we experience a prolonged recession, prices for these products need to line up with economic realities. Unfortunately, Richards continues, that may stifle innovation, which tends to be on the high end of costs and beyond core consumer demand.
“Plant-based isn’t going anywhere, but it had better become more affordable if we enter a prolonged recession,” Richards says. “New, peak innovation items tend to be more expensive, and it is not a great time to be launching an expensive, brand-new plant-based platform, in my opinion. Plant-based milk, creamer, meat, cheese, et cetera that already have some level of critical mass is a much safer place to be right now since the consumer is craving comfort food and not being overly adventurous.”
Sloan suggests it’s going to take more time to understand how COVID-19, and the resulting economic effects, will shift consumer behavior long term. “Will consumers resort back to big-brand, industrial-produced food, or will they stick with challenger brands, like Chloe’s, which focus on ingredients, nutrition, and the end consumer? Consumer behavior, which has shifted over the past decade towards the natural food channel, we believe, is now an embedded behavior and one that will not change quickly,” Sloan says. “While consumers might trade a fancy night out for a lower-cost meal option, we do not expect them to resort back to accepting foods with ingredients they can’t pronounce.”


fortune--2020-05-15--The government stimulus programs still available to small business owners and the self-employed

The coronavirus pandemic has ravaged countless small and mid-sized businesses, as well as self-employed individuals, all across America. And with most shutdowns still in place, many businesses are looking to outside sources for help.
The federal government has been very active in recent months enacting a variety of programs to aid small businesses and self-employed individuals—from loans designed to keep employees on the payroll to enhanced unemployment benefits. For small businesses, the Main Street Alliance also has a resources page.
Amid the slew of new government programs aimed at helping small businesses and individuals, it can be hard to navigate your options. Fortune rounded up a few key programs and how you can access them now.
Is it too late to apply for a PPP loan?
Not necessarily. The Paycheck Protection Program has been flooded with applications since it launched back in April, and many banks and lenders have reported massive volumes of applicants. But some banks and lenders report they are still accepting PPP applications.
Boiled down, PPP loans are available for businesses with 500 or fewer employees, and can range from a few thousand dollars up to $10 million per loan. The loans can become grants if used according to SBA guidelines.
When Round 2 of the program was approved in late April, a slew of banks and lenders reported huge backlogs of applications that were unable to be processed or funded before Round 1 of the PPP ran out. Several lenders told Fortune they would work through applications in the queue before turning to new applications, and many reported having backlogs with thousands of applications.
However, as Round 2 commenced, many lenders suggested small businesses still apply for loans. “If [you are] a small business, you get in line—pick your bank and get in line and start working through it,” Brent Beardall, the CEO of Seattle-based Washington Federal bank, recently told Fortune.
For one, Minnesota-based regional bank Sunrise Banks told Fortune on Wednesday the bank is still accepting some new applications, primarily from current customers. Other banks like Virginia-based regional bank Atlantic Union Bank are also still accepting loans from new and current customers.
Some fintechs are also still accepting PPP applications. Although many non-bank lenders got a late start in being able to process loans, U.K.-based Funding Circle told Fortune on Thursday the fintech is currently accepting new applications—”We’re open, we want to take their applications,” Ryan Metcalf, head of U.S. regulatory affairs for Funding Circle, tells Fortune.
Who qualifies for Main Street lending?
Businesses with less than 15,000 employees or 2019 revenues of less than $5 billion are eligible for the Main Street Lending program. The program is designed to provide $600 billion in financing for small and medium-sized businesses.
However, unlike the PPP loan (which can potentially become a grant if used according to SBA guidelines), the Main Street loans can’t become grants. The loans have a four year maturity, at an interest rate of LIBOR plus 3%. Businesses can get a loan of minimum $500,000 (lowered from $1 million initially) for two of the options, and for expanded loans, the minimum is $10 million. Businesses have a year before they have to start repaying loans.
According to the Federal Reserve, businesses are eligible for the program if they were established before March 13, 2020, are an eligible businesses by certain SBA standards, are based and have most of their employees based in the U.S., and aren’t currently a participant in other Main Street loan facilities, among other qualifications.
The program comes in three sections: the Main Street New Loan Facility, which provides new unsecured or secured term loans made after April 24, 2020; the Main Street Priority Loan Facility, which provides similar loans as the New Loan facility, but with slightly different terms; and the Main Street Expanded Loan Facility, which provides increases in existing loans or lines of credit originated on or before April 24, 2020.
Speaking about the Main Street program, Fed Chair Jay Powell said at an online event Wednesday that “it’s an incredibly diverse group of companies, very diverse industries and credit needs,” Powell said. “And we’re trying to create products with Main Street that address as broad a swath of those needs as we possibly can.”
The Federal Reserve expects to begin the program in the coming weeks, although an official date has not yet been issued. Businesses can review frequently asked questions about the program here.
I’m freelance or self-employed, are there still programs I can take advantage of?
Freelancers and independent contractors are eligible for the PPP loan through the Small Business Administration. Although freelancers and independent contractors got a slow start in applying for the loans (small businesses were given a week head start), many banks and lenders are accepting applications from them for PPP loans.
To qualify, such applicants must provide information about their payroll, which might include 1099 forms, payroll processor records, payroll tax filings, and other such documents.
Additionally, the Freelancers Union has created a Freelancers Relief Fund, which it says on its site will “offer financial assistance of up to $1,000 per freelance household to cover lost income and essential expenses not covered by government relief programs.” However, applications are temporarily closed due to a high volume.
Independent contractors and sole proprietors are also eligible for Economic Injury Disaster Loans. More on that below.
Can freelancers and self-employed individuals apply for unemployment?
As part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, unemployment benefits are now expanded to include jobless part-timers, self-employed workers, freelancers and independent contractors.
To get unemployment as a freelancer or independent contractor, you must be out-of-work because of the pandemic. For example, having been experiencing symptoms, seeking treatment for, or being diagnosed with COVID-19; or you are a primary caregiver of a child whose school is closed, Fortune previously reported.
As part of the CARES Act, those including freelancers and independent contractors, who might otherwise be ineligible for state jobless benefits, may be able to receive Pandemic Unemployment Assistance for up to 39 weeks, although the amount you receive will vary depending on your state. Additionally, if you qualify for unemployment, the stimulus package includes an additional $600 per week on top of state or Pandemic Unemployment Assistance.
(As a disclaimer, applying for unemployment benefits for regular employees and freelancers alike has been widely reported to be very challenging amid an unprecedented volume of applicants.)
Can I still get Economic Injury Disaster Loans?
The Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) is a loan up to $2 million available to small businesses with 500 or fewer employees and independent contractors and sole proprietors, with a $10,000 emergency advance that doesn’t have to be repaid.
As of the writing of this article, the SBA has experienced a large volume of applicants, and is limiting new applicants for the Economic Injury Disaster Loan and Advance to agricultural businesses. The administration currently says on its site that it will “begin accepting new Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) and EIDL Advance applications on a limited basis only to provide relief to U.S. agricultural businesses.”
Currently, the SBA’s guidance says that eligible businesses include agricultural businesses “engaged in the production of food and fiber, ranching, and raising of livestock, aquaculture, and all other farming and agricultural related industries,” and the SBA is encouraging eligible agricultural businesses with 500 or fewer employees to apply now.
What bankruptcy options do I have?
For many small businesses, the situation has become dire. While bankruptcy should never be the first option, attorneys suggest a new bankruptcy law, coupled with provisions in the CARES Act for companies seeking bankruptcy, could prove a big help for those who might need it.
A new subchapter, called Subchapter 5, was added to traditional Chapter 11 bankruptcy in February, which should make it easier for small businesses to access bankruptcy by cutting down on time and costs. For small businesses considering filing for Subchapter 5 bankruptcy, which is a reorganization of the business, “It’s kind of like making a calculated retreat. You’re retrenching, you’re going to figure out what’s the core of your business that was profitable,” Amy Vulpio, a bankruptcy attorney at law firm White and Williams, recently told Fortune.
Businesses with under $2.7 million in debt can be eligible for the new subchapter, and as part of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, that threshold is raised to $7.5 million for one year to cover more businesses.
Some of the key differences (and, possibly, benefits) in the small business Subchapter 5 bankruptcy (versus a traditional Chapter 11) include a greater chance of keeping equity interest in the business (meaning a greater chance you’ll be able to actually hold on to your business afterward), the ability to spread payments to creditors out over three to five years by using projected disposable income, and a much faster process (businesses must file a reorganization plan within 90 days of declaring bankruptcy, versus 120). Individuals can also file for Subchapter 5 bankruptcy.
And, like any Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the principle benefit of filing is an ‘automatic stay,’ which essentially stops all your creditors from coming after you and could help buy you time on reorganizing things like leases, attorneys say.
Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers. To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.
More must-read finance coverage from Fortune:
—Saving lives vs. saving the economy is a false tradeoff, economists say
—Real unemployment rate soars past 24.9%—and the U.S. has now lost 33.5 million jobs
—17% of unemployed workers aren’t looking for work—and that’s warping the official unemployment rate
—Does Apple’s stock buyback strategy make sense in this market?
—Goldman Sachs doubts there will be a Round 3 of PPP loans for small businesses
—Listen to Leadership Next, a Fortune podcast examining the evolving role of CEO
—WATCH: Why the banks were ready for the financial impact of coronavirus
Subscribe to How To Reopen, Fortune’s weekly newsletter on what it takes to reboot business in the midst of a pandemic


fortune--2020-05-15--How she fundraised for her startup while quarantined with 6 kids

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! More women than ever are running for Congress, what happens when a reopening war room is entirely male, and a startup CEO explains how she raised a Series A from home. Have a wonderful weekend.
– Fundraising from home. Working from home is difficult enough, but fundraising from home is another level–especially with six kids.
Maria Colacurcio would know.
The Seattle-based CEO of pay equity software platform Syndio had been courting Silicon Valley investors when the coronavirus crisis brought her travel to a halt. She persisted from her table at home, as her husband took the reins on homeschool and childcare for their kids, ages 2 to 13.
Today, Emma has the scoop on the $7.5 million Series A round Colacurcio secured from that unique setting; it’s led by Voyager Capital and the Emerson Collective, the organization that does a mix of nonprofit and for-profit work on behalf of Laurene Powell Jobs.
Colacurcio says she relished sharing “the win of that moment” with her family after they’d also witnessed first-hand the stress of the fundraising process.
Syndio’s platform—used by the likes of Adobe, Match Group, Nordstrom, Slack and Target— allows companies to perform real-time analyses of employee compensation, catching discrepancies and creating what-if scenarios that model how those gaps change with every hire, promotion, or layoff. In the current era, its use has extended beyond a tool to evaluate pay for current employees, as Emma explains.
Colacurcio says two factors helped her cut through the coronavirus chaos to secure the round: First, employers’ fear of facing litigation (an evergreen motivator, if ever there was one!). And second, “More progressive thinkers want to look back and be able to say they kept fairness in mind. Progressive leaders are focused on legacy: ‘How will I be judged post-COVID? Did I allow fairness to take a backseat?'”
That final question should be a constant for any leader—pandemic or not.
Read Emma’s story on Syndio’s round here.
Claire Zillman
claire.zillman@fortune.com
@clairezillman
Today’s Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- GO(P) for it. We reached a milestone last week: more women than ever filed to run for Congress in 2020. Yep, even more than record-setting 2018. One reason? Republican women are starting to catch up to their Democratic counterparts by seeking elected office in greater numbers. The Lily
- Story of Stacey. Exactly how did Stacey Abrams become such a major player in national politics so quickly? This piece examines her rise: Washington Post
- Women missing from the war room. Women leaders in Northern Ireland and Scotland have objected to U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson's re-opening plan—and to the fact that the plan was developed without input from women. Downing Street's "war cabinet quad" is all-male, with members "hand-picked for [their] loyalty to the PM." Telegraph
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Bed, Bath & Beyond hired L Brands chief digital marketing officer Cindy Davis as chief brand officer and president of Decorist. The Railway Association of Canada elected Fiona Murray, vice president of public and government affairs at CN, as its first female board chair.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Reviewing the review. In March, 26-year-old emergency medical technician Breonna Taylor was killed by police in her own home in Louisville. She was not a target of the drug raid. Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on prosectors to review the police investigation into the shooting. New York Times
- Senate scrutiny. Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler were the first two senators to come under scrutiny for stock trades made after coronavirus briefings. Now the FBI has obtained a search warrant and seized Burr's cell phone as it investigates his conduct; a spokesperson for Loeffler says she has not been contacted by federal law enforcement. Sen. Diane Feinstein has also been questioned over her husband's financial transactions in the same time period. Washington Post
- Period power! New York City schools have been required since 2016 to provide menstrual products to students. With schools shut down, students who relied on school for pads and tampons no longer have access. Two Queens high-school juniors, Nicole Soret and Mya Abdelwahab, identified the problem and convinced the city to hand out period products at the meal hubs that are already distributing food to students. The City
ON MY RADAR
After days of no new coronavirus cases, New Zealand reopens most businesses NPR
Are all these female-founder takedowns fair? The Helm
Can the women and girls of a small Texas town take back the purity movement? Vogue
PARTING WORDS
"We want gender balance to be the norm now rather than a revolution to fight later."
-European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde on mandating that half of new and open positions at the bank be filled by women


fortune--2020-05-15--How Syndio CEO raised $7.5 million for pay equity software with 6 kids at home

Maria Colacurcio was two months into raising a Series A round for her company, the pay equity software platform Syndio, when her constant travel from her Seattle HQ to the Bay Area—home to the investors she was courting—ground to a halt. Like many CEOs, she pivoted to conducting her company’s business from home. Unlike many CEOs, she had to get the job done with six kids in the house.
Under those extraordinary circumstances, Colacurcio today announced that Syndio has closed a $7.5 million Series A funding deal with lead investors Voyager Capital and the Emerson Collective, the organization that does a mix of nonprofit and for-profit work on behalf of Laurene Powell Jobs.
Although Colacurcio was raising money for Syndio at what may have been the worst possible time—the former Starbucks executive thinks the task would likely be easier now that companies have settled into the new realities of the pandemic—the platform’s product was able to break through. Colacurcio attributes that success to two seemingly contradictory factors. First, employers’ fear of facing litigation. “The list of companies facing gender pay litigation—it’s a who’s who of the Fortune 500,” she says. And second, “More progressive thinkers want to look back and be able to say they kept fairness in mind. Progressive leaders are focused on legacy: ‘How will I be judged post-COVID? Did I allow fairness to take a backseat?’”
Syndio’s platform enables companies to perform real-time analyses of employee compensation, catching discrepancies and creating what-if scenarios that model how those gaps change with every hire, promotion, or layoff. And while the software has been marketed as a tool to evaluate pay for current employees—its biggest competition comes from the law firms that traditionally perform annual compensation analyses—it can also be used as companies make decisions about layoffs. (Syndio used its own tool for that purpose: The startup has laid off seven of its 30 or so employees since the coronavirus crisis began.)
Investor Diane Fraiman of Voyager Capital, which funds early stage B2B software companies, sees the pay equity software as a “foundational building block of future-of-workforce disruption,” she says. Fern Mandelbaum, the Emerson Collective investor involved in the deal, views the product through the lens of workplace equity. Emerson, though private about its full portfolio of investments—the best-known is Powell Jobs’ backing of The Atlantic—is known for its mission-driven tilt; Mandelbaum teaches a Stanford Graduate School of Business course called “Equity by Design: Building Diverse and Inclusive Organizations.” “What you pay people is an incredibly clear measure of how you value people,” Mandelbaum says.
Syndio’s software is in use by about 60 clients, including Adobe, Match Group, Nordstrom, Slack, and Target. A handful of startups also compete in the space, although Syndio points to the sophistication of its software platform as a differentiator.
The program is already encountering new use cases during the pandemic. Companies are using Syndio to analyze the gender and racial trends in whom they have decided to lay off—and, once layoffs have been made, to do an updated pay analysis on their newly reduced workforce. Colacurcio says that some clients have told her they’ve had employees ask to have their comp packages adjusted as the company’s stock gets hammered amid concerns over the pandemic; those employers are using the platform to analyze the pay-equity impact of adjusting select employees’ stock-based compensation.
As Colacurcio pitched the platform to investors at the peak of corporate confusion—she never met her Emerson Collective backers in person—her husband, who owns a currently closed Seattle gym, took the reins on homeschooling and childcare for their kids, ages 2 to 13. Their daily break was an eight-person family neighborhood run.
“For two weeks at home, we’d all be sitting around the table, and they would say, ‘Mommy seems really stressed,’” Colacurcio says. “Then at the end, when I got the call, we were all sitting around that same table. It was cool to share the stress with them and the win of that moment.”


fortune--2020-05-16--From Pope Francis to the Bond King, universal basic income is gaining support around the world

J.C. Penney files for bankruptcy and plans to close a number of stores

On Easter Sunday, the lockdown was weighing heavily on Pope Francis. There were no throngs of pilgrims below his window in Saint Peter’s Square, no visible celebration of any kind to be found inside the walls of Vatican City.
The pope’s mind was far from all that, anyhow. Frustrated by the slow-footed response of governments around the world to help the out-of-work survive the coronavirus pandemic, the pontiff sat down and drafted a letter. He wanted to rouse the spirits of the global army of grassroots activists who’d been mobilizing to manage the food banks and soup kitchens that are overflowing these days. Such a letter was hardly extraordinary for Francis, a pope who’s put social justice at the forefront of his papacy. But what he called for surprised economists.
Now, he wrote, is the time for a kind of universal basic income (UBI) scheme. His words seemed carefully chosen, as if he were singling out the gig economy.
“You who are informal, working on your own or in the grassroots economy, you have no steady income to get you through this hard time … and the lockdowns are becoming unbearable,” he wrote. “This may be the time to consider a universal basic wage which would acknowledge and dignify the noble, essential tasks you carry out.”
Pope Francis created a stir on Easter Sunday, writing in a letter of the need for a basic income scheme to help those most at risk from the economic ravages of the coronavirus pandemic. Wire photography: Vatican Media/Vatican Pool via Getty Images. Vatican Media / Vatican Pool via Getty Images
“Bolder ideas are needed”
Since governments started shutting down the global economy to fight the coronavirus pandemic, calls for basic income programs have rung out from Brazil to Britain. The reasons are easy to spot. Downsizing company have laid off or furloughed tens of millions. At the same time, policymakers’ fiscal fixes have mostly been a case of too little too late. The crisis could plunge a half-billion people into poverty around the world, aid organizations warn.
“The spread of COVID-19 has fundamentally shaken economies, and people are beginning to question existing economic models: this pandemic has really thrown up the existing levels of both injustice and inequality worldwide. So bolder ideas are needed, including some, that previously, were pushed aside,” writes Kanni Wignaraja, who runs the United Nations Development Programme in the Asia-Pacific, in calling for UBI to be “a central part of the fiscal stimulus packages.”
UBI just may be the kind of social safety net scheme grand enough to cover the single moms, the adult child caring for an elderly parent, and the out-of-work breadwinner, a growing number of politicians, economists and social scientists say.
“If we had this kind of platform, it could be used e.g. for delivering helicopter money. And most probably this kind of one-off payment would increase economic activity,” Minna Ylikännö, a social scientist, wrote in response to a question from Fortune.
“Worth discussing at the EU level?” added Ylikännö, a researcher at the Social Insurance Institution of Finland, which sponsored the world’s biggest UBI trial.
In a webcast discussing the Finns’ two-year UBI experiment, which wrapped up last year, Ylikännö said she saw the pandemic as a kind of make or break moment for such measures. “I think it would bring people security in a very insecure situation,” she said.
From Libertarians to Lefties
UBI has earned support over the years from surprising places. Bond king Bill Gross and über free-markets economist Milton Friedman have both argued for some form of a minimum income aimed at indigent Americans.
Supporters see such measures as a possible lever to reduce income inequality, and, more recently, to provide financial support to vast segments of society under threat by a wave of automation-driven job loss.
Critics call it nothing more than an expensive give-away that few governments can afford. The no-strings-attached handouts has even divided the Finns—that’s despite their UBI program becoming hugely popular among participants. The Finnish government is discussing whether to make it a permanent part of the country’s already generous social security regime.
But would it work in a pandemic?
Even as policymakers rush out trillion-dollar COVID-19 rescue plans, swelling deficits to record proportions, UBIs are getting another look.
In the United Kingdom, a group of 100 British MPs recently called for the urgent adoption of “a recovery universal basic income.” In an open letter published in the Financial Times on April 27, the lawmakers wrote, “we need to put in place the mechanism to distribute cash to everyone.” (The big questions— who qualifies? how much they get? how long would the program run?—went unanswered.)
And, in recent days, Spain’s center-left government moved closer to creating what it’s calling ingreso mínimo vital, a monthly payment of up to €1,015 ($1,103) per couple, and up to €462 per single adult. There are plenty of conditions: only adults between 23 and 65 from lower income brackets qualify. The government is moving as quickly as it can to pass the measure as it now calculates there are 1 million Spanish households in which all members are unemployed, a figure that could triple in size should the economic crisis triggered by the pandemic deepen.
Spain is trying to become the second country in Europe, behind Italy, to pass a minimum income measure. Last year, Italy’s populist government passed into law the reddito di cittadinanza (or, citizen’s income) plan. Under the Italian scheme, a beneficiary’s income is automatically topped up to €780 via a special government-issued prepaid debit card. If you work, and earn less than that, you get the difference between your wage and €780. If you are unemployed or retired, you get the full €780.
As Ylikännö points out, the Spanish and Italian plans are not UBI as they are not universally distributed; the monthly payments are designed as a top-up for those who slip under the poverty line.
A true UBI would be something like Andrew Yang’s “freedom dividend.” The former Democratic presidential candidate campaigned on the promise to give $1,000 per month to every American adult—no questions asked—in what would have been the planet’s first truly universal basic income plan.
Yang has probably done more than anyone to thrust UBI into the national conversation as a potential policy solution to address inequality, cushion economic collapse brought on by a pandemic-sized shock, and even spur entrepreneurialism.
One of Yang’s legacy to American politics: UBI is proving more popular than his longshot candidacy.
By Easter Monday, the pope’s UBI message was trending on Reddit and the hashtag #popeforUBI was cutting through the gloom of COVID-19 death numbers.
Some saw it as a what-would-Jesus-do moment.


fortune--2020-05-16--Stuck at home, Europeans face a summer of sweltering temperatures and drought, scientists predict

From Pope Francis to the Bond King , universal basic income is gaining support around the world

Europe is set for a sweltering and tinder dry summer this year, posing trouble for farmers, utilities and transportation on inland waterways.
That’s the conclusion of scientists at the Copernicus Climate Change Service, who published the seasonal outlook this week. Their models show that hotter and drier weather is highly likely to stretch across key agricultural regions in the European Union, potentially compounding drought conditions that have been made worse by climate change.
Abnormally high temperatures have led to billions of dollars in lost revenue over the past year. During the northern hemisphere’s winter months, energy producers had to curtail fuel supplies because everyone from homeowners to heavy industry didn’t need as much heat as usual. Record temperatures in July 2019 forced power plants to shut, delayed trains and scorched crops.
Copernicus scientists predict with greater than 50% probability that temperatures across Spain, France and parts of Italy will be well-above average in July.
Their model takes and combines data from scientists in the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and the U.S. The EU program uses billions of measurements from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world for its monthly and seasonal forecasts and concluded that 2019 was the continent’s hottest year on record.
🦟As temperatures warm Europe is becoming more suitable for disease-carrying #TigerMosquitoes. The #CopernicusClimate Change Service is providing tools to help the healthcare sector adapt to this growing threat.
More➡https://t.co/criKZDeQLx pic.twitter.com/XdyWG8s3sE — Copernicus ECMWF (@CopernicusECMWF) May 15, 2020
Scientists predict with more than 40% probability that rainfall across swathes of central Europe, France and Spain will be well-below normal.
According to EU studies published last month, persistent drought that’s stressing production of crops like wheat and corn is threatening to disrupt food output. The models developed by Copernicus are intended to help businesses and governments plan for and potentially mitigate weather-related damages.
Europeans won’t be alone in feeling record summer temperatures. Copernicus projects with more than a 60% probability that large sections of the U.S. east and west coasts will record well-above-average temperatures in July.
The increasing volume of satellite data being crunched by Copernicus and other scientists is already feeding into European policy and business. Heineken NV used Copernicus data to improve beer brewing by lowering the amount of water needed in the process. Broker Marex Spectron Group Ltd. has used the information to forecast coffee, sugar and cocoa yields.


fortune--2020-05-15--What to expect on network TV during the 2020–21 season

The 2019–20 U.S. television season saw itself shortened or revised in many cases as a result of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Upfront presentations—where networks court ad dollars while showing off their fall lineups—planned for this time of year have also been canceled (or at least reworked). But that doesn’t mean TV networks aren’t planning for the 2020–21 season (even if it’s unclear when episodes may actually be able to air).
In fact, some networks announced renewals well before the coronavirus crisis evolved into a full-blown pandemic.
Though some long-running series—including Modern Family and The Good Place—have officially said goodbye to viewers, a number of them are expected to return. Some new shows will return for a sophomore year. Though the futures of some programs remain undetermined, here’s what the networks have in mind (so far) for the next season of TV:
Midseason launches may be the safest bet against coronavirus disruptions
Many series launches will wait until midseason if recent announcements from Fox and The CW are any indication. On Thursday, The CW said it would delay 10 original series till January, while another seven could debut anywhere between April through June 2021. Supernatural, which would have seen its final episode air around this time, will be the rare show to return in the fall if production gets back on track. Acquired series like Tell Me a Story and Swamp Thing will help fill the network’s pre-January schedule.
Franchises are still king
LL Cool J (Special Agent Sam Hanna) and Chris O’Donnell (Special Agent G. Callen) on “NCIS: Los Angeles,” which was renewed by CBS for another season. CBS via Getty Images
All hail NCIS. After CBS announced what it was picking up last week, it was clear that the flagship franchise and its spinoffs still hold a lot of value at the network. The original NCIS was renewed for its 18th season, while spinoffs NCIS: Los Angeles and NCIS: New Orleans respectively got a 12th season and seventh season order. Dick Wolf’s FBI shows—FBI and FBI: Most Wanted—are also returning for new seasons.
Speaking of Dick Wolf procedurals: Over at NBC, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, which became the longest-running prime-time live-action series last fall, is supposed to come back for another three seasons. And after years away from the show, Christopher Meloni’s Elliot Stabler is expected to appear in the show’s 22nd season premiere. (And bonus for Stabler fans: The character is also slated to be the focus of a new spinoff series, which received a 13-episode order.) Wolf’s Chicago Fire, Chicago PD, and Chicago Med are also all set to come back for three seasons each.
At Fox, 9-1-1 will get a fourth season, while spinoff series 9-1-1: Lone Star is expected to come back for a second, as per an announcement made last month, though they’re now moving to midseason amid programming shifts.
Long-running series (whatever the genre) remain safe bets
They may not be franchises along the lines of NCIS or Law & Order, but a good number of TV’s mainstays aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. At ABC, Grey’s Anatomy, which bypassed ER earlier this year as the longest-running medical drama, is supposed to come back for seasons 16 and 17. Even though coronavirus-linked production troubles have hit the network’s Bachelor series hard, The Bachelor should come back for season 25, The Bachelorette is renewed for season 16, and Bachelor in Paradise is also renewed for season seven.
Perhaps unsurprising to no one, Fox is bringing back The Simpsons, which is renewed through season 32. Family Guy, once the victim of cancellation in the early 2000s, will come back for season 19. Bob’s Burgers will also be back for an 11th season.
…but there is such a thing as too much nostalgia
All TV shows aren’t meant to live on forever, even with long-running franchises and TV revivals becoming the norm on our screens these days. Beverly Hills 90210 revival BH90210, which aired last summer on Fox, was canceled early on. And while not actually canceled, NBC’s Will & Grace revival is officially done (again) after its second series finale aired in April.
Some freshman shows make the cut
Even with uncertainty ahead, some new series from the previous TV season will get to tell more stories when production resumes. CBS legal drama All Rise, which recently closed out its first season with a virtually produced coronavirus-centric episode, will be back, as will the network’s Evil, which comes from The Good Wife and The Good Fight creators Robert and Michelle King. CBS has also ordered new seasons of Bob Hearts Abishola and The Unicorn.
Batwoman and Nancy Drew are both renewed for second seasons at The CW, which announced their fate as part of an early renewals announcement back in January.
Greg Berlanti remains on top
Like last year and years past, Greg Berlanti is staying busy. The prolific executive producer is on track to be at the helm of 10 shows over at The CW (about 21 series overall on TV, even with Arrow wrapped up and CBS’s God Friended Me canceled). New additions to his CW roster include Superman & Lois, ordered to series earlier this year, and a reboot of Kung Fu.
And yes, there should still be new shows on offer
Kung Fu and Superman & Lois aren’t the only new series expected at The CW. Republic of Sarah and Walker (a reimagined Texas Ranger) are also part of the club. Earlier this year, ABC announced a new David E. Kelley police drama, The Big Sky, while CBS had plans for Silence of the Lambs sequel Clarice, a new Chuck Lorre comedy B Positive, and a reboot of The Equalizer.
In addition to the Stabler SVU spinoff, The Kenan Show should also be part of the new season at NBC, alongside Young Rock and Mr. Mayor, which stars Ted Danson and was cocreated by Tina Fey. Fox, meanwhile, has ordered Call Me Kat, starring Mayim Bialik, and another animated series, Housebroken.


fortune--2020-05-16--Couples turn to ‘minimonies’ to salvage wedding plans

Biden campaign to hire at least 600 staffers despite financial gap with Trump

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Couples trying to salvage weddings put on hold by the coronavirus are feeding a fresh trend in the bridal industry: the “minimony.”
Rather than wait, they’re getting hitched alone or with a few local loved ones looking on at a safe social distance as other guests join virtually. Then they plan to reschedule larger celebrations when allowed.
“We were about to put a $15,000 deposit down on a venue when coronavirus hit,” said Kate Whiting, 35, in Northern California’s tiny Lake Almanor Peninsula. “Why would I want to wait to marry my best friend?”
The 300-guest wedding of her dreams, and those of her 40-year-old fiance, Jake Avery, will happen once a COVID-19 vaccine is in place. For now, a close friend recently ordained will marry them in their yard June 6.
Their approach, born of necessity, is a play on micro weddings, the first choice for some couples looking for a more intimate experience or unable to afford splashier affairs.
Before the pandemic so dramatically changed lives, 20,000 to 30,000 weddings happened every weekend in the U.S., with more than 550,000 originally planned for April, May and June this year, according to data from the wedding planning site TheKnot.com.
Worldwide, 93% of couples whose weddings are impacted by the virus are rescheduling, with only 7% canceling altogether, the site said.
The average cost of weddings pre-pandemic was teetering at just under $34,000, and the average guest count at 131.
Nicole Ochoa and Brad Wilkinson, both 27, had an initial guest list of 200-plus before choosing to go micro for their July nuptials. Really, really micro. The Sonoma County, California, couple decided on fewer than a dozen guests for the wedding on a ranch near home that overlooks estate vineyards.
“We just really wanted it to be personal,” Ochoa said. “I hope that other people can pause and consider this as an option. It feels like the wedding industry and wedding trends have turned into such a show.”
Guest lists of 50 or fewer accounted for just 8 percent of U.S. weddings last year, down from 10 percent the year before, according to The Knot, which surveys more than 25,000 couples annually. Weddings with 51 to 150 guests encompassed 54 percent of couples.
Kristen Maxwell Cooper, editor in chief of The Knot, said couples who want to keep their original plans but worry that virus restrictions will drive their guest counts down might consider “shift weddings.”
Once conditions allow, she said, “They can host their ceremony with a group of 25 of their guests while live-streaming to the rest of their loved ones, followed by a reception with the same group who attended the ceremony for a few hours before the next group of guests arrive.”
With the second of three deposits due on their venue, Ochoa and Wilkinson are in the process of asking for a “force majeure” clause in their contract so they can get their money back in case virus restrictions remain in place.
“If the venue denies our request, we’ve decided to keep the date and get married in Nicole’s parent’s Sonoma County backyard,” Wilkinson said.
Ochoa added: “We would be incredibly sad if we can’t be married at the venue we fell so hard for, but there’s something pretty magical about the thought of walking across the lawn in my dress with my Dad, too.”
Vendors focused on micro weddings and organized elopements have seen an uptick in interest since the virus struck, but some couples were ahead of that curve.
Melissa Todd, 50, and Jeffrey Hall, 59, used PopTheKnot.com for their $7,000 elopement with seven guests. They married last November in Chicago, where they live, and wanted to do something quick.
“I’m just one of those people who never dreamed of a big elaborate wedding,” Todd said. “I’m pretty mellow.”
Pop the Knot makes use of downtime at venues around the country. It operates in nine cities, including New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin, Texas.
“We already were quite busy, but sadly we have been receiving a ton of emails from clients that had their weddings canceled due to COVID and are now wanting to do a small pop-up,” said owner and wedding planner Michele Velazquez.
SimplyEloped.com offers low-cost packages in destinations including the Florida Keys, Lake Tahoe and New Orleans.
“Since the coronavirus outbreak, I’ve had numerous couples come to me every day with similar stories: They’re canceling their big wedding due to travel complications, not wanting to assemble a big group of people or other virus-related problems,” said the site’s editor, Karen Norian.
“These couples are heartbroken, not just about the financial losses, but the thought of pushing their marriages out to some ambiguous future date is devastating,” she said.
Renee McCarthy, 33, and her husband, Ryan McCarthy, live in San Diego and wed at Temecula Creek Inn in Temecula, California, in March 2019, with 24 guests attending.
“We both wanted to focus on the guests we did have there, our families and closest friends,” Renee said. “Even for a small wedding it was overwhelming trying to put it together, but we couldn’t be happier with how our wedding turned out.”