fortune--2020-01-10--What to Watch (and Skip) in Theaters and on HBO This Weekend

Whether you’re standing in the theater lobby or curled up in bed, deciding what to watch next is often the most difficult part of any pop-culture junkie’s day. And with dozens of films in theaters on any given weekend, plus virtually endless layers of streaming purgatory to sort through in search of your next binge-watch, there’s more out there—and tougher decisions to make—than ever.
Fortune‘s here to help you navigate the week’s latest offerings, boiling all the entertainment out there down into three distinct recommendations: should you see it, stream it, or skip it? Find out below.
SEE IT: ‘Underwater’ (In theaters)
Aquatic horror is so fiendishly effective at imperiling its protagonists that it’s almost surprising so few films in the subgenre have been made. What could be more terrifying than the isolation and ever-present danger of existing on the sea floor, diving suits barely holding together under unfathomable pressure—even before whatever else lurking down there, accustomed to maneuvering and surviving such an inhospitable environment, reveals itself?
Ocean explorers have rarely felt as vulnerable—or, frankly, as screwed—as they do in Underwater, director William Eubank’s Alien-indebted tale of puny humans struggling to survive a deep-sea disaster when their drilling rig is catastrophically damaged by what at first seems to be seismic activity.
Few genre scripts this year are likely to match the immediate ferocity of Underwater‘s opening. After a few news clippings that detail a faceless corporation’s drilling operations into the Mariana Trench, the ocean floor’s deepest-known point, we meet mechanical engineer Norah (Kristen Stewart), seven miles below the sea’s surface. Brushing her teeth, she stops to examine a spider crawling around the sink, and wonders with an endearing mercy how it ended up there.
That’s the only moment of peace she’s afforded before Underwater‘s vice-like 95-minute structure begins to grip. Seconds later, that aforementioned earthquake weakens the walls of her station, and water begins to crash in with terrifying force. Norah barely escapes with her life, managing to link up with other survivors and survey the damage. In order to return to the surface, they have little choice but to abandon the base, walking two miles across the ocean floor to reach another outpost, where hopefully undamaged escape pods are waiting for them. Then there’s the small matter of what’s making all those screeching noises—could it be creatures newly freed from suboceanic thermal vents, emerging from the depths with razor-sharp teeth and a killer home field advantage?
Armed with an economical script by scribes Brian Duffield and Adam Cozad, Eubank has made a truly lean, mean creature feature, but he takes his time in teasing out the true nature of the threats facing Norah and her fellow survivors, some cribbed from the Lovecraft playbook and others reminiscent of Neil Marshall’s The Descent. There’s good reason for the filmmakers to take their time. Eubank’s camerawork often puts audiences inside Norah’s helmet, playing up just how dire their circumstances are with the fiendish suggestion its glass might crack at any point. As Norah gazes into the murky darkness of open water, sediment obscuring her view and setting up all kinds of devilish jump-scares, almost as scary as what might surge into view is the prospect that nothing will—that the depths will simply yawn, impenetrable, until the oxygen runs out and she blinks into nothingness. Even without Underwater‘s lithe, lethal creatures swimming around out there in the dark, the sea imparts a terror all its own.
STREAM IT: ‘The Outsider’ (HBO/HBO Now)
Many Stephen King adaptations make the mistake of hanging on the author’s every line. Responsible for some of horror fiction’s most towering tales though he is, from Carrie to The Shining, King is first and foremost a master of the written word, known best for his detailed sketches of small-town Americana and the grim phenomena threatening to overwhelm it. There’s a reason his memoir On Writing is considered a bible among authors; on the level of sheer craft, constructing sentences that so compel and engross they seem almost to breathe on the page, there’s no one better.
But the task of translating King’s horror to the big screen carries a distinct set of challenges, and more often than not something goes awry in the execution. Whether too much story is sacrificed in service of compressing long, meandering novels into two-hour films (Needful Things) or the adaptation falls prey to the opposite problem—all too much is stuffed in, leaving the end product waterlogged (Dreamcatcher)—it can be tricky to lift his voice off the page without losing it altogether.
HBO miniseries The Outsider (10 episodes, six of which were provided for review) is managing the feat admirably, at least in its first few episodes, by replicating the major beats of King’s story while remixing them into a tighter structure better befitting its prestige-TV pedigree.
In short order, we’re introduced to Detective Ralph Anderson (Ben Mendelsohn) and the horrifying, impossible case he must solve, involving the brutal rape and murder of an 11-year-old boy in a cozy Georgia suburb. What glimpses we get of the body are truly horrifying; the crime scene’s so frenzied that a detective wonders, maybe hopes, that it could have been perpetrated by a wild animal.
Fingerprints and CCTV footage soon point to a clear suspect: Terry Maitland (Jason Bateman, who also directed the first two episodes), a youth baseball coach who was spotted, covered in blood and acting suspiciously, by multiple eyewitnesses. It’s an open-and-shut case, Anderson thinks—until it’s not, with other forensic and video evidence placing Terry 70 miles away at the time of the murder. How could he have been in two places at once? Could the police have acted too hastily in hauling Terry off to jail at a Little League game, in full view of his family and neighbors? And what should be made of the hooded stranger hanging around town, silently observing the investigation?
Adapting what’s likely one of King’s less well-regarded tomes, The Outsider moves at a much faster clip than the novel, and its scripts (from crime novelist Richard Price, who developed the series) lean into the crime-solving elements of King’s story more than the supernatural ones, at least at first. Anderson, who’s grieving the loss of his son to cancer months earlier, feels like a holdover from HBO’s own True Detective in his terse, grounded approach to the case and tormented interior life, not to mention his gradual questioning of more paranormal explanations for the boy’s murder. (The show’s evocative cinematography and grim tone also plants it in that series’ aesthetic sandbox.) When Anderson’s joined by private investigator Holly Gibney (Cynthia Erivo), the two make for a fascinating study in two distinct visions of police work, one governed by logic and the other emotion, both wholly indispensable.
The Outsider understands at least one important key to King’s creative mastery, and it involves a focus on supernatural circumstances that reflect and amplify the terror of everyday traumas. The Shining was as much a portrait of alcoholism leading a man into ruin as it was a tale of ghosts goading him toward the same. Carrie didn’t introduce a teen with telekinesis so much as it provided an extraordinary outlet through which a sexually stifled, lonely young woman could externalize deep psychic pain.
In The Outsider, it’s grief that arises as a profoundly destructive force, and the way it snakes through this small town makes the series a sometimes stunningly grim affair. That hooded figure lingers like the grim reaper around crime scenes, eerily aware not only of what’s befallen the characters but what’s about to. The director’s camera, too, lurks down hallways and peers around trees, a hushed witness to the characters’ anguish. None of this makes the series an easy watch. But it’s constructed with such skill—and performed brilliantly, with Mendelsohn an early standout—that you’ll struggle to look away.
SKIP IT: ‘Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector’ (NBC)
Perhaps no TV template is as time-tested as the police detective drama, of which each subsequent TV season seems to offer a few variations but little deconstruction.
There will be dedicated cops, red herrings, promising leads, and a foot pursuit or three. At one point, one character will lecture another about how they’re “too close to the case” or taking their work home with them. There’s usually a “twist” in place of much other individually creative DNA—together, these two solve crimes, but: she’s dead (iZombie), he’s the devil (Lucifer), she’s got a medical condition (Unforgettable), he’s a criminal mastermind (The Blacklist), she’s an amnesiac (Blindspot), and he’s, well, he’s just kind of an asshole (Backstrom).
Lincoln Rhyme: Hunt for the Bone Collector—a show with a title I can only hope came after weeks of network executives banging their heads against a mahogany table in abject frustration—is the latest entry in this busy subgenre, and it cobbles together just about every cliché in the book without (at least in the pilot episode sent out for review) so much as gesturing in the direction of self-awareness or subversion.
At the series’ center is Lincoln Rhyme (Russell Hornsby), a brilliant New York City detective who’s in a full-body paralysis after a run-in with a particularly fiendish serial killer, the “Bone Collector” of the title. Three years later, he’s still laid up, though he’s retained his near-superhuman intelligence and curiously flawless grasp of city planning.
But when a young cop named Amelia (Arielle Kebbel) discovers a crime scene that bears the Bone Collector’s grisly signature, Lincoln’s drawn out of his forced retirement to track down his old nemesis. Amelia and Lincoln form an uneasy partnership. Together, these two solve crimes, but: she’s mysteriously traumatized, he’s paralyzed, and (most worrying of all) neither have much of a personality beyond those descriptors. Lincoln Rhyme is one of those series where characters make grave proclamations such as “whoever did this is playing a game, and they wanted me to have all the pieces,” only for other characters to nod sagely back at them and say something equally insane. It trots through the expected narrative beats, from explosions to false leads to detectives’ personal lives being thrust unexpectedly into the case—then ends on a note that suggests next week’s installment will offer little more than the same again.
Let’s be clear about something: Russell Hornsby is a massive talent. Across two decades of work, he’s never phoned in a performance, finding depth and sincerity in even smaller roles. I think often of his towering, Oscar-worthy performance in The Hate U Give as Maverick, a father and ex-con whose past, politics, and family life are thrown into conflict after his teenaged daughter (Amandla Stenberg) sees a police officer murder her friend. The gravitas and quiet fury with which he filled that role was a sight to behold. Even in smaller parts, in films like Fences and the Netflix series Seven Seconds, he’s excellent, unerring, locked single-mindedly into the truth and tragedy of his characters. Despite the hackneyed scripts he’s working with here, he’s also quite good as Lincoln, lending his certain authority to even the more ridiculous lines.
Though Lincoln Rhyme‘s shortcomings make it difficult to recommend out of the gate, the series has potential. The pilot sets up a cat-and-mouse game between Lincoln and the Bone Collector that, if maintained with focus and greater creativity, could be satisfying to watch play out at greater length. Should it continue, one imagines the show’s subtitles might change season-to-season, pulling from Deaver’s other novels. But even with the promise of a clear ending to his first case, Lincoln Rhyme‘s freshman hour doesn’t exactly get things off to a crackling start.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Hulu will exclusively stream new FX series—and other updates from peak TV land
—How Neil Young’s eccentric online home was born
—Could Disney have more faith in X-Men spinoff The New Mutants than Fox did?
—What the 2020 Golden Globes tells us about this year’s Oscars
—Inside 1917: designing a World War I battlefield
Follow Fortune on Flipboard to stay up-to-date on the latest news and analysis.


fortune--2020-01-10--U.S. Announces New Wave of Sanctions Targeting Iranian Senior Officials

Jobs Report Pushes the Dow Above 29,000 For the First Time Ever—But Can ’ t Keep It There

The Trump administration on Friday announced a new wave of sanctions on Iran following this week’s missile strikes by the Islamic Republic on U.S. bases in Iraq.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the new sanctions will target eight senior Iranian officials involved in “destabilizing” activities in the Middle East as well as Tuesday’s missile strike, which came in retaliation for the U.S. killing of a senior Iranian general in a drone strike.
Mnuchin said President Donald Trump will issue an executive order imposing sanctions on anyone involved in the Iranian textile, construction, manufacturing or mining sectors. They will also impose separate sanctions against the steel and iron sectors.
“As a result of these actions we will cut off billions of dollars of support to the Iranian regime,” the treasury secretary said.
The administration has already reinstated all the U.S. sanctions that were eased under the 2015 nuclear deal, which has caused significant economic hardship in Iran and cut its oil exports to historic lows.
Iran this week launched the strikes in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, the country’s most powerful commander, in Baghdad last week.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Donald Trump and the power of incumbency
—As U.S.-Iran tensions flare, China emerges as Tehran’s last-ditch lifeline
—Congress confronts its powerlessness on Iran
—The wealthiest members of Congress—and how they made their millions
—USPS could privatize as early as next year
—2020 Crystal Ball: Predictions for the economy, politics, technology, and more
Get up to speed on your morning commute with Fortune’s CEO Daily newsletter.


fortune--2020-01-10--Hulu Will Exclusively Stream New FX Series—and Other Post-Disney Merger Updates From Peak TV Land

If FX chief John Landgraf thought we’d hit “Peak TV”—a term he personally coined at the Television Critics Press Tour in 2015—before his network was absorbed by Disney in 2019, there was only one word strong enough to describe the unknown landscape that lay ahead in 2020.
“It’s just bananas,” Landgraf said at the TCA Winter Press Tour in Pasadena, Calif. Thursday of the impending volume of U.S. scripted original series, which is now set to top 2019’s total of 532. “Given that the streaming wars are now at hand, that total will increase substantially this year.”
Landgraf bears some of the responsibility of “too much TV” (another oft-use phrase credited to the executive) as FX rolls out its own impressive, star-studded lineup of comedies, dramas, and limited series in 2020, including: Noah Hawley’s Chris Rock-led fourth installment of Fargo, on April 19; the Cate Blanchett-starring feminist-history limited series Mrs. America, on April 15; Ex-Machina writer/director Alex Garland’s much-anticipated Devs on March 5; and season four of Pamela Adlon’s Emmy-nominated comedy Better Things, also set for March 5, among others.
But per an announcement in November, some of FX’s hottest new properties, Devs and Mrs. America, for two, will only be available by streaming via its corporate-sibling Hulu, commensurate with how Disney+ is now using Marvel and Star Wars content. This so-called “FX on Hulu” arrangement will debut with Devs and Mrs. America, with others to be scheduled. (In addition to new series, much of FX’s library, including Better Things and the just-renewed-for-three-more-seasons American Horror Story, will also be on Hulu.)
Landgraf also gave eagerly awaited updates on premiere dates for two FX crown jewels: American Crime Story: Impeachment, about the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal starring Clive Owen and Beanie Feldstein, will not begin shooting until March 21 due to super-producer Ryan Murphy’s Netflix movie The Prom; and Donald Glover’s 10-episode, third season of his Emmy-winning comedy Atlanta won’t bow until January 2021.
But there’s plenty of FX content set to air in the meantime, and the network had dozens of talent on hand.
Adlon appeared with her onscreen daughters to preview a consummately Better Things clip wherein she exchanges seemingly endless “C-word” barbs with actress Mikey Madison; What We Do in the Shadows creator Jemaine Clemente broke the news that Star Wars icon Mark Hamill will appear in season 2 of the hit vampire comedy; Oscar-winner Cate Blanchett appeared alongside her (enormous) A-list cast to plug Mrs. America; comedian Kevin Hart promoted his producing effort Dave about real-life (white) rapper Lil Dicky; and Fargo’s new leading man Rock closed out the day’s events still wondering how he landed at the center of Hawley’s latest iteration of the Coen Brothers mythology, which sees the comedian starring as the leader of crime syndicate of black Americans escaping the Jim Crow south in 1950 Kansas City.
Joked Rock: “I thought Noah wanted me to host a charity event when he called me.”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—How Neil Young’s eccentric online home was born
—Could Disney have more faith in X-Men spinoff The New Mutants than Fox did?
—What the 2020 Golden Globes tells us about this year’s Oscars
—Nicolas Pesce on his R-rated Grudge reboot
—Inside 1917: designing a World War I battlefield
Follow Fortune on Flipboard to stay up-to-date on the latest news and analysis.


fortune--2020-01-10--E-Scooter Startup Lime Is Undergoing Layoffs to Achieve ‘Financial Independence’

Profitability — or the lack thereof — strikes again.
Lime, the popular electric scooter startup, will lay off 14% of its staff — approximately 100 people — as it pulls out of a dozen markets in the U.S. and abroad. In the United States, those markets include Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego and San Antonio.
In a blog post, co-founder and CEO Brad Bao said, “Part of realizing our vision to transform urban mobility is achieving financial independence; that is why we have shifted our primary focus to profitability.”
Because the scooter economy had largely been fueled by fast growth, fierce competition, and unsustainable business models, several of Lime’s rivals have had to cut jobs and shutter operations in markets too.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: 2020 is the year the pendulum swings to the side of profitability and a more conservative approach to growth. In the past, venture capital firms that fund “unicorns” have had a much higher tolerance for forgoing profitability for growth, but as more and more of these unicorns trot to the public markets, the sentiment has begun to change.
As Trinity’s Patricia Nakache said at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in 2019, “We have swung way out towards growth at most costs. But now public markets have weighed in and resoundingly said, this has gone too far.”
On the bright side, it looks like startups are paying attention.
NEW FUND ALERT: J.D. Vance, the author of Hillbilly Elegy, has raised $93 million for his own Midwest-focused venture fund. Dubbed Narya Capital, the fund will be based in Cincinnati and is backed by investors including Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen, Eric Schmidt, and Scott Dorsey Read more.
READER FEEDBACK: I got a lot of feedback from you guys on yesterday’s newsletter about Quibi. Here are a few selected responses:
“Disney had to offer D+ free for a year to 17m eligible Verizon subscribers to put up the numbers they did in the first few days (10m subs), and they had the most valuable IP in the world. I don’t think numbers will be huge for Quibi, but I’m not sure if I should be trying to compare them more to Dinsey+/Netflix, or as you pointed out in your piece, influencer-based content on IGTV and the like.” — B.G.
“I agree that the whole cellphone format approach is weird but I think dropping 10 minute episodes daily could work very well. Look at how well modern soap operas do in Latin America, Europe and Asia.” — M.A.
“There’s no real problem that Quibi is trying to solve. The company is really only banking on premium content with A-list talent to break through. and I don’t want to watch that on my phone” — A.J.
“At least for me, I know that when I open up Instagram I’ll probably scroll through a few posts and then go on with whatever I’m doing. If your differentiating factor is that you have high-quality content (as opposed to memes or quick news / sports highlights), my question becomes do people really want that? I tend to believe that as much as our viewing habits have changed, when it comes to really good films or shows that we’re invested in, we still want to view it on a TV / laptop screen or at the theater where you can see more of the detail (maybe I’m just a Luddite). If you have a 2-hour movie, like you mentioned, and you need to watch it in a dozen different viewings, it seems like it would be distracting and you won’t really be able to get into it.” — B.T.
Polina Marinova
Twitter: @polina_marinova
Email: polina.marinova@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- EcoVadis, a Paris-based provider of business sustainability ratings, raised $200 million in funding, from CVC Growth Partners.
- Sisense, a New York-based business analytics platform, raised more than $100 million in funding at a valuation of more than $1 billion. Insight Partners led the round, and was joined by Access Industries and return backers Bessemer Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, and DFJ Growth.
- Aver, a Columbus, Ohio-based healthcare platform for bundled payment and value-based healthcare solutions, raised $27 million in Series C funding. Investors include Cox Enterprises, Drive Capital, Heritage Group, Hearst Ventures and NCT Ventures.
- Just Spices, a Germany-based spice mix brand, raised €13 million ($14.4 million) in Series B funding. Five Seasons Ventures and Coefficient Capital co-led the round, and was joined by investors including Bitburger Ventures.
- Lily AI, a Mountain View, Calif.-based provider of software to help retailers optimize for customer preferences, raised $12.5M in Series A funding. Canaan led the round, and was joined by investors including NEA, Fernbrook Management and Unshackled Ventures.
- dot.LA, a Los Angeles-based news and events company dedicated to covering L.A.’s startup and tech ecosystem, raised $4 million in seed funding. Investors include 3L, Act One, Anthos, CAVU, Comcast Ventures, Crosscut, Greycroft, Hawke Media Ventures, K5, March Capital, Maveron, m13, Mucker, NFX, Pelion, Thrive Capital, Torch Capital, Troy Capital, Upfront Ventures, Watertower Ventures and Waverley Capital.
HEALTH & LIFE SCIENCES DEALS
- Virta Health, a San Francisco-based operator of an online specialty medical clinic focusing on treatment of type 2 diabetes, raised $93 million in Series C funding. Caffeinated Capital led the round, and was joined by investors including Venrock, Obvious Ventures, Creandum, Playground Global and SciFi VC.
- Cardiologs, a Paris-based company focused on artificial intelligence cardiology diagnostics, raised $15 million in Series A funding. Alven led the round, and was joined by investors including Bpifrance, ISAI, Kurma Diagnostics, Idinvest Partners and Paris Saclay Seed Fund.
- Jasper Therapeutics, Inc., a Menlo Park, Calif.-based biotechnology company focused on hematopoietic cell transplant therapies, raised $14.1 million in funding. Roche Venture Fund led the round.
PRIVATE EQUITY DEALS
- Columbia Capital, Greenspring Associates and DHL acquired Riskpulse, an Austin, Texas-based company that offers online weather information, and combined it with Resilience360. The firms invested a combined $22.7 million in the new, independently-operated entity.
- Industrial Opportunity Partners acquired Midwest Recycled and Coated Containerboard Mill, a Combined Locks, Wisc.-based manufacturer and distributor of various grades of paper, including high-quality recycled containerboard. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Texas Next Capital made an investment in Capital Precast, a San Marcos, Texas-based manufacturer of precast concrete underground utility products. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Thermal Solutions Manufacturing, a portfolio company of Altus Capital Partners III, acquired Alfa Laval Champ (to be rebranded TSM Champ), a specialty provider of tubular heat exchangers to the marine and industrial markets. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Marlin Equity Partners acquired Blue Mesa, a New York-based provider of a mobile-first diabetes prevention program technology platform. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Dun & Bradstreet acquired Orb Intelligence, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based digital business identity and firmographic data provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed.,
IPOs
- Orange, France’s largest telecom developer, is weighing an IPO of its Middle East and Africa operations. Read more.
- 58 Home, a Chinese online services firm, plans to list in the U.S. at a valuation of about $2 billion, Bloomberg reports citing sources. Read more.
FIRMS + FUNDS
- Aberdeen Standard Investments, a U.K.-based asset management, raised $425 million for its eighth U.S. private equity fund, Aberdeen U.S. Private Equity VIII.
PEOPLE
- Prosek Partners promoted Mike Geller to partner.
- Omnivore promoted Subhadeep Sanyal and Reihem Roy to partner.
- Flare Capital Partners promoted Parth Desai to principal.
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fortune--2020-01-10--Sony Won CES With a Car No One Will Ever Drive

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Sony won CES’s publicity contest this year: The Japanese tech giant surprised everyone by debuting an electric car called the Vision-S prototype.
In person, the all-grey sedan was sharp-looking as all hell, much more appealing than Tesla’s more plain Series 3 or BMW’s sharp-angled i3. It also featured killer specs, such as personalized cabin climates, four kinds of safety and driving sensors, and a zero-to-60 time of under 5 seconds. I didn’t get to drive the prototype around, but I sure wanted to.
Tech publications were falling all over themselves to hype the car, award the car, and generally give the car attention. As far as judging CES as a publicity race, Sony easily sprinted past Samsung, Dell, LG, and the thousands of other contenders.
Buried in those glowing reviews, however, was one odd fact: Sony has no plans, none at all, to build the car, get into the car business, or generally do anything with the Vision-S prototype other than grab press attention. There’s never going to be a sticker price or a launch date or anything else. That’s why the car was the most genius bit of PR at CES: It got everyone talking about Sony’s sensors and Sony’s screens and Sony’s entertainment library and how these and other Sony offerings would fit so well into the automotive future.
There was another winner of the Vision-S spectacle, one that was much less remarked upon. And that was Magna Steyr, the Austrian unit of auto-parts conglomerate Magna International. Magna Steyr is the company that actually built the prototype car. The longtime behind-the-scenes player may not be known to many consumers, but has manufactured, and even helped design, some popular luxury cars such as Mercedes’s E-class sedan and BMW’s X-3 small SUV.
While the public and press focused on Sony, another, much smaller audience may have been focused on Magna Steyr’s role. And that’s companies like Apple and Google that are developing self-driving car tech but don’t have any expertise in car manufacturing. If the Vision-S was Magna Steyr’s way to lure companies that want to get into the car business, it may be fielding more than a few calls next week.
Aaron Pressman
Twitter: @ampressman
Email: aaron.pressman@fortune.com
NEWSWORTHY
Who watches the watches. Healthcare tech company Masimo filed a lawsuit against Apple on Thursday charging the company with infringing on 10 of its patents in the Apple Watch. Apple dangled a partnership to get access to Masimo's intellectual property and poached some of its top employees, including Michael O’Reilly, now Apple's vice president of health technology, the lawsuit charges.
Off the curb. While we wait out the electric car future, the electric scooter present is getting a little rough. Lime laid off about 100 employees and ended its scooter rental service in a dozen markets.
Needle in a haystack. Under last year's antitrust settlement with the European Union, Google agreed to let other companies bid for a place as the default search engine on Android phones in each of 31 countries. Only two rivals won spots in all 31 markets: DuckDuckGo and Info.com, according to a list of winners released on Thursday.
Buzz tracking. The former CEO of real estate app Zillow, Spencer Rascoff, is creating a new media company to cover the tech scene in Los Angeles. Dubbed Dot.LA, the effort received $4 million of seed funding from investors including the Los Angeles Dodgers, Snap, and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.
You must focus. After a rough year or two for Facebook, CEO Mark Zuckerberg says he's abandoning his practice of setting an annual personal challenge. Instead, he will “take a longer term focus” and work on work-related priorities like improving privacy and developing virtual reality, Zuck said in Facebook post.
I'm gonna take my horse to the old town road. Music streaming in the United States exceeded 1 trillion songs played for the first time last year, reflecting a 25% increase from 2018. Other listening formats had a tougher year. Digital album downloads dropped 27%, CD sales fell 26%, and tape sales (there are still tape sales?) decreased 12%. Vinyl gained 11%, so there's that.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
When my eldest was about 13 years old, she had a long bus ride to school and used the time to compose a novel-length story (on her phone) chronicling her own version of the adventures of the band One Direction. It was a remarkable achievement, one that she posted online but kept secret from the family for a while. University of Washington professor Cecilia Aragon has been more public with her fascination with fan fiction. In a deep dive for the MIT Technology Review, Aragon chronicles her journey of writing and studying "fanfic," demonstrating how it defies stereotypes and dismissive labels. And how it's training future writers.
Millions of authors and readers communicate via multiple channels—including Skype, official beta reader groups, fan fiction user groups, and other messaging and social-media platforms, as well as story reviews. Individual pieces of feedback are often too small to constitute mentoring on their own, but in the aggregate, particularly when reviewers build on and reference each other’s comments, the result is a new form of network-enabled mentoring that we call “distributed mentoring.” It enables authors to piece together an overall view of their writing that is supportive as well as constructive. Many authors feel encouraged as well as educated by their reviewers.
FOR YOUR WEEKEND READING PLEASURE
A few long reads that I came across this week:
The Case for Being a Multi-Hyphenate (Human Parts)
Throughout history, and today, the most successful people are good at more than just one thing.
Admit It: You Have a Box of Cords You’ll Never, Ever Use Again (Wall Street Journal)
What’s this one for? Who knows! Electronic gadgets fade away but their cables live on forever at home.
Inside the Billion-Dollar Battle Over .Org (New York Times)
A private equity firm wants to buy the Internet domain used by nonprofits. A group of online pioneers says it is not the place to maximize profits.
Anne Beatts Was Always More Interesting Than John Hughes (New York)
Every teen series and movie that followed Beatts's Square Pegs owes it, and her, a debt of total gratitude.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Tesla Has Delivered Its First China-Made Cars. Now It’s Time to Face the Competition By Naomi Xu Elegant
Facebook’s Political Ad Policy Puts the Burden on Users, Not Candidates By Alyssa Newcomb
Verizon Unbundles Cable for Cord Cutters By Aaron Pressman
Sex Tech Steals the Spotlight at CES By Chris Morris
Why This 20-Year-Old Apprentice at Bosch Chose to Work First and Get Her Degree Later By McKenna Moore
BEFORE YOU GO
Aaron Pressman/Fortune
Despite the trend towards small and light tech gadgets, some things need to be bigger. Or at least that seemed to be the message at some CES booths. Samsung's 24-foot 8K television was stunning, though I don't have the wall space. The flying taxi made by Uber and Hyundai impressed with its 49-foot wing-span. Not sure it could land in my backyard, though. Most impressive of all may have been John Deere's R4038 self-propelled sprayer. The semi-autonomous tractor featured a boom for spraying crops that measured 120 feet long. I'm not sure how they even got it into the convention center.
Aaron Pressman
On Twitter: @ampressman
Email: aaron.pressman@fortune.com


fortune--2020-01-10--Apple Stole Tech for Watch, Health Monitoring Firms Claim in Patent Suit

Apple Inc. is accused of stealing trade secrets and improperly using Masimo Corp. inventions related to health monitoring in its Apple Watch.
Masimo, which develops signal processing technology for health-care monitors, and its spinoff, Cercacor Laboratories Inc., claim in a lawsuit that Apple got secret information under the guise of a working relationship and then hired away key employees, including Michael O’Reilly, who became vice president of Apple’s health technology efforts.
The business segment that includes the Apple Watch, Apple TV and Beats headphones is the company’s fastest-growing category and generated more than $24 billion in sales in the fiscal year that ended in September.
Masimo and Cercacor said their technology for non-invasive monitoring using light was key to Apple overcoming performance issues with its Watch. Among the 10 patents Apple is accused of infringing are ones covering ways to measure oxygen levels in blood, and heart rate using light emitters and detectors.
The companies are seeking orders that would block further use of their patented inventions in the Apple Watch 4 and 5, return of confidential information and unspecified damages.
Officials with Cupertino, California-based Apple didn’t immediately return queries seeking comment.
Apple contacted Masimo in 2013 and asked to meet for a potential collaboration, according to the complaint filed in federal court in Santa Ana, California. Apple said it wanted “to understand more about Masimo’s technology to potentially integrate that technology into Apple’s products,” Masimo said.
After what Masimo thought were productive meetings, Apple instead hired O’Reilly, who was then Masimo’s chief medical officer and was “privy to extremely sensitive information,” according to the suit.
The next year, it hired Marcelo Lamego, who was Cercacor’s chief technology officer and a former Masimo scientist. Lamego had “unfettered access” to confidential technical information and, shortly after starting work at Apple, began pursuing patent applications for things that he learned at the companies. Apple knew it was getting confidential information from the two men, the companies said.
“Given what appeared to be a targeted effort to obtain information and expertise from Masimo and Cercacor, Masimo and Cercacor warned Apple about respecting their rights,” the companies said in the complaint.
Neither man was named as a defendant in the suit.
Masimo and Cercacor also are seeking to add their engineers to seven patents and applications that were issued to Lemego. That would make Masimo and Cercacor owners, or at least joint owners, of those patents and applications currently assigned to Apple.
It’s not the first time that Apple’s faced allegations of strong-arming information from companies that thought they were working with the tech giant. In October, it was accused of stealing patented technology from an email developer and then removing the man’s messaging service from its App Store so it wouldn’t be a competitor.
Apple has also been accused of incorporating another’s patented invention into its Watch without paying. Last month, a New York cardiologist filed a lawsuit saying Apple owes him royalties on the Watch feature that provides notifications of an irregular heartbeat.
The case is Masimo Corp. v. Apple Inc., 20-48, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California (Santa Ana).
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—Greenpeace ranks China’s tech giants on renewable energy
—Facebook deepfake video ban may set off ‘cat and mouse’ game
—Why there are so many scooters in Los Angeles
—What a $1,000 investment in 10 top stocks a decade ago would be worth today
—Missile strike vs. cyberattack: How Iran retaliates
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-01-10--‘Psychological Warfare:’ Iran Rails at Western Governments Over Claims That It Shot Down Boeing Airl

‘Psychological Warfare:’ Iran Rails at Western Governments Over Claims That It Shot Down Boeing Airliner

Iran accused Western governments of engaging in “psychological warfare” in claiming the Boeing Co. jet that crashed near Tehran on Wednesday was brought down by a missile, as the tragedy became further embroiled in geopolitical tensions.
“If they are certain and have the courage, they should share any finding that has scientific and technical backing,” Ali Abedzadeh, head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization, said in a televised briefing Friday.
The comments intensify a standoff over the crash, which came hours after Iran struck at U.S. bases in Iraq in response to the killing of a top general. Canada, the U.K. and Australia all said they have intelligence showing the plane was shot down, while U.S. sources have said two surface-to-air missile launches were detected soon after the Ukrainian jet took off, followed by an explosion.
Investigating civil air disasters typically draws on close cooperation between manufacturers, regulators and the country where the crash occured. Iran has invited Boeing and investigators from countries including the U.S. to help probe the crash, which killed 176 people, but indicated it won’t seek American assistance with decoding the 737-800’s black boxes. Instead, it will turn to Russia, Ukraine, France or Canada if it needs aid extracting data. The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board said it’s monitoring the situation.
Speculation about Iran downing Flight PS 752 in error has been further fueled by a video purportedly showing a bright dot streaking toward the plane, followed by a flash, along with reports that missile debris was found near the scene.
The jet’s flight-data and cockpit-voice recorders will be examined Friday in Tehran, Abedzadeh said, adding that claims about what happened should be considered speculation until all information is retrieved. Hours after the tragedy, Iran claimed that a technical error was the most likely cause for the crash.
More than a third of passengers on the jet were from Canada, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Thursday intelligence from multiple sources, including allies, “indicates that the plane was shot down by an Iranian surface-to-air missile.” He added that “this may well have been unintentional.”
U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison also said the evidence points to in that direction. In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said while a missile hit hadn’t been ruled out, it also hadn’t been confirmed, “as of today.”
A shoot-down would echo two other instances of surface-based missiles striking civilian jets. In 2014, pro-Russian rebels in Ukraine fired on and destroyed a Malaysia Airlines plane, while in 1988 an Iranian airliner was felled by a U.S. cruiser.
In both cases the doomed craft appeared to have been mistaken for hostile warplanes.
Some airlines aren’t taking any chances. Deutsche Lufthansa AG tweeted Friday that it turned around a plane headed to Tehran.
Exclusive: Video verified by The New York Times shows a Ukrainian airliner being hit over Tehran on Wednesday https://t.co/brU9ZRmRX9 — The New York Times (@nytimes) January 9, 2020
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters in Washington on Thursday, said he had “suspicions” about why the plane went down, without being more specific. “It was flying in a pretty rough neighborhood,” Trump said. “Somebody could have made a mistake.”
The Russian-made SA-15 missile, also known as a Gauntlet or a Tor, is suspected of being involved, according to a person familiar with the matter. They are short-range weapons designed to attack planes, helicopters and other airborne targets.
Boeing rose as much as 3.1% and was up 1.5% to $336.34 Thursday in New York following reports indicating the plane was shot down. If the plane was brought down by a missile strike, it could rule out a mechanical failure that would affect other Boeing aircraft.
The Ukrainian president’s office has said 45 Ukraine experts were working in Iran on the investigation and there are “several versions” for the cause under consideration.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani spoke by phone with his counterpart Zelenskiy on Thursday and agreed to form a task force involving their transport officials and foreign ministries, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing Rouhani’s deputy head of communications. Zelenskiy will discuss the crash with U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo, the Ukrainian president said on Facebook.
The U.S. intelligence assessment is consistent with what some aviation accident experts have said. The apparent rapid spread of the fire combined with the sudden halt of radio transmissions from the plane after a normal climb aren’t consistent with previous crashes, said Jeffrey Guzzetti, the former head of accident investigations at the Federal Aviation Administration.
While Iranian officials initially said they suspected a problem with one of the plane’s engines, they retracted that in a preliminary report issued Thursday. The government also took the unusual step of setting up an investigative group to examine whether “any unlawful actions” initiated the fire on the plane, the preliminary report said.
Iran notified the International Civil Aviation Organization, an arm of the United Nations, about the crash, which should trigger involvement of other nations in the investigation, including the U.S., the agency said in a press release Thursday.
Under rules known as Annex 13, the nation in which a crash occurs usually is in charge of an investigation. Other nations are permitted to take part, such as the country in which the plane was made. Since Boeing manufactured the Ukrainian jet, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board would have a right to participate.
It remains unclear whether NTSB will send a representative to the Iran because U.S. law restricts travel to that country and the exchange of certain data. The agency said in a statement on Thursday night that it had “designated an accredited representative to the investigation of the crash.”
The U.S. Treasury has granted waivers for U.S. investigators to work in Iran in the past, but it has been a cumbersome process. Also, the NTSB has at times declined to send investigators to countries it deems unsafe.
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—Geopolitical events just don’t bounce oil prices like they used to
—As investors shrug off Iran concerns, analysts find the complacency ‘disconcerting’
—Greenpeace ranks China’s tech giants on renewable energy
—Laws meant to close down tax havens and shut loopholes could have opposite effect
—7 M&As that defined a decade of dealmaking and reshaped the economy
Catch up with Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily digest on the business of tech.


fortune--2020-01-10--As U.S.-Iran Tensions Flare, China Emerges as Tehran’s Last-Ditch Lifeline

As relations between the U.S. and Iran remain tense, perhaps no other country is watching as closely as China.
China, long Iran’s largest trading partner, is more financially and politically enmeshed with both Iran and the broader region than ever before. And in the last few years, as Iran’s economy has suffered under crippling sanctions imposed by the United States, China’s subtle assistance is a major reason Iran isn’t in a deeper hole.
“The only substantial economic lifeline that Iran’s had is China,” said Jonathan Fulton, political science professor at Abu Dhabi’s Zayed University and author of China’s Relations with the Gulf Monarchies.
Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump escalated recent U.S.-Iran tensions by ordering the killing of Qassem Soleimani, Iran’s top military general. Iran responded with a strike of its own on a base housing American soldiers in Iraq. (Reports indicate that Iran may have also inadvertently shot down a passenger jet bound for Ukraine). President Trump said Wednesday that Iran seemed to be “standing down” after the retaliatory strike, but the relationship between the two countries remains as delicate as ever.
For its part, China has denounced the recent U.S. actions as “military adventurism” and urged restraint. This is likely all Beijing will do for now, analysts say, but in the long term, increased U.S. hostility and unreliability might just give China an opportunity to expand its influence in Iran and across the region.
Bound by the Silk Road
In early 2016, a train pulled into Iran’s capital city of Tehran after a 6,500-mile, two-week journey that crossed much of China and Central Asia from its starting point in Yiwu, a trading hub in China’s Zhejiang province.
The trip marked the first cargo train passage between China and Iran. The direct link between China and the Middle East also recalled the historic Silk Road that lies at the heart of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a trillion-dollar-plus global investment and infrastructure policy meant to build China’s influence around the world.
Iranian officials applaud the first train connecting China and Iran at Tehran railway station in February 2016. The train, following the old Silk Road trading route, carried 32 containers of commercial goods from eastern Zhejiang province to Kazakstan, Turkmenistan and entered Iran through the border town of Sarakhs. STRINGER/AFP via Getty Images
At the time, Iran’s future seemed brighter than it had in decades. Iran and major world powers had signed a nuclear deal the year before, the U.S. had lifted sanctions, and Iran’s economy was opening up to the world.
China had become Iran’s largest trade partner in the late 2000s, and was especially eager to facilitate Iran’s economic rise. In 2016, the two countries sketched out a 25-year plan to increase bilateral trade to $600 billion in the following ten years from just over $50 billion in 2014.
Angling for oil
The main reason behind the closer relations? Oil.
The two countries often tout their historical ties and kindred opposition to western influence, but oil indeed forms the backbone of their modern relationship. In 2017, China received nearly a third of Iran’s total exports, about 64% of which was crude petroleum.
Hassan Shahbeig, chargé d’affaires at the Iranian embassy in China, explained the “complementary” relationship succinctly: “[Iran] is one of the biggest energy producers in the world and China is one of the biggest energy consumers in the world.”
But this relationship has been under strain since the U.S. pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 and re-imposed sanctions. The U.S. granted China waivers to import Iranian oil for several months after the deal, but they expired in May 2019.
“The election of Donald Trump and the subsequent reintroduction of U.S. secondary sanctions—as well as the emergence of the trade war—have slowly downplayed the scope of cooperation between Beijing and Tehran,” said Jacopo Scita, a doctoral fellow at the University of Durham specializing in China-Iran relations. “Nevertheless, China remains Iran’s most important foreign partner.”
In limiting China and Iran’s ability to cooperate with one another, sanctions are the U.S.’s most powerful tool. Because it carries the world’s reserve currency, the U.S. has the unique ability to deny access for nearly any individual or company to work in global markets.
In the last few years, the U.S. government has imposed rounds of sanctions on Chinese shipmakers, energy companies, and technology companies like ZTE (though those were eventually lifted) for helping Iran violate U.S. sanctions.
Perhaps most notably, the CFO of Chinese technology giant Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, was detained in December 2018 in Vancouver, Canada, because of U.S. accusations that she and her company helped Iran breach sanctions. The incident set off an international controversy, and Meng still remains under house arrest in Canada awaiting a court decision over whether Canada will extradite her to the U.S.
Huawei Technologies CFO Meng Wanzhou was escorted by security as she leaves her home on May 8, 2019 in Vancouver, Canada. Wanzhou was in court prior to extradition hearings and could face criminal charges of conspiracy and fraud in the U.S. Jeff Vinnick—Getty Images
Nevertheless, China and Iran seem to have found ways around the harsh U.S. measures. Analysts say the two sides are still employing a number of illicit strategies—including ship-to-ship transfers, turning off radar systems, and masking shipments—as means to skirt U.S. authorities. While it’s difficult to know just how much is off the books, there are disparities between the exports China and Iran officially declare and the exports that show up in third-party analyses of data like oil tanker routes. Scita, for one, suggests that China did not stop buying Iranian oil even after the U.S. waivers expired.
Waiting in the wings
China has indeed served as a lifeline for Iran amid U.S. sanctions, but the measures have still taken somewhat of a toll, dimming the optimism over trade and investment that emerged between Beijing and Tehran in 2016. That year, President Xi Jinping visited Tehran, and the two sides announced a slew of BRI-type investments into the country (though Iran has yet to officially sign on to China’s BRI). These included a high speed rail, electrifying another major railway, and helping build hospitals. But since then, China has not boosted Iran’s economy as much as Tehran may have hoped.
China pledged big projects related to BRI, but, Fulton says, “there was always this expectation that there was going to be a lot more.”
President of China Xi Jinping and President of Iran Hassan Rouhani sign a partnership agreement between Iran and China at in Tehran, Iran on January 23, 2016. Pool / Presidency of Iran/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images
Such unfulfilled potential may have fueled reports last September that China had agreed to an additional $400 billion in funding for the country’s oil and gas sector. As Scita argued in Bourse and Bazaar, the funding proved to be wishful thinking on the part of Tehran and there would “be no $400 billion bonanza.”
At the end of the day, as much as China may want to improve ties and increase business with Iran, the overture will always come second to its relationship with the U.S.
“[China had] this terrible imbalance where the value of the U.S. relationship has always so substantially outweighed any benefits they got from working more closely with Iran,” Fulton said. “China’s ambitions don’t really overshadow that recognition that the U.S. is the most powerful actor here.”
In the long term, however, China’s slow and cautious approach with Iran and the broader region—in contrast to the U.S.’s increasingly aggressive and belligerent strategy—may prove effective.
While China keeps its relations with Iran and much of the Middle East “under the radar” as much as possible, Beijing is poised exert more influence—both militarily and economically—if the U.S. falters, Fulton said.
“These countries in the Gulf,” Fulton added, “will probably look at a country like China and say, ‘If the U.S. isn’t as reliable as it used to be, then to hell with it, let’s do this.'”
More must-read stories from Fortune:
—7 M&As that defined a decade of dealmaking and reshaped the economy
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fortune--2020-01-10--Would You Share Your Salary With a Friend? Should You?

Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Paid leave for federal employees has a loophole, Sen. Kelly Loeffler encounters a potential conflict of interest, and women are talking about money. Have a wonderful weekend.
EVERYONE'S TALKING
- Money talks. Do you get the sense that everyone is talking about their salaries? Writing in the New York Times Style section, Jessica Bennett makes the case that the once-taboo subject has become something of a trending topic among women.
There are lots of good reasons to swap salary info with trusted friends and colleagues, as Bennett lays out: getting a sense of norms in your industry, providing ammunition to push for a raise when review time rolls around, gaining insight into whether (or, let's be real, to what extent) the gender or race pay gap is dragging down your earnings.
But it's not always a simple process. It's illegal for employers to retaliate against employees who share salary info, but that doesn't always stop bosses from doing so. Plus, it's possible to alienate those in your circle who might not feel so ready to open up about their financial lives. Then there's just the overall bummer of learning something unpleasant that you may not be able to immediately change: The NYT cites one academic study that found that learning their co-workers' salaries was likely to make employees miserable.
I'm curious whether any of you are seeing the trend Bennett cites. Are you asking—or being asked—about your compensation? Do you think your age or job level affects how often you have these kinds of conversations (most of the women quoted by the Times are in their 20s or early 30s)? What kinds of experiences have you had when you've talked salaries with friends? If you'd like to share, send me a note—and we may use your response in a future Broadsheet.
Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee
Today's Broadsheet was produced by Emma Hinchliffe.
Plus, be on the lookout: This month, Fortune will be launching a new site, app, video hub, magazine, and subscription package offering the best of business, all in one place. Tell your friends who are seeking insightful, top-notch business journalism. If you're looking for some newsletters to add to your daily digest, check out the forthcoming Bull Sheet, on finance news, and Eastworld, on business in China.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Career peak? Is leading Congress through the impeachment process the most important thing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will ever do? She doesn't love the question, but she acknowledges its significance. "I’m most proud of the Affordable Care Act. But this is the most serious initiative that I’ve been involved in in my career," she says. This profile follows Pelosi as impeachment moves forward; she held on to the articles of impeachment rather than sending them to the Senate yesterday. Time
- Leave loophole. More than 2 million federal workers are supposed to have access to paid family leave thanks to new legislation. But the bill excludes some federal employees who were thought to be covered, particularly Veterans Affairs medical personnel and Federal Aviation Administration workers; they fall under different sections of the U.S. Code governing personnel than the one the law amends. Unions and lawmakers are working to broaden the new leave policy's impact. Washington Post
- CESex tech. The Consumer Electronics Show this year offered the annual tech trade show a chance to recover from last year's controversy: outcry over an award given to and then rescinded from Lora DiCarlo for a sex toy geared toward women. This year, writes Fortune's Chris Morris, sex tech stole the show. Fortune
- Speedy Senate conflict. New Sen. Kelly Loeffler has her first assignments, which include the Senate Agriculture Committee. However, Loffler's husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, a company regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which is—you guessed it—overseen by the Senate Agriculture Committee. In response to the potential conflict of interest, Loeffler says she will recuse herself on a case-by-case basis. Wall Street Journal
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Visa's Laura Barre Nadler joins Afterpay as CFO for its U.S. business. Talend hired three SAP Concur executives: Christal Bemont as CEO and board director, Ann-Christel Graham as chief revenue officer, and Jamie Kiser as chief customer officer. Erica Davis left her role as CMO of WeWork-owned Meetup. Verizon Media hired Gap Inc. chief technology officer Rathi Murthy in the same role.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- First down. The Women's Football League Association hasn't launched yet, but it's already achieved some firsts. Track star, rugby player, and celebrity trainer Santia Deck signed a reported multimillion-dollar deal to play professional full-tackle football, making her the face of the burgeoning league. "That I’m now the highest-paid female football player to date only confirms God always has a plan," she said. The WFLA's debut season is expected in 2021. The Hill
- Who's a bad driver? Here's your daily dose of outrage: New York State Assemblyman Brian Kolb drove under the influence, and his state-owned car was found in a ditch near his home. But he tried to blame the DWI on his wife, telling a witness at the scene, "My wife was driving! You know how women drive." Kolb was found to have twice the legal blood alcohol limit. Democrat and Chronicle
- First partners. What's it like to be a campaign spouse? Evelyn Yang, Jane Sanders, Rosario Dawson (girlfriend of Cory Booker), Kamala Harris's husband Doug Emhoff, and other aspiring first partners describe the "surreal" experience. Washington Post
- A rule that's meant to be broken? Many companies have adopted the NFL's Rooney Rule to increase the racial and gender diversity of candidates for executive jobs. But the Rooney Rule hasn't even worked in the league where it was developed. Read on for more about the NFL's lack of coaching diversity and where the rule falls short: Bloomberg
ON MY RADAR
Hustlers inspiration sues Jennifer Lopez’s company for $40 million LA Times
To guide the labor movement’s future, Sara Horowitz looks to its past New York Times
15 great books that speak to the lives of middle-aged women LitHub
Taraji P. Henson launches natural hair care line TPH by Taraji Essence
QUOTE
"When a woman speaks, she’s going to have something to say."
-Actor Florence Pugh on women-led films, in a Vogue profile


fortune--2020-01-10--Why This 20-Year-Old Apprentice at Bosch Chose to Work First and Get Her Degree Later

Fortune’s Entry/Level column is dedicated to people looking for and working in entry-level positions—read the full series here. We interview entry-levelers about their jobs, how they got them, what they want to do next, and more. This interview has been edited for clarity.
Stephanie Brownlee just bought her first home. To many entry-level workers, this is a goal far in their financial futures, but Brownlee, now 20, became a homeowner at the age of 19. She lives in Dorchester County, South Carolina, and decided with her husband that buying the house was a money-saving way to invest in their future. Brownlee helped fund the new home through her work an adult apprentice at engineering and technology company Bosch.
Fortune spoke to Brownlee about working through multiple apprenticeships with Bosch, choosing to forgo the college immediately after high school, and starting her career and financial independence.
Here’s what she has to say about…
How she got here:
When I was growing up, I didn’t have much of a support system. I was in foster care until my grandparents from my father’s side adopted me and my two older sisters.
I’m going to become a first-generation college graduate. I just thought I’m not going to let these circumstances define me. Instead, I’m going to overcome them, figure out what I want to be, and I’m going to apply myself to get to whatever it is.
Coming out of a rural community, robotics helped me learn this is what I’m good at, this is what I want to be. And with robotics, you get to go traveling all over the world. I got to find community outside of my town and see different cultures. I knew I didn’t want to just get stuck in the sticks.
Making the most of her middle-school and high-school years:
I come from a rural community where there aren’t a lot of opportunities to grow your skills and figure out what you’re interested in. I always liked taking things apart and whenever my father was around, we would work on cars. I learned that I really liked to work with my hands, so I got involved with First Robotics in middle school and learned how to speak about robotics, how to build a robot with Legos, how to code and program it to do things. And that helped me when I was in high school when you start to build with metals instead of Legos and you learn how to use different tools.
The youth apprenticeship at Bosch:
I found the youth apprenticeship at Bosch through the robotics scene in high school. Students in three counties are allowed to work at Bosch for the youth apprenticeship and take college credits while they’re in high school. They don’t have to pay a thing. It’s free education, free on-the-job training. It helps the student, it helps the community, and it helps the employer who then has a better way to hire younger people. And they get new ideas and new input from the next generation.
What the adult apprenticeship entails:
I’m in training two for years including school and work. The apprentices are learning to be a mechanic or electrician so they can fix things, but they also learn how to be machinists so they can make things if something like a custom part is ever needed. We go to Trident Technical College, a school in the low country of South Carolina that Bosch partners with. In school we’re learning theory and at Bosch we’re actually applying that knowledge in hands-on training and on-the-job training. And through all of that, we will all end up having experience showing that we can be in industrial mechanics and electricians.
Why she chose to apprentice over going to college:
Instead of just going on to be a mechanic, I knew I wanted to do more. So with the adult apprenticeship, it was a natural transition. I had relationships with people all over the Bosch community through the rotations we do, and I wanted to grow with them. I could have gone to university to get that college experience but that’s not my goal in life. I didn’t want to be defined by going to a certain college. I wanted to define myself. And to define myself, I wanted to follow what I want, not what everyone else expects out of me.
Bosch is a place where they’re flexible. It’s not like everyone has to have a four-year degree or everyone has to be this certain type. They’re okay with me wanting to learn and work on the job. So going to the adult apprenticeship was a natural way to continue to grow in my career.
Being a young woman in the male-dominated mechanics and engineering world:
I always have it in the back of my mind. Because I started young and because I was female, I was slightly afraid people wouldn’t take me seriously. But I wasn’t giving them a chance to see how they would treat me first. It made me feel like I didn’t have a voice, but over time, I got to know the people and Bosch and became more confident until I was comfortable sharing my knowledge and experience.
A day in the life:
I wake up around 4 a.m., then I drive to work and clock in between 5:45 a.m. and 6 a.m., and then we have 8 hours that are different each day. One day you may learn how to use a certain machine and another day you may learn how to use certain sensors or a piece of electrical equipment. And then other times in your apprenticeship you’ll go on rotations, that way you can apply what you learn and make connections and network.
So in my days right now, we go in and we do some computer-based training and refresh us on some of the things that we learned within the last year. Then we go to Trident Technical College some days. Our weeks are broken up. You go to school or you go to work and you leave and that’s it.
Right now, it’s 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. I go to bed usually around 8 p.m.
How the apprenticeship is structured:
The first two years of this program, it’s just learning and training. Then, you have a guaranteed job for two years after that at Bosch. That’s in the contract that you work for two years after your two years of free education.
Pay and tuition reimbursement:
We get paid hourly and [Bosch] pays for your education and whenever you’re done with the apprenticeship program, there is additional tuition reimbursement while you work at the company. When I’m done training and I’m just working full-time at Bosch, I’m going to do more college and there will be tuition reimbursement for that. They reimburse the whole price of the class as long as you pass it.
Benefits as an apprentice:
There’s a 401(k), health insurance, medical insurance, and other benefits. We get free fitness shoes every year and free extra work equipment if we need it. Also, just because you’re an employee at Bosch, you get other benefits like discounts for different amusement parks and places that are popular for the low country.
Buying her first house at 19:
I recently bought a house. It’s about 45 minutes away from Bosch and I live with my husband. Usually rent in this area is about $1,000 or $1200, so it’s cheaper for me, coming out of high school and moving out of my parents’ house, to go and get a mortgage paying $700 a month rather than having to rent for more than that and then having no return on investment.
The hardest part of the apprenticeship:
Grasping the idea of having such a heavy attention to detail. As a mechanic you fix something and you make sure it’s clean and you put it in the machine. But when I make something as a machinist, I want it to be perfect so when I show it to someone, they’ll want to buy it. So you have to make sure that it’s perfect, to expectations, and also perfect in aesthetics and neatness.
Her favorite part of the apprenticeship:
My favorite part has always been the people. If I’m at work or at home or at school, I just love meeting people, and I love learning what what they love and what they’re passionate about. Pretty much everyone at Bosch knows something that I don’t know. So I’m like, okay, what can you teach me? What can I learn from your life experience?
What’s next:
My goal is to focus on becoming an engineer so I can move up the ladder. After the apprenticeship program, I’ll be done with my certificate and I’ll be able to start working on my four-year degree. I’ll apply what I learned and show that I took the apprenticeship program seriously and that I’m not going to stop there.
In the long term:
I want to get my electrical engineering degree and become a manager. With that, I’ll learn how to deal with people and be better at communications and that will help me with a foundation for when I start a business.
The main reason I want to make my own business is so I can fund a not-for-profit. I want to give back to the community that gave to me. And I want to help it by having an orphanage or having a group home for older foster kids. I want to help them do what I did, give them somewhere to go when they graduate high school, whether that’s a job or college.
Advice to her younger self:
It doesn’t matter where you start off, one day, you can be as high up as you dream to be as long as you put yourself out there, as long as you work towards that.
More Entry/Level from Fortune:
—How this daughter of immigrant farmers found her comms job at Tyson
—She went from Goldman Sachs to Blue Apron recipe tester. Here’s why
—How this former Army sergeant found an entry-level job at IBM
—A look inside GM’s two-year, entry-level rotational program
—How an entry-level UX designer at Amazon got her foot in the door
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fortune--2020-01-10--Business Owners in Paris Say French Pension Reform Strikes Have Been ‘Devastating’

When Pearlyn Lee reopened The Hood, her three-year-old coffee shop and Asian canteen on a quiet stretch of Paris’s 11th arrondissement after a three and a half month closure for renovations, she was excited for a fresh start. And eager to fill seats—maintaining eight full-time staff while temporarily shuttered was costly. Business operations needed to resume quickly.
But just as revenue was picking up, the pension reform transit strike began, throwing France—and especially Paris—into near paralysis. December 5, 2019 marked the start of a devastating holiday month for businesses, a financially critical time of year. With disrupted metro and rail service (only two automated metro lines have operated as usual), overcrowded buses, and severe car traffic interfering with everyday commutes, consumers avoided adding any unnecessary stops to their journeys, staying local or ordering-in instead. “The effect was immediate once it was clear there was no end to the strikes in sight,” says Lee. “We saw a 30% drop on weekend business, usually our busiest time, compared to last year.”
With the strike entering its second month, the economic impact for small businesses and retailers across France has been acute. According to the Commerce Alliance, the regions that have suffered the most have seen a 30% decline in revenue on average, with Paris the most badly affected. For businesses with less than 11 employees, activity was down anywhere from 30 to 60% due to a decrease in foreign and domestic tourists and residents for whom getting in and out of the city was too challenging, explained Francis Palombi, President of the French Confederation of Retailers (CDF) in Le Monde.
“Retailers and restaurant owners were highly anticipating December business because we were all badly hit by the Yellow Vest movement last year,” says Delphine Plisson, owner of Maison Plisson specialty food shops and cafés. Due to its location, one of Plisson’s shops was forced to close by the Prefecture de Police during demonstrations, costing her days’ worth of sales: “We were so motivated which makes the impact this year even more painful. Not only has it been extremely complicated for our clients to get around but for our staff. After weeks of that difficulty, amid end-of-year, pre-Christmas stress, people don’t spend, they hold onto their money.”
A closed metro entrance is seen during a nationwide strike severely effecting transport across the city in the largest nationwide strike in years on December 5, 2019 in Paris, France. Chesnot/Getty Images
Josh Fontaine, co-owner of Quixotic Projects, the group that runs the bars Candelaria, Le Mary Celeste, and Hero as well as Les Grands Verres restaurant at the Palais de Tokyo, says the impact has been nothing short of devastating.
“Across our establishments, we’ve seen a 30-50% drop, depending on the day. We’re ordering the bare minimum from our suppliers to stay open and have put all renovation projects and hiring plans on hold until we see what happens,” he explains, adding that staff is the greatest cost. “Legally, we have to provide two weeks notice to change an employee’s schedule. We can’t just tell workers they can’t come in because business is slow.” With nearly 90 people on the full-time payroll and labor charges looming, Fontaine says there’s reason to be concerned.
For some, the radical fluctuations in business of the last year have proven too great to overcome. On December 19, the seven-year-old restaurant Raw announced on social media that it would be closing, unable to bounce back from the sixteen consecutive strike days. Mazet, a century-old candy company, was forced to close their sole Paris boutique after plummeting sales. Others are on the precipice. “It’s rare for F&B businesses to have enough of a cash flow cushion and banks are unlikely to step in and assist in times like these,” Plisson says.
Thousands of demonstrators march in the streets of downtown Paris during the sixth day of a general strike on December 10, 2019 in Paris, France. Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images
The Mairie de Paris’s promise of 2.5 million euros in assistance, largely for stand operators and restaurants with terraces, won’t go far. Etheliya Hananova, co-owner and sommelière of the two-year-old Michelin-starred restaurant Comice, says she and her husband are trying to remain optimistic—perhaps it’s the only way forward.
“As a young business just starting to lay down its roots, the social unrest in 2019 had an impact on us. We’ve chosen to focus on what is positive and how we can come out stronger from this,” she explains. “Threading the needle every day as the ground shifts beneath us has forced us to get creative and flexible at lightning speed.”
The real test comes this month with the arrival of Maison & Objet and Who’s Next trade fairs, followed by Paris Fashion Week in February, a time that usually coincides with an uptick in visitors and spending. Sophie Ducharme, owner of the jewelry store Chance, says “this is the moment that sets the tone. If the buyers don’t come, we’ll all suffer.”
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fortune--2020-01-11--Casper Influencers Move Mattresses, but the IPO Filing Says They’re Not All Sweet Dreams

Online mattress seller Casper Sleep filed for an initial public offering with an unusual warning for potential investors: It uses influencers for marketing.
Influencers, people with large online followings whom Casper pays to test and talk about its mattresses, “may materially and adversely affect our reputation or subject us to fines or other penalties,” the company said in a prospectus on Friday.
Because Casper derives the majority of its sales from internet marketing, it relies on influencers on Instagram and YouTube to spread the word about its products. But influencers are often marketing amateurs, posting without a brand’s direct approval over their work. They may fail to properly disclose payment for a post—a lapse that has caused the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to fine other brands in the past. Or they may post unsavory or controversial content that will reflect poorly on the brand.
In a quick scan of posts that tag Casper on Instagram, some look like typical mattress ads, with influencers sitting on the memory foam or posing by the delivery box and smiling, sometimes holding their babies or dogs. In one post marked as an ad, a woman is wearing revealing lace undergarments, pictured from behind. In another post, which tags and promotes the brand but is not marked as an ad, a man’s bare backside is featured next to a Casper box.
Casper isn’t the first to mention influencer marketing in its IPO prospectus, but may be the first to specifically highlight influencers as a risk factor for investors. Peloton Interactive, which makes exercise bikes and went public in September, noted the increased burden of monitoring compliance for ads across media, including social networks. The maker of Madewell clothing, which filed for an IPO last year, called influencer marketing “experimental” in its prospectus and warned that it might not be able to maintain buzz around its products, or might have to increase its level of spending.
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—After a decade of e-commerce, convenience just isn’t enough
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fortune--2020-01-11--Two Billionaires Are Banking on Cash to Win the 2020 Democratic Nomination. Will It Work?

When It Comes to Streaming Media , Quibi Made the Most of CES

Billionaires Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer are testing an unproven theory in the contest for the Democratic presidential nomination: that their vast personal wealth can buy the trophy.
Not since Texas businessman Ross Perot spent $63.5 million in 1992 (more than $100 million in today’s dollars) on his run for president as an independent have candidates for the White House banked so much on their massive fortunes alone on delivering results. Donald Trump spent about $65 million of his own money in 2016. Bloomberg has spent more than three times that amount in a little over two months.
Bloomberg, who founded a financial data and media company and served three terms as New York mayor, and Steyer, a California businessman, have saturated key primary states with hundreds of millions in TV and social media advertising. They’ve also recruited top staff with above-market salaries while offering political figures and groups generous contributions as they work to build networks of support.
To the dismay of many in the party, it might work.
“People underestimate the billionaires at their own peril,” said Rebecca Katz, a progressive Democratic strategist in New York. “Just because you have all the money in the world doesn’t mean you will win the nomination and become president. But it’s a hell of a head start.”
Democrats have long grappled with the sway the wealthy hold over politics, an issue that took on added gravity after the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 Citizens United decision cleared the way for the flood of cash now coursing through the political system.
The party’s progressive wing sought to make the 2020 contest a referendum on the taint of big money in politics. They championed small online donations from the grassroots base as the purest indicator of voter enthusiasm.
Bloomberg and Steyer have turned that argument inside out by eliminating the need for donors altogether, though unlike Bloomberg, Steyer does accept campaign contributions.
“There is no question that the system is set up to benefit people who can self-fund,” said Jared Leopold, a senior adviser to Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who dropped out of the 2020 presidential race last summer after struggling to gain traction. “They are twisted rules, but that’s the reality.”
Bloomberg and Steyer flirted with presidential bids early last year but pulled back at the last minute. Yet after no clear front-runner emerged this cycle, Steyer, who is worth an estimated $1.6 billion by Forbes, entered the race in July. Bloomberg—whose net worth Forbes said is greater than $50 billion—announced his campaign in November.
By December, Steyer had spent more than $60 million on ads, according to the tracking firm Advertising Analytics. Bloomberg, meanwhile, crossed the $200 million ad spending threshold Friday morning, the firm announced, a sum that nearly surpasses the $222 million spent by the entire rest of the field.
For now, their big-money approach appears to be paying some dividends.
Steyer made waves Thursday when Fox News polls in Nevada and South Carolina measured his support in those states in double digits, though he fell well below that mark in national polls released in December, as well as in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Bloomberg has not focused his attention on the early primary and caucus states and has instead zeroed in on the larger delegate-rich states on Super Tuesday and later primaries. He has registered mid-single-digit support in national polls but has risen steadily along with his advertising. He has come in below former Vice President Joe Biden, as well as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, but higher in some polls than either Steyer or some of the established candidates, including New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.
Their wealth has given them a resiliency that other prominent candidates in the race did not enjoy, which hastened their exit, including California Sen. Kamala Harris, New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke and Inslee.
“If you are out-of-sight and out-of-mind in the air wars, it’s hard to envision a circumstance where you can come back and win the nomination. That’s just the harsh reality of a crowded field,” said Ian Sams, who was Harris’ lead spokesman before she left the race last month. “No single factor led to Kamala’s exit from this race as much as a lack of financial resources.”
Julián Castro, who dropped out of the 2020 race last week, said the Democratic National Committee should address the issues posed by Steyer and Bloomberg.
“The DNC is going to have to go back and look at these thresholds, debate thresholds, and the fact that you have people that can buy their way onto the stage,” the former Obama housing secretary said Friday.
Castro noted that Harris, who was once considered a Democratic front-runner, dropped out of the race on the same day in December that Steyer qualified for that month’s debate. Castro described him as someone who “just came on the scene and started pumping tens of millions of dollars into the process to artificially inflate those support numbers.”
“That’s not the best way to do things,” Castro said.
Tom Steyer gestures during the Democratic presidential primary debate at Loyola Marymount University on December 19, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Justin Sullivan—Getty Images
Bloomberg has had a virtual monopoly on presidential advertising and campaigning in the states that follow the traditional starting-gun states of Iowa and New Hampshire.
In Georgia, which won’t vote until after Super Tuesday, he recently donated $5 million to a voting rights political group led by Stacey Abrams, a rising star who nearly became Georgia’s first black female governor in 2018, losing a close race.
During an appearance there on Friday, he described himself as a “middle-class kid” who was “lucky enough” to finish college and find success.
He only glancingly referred to his own staggering wealth, noting that he’s not accepting contributions from anyone.
Steyer, too, appears to be benefiting from limited competition in states that have yet to draw a glut of advertising from the other candidates, most of whom are more focused on Iowa and New Hampshire.
In Nevada, where Steyer was already known as the man running commercials calling for Trump to be impeached, his face and voice dominate the airwaves — unlike most of the rest of the 2020 field. He also invested in conspicuous electronic billboards that beam his name at drivers on highways around Las Vegas.
In South Carolina, Steyer has spent more than $10 million on ads. Most of the state’s Democratic electorate is black, and he’s targeted minority-owned media in particular, spending a half million dollars on black radio.
“Communicating in a vacuum can move numbers,” said Leopold, the Inslee adviser. “But the question is when people start tuning into other names and seeing other people on their TV set, do they stick with Steyer, or is that just a sugar high?”
In the meantime, it’s drawing him attention, including at an event last month at Allen University, a historically black college in Columbia.
When Steyer took the stage, a student in the audience who up until that moment hadn’t been paying attention perked up and exclaimed: “Oh, it’s that guy—I’ve seen him on TV.”
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fortune--2020-01-11--How to Watch NFL Divisional Playoffs Live Online for Free—Without Cable

Two Billionaires Are Banking on Cash to Win the 2020 Democratic Nomination .
Will It Work ?

Last weeks’s wild card games might be some of the most exciting in recent memory. And that puts a lot of pressure on the divisional round this weekend. After the Patriots fell short and New Orleans lost in overtime, it’s going to be hard to match that level of drama. But this season has been loaded with drama.
Because this week’s games are being split between Saturday and Sunday, you might have other things to do when some are on. That doesn’t mean you have to miss them, though. There are plenty of alternative ways to view. Here’s a look at who’s playing this week—and several different ways to watch the games.
Which NFL teams are playing this week? And what channels are airing the games?
Jonnu Smith #81 of the Tennessee Titans catches a touchdown over Brandon Carr #39 of the Baltimore Ravens in the first quarter of the AFC Divisional Playoff game at M&T Bank Stadium on January 11, 2020 in Baltimore, Maryland. Will Newton—Getty Images
The Vikings and Titans surprised a lot of people last week, staking their claims on the dark horse role in this year’s post-season. But they’re going to need that luck to continue as they face some of the most dominant teams in the NFL this weekend.
Here’s a look who’s playing this week. (The home team is listed second.)
Saturday, January 11
Minnesota Viking vs. San Francisco 49ers, 4:35 p.m. ET on NBC
Tennessee Titans vs. Baltimore Ravens, 8:15 p.m. ET on CBS
Sunday, January 12
Houston Texans vs. Kansas City Chiefs, 3:05 p.m. ET on CBS
Seattle Seahawks vs. Green Bay Packers, 6:40 p.m. ET on Fox
How can I watch my local NFL team for free—even if I am out of market?
Playoffs aren’t blacked out in any market, so you shouldn’t have to worry about finding the game, even if your home team is playing. Regardless, the best way to watch any NFL game for free on a big screen is with a good HD antenna. Local and regional games are broadcast by CBS, NBC and Fox—meaning you’ve got a good chance of capturing the game over the air, which costs nothing beyond the equipment prices. Be sure to test the antenna in multiple locations in your home to find the most reliable signal.
How can I stream NFL games live online if I don’t have a cable subscription?
There are loads of online options to watch NFL games, some completely free and others with free trial periods. If you’re not near a TV, you can log into Fox.com to watch the game or use the Fox Now app. CBS offers its All Access streaming service, which has a one week free trial, followed by a $6 monthly charge. Another option? Yahoo Sports and the NFL have teamed to stream live NFL games on mobile devices this year. Just download the Yahoo Sports app or Yahoo Fantasy Football mobile app and watch all local and primetime games on phones and tablets. Prefer another method? Here are a few that work just as well.
Locast.org
This free service lets you watch local broadcast channels with no monthly fees or contracts. The hiccup is: It only services part of the country.
Hulu with Live TV
You can try the service free for a week. Once that’s up, you’ll pay $45 per month.
YouTube TV
After a seven day trial, you can expect monthly charges of $50.
Sling TV
Dish Network’s Sling is one of the OG cord cutter options. It has an extensive selection of ESPN options in its lower tiered “Orange” plan. That will run you $30 per month, but you won’t get Fox Sports in that bundle. (For that, you’ll also need to subscribe to Sling’s “Blue” plan, which bumps the cost to $45-per-month.) You’ll have a 7-day free trial first.
AT&T TVNow
Formerly known as DirecTV Now, AT&T’s streaming service will run you $65 per month and up after a 7-day free trial.
Disney+
Disney’s bundle of Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ can be enjoyed for free for seven days, after which you’ll pay $12.99 per month for all three combined
Fubo TV
This sports-focused cord cutting service carries CBS in most markets. There’s a seven-day free trial, followed by monthly charges of $55.
Can I watch NFL games on Amazon?
Not anymore, for this season at least. Amazon struck a deal with NBC to air select Thursday night games this season, but the last one was broadcast on the retail giant’s streaming service on Dec. 12. There are, at this time, no plans to jointly air any playoff games.
Does the NFL offer any viewing packages to watch the games I want?
Kind of.
NFL App
The NFL App will let you stream games that are being broadcast locally in your market on Sundays. If you want to watch an ‘out of market’ game, you’ve got two choices.
There are couple hitches with this service. You can’t use it to watch live games, but you can watch anything once its main broadcast ends. There’s a seven day free trial, after which you’re looking at a $100 charge per season.
DirecTV customers have access to it, but if you’re not a subscriber and live in an area where it’s not available, you can watch any NFL game live, online or on TV for $73.49 per month or $293.36 for the entire season.
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fortune--2020-01-11--When It Comes to Streaming Media, Quibi Made the Most of CES

Streaming media might have been a huge topic of conversation among showgoers and television manufacturers at CES this year, but many of the executives running those streaming companies chose to play things close to the vest while they were in Las Vegas.
NBCUniversal’s keynote, which featured Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising and partnerships, was remarkably light on new information about the Peacock streaming service. (That’s expected to be unveiled on Jan. 16 at an NBC event.) WarnerMedia was a bit more forthcoming about HBO Max, but talked more in broad strokes. Quibi, however, used CES as a big coming out party, with Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman making their best argument as to why people should subscribe to the short format video service.
The question, of course, is will that argument be effective?
“What we’re trying to show is we might be the next big evolution in entertainment, with a tech platform that is designed to show content, mobile only, in a really premium way,” Whitman told Fortune before the service’s keynote.
Quibi, Peacock, and HBO Max are joining an increasingly crowded market, taking on not only established players like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime, but newer players including Disney+, AppleTV+, and CBS All Access.
Ultimately, content will be the key to standing out from the pack (though price may be nearly as important to some consumers). Quibi’s hoping its catalog of original videos from established names (including Steven Spielberg and Idris Elba) and the daily flow of new content will lure viewers.
“Every day we will publish more than 30 episodes or quibis—which is about three hours of content,” Katzenberg told Fortune. “To give another way to measure that, a broadcast network in prime time schedules about two hours—135 minutes. We’ll publish about 180 minutes.”
New episodes of feature content (comparable to films or TV shows) will be issued daily after the first part airs. And Quibi hopes that will get (and keep) people talking about what might happen next.
“We’re trying to recreate the watercooler situation,” Whitman said.
HBO, meanwhile, said part of its focus for HBO Max, will be on the user interface, eliminating the “endless scroll” on many current sites and targeting mobile users with an interface chief technology officer Jeremy Legg jokingly called “swipey” in a keynote.
Quibi’s focused on interface as well at its keynote, showcasing its “Turnstyle” technology, which allows viewers to instantly switch from landscape to portrait mode, optimizing the onscreen images for however they choose to watch the programming.
Quibi has been vocal about its heavy spending on creating original content (and expects to close another round of financing soon). HBO Max, though, plans to draw from the enormous collection of existing content creators in the WarnerMedia family.
“We have tremendous creative talent at HBO and HBO Max, Warner Bros., the Turner networks,” said Andy Forssell, general manager of Direct-to-Consumer, at the HBO Max keynote. “Their job is to find great creative, find the right audience and the right place for it. There are cases where you’ll see things where we’ll decide the right place for it is SVOD and there may be life for it on linear networks or elsewhere. You’ll see the reverse as well. You’re going to see it both directions. I think there is as much synergy there, more so than conflict.”
Meanwhile, Peacock plans to take a different approach, focusing on quality, not quantity, said Yaccarino at her keynote.
“We don’t want to serve them junk,” she said. “We are aware of who we want to serve with premium content. We have to meet them on their terms—anywhere, any time, and on any screen. … The future is all about personalization… to reach beyond the screen and form a personal relationship with the right ad and content—that’s when the magic happens”
HBO Max and Peacock, along with existing streaming services, have a head start in the streaming field, since their parent firms are familiar to customers. Katzenberg is a Hollywood icon, but Quibi is an unknown, which has raised some doubts about how it will be greeted by a wide audience.
Katzenberg acknowledges this, but said he and Whitman are chasing a different audience than other streaming services.
“Everything they’re being offered today is centered around the TV. This is about your in-between time,” he told Fortune. “It’s quick bites, on the go and in between. It’s a very, very different viewing habit that we know our anticipated customers already have.… There is an unbelievable amount of content being consumed today on phones on the go. It’s just not of this quality.”
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