fortune--2020-08-19--How Lowe’s CEO is overhauling its e-commerce to capitalize on the home projects boom

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Lowe’s has long been derided as a weaker version of its bigger rival Home Depot.
But the home improvement retailer has been making big strides in beginning to dispel that notion after years of underperforming Home Depot in sales growth. The latest evidence: Lowe’s on Wednesday reported comparable sales at its U.S. stores rose 35% in the quarter ended July 31. That was even better than Home Depot’s 25% increase reported earlier this week.
While both companies have clearly benefited from tens of millions of Americans being homebound and working on house projects, Lowe’s has helped its own cause, most notably in fixing its e-commerce. Online sales rose 135% in the quarter and are now 8% of total sales: that’s still below Home Depot but compares to about 4% only a year ago. (At Home Depot, it’s about 20%.)
Since CEO Marvin Ellison took the reins two years ago, Lowe’s has undertaken the nerdy behind-the-scenes work of re-platforming its e-commerce site, connecting it to Google cloud and making it more stable. Ellison says that now that those efforts are largely done, the next phase for Lowe’s site will be to add more customer-facing features such as one-click checkout, the ability for customers to schedule or change a delivery time and better graphic.
“It’s going to be all about improving customer experience on the front end,” he says. Another issue for Lowe’s is its online selection compared to that of Home Depot, which according to eMarketer is the No. 5 U.S. e-commerce company after Amazon, eBay, Walmart and Apple.
Home Depot’s online assortment is about four times greater than Lowe’s, and Ellison has held off adding more to Lowes.com until he felt the site could handle it. “We were functioning so poorly but in the last six months we’ve added a lot,” he says.
And more assortment is also coming to stores coming in 2021, with Lowe’s set to dive into new categories Ellison says people might not expect to see at a home improvement chain, though he declined to say what those would be. Home Depot has successfully added categories like soft home furnishings as well as sought to capitalize on big events like Black Friday by adding toys and holiday decorations.
Yet as much as Lowe’s is gaining momentum, Ellison says forays into non-core categories can wait until next year. “The reason we are not doing that right now is because we have opportunities in our core categories,” he says. “Lowes.com lacks depth- it needs more items like tools, lightning,” he notes as an example.
Lowe’s made big breakthroughs in the second quarter in markets where it has long lagged Home Depot, most notably the professional contract market and city stores. A big part of that, Ellison says, has stemmed from Lowe’s limited digital prowess. City dwellers and contractors in particular are reliant on a strong online offering. So cracking those nuts, as Lowe’s has begun to, will provide boost Lowe’s for a long time. “When you get improvements like you saw in the second quarter in urban areas, it’s going to drive productivity for the whole company,” he says.


fortune--2020-08-19--Too many diversity initiatives are neglecting junior Black employees. We can fix that

It would cost $ 1 trillion to move global supply chains out of China—but the long-term gains could be worth @

In response to the Black Lives Matter uprising following the death of George Floyd, many corporations have committed to increasing Black representation at the leadership level. Both Microsoft and Uber have pledged to double the number of Black employees in senior positions. Google, Royal Bank of Canada, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC are also among the companies who have publicly announced their plans to increase Black representation in their leadership teams.
This focus on top positions is part of a growing trend. While efforts to increase diversity have typically been pushed at more junior level positions, over the past few years external think tanks have been closely analyzing diversity in the upper ranks. According to the Center for Talent Innovation, despite accounting for 12% of the U.S. population, Black people hold only 3.2% of leadership roles at large U.S. companies, and there are currently only four Black Fortune 500 CEOs.
The same disparities prevail in Britain. According to 2019 research completed by the recruitment consultancy Green Park, Black people represent less than 1% of leaders running FTSE 100 companies. The Colour of Power 2020, a joint research project by Green Park and Operation Black Vote exploring the diversity of Britain’s most powerful decision-makers across the private and public sector, revealed that of the 1,099 most powerful roles in the country, a total of just 17 are held by Black men and women.
Clearly, this is a gap that must be addressed. However, beyond increasing Black representation at senior levels and the promise of global anti-racism trainings, many corporations have failed to outline the support mechanisms they will put in place for Black employees early into their career. This feels like a crucial oversight—because it could be argued that one reason there are so few top Black leaders is because companies do so little to help talented junior Black employees thrive.
Young Black professionals face numerous hurdles at the beginning of their career, and as a Black female four years into my own career, I’ve both experienced and witnessed them.
Many Black professionals join work environments where they are in the racial minority, which can be isolating. They can be made to feel that they are merely a “diversity” hire and should be grateful to be there. They endure racism and microaggressions and then feel compelled to compress their feelings of hurt and frustration, to avoid conforming to the stereotype of being “angry.”
When you’re the only Black person on your team, you’re made to feel like the representative of all Black people, which means you can never be your authentic self. Many Black professionals grow up being told they have to work twice as hard as the rest. As a result, junior Black professionals tend to work longer hours initially to combat stereotypes of Black people not having a strong work ethic. Ironically, this can sometimes have the opposite effect, as it may appear that they are ill prepared and unorganized, as they try to juggle too much.
Over time, code switching becomes normal for Black professionals, as they grow tired of being overlooked for promotion and realize that moving up the ladder is dependent on building relationships and networking with senior white leaders. But research has found that code switching can be exhausting and lead to poor performance and burnout. Those first few months and years for Black employees, as they navigate systemic racism in these organizations while trying to progress in their career, can often feel like a game of survival.
As corporations reflect on Black Lives Matter, they should look at ways to improve the experience of their junior Black employees. Black professionals have had enough, and research shows many are planning to leave their current job to pursue other opportunities.
With that in mind, here are four steps that corporate leaders can take to foster a better environment.
Create a safe space for conversations about race
Black employees starting out need to feel comfortable talking about race, whether it’s regarding race-related incidents happening in the news or at work. White leaders in particular should take a lead on this; the onus can’t always fall on the one or two senior Black professionals to do the emotional labor of talking about race in addition to their jobs.
Encourage authenticity
Junior Black professionals often feel the need to tone down anything that appears as “too Black” in order to fit in. For Black women this could involve opting for straight hairstyles instead of natural curls or braids; for any Black worker regardless of gender, it could involve going by a less “ethnic-sounding” name and opting not to share some of their interests outside of work. Create an environment where differences are celebrated, and provide an opportunity to learn from one another.
Develop impactful mentorship and sponsorship programs
Black professionals starting out don’t always have access and exposure to senior leaders, which can hinder promotional prospects. But mentorship and sponsorship can help with this. Research from Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations showed that mentoring programs dramatically improved promotion and retention rates for minorities and women—by 15% to 38%, respectively, as compared with non-mentored employees. Having senior leaders provide guidance and advocate for them is invaluable. Initiatives like this can be successful when there is a clear structure in place, a group of engaged and genuine leaders who would be fully committed and careful, and who considered the pairing of mentees and mentors based on specific criteria.
Invest in Black employees’ development
Whether it’s through formal training opportunities or providing more role autonomy, invest in the development and growth of your Black employees. Coach them, give regular actionable feedback, and provide them with the space to make mistakes and learn from them in the same away other employees can.
René Germain is a product manager in financial services and the cofounder of nine to fives, a community for black employees in the workplace.


fortune--2020-08-19--Generation Z is ‘traumatized’ by climate change—and they’re the key to fighting it

According to polls, Generation Z—people born between the mid-1990s and early 2010s—share startling characteristics. They are more lonely, depressed, and suicidal than any previous generation. They are more likely than earlier generations to be poorer than their parents, and they are the first generation expected to live shorter lives than their parents. They also care deeply about racial justice and led the largest climate strikes in 2019.
But as a college professor of environmental studies, I’ve seen another quality of this generation: These young people aren’t just motivated by climate change, they are downright traumatized by it. They are freaked out about our planet’s future, with an urgency few others have mustered.
It’s my job, I’ve begun to think, to make sure that people in this “climate generation” don’t get swallowed up in an ocean of despair.
The Gen Z students I am teaching now are different. The students who used to major in environmental studies, even as recently as five years ago, were often white, outdoorsy types, idealistic and eager to educate the masses about how to recycle better, ride bikes more, eat locally, and reduce the impact of their lifestyles on the planet. They wanted to get away from the messiness of society and saw “humanity” as destroying nature.
My Generation Z students care a lot more about humans. They flock to environmental studies out of an awareness that humanity and nature are deeply interconnected, and a genuine love for both. They are increasingly first-generation, nonwhite, and motivated to solve their communities’ problems by addressing the unequal distribution of environmental costs and benefits. They work with the Movement for Black Lives, Indigenous sovereignty groups, and organizations that dismantle barriers to green space, such as Latino Outdoors. Unlike my students from earlier days of teaching, this generation isn’t choosing environmental studies to escape humanity; on the contrary, they get that the key to saving the environment is humanity.
It’s a vision of hope—but it comes with a dark side. Digging into environmental studies introduces young people to the myriad ways that our world’s interconnectedness threatens the future. Some students become so overwhelmed with despair and grief that they shut down. Many stop coming to lectures and seminars. They send depressed, despairing emails. They lose their bearings, question their relationships and education, and barely pass their classes. One of my students became so self-loathing that she came to think the only way to serve the planet was to stop consuming entirely: reducing her environmental impact meant starving herself. Most young people I know have already decided not to have children, because they don’t want their kids growing up on a doomed planet. They barely want to be alive themselves. They often seem on the brink of nihilism before we even cover the syllabus.
The young people I am teaching say they will bear the worst consequences of processes they did not initiate, and over which they have little or no control. They speak of an apocalypse on the horizon. My students say they do not expect to enjoy the experiences older adults take for granted—having children, planning a career, retiring. For many youth, climate disruption isn’t a hypothetical future possibility; it is already here. They read the long predicted increases in extreme weather events, wildfires, sea level rise, habitat destruction, worsening health outcomes related to pollution, and infectious disease as clear signs that their worst fears will be realized not just in their lifetime, but right now.
This sense of doom is more widely felt beyond college classrooms. Psychologists and environmental scholars are creating a whole new vocabulary to describe these feelings of despair, including solastalgia, climate anxiety, eco-grief, pre-traumatic stress, and psychoterratic illness.
Whatever one calls it, all of this uncertainty can immobilize young people when they feel they can do nothing to fix it. Their sense of powerlessness, whether real or imagined, is at the root of their despair. I have found that many young people have limited notions of how power works. My students associate “power” with really bad things, like fascism, authoritarianism, or force; or slightly less bad things like celebrity, political power, or wealth. They have little imagination about how to engage in social change, and even less imagination about the alternative world they would build if they could.
Without a sense of efficacy—the feeling of having control over the conditions of their lives—I fear some may give up on the difficult process of making change. Psychologists call this misleading feeling of helplessness the “pseudoinefficacy effect,” and it has a political dimension that may keep individuals from working to help others.
Meanwhile, there is very little in the mass media to suggest that young people have real power over changes in the climate at large—or even our political system. The 24/7 news cycle thrives when it portrays a world on fire. And mainstream media offers few stories about solutions or models for alternative, regenerative economies. The stories that are covered often only tackle technological or market solutions that have yet to be invented or produced. By portraying climate change as a problem that is too big to fix, and suggesting that the contributions of any single individual are too small to make a difference, these messages leave young people with little sense of what can be done. Amid the clamor of apocalyptic coverage, few are talking about what it would take to thrive in, instead of fear, a climate-changed future.
We cannot afford for the next generation of climate justice leaders’ dread to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Their psychological resources of resilience and imagination, and, against all odds, their fierce capacity for joy, are just as necessary for the future of a viable planet as natural resources like clean air and water. My generation must help Gen Z learn to push on the levers of technical, political, cultural, and economic change, and to draw on existential tools or “deep adaptation” in times of crisis.
There’s hope in the images on the streets and on social media: Today’s protests against police brutality are a testament to young people’s power and evidence of their commitment to their future. It isn’t an especially large leap from fighting a racist justice system to improving the planet; indeed, many in this generation see them as inextricably connected—that’s the point. And the rapid and radical changes that society has undertaken in response to COVID is further evidence that change is possible. Humans can sacrifice and make collective changes to protect others—hopefully, in these difficult weeks, my students will be able to see that.
The rest of us have much to learn from this traumatized generation. And we would do well to help them see that their grief and despair are the other side of love and connection. For their sake and that of the planet, we need them to feel empowered to shape and desire their future.
Sarah Jaquette Ray teaches environmental studies at Humboldt State University in Arcata, Calif. She is the author of A Field Guide to Climate Anxiety: How to Keep Your Cool on a Warming Planet.
This was written for Zócalo Public Square.


fortune--2020-08-19--Apple is the first U.S. company to hit a $2 trillion stock market valuation

Apple’s stock market value exceeded $2 trillion in midday trading on Wednesday, marking the first time ever a U.S. company reached the milestone.
Apple’s shares reached an all-time high of $468.09 during the day, putting its value over the $2 trillion mark. It took the company many decades to reach $1 trillion for the first time back in August 2018, but only two years to double in value and hit $2 trillion.
Apple’s stock is up about 59% so far this year despite the global economic slowdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Consumers continued to buy more computers, phones, and services from Apple in the second quarter, bolstering Wall Street’s confidence in the Cupertino profit-making juggernaut led by CEO Tim Cook.
A few of Apple’s big tech rivals aren’t far behind. In midday trading, Amazon’s market cap reached almost $1.7 trillion and Microsoft exceeded $1.6 trillion.
Counting companies outside of the United States, Saudi Aramco went public last year and briefly traded at a stock market value over $2 trillion, the first time a public company hit the mark worldwide. Its share price has since declined about 10%, however.


fortune--2020-08-19--Slowed mail delivery is the last thing indie bookstores need right now

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The United States Postal Service is one of the few agencies that almost always receives bipartisan support among Democrats and Republicans. That’s because the independent agency of the executive branch is a service that touches every person in the country, every residence, and every business. And among the businesses at risk during the crisis happening at the USPS are independent bookstores.
Indie bookstores had already been hanging on by a thread for years, facing off (and often losing) against the emergence of big-box bookstores, which in turn have all but perished in the wake of Amazon. Nevertheless, with the support of local communities, many indie bookstores have held on, and others have emerged to cater to marginalized and underserved communities. The number of independent bookstores in the U.S. had actually been on the rise in the past few years, with 1,887 independent bookselling companies running 2,524 stores by the end of 2019, according to Statista.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ensuing economic shutdowns have been nothing but devastating for the vast majority of retailers. Although some bookstores around the country have been able to reopen, even to the point of allowing a few customers inside at a time in select areas, many of them are relying heavily on online requests with curbside pickup and delivery by mail to fulfill orders. But when Trump-backed postmaster general Louis DeJoy announced plans on July 24 that would slow mail delivery but save costs (without any further specifics as to how much), catastrophe loomed on all fronts, from the upcoming election to the survival of businesses already struggling to stay open through the pandemic.
Reparations Club is a bookstore, concept shop, and community space in Los Angeles. Courtesy of Cara Elise Taylor/Reparations Club
“We’re leaning on the Postal Service pretty hard to reach our old and new customers, and it’s been both a blessing and a challenge,” says Jazzi McGilbert, founder of Reparations Club, a bookstore, community space, and concept shop in Los Angeles.
Pre-pandemic, Reparations Club was very much a physical retail experience. “Before the pandemic, we were focused on building relationships with our local community here in Mid-City and South L.A.,” McGilbert explains. “Things were so word-of-mouth—we hadn’t launched an online shop—that shipping requests were rare.”
But in the months since, as Los Angeles has become a hotspot for the virus, and many businesses remain shuttered, the brick-and-mortar shop has been closed, and Reparations Club transitioned its business online for the first time since opening in 2019. The simultaneous events of the pandemic and the social demonstrations supporting Black Lives Matter this summer completely shifted the business, McGilbert says; now 99% of the store’s orders are delivered via USPS. The bookstore is shipping books daily, sometimes hand-delivering locally, and even inviting some regular customers to pick up books from her home directly, McGilbert notes.
But the Postal Service changes implemented at the end of July hit booksellers hard and fast. McGilbert says her store experienced many delays and lost packages, which in turn led to major customer service headaches. McGilbert made the best of the situation, making friends with the crew at her local post office and making adjustments according to their advice.
Jazzi McGilbert, founder of Reparations Club bookstore and community space in Los Angeles. Courtesy of Daniel Redwood/Reparations Club
“We’ve adjusted our workflow and expectations. That said, we’re hyperaware that many of our new customers are buying from Black-owned bookstores for the very first time. It’s important to us that we put our best foot forward always, and that’s been hard to reconcile with the shipping delays. Unfortunately, Black businesses carry a lot of undue burdens,” McGilbert says. “But by and large, our customers are pretty conscious shoppers—they know we’re not Amazon, and they know what’s up. Those customers have been overwhelmingly understanding of our explanations why we’ll continue to ship via USPS over private carriers.”
Media Mail delivery
Bookstores also benefit thanks to a special classification of mail that is more cost-effective for both booksellers and customers. With pricing starting at $2.80, Media Mail is a cost-effective way to send media and educational materials, such as books, printed music, manuscripts, DVDs, CDs, and more.
“The USPS is vital to our operations, from receiving books from our suppliers to being able to affordably mail orders to customers all over the country. There are even places, like prisons, that can only receive books via USPS,” says Pete Mulvihill, co-owner of San Francisco’s Green Apple Books.
Mulvihill, also a board member of the American Booksellers Association, says it’s been a roller coaster since the famous indie bookstore first closed on March 16. All sales moved online for several months. But Mulvihill says Green Apple saw a huge outpouring of support in March and April, and the store fulfilled orders almost exclusively via USPS Media Mail (and sometimes Priority Mail). “We did a little bit of local delivery ourselves, but it was hard to watch a package going a few miles across town go to Los Angeles for a few days before coming back. But our customers were patient,” Mulvihill says.
In mid-May, Green Apple Books reopened for curbside pickup, but a majority of the company’s sales were still mailed out, either from online or phone orders, almost all via USPS Media Mail. Even with browsing available and doors open 11 hours each day, approximately 20% of its sales are online (up from 1% pre-COVID). “Unlike Amazon, we can’t lose money for decades while growing market share, nor can we afford our own fleet of planes and vans and contractors, so USPS is crucial,” Mulvihill says.
“Shipments slowed down quite a bit throughout the USPS system in March and April for obvious reasons. Those obvious reasons should illustrate how important USPS’s role is in delivering essential goods. Things got better for a bit, then slowed again recently,” Mulvihill explains. “Even Priority Mail—which used to reliably get anywhere within two to three days—was sometimes taking a week. That frustrated our customers, led to more staff work, and doubtlessly cost us orders from folks who would rather get something from Amazon in two days than wait a week to support us.”
The temporarily closed Green Apple Books on Clement Street in the Richmond district of San Francisco on April 15, 2020. David Paul Morris via Getty Images
Orders fulfilled via USPS constitute a much larger percentage of the business than was the case prior to the pandemic for Jeff Mayersohn, who co-owns the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass., with his wife, Linda Seamonson. Lately their business has survived primarily on web-based sales and bulk purchases.
“If customers cannot count on us to deliver books in a timely fashion, we fear that they will seek alternatives,” says Mayersohn. “Since total business is down significantly, we cannot afford to lose additional revenue.”
Since the pandemic started, business has been down significantly. In April and May, the only revenue coming in was through Bookshop.org, a third-party service integrated with local bookseller websites for order fulfillments. In early June, the Harvard Book Store was able to start fulfilling its own web orders. Approximately half of the web-based orders are fulfilled through USPS and half via curbside pickup. On the positive side, web sales for the Harvard Book Store have been up between 500% and 700% over the past few months. In July, the Harvard Book Store reopened to walk-in customers with a limited capacity and reduced hours.
“Compounding the problem is that we use USPS’s Media Mail service as a cost-effective method for shipping books. Media Mail receives lower priority handling than First-Class or Priority Mail. We, therefore, would expect Media Mail to be disproportionately affected by disruptions in overall mail service,” Mayersohn explains. “If we had to seek an alternative to USPS Media Mail, our shipping costs would balloon to unacceptable levels. Thus, any disruptions to mail service would have the combined affect of reducing revenue and increasing costs, the combination of which would be catastrophic.”
“Some of the many complications of operating in a pandemic include the additional labor required for monitoring entry into the store, providing curbside pickup, continual sanitizing of the store, and responding to the increased volume of web traffic,” Mayersohn says. “Furthermore, the balance between making sure that we have enough inventory on hand to satisfy customer needs, while carefully watching cash outlays, though always a problem, is exacerbated, given the decline in overall sales.” Rick Friedman/Corbis via Getty Images
But on Tuesday, Aug. 19 came a sudden reversal, with DeJoy doubling back and suspending the cutbacks to the Postal Service until after the presidential election on Nov. 3 with the expressed intent to avoid the appearance of any impact on election mail. But it was not specified as to whether or not the postmaster general would roll back any of the changes already made to the Postal Service, including the removal of many sorting machines and mailboxes around the country. Those changes still stand to slow down the mail, including the delivery of Media Mail, as many packages of books and disc-based content are typically slim enough to be slipped into mailboxes quite easily with postage printed at home or at work.
“If [this week’s] news is any reassurance, perhaps the Trump administration’s apparent efforts to cripple the USPS have failed. But it still needs support, especially as a crucial election approaches with lots of ballots flowing through USPS,” Mulvihill says.
Mayersohn suggests it might be too soon to judge the effect of the USPS crisis on his own business. “The USPS has been such a reliable service for us that we’ve never had to track speed of delivery in the past,” he explains. “As a result, we don’t have a reliable basis for comparison. We are beginning to hear reports of delays, but this information is anecdotal right now. We will begin to track delivery times to monitor the situation. For the reasons stated above, we view the possibility of disruptions in mail service as an existential threat.”


fortune--2020-08-19--Casper’s CEO is filing for a blank check company. What does he plan to buy?

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Earlier this year Philip Krim took his bed-in-a-box mattress company, Casper, public. Now just six months later, Krim is seeking to take another business through the process via the summer’s new frosé: the blank check company.
On Tuesday, Tailwind Acquisition, a blank check company formed by Krim and venture capitalist Chris Hollod, filed to raise $300 million through an initial public offering. So-called blank check companies get their name because they are usually set up with the express purpose of acquiring a still-yet-to-be named company.
Tailwind plans to target a tech company with an enterprise value of between $750 million to $2 billion and a focus on “founder-led late stage growth equity opportunities in the high-growth technology and direct-to-consumer ecosystems,” according to the filing.
“COVID-19 has proven to be a catalyst for growth for our potential target universe, pulling forward digital consumer trends and adoption across several consumer categories,” the filing stated.
While Tailwind’s filing boasts of leveraging Krim’s expertise, himself having taken a digital consumer brand public, it’s worth noting that public market investors haven’t been ebullient about his current company, Casper. Shares of the company now trade 38% below their debut in February even as the S&P 500 climbs to new highs. Once valued at $1 billion in private markets, Casper valuation has slid to $338 million as a series of lackluster IPOs of unprofitable, consumer-facing tech companies (Lyft, Uber, and almost WeWork) injected a dose of skepticism into potential investors.
Krim, on his part, recently reiterated plans for Casper to become profitable on an EBITDA basis by 2021.
ON THE CLOCK: On Tuesday, President Donald Trump voiced support over the idea of Oracle taking over TikTok’s U.S. operations during a speech in Yuma, Ariz. Remember that Trump placed a sell deadline on TikTok’s parent company, Bytedance. Microsoft has been the frontrunner in the deal.
Notably, Oracle’s largest shareholder, Larry Ellison, is a known supporter of Trump and has hosted a fundraiser for the president. Trump has also previously said that the U.S. government should get a cut of TikTok’s U.S. operations, should a firm stateside acquire the social media company. Read more.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- SpaceX, Elon Musk’s space exploration company, raised $1.9 billion in new funding.
- Omio, a Berlin, Germany-based travel booking platform, raised $100 million in funding. Investors included Temasek, Kinnevik, Goldman Sachs Asset Management, NEA and Kleiner Perkins.
- Buildkite, a Melbourne-based platform for testing and building software projects, raised $28 million in funding. OpenView led the round.
- Hint, a San Francisco-based maker of flavored water, raised $25 million in Series D funding. Springboard Growth Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Philippe Laffont, Gingerbread Capital and Medina Heights Capital Partners.
- Carrot Fertility, a San Francisco-based fertility startup, raised $24 million in Series B funding. U.S. Venture Partners led the round and was joined by investors including F-Prime Capital, CRV, Precursor Ventures, Maven Ventures, and Uncork Capital. Read more.
- Xos Trucks, a Los Angeles-based manufacturer of electric commercial vehicles, raised $20 million in funding. Investors include Proeza Ventures and BUILD Capital Group.
- DayDayCook, a Hong Kong-based cooking site, raised $20 million in funding. Talis Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Ironfire Ventures. Read more.
- Fetch, an Austin, Tex.-based delivery startup focused on the last-mile problem in apartments, raised $18 million in Series B funding. Iron Gate Capital and Pando Ventures led the round and were joined by investors including Signal Peak Ventures, Silverton Partners, Seamless, and Venn Ventures.
- ImmPACT Bio USA, a Camarillo, Calif.-based company developing novel cell therapies for treating cancer, raised $18m in Series A funding. Investors included OrbiMed, Johnson & Johnson Innovation, Takeda Ventures, Inc., RM Global Partners BioPharma Investment Fund, Novartis Venture Fund, Bukwang Pharmaceutical, Hayan Health Networks, and JVC Investment Partners.
- Pachyderm, an open-source platform for data science, raised $16 million in Series B funding. M12 led the round and was joined by investors including Jon Sakoda of Decibel Ventures, Benchmark, and YCombinator.
- Datasembly, a Washington D.C.-based provider of product pricing, promotions, and availability data for retailers and CPG brands raised $10.3 million in Series A funding. Craft Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Valor Siren Ventures.
- Sendle, a small business shipping carrier, raised $13.7 million. Investors include King River Capital, Alberts Impact Capital, and Marinya Capital.
- Odeko, a New York-based supply and demand platform for coffee shops, merged with Cloosiv and raised $12 million in Series A funding. GGV Capital led the round and was joined by investors including First Round, Primary Venture Partners, Box Group, Addition Ventures, Two Sigma Ventures, Bar 9, Balius, i2bf, and Y Combinator.
- PadSplit, an Atlanta-based affordable housing marketplace, raised $10 million in Series A funding. Core Innovation Capital led the round and was joined by Alate Partners, Citi, Kapor Capital, Impact Engine, and Cox Enterprises.
- Moov Financial, a Cedar Falls, Iowa-based open source embedded banking platform, raised $5.5 million in seed funding. Bain Capital Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Canapi Ventures, Commerce Ventures, Gradient Ventures, RRE Ventures, and Uncorrelated Ventures.
- EasyKnock, a New York-based residential sale-leaseback company, raised $5 million in additional Series B funding from Viola FinTech.
- Persefoni, a Tempe, Ariz.-based software and data company focused sustainability, raised $3.5 million in Seed funding. Rice Investment Group led the round and was joined by investors including Carnrite Ventures.
- Two Front, an orthodontic service, raised $1.4 million in pre-seed funding. Investors included Tuesday Capital, Lakehouse Ventures, and Blackjays Investments.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- CIVC Partners invested in iVision, an Atlanta, Ga.-based managed services and technology consulting provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Veriforce, a portfolio company of Thoma Bravo and Greenridge Investment Partners, acquired ComplyWorks, a Calgary-based compliance management solution. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division and Everstone Group agreed to acquire a stake in Infostretch, a California-based provider of digital engineering services. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- FATHOM, backed by CORE Industrial Partners, acquired GPI Prototype & Manufacturing Service, a metal additive manufacturing services provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHERS
- Johnson & Johnson agreed to acquire Momenta Pharmaceuticals, which focuses on autoimmune disease treatments, for $6.5 billion in cash. Read more.
- Dufry (S:DUFN) agreed to buy the rest of Hudson Ltd (NYSE: HUD) duty free unit for roughly $311 million in cash. Read more.
- Take Two Interactive acquired Two Dots, a New York-based mobile gaming firm, for $192 million.
- Reliance Industries acquired a majority stake in Netmeds, an online pharmacy, for 6.2 billion rupees ($83 million). Read more.
- Tahoe Investment Group Co. is weighing a sale of its Alliance Healthcare Services, its U.S. health care unit, that could fetch $300 million to $400 million, per Bloomberg citing sources. Read more.
IPOS
- Harmony Biosciences Holdings, a Plymouth Meeting, Pa.-based maker of therapies for adult narcolepsy, raised $128 million in an offering of 5.3 million shares priced above range at $24. Investors include Valor Equity Partners and Fidelity. Read more.
- Foley Trasimene Acquisition II, a blank check company founded by Bill Foley, raised $1.3 billion. Read more.
- Inhibrx, a La Jolla, Calif.-based maker of cancer and rare diseases therapies, raised $119 million in an offering of 7 million shares priced at $17. RA Capital Funds and Viking Global back the firm. Evercore ISI, Barclays and Nomura Securities are underwriters. It plans to list on the Nasdaq as “INBX.” Read more.
EXIT
- Red Ventures is in talks to acquire CNET, the tech news site, from ViacomCBS, for a reported $500 million. Read more.
- Social Capital acquired Hustle, a San Francisco-based peer-to-peer texting startup. Hustles investors previously included GV. Read more.
F+FS
- Andros Capital Partners, a Houston-based investment firm, raised $250 million for its inaugural fund.


fortune--2020-08-19--WHO chief warns the world: Don’t fall prey to COVID ‘vaccine nationalism’

The story of the coronavirus pandemic has a central thesis: Competing interests and a seesaw between supply and demand have led to catastrophe.
That was true (and continues to be true) of COVID testing in the U.S. and other countries. It was true of a lack of protective equipment for frontline health care workers around the world as nations scrambled to secure as many materials as possible. Now, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), has a stark warning for the globe: Don’t let the same thing happen with a COVID vaccine.
“Supply nationalism exacerbated the pandemic and contributed to the total failure of the global supply chain,” he said in remarks to the press. “This is not charity. We have learned the hard way that the fastest way to end this pandemic and to reopen economies is to start by protecting the highest-risk populations everywhere, rather than the entire populations of just some countries.”
To put a finer point on it, he added: “We need to prevent vaccine nationalism.”
We need to prevent #COVID19 vaccine nationalism.
For this reason, @WHO is working with governments & the private sector through the ACT-Accelerator to ensure that new innovations are available to everyone, everywhere starting with those at highest risk.https://t.co/tWvILhopbB pic.twitter.com/MfVd9eUfX0 — Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 19, 2020
But whether or not nations will abide by that ideal is an open question. The United States and various other countries have already been scrambling to secure doses of various coronavirus vaccine candidates, well ahead of any actually gaining approval.
In July, the Trump administration pledged $2.1 billion to secure up to 600 million doses of Sanofi and British drug giant GlaxoSmithKline’s experimental coronavirus vaccine. In August, the U.S. struck another deal for 100 million doses of upstart biotech Moderna’s COVID vaccine candidate; 300 million doses of AstraZeneca and Oxford’s vaccine had been pledged to the U.S.
Doling these out to the masses will require some serious ethical considerations by pharmaceutical companies and national governments, as IDEA Pharma CEO Mike Rea writes for Fortune.
“While we’ve heard that pharma’s normal behavior has been suspended in pursuit of a vaccine for COVID-19, we have already seen rumblings of business as usual in the procurement and pricing of [Gilead’s coronavirus treatment] remdesivir,” he says. “Should the first person to be vaccinated for SARS-CoV-2 be the one with the most exclusive credit card, or the most influential government? Should they be among the most vulnerable or the most critical frontline workers?”
Tedros expressed similar sentiments during his press conference. And a major part of the consideration will be for the nations most in need, frontline health workers, and the highest-risk populations for contracting COVID—decisions that will be informed, in part, by a WHO panel.
“[O]nce a successful vaccine has been identified, WHO’s strategic advisory group will provide recommendations for their appropriate and fair use,” he says. “While there is a wish amongst leaders to protect their own people first, the response to this pandemic has to be collective.”
Whether the world will heed that call is a more complicated issue.


fortune--2020-08-19--Urinals and toilets may spread COVID-19, new research shows, adding fuel to the mask debate

Here’s one more thing to worry about: Flushing that toilet—or urinal—could spread COVID-19.
A study from Chinese researchers at Yangzhou University on Wednesday found that the flushing action from both toilets and urinals can release clouds of virus-teeming aerosols, making public restrooms a potentially risky place for transmission. The researchers’ advice: If you’re going to use a public restroom, wear a mask.
“Wearing a mask should be mandatory within public restrooms during the pandemic, and anti-diffusion improvements are urgently needed to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” the researchers warned.
Flushing a toilet or urinal has always posed some kind of hygiene risk, as the action creates an interaction between gas and air. In the paper, titled Virus Transmission from Urinals, published in the journal Physics of Fluids, the researchers found that a urinal was potentially even more risky. The research used a model to track aerosol particles released during flushing, and found that in a urinal, those particles could spread up to a typical man’s thigh level in about five and a half seconds, versus around half a minute for a flushing toilet.
As a result, flushing from urinals produces a “more violent climbing tendency,” the researchers said, adding it’s something they had noticed outside of their research.
This latest study builds on previous evidence that COVID-19 can spread through restrooms. As early as February, Chinese researchers flagged that the virus could spread through feces, and one of the virus routes of transmission could be via the “fecal-oral” route—a particular worry on cruise ships.
Queasiness aside, the research highlights just how difficult it is to track and understand the many sources of virus transmission—a struggle that is frustrating even the most diligent governments the world over, including New Zealand, which previously announced it had contained the virus.
And it appears to underscore a simple message to life in the COVID-19 era: If you must use a public toilet, bring your mask.


fortune--2020-08-19--It would cost $1 trillion to move global supply chains out of China—but the long-term gains could be

It would cost $1 trillion to move global supply chains out of China—but the long-term gains could be worth it

The coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on the supply chains of companies around the world—prompting firms in 80% of sectors globally to recalibrate their operations in some fashion, according to analysts at Bank of America Global Research.
Coupled with a worldwide trend away from globalization in recent years—one spurred by “populist antipathy toward free trade” and epitomized by the U.S.-China trade war—the pandemic has accelerated a shift toward the “re-shoring” of supply chains by companies around the globe, BofA analysts say.
But with emerging markets like China having entrenched themselves as pivotal to the global supply chain, it’s clear that re-shoring away from such markets is a costly proposition. In fact, BofA analysts have put a price tag on what it would cost for all foreign, non-Chinese firms to repatriate their manufacturing operations currently in China: $1 trillion over a five-year period. (To put that in context: The companies on Fortune’s Global 500 generated $33.3 trillion in revenue and $2.1 trillion in profit in 2019.)
Such expenditures (which would not include the shift of manufacturing intended for consumption within China) would be “significant, but not prohibitive” to companies’ bottom lines, according to BofA. While free cash flow margins and return on equity would take a hit in the near term, there would be positive “multiplier effects on the broader economy”—including new jobs and higher wages for domestic workers, greater spending on research and development, more tax revenues, and the development of new “industrial clusters” within developed countries.
The $1 trillion figure, the analysts note, does not include the higher operating costs that would be associated with doing business in more developed markets, which “could act as a drag on margins.” And industries with “structurally higher returns,” like tech and health care, would have an easier time absorbing the necessary expenditures than others with “more muted cash flows,” which would likely have to resort to external financing sources to fund their restructurings.
But companies would likely be able to count on help from policymakers—such as tax breaks, subsidies, low-cost loans—to “offset higher costs associated with re-shoring” in the interest of boosting their domestic economics.
The BofA analysts focus primarily on companies and countries outside of China, rather than on China itself. But they do note in passing that the impact on the world’s second-largest economy could be significant. Foreign-company exports, the BofA report estimates, represent 40% of all Chinese exports and about 7% of China’s GDP. China in recent years has made concerted efforts to focus its economy less on trade, and more on goods and services for domestic consumption.
A boon for ‘stakeholder capitalism’
BofA also identified another major reason behind this trend toward the “localization” of supply chains: the emergence of “stakeholder capitalism,” which has prompted companies to become more accountable to the needs not only of shareholders but consumers, employees, and regulators. The analysts note that three-quarters of industry sectors in North America and the Asia-Pacific region and two-thirds of those in Europe are bracing for “additional scrutiny around their supply chains from governments, corporate boards, and shareholders.”
That entails everything from an increased emphasis on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria by investors—as evidenced by the heightened scrutiny facing firms implicated in China’s treatment of its Uighur ethnic minority—to national security considerations that have played out during the U.S.-China trade war.
While these various stakeholders are approaching supply chain issues from “very different perspectives,” BofA analysts note that they are all arriving at a similar conclusion: that “portions of supply chains should relocate, preferably within national borders and failing that, to countries that are deemed allies.”
It is an accelerating, “tectonic” shift, they add—one representing a stark reversal of the status quo in recent decades—that huge swaths of the global economy will have to account for in the years to come.


fortune--2020-08-19--Don’t click that Zoom invitation!

Don’t click that Zoom invitation!

This is the web version of Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter on the top tech news. To get it delivered daily to your in-box, sign up here.
In June, Obinwanne Okeke, a Nigerian “entrepreneur” who appeared on the cover of the African edition of Forbes in 2016, pleaded guilty to charges of fraud.
Turned out Okeke’s company, Invictus Group, named after Nelson Mandela’s favorite poem, was a front. Between 2015 and 2019, the founder’s crew orchestrated a series of hacks and scams, including one campaign that swindled Unatrac Holding, a sales office of Caterpillar, the construction giant, out of $11 million.
Okeke was in the game of business email compromise. Step one—steal an executive’s email password through phishing. Step two—hijack the person’s email account. Step three—impersonate the victim and fool colleagues into processing fake invoices; a.k.a., profit.
Business email compromise is a big problem. The Federal Bureau of Investigation—yep, the same one that nabbed Okeke—received nearly 24,000 complaints from businesses that reported losing $1.7 billion to the scam last year. That’s half the total $3.5 billion lost to all Internet crime last year, as recorded by the FBI. (No doubt these are lowball figures, given they tally only what has been voluntarily reported.)
The pandemic may be worsening the situation. Payment and invoice fraud attacks increased 112% in the second quarter of the year, during the coronavirus’s wildfire spread, compared with the first quarter, according to a new report from Abnormal Security, a San Francisco-based email security startup that gave me an exclusive first look at the data.
That’s not all. Business email compromise attacks specifically increased 11% over the same period. While that uptick may seem small, it’s actually “significant and somewhat alarming,” the report’s authors point out. Since these attacks are typically highly targeted—involving research and tailor-made inducements, unlike automated, “spray-and-pray”-style spam campaigns—any increase means hackers are deliberately working overtime.
What’s all this got to do with COVID-19? Scammers are exploiting remote workers’ increased reliance on digital tools, says Evan Reiser, an ex-Twitter product manager who now heads Abnormal. Tellingly, the most impersonated brand in fraudulent emails last quarter was Zoom, the darling teleconferencing app of the pandemic, now a workplace staple. (American Express held the No. 1 spot prior.)
Previously, Zoom didn’t even crack the top 10 list.
***
Business email compromise, or some form of it, has gone on as long as the world has been wired up. As one Data Sheet reader— Jonathan Coopersmith, a history professor at Texas A&M University—recently pointed out to me, the tactic predates the Internet. Apparently, before Nigeria’s “Yahoo boys,” there was faxing fraud.
With permission from the author, here’s an excerpt from Coopersmith’s 2016 book, Faxed: The Rise and Fall of the Fax Machine.
Just as a fax proved more effective than a letter in convincing people to pay their bills and respond to surveys, so too did it benefit criminals and fraudsters. The best known example was the “classic Nigerian ‘fax scam,’ a form of fraud so ubiquitous and so successful that legitimate trade with African countries has begun to suffer.” A fax informed the lucky recipient he had a share of millions of dollars trapped in a Nigerian bank account – but a little money and personal bank account information were needed first. Another scam, migrating from telex, was sending an invoice to a firm for its listing in a non-existent fax directory. The assumption, often correct, was that the bookkeeping department would not check but simply pay because the amount was under $1000.
Okeke was no innovator.
Robert Hackett
Twitter: @rhhackett
robert.hackett@fortune.com
This edition of Data Sheet was curated by Aaron Pressman.
THREATS
Elon Mu-u-usk, how I've been missing you, you're the tech boss of my dreams. We can't do a new song parody every week, but if we did, today we would be spoofing Monty Python's brilliant "Henry Kissinger" song about Mr. Tesla, Elon Musk, who just vaulted past French billionaire Bernard Arnault to rank as the world's fourth-richest person. It's Musk's other company, SpaceX, that is having a busy news week. The company just lofted 58 more satellites for its Internet-from-space play, Starlink. SpaceX also disclosed in a filing that its latest round of private fundraising has brought in almost $2 billion.
We don't need no stinkin' bitcoins. As if COVID-19 wasn't bad enough for the travel industry, hackers continue to target the sector as well. Cruise operator Carnival was hit by a ransomware attack that also involved "unauthorized access to personal data of guests and employees," the company said in a filing on Monday. For a more detailed story of just how these ransomware attacks go down, Bloomberg has the tale of the million-dollar payout to regain access to critical data at the epidemiology and biostatistics department of the University of California at San Francisco.
Working for the clampdown. There may have been a human cost to the spying activities of Saudi Arabia at Twitter. Two former Twitter employees have been charged in the scheme and now prosecutors say stolen information was used to target, harass, and arrest government critics. Relating to more recent Twitter security troubles, an investigation by Wired uncovered a boom in the use of the technique known as "voice spear phishing" that hackers used to steal Twitter accounts last month.
I'll get right on that. The latest patch for Microsoft's Windows closed 120 security holes. One of them, with the memorable designation of CVE-2020-1464, related to getting around digital signatures used for validating programs and files. The only problem, according to security researcher Bernardo Quintero who discovered the exploit? It took Microsoft almost two years to make the fix, even as known malware programs exploited the weakness. The company declined to explain the delay.
I'll stop the world and melt with you. The clock is ticking on a deal for Chinese Internet company ByteDance to sell its TikTok app to an American company. Apparently, President Trump has a dog in the fight. Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison is a Trump backer who hosted a fundraiser for the president this year. Asked about Oracle's bid on Tuesday, Trump responded: "Oracle is a great company and I think its owner is a tremendous guy," adding, "I think that Oracle would be certainly somebody that could handle it."
Now you have to be careful who's listening when you unlock your door.
ACCESS GRANTED
The intelligence agencies of the world are ingenious gadget makers, even if James Bond's Q is a fictional creation. Former Apple engineer David Shayer this week shared the fascinating story of the day in 2005 when he first met two mysterious government men who needed an iPod customized for an unusual task.
They had added special hardware to the iPod, which generated data they wanted to record secretly. They were careful to make sure I never saw the hardware, and I never did.
We discussed the best way to hide the data they recorded. As a disk engineer, I suggested they make another partition on the disk to store their data. That way, even if someone plugged the modified iPod into a Mac or PC, iTunes would treat it as a normal iPod, and it would look like a normal iPod in the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer. They liked that, and a hidden partition it was.
FORTUNE RECON
Walmart’s e-commerce sales nearly double as shoppers go beyond groceries in online orders By Phil Wahba
Downtrodden GM stock gets a boost from electric-vehicle spinoff speculation By Aaron Pressman
Facebook and NYU researchers discover a way to speed up MRI scans By Jeremy Kahn
The year’s hottest e-commerce stock is up more than 1,500%. Its founder cashed out before the rally By Bernhard Warner
Exclusive: Ex–Glossier employees describe a company that failed to support Black workers—even as it donated $1 million to racial justice causes By Emma Hinchliffe
Why a year later, the Business Roundtable’s updated statement of purpose is more relevant than ever By Richard C. Shadyac Jr
What to do if you lost money on an event canceled because of COVID-19 By Rachel King
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access.Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
ONE MORE THING
Silicon Valley has a long tradition of unusual job titles, like Jerry Yang's "chief yahoo" and Parisa Tabriz's "security princess" at Google. But Bud Light Seltzer posted for a job opening with a unique title that could become a bit more popular: chief meme officer. Soon, they'll be testing us with "person, woman, man, camera, TV, chief meme officer," I guess.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com


fortune--2020-08-19--Airport COVID testing hubs and new travel corridors are part of a plan to revive U.S.-Europe air tra

Airport COVID testing hubs and new travel corridors are part of a plan to revive U.S.-Europe air travel

Germany’s main aviation industry group has proposed the creation of limited air-travel corridors between major U.S. and European hubs, in a bid to crack open the nearly shuttered market for trans-Atlantic flight.
The pilot project would link U.S. airports in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and New York City-adjacent Newark, N.J., with Frankfurt and Munich in Germany, along with other major European intercontinental hubs, executives at BDL, which represents Germany’s airports and airlines, said in an online press event Wednesday.
It would rely on COVID-19 testing, already in place in Boston and the German airports, which could quickly be installed elsewhere, according to the BDL executives, Matthias von Randow and Peter Gerber. Passengers willing to travel would have to produce a negative test for COVID-19 no older than 48 hours.
A coordinated set of measures to reopen trans-Atlantic flight would be a boon to major network carriers such as Deutsche Lufthansa AG, Air France-KLM and British Airways, as well as their U.S. countereparts, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines Group and United Airlines Holdings. All rely on lucrative North Atlantic routes for profit. The International Air Transport Association has warned that long-distance flying will take years to return to 2019 levels and has urged countries to unify travel rules to speed the comeback.
Constantly changing restrictions have held back the aviation recovery in Europe, while state-by-state outbreaks have limited U.S. domestic travel.
Europe’s busiest airport hub, London Heathrow, is working on a testing mechanism and industry executives are lobbying the British government to replace quarantines with virus tests as a means of screening arriving travelers from high-risk countries.
It wasn’t clear whether Heathrow or the other airports were involved with the German plan. The London hub had no immediate comment. The BDL executives said their plan had been proposed to aviation authorities in Europe and the U.S., and that they were awaiting feedback.
Air travel around the world has been devastated by the fallout from the pandemic, which raised health concerns over flying on the part of consumers and authorities. The mix of travel warnings, entry restrictions and quarantine regulations brought flights to all but a halt after the virus went global.
More recent flareups and changing restrictions are hampering the restart of travel as they make reliable trip-planning near impossible.
Traffic between Paris airports and North America was down 94% in July, according to hub-operator ADP’s monthly report.


fortune--2020-08-19--Target just had its best quarter ever thanks to pandemic bulk buying

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Target reported a monster quarter on Monday, as online sales nearly tripled thanks to the retailer’s array of same-day order delivery and retrieval services that gave pandemic-weary shoppers ways to pick up goods in parking lots and other alternatives to going to the store.
The retailer said comparable sales rose 24% in the quarter ended Aug. 1, by far the best performance in the 58-year-old company’s history, and twice the rate as the year’s first quarter. It helped that Target has been deemed an essential retailer by selling groceries and staples. But the company has also helped itself by investing in tech to integrate stores and e-commerce, helping online sales rise 195% in the quarter. Some 10 million Americans shopped on Target’s e-commerce site for the first time.
Target shares rose 7% in premarket trading, which would bring them to an all-time high.
But its 1,900 stores played in starring role in Target’s blockbuster quarter. Target in recent years has spent billions to equip stores to ship online orders or make it easier to have shoppers come and retrieve them.
The use of Target’s drive-up, in-store, or same-day Shipt services nearly quadrupled during the quarter, showing how crucial its stores are to its e-commerce as well. And they also help make e-commerce more profitable by reducing shipping costs. Target’s profit rose 81%.
Target, which has launched a panoply of popular new store brands in the past three years, also had success getting people to shop in its stores, where sales rose more than 10%. Target executives pointed to big gains in categories such as food, electronics, and home goods, items that typically foster in-store visits.
And in a worrisome development for apparel-heavy chains like Macy’s and Kohl’s, Target’s clothing sales rebounded strongly.
Target CEO Brian Cornell told reporters on a briefing he estimates the company won $5 billion in sales from other retailers in all categories since the pandemic started, a time that has seen 44 retailers file for bankruptcy protection and others like Macy’s close dozens of stores.
The company said electronics sales were up 70% as customers bought home-office items and video games. Home goods and beauty product sales rose more than 20%, while food, an area in which Target is finally finding its footing, growth was about 20%. Its Good & Gather grocery line has become a billion-dollar brand less than a year after its launch.
“In the current environment, each of our categories are performing very well,” Cornell said on the call. And unlike Walmart, which pointed to a marked slowdown in growth when government stimulus checks stopped, Target “continued to see strong growth,” Cornell said, with comparable sales in August up at least 10%.
Target total revenue reached $22.9 billion in the quarter, including $3.9 billion online, compared with $18.4 billion in the same quarter last year. Chains like Target and Walmart are benefiting from consumers’ growing tendency to consolidate shopping trips to stores where they can buy everything and minimize time in stores.
“Target has developed a proposition that is cohesive, which means its guests will happily shop multiple (product) categories, allowing Target to maximize its share of wallet,” Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, wrote in a research note.
Target’s flexibility has served it well so far in the pandemic, and the company will need to tap into that as uncertainty around consumer behavior is likely to continue into the new school year and the holiday season. Cornell said back-to-school sales, off to a slow start, were hard to get a handle on. He noted that some data suggest 66% of students are starting the school year remotely.
“Sitting here today, I don’t know if 30 days from now that number is going to be 6% or 96%,” he told reporters. “So we’ve got to be flexible, we’ve got to be adaptable.” Thus far, Target has been, explaining its record-setting success.


fortune--2020-08-19--Jill Biden would be the first U.S. First Lady to keep her day job

This is the web version of The Broadsheet, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! AOC takes the DNC, Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland steps into a new role, and Jill Biden would be the first U.S. First Lady to maintain her own career while her husband is in the White House. Have a wonderful Wednesday.
– First Lady with a day job? I have to say, I didn’t envy Jill Biden for having to follow Michelle Obama’s Monday night tour de force of a Democratic National Convention speech. But Biden delivered a heartfelt address, recalling her early days with Joe Biden after the car accident that killed his first wife and daughter (“How do you make a broken family whole?”) and reflecting the concerns many Americans are feeling amid the pandemic (“How do I keep my family safe?”).
She delivered the address from Brandywine High School in Wilmington, Delaware, standing in the very room where she used to teach in the ’90s. It was a fitting background—not just because the country’s empty schools are such a huge concern right now, but also because the classroom has played such a central role in Biden’s life.
Her commitment to teaching shines through in this Washington Post profile. The story paints a picture of a woman dedicated to her family and partnership with Joe Biden, but also to her career as an educator—something that clearly provoked a bit of wistful envy in Michelle Obama during Obama’s run as First Lady, as evidenced by a 2016 White House exit interview conducted by People: “Jill is always grading papers,” Obama said… “Which is funny because I’d forget, ‘Oh yeah, you have a day job!’ And then she pulls out her papers and she’s so diligent and I’m like, ‘Look at you! You have a job! Tell me! Tell me what it’s like!’”
This campaign is the first time Biden has taken a break from teaching since 1981 and the Post reports that she plans to return to her job as an English composition professor at Northern Virginia Community College even if her husband becomes President. It would be the first time a First Lady kept her day job, says Anita McBride, who runs the First Ladies Initiative at American University and was First Lady Laura Bush’s chief of staff. “This would be a precedent,” she tells the Post.
It’s not quite the first woman in the Oval Office. But it would be a huge step forward for the office of the First Lady (and someday, First Gentleman) if the occupant can pursue their chosen profession while also carrying out the duties bestowed on them by marriage. And if Joe Biden wins in November, it will be fascinating to watch how he and Jill function as the first First two-career Couple.
Kristen Bellstrom
kristen.bellstrom@fortune.com
@kayelbee
Today’s Broadsheet was curated by Emma Hinchliffe.
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Gone in 60 seconds. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D–N.Y.) also spoke at the DNC on Tuesday—if only for 60 seconds. She seconded the nomination of Sen. Bernie Sanders (D–Vt.) for President—a symbolic gesture required by the DNC for any candidate who secures enough delegates. She also used her time to call for systemic change, decrying "mass evictions, unemployment, and lack of health care." Vox
- Ministry hopping. Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland will no longer serve as intergovernmental affairs minister and instead will become Canada's finance minister, holding onto her position as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's No. 2. Freeland will be the first woman to serve in the role in Canada. CBC
- Unwanted pardon? President Trump announced yesterday, on the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, that he would pardon suffragist Susan B. Anthony, who was arrested in 1872 for voting, doing so in violation of laws that only allowed men to cast a ballot. Some say, however, that the pardon is counterproductive, as Anthony intended to defy the law with her actions. Guardian
- A serious matter for LOL. On the latest episode of Leadership Next, Fortune CEO Alan Murray talks to Land O'Lakes CEO Beth Ford. One of Ford's goals is to bring technology and connection to rural areas. "It’s not just a rural issue," she says. "It’s an American competitiveness issue. ... These are the people that are farming, that are feeding us. This isn’t somebody else’s problem; this is all of our problem.” Fortune
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Alyssa Harvey Dawson, head of legal, privacy, and data governance for Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs, joins Gusto as chief legal officer and general counsel. Dena Cook, EVP, head of global communications for Mattel, joins Reinvent Capital as partner and chief communications officer. Grove Collaborative hired MGM Resorts International chief experience and marketing officer Lili Tomovich as CMO.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Fertile ground. Fortune's Beth Kowitt has the exclusive on Carrot Fertility, the fertility benefits provider. The startup cofounded by CEO Tammy Sun closed a $24 million funding round, in what Beth reports is a sign that the fertility sector is "increasingly becoming part of mainstream health care." Fortune
- Keep swiping. Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam is having trouble using her credit card. In an interview discussing U.S. sanctions targeting Chinese officials in Hong Kong, she said, "we have to use some financial services and we don’t know whether that will relate back to an agency that has some American business—and the use of credit cards is sort of hampered." Fortune
- Retail wars. Kohl's sales fell 23% in its second quarter, but CEO Michelle Gass believes the retailer can outlast its struggling rivals in the industry to rebuild. "COVID has created a lot of devastation," Gass said, as reported by Fortune's Phil Wahba. "There is going to be market share opportunity that cuts across a lot of different types of retailers." Fortune
ON MY RADAR
The women making conspiracy theories beautiful The Atlantic
3 Ellen producers exit in the midst of workplace complaints Fortune
NBCUniversal vice chairman Ron Meyer steps down after revealing affair and secret settlement Fortune
PARTING WORDS
"I was primed to be a preserver."
-Shakirah Simley, who used to own the company Slow Jams, on making jam, the recent uproar over Sqirl, and white privilege


fortune--2020-08-19--Departure from convention—mom, baseball, the postal worker, and patriotism

This week’s new normal of a well-produced Democratic National Convention was a first—no hot-air balloons and random speakers but also no impromptu discourse. And this unprecedented change made me think about some of the other conventions Americans have abandoned, and the traditions we’ve let go of, during this tumultuous time.
This year, the move to remote presidential conventions matches the loss of many classic American staples. Baseball games (at least for fans), confetti, and the postal worker were put in jeopardy by COVID-19. Even apple pies have been recalled this year. With 41% of all 170,000-plus COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. having occurred in nursing homes, many people’s moms were tragically lost this year, as well.
Especially troubling: America’s beacon of freedom, the Statue of Liberty’s torch, has been dimmed through immigration restrictions that subvert the welcoming poem by Emma Lazarus at its base, which exhorts other lands to “give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
A century ago, my own mother was one of those frightened, excited new immigrants rejoicing to be in this country, as they looked to the promise of the Statue of Liberty. Five years ago, when, in her honor, I was inducted into the Ellis Island Honors Society, I imagined that 4-year-old little girl, having survived the murderous Cossack pogroms of the old country, patiently waiting in processing lines for a new life.
That life was lived and is over, as this Friday is her yahrzeit (the Yiddish word for the anniversary of a relative’s passing). Her death was its own tragedy, a function of the medical neglect of the elderly that has become all too common in our nation.
A proud patriot, during World War II she was one of the math whiz “computer girls” of Philadelphia who worked on the ENIAC—the first digital computer, which was used to help plot the parabolic trajectories of missiles. Paralyzed by painful, chronic rheumatoid arthritis, she avoided the prevailing therapies of painkillers and bed rest. Instead, her therapy was to serve as a health care planner, an environmental activist, and a community relations leader.
As a political party ward leader, she was not daunted on her virtuous missions, which, to me, seemed to be defined by failing candidates or losing causes. Through such civic service she gave back and renewed her health. She never got angry during her uphill battles against the odds at county commissioner meetings, admonishing supporters to respect the legitimacy of those with different points of view. Eventually, somehow, her own party gained control, but she never gloated. Instead she worried about creeping intolerance now within her own party.
As a child, I’d often join her at the polls and observe how she and her rival ward leader from the opposing party would joust politically, with good humor and care for each other and the community personally. When one of them had to leave for a rest break, they’d happily pass out each other’s literature and offer rides to each other’s elderly voters. That comity and tolerance seems to be vanishing, with that generation of Americans replaced with a generation driven by the anger of extremists.
As Republican former Ohio Gov. John Kasich said on CNN Monday night following his address at the convention, “We’re not talking enough to each other anymore. My party is my vehicle, not my master. I call the issues as I see them. First and foremost, as the Bible says, love your neighbor as you love yourself.”
Our loss of this month’s typical wild pageantry of in-person political conventions is emblematic of the loss of other vital American conventions and that Greatest Generation of loyal Americans. The French political scientist Alexis de Tocqueville celebrated America’s spirit in supporting shared community in his 1835 book Democracy in America. Let’s hope we can renew those lost American conventions through this coming electoral season, honoring our legacy and ensuring our nation’s future as a unified people.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld is senior associate dean for leadership studies and Lester Crown professor of leadership studies at the Yale School of Management.


fortune--2020-08-20--Huawei said the U.S. couldn’t ‘crush’ it. Trump is starving it instead

This is the web version of Eastworld, Fortune’s newsletter focused on business and technology in Asia. Subscribe here to get future editions in your inbox.
For the past two years, executives at Huawei Technologies, the Chinese telecommunications giant, have struck a defiant tone in the face of the Trump administration’s escalating campaign to bar the company from Western markets over national security concerns.
In a high-profile interview with the BBC in February 2019, Huawei founder and CEO Ren Zhengfei famously declared, “There is no way the U.S. can crush us.” When Fortune CEO Alan Murray and I met with Ren at Huawei’s sprawling Shenzhen campus last September, he told us his biggest fear was that “our next generation of leadership may be overwhelmed by the success of our company.”
And until recently that confidence seemed well placed. As this piece in the Associated Press points out, even as the U.S. blocked Huawei’s access to American components and Google’s smartphone services, Huawei ramped up sales in its vast home market, pushed into Europe, Asia and Africa, launched development of its own operating system and unveiled its own design for high-speed chipsets. The result? Huawei widened its lead as the world’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications gear and overtook Samsung and Apple to become the world’s No. 1 smartphone brand. Sales last year soared 19% to a record $123 billion.
But now Trump’s assault on the company appears to be taking a toll.
One clear sign of distress came at an industry event in Shenzhen last Friday, when Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s consumer business group, acknowledged Huawei has “no chip supply” because U.S. sanctions announced in May will prevent the company from purchasing advanced Kirin processing chips to power its flagship smartphones. Huawei designed the chips, but it relies on Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, a world leader in chip manufacturing, to produce them.
The May rules ban any firm, American or not, from using American software or chipmaking equipment to create custom-made processors for Huawei. TSMC, like many chip makers, makes extensive use of a small number of American technologies.
On Monday, the Commerce Department announced even more sweeping restrictions that prohibit any firm from selling any chips to Huawei, whether custom-designed or not, if they were produced with American technology. This latest measure appears to apply to everyone in the global chip industry.
The consensus among Western analysts is that these last two rounds of U.S. sanctions pose a serious threat to Huawei and might even derail—at least temporarily—China’s plan to roll out the world’s largest telecommunications network using high-speed fifth-generation mobile technology.
“The U.S. government has passed a death sentence on Huawei,” said Dan Wang, an analyst at Gavekal Research. “Huawei is probably finished as a maker of 5G network equipment and smartphones once inventories run out early next year.”
Industry analysts Paul Budde says Huawei is “losing market share quite dramatically outside China,” and the company’s international position “is most likely going to get worse rather than better.”
The Nikkei Asian Review reports that Huawei and China’s second-largest telecom equipment manufacturer, ZTE, have slowed shipments of 5G base stations in China to give them time to redesign products and change equipment to eliminate as much U.S. content as possible.
The Economist weighs Huawei’s options here. They aren’t great. China’s domestic chipmakers, though much improved, are years behind their U.S. and Taiwanese competitors—and may not want to risk running afoul of U.S. sanctions themselves.
And in this equation, the key variables are political. Beijing could retaliate by imposing reciprocal sanctions on Apple. Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chipmaker, is lobbying the Trump administration to allow it to sell to Huawei. Chinese President Xi Jinping might strike a deal with Trump to speed up purchases of U.S. agricultural products ahead of the election in exchange for loosened restrictions on Huawei. Or perhaps Xi will just sit tight, in the hope of a more amicable discussion of Huawei’s predicament with Joe Biden.
This week’s Eastworld Spotlight conversation is with Huawei chief technology officer Paul Scanlan. It was conducted last week before the Commerce Department’s latest round of restrictions on Huawei. Paul, an Australian, makes the case for U.S. and Chinese collaboration on 5G.
More Eastworld news below.
Clay Chandler
clay.chandler@fortune.com
This edition of Eastworld was curated and produced by Grady McGregor. Reach him at grady.mcgregor@fortune.com.
Eastworld news
Ivy intrigue
Elite American universities are considering putting warning labels on classes, creating anonymous discussion groups, and even allowing certain students to refrain from discussion in order to avoid fallout from teaching sensitive topics related to Chinese politics. The new measures are being discussed at schools like Princeton, Harvard, and Amherst, and are meant to help students freely discuss their opinions on controversial subjects like Xinjiang, Tibet, and the Hong Kong protests. The measures reflect the complications in holding sensitive, China-related discussion in an age of easily-recorded Zoom classes and a Hong Kong national security law that applies to speech made anywhere on the planet. Wall Street Journal
Three demands, and maybe more
Thousands of Thai citizens are continuing to take to the streets in the country’s largest anti-government protests in years. The movement rose this spring in response to the government dissolving a popular opposition party and has grown stronger amid backlash to perceived failures of the government in responding to COVID-19. It has ultimately coalesced around three demands: dissolve parliament, stop intimidating government critics, and create a new constitution. Some have even called for monarchy reform, an act unthinkable just months ago in a country where those who defame the king can be sentenced to prison. CNN
Failure to report
After the country’s experience with SARS in 2003, the China Center for Disease Control (China CDC) built a world class reporting system meant to detect emerging viral outbreaks. The China CDC, however, failed to detect and contain the COVID-19 pandemic in the critical early stages of the Wuhan outbreak. According to a new Wall Street Journal investigation, China CDC’s response was plagued by several factors: a failure of hospitals to report cases, cover-ups from both local and national authorities, and financial and personnel problems at China CDC itself, which were exacerbated by the U.S. withdrawing support from the agency in 2018. Wall Street Journal
Red, white, and TikTok
Major U.S. companies like Microsoft and Oracle are in a mad scramble to purchase the video streaming platform TikTok from its Chinese owner, Bytedance, before the Trump administration’s TikTok ban goes into full effect on September 15. Yet Bytedance might not be as Chinese as it appears. The company was once a darling of Silicon Valley's private equity crowd, and attracted sizeable and timely cash injections from firms like Sequoia, KKR, and Susquehanna International Group. These firms now have a "large" stake in Bytedance, says The Wire China, meaning that money from a potential TikTok sale may go straight into the pockets of other American firms.The Wire China
A dangerous jade trade
Hpakant, Myanmar, a small town in the country’s northwest Kachin state, is the jade capital of the world, holding the globe's largest reserves of the valuable stone. Myanmar says that it exports roughly $780 million of jade per year, but the real figure is likely closer to $30 billion when accounting for black market jade, which is largely sent to China. On July 2, disaster struck Hpakant, and a landslide killed roughly 200 people in Myanmar’s largest-ever mining disaster. Yet, as the South China Morning Post reports, the incident marks only the tip of the iceberg as to how the region’s largely illicit jade trade continues to put thousands of miners at risk. South China Morning Post
On-again, off-again
The U.S. and China have agreed to meet and review progress of the January phase I trade deal, according to the Chinese commerce ministry. The talks were originally scheduled for last Saturday but were postponed due to President Trump's frustration with China. "I don't want to deal with them now," he said on Tuesday. His apparent reversal, however, will provide a rare opportunity for the two sides to come together even as overall relations between the two powers continues to deteriorate. China has ramped up the imports of some U.S. goods in recent weeks, but remains behind schedule in its purchase commitments for agricultural goods, energy products, and other U.S. imports, according to the trade deal tracker from the Peterson Institute for International Economics. CNBC
Coronavirus by country
Pakistan
Pakistan has recorded over 290,000 cases of COVID-19 and over 6,000 deaths, making it one of the hardest-hit Asian nations. But Pakistan's struggles could put it close to the front of the line for a vaccine. This week, Pakistan brokered a deal with Chinese state-owned vaccine maker, Sinopharm, to conduct vaccine trials of Sinopharm’s vaccine. In exchange, Pakistan will receive early access to millions of doses if the trials prove successful. Late stage vaccine trials are more revealing in areas with higher caseloads, as researchers compare infection rates among those inoculated with a vaccine versus those given a placebo. In recent weeks, COVID-19 numbers have been falling in Pakistan, but officials say there are enough hot spots in the country to conduct effective trials. Wall Street Journal
Markets and movers
Ant Group – Alibaba founder Jack Ma now controls roughly half of the shares in the Alibaba affiliate Ant Group. Ma plans to reduce his stake in Ant Group to under 10% before the company’s upcoming landmark IPO, according to a recent Alibaba filing. Nikkei Asian Review
Softbank – The Japanese conglomerate has built stakes in American tech firms like Netflix, Apple, and Google, including a roughly $1.2 billion holding in Amazon, according to a recent filing. Softbank also disclosed a stake in the Chinese video streaming site iQiYi, which U.S. regulators are currently investigating for fraud. Reuters
Pinduoduo – The Chinese e-commerce giant tried to sell discounted Tesla cars on its platform, but Tesla refused to send them. The incident marked a clash between Pinduoduo’s strategy to subsidize goods sold on its platform and Tesla’s refusal to allow third-party resales of its vehicles. Financial Times
Reliance Jio – The Indian conglomerate has launched Jio Pay, a mobile payments service, for roughly 1,000 JioPhone users in India. The trial comes as Jio is reportedly preparing to roll out the service to a wider audience “very soon.” BGR India
Final figure
$4.7 trillion
A new round of flooding is bearing down on southern China and placing pressure on China’s Three Gorges Dam for the second time this summer. Yet these devastating floods may only be a harbinger of more extreme weather events in coming years as climate change increases the potential for more heat waves, severe flooding, droughts, and other weather related disasters. In a new report from McKinsey, the global consultancy says that by 2050 climate change will be a $2.8 trillion to $4.7 trillion risk to Asia’s annual economic output. McKinsey says that Asia, in particular, will be vulnerable to lethal heatwaves and will to home to a “substantial majority” of the world’s population in hot and humid climates. McKinsey


fortune--2020-08-20--Europe is at a turning point as COVID cases spike, and fragile governments feel the heat

French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out bringing the nation to a halt and Spain’s government appeared rudderless as Europe struggles with a resurgence of the coronavirus that threatens its tentative recovery.
France on Wednesday reported 3,776 new infections, the largest daily increase in three months, while Spain—which has re-emerged as an epicenter of the pandemic on the continent—recorded 3,715 new cases, the most since April 23. German infections increased by more than 1,000 for a third straight day on Thursday, and Austria reported the highest daily increase since April 4.
Recent spikes in Spain, France and Germany are forcing countries to reevaluate lockdown measures
Europe’s economies were decimated by the crisis in the second quarter and governments are desperate to foster a swift recovery without triggering a broad new wave of the disease. The uptick in cases in recent weeks has been blamed on social gatherings and travelers, but officials are reluctant to resort to the strict lockdowns imposed during the initial peak of the pandemic in March and April.
“We cannot shut down the country, because the collateral damage of confinement is considerable,” Macron, who hosts German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks later on Thursday, said in an interview with Paris Match magazine.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, meanwhile, is on vacation with his family and hasn’t come out to address the public even as bad news piles up.
Governments across Europe are tightening restrictions to combat the spread. In France, masks must now be worn in busy outdoor areas of Paris and Marseilles. Toulouse will require general mask-wearing starting Aug. 21, Agence France-Presse reported, the first large French city to do so.
The country’s response must be to “speed up vaccines, guarantee their access, and provide the best health response given what we know,” Macron told Paris Match, adding that, if necessary, authorities should resort to local “targeted” lockdowns. Testing, tracing, isolating the infected and broadening the wearing of masks when necessary are also key, he said.
With Spain’s tourism industry reeling and the economy on its knees, some voters are on edge and any perceived political indifference could hurt the weak minority government that relies on separatists to stay in power.
Widely Panned
Sanchez’s handling of the pandemic has been widely panned while Italy, which served as model for Spain in being the first to head into lockdown, appears to have a better handle on the crisis. Both countries are in deep recessions and had to try to balance the need to keep people safe with the desire to try and capitalize on a lucrative summer season.
Italy has also seen a pick up in new cases, albeit more contained than elsewhere. On Wednesday, the country reported 642 new infections, the biggest increase since May 23.
The government has closed nightclubs, banned dancing in public venues and made face masks compulsory from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. in all places, including streets and squares, where crowds can gather.
Recent outbreaks have been traced back to parties in seaside resorts such as Porto Rotondo in Sardinia, as well as to people returning from vacations abroad.
The government could even move to isolate Sardinia, one of the country’s busiest summer vacation regions, after a rise in coronavirus cases linked to the island, Corriere della Sera reported Thursday, citing unnamed ministry officials.
Austria’s Dark Number
Austria said its recent spike can be traced back to holiday returnees from Croatia, Kosovo, Serbia and other parts of the western Balkans, as well as from Turkey. Norway added Austria, along with the U.K., Ireland, and Greece, to the list of high-risk destinations on Wednesday, shortly after Austria expanded its own list to include the Spanish Balearic Islands.
As many as 300,000 Austrians—12 times the official figure—may have been infected with the virus, a much higher factor for the so-called dark number than previously thought, the head of Austrian health agency AGES said in an television interview late Wednesday.
In the latest clampdown on travel within the region. the U.K. is expected to remove Croatia from its quarantine exemption list as soon as Thursday, the Guardian reported, without saying where it obtained the information. If the country is taken off the list, it would mean people arriving in the U.K. from Croatia will have to quarantine for 14 days.
In Sweden, the government’s decision to adopt a light-touch strategy to tackle the pandemic pushed its death toll per capita many times higher than in the rest of the Nordic region.
However, the situation improved dramatically in July. The pace of infections in the country is now converging with those of neighboring Denmark and Norway, where governments are telling citizens to use face masks for the first time.