fortune--2020-10-21--How Clorox’s new CEO plans to turn disinfectant wipes into future wins

On Clorox’s most recent quarterly investor conference call in August, incoming CEO Linda Rendle and her C-suite colleagues had mostly upbeat news to share. But they also referenced the company’s ongoing struggles to supply the market with enough of its namesake disinfectant wipes—mentioning it not just once, but no fewer than 20 times.
It’s fair to say that rushing to replenish stores with the wipes, which have been flying off shelves in the U.S. since February when the COVID-19 outbreak started, is a Clorox obsession these days. And the company has indeed mobilized resources, lining up 10 additional suppliers so as not to miss out on a sales bonanza that could last for months longer. But the scramble has also forced Clorox to figure out how to take advantage of the crisis to more quickly implement its multiyear road map, one the company drafted well before anyone had heard of the novel coronavirus.
That’s one of the great challenges facing Rendle, who officially took the reins last month. “Where do we go from here, and how do we leverage what is an opportunity to serve so many people around the world, not just with our disinfecting products but with our broad portfolio?” Rendle asks rhetorically in a conversation with Fortune.
Clorox CEO Linda Rendle The Clorox Company
Rendle, 42, started at Clorox in 2003 after a couple of years at rival Procter & Gamble, making her way up in the ranks before more recently overseeing Clorox’s foundational cleaning business. In 2019, to see whether the rising star was CEO material and could formulate a major corporate strategy, Clorox’s board and then-CEO Benno Dorer tasked Rendle with coming up with the company’s next multiyear growth plan. That effort led to Rendle drafting her “Ignite” road map, unveiled a year ago, as a follow-up to Clorox’s seven-year “2020 Strategy” plan, which ended last year.
The goal of Ignite is to generate 2%-4% in annual revenue growth for the next few years, a touch above what Clorox had managed under its previous plan, and no easy feat in an industry where products quickly become commoditized and lose pricing power. That would mean introducing more new products, as well as updating existing ones and deepening Clorox’s reach in new categories. It will also mean increasing profitability, all while redoubling the green efforts that have made Clorox a darling of investors focused on environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) measures of performance.
Rendle’s Ignite plan dazzled the Clorox board and ultimately got the Harvard- and Stanford-educated executive named president earlier this year, setting her up to succeed her mentor, Dorer, who now serves as executive chairman. (Rendle’s ascent also earned her a spot on this year’s “Ones to Watch” list for Fortune’s Most Powerful Women in business.)
Before the pandemic struck, Clorox was struggling with anemic sales growth. Some businesses like its vitamins division were hurt by supplier issues, and Clorox was punished by retailers last winter for raising the prices on its Glad trash bags, losing shelf space in the process.
But the COVID crisis has sent Clorox company revenue through the roof, with consumers bulk-buying and hoarding any cleaning products they can find. The boon to Clorox’s business has persisted: Overall sales rose 22% year over year in the company’s fourth quarter. And for the fiscal year ended June 30, Clorox revenue hit $6.7 billion, up 8% from 2019, the company’s best annual gain in more than a decade. The company remains tiny compared to P&G, whose sales topped $70 billion. But Clorox’s shares are up 42% so far in 2020.
It’s not just wipes or disinfectants driving the growth, either. More people cooking at home has bolstered Clorox’s recently struggling Kingsford charcoal brand. A surge in pet adoptions is helping its cat litter business. And people are more concerned about germs in public places as well as at home. Now the challenge is how to leverage all this interest in Clorox’s products to maintain momentum, something that will hinge on continuing to come up with new products.
“Innovation is the lifeblood of this company,” Dorer said in an interview this summer.
Innovate or stagnate
If you’re looking for an example of Clorox’s long-standing culture of innovation, look no further than the wipes currently selling like hotcakes. The wipes came to market in 2000 when the company was trying to figure out how to give users an easier way to apply disinfectant. Fast-forward to now, and the wipes anchor Clorox’s cleaning business, a source of nearly a third of company revenue and its biggest unit.
Clorox needs innovation to keep up in a cutthroat category. Consumer packaged goods (CPG) makers like P&G, Unilever, Lysol-maker Reckitt Benckiser, and Kimberly-Clark are engaged in an arms race with the company. On Tuesday, P&G reported its biggest quarterly sales gain in 15 years, while Reckitt posted record growth. What’s more, retailers like Target and Walmart are ramping up their store brands. The product lines in the CPG category are all hotly competitive, and profit margins, already low, shrivel quickly once a brand grows stale. So Clorox’s innovation has to go well beyond a few tweaks here and there.
“The CPG universe is looking at a lot of uphill,” says David Marcotte, a senior vice president at Kantar Retail IQ. “You’ve got to be able to come to the table with something more compelling than a line extension.”
Not every innovation has to be revolutionary. Clorox managed to reinvigorate its grilling business with relatively simple changes, including introducing wood pellets for grills and offering charcoal that lights faster. Its Glad garbage bags business has gotten a boost from the addition of chemical components that give the bags a fragrance; the company also made the bags stronger by incorporating new resins that are environmentally friendly.
“Those things matter to consumers,” says Rendle, who notes that it’s important to do what she calls “small-i innovation” as well as “big-I innovation.” “If you’re too focused on just the big innovation, your core [product line] over time is not as relevant to consumers,” she adds.
And that has been Clorox’s ethos for a long time. Earlier in its history, Clorox turned its Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing, a brand it bought in the 1970s, from a mail-order product into a $600 million brand through tactical moves such as adding snacks. A more recent product update: Its Burt’s Bees personal-care division will be adding cannabidiol (CBD) to some products this fall. Brand-new products now typically take only 14 months to get from original idea to market at Clorox, compared to 24 months previously.
Innovation adds about three percentage points to Clorox’s revenue increase every year, Dorer says, meaning that without it, Clorox sales would be stagnant. And to bolster an inventive culture, Clorox holds periodic innovation “hackathons.” Dorer ascribes this to the Bay Area’s tech-driven culture seeping into Clorox’s; the company is headquartered in Oakland.
Rendle says innovation isn’t just at the product level: It can take the form of faster processes, simplifying product assortment to speed up production of bestsellers, or squeezing out production and distribution efficiencies to boost margins—something all CPG companies are chasing.
“The truth is the business has had to become more efficient during this crisis,” says Geoff Freeman of Consumer Brands Association, a trade group, of Clorox and its peers.
Beyond new products and line extensions, Clorox is betting it can get a lot more mileage out of its existing lineup.
Exhibit A: disinfecting products. One area wide open with new opportunity is the professional market, including offices, hotels, hospitals, and anywhere outside the home. That segment makes up only 7% of company sales at present, and Kimberly-Clark is strong there, but analysts see plenty of upside for Clorox. Earlier this year, Clorox signed deals with United Airlines, Uber, and AMC movie theaters to provide Clorox-branded items to those companies. The deals help the company capitalize on people’s aversion to germs and the high name recognition the pandemic has given its products, including its namesake wipes and other lines in its arsenal like Pine-Sol and 409.
“As consumers reenter public spaces, they want to be reassured that their space is as clean as when they left home,” says Rendle. “And a lot of commercial cleaning brands are not known to consumers.” That thought, of course, brings her back to a more immediate preoccupation. “The only limiting factor right now is supply,” she says.
A healthy company
CPG companies like Clorox and P&G are “portfolio companies” that own often strange collections of disparate products. P&G is home to Tide detergent, Tampax tampons, and Vicks cough drops. Clorox, which started life in 1913, can also be seen as a hodgepodge: Its roster includes Liquid-Plumr, Brita water filters, and Fresh Step kitty litter.
About 14 years ago, a newer focus for Clorox began to emerge: health-focused products. The new emphasis started with Burt’s Bees natural personal-care products and continued in 2010 when Clorox dropped lines like STP motor oil. Since then it has added a number of more obviously health-oriented products, including vitamins and probiotics, most notably with the $700 million acquisition two years ago of Nutranext, a brand of dietary supplements.
“We are a health and wellness company at heart,” says Dorer. “Wellness is the foundation of the company, helping people keep their home safe.” But it’s also a hot area and one in which Clorox can compete well.
Clorox’s secret sauce when building new businesses has been to avoid taking on bigger rivals like P&G head-on. Instead the company goes into specific areas where it can be a market leader and aims to build a nice business without having to do a big turnaround job on a faltering brand.
“What makes them unique is they’re going into product and categories where they can be No. 1 or No. 2, and they back that up with innovation,” says Lori Keith, a portfolio manager at Parnassus Investments whose midcap fund holds $100 million worth of Clorox shares and focuses on ESG investments. “They’ve picked their spots wisely.”
Clorox entered the vitamins and nutritional supplements via acquisitions, and it plans to keep building the business. But Rendle says that on her watch, Clorox will maintain its long-held policy of not doing mergers and acquisitions for the wrong reasons, only to find itself saddled with failing businesses that drain resources. It helps that M&A is not factored into Clorox executives’ compensation.
“We do space-driven M&A, not banker-driven M&A,” explains Dorer. For Clorox executives, that means focusing on new areas, becoming experts on their own, and not having investment banks push ill-advised deals in categories too far afield. M&A is the “cherry on the top” of a successful company, Dorer says.
For now, Rendle has her plate full, what with supplying an insatiable market with Clorox wipes in the immediate term, but also living up to the goals she set forth in the Ignite plan.
“The mistake a lot of companies make is they don’t know themselves well enough,” she says. Clorox, she adds, is good at building brands, making supply chains more efficient, and finding ways to get more uses out of existing products. “The secret sauce in all this is always being really focused on your core,” says Rendle.


fortune--2020-10-21--Trump campaign playing fundraising catch-up after burning through cash in September

The polls are wrong .
The U.S. presidential race is a near dead heat , this A.I .
‘ sentiment @ @ @ @

President Donald Trump’s campaign burned through almost half of its cash in September, as his re-election effort cut back on advertising in some key battleground states and he lags in the polls behind his much better-funded Democratic adversary, Joe Biden.
The latest filing with the Federal Election Commission showed that Trump entered the final 34 days of the presidential election with $63.1 million in the bank, down from $121.1 million at the end of August, when his campaign began to scale back some television spending and even abandoned advertising in the key states of Pennsylvania and Michigan for a period.
Trump’s campaign committee raised $83.1 million in September while spending $139.3 million, the filings showed.
The campaign announced Thursday that his broader re-election effort, which includes the Republican National Committee and two joint fundraising committees, raised $247.8 million in September, but much of that money was earmarked for the RNC and state parties.
The September haul further puts Trump at a disadvantage with Biden and the Democratic National Committee, which raised $383 million in the month and say they have $432 million in the bank. The campaign and the DNC raised $748 million in August and September alone, about $290 million more than Trump over the same period. Biden’s campaign is to report its financial information to the FEC Tuesday.
Trump is being forced to play catch-up in fundraising at the same time he remains consistently behind Biden in national surveys. The president is now down 8.6 percentage points down in the RealClearPolitics polling average and behind, but by narrower margins, in key battleground states just two weeks before Election Day.
Small-dollar donors, those giving less than $200, provided 26% of the $68.4 million donated directly to the Trump campaign, though the president also raises money from them through the Trump Make America Great Again Committee.
In July, the last month that Trump out-raised Biden, the $36.5 million that the committee transferred accounted for about half the campaign’s total receipts. But over the quarter, as the costs of raising money from grassroots donors increased, the amount of the transfers fell to $9.2 million in September. Overall in the third quarter, the committee spent $181 million to raise $235.7 million, or 77 cents for each dollar raised.
The high fundraising costs, which mostly went to digital advertising and acquiring lists of online contact information for potential donors, starved the campaign of needed cash. Under Federal Communications Commission rules, candidates get the lowest available rate for television ads within 60 days of an election. Biden’s campaign has booked $162 million in television ad time from Oct. 1 through the election, according to Advertising Analytics, while Trump has booked $79 million.
The Trump campaign didn’t respond to questions about the high rate of spending compared to fundraising for the small-donor group.
The Republican National Committee, which is helping with Trump’s voter mobilization efforts, raised $71.8 million in September, spent $108.6 million and ended September with $78.1 million cash on hand, its FEC filing shows.


fortune--2020-10-21--Here’s what could happen to your portfolio in the case of a ‘no deal’ on fiscal stimulus

This is the web version of the Bull Sheet, Fortune’s no-BS daily newsletter on the markets. Sign up to receive it in your inbox here.
Good morning. The so-called deadline for a stimulus accord came and went yesterday with no deal, and yet Nancy Pelosi remains “optimistic.” That assessment, as thin as it was, was enough to give the markets a meager boost on Tuesday. That enthusiasm is fading fast. U.S. futures are down this morning.
Let’s see what’s moving the markets.
Markets update
Asia
The major Asia indexes are mostly higher in afternoon trading with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng the best of the bunch, up 0.75% .
are mostly higher in afternoon trading with the best of the bunch, up . Some 60,000 people in China have now taken an experimental COVID vaccine , and so far none have reported any adverse side effects. The country is allowing citizens to take the drug even though it’s still in the trial phase.
have now taken an experimental , and so far none have reported any adverse side effects. The country is allowing citizens to take the drug even though it’s still in the trial phase. Impossible Foods yesterday began selling its plant-based meat in Hong Kong and Singapore, its first major markets outside of North America.
Europe
The European bourses were a touch higher out of the gates, before falling. The Europe Stoxx 600 was down 1.2% two hours into the trading session.
were a touch higher out of the gates, before falling. The was down two hours into the trading session. The ECB signaled it may be readying further monetary stimulus to keep the eurozone economy from sinking as COVID cases spike across the continent, presenting, in the words of Christine Lagarde , “a clear risk.”
signaled it may be readying further monetary stimulus to keep the from sinking as COVID cases spike across the continent, presenting, in the words of , “a clear risk.” What’s a social bond, and, more importantly, who’s selling them? They’re joint securities to help finance the EU’s various COVID-related jobs-aid programs, and investors are snatching them up at a record clip.
U.S.
In choppy trade, U.S. futures point to a weak open as volatility once again dominates the markets. The Dow at one point was up more than 300 points yesterday before shedding much of that in afternoon trade. Such has been this rollercoaster stimulus trade .
point to a weak open as volatility once again dominates the markets. The at one point was up more than 300 points yesterday before shedding much of that in afternoon trade. Such has been this rollercoaster . Shares in Netflix are off more than 5% in pre-market trading after the streaming giant missed on subscribers, and offered a tepid outlook.
in pre-market trading after the streaming giant missed on subscribers, and offered a tepid outlook. Google shares closed 1.4% higher yesterday as investors shrugged off a landmark antitrust lawsuit against the search behemoth launched by the DOJ and 11 state attorneys general. Meanwhile, over on Bing yesterday the top search term was…”Google.”
Elsewhere
Gold is up, trading in a tight range around $1,920/ounce .
is up, trading in a tight range around . The dollar is down.
is down. Crude is down again, with Brent trading around $42.70/barrel.
***
The big “What if”
Most everyone in Washington would agree that some form of fiscal spending is urgently needed to help unemployed Americans and cash-strapped cities and municipalities. And yet here we are again stuck inside a Groundhog Day loop where deadlines come and go, and we slide back to the starting point where we’re presented with, yep, a brand new deadline. The next one is “by the weekend.”
Bull Sheet has gone on the record more than once calculating the odds of a deal before Election Day at no greater than zero. But there are plenty of investors who refuse to give up hope. And as long as there’s hope, we’ll continue to look at what it means for the economy and for the markets.
Most economists agree that, at the very least, a top-up on unemployment benefits is crucial. Without it, the recession risks soar. A reminder: more than 25 million Americans are living off unemployment benefits right now. Without it, American families are facing a historic fiscal cliff.
The markets’ fortunes too are tied to more stimulus. Dan Ives, managing director of equity research and analyst at Wedbush Securities, told Fortune‘s Anne Sraders two weeks ago that failure to reach a deal would shave 5% off the S&P 500; a deal, conversely, would add 5% to the benchmark index. That would imply the S&P topping roughly 3,600 (with a deal) or plunging to roughly 3,250 (no deal) using the Oct. 7 market close as a guide. It closed yesterday at 3,443.12.
Ives is not alone in charting that kind of range. Several equities analysts, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, have told investors to calculate about a 10% swing—the difference between a correction and a sustained rally—between the best case (a stimulus deal, plus other favorable developments like vaccine progress) and the worst case (no deal).
So, there’s a lot on the line.
Meanwhile, the tedious nature of the talks may be already trying the patience of investors. “We believe the market is largely discounting a stimulus prior to the election, given the political difficulties of compromising within the next 2 weeks,” Chris Zaccarelli, Chief Investment Officer for Independent Advisor Alliance ($4.5 billion AUM), said in an email exchange with me yesterday.
By the way, Zaccarelli sees even more of an upside for the S&P should a stimulus deal be reached. The S&P, he notes, is currently trading at about 22 times next year’s consensus earnings of $158. “We’re expecting a year-end target for the S&P of 3800 with a stimulus deal (e.g. 23 times $166) and we have a year-end target of 3550 without a stimulus deal (22.5 times $158),” he adds.
So, these are some of the numbers to keep in mind as talks bog down.
The ball is in your court, Nancy and Steven.
***
Have a nice day, everyone. I’ll see you here tomorrow.
Bernhard Warner
@BernhardWarner
Bernhard.Warner@Fortune.com
As always, you can write to bullsheet@fortune.com or reply to this email with suggestions and feedback.
Today's reads
Glass ceiling, shattered. Deal maker. Wealth management whiz. Turnaround specialist. The CV of Jane Fraser, Citigroup's incoming CEO, is as impressive as they come on Wall Street. Fortune's Claire Zillman, who wrote about the lack of women at the top of the banking world last year, profiles Fraser in the pages of this month's issue. You can read Zillman's fascinating piece here about how Fraser broke the highest of glass ceilings.
Consider the lobster war. Off the shores of Nova Scotia, tension is brewing over Canada's lucrative lobster trade, pitting indigenous lobster fishermen against commercial fishing operations. The question of who has the fight to fish the waters has triggered violence, vandalism and a deep scarring in the community, the New York Times reports.
Some of these stories require a subscription to access. There is a discount offer for our loyal readers if you use this link to sign up. Thank you for supporting our journalism.
Market candy
Quiz time
Living overseas, I check the FX tables daily. So, here goes... Which currency has outperformed the dollar by the widest margin so far this year?
A) Swiss franc
B) Euro
C) Japanese Yen
D) Chinese Yuan
The answer is A, the Swiss franc, which is up 6.3% YTD on the greenback. All of the currencies I've listed here are outperforming the dollar. Which ones are underperforming the dollar? The British pound, Turkish lira and Brazilian real, to name a few.


fortune--2020-10-21--Teledentistry is filling a cavity left by the pandemic, but some caution it can’t replace in-person

Teledentistry is filling a cavity left by the pandemic, but some caution it can’t replace in-person visits

Donella Pogue has trouble finding dentists in her rural area willing to accommodate her 21-year-old son, Justin, who is 6 feet, 8 inches tall, is on the autism spectrum and has difficulty sitting still when touched.
And this summer, he had a cavity and his face swelled. Pogue, of Bristol, New York, reached out to the Eastman Institute for Oral Health in Rochester, which offers teledentistry.
Dr. Adela Planerova looked into his mouth from 28 miles away as Pogue pointed her laptop’s camera into her son’s mouth. Planerova determined they did not need to make an emergency one-hour drive to her clinic. Instead, the dentist prescribed antibiotics and anti-inflammatory drugs, and weeks later he had surgery.
Teledentistry allows dental professionals like Planerova to remotely review records and diagnose patients over video. Some smile about its promise, seeing it as a way to become more efficient, to reach the one-third of U.S. adults who federal figures from 2017 estimate hadn’t seen a dentist in the previous year and to practice more safely during the pandemic.
But others see it as lesser-quality care that’s cheaper for dental professionals to provide, allowing them to make more money. At the same time, widespread adoption is hindered by issues such as spotty internet and insurance companies unwilling to reimburse for teledentistry procedures.
Dr. Christina Carter, an orthodontist in Morristown, New Jersey, said teledentistry has its place but shouldn’t replace time in the dental chair.
“It cannot be used for a full diagnosis because we need other tools, like X-rays,” she said. “We have all tried to see things on our phone or even on a Zoom call, and there is still just a different feel.”
Still, as the pandemic curbs in-person visits and reduces dentists’ revenue, more dentists are seeking guidance from Dr. Nathan Suter, a leading teledentistry advocate who owns the consulting company Access Teledentistry. Since March, he said, he’s done webinars for about 9,000 dental professionals, up from fewer than 1,000 in the three years before the pandemic.
Teledentistry providers trace the practice to 1994, when the Army launched a pilot program in which health care providers used an intra-oral camera to take photos of a patient’s mouth at one fort in Georgia and then sent them over the internet to a dental clinic at a fort 120 miles away.
Over the next two decades, dentists in upstate New York and the San Francisco Bay Area led teledentistry pilot programs for underserved children, some of whom were in preschool and already had cavities. The number of children who completed the prescribed dental treatment rose significantly.
Supporters say teledentistry can help reach the 43% of rural Americans who lack access to dental care. Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program will pay for many dental procedures for those enrolled in those programs, but only 38% of dentists participate in those programs, according to the American Dental Association. One reason: Medicaid typically reimburses at a significantly lower rate than those of private insurance plans.
Teledentistry could help dentists treat more patients and make more money a number of ways. If dentists remotely review data captured by hygienists, they can see more patients. Because video appointments save them time, dentists then have room for the people “who need the more expensive services” while also focusing on preventive care, said Kirill Zaydenman, vice president of innovation for DentaQuest, an administrator of dental insurance and oral health care provider.
But dentists have not widely adopted teledentistry—mainly because they’ve had difficulty getting insurers to pay for it, said Dr. Dorota Kopycka-Kedzierawski, a Rochester dentist. That’s partly because of insurers’ concerns about fraud. Dr. Paul Glassman, who started the Virtual Dental Home project to reach underserved preschool children in the Bay Area, considers those fears “completely incorrect.”
“If you want to bill for something you didn’t do,” he said, “you can do that just as easily in an in-person environment as you can using teledentistry.”
Since March, as the pandemic descended, most, if not all, private dental plans have been reimbursing for teledentistry, said Tom Meyers, vice president of public policy for America’s Health Insurance Plans, a trade organization. And all state Medicaid programs now reimburse for teledentistry in some form, Glassman said, though policies differ by state and some practices may not be covered in some places.
But teledentistry isn’t reimbursable under Medicare. (Most dentistry isn’t.) Another obstacle to widespread adoption: Some dentists and lawmakers connect teledentistry to companies offering at-home teeth aligners with little or no in-person contact with a dentist. Glassman has promoted teledentistry throughout the United States and reviewed proposed legislation or regulations in states such as Idaho, Massachusetts and Texas. He said he hears concerns from dentists about the lack of an in-person exam during which X-rays are taken. Such concerns are reflected in some legislation.
SmileDirectClub, an at-home teeth-aligner company, has argued in statehouse testimony that in-person care is not always needed. The company opposed a 2019 bill in Texas that aimed to improve access to dentistry in rural areas because it included a number of restrictions on teledentistry, including one that would have required an in-person dentist’s examination if a teledentistry provider treated that patient for more than 12 months.
SmileDirect’s attorney argued at a hearing the rule “could interrupt the course of a patient’s treatment.”
The measure failed.
Proponents argue teledentistry isn’t just about making more money. Pogue, the New York woman, said it was the best option for her son with special needs.
“He is really afraid of dentistry, so when he goes to see someone, he is really tense and really jumpy, so that’s another reason the teledentistry was nice was because he was in my bedroom doing it, so he was really comfortable,” said Pogue, 53, whose son is covered by Medicaid.
A few weeks later, Justin did have to have surgery, which went “perfect,” his mom said.
Some dentists say teledentistry faces particular stumbling blocks in rural areas. Dr. Mack Taylor, 36, a dentist who grew up in the tiny town of Dexter, Missouri, now practices in a health center just down the road. Twenty years ago, he said, Dexter had eight dentists. Now there are only three.
Technology is a major obstacle for local residents, many of whom lack reliable internet service. Taylor recently applied for a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant that would give him $26,500 to buy equipment so that, for example, a hygienist can take photos inside the mouths of nursing home residents and send them to Taylor to review.
“It’s not like medicine where you can discuss someone’s ailments and have a good idea what’s going on,” Taylor said. “Maybe all you can tell me is, ‘I have a broken tooth,’ but I can’t physically see what’s going on and prescribe the right treatment.”
KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a nonprofit news service covering health issues. It is an editorially independent program of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation) that is not affiliated with Kaiser Permanente.


fortune--2020-10-22--Iran, Russia are trying to interfere in the U.S. election, FBI says

Stimulus update : Pelosi says a deal could be near , but a vote may not come until after the @

U.S. officials warned that Iran and Russia are attempting to interfere with the presidential election, allowing the spread of false information.
“We have confirmed that some voter registration information has been obtained by Iran, and separately by Russia,” Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said in a press conference Wednesday evening. “This data can be used by foreign actors to attempt to convey misinformation.”
“We ask every American to do their part to defend against those who wish us harm,” Ratcliffe said. “Do not allow these efforts to have their intended effect.”
Ratcliffe, who was joined by FBI Director Christopher Wray, said Iran aimed to damage President Donald Trump’s re-election effort.
“We have already seen Iran sending spoofed emails designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump,” he said.
U.S. intelligence agencies have previously said that, as in 2016, Russia sought to interfere to help Trump.
In a joint statement, Marco Rubio, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, and Mark Warner, the panel’s top Democrat. said, “Our adversaries abroad seek to sow chaos and undermine voters’ belief in our democratic institutions, including the election systems and infrastructure that we rely on to record and properly report expressions of the voters’ will.”
Just before Ratcliffe and Wray announced the threat to the Nov. 3 election, the Washington Post reported that Trump is considering firing Wray after the election. Trump has faulted Wray for not providing fuel for the president’s contention that anti-Trump bias drove the FBI’s investigation into whether anyone involved in his 2016 campaign colluded in Russia’s interference.


fortune--2020-10-21--Quibi calls quits: ‘Our failure was not for lack of trying’

Quibi, the would-be streaming video giant, is calling it quits just six months after debuting its service.
Led by an all-star cast of executives, Quibi raised $1.75 billion to lavish on Hollywood-caliber shows that few people watched. In its brief existence, the Los Angeles-based startup promised—and failed—to attract big audiences for its short-form, serialized video content.
“It is with an incredibly heavy heart that today we are announcing that we are winding down the business and looking to sell its content and technology assets,” the company’s cofounders wrote in a blog post on Wednesday evening. The impending shutdown was first reported by the Wall Street Journal earlier in the day.
“Our failure was not for lack of trying; we’ve considered and exhausted every option available to us,” Quibi’s leaders said, noting that it would return any unspent cash to shareholders. A spokesperson did not immediately reply to Fortune’s request for more information, such as the quantity of remaining funds.
Quibi’s app, which cost $8 per month (or $5 with ads), debuted in April, shortly after the coronavirus pandemic forced the U.S. and many other regions into shutdown. Jeffrey Katzenberg, the chairman and former Disney and DreamWorks executive who concocted the startup, claimed in an interview with the New York Times that the pandemic wrecked the launch.
Quibi’s execs backtracked on that stance in their farewell notice. “The circumstances of launching during a pandemic is something we could have never imagined but other businesses have faced these unprecedented challenges and have found their way through it. We were not able to do so,” they said.
Critics said Quibi was ill-conceived from the start. But that didn’t stop it from garnering mega-sized funding from big name entertainment behemoths such as Disney, NBCUniversal, and AT&T’s WarnerMedia and producing bite-size films featuring A-list celebrities such as Anna Kendrick, Jennifer Lopez, Kevin Hart, and Chrissy Tiegen.
When confronted with skepticism over Quibi’s prospects in an interview at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen, Colo., last year, Katzenberg grew animated and compared his service to HBO’s launch in the ’90s in terms of its significance. “Broadcast TV was fantastic and free, and yet many of us were happy to pay for something different and premium. That’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said.
Those high aspirations never panned out. Quibi entered a crowded market and the startup struggled to peel eyeballs away from entrenched rivals ranging from Google’s YouTube to Netflix to TikTok, with Disney, HBO, Showtime, CBS, and plenty others in between.
With so many competitors in its way, Quibi gained little following. “Quibi’s content isn’t bad, it’s perfectly fine. It’s just hard to get the attention of a new audience without very compelling content,” wrote Doug Clinton, an analyst at Loup Ventures, in a stinging note in May.
Quibi recently reversed course on its foundational mobile-first premise by green-lighting its content to stream elsewhere, such as on Apple TV and Amazon’s Fire TV.
In recent weeks, Quibi was said to be exploring its options, including restructuring or a sale, as The Information reported. In its official goodbye, Quibi’s leaders said they “will be working hard to find buyers for these valuable assets.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s transition team is said to have floated Meg Whitman, Quibi’s chief executive and the former CEO of eBay and HP, for a possible cabinet position, despite her history as a Republican, Politico reported.
“All that is left now is to offer a profound apology for disappointing you and, ultimately, for letting you down,” Katzenberg and Whitman said. True to its name, Quibi, which stands for “quick bites,” burned briefly, if not brightly.


fortune--2020-10-21--Tesla beats the Street again as profits, deliveries, and margins surge

Tesla has outperformed analyst expectations by not only posting strong delivery numbers but also demonstrating continued improvements in the profitability of each car it delivered.
The electric-car maker Wednesday reported third-quarter revenue of $8.77 billion, up 45% from $6 billion in the second quarter and exceeding analyst expectations of $8.36 billion. Profits more than doubled to $331 million from $104 million in the second quarter.
Adjusted profits, which exclude certain expenses, were 77 cents per share, compared with the 57 cents that analysts had expected.
Tesla shares rose nearly 2% on the news in after-hours trading to around $430, up from a close of $422.
In early October, Tesla said it had delivered 139,300 vehicles in the third quarter. That’s up substantially from 90,650 delivered in the preceding quarter and 97,000 in the third quarter of 2019.
In addition to increasing sales on a sequential and year-over-year basis, Tesla said that its inventory levels continue to decline, indicating faster deliveries. CEO Elon Musk has emphasized the importance of lower inventory levels for Tesla’s profitability, and the latest quarterly profits partly reflect success on that front.
Tesla said automotive gross margins in the third quarter were 27.7%, up from 25.4% in the previous quarter and 22.8% in the third quarter of 2019. That metric is a key measure of an automaker’s sustainable profitability, and it shows that Tesla has made steady progress in bringing down production costs per car.
The latest quarter’s production numbers also mean it’s plausible Tesla could hit a prior goal of producing (as opposed to delivering) 500,000 vehicles in 2020. That goal was set before the production problems and demand uncertainty triggered by the coronavirus.
But Tesla did not revise the target, and on a conference call late Wednesday, Tesla CFO Zachary Kirkhorn confirmed that 500,000 units is still the company’s target for 2020. Tesla would have to produce 170,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter to hit the number, or 17% more than it built in the third quarter.
CEO Elon Musk provided updates on key products during the earnings call. Following the release of Tesla’s Full Self Driving feature to a small group of beta testers on October 20, Musk said the software will be gradually released to more Tesla vehicles into next year. Musk has referred to the rollout of the software as “extremely slow and cautious.” This gradual rollout follows numerous missed targets for the autonomous driving software, including Musk’s prior prediction that FSD would be released in beta form in late 2019.
Musk also provided a tentative timeline for deliveries of Tesla’s Cybertruck, which will be built at a factory still under construction in Austin, Tex. Musk said that “if all goes well,” Cybertruck deliveries will begin in late 2021 and expand in 2022. This is in line with projections made at the Cybertruck’s unveiling event in November 2019.
Update: This article has been updated with addition information from Tesla’s October 21 earnings conference call.


fortune--2020-10-21--New coronavirus cases are increasing in all but 5 states

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It’s no time for pandemic fatigue.
With cold weather setting in and Americans preparing to head to the polls en masse in less than two weeks, the nation’s coronavirus map reflects a worrying picture. According to a Fortune analysis of New York Times data, new cases are increasing almost everywhere—in all but five states (Hawaii, Maine, Vermont, Delaware, and New Hampshire) and the District of Columbia.
Twenty-five states are reporting at least 200 more cases per day on average than they were two weeks ago. Two states, Illinois and Texas, are seeing more than 1,000 more new cases per day in that time. In another eight—mostly, in the Upper Midwest including Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin—the average number of new cases per day has increased by more than 500 per day. Those trajectories, along with rising and record hospitalization rates in many states, have led some experts to label this as the country’s “third surge.” (The first surge started in late March and the second in July, when the nation recorded more than 77,000 new cases in one day; yesterday, the country reported roughly 60,600.)
While these rising rates haven’t been met with the sort of broad, shelter-in-place measures implemented earlier this year—and which are currently going back into effect in some places in Europe—restrictions on things like indoor dining and party bus use are being tried in some areas.
Hawaii is the only state where the average number of new cases per day is decreasing.
While the nation’s rising case numbers reflect, in part, more testing, the average seven-day positivity rate in many states—37 of them—is well above the 5% figure that the World Health Organization in May described as “too high” for governments to consider reopening. Twelve states, led by Indiana, with an average positivity rate of 41%, have rates above 15%.
States in the Northeast make up most of those with positivity rates below 2%.
State-by-state breakdown of daily new cases
Numbers based on a seven-day averages.


fortune--2020-10-21--Microsoft shows minimal increases in ranks of Black and Latino employees

Microsoft, which in June announced a plan to double the number of Black managers and leaders at the company, released new annual diversity data today that show the company still struggling to meaningfully increase Black and Latino representation in its workforce.
The software maker said it increased the proportion of both groups by 0.3 percentage points in the past year, with Black workers rising to 4.9% of its U.S. workforce and Latino employees increasing to 6.6%. The U.S. Census Bureau estimates each group accounts for more than 13% of the country’s population. “Racial and ethnic minority communities have largely seen incremental progress and there is still much work to be done,” wrote Chief Diversity Officer Lindsay-Rae McIntyre in a blog post. The percentage of women in the company’s global workforce rose slightly to 28.6%.
Black and Latino workers are even more poorly represented in management roles, with Black employees making up between 2.6% and 3.7% of the people at various levels of manager and executive. For Latino employees, those numbers range between 3.3% and 5.4%. In the past year, two Black vice presidents — Marc Brown and Kevin Dallas — left the company, in Brown’s case last week. So did one of the company’s most senior women, Peggy Johnson, who departed to become Chief Executive Officer of Magic Leap.
The low level of representation is why Microsoft announced $150 million in additional funding for its diversity initiatives and a program that looks to double the number of Black managers, senior leaders and senior contributors by 2025, changes made in the wake of a focus on diversity and social justice after the death of George Floyd at the hands of police.
The company has said it will expand its leadership development program to more Black employees at lower rungs of its management structure in order to prepare them for advancement. It will also strengthen measures to hold vice presidents and general managers accountable for diversity goals when determining compensation and promotions. Microsoft’s new programs have provoked scrutiny from the U.S. Labor Department, which is asking how those efforts comply with laws limiting the consideration of race in employment.
Microsoft also released data on the number of employees who identify as disabled, putting that at 6.1% of its U.S. workforce.


fortune--2020-10-21--Why the 2020 election hinges on the final presidential debate

I have been a pollster for the past 20-plus years, directing what I consider to be the most accurate poll of the last four presidential election cycles, and the 2020 race is unlike any I have ever experienced. COVID-19 and mail-in voting in particular are prompting new voter behavior. Yet telling insights unlock some of the secrets to this race if we just look in the right places and go where the data directs us.
Data, past and present, reveals a fascinating story. What it shows today is that the 2020 election outcome is far from decided.
This may come as a shock, but from where I sit, the whole election is riding on the final presidential debate, which will take place on Thursday. Up to this point, no candidate has officially closed the deal. If someone tells you the race is already decided one way or another, you would be wise to suspect that some type of agenda is at play.
Data from the IBD/TIPP poll, which I lead, consistently shows that approximately 10% of the electorate is still up for grabs. In a close race, how these voters swing could become the deciding factor.
Historically, 13% of registered voters make up their minds within the last two weeks of the race. This year is no exception, and the final debate will play an important role in decision-making.
Don’t believe me? In the 24 hours after the first debate, we learned that 19% of voters who watched or listened to Trump versus Biden planned to change their vote. The second debate did not happen. This makes the final debate all the more important. Key markers indicate that the race is tightening, and this will be the last and best opportunity for candidates to clinch votes heading into the election.
One thing history teaches us is that voter enthusiasm can make a tremendous difference in an election, because how passionately a voter feels about a candidate is what drives them to get out to vote. This factor is extremely important in a year where COVID-19 could hamper turnout.
The 2008 election is a sort of benchmark for voter enthusiasm. The U.S. was in the midst of a financial tsunami, and it was the first time voters had the choice of a Black candidate on a major party ticket. These were drivers for voters to get to the polls.
According to IBD/TIPP data, Obama won with a 7.2% margin over McCain, and Obama’s strong voter enthusiasm helped carry him to his win. This was the highest we have seen in any election since we began tracking. Biden does not enjoy the same level of enthusiasm as Obama did. This points to a tighter race, particularly when you consider Trump’s campaign style.
In 2016, Trump began holding mega-rallies that many in the media discounted. What we saw in the polling data, however, was something new—every night our sampling would come back with more and more Republicans. This had never happened before, which suggested Trump’s rallies were quite effective at generating enthusiasm. We are witnessing a similar trend in 2020 as Trump resumes his rally schedule.
In addition to enthusiasm, there are three blocks of voters who could sway election outcomes: seniors, suburban voters, and independents. In 2016, Trump was leading Clinton by seven to eight points among the senior demographic. Today, amid the ongoing pandemic, it is Biden who holds a commanding lead (nearly 15 points). This is important because seniors consistently turn out to vote.
When it comes to suburban voters, Trump carried them by a five-point margin in 2016. Today, Biden wins the group by 15 points.
And in a race marked by stark party-line divisions, independents are more important than ever. In 2016, they helped carry Trump to victory as he won the group by about a five-point margin. This year, Trump has consistently lagged Biden by six to eight points. What we know from the data is that the economy is important to this block, and as the days inch closer to the election, they could get cold feet in terms of voting for someone new. Trump is the devil they know, and he has scored well on the economy.
Historically, American elections are based on confidence in a candidate’s ability to handle the economy. People vote with their pocketbooks. But this is a bit of a different year. The electorate is split approximately 50-50.
There is one group for which the economy, as well as law and order, is most important. This group overwhelmingly favors Trump, particularly given that the IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index, a monthly indicator of consumer confidence among Americans, rose across all categories in October.
But now another group has emerged, for which COVID, race relations, and health care are extremely important. Within this group, Biden is performing exceptionally well. This divergence raises a question: When push comes to shove, will Americans revert back to what they have always done and cast their vote based on the economy, or does that factor become secondary?
Another area where questions arise is early voting. We are seeing record numbers of ballots cast in the early voting period. Early voters overwhelmingly favor Biden, but given Trump’s skepticism about mail-in voting and his push for in-person voting, the majority of his supporters are expected to turn out in person on Nov. 3.
The matter becomes even more complicated when you consider the way the voting system is currently set up during COVID-19. There are seven states in which voters do not have an in-person option; everyone must vote by mail. Additionally, some states are breaking with the traditional practice of mandating that registered voters request a mail-in ballot; instead they are mailing ballots to everyone. We’ve never had a situation like this, so it remains to be seen what the effect will be.
Then there is the matter of Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. While it has been a deeply divisive issue, polling indicates that Barrett’s nomination is attracting people to Trump, bringing votes his way in the waning days of the campaign.
And then there is the role of third-party candidates Jo Jorgensen (Libertarian) and Howie Hawkins (Green). Third parties offer voters a convenient way of taking shelter if they don’t like the Republican or Democratic candidates. While we don’t hear a lot about Jorgensen or Hawkins in the mainstream media today, they are still pulling three to five points away from Trump and Biden, which could translate to the difference in the race. Traditionally, outside parties have hurt Democrats.
A number of uncertainties remain in an election year unlike any other, and it is far too early to call the race for either candidate. One thing we can almost assuredly count on, though, is that this election will provide the exclamation point for what has been a wild 2020.
Raghavan Mayur is president and founder of TechnoMetrica and leader of the IBD/TIPP poll.


fortune--2020-10-21--Brand loyalty is changing due to the pandemic

COVID-19 has already tested our patience, our focus, and our compassion. Now it could be testing our allegiance as well.
Two recent studies show that U.S. consumers are shifting their loyalty to certain brands as the pandemic continues. And that has marketing departments scrambling to adjust how they connect with their audience.
A July report from communications firm Ketchum found that 45% of American shoppers have altered their brand preference amid the rapid changes in the world. A month later, research from McKinsey put that number at 75%.
Experts say people have shifted to private label brands from stores like Target, Amazon, and Aldi on products ranging from paper towels and garbage bags to cheeses and clothing. Consumers were also much less picky about which brand of toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and cleaning supplies they could find because of rushes on products at the start of stay-at-home orders.
“For certain products and brands, COVID-19 caused supply-chain disruptions,” says the McKinsey report. “And when consumers couldn’t find their preferred product at their preferred retailer, they changed their shopping behavior: Many consumers have tried a different brand or shopped at a different retailer during the crisis.”
Lockdown also had a notable role in the wavering loyalty to brands. In Japan, where there was no formal stay-in-place order given, just 33% of people adjusted their shopping habits.
Unfortunately for the brands left behind, many of those customers might not be returning.
“We expect these changes will shape consumers’ habits even beyond the effects of COVID-19,” says McKinsey. “In…the U.S., upward of 60% of consumers who tried a new behavior plan to stick with it post-crisis.”
Ketchum’s study agreed, saying that 62% of people who have changed their brand preference will make that a permanent change before the pandemic is over.
“We’re seeing massive consumer behavior shifts that are likely to persist,” says Mary Elizabeth Germaine, partner and managing director at Ketchum Analytics.
Robert Passikoff, founder and president of Brand Keys, a brand loyalty and customer engagement consulting firm, disagrees, though. Some shoppers might be buying other brands out of necessity, he says, but they’ll return to the names they know as soon as they have the opportunity.
“People are looking for particular brands, and they’re loyal to particular brands,” he says. “The COVID-affected categories are easy to see, but it’s not an issue of ‘I was loyal before March and now that it’s September, I’m not loyal anymore.’ That’s just not the case…There’s always going to be someone who goes ‘Wow, this was exactly the same,’ but the majority of people have found a brand which meets their expectations better than the others and are not willing to trade off when it’s available.”
Beyond availability, the reasons for the consumer loyalty shift include value and convenience. People are looking for deals as money gets tight—and they are trying to get their shopping done in as few places as possible.
“Shoppers do not want to visit multiple stores to cherry-pick the good deals on branded goods,” says Doug Bowman, professor of marketing at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School. “So it’s easy to imagine a situation where a shopper may be more likely to just buy the store’s private label brand to get a good price in a category rather than visit a second store.”
Store brands and microbrands, says Bowman, could see a rise in popularity as the pandemic continues. While inventory levels on many items are largely back to normal, many shoppers are still concerned about their finances, and if a store brand’s quality matches what they’re used to, they’ll continue to opt for it.
“If you’re getting, say, spaghetti sauce and you try a private label, the next time you go to that store, you might say, ‘This worked for me, so I’m going to get it again,’” he says. “And then, maybe you’re willing to expand to other [generic] product categories.”
There is one other factor that could be impacting consumer loyalty, though: other consumers.
“Consumers were relying on brands before for messaging on perceived quality,” says Bowman. “Now they’ve got information from actual users about the actual quality of the product. That was happening before, but it’s accelerated during the pandemic since people are ordering a lot more online. People are being exposed to a lot more online reviews and saying, ‘I’m going to try it.’”
Ultimately, though, says Passikoff, people might try new things, but they’ll go with what they enjoy, regardless of price.
“Satisfaction is something where either you’ve got it or you don’t, and then you’re moving on to something else,” he says.


fortune--2020-10-21--Stimulus update: Pelosi says a deal could be near, but a vote may not come until after the election

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The White House and Democratic leaders are nearing an agreement for another broad stimulus package that would include items such as another round of $1,200 stimulus checks and enhanced unemployment benefits.
“I’m pretty happy. I think we have a prospect for an agreement,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told MSNBC on Wednesday. (Update: The two sides did not strike a stimulus deal on Wednesday. The White House and Democratic leaders will meet again on Thursday.)
After her MSNBC remarks, Pelosi met with White House officials in an attempt to iron out the final price tag and further details. She had said on MSNBC that she was hopeful they could resolve the “appropriations piece.” As of Tuesday, Democratic leaders are asking for $2.2 trillion, while the White House has offered just under $1.9 trillion.
If a deal is struck, it doesn’t guarantee passage. A number of Senate Republicans have already voiced objection to the size of the package, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell reportedly told the White House on Tuesday not to accept Pelosi’s bill before the election.
McConnell has also notably kept his language vague in terms of when a bill might be passed: He told reporters Tuesday that if a bill was agreed upon, the Senate would put it on the floor “at some point.” Senate Republicans took up their own $500 billion stimulus bill on Wednesday, but Democrats blocked it from advancing.
Speaker Pelosi, however, is optimistic about a compromise. “There will be a bill,” she said. “The question is, is it in time to pay the November rent, which is my goal, or is it going to be shortly thereafter and retroactive?” Pelosi noted that Senate Republicans may pose a roadblock, saying on SiriusXM’s The Joe Madison Show earlier Wednesday that “I think Mitch McConnell might not mind doing it after the election.”
For months the White House and Democratic leaders have butted heads on the dollar size of the package: Democrats want billions more in aid for state and local governments, a point that appears to still be up for debate. Additionally, Republicans’ support for COVID-19 lawsuit immunity for businesses and schools has generated Democratic opposition.
Meanwhile, there is bipartisan support for other items. Both parties have reaffirmed support for a new round of $1,200 stimulus checks. Both parties support more funding for education, coronavirus-related projects, mortgage and rental assistance, and food programs. When it comes to enhanced unemployment benefits, the White House would prefer $400 per week compared with House Democrats’ proposal of $600 per week.


fortune--2020-10-21--An electric Hummer? Battery-powered trucks head to showrooms

Seven auto companies have plans to roll out new battery-powered pickup trucks over the next two years, aiming to cash in on a popular and lucrative market for expensive vehicles.
General Motors is among them, and on Tuesday its GMC brand introduced a new electric Hummer pickup, with a high-end version due in showrooms sometime in the fall of next year.
The Hummer will be joined by crosstown rival Ford’s electric F-150, Tesla’s Cybertruck and pickups from four startup companies. All intend to start producing them between June of next year and the end of 2022.
Prices announced thus far show they range from roughly $40,000 for a base Cybertruck to a loaded off-road Hummer “Edition 1” that will start at more than $112,000.
GM, Ford, Tesla, Bollinger Motors, Nikola, Rivian and Lordstown Motors all want a piece of what is now a petroleum-powered market dominated by Ford’s F-Series trucks, as well as GM’s Chevrolet Silverado and Fiat Chrysler’s Ram pickup.
Last year, U.S. consumers bought more than 3 million pickups of all sizes. Ford’s F-Series for decades has been the nation’s top-selling vehicle, and the company sold close to 900,000 in 2019. This year, with sales depressed by the coronavirus, pickup sales have been a beacon of strength for automakers, which are trying to make up for production lost when factories were forced to close earlier in the year.
Big pickups now start around $30,000, but can run over $90,000 when loaded with options. The average light-duty full-size pickup cost nearly $50,000 in September, while heavy-duty trucks averaged over $62,000, according to Edmunds.com, which provides content to The Associated Press.
Experts say that since buyers are willing to pay more for trucks, it’s likely they’ll also be willing to shell out the cost of electric batteries and motors, which now are more expensive than gas or diesel trucks. But the automakers are taking a risk, and it remains to be seen what the actual selling prices will be, says Eric Ibara, director of residual vehicle values for Cox Automotive.
“What is the underlying demand for electric trucks? We don’t know. It’s somewhat of a risky venture for the established truck manufacturers like Ford and GM and Ram,” he said.
It’s likely the Detroit automakers are defending their turf from Tesla’s Cybertruck, fearing that Tesla might take sales from pickups much like it did in the luxury car market, Ibara said.
“They don’t want to see their grip on full-size trucks end up in the same way,” he said.
Even with the large number of electric trucks coming, Ibara sees SUVs as the big market for consumers.
But the electric trucks also could appeal to businesses, which could unload gasoline costs in favor of cheaper electricity in many places. They also could take advantage of the big batteries by using the trucks to power tools on job sites instead of a generator. Most of the trucks will be able to travel more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) on a single charge, with the Hummer going at least 350 miles (560 kilometers) in early testing.
Luis Venegas, owner of LG Landscaping in Richfield, Minnesota, said he may consider an electric truck in the future, but for now he loves his Ford heavy-duty diesel to carry equipment for his small business. He worries that if he goes electric, there won’t be a charging station nearby if he needs it.
“A diesel you can fill up anywhere,” he said.
The Hummer will be a bit pricey at first with lots of standard goodies like a three motors that generate 1,000 horsepower for towing and hauling. The truck can go from zero to 60 mph (97 kilometers per hour) in about three seconds. It also has a “crab walk” feature that lets the front and rear wheels steer at the same angle at low speeds so it can move diagonally around obstacles.
Less-expensive versions will be rolled out until 2024, when the EV2 arrives starting at just under $80,000.
Ed Williamson, owner of a GMC dealership in Miami, said he looks forward to getting the new truck. Before the Hummer brand went out of business about a decade ago, Williamson had one of the top-selling dealerships in the nation.
“It’s because this ZIP code has mucho machismo,” he said.
The new electric Hummer should appeal to those seeking to stand apart from others, Williamson said. It also could appeal to businesses wanting to get noticed.
“I think it’s wonderful that they’ve taken this vehicle that was the icon of anti-green, if you will, and made it the opposite,” he said.


fortune--2020-10-21--Buckle up, investors. The stimulus talks’ roller coaster is nothing compared to what could hit the m

Buckle up, investors. The stimulus talks’ roller coaster is nothing compared to what could hit the markets next

Up on optimistic headlines, down on uncertainty.
With investors’ eyes glued on Capitol Hill, the market’s gyrations have become commonplace in recent days.
“It’s all about fiscal stimulus,” Charles Schwab’s chief investment strategist Liz Ann Sonders tells Fortune, as negotiations between the White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a new stimulus deal come down to the wire. “That’s the factor I think is driving most of the intraday swings right now.”
On Tuesday, Speaker Pelosi signaled some progress over new stimulus as her deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill wrote, “Both sides are serious about finding a compromise” in a tweet Tuesday following a call between Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
That conversation came on the day of a deadline Speaker Pelosi set to get a deal on the table, though she appeared to walk back that hard deadline, aiming for a bill to be drafted by the end of the week. Republican senators led by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pose a roadblock to passing the deal, however, as McConnell reportedly told the White House not to accept a Democrat bill before the election.
The daily back and forth has meant a rocky few days for investors. The S&P 500 is down 1.3% over the past five trading days, but closed roughly 0.5% higher Tuesday on hopes a deal was within reach. Still, intraday swings have been choppy over the past week; the Dow at one point on Wednesday fell 225 points in the span of an hour as the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX, spiked. The big concern: Should a deal not get done soon, some Wall Street observers estimate as much as a 5% to 10% hit to markets.
Charles Schwab’s Sonders believes we’ll continue to see these “bouts” of volatility in the near-term tied to stimulus, but she argues another market-moving event is still on the horizon that could potentially fuel even more sustained volatility than stimulus negotiations: a contested election.
Market observers and strategists have been counseling clients on what a contested election might do to equities, and many dread what kind of volatility we’d see in the event of a dragged-out election decision. Some investors are also planning ahead, buying options and futures on a bet things will be volatile after Nov. 3.
“When you look at what’s been going on in the volatility futures, there had been an easing of concerns about a contested election. But when you get closer [to the election] as polls tighten, which is often the case, I think some of that uncertainty might increase again,” says Sonders. “Save for stimulus issues, I think that remains probably the biggest volatility driver between now and the election.”
What’s more, despite the hand-wringing on the Street, Sonders argues investors may not be fully appreciating the risk of a contested election dragging on as long as (if not longer than) the Bush-Gore contested election in 2000, when the winner wasn’t declared until roughly six weeks after Election Day. “I think that’s a volatility driver that’s not priced in,” she says.
Scott Knapp, chief market strategist at CUNA Mutual Group, concurs. He’s not convinced “the markets are anticipating a contested election right now, and for that reason, if one did occur, it would likely be a market-mover,” he wrote in a note Wednesday.
If there is a contested election, he reasoned, it would be similar to what has happened throughout 2020 “of actual events differing from expectations.”
“It would be a low-probability event that produces a very negative market-moving surprise,” Knapp argued.
The bottom line for investors? “A more elevated and sustained level of volatility probably comes if we have a contested election issue, especially if it’s a protracted one,” Sonders says. Indeed, other strategists like Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist for Allianz Investment Management, expect “markets to maintain an elevated level of volatility leading up to, and possibly beyond, the November 3 election day,” he wrote in a note Tuesday. “We’ve been saying it’s not so much who gets elected but more so how that takes place,” he told Fortune Wednesday.
As for this week, Sonders suggests investors keep an eye on the presidential debate on Thursday, which could possibly shift poll numbers or the betting market.
“That could be a volatility driver or a market mover,” she adds.


fortune--2020-10-21--Stripe invests in a Carta competitor, Pulley

A startup that is betting on continued startup creation has raised $10 million to go up against the likes of Morgan Stanley and Carta.
Fintech darling Stripe led the Series A round in Pulley, a company based in Mountain View, Calif., that helps young companies manage their equity, the companies announced Wednesday. Notably, Stripe is a customer of Morgan Stanley’s Shareworks, the cap-table management platform the bank acquired last year, which offers similar services.
Because startups raise funding in multiple stages with often complex terms that allow investors the right but no obligation to invest in future rounds, calculating the ownership breakdown as the business evolves is a conundrum.
Pulley hopes to make that process less opaque with cap-table management and scenario-modeling tools so that young founders who can’t make those calculations on their own can make estimates based on the Pulley platform.
“What we see now is all of these rounds are getting so complicated that founders often don’t know how much equity they own and give away much more than they expect,” Pulley founder Yin Wu says.
It’s an issue that plagues many founders—and is one Wu intimately understands. In 2013, Wu sold her Y-Combinator-backed startup Echo Lockscreen to Microsoft, a product that eventually became the lock screen seen today on Android-based phones. But only during the sale process did Wu realize she held 10% less equity in the business than she previously assumed, because the startup had made educated guesses rather than modeling out how earlier funding rounds could impact the final ownership of the company.
Wu says she’s also seen instances of startups inadvertently selling over 100% of their company.
Other investors in Pulley’s round included Caffeinated Capital, General Catalyst, 8VC, and angel investors including Elad Gil, Avichal Garg, Parker Conrad, Jack Altman, Kathleen Estreich, Linda Xie, Matt MacInnis, and Jeannette zu Fürstenberg.
Pulley is not alone in the space. As funding to private companies has boomed and allowed startups to stay private longer, companies have also found a need to better track their equity. Founded in 2013, private equity management company Carta recently reached a $3.1 billion valuation with some 16,000 customers including Robinhood and ClassPass. Last year, Morgan Stanley acquired employee stock compensation platform Solium for $900 million and rebranded the business as Shareworks.
While Carta’s ambitions have grown to encompass an area that speaks to later-stage startups—a private market-share marketplace—Pulley hopes to get its foot in the door by focusing on young startups. Its customer roster currently includes one-click checkout startup Fast and social app Clubhouse. Y-Combinator (which is also a Pulley investor) and Stripe, which has become an avid venture investor in its own right, could also prove to be key ways of getting the word out, Caffeinated Capital managing partner Ray Tonsing says.
Pulley’s investors also believe there is space for several players in the market and that, pandemic aside, startup creation will continue. Carta, which laid off 16% of its workers amid the crisis, has recently begun hiring again.
“I do still think the market is still underserved,” says investor Elad Gil, adding he believes there’s ample room for multiple companies to pop up in the space, angled at different stakeholders in the fundraising process including lawyers, founders, and investors, to name a few. “There’s maybe half a dozen areas for user segmentation. As an investor, it is really hard to get a crisp look at the cap tables. There aren’t good portfolio management tools.”


fortune--2020-10-21--PayPal will soon offer Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency purchase options

PayPal announced Wednesday that it will soon begin letting users buy cryptocurrency within its app. The news was hailed as transformative by advocates of decentralized currencies such as Bitcoin.
Bitcoin continued a strong upward trend on the news, reaching annual highs above $12,400. Cryptocurrencies available to PayPal users will include Ether, Bitcoin Cash, and Litecoin, in addition to Bitcoin. Those currencies also saw sharp rallies this morning.
PayPal joins Square and Robinhood among mainstream consumer services offering cryptocurrency purchases. Square’s Cash App allows users to buy Bitcoin, though not other cryptocurrencies. Robinhood offers a wider array of digital assets through its stock trading app.
One of the primary appeals of cryptocurrency is that, much like paper currency, it allows an owner to receive, hold, and send money without the involvement of a payments processor, bank, or other third party. But PayPal’s cryptocurrency service, at least at first, will be effectively limited to purchasing currencies through a third party, Paxos Crypto Brokerage, which will actually hold the private cryptographic keys controlling the crypto tokens. PayPal help documents also state that it will not be possible to send cryptocurrency from PayPal either to other PayPal accounts or to a user’s own cryptocurrency wallet outside of PayPal.
The use of third parties to store and secure cryptocurrency is widespread and considered a user-friendly alternative to self-custody, which can be risky and technically challenging.
Despite this compromise, cryptocurrency advocates greeted the news as a watershed moment because it will increase public awareness and the perceived legitimacy of blockchain-based digital currencies. PayPal has a reported 346 million users worldwide and processed $222 billion in payments in the second quarter of 2020.
Mike Novogratz, founder of the cryptocurrency-focused investment fund Galaxy Digital, described the announcement on Twitter as “the biggest news of the year in crypto.”
Crypto purchases will be available to PayPal users in the United States within weeks, according to Reuters. PayPal plans to expand the offering to other countries starting in 2021.


fortune--2020-10-21--Is it the end for Quibi?

Is it the end for Quibi?

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Quibi, the streaming service founded by former Disney executive Jeffrey Katzenberg, did not have the debut it was hoping for.
After raising some $1.75 billion from investors, the company launched in the middle of the pandemic with shows anchored by stars such as Liam Hemsworth and Chrissy Teigen.
But the concept, operating in the crowded streaming market, didn’t take off. News of the launch eventually morphed into news of disappointing subscription figures, then into news of a potential sale, and now into speculation that Katzenberg may shutter the app altogether.
After trying and failing to sell Quibi’s content catalog to companies including NBCUniversal and Facebook, Katzenberg is floating the idea of closing the company’s doors, according to the Information. This comes following reports that the company had considered strategic options with the likes of Walt Disney and Warner Media on the other side of the table.
Quibi has not yet responded to a request for comment, though a spokesperson previously dubbed reports of sale talks as “speculation.”
Meanwhile, perhaps Joe Biden’s presidential campaign has also heard the rumors: Quibi CEO Meg Whitman is among the names under consideration for a cabinet position, according to Politico.
RVS REV UP: RVshare, a peer-to-peer RV rental marketplace, raised over $100 million in funding led by KKR. Existing investor Tritium Partners also participated, the companies announced Wednesday. Travellers are opting to explore nearby rather than far away—and sales of RVs have risen as well. The Recreational Vehicle Industry Association said total shipments of new vehicles in August rose 17.3% compared to the year before. “Younger generations of travelers are discovering and embracing domestic travel,” Ben Pederson, Principal with KKR’s Technology Growth team, said in a statement.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Tekion, a San Ramon, Calif.-based provider of SaaS retail operating platform, raised $150 million in Series C funding valuing it at $1 billion. Advent International led the round and was joined by investors including Index Ventures, Exor, Airbus Ventures and FM Capital.
- Dingdang Medicine Express (Beijing) Technology Co., a Chinese medicine platform also known as Dingdang Kuaiyao, raised 1 billion yuan ($150 million) in additional Series B funding. Investors included Softbank China, China Merchants Bank’s investment arm CMB International, and Sinopharm-CICC Capital. Read more.
- Newfront Insurance, a San Francisco-based insurance brokerage, raised $100 million at a $500 million valuation. Founders Fund and Meritech Capital led the round.
- Perch, a Boston-based commerce company that acquires and operates Amazon third-party businesses, raised $123.5 million in funding. Spark Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Tectonic Ventures and Boston Seed.
- Retool, a San Francisco-based company for building internal apps faster, raised $50 million in Series B funding. Sequoia led the round and was joined by investors including Nat Friedman, Patrick and John Collison, Henrique Dubugras and Pedro Franceschi, and Paul Graham.
- Tarana Wireless, a Milpitas, Calif.-based maker of a broadband system, raisd $30 million. Prime Movers Lab led the round and was joined by investors including Liberty Latin America Ventures and Liberty Global Ventures.
- Anyscale, a Berkeley, Calif.-based maker of a tool to scale apps, raised $40 million in Series B funding. NEA led the round and was joined by investors including Andreessen Horowitz, Intel Capital, and Foundation Capital.
- Syte, a Tel Aviv-based company behind a product discovery platform, raised $30 million in Series C funding. Viola Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including LG Tech Ventures, La Maison, MizMaa Ventures, Kreos Capital, Magma, Naver Corporation, Commerce Ventures, Storm Ventures, Axess Ventures, Remagine Media Ventures, and KDS Media Fund.
- Whitebox, a Baltimore, Md.-based commerce marketplace and fulfillment company for direct-to-consumer brands, raised $18 million in Series B funding. Noro-Moseley Partners led the round and was joined by investors including TDF Ventures, TCP Venture Capital’s Propel Baltimore Fund, David Williams (global chairman of Merkle), and Chris Brandenburg (co-founder of Millennial Media).
- Sami, a Brazil-based healthtech startup, raised $15.4 million in Series A funding. Valor Capital Group and monashees led the round and were joined by Redpoint eventures and Canary.
- Robust Intelligence, a San Francisco-based provider of A.I. security, raised $14 million in Seed and Series A funding. Sequoia Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Engineering Capital and Harpoon Ventures. Read more.
- Possible, a Seattle-based fintech tackling the short-term credit market, raised $11 million in funding. Union Square Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Canvas Ventures, Unlock Venture Partners, Columbia Pacific Advisors, Union Bay Partners, Tom Williams, and FJ Labs.
- Mine, a Tel Aviv-based company focused on personal data privacy risks, raised $9.5 million in Series A funding. Gradient Ventures, Google’s AI-focused venture fund, led the round and was joined by investors including e.ventures, MassMutual Ventures, Battery Ventures and Saban Ventures.
- Vectary, a Slovakia-based 3D and Augmented Reality design platform, raised $7.3 million. EQT Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including BlueYard.
- Welcome Homes, a New York-based online home building and purchasing platform, raised $5.4 million in seed funding. Global Founders Capital led the round and was joined by investors including 8VC, Adapt Ventures, Elefund, V1 VC, Kokopelli Capital, One Way Ventures, Founders First Capital Partners, AAVCF3, Arkin Holdings, Josh Buckley, Foundamental, Soma Capital, Gaingels, Fission Ventures and Tuesday Capital.
- Kettle, a San Francisco-based reinsurance startup focused on climate change, raised $4.7 million in seed funding. True Ventures led the round and was joined by investors including Acrew Capital, Homebrew Ventures, Anthemis, and Inspired Capital.
- Slintel, a Mountain View, Calif-based sales and marketing intelligence platform, raised $4.2 million in funding. Accel led the round and was joined by investors including Sequoia Capital India and Stellaris Venture Partners.
- Vowel, a New York-based meeting platform for remote and distributed teams, raised $4.3 million in seed funding from Amity Ventures, BoxGroup, Company Ventures, and Kevin Lin (co-Founder of Twitch).
- Polymarket, a New York-based blockchain betting platform, raised $4 million in funding. Polychain Capital led the round and was joined by investors including Naval Ravikant and Balaji Srinivasan. Read more.
- Abodu, a Redwood City, Calif.-based startup building backyard homes, raised $3.5 million in seed funding. Initialized Capital led the round. Read more.
- Conducto a New York-based company seeking to simplify data science pipelines, raised $3 million in seed funding. Jump Capital led the round.
- Synthetaic, a Delafield, Wis.-based maker of data for training A.I., raised $1 million in pre-seed funding and a $3.5 million in seed round funding. Lupa Systems led the round and was joined by investors including Betaworks Ventures and TitletownTech.
- Blustream, a Worcester, Mass.-based after-sale customer engagement company, raised $3 million in funding. York IE led the round.
- Prompt, a New york, Delhi, and Singapore-based writing feedback platform, raised $1.9 million in seed funding. EduLab Capital Partners led the round.
- Vitable Health, a Woodlyn, Pa.-based, maker of health plans, raised $1.6 million in funding. SoftBank Group's Opportunity fund led the round.
- Manscaped, a maker of men’s grooming products, is exploring a potential sale or fundraise that could value it at over $500 million, per Bloomberg citing sources. Mark Cuban backs the firm. Read more.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Trilantic North America made a minority investment in SemaConnect, an electric vehicle charging infrastructure provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Ardian invested in H2 Pharma, a French specialist in the development and production of generic drugs. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Polytek, backed by Arsenal Capital Partners, acquired Incredible Solutions, a Crystal River, Fla.-based provider of epoxy coating and casting systems. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- The Kleinfelder Group, backed by Wind Point Partners, acquired Gas Transmission Systems, a Walnut Creek, Calif.-based gas utilities and pipeline consulting firm. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- TZP Group invested in SA Company, a Boca Raton, Fla.-based outdoor lifestyle apparel business. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
RLDatix, backed by Five Arrows and TA Associates, acquired Verge Health, a Charleston, S.C.-based credentialing software provider. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
EXITS
- Omers Private Equity is weighing the sale of Kenan Advantage Group, a North Canton, Oh.-based tank truck transporter, for about $2.5 billion or more including debt, per Bloomberg. Read more.
- Turnitin acquired ExamSoft, a software-based assessment platform, from Spectrum Equity. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
OTHER
- Pioneer Natural Resources Co plans to acquire Parsley Energy Inc, a smaller U.S. shale producer, in a deal valued at about $4.5 billion. Read more.
IPO
- Didi Chuxing, the Chinese ride-hailing company, is weighing an IPO in Hong Kong instead of New York that could value it at over $60 billion. Read more.
- Root, a Columbus, Oh.-based auto insurer, plans to raise $568 million in an offering of 24.2 million shares priced between $22 to $25. It also plans to raise $500 million via a concurrent private placement from Dragoneer Investment Group and Silver Lake.
- Datto Holding, a maker of backup software, raised $594 million in its IPO.
- Universal Music Group, backed by Vivendi, plans to go public in 2022. Read more.
SPAC
- Sarissa Capital Acquisition, a blank check company formed by Sarissa Capital seeking healthcare bets, raised $175 million.
- DPCM Capital, a tech-focused SPAC led by former Uber executive Emil Michael, raised $300 million.
F+FS
- Amplify Partners raised $375 million across two funds. It raised $275 million for Amplify Partners IV, its fourth flagship early-stage fund, and $100 million for Amplify Select Fund, a growth-stage fund for Amplify portfolio companies.


fortune--2020-10-21--The Google antitrust case is nothing compared to the 1999 Microsoft case

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It was a warm fall evening in Washington, D.C. in 1999 when we got the call. I was a reporter at the Reuters bureau and already thinking about my weekend plans that Friday when word came from the federal courthouse that Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson was finally ready to issue the first part of his decision in the most important tech legal battle of the time: the Microsoft antitrust case.
Our lead reporter on the story, David Lawsky, was ready to write. My job was to line up at the Government Printing Office over near Union Station, where I eventually got my hands on a printed copy of the 207-page ruling. My then-pony-tail and I also ended up in a photo in the Washington Post the next day.
In his findings of fact, Jackson laid out in minute detail how Microsoft had wielded its dominant power over the PC industry time and time again to squash rival browser maker Netscape.
Five months later, Jackson issued the follow up, a taut 43-page decision with his legal conclusions from the case. No surprise to anyone following the trial, he found Microsoft guilty of violating the Sherman Antitrust Act and ordered a controversial breakup of the company. While many of his rulings survived on appeal, the breakup order did not, and the incoming Bush administration quickly settled the case in 2001.
No one will have to stand in line to be handed a thick paper copy of the judge’s decision in the Google antitrust case that kicked off this Tuesday. But there are a few other differences that are more meaningful—and stranger.
First, the Microsoft case was a controversy at the cutting edge of the tech industry. We were just at the beginning of the Internet explosion that would lead to trillions of dollars of new economic value. Those were the stakes, and the case’s restraints on Microsoft arguably made space for new innovations and new companies to thrive, including Google itself.
By contrast, the Google case seems rooted firmly in the past—in fact, the European Union filed a version of it four years ago. Almost nothing alleged in the Google search case hasn’t already been going on for many, many years. Google pays to be the default search service in a browser? How 2004. Google has its own browser? Very 2008. Google pushes itself on the iPhone and Android? Also 2008-ish. Even if the DOJ wins the case, it seems unlikely to help launch a new wave of innovation.
Second, and even more glaringly, exactly what leverage does Google wield over anyone? Personal computer makers like Compaq and Gateway could not sell their products without Windows software from Microsoft. They were over a barrel. But Mozilla can set its default search service to Google or Bing or DuckDuckGo or anything else. And Apple? Apple has all the leverage. That’s no doubt why it has extracted payments from Google in order to become the default search service on iPhones. Those payments constitute 15% to 20% of Apple’s total annual profits, according to the lawsuit. Profit, not revenue!
Okay, you say, what about Android phone makers? This is probably the strongest part of the case, as Google and Android appear to have struck the same kind of exclusionary agreements that Microsoft did with Windows. But the EU already forced Google to untie its search service from Android phones in Europe. Since March, Android users have gotten to pick a default search service from among three choices. Meanwhile, Google’s mobile search market share hasn’t changed yet. One analyst report forecast only a 10% drop. Yawn.
Finally, the DOJ’s Microsoft case was a stunning tour de force from day one. The succinct 54-page filing quoted the threats of Microsoft execs who wanted to “cut off the air supply” of Netscape and “putting a bullet through the head” of one of their own products in favor of a deal with a competitor. Microsoft got so angry about the excerpts it even waged a campaign with us reporters to ignore the “snippets.” There’s nothing so incriminating in the Google case. The filing even whines that Google warned its employees not to use such language in emails. We’ll have to see how they fare in depositions and on the witness stand, but it’s another way the new case falls short.
My memories of covering the Microsoft case include the larger-than-life figures of Bill Gates and James Barksdale, who were always in the room where it happened; government lawyer David Boies, most effective in his low-key manner demolishing Microsoft witnesses; and Judge Jackson, who liked to offer his blustery opinions even in the middle of witness testimony. I also remember the impressive journalists in the room, such as Ken Auletta, Steven Levy, and the late Wall Street Journal reporting legend John Wilke, the leader of our ragtag coverage army. They wrote many feature stories enlivened by the trial’s colorful protagonists.
Unless the Google case gets settled, we’ll surely have another grand drama. And hopefully a few good magazine stories! But the stakes for the future of tech, and the economy at large, seem so much lower.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com
NEWSWORTHY
Go big or go home. After seemingly failing to find a buyer, struggling short video service Quibi is adding a key new feature. Seems Kberg and the Whit now are amendable to letting their customers watch Quibi videos on television sets, not just phones. New Quibi apps are out for Apple TV, Amazon Fire devices and Google's Android TV platform.
It's OK, he already in my DMs. The New York State Department of Financial Services gave PayPal a “Bitlicense,” allowing the popular payments service to offer customers digital currencies. PayPal wants "to meaningfully contribute to shaping the role that digital currencies will play in the future of global finance and commerce,” CEO Dan Schulman says.
Turning the channel. On Wall Street, Netflix was a big disappointment. The streaming service added only 2.2 million new subscribers, far short of analyst estimates, and forecast another disappointing quarter for the rest of 2020. Netflix shares, previously up 62% this year, dropped 5% in pre-market trading on Wednesday. But messaging platform Snap impressed, with revenue growing 52% to $551 million. Its shares, already up 74% this year, leaped 21% higher in pre-market trading.
Come with me and I'll prove I'm innocent. Don't say Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez doesn't know how to shake up politics with some new ideas. She live-streamed playing a game of Among Us on Twitch on Tuesday, drawing 430,000 viewers, the third-largest audience ever on the service for an individual stream, Axios notes. AOC's goal was to promote voting.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Speaking of the game Among Us, it's a growing hit among teens banned from meeting IRL, as even my 16-year-old son told me the other day. New York Times ace Internet culture reporter Taylor Lorenz has the explainer you need to read.
Among Us is very different than other highly social video games like Fortnite, for instance. It’s more similar to a board game like Monopoly, or a party game like Werewolf, where players need to read personalities and determine if they’re being lied to in order to win. The large group size makes it easy to invite new friends into the group.
“You can meet a lot of people from Among Us, I’ve made a few friends off of it,” said Juan Alonso Flores, 17, a high school student in Florida. “Once you start playing with the same people you start getting to know each other. You get their phone numbers, Discord tags.”
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Google says it isn’t a dangerous monopoly. Here are its 4 key arguments By Danielle Abril
What could change at Google if the Department of Justice gets its way By David Z. Morris
Gloating, schadenfreude, and a pinch of anxiety: Critics pile on Google over antitrust indictment By Robert Hackett
Chelsea Clinton’s venture capital firm ramps up By Emma Hinchliffe
Microsoft partners with SpaceX on new push beyond the stratosphere By Jonathan Vanian
Can an A.I. algorithm help end unfair lending? This company says yes By Jeremy Kahn
How Adobe plans to fight the scourge of deepfakes By Jonathan Vanian
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
I don't think I've seen Stephen Colbert cry before, but the late night talk show host was reduced to tears on Tuesday by country legend Dolly Parton. She sang an impromptu version of Bury Me Beneath the Willow and if you watch this video of it, you may cry too (starting at the 5:45 mark). Just what we need on hump day.