fortune--2020-08-17--The U.S. Postal Service is seeking a patent for voting by phone

The U.S. Postal Service has been quietly exploring a high- tech approach to voting that involve mobile devices, QR codes and the ledger technology known as blockchain.
The possibilities are set out in a patent application that describes a range of scenarios, including one where voters register to vote with an app, then cast their ballot via a QR code received in the mail.
“The voter can receive the paper ballot and use a mobile device or other computer to scan the ballot with a camera. The voter can then use the mobile device to cast digital votes,” the patent application reads.
Other sections of the application describe how election officials could use blockchain technology to maintain voter rolls, and to ensure no one votes twice—all while also ensuring that who an individual chooses on their ballot remains a secret.
Here is a screenshot from the patent application that describes a step-by-step description of how someone could use their phone to vote:
In response to an inquiry from Fortune about whether the USPS plans to deploy the tech in upcoming elections, the agency provided few details.
“This is a pending patent,” said USPS spokesperson Roy Betts. “Nothing happens this year. We will have no further comment beyond what is covered in the filing,”
The agency sought the patent in 2018, and in keeping with Patent Office procedures, the application became public after 18 months. The application lists six inventors, including consultants from Deloitte and a former mail carrier.
The patent application reflects a high level of technical sophistication. This is especially so in regard to blockchain technology, which involves a type of software that creates an indelible, tamper-proof ledger across multiple computers.
Blockchains are most famously associated with the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, but are also being used in a wide variety of other applications, including finance and supply chains.
The USPS patent application, which was first reported by Forbes, doesn’t mention Bitcoin. But it does cite Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency, whose blockchain is used for a wide variety of purposes. (The application reads, “In some embodiments, the blockchain is based on the Ethereum open software platform.”)
The patent application also describes “Proof of Authority” as a possible “consensus mechanism” for verifying information like ballot results or voter rolls. In plain English, this implies that a group of pre-selected officials or government officers would have the authority to confirm the data on the blockchain.
The use of blockchain-based voting is not as novel as it sounds. The Utah Republican Convention used a blockchain voting service this spring, while the U.S. Senate has been exploring using the technology for remote voting.
But such efforts are a far cry from running national elections by means of mobile phones, blockchains and the Post Office. Even though the technology is highly secure—Bitcoin’s blockchain has never been hacked in a decade—it would require a massive education campaign among voters and election officials. It would also require a degree of trust among politicians and the electorate—trust that has been in short supply in light of President Trump’s recent, and unfounded, attacks on mail-in voting.


fortune--2020-08-17--‘It’s clicks versus bricks’: Why tech stocks won’t be fading anytime soon

Everything we know so far about the second round of stimulus checks

As the S&P 500 once again threatens to break through its all-time high, it’s no secret that large-cap tech stocks have been leading the way as far as market performance is concerned. And to some analysts, it seems increasingly likely that tech’s recent rally is just the latest chapter in a long-lasting trend in the markets.
By far the largest sector tracked by the S&P 500, with an aggregate market capitalization of $7.66 trillion, information technology stocks make up more than 27% of the benchmark index. By contrast, health care—the second-largest sector—carries a market cap of just under $4 trillion and represents only 14% of the index.
Tech stocks’ huge share of the index is both a result of and an explanation for the S&P 500’s rebound of more than 50% since its nadir during March’s historic, coronavirus-induced correction. In a market that has at times felt woefully disconnected from the struggles of the U.S. economy at large, blue-chip tech stocks have performed the best of all; the S&P’s information technology sector has climbed more than 25% year to date (compared to a 5% increase for the index at large), and 45% over the last 12 months (versus a 16% spike for the S&P 500).
Moving forward, it’s unlikely that dynamic will change much, according to analysts. Not only do big tech players continue to print money as far as their results are concerned, but the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated the importance of their services to the broader economy.
“I believe that [large-cap tech stocks] will continue to lead the market higher, because that’s where the cash flow is in this work-at-home and shop-at-home economy,” according to Marc Chaikin, founder of quantitative investment research firm Chaikin Analytics. “Right now, it’s clicks versus bricks.”
That influence will likely only grow in the coming years, even in a post-pandemic world, since that world will undoubtedly be altered by an acceleration toward automation and tech-enabled services. Tech investors, in turn, will be primed to benefit.
Chaikin adds that though the S&P 500 continues to run into “resistance” as it approaches its all-time peak of 3,386 points, the index should eventually surpass that barrier. “We are now looking for 3,500 to 3,600 [points] as a price target,” he notes.
After all, the S&P has started the month of August in fine form, having registered gains eight of 11 trading sessions thus far (it closed Monday’s session up marginally, gaining 0.3%).
“Historically, this early-month strength has been followed by further upsight through month-end,” according to Chaikin. “This is consistent with our view that we are experiencing a Fed-driven, gradual melt-up in stock prices.”


fortune--2020-08-17--U.S. puts new curbs on access by China’s Huawei to U.S. technology

The Commerce Department announced further restrictions on Huawei Technologies aimed at cutting the Chinese company’s access to commercially available chips, the latest move in an increasingly tense relationship between the world’s two biggest economies.
The changes, which the department announced in a written statement on Monday, build on restrictions announced in May, adding 38 Huawei affiliates in 21 countries to an economic blacklist as the U.S. seeks to limit adoption of the company’s 5G technology.
“We don’t want their equipment in the United States because they spy on us,” President Donald Trump said Monday in an interview on “Fox and Friends.”
The move is the latest tit-for-tat in escalating tensions between Washington and Beijing over everything from the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic to China’s increasingly tight grip over Hong Kong. Despite the U.S. decision, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said on Fox Business that talks with China continue on various levels.
The restrictions are likely to further hit both Huawei’s 5G base stations and smartphone businesses because it relies heavily on foreign chips to make those, further denting China’s ambition to play a key role in global rollout of 5G technology. Huawei’s stockpiles of certain self-designed chips essential to telecom equipment will run out by early 2021.
Nokia Oyj and Ericsson AB stand to benefit from Huawei’s further faltering in its 5G prowess, while domestic smartphone rivals including Xiaomi, Oppo and Vivo are likely to get a bigger pie of the Chinese market.
Ross said the action was aimed at closing loopholes the company explored after previous U.S. actions. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo praised the move as a “direct blow” against the Chinese Communist Party.
The company has long rejected accusations that its technology can be used to spy on foreign nations or companies.
All chip companies working for Huawei, no matter where they are, will be subject to licenses, a Commercial official said, adding that even foreign companies will be affected as long as they use U.S. design software and equipment.
That means major Asian and European chip companies such as MediaTek Inc., Samsung Electronics Co., NXP Semiconductors NV, and STMicroelectronics NV may need a license to continue shipping to Huawei, though the official declined to name any specific company.
There are few semiconductor companies in the world, including those in China, that do not rely on software from U.S.-based Synopsys Inc. and Cadence Design Systems Inc. to create blueprints for chips. Many companies that make physical chips, including China’s own Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp., use equipment from U.S.-based Applied Materials Inc. and Lam Reserach Corp.
‘Significant disruption’
Among Synopsys and Cadence’s customers, Taiwan’s MediaTek has become a main chip provider to Huawei after Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. said it will no longer ship chips to the Chinese company after Sept. 15. That’s due to the U.S.’s export-control rules added in May, which forbade companies from making chips based on Huawei’s design using American equipment.
John Neuffer, the president and chief executive officer of the U.S.’s Semiconductor Industry Association, said the rule “will bring significant disruption” to the sector.
“We are surprised and concerned by the administration’s sudden shift from its prior support of a more narrow approach intended to achieve stated national-security goals while limiting harm to U.S. companies,” Neuffer said in a statement. “We reiterate our view that sales of non-sensitive, commercial products to China drive semiconductor research and innovation here in the U.S., which is critical to America’s economic strength and national security.”
The latest U.S. restrictions on Huawei are negative for European chipmakers, JPMorgan Chase & Co. analysts said in a note, adding that a key risk for firms such as STMicroelectronics, AMS AG and Dialog Semiconductor PLC is Chinese retaliatory restrictions on major customer Apple Inc.
Additionally, assemblers that incorporate Huawei or third-party chips into their devices for the benefit of Huawei will also need to apply for a license, according to the Commerce official. That means Huawei smartphones assemblers, including Hong Kong-listed Foxconn subsidiary FIH Mobile Ltd., may be restricted by the new rules.


fortune--2020-08-17--Admit it: You miss being stuck in traffic

By CALIFORNIA TRAFFIC, as told to JOE MATHEWS
Admit it. You miss me, don’t you?
I know you’ve never liked me, and for that I’ve never blamed you. You Californians like to live your lives fast, and I’m all about slowing you down. So I try not to take it personally that you complain about me more than drought or Donald Trump.
Yes, I make you late to school and to work. I lengthen your brutal commutes. And I contribute to pollution that causes everything from asthma to climate change.
But give me this much: When COVID-19 came, and I took a vacation, California suddenly didn’t feel like California anymore.
Truth be told, under normal circumstances, California isn’t the most congested place in the U.S. Much of our giant state is empty, while Hawaii’s small island roads are packed. My fearsome reputation is really based on awful traffic in California’s giant urban regions.
At first, you celebrated my disappearance. The highways were wide open. The Bay Bridges weren’t jammed, and you could actually get from downtown San Diego to North County. Even when businesses reopened, traffic was less than 80% of normal statewide.
You were happy because you dwell on my costs—in gas, vehicle maintenance, air quality, and lives—without appreciating the benefits I provide. Now that those benefits have vanished, I wonder if you might give me more respect.
For starters, I’m the best excuse you have for your flakiness and irresponsibility. When you’re ludicrously late to school or work, or when you miss your brother’s wedding, all you need is to invoke me, traffic, and your fellow Californians will absolve you of your tardiness. Now in the pandemic, you probably don’t have to be anywhere, but if you do, and you’re late, you’ve got no excuse!
I also hope COVID has given you a more forgiving perspective on time. Transportation agencies like to issue studies that accuse me, traffic, of being a thief, by stealing 60-plus hours annually that you could spend with your families. But now that so many of you are stuck with your families all the time, I detect a new appreciation for all the quality time you used to spend stuck with me. I let you listen to whatever music you like, without ever complaining. Can your kids say the same?
That may seem trivial, but the carnage on our roads—more than 3,500 traffic deaths annually—is serious. And the pandemic suggests that my talent for congestion actually keeps you safer. In the early weeks of the lockdown, traffic accidents, injuries and deaths dropped. But since then, without me slowing people down, speeding drivers have made the roads much deadlier. Even with much less traffic, we’re on track to have just as many deaths on the roads as in 2019.
Controlling speeding is just one of the many social goods for which I, traffic, deserve more credit. Research shows that, despite conventional wisdom that traffic slows commerce, congestion is good for the economy and jobs. So you won’t escape economic depression without me.
I support millions of jobs directly, from car dealerships to car repair shops and car washes (I’m very proud of the fact that California leads the nation in per-capita car washes). But I also create positive economic incentives. I’m a force for innovation, encouraging the concentration of high-tech and other industries. And the gas taxes that drivers pay are how our society funds much of its transportation infrastructure, and the construction jobs that come with it.
And, contrary to popular belief, I’m also a huge proponent of public transportation. People get on trains and buses to avoid all the hassles and time loss of struggling through me. Transit ridership has completely collapsed, and that’s not all because of disease fears. I’m no longer there to scare drivers. My buddies L.A. Metro and BART have lost most of their ridership, and Caltrain, which connects San Francisco and San Jose by rail, may go under. Local and state governments will have to bail out transit systems until I can return to do my essential artery-clogging work.
I don’t limit my environmental work to supporting transit. Fear of my congestion also creates incentives for infill development in dense urban areas, and for people to live closer to work, to walk and bike more, and to use ridesharing rather than owning cars. Best of all, congestion, forces people to congregate in places where they can talk, plan a rally, or meet a significant other.
You may still hate me, but I create opportunities for you to fall in love!
That’s why I’m asking you to wear those masks and maintain social distance. The sooner California can beat back the pandemic, the sooner you and I can be together again.
Joe Mathews writes the Connecting California column for Zócalo Public Square.


fortune--2020-08-17--Recovery or double-dip recession? How the U.S. economy is doing in 9 charts

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The U.S. economy added 1.8 million jobs in July, one of the highest one-month jumps on record, bringing total employment to 139.6 million. While that is substantial progress compared to April, when only 130.3 million were employed, it’s still significantly less that the 152.5 million people who made up the U.S. paid workforce in February.
Simply put: Employment is improving, but it’s still really bad.
And that rate of recovery is destined to slow. Over the past few months hiring was driven by states reopening businesses, like nail salons and dental offices, which don’t attract huge crowds. But unless the virus is tamed, businesses that do and are therefore not able to fully reopen—including amusement parks, cruise lines, and bars—will hold back a broader recovery.
The economy also faces a series of headwinds: Expired $600 weekly federal pandemic assistance for around 30 million unemployed Americans threatens to drag down consumer spending—two-thirds of the economy—and looming business failures and household bankruptcies could cause a financial crisis. And unlike in March when the $2.2 trillion CARES Act was passed, this go-around Democratic and Republican leaders have thus far been unwilling to compromise on more economic stimulus.
To give Fortune readers a better understanding of where the economy is and where it’s heading, we rounded up nine charts of economic data we’ve been tracking throughout the crisis:
Jobless rate
The economic contraction following the March shutdowns was the sharpest in U.S. history: The jobless rate jumped from 3.5% in February—a 50-year low—to 14.7% in April——the highest level since 1940.
We’ve since shifted into a recovery that is moving faster than many economists expected. The unemployment rate dropped from 11.1% in June to 10.2% in July. That beats the timeline the Congressional Budget Office projected in May, when it forecasted a 9.5% unemployment rate at the end of 2021.
But the pace of job growth slowed during the summer. In June the economy added 4.8 million jobs, followed by 1.8 million in July.
Gross domestic product
Second quarter real GDP, in the period from April to June, declined by 32.9% from the preceding quarter, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. That’s the largest single quarterly decline on record for data going back to 1947 and represents more than $1 trillion in economic output wiped out by the coronavirus pandemic.
That 32.9% decline follows a 5% decline in the first quarter, which only included the first few weeks of the pandemic. But economists believe the worst is over. Indeed, Goldman Sachs projects third-quarter GDP will jump a record 25%, as the economy benefits from those states that were able to reopen. But even with that rebound, GDP would still end the year down 4.6%.
State-by-state unemployment rate


fortune--2020-08-17--Why hasn’t the S&P 500 hit a new high yet?

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When will the market post a new record?
The S&P 500 has been flirting with a new all-time high for the past week, briefly eclipsing the vaunted level on Aug. 12, before surrendering that high in afternoon trading most days (and again on Monday).
Yet, having already closed within 1% of that new record, some analysts say the S&P 500 hitting a new high—and soon—is inevitable.
“History tells us that whenever the S&P 500 closed within 1% of a new high, that milestone was eclipsed within an average of only eight calendar days,” CFRA’s Sam Stovall wrote in a note Monday. “The longest investors had to wait was 21 days. Should history repeat, and there’s no guarantee it will, the S&P 500 should set a new all-time high by the end of August.”
Indeed, when the S&P 500 finally does close above the 3,386 mark, a new bull market will officially begin—defined by either a new pre-bear market high or staying above a previous low for six months.
But for investors watching for that magic mark, it’s been a bit of a torturous back and forth.
“Today is the fifth day in a row that has either gotten right up to that all-time high or even broke through it just slightly, but it has yet to close above that,” Randy Frederick, Charles Schwab’s vice president of trading and derivatives, points out. “It’s not unlike what we saw just a few weeks ago when it was flirting with the year-to-date unchanged line, right around that 3230 line.”
While Frederick suggests those late pullbacks that have kept the index from closing at new highs may be due in part to program trades set up to sell when the index hits those levels, there may be bigger reasons as to why the S&P 500 is in new-record limbo.
“You would expect that when your market is at all-time highs, your economy is in really good shape. The reality is, it’s just not: This constant discussion about, ‘Wall Street’s doing great, Main Street is struggling,’ is true,” Frederick notes. “Those sorts of sentiments, I think, are kind of keeping this thing at bay.”
Indeed, although economic data is improving, the numbers are nothing to cheer: Last week, nearly 1 million people filed for initial unemployment claims, and in the absence of more stimulus, some suggest we may be readying for another wave of hurt for businesses and individuals come fall.
Meanwhile, Capitol Hill hasn’t been as quick to act on new stimulus. Frederick notes that, “for the most part, Washington seems to have put everything on the backburner aside from campaigning right now,” and in the absence of big economic data or earnings this week, “I don’t know what catalysts are out there to push [the market] higher at this moment.”
More volatility ahead
What has buoyed stock gains in the past few months could also be the thing to challenge them—and volatility in the markets may bubble back up if Congress doesn’t keep feeding investors’ expectations of new stimulus.
“A lot of the market rebound is based on the premise of continued stimulus. If there’s a hole in that argument for the markets, you might see a pullback or more volatility,” Edward Jones’ Nela Richardson recently told Fortune.
Additionally, analysts at Goldman Sachs wrote on Friday that the election poses “a significant risk” to the firm’s year-end estimate, while strategists at Glenmede Trust wrote in a note Monday that “implied volatility from options contract pricing suggests that investors are still bracing for COVID-19-related risks, [and] in addition, contracts expiring around the election appear to be pricing in additional volatility on top of that.”
Up, up, up and away?
But where will the markets go from here? If you ask Goldman Sachs, 7% higher by year’s end.
That’s because the firm sees the S&P 500 finishing 2020 at 3,600—up from its previous estimate of 3,000, analysts at the firm wrote in a research note Friday. For next year, the firm has a more optimistic view on earnings per share, too: Goldman estimates a 2021 EPS of $170, topping consensus of around $165.
At these levels, analysts at Goldman write that “share prices reflect not just the expected future stream of earnings but also the rate at which the profits are discounted to present value.” A big part of Goldman’s renewed optimism in the economy comes from “positive news on the vaccine front,” expecting at least one vaccine to be approved this side of the new year (and “widely distributed in the U.S. by mid-year 2021,” analysts wrote). And Frederick is also hopping on the optimism train: In fact, he believes that since this year’s market is tracking the trajectory of the 2009 recovery, the S&P 500 could even end the year at 3,700, he estimates.
Indeed, CFRA’s Stovall believes “this bull market still has much to look forward to, since six of the prior bull markets posted 12-month gains that exceeded the current bull’s recovery pace,” he wrote Monday.
But for the time being, Frederick wonders what will push it over the edge: “For it to be a sustainable catalyst that causes an uptick, I have a hard time imagining what that could be right now.”


fortune--2020-08-17--Fortnite’s maker said it will suffer ‘irreparable harm’ if Apple cuts it off to smartphone users

Epic Games asked a California federal court to immediately block Apple’s removal of Fortnite from its app store days after suing the iPhone maker and Google in what promises to be a blockbuster antitrust fight.
Epic also asked the court to stop Apple from terminating its developer account on Aug. 28 and cutting off the game maker off from iOS and Mac development tools. Epic said it will probably suffer irreparable harm if the court doesn’t order the Fortnite game app to be made available to smartphone users.
“The court cannot, on today’s motion, level the playing field against Apple,” Epic’s lawyers wrote in a court filing Monday. “But the court can order that while its practices are being litigated, Apple cannot retaliate by blocking Fortnite and tools for the Unreal Engine and harm the hundreds of millions who — especially in this time of social distancing — use Epic’s software to play, build and stay connected.”
The disagreement stems from a longstanding Apple App Store rule saying most apps must offer billing through Apple and pay the company 30% of revenue. On Thursday morning, Epic began offering customers a way to directly buy items for Fortnite and circumvent the fees. Hours later, Apple pulled the app, and Google followed suit later in the day.
Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.


fortune--2020-08-17--Hollywood looks to ‘game changer’ tech while facing COVID-related limitations

New LED video wall technology used in making last year’s “The Lion King” and “The Mandalorian” series could become more widespread as Hollywood production ramps back up during the pandemic.
Instead of shooting on location with a full cast and crew and navigating stringent social distancing requirements, it allows filmmakers on a studio lot to spread out individual scenes captured virtually using a variety of techniques.
Unlike a traditional “green screen,” the actor can see the background and cinematographers can match perspectives and camera parallax to look like a location shoot.
“The Lion King” visual effects supervisor Robert Legato calls the video wall and move toward virtual production a “game changer” that’s being embraced by necessity during the pandemic.
“It is something that was going to happen anyway. It just would have taken longer because there would be no need for it immediately. Some people, you know, are stuck in their ways,” the three-time Oscar winner said.
More than half of “The Mandalorian” scenes were filmed with the technology. Emmy-winning visual effects specialist Sam Nicholson says it represents a “natural evolution” in the Hollywood effects world, where new technologies have been embraced after past crises — including a clampdown on travel after the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks.
“We started taking shows like ’E.R, ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ and ‘Walking Dead’ and saying, ‘Look, we don’t have to be on location to actually shoot there.’ It’s easier to bring the location to the production than the production of a location,” Nicholson said.
He believes the pandemic will move Hollywood “from the Cecil B. DeMille era where ‘everything is real’ and going to more of a George Lucas era.”
“If you’re a producer, can you really afford to have your entire crew and actors go and be quarantined for two weeks before you start shooting?” he said.
Film production is just one of many industries that have had to adapt so people can go back to work in person.”
The “Avatar” sequels that recently resumed filming in New Zealand are also using virtual camera systems.
“We’ve been helping the ‘Avatar’ folks for a while,” said Dave Hoffman of Blackmagic, an Australian company that makes cameras and video production hardware.
Director Thea Sharrock had to rely on virtual production to finish her latest film, Disney’s “The One and Only Ivan,” and she found the process “peculiar.”
“We had one extra element that we had to do with music that we had to deal with via Zoom, which was extraordinary and weird and peculiar not being in the room with people,” Sharrock said.
She added: “Doing what we do is all about collaboration. It’s all about being in a room with people, and that’s how you get the work done. That’s how you push projects forward. So, it’s very, very peculiar.”
Nicholson shares a similar feeling. While he understands these technologies can help resume production during the pandemic, he doesn’t see it as a complete substitute for returning to a normal workflow.
“It does represent a fundamental change in production towards the virtual realm where anything is possible. But by saying anything is possible, you still have to put the story up front. You still have to put the acting up front and use it as a supportive tool to put the wrapping on the story,” Nicholson said.
Still, virtual production can provide a viable solution during the pandemic, and perhaps become a useful production technique moving forward.
Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who stars in the new Netflix film “Project Power,” agrees: “It’s about sort of finding a good pairing between the tech you’re using and the story you’re trying to tell,” he said.
Gordon-Levitt’s “Project Power” co-star Rodrigo Santoro has worked on visual effects-heavy productions including the “300″ films and “Westworld.” He sees others in the industry open to adapting.
“The thing with the CGI, especially now during the pandemic, (is) that it’s teaching us so many lessons and so many things about how we can reinvent ourselves,” Santoro said.


fortune--2020-08-17--American Express just bought most of online upstart Kabbage

American Express is acquiring the teams and technology behind the online lender Kabbage as the credit-card giant seeks to provide more loans and other services to small-business owners.
Details of the acquisition talks emerged last week, and AmEx said Monday in a statement that the deal won’t include Kabbage’s pre-existing loan portfolio. Those loans, including ones tied to the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program, will be managed and retained by a dedicated entity when the deal is completed, AmEx said. It didn’t disclose other terms of the transaction.
AmEx has been encouraging its credit-card customers to borrow more on its products, and is now bringing that strategy to its small-business unit. Already the largest credit-card issuer in that sector, AmEx will use the deal to offer more cash-flow management tools and working-capital products to mom and pop operations.
“The current crisis has been hard on small businesses — in many ways they’re at the epicenter of this Covid crisis,” Anna Marrs, president of global commercial services at AmEx, said in an interview. “We believe that, over the long term, providing small businesses what they need to help them manage their cash flow and payments will continue to be an important growth area.”
Small businesses have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, which has prompted widespread shutdowns across the country. Even before the crisis, the Federal Reserve classified just 35% of U.S. small businesses as “healthy” — meaning they are profitable, have higher credit scores and use retained business earnings to fund their operations.
Bloomberg reported last week that AmEx was seeking to acquire Kabbage in an all-cash deal that would value the lender at as much as $850 million, according to a person familiar with the matter. Kabbage, which is backed by investors including SoftBank Group Corp.’s Vision Fund and Reverence Capital Partners, was most recently valued at more than $1 billion after SoftBank plowed $250 million into the lender in 2017.
Kabbage Chief Executive Officer Rob Frohwein said AmEx’s “card dominance provides a phenomenal base” to build strong customer relationships. “So we sort of feed off each other in a way that’s helping small businesses focus on their business and allowing us to help them with all things financial,” he said in an interview.


fortune--2020-08-17--Nearly half of parents support sending their kids back to campus

The consequences of keeping schools physically closed are enormous: Many parents can’t work because they can’t afford childcare, and many young children will forgo critical social development. But if schools do reopen in person, public health officials worry that could result in more virus outbreaks.
Fortune and Civis Analytics teamed up to survey more than 7,266 U.S. adults between July 17 and Aug. 10 to find out where Americans, and in particular parents, stand on schools and colleges reopening in person.
Parents are split on reopening schools. Just under half of K–12 parents (48%) think K–12 schools should reopen in person (only 32% of all U.S. adults agree). The support is strikingly lukewarm, considering the burden stay-at-home kids could place on parents.


fortune--2020-08-17--How to watch the Democratic National Convention this week

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Monday evening marks the official start of the Democratic National Convention, an event that for the first time will be mostly digital. The DNC will shape the platform of the party for the next four years and culminate in the official nomination of Joe Biden as the left’s choice for President alongside California Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate on Thursday evening.
During a typical, non-pandemic convention week, Democrats would hold hundreds of in-person events, host thousands of members of the media, and mingle at parties galore. Events will certainly be more subdued this year, with the majority of coverage and attendance coming from people sitting in their living rooms instead of ballrooms in Wisconsin. Still, they’re happening, albeit in a less showy fashion.
Democrats plan on broadcasting two hours of live speeches and programming each night, coming from speakers around the country without live audiences. There will be no clapping, cheering, laughter, and Hillary Clinton will not dance to the Macarena. During the day, caucus and council meetings will also be open to viewers.
So how do you watch? Simply head over to demconvention.com, where you’ll be able to watch the curated main feed under the “Watch” tab at the top, or click on the “Schedule” tab and then the “Watch the Livestream” button under every event’s listing.
Scheduling highlights with the link to watch
Monday, Aug. 17, 9–11 p.m. (all times ET)
Speeches by Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Rep. Jim Clyburn, Rep. Gwen Moore, Sen. Doug Jones, Sen. Bernie Sanders, and first lady Michelle Obama. Performances by Maggie Rogers and Leon Bridges.
Tuesday, Aug. 18, 9–11 p.m.
Speeches by former acting U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, former Secretary of State John Kerry, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester, former President Bill Clinton, and former second lady Jill Biden.
Wednesday, Aug. 19, 9–11 p.m.
Speeches by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Gov. Tony Evers, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, Sen. Kamala Harris as she accepts the vice presidential nomination, and former President Barack Obama. Performances by Billie Eilish and Jennifer Hudson.
Thursday, Aug. 20, 9–11 p.m.
Speeches by Sen. Cory Booker, Pete Buttigieg, Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Sen. Tammy Duckworth, Sen. Chris Coons, and Andrew Yang. Performance by the Chicks.
10–11 p.m.
Former Vice President Joe Biden accepts the Democratic nomination and speaks about his vision for America.


fortune--2020-08-17--The hottest temperature in history may have been recorded Sunday in Death Valley. Why the data is co

The hottest temperature in history may have been recorded Sunday in Death Valley. Why the data is confusing

Death Valley National Park hit a worrying milestone Sunday. The temperature near the park’s Furnace Creek Visitor Center hit 130 degrees Fahrenheit.
The reading is considered preliminary, according to Weather.com, and will be subject to review. But it may be the hottest temperature ever reliably recorded on the surface of the Earth.
Sunday’s Death Valley high came alongside a devastating heat wave across much of the West and Southwest United States. In California, the heat has created a huge surge in electricity demand, resulting in intermittent blackouts. In the Phoenix area, where temperatures rose as high as 117 degrees late last week, at least 25 deaths have been attributed to the heat wave.
Weather authorities also confirmed last week that July 2020 was tied for the second-hottest month on record, just behind July 2019 and tied with July 2016. Meteorologists say the readings are a clear indication of human-caused climate change, prompted largely by the burning of fossil fuels, which sends huge amounts of carbon into the atmosphere, in turn trapping more heat on the Earth’s surface.
The consequences of climate change extend beyond higher temperatures. This is also expected to be a record-setting year for the late summer and early fall hurricane season, which is expected to produce as many as twice the normal number of major storms. Warming oceans are believed to increase the intensity of hurricanes.
If confirmed, Sunday’s Death Valley temperature would not be an official all-time high: A few other readings of 130 degrees or more have been recorded since reliable weather tracking began in the early 20th century. But all of those readings have been disputed by experts. So if it holds up to expert review, Death Valley’s Sunday high may become the hottest ever reliably recorded anywhere on Earth.
The most notable past extreme temperature high was a reading of 134 degrees Fahrenheit made on July 10, 1913, also taken in Death Valley during a heat wave. But climatologist William Reid in 2016 argued that this temperature was “not possible from a meteorological perspective” and concluded that the 1913 readings were likely errors.
The previous world record high of 136 degrees Fahrenheit, recorded in 1922 in Libya, had already been discredited by the World Meteorological Organization.
Another contender for the all-time high was a reading of 131 degrees Fahrenheit taken in Tunisia in July 1931. But according to Weather.com, that temperature has also been disputed because of equipment error.
The average global temperature for 2019 was 1.78 degrees Fahrenheit above historical averages, according to NASA. The Paris Climate accord, which went into effect in 2016, was aimed at curbing global carbon emissions enough to limit the rise in global temperatures to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (two degrees Celsius) over the next century. But the Trump administration started the withdrawal of the U.S. from the agreement, and a 2019 report found signatory countries were not keeping their commitments, putting the world on track for temperatures up to seven degrees Fahrenheit (four degrees Celsius) above historical averages.
The same report predicted this change will incur $2 billion per day in economic losses.


fortune--2020-08-17--Americans don’t trust contact tracing apps. Here’s how we can fix that

With COVID-19 cases climbing across the U.S. and manual contact tracing efforts to stem the spread of the disease faltering, officials are turning to a tech solution that nearly four dozen countries have adopted: digital contact tracing apps.
In the coming weeks, over 20 states and localities in the U.S. plan to roll out COVID-19 contact tracing apps based on a model developed by Google and Apple—one that relies on a phone’s Bluetooth signal to exchange digital handshakes with other devices in a six-foot range.
The data collected from the app is stored within a user’s phone, rather than on a government server, and only when an app user is diagnosed with COVID-19 are they asked by health authorities to share the data in the app so that others can be alerted to a possible infection. These apps become more effective at preventing the spread of COVID-19 if more people download and use them. Despite some countries’ botched rollouts, Ireland has shown that it’s possible to get a large percentage of the public to use these apps.
But deploying contact tracing apps is an uphill battle in the U.S.: Americans are still too distrustful of contact tracing apps for them to be effective. That means public health authorities have a lot of work to do to allay the public’s fear before they can deploy this technology.
In a study of 2,000 Americans, fielded between June 25 and 26, 2020, we found that 42% supported the adoption of contact tracing apps. Support was lower for digital contact tracing than for five other public health surveillance policies: temperature checks, traditional contact tracing, centralized quarantine, immunity passes for public transit, and electronic device monitoring.
In open-ended survey responses, many respondents expressed concerns about the government tracking their location or retaining their data for future use. “Another step toward socialism,” one wrote. “I don’t want the government…knowing every little thing I do.” Similarly, another reported that “I despise seeing our Constitution shredded to pieces by people who do not have our best at heart.” Others warned that “tracking people via phone would never end” and that the app would put “too much power in the wrong hands.”
Consistent with this, we also found higher support for hypothetical contact tracing apps that incorporate privacy protections. We used conjoint analysis, a tool used in marketing research, to figure out which features make apps more appealing to the public. We find that the public is more willing to use apps, like those supported by the Google-Apple API, that store user data on phones rather than on a central server. Forty-four percent of respondents say they would download a hypothetical app that stores data on users’ phones, compared with 39% when the app was described as storing data on a central server. This is good news given that the Google-Apple API has emerged as the dominant model—in contrast to earlier efforts by governments in Asia and the U.K. that involved centralized data storage—among public health authorities rolling out digital contact tracing in the U.S.
Although the Google-Apple API had been designed with privacy in mind, there are still fixes to be made before rolling out apps in the U.S. For instance, Google needs to ensure that enabling Bluetooth on Android phones does not automatically turn on location tracking. Public health authorities need to make sure that the public understands what the technology is doing. Even if an app is privacy-preserving, the public may not perceive it as such. After all, the public has reasons for their distrust: Apps that have been deployed so far in the U.S. track GPS location data. Even more shockingly, North Dakota’s contact tracing app (released prior to the Google-Apple API) had sent location data and unique user identifiers to Foursquare and other data to Google, despite promising not to send data to third parties. Such violations of user privacy will likely turn potential users away.
Beyond privacy concerns, political polarization could impact adoption of contact tracing apps, just as wearing masks has become a partisan issue. In our survey, 47% of Democrats and 46% of Republicans support the government encouraging everyone to download and use contact tracing apps. But 39% of Republicans, compared with 27% of Democrats, oppose such a policy. These partisan divisions could increase over time as public awareness of digital contact tracing grows. Republican governors and elites have a window to stave this off by encouraging adoption and emphasizing privacy-preserving features.
Finally, public health officials must recognize that many Americans, often those who are the most vulnerable to COVID-19, cannot use contact tracing apps. For instance, only 53% of those who are 65 and above own smartphones. Smartphone ownership is also lower among those with lower levels of education and income, who are also more likely to be working “essential” service jobs. To protect these populations, public health authorities should continue to invest in improving manual contact tracing. In our survey, we find that Black Americans are less supportive of expanding traditional contact tracing compared with white Americans. Considering these survey results, states should recruit and train contact tracers who can effectively communicate to those in minority communities who are overpoliced and may fear overreach by the government.
The deployment of contact tracing apps need not be a disaster. Ireland’s app, using the Google-Apple API, has become a relative success. As of July 31, 37% of Ireland’s population over the age of 15 has downloaded the app. Given its success, which has been attributed to trust in government and a positive user experience, Ireland donated the code for its app to the Linux Foundation Public Health initiative so that other countries can build similar apps.
The basis of Ireland’s success—trust in government and a positive user experience—highlights challenges facing adoption in the U.S., where trust in government is at an all-time low. Although technology can address the user experience, there are no easy tech fixes to trust in government.
Fortunately, trust in local and state governments remains high. Upcoming contact tracing rollouts would be wise to emphasize the local and state basis for app implementation. Rolled out along these lines, the U.S. is more likely to find that the answer to its national public health crisis resides in a patchwork of local success stories.
Sarah Kreps and Baobao Zhang are political scientists at Cornell University.
Nina McMurry is a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


fortune--2020-08-17--Another casualty of the pandemic: We’re ‘drowning’ in single-use plastics again

The COVID-19 pandemic has pushed efforts to reduce or ban single-use plastics back by years—and the culprit isn’t simply due to a rise in takeaway containers and disposable face masks.
A whole host of shifts, from the rapid fall in oil prices—making “virgin” plastics cheaper—to the economic toll on waste management companies and municipalities, to delays in local bans and restrictions, are expected to limit our collective ability to abolish plastic waste, Jefferies analysts said in a report on Monday.
“Bans and taxes have been rolled back, physical and chemical recycling activity has decreased, and virus concerns may have reduced consumers’ desire to minimize consumption of single-use plastics,” the report, entitled “Drowning in Plastics,” said.
The most surprising twist, the analysts found, may be that our own plastic consumption isn’t the root of the problem.
While take-away meals, supermarket binge shopping, and disposable face masks have all produced new gluts of plastic waste, that increase has been mostly (if not entirely) offset by the economic hits elsewhere from the pandemic: declines in plastic use for the industrial and commercial businesses that have seen business decline, Jefferies analysts said.
In the U.S., even the fresh wave of PPE—which is made of plastic fibres, and cannot be recycled—has likely so far been offset by the decline in other kinds of medical waste, the report found, as surgeries were delayed, and emergency visits fell.
But the bigger picture is more worrying. The pandemic is hitting hard the firms that collect and process plastics for recycling. And laws expanding restrictions on plastic use are being moth-balled by policymakers whose attention is needed elsewhere—this, despite a widespread consumer backlash against such waste. And then there’s the riddle of making recycling plastic an economically feasible activity, particularly during a pandemic.
“Even in the developed world, standards of waste treatment have gone down, with COVID-19 significantly affecting the waste services sector, and particularly the recycling industry,” the report said. “Companies have been hit by a myriad of factors including staffing limitations, forced closures, budget cuts, unfavorable regulations, low oil prices, and lower demand.”
The steep drop in oil prices, as the pandemic and ensuing lockdown and financial crises have cut into air travel and industrial activity, has also made newly made, or “virgin”, plastic cheaper, as their base are the petrochemicals produced with oil products. Because recycled plastics’ costs are fixed, they get no financial benefit when oil prices fall, and so are more expensive in comparison to fresh plastic, the report noted. Steep investment in petrochemicals processing by oil and gas companies is likely to only make that dichotomy more extreme.
A local issue
The strains of the pandemic have hit not just the waste management companies, but also the cities and regions who employ them, including in collection. Many regions in the U.S. were already cutting or eliminating recycling programs, particularly after China and other countries restricted or banned imports of foreign waste.
That trend now looks set to continue. The impact on public finances has made recycling programs vulnerable, while the shift from commercial to residential waste has challenged collection logistics, alongside worries that collection programs could spread the virus. While the EU’s new waste tax policy will sharply restrict single-use plastics, cuts, delays or outright suspensions to recycling collection programs have been announced in the U.K., as well as U.S. cities from Denver to Anchorage, the report noted. Companies including Target and Whole Foods are trying t do their part, restricting or banning reusable cups, bags or other goods. But, given the new reality, such gestures may come up far short of what’s needed.
Meanwhile, fresh gluts of PPE are not only not recyclable, but have been tainting waste collection, and have become a significant source of public litter, the analysts said.
The delayed momentum to restrict plastic has clear implications. According to a joint study from U.K. researchers released in July, at current “business as usual” rates, the pace of plastic entering the world’s oceans will triple by 2040.


fortune--2020-08-17--Most Americans plan to continue at-home workouts even once gyms fully reopen

Even as gyms slowly begin to welcome back guests in scattered areas across the country, the at-home, virtual workout session is a new mainstay in personal fitness.
Nine in 10 Americans who exercise regularly say they will continue with at-home workouts even after they feel comfortable returning to a gym in the future, according to a new survey from Beachbody, a Santa Monica–based health and fitness company. The Future of Fitness survey was conducted by Wakefield Research from July 24 through July 29, among 1,000 U.S. adults who said they exercise regularly.
“Whether it be for 10 minutes or a full hour-long routine, there is something very gratifying about discovering the convenience of just rolling out of bed, enjoying a pre-workout drink, and immediately pushing ‘Play’ on a workout of your choice,” says Carl Daikeler, CEO of the Beachbody Co. “Since the start of the pandemic, tens of millions of people have experienced effective, virtual workouts in their own living rooms, and our nutrition and fitness programs have been used more widely as working out at home has become an essential aspect of staying healthy.”
As more Americans have opened up to the idea of working out at home after gyms and fitness centers were forced to shut down amid the outbreak of COVID-19 earlier this year, their perceptions of the experience have changed drastically. An overwhelming majority (90%) described their at-home fitness routines as effective, including a majority (54%) who said their routines have been very or extremely effective. City dwellers, especially, have embraced home workouts the most, with 77% working out three times a week or more, and 66% having found their at-home workouts extremely or very effective.
“The new normal has set in, and many have found a number of positive aspects of working out from home. And for some, things are working better than before,” says Brent Leffel, co–managing partner of Equity38, a private investment firm in the health and wellness space, and executive chairman at TRX Training, a suspension weight training program. “They say it takes two months for a new behavior to become automatic. We are well past that. There’s also been a lot of published research suggesting many consumers will not be returning to gyms when they do reopen.”
Work(out) from home
The onset of COVID-19 rapidly accelerated the workout-from-home trend, which had been building slowly for years, Leffel says. Americans have been forced to figure out how to exercise differently as gyms closed and remote and virtual work set in. Virtual fitness accelerated a decade in a matter of weeks, he continues, and consumers scrambled to secure fitness equipment and accessories for home use while gyms and boutique studios scrambled to deliver streaming content to members.
“This pandemic has caused a lot of uncertainty around the world. Not knowing when the pandemic will be behind us and when daily activities will be considered safe again weighs heavily on the minds of many,” says Dannah Bollig, founder of the DE Method, an online-based workout program. “Even when things are considered ‘normal,’ there will still be some skepticism and hesitation about jumping right back into daily life as we knew it pre-pandemic.”
The DE Method, described by the company as “the anywhere gym,” is an on-demand subscription service using resistance bands and exercise balls. Bollig, a certified personal trainer and former Division I athlete, created the exercise program with her husband, Brandon, a former professional hockey player for the Calgary Flames and Chicago Blackhawks. The subscription offers access to more than 40 workouts for anyone, anytime, and anywhere—with new content added every Monday. Bollig says her circuit-style training paired with the DE Method, involving a set of five resistance bands, is designed specifically to gain lean muscle but, more important, to be used as a healthy outlet mentally, physically, and emotionally.
Bollig says the program has grown in popularity since its launch in April. “People are resilient and have found ways to stay fit and active during quarantine through at-home workouts,” she says. “The more you work out at home, the more you realize just how feasible, convenient, and easy it is to fit into your daily schedule—let alone the thought that using community gym equipment is not currently safe or appealing. I truly believe at-home workouts are here to stay.”
One of the most obvious benefits to working out at home versus the gym: You don’t actually have to go anywhere. The Beachbody survey found 85% of respondents underscored the convenience and accessibility benefits of working out at home. “The thought of walking down the stairs sounds a lot more appealing than sitting in traffic on the way to the gym,” Bollig says. “These days every minute is accounted for. Another great benefit of an at-home workout is the flexibility it affords. How incredible to be able to complete a workout in the comfort of your own home while your toddler is down for a nap or even between Zoom calls.”
Before COVID, Leffel said he dedicated 90 minutes to “fitness” every day but only about 45 minutes to actually working out. “I would spend approximately 30 to 45 minutes of my ‘fitness’ time every day packing a gym bag, driving back and forth to the gym, parking, and so approximately 45 minutes remained for actually working out,” he explains.
Now, he can roll out of bed, head into his garage, and log into a class via Zoom with London-based trainers and friends all over the country. “We talk a little smack, get an intense workout in with our TRX Suspension Trainers, elastic resistance bands, and kettlebells, and 60 minutes later, I’m having breakfast with my kids,” he says. “And I get to see a bunch of my friends every morning who I wouldn’t otherwise connect with.”
Beachbody has seen approximately 1.36 million sign-ups for its on-demand streaming workout programs since the start of the pandemic, and a 79% increase in the number of workouts being streamed daily on its platform.
“We found that the top benefits of working out at home for Americans who exercise are that it’s more convenient, more private, and less expensive,” Daikeler says. “We are also seeing more people choosing to keep each other motivated and accountable in ‘virtual groups,’ which is a behavior that is not likely to change.”
The new home gym
Despite the economic downturn, consumers have been splurging on large, expensive at-home fitness equipment as they continue to work and workout from home. Hydrow, an at-home rowing startup peddling $2,220 machines, saw sales rise 400% in April compared with January, and as Fortune’s Lucinda Shen reported in June, the company recently raised $25 million in venture capital funding.
Peloton, which already had a cult following for its on-demand and live-streamed classes for its proprietary stationary bike and treadmill well before the pandemic, has seen its membership base and engagement rates soar over the past few months. In April, the company broke its previous record for the most participants in a live class when it introduced its “Live From Home” content series: More than 23,000 people joined the first class, taught by head instructor and vice president of fitness programming Robin Arzón. And Peloton’s All-Access subscribers, paying $39 a month for membership, are averaging 18 workouts per month, up from 13 at this time last year.
“We’ve always viewed the shift toward fitness from home as a permanent and positive trend, long before this pandemic forced gyms and boutique fitness studios to close,” says Tom Cortese, cofounder, chief operating officer, and head of product at Peloton. “As more people recognize that they can have access to better instructors, better classes, better equipment, and get a better workout without the commute, all at a better value, there is little reason to go back to the gym.”
And even companies not traditionally involved with fitness are picking up on the at-home workout fervor. Bloomberg reported on Aug. 13 that Apple may release a virtual fitness subscription app across its iOS devices in October. The reported service would potentially be part of a broader Apple subscription including Apple TV+, Apple Music, and Apple News.
Certainly, the pandemic and life in quarantine has changed how people exercise, but that doesn’t mean gyms are going away. Fitness was a $34 billion industry in 2019, and an estimated 20% of Americans have a membership to some kind of fitness club, according to the International Health, Racquet & Sportsclub Association (IHRSA). And similar to how consumers can go to restaurants for pickup or delivery but not indoor table service, the social experience just isn’t the same for an at-home workout versus going to the gym.
“The decision to go back to the gym may be more for the gratification of socializing than getting the most efficient workout. But gyms and fitness studios will continue to reopen around the country, and they will continue to play a vital role in Americans’ fitness routines,” Beachbody’s Daikeler says. “What we expect to see is a greater hybrid between physical-gym and digital-exercise routines becoming the new normal within the industry, as an overwhelming majority of consumers have found their at-home workouts to be effective, with nearly half saying they’ve exceeded their expectations.”
And Americans expect gyms will continue to be a vital part of working out, according to the Beachbody survey, with 61% of respondents saying they will eventually feel comfortable heading back to the gym. But more than 63% of Americans who exercise regularly say they will likely prefer a mix of working out in a gym as well as at home in the future.
“Although I do believe it will take some time for individuals to be 100% comfortable returning to the gym, fitness centers that follow all CDC guidelines, including mandatory mask wearing, may have an easier time enticing customers and gym-goers to return to their pre-COVID training style,” Bollig says. “It’s imperative to keep their members safe by constant and thorough cleaning of all equipment, locker rooms, and lobbies.”


fortune--2020-08-17--Robinhood raises $200M as IPO speculation swirls

The popular stock trading app Robinhood announced on Monday that it raised a $200 million Series G funding round from a new investor, D1 Capital Partners.
According to Robinhood, the new cash infusion values the startup at $11.2 billion—a significant jump from the $8.6 billion valuation it received last month when it raised $320 million.
All of this comes amid chatter about Robinhood going public in coming months, as well as scrutiny of how the company makes money. Since it launched in 2013, Robinhood has shaken up the brokerage industry by pioneering zero-commission trades, and by relying on a slick mobile interface.
In the absence of revenue from commissions, Robinhood relies heavily on generating income from “payment for order flow,” a controversial practice that involves selling blocks of customer orders to market makers like Citadel Securities.
While critics say such arrangements are a disservice to customers, some observers have made the case that payment for order flow can benefit retail investors by securing them more favorable prices.
In any case, the practice has proved lucrative for Robinhood, earning the startup $180 million in the second quarter alone. Payment for order flow brings in the lion’s share of the company’s revenue, but Robinhood also makes money in a number of other ways. Those include subscription income from its premium Robinhood Gold product; interest on cash in customers’ accounts; lending stock; and fees from use of its debit card.
The company has not disclosed whether it is profitable.
The new $11.2 billion valuation also represents a vote of confidence in Robinhood, which has incurred a number of setbacks earlier this year. These include technical meltdowns that knocked the company’s website offline during periods of high trading in March.
Robinhood has also come in for significant criticism over what detractors describe as a casino-like interface—including displays of confetti when customers make a trade—that encourages irresponsible trading. This criticism peaked earlier this summer after a 20-year-old committed suicide after incurring a negative balance of $730,000 while engaging in complicated options trading.
In response, Robinhood has placed new emphasis on educating investors on its platforms in an attempt to prevent customers from getting in over their heads. In announcing the Series G funding round, the company noted that the number of customers using its educational Resources page has increased 250% in recent months.
The company did not provide specifics on how it will use the new $200 million in funding, beyond stating that the money will be used to improve its products and customer experience.
With the Series G round, Robinhood has raised a total of $1.7 billion to date, according to Crunchbase. The company’s founders have long pledged to pursue an IPO, and Robinhood has appeared on numerous lists of startups expected to go public this year, but the company has yet to offer specific details of these plans.


fortune--2020-08-17--Amazon punished sellers for price gouging during lockdown. Germany is checking if that was legal

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Amazon has a long history with Germany’s antitrust authority, and now the watchdog is probing the e-commerce behemoth yet again.
This time it’s about the inflated prices that some third-party sellers charged on Amazon’s platform in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
The issue isn’t so much the high prices themselves—a problem that earned Amazon a class action lawsuit back home in the U.S.—but rather the fact that Amazon responded by punishing the sellers.
Amazon has been open and indeed bullish about suspending seller accounts over the offense of price gouging during the early COVID-19 lockdowns. CEO Jeff Bezos said in April that it had kicked out more than 6,000 sellers around the world, turning over some of their information to U.S. state attorneys general offices. Amazon is also lobbying Congress for a federal price-gouging law.
In Germany, this campaign could turn out to be illegal, given Amazon’s growing power in the country’s e-commerce market.
“Due to high prices, some dealers were kicked out of the system,” Kay Weidner, a spokesman for Germany’s Federal Cartel Office, told Fortune Monday. “We wanted Amazon to explain to us this price-monitoring system they have, and why they have it.
“We sent out a couple questions to Amazon. They answered quite comprehensively, and we are now evaluating” those answers, Weidner said, while declining to give a timeline for that evaluation.
The investigation was first made public in a Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung interview with Andreas Mundt, the Federal Cartel Office’s president.
The penalty
If the Federal Cartel Office decides that Amazon is breaking German antitrust law, it could in theory fine the company, though history suggests that it is pretty successful at getting Amazon to change its behavior instead.
Back in 2013, the German antitrust watchdog forced Amazon to change its terms and conditions for third-party sellers: The company previously banned sellers from charging less for their wares on other online platforms, compared with the prices they set on Amazon.
And just last year, the Federal Cartel Office forced Amazon to amend the terms it gave sellers regarding liability, jurisdiction, and confidentiality—this time across the world.
This latest probe isn’t even the first to take place in the context of the pandemic.
According to Weidner, some sellers also complained when, in the early days of the COVID-19 outbreak lockdown, Amazon prioritized the shipping of certain essential products over other wares. Amazon responded to the Federal Cartel Office’s questions, and the watchdog came away satisfied with the firm’s response.
“Amazon selling partners set their own product prices in our store,” an Amazon spokesperson said in an emailed statement regarding the investigation that is now ongoing.
“We want customers to buy with confidence anytime they make a purchase on Amazon.de, and we have policies to help ensure selling partners are pricing their products competitively,” the spokesperson said. “Our systems are designed to take action against price gouging. If selling partners have concerns, we encourage them to contact our selling partner support.”
Amazon is also being investigated by the European Commission’s antitrust directorate, which wants to see whether Amazon is using data from third-party sellers on its platform to better promote its own products. The Wall Street Journal reported in June that formal antitrust charges may be looming on that front.
Antitrust issues aside, Amazon has had a string of labor issues in Germany. Strikes are fairly regular events at Amazon’s logistics warehouses, and—as in France—that trend has been continuing during the pandemic.
At the end of June, workers at six of Amazon’s German facilities went on strike for two days, owing to safety fears that followed the infection of dozens of their colleagues.


fortune--2020-08-17--Facebook under scrutiny following report that it was soft on India hate speech post

Facebook Inc. is facing a backlash in India after being accused of going soft on the alleged hate speech of a lawmaker belonging to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party to protect its business interests in its biggest market by users.
Now, a committee of lawmakers that scrutinizes issues relating to the technology industry wants to question Facebook, Shashi Tharoor, a lawmaker from the opposition Congress party who heads the committee, said in an email to Bloomberg News.
“The subject is serious because of Facebook’s extensive reach in India and the potential for hate speech to incite violence and other unlawful behavior,” Tharoor said. He would seek “explanations from Facebook.”
A controversy broke out over the weekend following a Wall Street Journal report that Facebook deleted anti-Muslim posts by BJP lawmaker Raja Singh and three other Hindu nationalists only after being questioned by the paper. Current and former Facebook employees told the paper that Facebook’s head of public policy Ankhi Das opposed the deletion of the posts despite being flagged internally as breaching standards.
Das, an influential executive at Facebook India, was cited by the paper as telling employees that acting against a colleague of Prime Minister Narendra Modi could hurt the company’s business prospects.
Following the weekend’s events, Das filed a police complaint on Monday saying she was facing threats, abuse and bullying on social media following the WSJ report, according to news website NDTV. She did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The WSJ report set off a furor in India with Congress Party leader Rahul Gandhi saying in a tweet that the BJP and its right wing affiliate Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh were “controlling” Facebook and its messaging platform, WhatsApp, in India. The country’s IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad counter-accused the Congress of being caught red handed in an alliance with Cambridge Analytica and Facebook to “weaponize data.”
The Menlo Park, California-based technology behemoth denied any favoritism to political parties. “We prohibit hate speech and content that incites violence and we enforce these policies globally without regard to anyone’s political position or party affiliation,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in an emailed statement. “While we know there is more to do, we’re making progress on enforcement and conduct regular audits of our process to ensure fairness and accuracy.”
Facebook has over 300 million users in India, while WhatsApp is the leader in messaging with over 400 million users. In April this year, Facebook invested $5.7 billion to buy a 9.9% stake in Jio Platforms, the telecom and internet unit of energy-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd. owned by India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani. Facebook’s Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg called the investment an “important moment” for the company.


fortune--2020-08-17--Diageo’s purchase of Ryan Reynolds–backed Aviation Gin is a turning point for the flooded celebrity-

Diageo’s purchase of Ryan Reynolds–backed Aviation Gin is a turning point for the flooded celebrity-branded liquor market

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Diageo announced Monday it plans to acquire Aviation American Gin, which is co-owned by actor Ryan Reynolds, among other liquors sold by Davos Brands.
The total consideration is up to $610 million, which includes an initial payment of $335 million and a further potential consideration of up to $275 million, based on the performance of Aviation Gin over a 10-year period. Diageo said in a statement that this financial plan reflects the brand’s current growth trajectory and expected upside potential. The transaction is expected to close before the end of 2020. Reynolds will retain an ongoing ownership interest in Aviation Gin.
Founded in Portland, Ore., with inspiration for the company dating back to 2005, Aviation Gin has historically described itself as an “American gin,” boasting a botanical mix touted to be smoother and easier to drink when compared with London Dry gins. The company had previously been owned solely by craft spirits importer Davos Brands after being purchased in November 2016. Other spirits in Davos’s portfolio include TY KU Sake, Sombra Mezcal, and Astral Tequila.
The Deadpool actor made a splash in February 2018 with the surprise announcement of his ownership stake. Also serving as the face of the brand on billboards and in commercials, Reynolds told reporters a few months later that he planned to take an active role in the day-to-day business and creative direction of the company.
Ryan Reynolds will retain an ongoing ownership interest in Aviation Gin. Courtesy of Aviation Gin
The acquisition marks Diageo’s second purchase in recent years of a Hollywood-backed spirit. In 2017, the liquor conglomerate acquired the tequila brand Casamigos, which had been cofounded four years earlier by George Clooney and Rande Gerber, in a deal estimated to be worth $1 billion.
Reynolds and Clooney are just two among many Hollywood personalities who have invested in liquor brands in the past several years, although they are among the few who have seen the most in returns thus far. Some of the other more successful collaborations to date include Sean “Diddy” Combs serving as brand ambassador for vodka brand Cîroc since as far back as 2007; Justin Timberlake’s tequila collaboration with Casa Sauza; and reality star Bethenny Frankel’s Skinnygirl line, which spans wine, vodka, margaritas, and sangria in partnership with Beam Suntory. Matthew McConaughey also announced in 2018 that he was working on a collaboration to launch Wild Turkey Longbranch, a bourbon filtered with Texas mesquite and oak charcoals.
The well is deep with celebrities in the wine industry, too, including Francis Ford Coppola’s sprawling wine estates in Napa Valley, and Miraval Rosé, sourced from France’s famed Provence region and a joint purchase in 2012 by then-couple Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. Then again, not all celebrity-endorsed wines and spirits find success with fans, and some have become more sources of mockery than revenue. Cameron Diaz’s recent wine-market debut, the so-called clean wine Avaline, was met this summer with a lukewarm reception given it doesn’t actually meet natural wine standards.
Aviation American Gin is an American-style gin crafted with a blend of botanicals, subtle juniper notes among them, delivering a smooth flavor profile. Courtesy of Aviation Gin
Nevertheless, Diageo’s multimillion (and billion)-dollar purchases will likely entice more celebrities to lend their names to beer, wine, and spirits brands, providing perhaps a safer stream of cash, especially while television and film productions remain in limbo in the U.S. as the pandemic continues.
For Diageo, the purchase of Aviation Gin pads the company’s extensive portfolio—expanding its presence in the super-premium gin market, which has surged in popularity in recent years even if the definition of super-premium still remains debatable. In 2019, Aviation Gin grew volumes at over 100%, adding the highest number of cases and contributing 40% of super-premium gin segment growth, according to IWSR data.
But it also helps to have another gin brand in the mix; gin sales have been up in the past few years thanks to the rising popularity of certain cocktails, namely the Negroni. Aviation Gin will join Tanqueray, Gordon’s, and Gilbey’s gin in the Diageo liquor cabinet. The London-based corporation also owns Scotch whisky maker Johnnie Walker, Captain Morgan rum, Baileys Irish Cream, Don Julio tequila, Guinness beer, and vodka makers Smirnoff, Cîroc, and Ketel One.


fortune--2020-08-17--SoftBank lends WeWork $1.1 billion

SoftBank lends WeWork $1.1 billion

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Like many businesses with a heavy real-estate presence, WeWork struggled as the pandemic pushed employees out of offices and into homes. It started another round of layoffs in late April, and investor SoftBank valued the company at $2.9 billion in May, a significant downtick from $47 billion a year ago.
But in its second quarter earnings report last week, WeWork surprisingly said revenue rose, adding that SoftBank committed another $1.1 billion, in the form of senior secured notes, to the business.
In a memo to staff, WeWork chief financial officer Kimberly Ross said revenue in the quarter rose 9% year-over-year to $882 million. While that figure is down roughly 20% ($1.1 billion) from the quarter earlier, “Covid-19 has had an impact on our business,” Ross wrote in the memo first viewed by Bloomberg.
The company is still burning quite a lot of cash. In the last quarter alone, WeWork posted “free cash outflows,” a rarely used euphemism for cash burn, of $671 million, a higher rate from the first quarter.
SoftBank’s fresh debt funding also comes after the telecom giant backed out of plans to buy $3 billion in WeWork shares from existing shareholders, including Adam Neumann. WeWork is now facing a lawsuit from the founder, as well as a committee made up of investor Benchmark and board member Lew Frankfort, over the issue. A $1.1 billion financing commitment was originally tied to that tender offer, but went up in the air after the deal was scrapped.
The thing is, SoftBank has already sunk over $10 billion into WeWork. So for SoftBank, a direct investment into the company makes more sense than spending $3 billion on equity that won’t directly feed into such a large investment’s coffers. Though, it’s perhaps not much of a consolation for investors that were on the verge of cashing out.
Lucinda Shen
Twitter: @shenlucinda
Email: lucinda.shen@fortune.com
VENTURE DEALS
- Impossible Foods, an alternative protein company, raised $200 million. Coatue led the round and was joined by investors including XN.
- Wildlife, a San Francisco-based mobile gaming companies, raised $120 million in funding led by Vulcan Capital and was joined by investors including Human Capital.
- PayActiv, Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based employer-sponsored earned wage access and financial wellness platform, raised $100 million in Series C funding. Eldridge led the round and was joined by investors including Generation Partners and the Ziegler Link•Age Fund II.
- Mission Bio, a South San Francisco, Calif.-based developer of single-cell DNA and multi-omics analysis, raised $70m in Series C funding. Novo Growth led the round and was joined by investors including Soleus Capital, Mayfield, Cota, and Agilent.
- Thirty Madison, a startup that offers online health portals for treatment of hair loss, migraines, and acid reflux, raised $47 million. Polaris Partners led the round and was joined by Johnson & Johnson, Maveron, and Northzone. Read more.
- Cecelia Health, a New York-based diabetes and other chronic disease management company, raised $13 million in Series B funding. Rittenhouse Ventures and Endo Investors led the round and were joined by investors including Boston Millennia Partners, SustainVC, and G100 Capital.
- Stream, a Boulder-based maker of enterprise-grade activity feed and chat APIs, raised $15 million in Series A funding. GGV Capital led the round and was joined by investors including 01 Advisors, Knight, and Arthur Ventures.
- Root AI, a Boston-based startup building produce-picking robots, raised $7.2 million in seed funding. Rob May of PJC led the round and was joined by investors including First Round Capital’s Josh Kopelman, Jason Calacanis, and Austin McChord of Outsiders Fund. Read more.
- Cube, a New York-based financial planning and analysis software maker, raised $5 million in seed funding. Bonfire Ventures‘ Brett Queener led the round and was joined by investors including Operator Collective, Clocktower Technology Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, and Techstars. Read more.
- Mighty Labs, a Salt Lake City, Ut.-based platform for remote and cross-functional teams, raised $4.3 million in seed funding. Investors include Slack Fund, GSV Ventures, Origin Ventures, Album VC, Acadian Ventures, and Village Global.
- Joblist, a San Francisco-based jobs listing platform, raised $4 million in funding from Wilbur Labs.
PRIVATE EQUITY
- Palladin Consumer Retail Partners invested in DECOWRAPS, a Miami, Fla.-based floral packaging company. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Apollo Global Management invested in US Wind Inc., an offshore wind energy development company. Apollo Funds committed to invest up to $265 million of convertible debt and equity for a stake in US Wind and to fund development and construction costs for an wind energy project off the coast of Maryland.
- Alco Manufacturing Corporation, a portfolio company of MiddleGround Capital, has acquired Manth-Brownell, a Kirkville, New York-based maker of precision machined components. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Capsa Healthcare, backed by Levine Leichtman, acquired NewRobo Development, a Waalwijk, Netherlands-based maker of pharmacy automation solutions. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Manna Pro, backed by Morgan Stanley Capital Partners, agreed to acquire Doggie Dailies, a Vero Beach, Fla.-based online pet brand. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- A consortium that includes BlackRock is the sole bidder for a section of the “Mayan Train,” a track project that aims to link tourist hot spots in Mexico. The consortium is seeking “section 5,” which runs from Cancun to Tulum in Quintana Roo state, Per Reuters. Read more.
BREAKUPS AND BANKRUPTCIES
- Glostation USA Inc., the U.S. subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Sandbox VR, filed for bankruptcy protection. Backers of Sandbox VR include Craft Ventures, a16z, and Floodgate Fund. Read more.
OTHERS
- Warner Music will acquire IMGN Media, a Tel Aviv and New York-based startup that helps make viral social media content. Financial terms weren't disclosed.
- Japanese government officials tried to link Nissan Motor Co. and Honda Motor Co. for merger talks earlier this year, per the Financial Times, but were unsuccessful. Read more.
IPOS
SenseTime Group, a Chinese artificial intelligence company, is weighing a dual listing in Hong Kong and China and is raising $1.5 billion of pre-IPO financing, per Bloomberg. Read more.
- Duck Creek Technologies, a Boston-based provider of software for insurers, raised $405 million in an offering of 15 million shares priced at $27.
- CureVac, a German biotech developing a Covid vaccine, raised $213 million in an offering of 13.3 million shares priced at $16, the high end of the range its range.
F+FS
- Initialized Capital raised $230 million for its fifth core seed fund. Read more.
- Patient Square Capital, a health care investment firm, launched today founded by Jim Momtazee. Momtazee was previously at KKR.
PEOPLE
- GTCR, a Chicago-based private equity firm, promoted Stephen J. Jeschke to managing director.
EXITS
- Hg and other investors are considering selling stakes in Visma, a Norwegian software company, that could value it at over $10 billion, per Bloomberg. Read more.


fortune--2020-08-17--Epic isn’t taking down Apple’s app-store model anytime soon

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The Supreme Court decided to trim its docket of some cases this spring due to the pandemic, and one case that was postponed until the fall was the epic software legal battle of Oracle versus Google.
That’s the potentially explosive case in which Oracle is trying to have Google’s entire Android mobile operating system declared as one big copyright violation. The ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decision, likely due next spring, could be huge. By the way, that maybe earth-shattering legal case hit its 10th anniversary last week—Oracle filed the case on August 13, 2010.
That should temper some of the histrionics over last week’s lawsuits filed by Epic Games against Google and Apple. As you have no doubt read more than once by now, Epic contends that the two mobile giants’ control over app installations on mobile phones are a kind of 21st-century chokehold on the economy, extracting a 30% fee on developers. Epic isn’t seeking monetary damages, but rather wants to blow up the restrictive app-store model as an illegal restraint on trade. The legal argument is novel and will no doubt take the courts many years to sort out (unless the parties decide to settle).
Epic kicked off the fight with a new twist on Apple’s old “1984” ad against IBM, as Jonathan noted in Friday’s newsletter. Apple’s original spot, an attack on IBM, ended with the Orwell-referencing kicker, “You’ll see why 1984 won’t be like ‘1984.’” In the Epic retelling, the ad’s kicker is, “Join the fight to stop 2020 from becoming ‘1984.’”
The Epic case for me brought back another memory, one related to Microsoft’s antitrust troubles in the late 1990s. At the time, people worried that Microsoft might use its dominant position in Windows to take control of the Internet. They frequently cited an infamous memo by Microsoft’s then-chief technology officer Nathan Myhrvold, who didn’t reference George Orwell but instead used a term from the world of gambling and loansharking.
“Nobody gets a vig on content on the Internet today,” Myhrvold wrote, using the slang for a bookie’s fee on every bet. “The question is whether this will remain true.”
For Microsoft, there was to be no cut of all Internet commerce, but things have changed in the smartphone era. Apple and Google essentially do get a “vig” on many mobile transactions. They started small. It was almost 10 years ago when someone first noticed “the day Apple became Nathan Myhrvold.” But now it’s huge, with analysts estimating Apple having collected about $15 billion as its cut on $50 billion of app spending last year.
Still, Apple is more than ready for this fight. The app-store model may lock down developers, but it also gives consumers the peace of mind that the apps they install will work as intended, without malware or serious bugs. And the company issued a study a few months back contending that the total amount of commerce conducted on iPhones is more than $500 billion a year, if you include all the goods and services bought and sold via apps. That makes Apple’s $15 billion cut look positively puny.
Stay tuned, though. This Battle Royale is just getting started.
***
I had a great staycation that included plenty of time by the pool, rewatching the entire three-season run of Stranger Things (still holds up), and catching up on plenty of reading. If you are looking for something thought provoking, you can’t do better than my friend Eric Weiner’s new book, The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers, which comes out next week. I got a sneak peek and I think from now on I’ll be coping with challenges better thanks to Stoic philosopher Epictetus, and spending more time appreciating the little things as Japanese philosopher Sei Shonagon does.
Aaron Pressman
@ampressman
aaron.pressman@fortune.com
NEWSWORTHY
The more the merrier. In other antitrust news, Germany is looking into how Amazon treats third-party sellers and Canada started a broad probe of Amazon's effect on competition. Oh, and also, President Trump says there may be more Chinese tech companies he wants to ban after TikTok and Huawei.
For whom the bell tolls. And speaking of vigs, a federal appeals court on Friday overturned some of the conditions imposed on cable giant Charter Communications when it acquired Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks in 2016. Among the now-lifted conditions was a ban on Charter charging extra fees on online services like Netflix.
I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending. Hundreds of employees at Pinterest signed off from their work computers on Friday as a way of protesting discrimination at the company. The move follows former chief operating officer Francoise Brougher's lawsuit last week alleging she was fired for complaining about sexist comments. Pinterest said it would "ensure an open dialogue that leads to progress."
Whatever floats your boat. The finances of independent browser developer Mozilla have been in question lately, what with the company's lucrative Google search deal set to expire this year. But now the deal, which makes Google the default search engine in the Firefox browser, has been extended until 2023 at a rate of $400 million or more per year. Huzzah.
Bumpy flight. Leading drone maker DJI is not immune to the coronavirus economy. The Chinese company has cut its sales and marketing teams as it deals with slower consumer spending on gadgets and hostility towards Chinese technology from some governments, Reuters reports. DJI said its cuts due to the pandemic were “less significant” than for other companies.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Apropos of my essay about the moon landing the other day, startup advisor Nicolas Carteron has penned an essay about the computers used to support the Apollo missions. And he's got a mind-blowing factoid: "We went to the moon with less computing power than a modern USB-C charger." You can check his math in his Medium post if you so choose.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
Why Trump’s WeChat ban scares U.S. companies more than his TikTok crackdown By Grady McGregor
Why BlackLine founder-CEO Therese Tucker—who broke some of tech’s toughest gender barriers—is stepping down By Maria Aspan
What the U.K.’s pandemic exam-results fiasco tells us about algorithms and the future By David Meyer
Warren Buffett traded Goldman Sachs for gold in Berkshire Hathaway’s newly revealed portfolio By Jen Wieczner
How artisans offer lessons for us to reshape the post-COVID economy By Rebecca Van Bergen
What a video-first economy could look like By Santi Subotovsky
Will the pandemic kill the penny? By Jeff John Roberts
(Some of these stories require a subscription to access. Thank you for supporting our journalism.)
BEFORE YOU GO
MIT Media Lab professor Ethan Zuckerman resigned last year after learning about the school's links to Jeffrey Epstein. But the former director of the lab's Center for Civic Media didn't get around to cleaning out his office until this month. And he's written a rather geeky and hilarious goodbye essay about his time there, titled, "To the future occupants of my office at the MIT Media Lab." Have a great start to your week.


fortune--2020-08-17--Katie Hill resigned from Congress, but not from politics

This is the web version of The Broadsheet, a daily newsletter for and about the world’s most powerful women. Sign up to get it delivered free to your inbox.
Good morning, Broadsheet readers! Rent the Runway ditches retail, W Magazine has a new group of investors, and Katie Hill isn’t leaving politics behind. Go get your Monday.
– Down but not out. It’s nearly impossible to rattle Katie Hill.
The former congresswoman has faced leaked, nonconsensual nude photos; attacks by, she says, her estranged husband and GOP operatives (her husband has denied any involvement); and a traumatic resignation from her hard-fought seat in Congress. If you ask her a question now, she’ll answer it.
That includes this one: would she ever seek elected office again? “Never say no,” she told me.
I spoke to Hill earlier this month about her new book, She Will Rise: Becoming a Warrior in the Battle for True Equality. In the book, Hill addresses the sequence of events that led her to give up her congressional seat and the personal and professional aftermath of that decision. Parts of it are an intense read, covering abuse, depression, family secrets, and trauma.
But Hill is also looking ahead—writing to show girls and women considering running for office one day that even the “worst-case scenario” she experienced isn’t a life-ruiner. “By surviving, making it out of it, raising the question—could I have politically survived if I’d stayed in?—that might make young people feel like this isn’t something that would be career-ending to them,” she told me.
Hill also explains exactly what is so traumatic about cyber exploitation (“revenge porn,” she says, is a misnomer) and what domestic abuse can look like when it doesn’t involve physical violence.
For more on Hill’s experience and her new book, read our Q+A here. Also keep an eye out for Hill’s influence on the 2020 cycle with her new PAC, HER Time. Even if she doesn’t run for office again, Hill doesn’t plan to leave politics entirely. “Change is too important to step out of the arena,” she says.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
@_emmahinchliffe
ALSO IN THE HEADLINES
- Tucker tells all. Therese Tucker is a pioneer in tech. In 2001, Tucker founded the financial software company BlackLine; in 2016, she took the company public. She's one of very few women to run public companies in the tech industry—let alone ones they founded. In this piece, Tucker tells Fortune's Maria Aspan why she's stepping down as CEO in January. Fortune
- Defining 'different.' Urban Zen CEO Helen Aboah writes for Fortune about what makes her "different"—a question she is often asked—as a Black female CEO. "My position would not be as notable if I were not Black," Aboah writes. But the differences she thinks of are about the beliefs she held about herself that got her to the top of corporate America. Fortune
- Retail drop-off. Rent the Runway will close all five of its retail stores—for good. The clothing rental service run by CEO Jennifer Hyman will instead pivot to expanding its network of drop-off boxes, rather than reopening the retail locations it operated before the coronavirus pandemic. CNBC
- Brand NeW. W Magazine will partner with Bustle Digital Group to be relaunched as W Media. Editor-in-chief Sara Moonves (daughter of Les Moonves) with Karlie Kloss assembled a group of investors including model Kaia Gerber, Forerunner Ventures partner Kirsten Green, and Peloton SVP Dara Treseder. New York Times
MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Cushman & Wakefield added EB5 Capital founder and CEO Angelique Brunner to its board of directors.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Calling on Yellen. Former Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen is advising the Biden-Harris ticket, Bloomberg reports. Yellen joins an economic briefing team that includes Michigan State University professor Lisa Cook and Heather Boushey, a longtime Biden adviser. Bloomberg
- State of the Dolly-verse. There's an entire ecosystem of employees who depend on the Dolly Parton empire for their income—not just her music and personal teams, but workers at her theme park, Dollywood. Parton, with her "schedule resembling that of a tech CEO," is steering her businesses through the pandemic—and preparing her teams for, one day, a world without her. Billboard
- Flying forward. In a Fortune op-ed, Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA and cochair of the Biden-Sanders unity task force on the economy, argues in favor of continuing enhanced unemployment benefits. Fortune
ON MY RADAR
If you can punish a teenage girl for spaghetti straps, you can enforce a mask mandate Washington Post
'It's good to be home': Duchess Meghan leads interview on fixing race, gender issues in newsrooms USA Today
83% of Etsy shops are run by women. Postal Service disruptions could devastate them The Lily
PARTING WORDS
"I have been the voice for my son, Trayvon Martin, for the last eight years. Now I’m called to be the voice for the community."
-Sybrina Fulton on running for Miami-Dade County commissioner