The business news thread

[Rewind]

Stripe launched in 2010 and went public in 2011. Headquartered in San Francisco, Stripe helps new companies set up online/mobile payment processing and provides anti-fraud tools to block fraudulent transactions. But.....with so many thousands of banks and online businesses using anti-fraud tools, why is there still so much fraud? Or did I just ask an unanswerable question?

Payment start-up Stripe is now a $20-billion company
Bloomberg, Sep 27 2018 11:30 AM

Payment start-up Stripe is has just closed a $245-million funding round that ups its value from $9 billion to $20 billion, co-founder and Chief Executive Patrick Collison said. Several large new customers have also been listed on Stripe's website this week, including Google and Uber.

Stripe was founded in 2010 by Patrick and John Collison, Irish brothers who immigrated to Silicon Valley to pursue careers in software. After experimenting with different businesses, the Collisons hit on the idea of making it easier for start-ups to set up their online billing and payment systems. Rather than dealing with a morass of banking paperwork and procedures, companies could inject a few lines of code from Stripe onto their websites and gain instant access to its payment infrastructure. The technology proved to be a hit with young companies and with up-and-coming tech powerhouses such as Instacart, Lyft and DoorDash. As these companies processed millions of transactions, Stripe charged a small fee on each one for its services.

Because it lurks in the background, Stripe hasn’t become a household name. But online shoppers use its service — albeit unknowingly — an awful lot. About 84% of American adults shopping online bought something via Stripe in the last year, Patrick Collison said. That figure will increase thanks to its deals with Google and Uber, as well as a number of other new customers, including Spotify.

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...926-story.html

[Rewind]

Boy oh boy, Bed Bath & Beyond has been brutally beaten up. The company just suffered the worst trading day in its 47-year history as sales continue to decline.

Bed Bath & Beyond shares fall 21% after earnings miss

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/tops...CHAT?ocid=AMZN

[Rewind]

Some people -- one in particular -- are never punished for making irresponsible tweets. Elon Musk is not among them -- although he retains his position as CEO.

Elon Musk to step down as chairman of Tesla board, settles with SEC for $20 million

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/elon-mu...an-2018-09-29/

[Rewind]

More and more stores and restaurants are adopting new technology such as apps, scanners, digital coupons, touchscreen ordering and sensors that keep track of what shoppers put in their cart. Retail consultant Steve Dennis dismisses the idea that brick-and-mortar stores are dying: "Physical retail is clearly not dead -- but boring, undifferentiated, irrelevant and unremarkable stores are most definitely dead." I don't know which stores he's referring to.......but the ears of Sears CEO Edward Lampert are burning.

Amazon and Nike are charting a course for the store of the future
Business Insider, Sep 29 2018

New technology is increasingly being infused into stores and the results are finally starting to show. Tech-forward companies such as Amazon and Nike are completely changing the idea of what it means to have a physical store. Nike's Live concept store, which chooses items to stock by analyzing customer data, and Amazon's Go concept, which uses just-walk-out technology instead of cashiers, are two examples of how the way the industry is thinking about stores is changing.

https://www.businessinsider.com/amaz...-future-2018-9

[Rewind]

The Edison General Electric Company -- yes, that Edison -- was incorporated in 1889 in New York. GE was worth nearly $600 billion in 2000. The company is now valued at around $100 billion.

GE shares soar after company suddenly dumps John Flannery as CEO
CNBC, Oct 1 2018

Struggling industrial conglomerate General Electric abruptly removed John Flannery as chairman and CEO today after only a year on the job and installed former Danaher CEO Lawrence Culp as his successor.

GE shares, which had fallen to a nine-year low last week, surged in reaction. GE also announced a $23 billion noncash charge for its ailing power business and said it will "fall short of previously indicated guidance for free cash flow and EPS."

Culp, 55, was named to the GE board in April. He served as the CEO and president of Danaher from 2000 to 2014, during which he quintupled the size of the science and technology company.

GE shares surged 9.7% today, trading as high as $13.07 a share. Last week, the stock posted one of its worst weeks of the year, down 7% and hitting a nine-year low of $11.21.

Flannery, 56, was appointed in August 2017, taking the helm from Jeff Immelt as the conglomerate's stock fell steadily. But GE's value had continued to erode, setting new lows as investors remain unconvinced by Flannery's turnaround plan.

Last June, GE was kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. It had been the longest-serving component of the blue chip index — 111 years.

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/10/01/ge-r...-guidance.html

[Rewind]

Pinwheel, the first TV channel for children, launched December 1, 1977. It became Nickelodeon in 1979. It continues to be the most-watched channel among kids but its viewership numbers have been rapidly declining as children gravitate to Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and other online providers. Apparently there are millions more five- and six-year-old computer users than I thought!

Viacom taps movie/TV producer Brian Roberts to lead Nickelodeon

http://www.latimes.com/business/holl...001-story.html

[Rewind]

Senator Bernie Sanders has introduced legislation to raise the federal hourly minimum wage to $15. He has claimed, perhaps falsely, that Amazon employees are paid so little, many have to rely on Medicaid, food stamps and public housing. Today, Sanders is happy. "I urge corporate leaders around the country to follow Jeff Bezos' lead," he said.

Amazon to raise minimum hourly wage to $15 for all US workers

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/02/b...imum-wage.html

[Rewind]

Business Insider calculated Jeff Bezos' hourly income by dividing his 2017-18 earnings increase by the number of hours in a year. Are you sitting down? Okay, Bezos makes $4,474,885 an hour. At $15 an hour, an Amazon employee would have to work 298,325 hours to earn that amount. If you convert Bezos' earnings to eight-hour days instead of 24-hour days, he makes $13,424,655 an hour. I feel sick.

Amazon is raising its minimum wage to $15 an hour; here's how much CEO Jeff Bezos makes in those same 60 minutes

https://www.businessinsider.com/amaz...rnings-2018-10

[Rewind]

I think they're beating a dead horse -- or maybe I should say a dead giraffe.

Toys Я Us lenders file a plan to revive the brand

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-f...002-story.html

[Rewind]

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been the wealthiest American for the past 24 years but Amazon's stock price has doubled in the last year, and.......

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos topples Bill Gates as richest person on Forbes 400

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jeff-be...-man-in-world/