Is Selena Gomez the Next Beauty Billionaire? Rare Beauty, Worth Around $2 Billion, Is Reportedly Up for Sale

Selena Gomez, the actor, singer, and entrepreneur behind Rare Beauty, is looking into investment or acquisition offers for the company, according to a new report.

Rare Beauty, which is reportedly worth $2 billion, appears to be in private talks with bankers who are interested in investing or acquiring it, Bloomberg learned through “people familiar with the matter.” Gomez would still be involved with the business and has hired advisers to weigh offers from different firms, per the report.

Kylie Jenner and Rihanna became billionaires through their beauty lines, with Forbes estimating that $1.4 billion of Rihanna’s $1.7 billion net worth comes from Fenty Beauty. A November 2019 deal placed Kylie Cosmetics at a $1.2 billion valuation and placed Jenner’s net worth over a billion dollars at the time.

^{Selena Gomez celebrates the launch of Rare Beauty’s Kind Words Matte Lipstick and Liner Collection at Santa Monica Proper Hotel on June 29, 2022 in Santa Monica, California. (Photo by Presley Ann/Getty Images for Rare Beauty)}

Business of Fashion reports that Rare hit more than $400 million in net sales in the 12 months ending in February of 2024, placing its valuation at $2 billion. All individual makeup, body care, and brushes from Rare Beauty are $30 and under.

One product from Rare, a liquid blush, went viral on TikTok in 2022 and brought in $70 million in revenue that year. The company’s bestsellers, according to a ranking on its site, also include tinted lip oil and matte lipstick.

A recent market research report from NIQ shows that celebrity beauty brands have skyrocketed in sales, from $691.5 billion in 2022 to $1,091.1 billion last year. The report showed that successful celebrity brands have compelling backstories and connect with their consumer base.

“People are looking for performance and value in their products, which Rare does really well,” Sable Yong, a beauty writer based in New York, told Bloomberg last year. “Yes, it’s cute. Yes, Selena Gomez is the founder. But even if she wasn’t in the picture, they’re well-formulated products that perform really well at a fairly attainable price point.”

The success of Rare Beauty reportedly has catapulted Gomez’s net worth from $95 million in 2022 to an estimated $800 million in 2024.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/is-selena-gomez-a-billionaire-rare-beauty-exploring-sale/471446

Dell Reportedly Told Remote Employees to Come Back to the Office or Forgo the Chance to Be Promoted

Dell introduced a return-to-office mandate in February that gives remote workers negative consequences for working from home, according to a new report by Business Insider.

The return-to-work policy cracks down on remote work by making it impossible for remote workers to get a promotion or change roles, according to BI. Almost all staff will be classified as remote or hybrid starting from May, with hybrid workers required to come in about three days per week.

“For remote team members, it is important to understand the trade-offs: Career advancement, including applying to new roles in the company, will require a team member to reclassify as hybrid onsite,” the memo reads.

BI’s source at Dell pulled data about the composition of remote teams and found that the remote employees affected “are overwhelmingly women.”

“This new policy on its face appears to be anti-remote, but in practice will be anti-woman,” the source said.

^{Michael Dell, Chairman and CEO of Dell Technologies, is speaking at the ”New Strategies for a New Era” keynote at the Mobile World Congress 2024 in Barcelona, Spain, on February 27, 2024. (Photo by Joan Cros/NurPhoto via Getty Images)}

Other Dell workers told BI that they think the new policy is a way to quietly fire employees. Dell laid off 5% of its workforce, around 6,650 workers, in February 2023.

Dell CEO and founder Michael Dell previously weighed in on whether or not working in an office allows for an advantage when it comes to factors like promotion, performance, and engagement.

“At Dell, we found no meaningful differences for team members working remotely or office-based even before the pandemic forced everyone home,” Dell wrote in a 2022 social media post.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/dell-says-remote-employees-wont-be-considered-for-new-roles/471410

Facebook Is Revamping One of Its Oldest, Most Controversial Features: ‘Nature Is Healing’

When Facebook launched in 2004, it offered the ability to “poke” your friends to get their attention as a virtual nudge — and the feature has been debated ever since. Was it a nuisance or a low-key way to say hi?

While it lost its visibility (and popularity) over the years, in celebration of Facebook’s 20th anniversary, Meta is hoping to capitalize on nostalgia for the retro practice by bringing back the ease of “poking.”

And like the 20-year fashion cycle, it seems to be back in style. In a Threads post, Facebook revealed that there had been a 13x increase in poking over the past month.

“I poked Prisiclla, and now we’re married,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg joked about his wife of nearly 12 years in response. “Nature is healing.”

Facebook told TechCrunch that in recent weeks, the social media platform has made it easier to find the informational page about poking easier, as well as adding a button to poke a person as soon as their name is searched on the platform.

When users type “poking” or “pokes” into the Facebook search bar, the Poke page will surface.

The company also said that over 50% of recent pokes came from a younger group of users aged 18 to 29.

Moreover, a recent report from the New York Times found that Gen Z has become more active on Facebook due to the platform’s Marketplace feature, where users can buy and sell new and used goods without required fees or online transactions.

Marketplace currently has over one billion monthly active users and per a 2022 Statista study, was the second most popular online destination for resold goods (eBay was first), even beating out Craigslist.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/facebook-revamps-poking-one-of-its-oldest-weirdest-tools/471412

‘I’m Typically Putting in 16-Hour Days’: Elon Musk Tells Don Lemon About Working Long Hours to Eliminate ‘Civilizational Risks’

The long-anticipated interview between X owner Elon Musk and former CNN journalist Don Lemon was released Monday on Lemon’s personal social media platforms and YouTube channel. Lemon’s new show on X, where the interview was supposed to air, was scrapped by Musk and his team after the fiery interview.

Musk and Lemon broached a wide variety of contentious topics throughout the 90-minute sit-down, with Musk growing more agitated as the interview went on.

“You are upsetting me,” Musk said towards the end.

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Here are four key moments from the tension-filled interview.

Musk admits to using Ketamine to bolster productivity — and doesn’t believe Tesla shareholders should be concerned

When pressed about his prescribed use of Ketamine, a horse tranquilizer, Musk told Lemon that he believes the drug is “helpful for getting one out of the negative frame of mind.”

“If you use too much ketamine, you can’t really get work done. I have a lot of work, I’m typically putting in 16-hour days,” Musk explained. “So, I don’t really have a situation where I can be not mentally acute for an extended period of time.”

When Lemon asked Musk if he was worried that this would be a concern for Tesla shareholders, Musk was unfazed.

“From a standpoint of Wall Street, what matters is execution. Are you building value for investors? Tesla is worth about as much as the rest of the car industry combined,” he said. “So from an investor standpoint, if there is something I’m taking, I should keep taking it.”

When asked about the nature of the prescription, Musk said that was “private.”

Musk believes his work is for the greater good of humanity

Musk told Lemon that he believes the work he’s doing is for the greater good of human civilization and the future of mankind.

“If I died knowing that I did what was right, or did my best to do what was right, and even if in the history books they said I did wrong, I would still feel okay about that. I care about the reality of goodness, not the perception of it,” he said. “We want to make sure that we don’t have, for example, demographic collapse, which is the case in a lot of countries — just very low birth rate. We want to avoid, obviously avoid, World War 3. Anything that is a civilizational risk. That is what I care about. Civilizational risks.”

Musk says X is for jokes

“I use it to post jokes, sometimes trivia, sometimes things that are of great importance,” he said.

X (and Twitter before it) sparks meaningful conversations at its best and incites intense arguments at its worst. Musk told Lemon that he thinks X can be used as a “player vs. player platform” — a video game term where players are pitted against one another instead of playing against the computer.

Though Musk explained that he enjoys playing video games in PVP as a way to unwind, he noted that it’s not necessarily the reason he logs on to the platform.

Musk said he has not donated to anyone politically during this election cycle — and doesn’t plan to

Despite brow-raising breakfast meetings with former U.S. President Donald Trump in Palm Beach and vocal opinions about many issues, Musk said he won’t be making political donations.

“I’ll voice my opinion. I think I don’t want to put a thumb on the scale, monetarily, that is significant,” Musk told Lemon.

He also noted that he has not made a final choice about who will be getting his vote this November.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/elon-musk-don-lemon-discuss-ketamine-politics-xs-purpose/471404

Unilever Is Leaving the Ice Cream Aisle, Separating From Ben & Jerry’s, Magnum: ‘Do Fewer Things Better, and With Greater Impact’

Consumer goods giant Unilever, the No. 108 most valuable company in the world, is scooping out its ice cream brands and splitting them from the rest of its multi-billion dollar business. In the process, 6% of its workforce could be cut.

According to a Tuesday Bloomberg report, the London-based company will likely create a new entity to house the company’s iconic ice cream division, including brands like Ben & Jerry’s, Cornetto, and Magnum.

Though Unilever’s ice cream unit had sales of $8.6 billion or €7.9 billion last year, it was the lowest-performing category out of Unilever’s core businesses, making at least $4 billion less than each of Unilever’s other four divisions. The next lowest-performing category was home care, with sales of $13.3 billion or €12.2 billion in 2023.

“Our overall idea is to do fewer things better, and with greater impact,” Unilever CEO Hein Schumacher told Bloomberg. “Ice cream is truly a different business. It is already managed separately than our other activities.”

The ice cream brands could be listed as a separate company, which Unilever said was the “most likely option,” or they could be sold to a private equity firm, which has precedent: Unilever sold 20 beauty brands to Boston-based private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners in December, including Q-tips and Caress.

If Unilever’s ice cream brands are spun off with a separate listing, the details will be decided in the next 18 months, according to Bloomberg.

Schumacher has been at the company for nine months and was previously CEO of the dairy company FrieslandCampina. He plans to cut 7,500 jobs, or about 6% of Unilever’s 128,000-person workforce, as part of the restructuring.

Unilever’s core businesses after the restructuring will include beauty and wellbeing, personal care, home care, and nutrition. Vaseline, Dove, Liquid I.V., and Paula’s Choice Skincare all fall within those categories, according to Unilever’s brands page.

Unilever’s full-year results from 2023 show that ice cream had a “disappointing year” with the lowest underlying sales growth of Unilever’s brands. Ben & Jerry’s also had a public legal dispute with Unilever over where its products could be sold that ended in December 2022.

Related: What’s the Secret Behind Van Leeuwen’s Internet-Breaking Ice Cream Flavors? Hint: Egg Yolks and America’s Obsession With Chunks Play a Surprising Role. https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/unilever-to-cut-7500-jobs-spin-off-ice-cream-business/471401

Can You Afford to Retire? Here’s How Much Americans Spend Daily in Retirement

The age of a retiree could be correlated with how much they spend — and nearly half of retirees say that they retired earlier than expected.

A new piece from Go Banking Rates with statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows a difference in the expenses of younger and older retirees and reveals the average income of those who reach retirement age.

BLS data showed that younger retirees between 65 and 74 years of age had more expenses on average, at $4,870 per month than those 75 years or older, who averaged about $1,000 less at $3,813 per month.

The overall average for expenses among retirees was $4,345 per month or $52,141 every year. This number is below the average income per year for retirees, which the U.S. Census Bureau placed at $75,254, but higher than the median income of $47,620 found by the Census Bureau.

A 2023 survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute (EBRI) showed that even though workers are more likely to say that they expect to retire at 70 or older, the data shows that the median age for retirees is 62 years of age and the average is 65 years of age.

Nearly half of retirees (46%) indicated that they left the workforce earlier than they intended to, due to health problems, disabilities, or changes at their company.

Only 35% of who people retired earlier than planned said that they did so because they could afford it.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/think-you-can-afford-retirement-heres-how-much-it-costs/471346

Barbara Corcoran Sounds Off on NAR Settlement: ‘It’s a Scary Time for Real Estate Agents’

A landmark $418 million class action settlement from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) is set to change the way real estate agents are paid and shake up the industry at large.

The agreement, which was finalized on Friday, takes effect in July and began with class-action lawsuits accusing the Realtors of having too much power and a monopoly over Americans trying to sell their homes.

In part, the NAR settlement removes rules on sales commissions for brokers and agents, meaning that the standard 6% starting commission rate no longer exists. The settlement only affects buyer and seller agreements, though, so renters may still have to pay broker fees when looking for a new unit.

In a statement, NAR denied any wrongdoing.

“NAR has worked hard for years to resolve this litigation in a manner that benefits our members and American consumers,” said Nykia Wright, interim CEO of NAR. “It has always been our goal to preserve consumer choice and protect our members to the greatest extent possible. This settlement achieves both of those goals.”

Meanwhile, real estate titan Barbara Corcoran is sounding off on the news and how it could potentially make or break many real estate agents’ careers (and commissions).

Corcoran explained that the cost of selling homes will likely go down now and that competition between realtors is set to increase, but warned buyers to not expect the prices of homes to go down as a result.

“It’s hogwash to expect the cost of buying a home to come down,” she wrote. “The real driver in today’s market is the shortage of homes and the too many buyers who want them. And if interest rates come down a point by year-end, we’ll see home prices up another 10% as the buyers rush into the market.”

Still, Corcoran admitted that it’s now a “scary time for real estate agents” while remaining optimistic that something positive would come out of the major shakeup.

“Change is nothing new to the real estate industry. What I know for sure is that real estate brokerages and their agents are some of the most resilient people in the world,” she said. “They’re creative and tough, and this opens the door for agents to use that resilience and creativity to come up with new and better ways to service their home sellers and customers.”

Last month, Corcoran appeared on an episode of the “Elvis Duran Show” where she encouraged listeners to not play the waiting game when it comes to purchasing property.

“Interest rates will never come down to two to three percent, that’s history, still people believe they will,” she said. “So let’s say they come down to something with a five in front of it, everyone sitting on the sidelines is going to rush the market, bid the pricing up, there’s not enough inventory to go around … everyone is going to pay more to the tune of 10, 15 maybe 20 percent. So why wait?”

Corcoran’s net worth is an estimated $400 million.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/barbara-corcoran-issues-statement-warning-on-nar-settlement/471345

Target Doubles Down on Traditional Checkout Lanes

Target is adding more staffed checkout lanes and limiting self-checkout to 10 items for customers. The company, which has over 2,000 locations in the U.S., announced that the change would go into effect over the weekend.

“Checking out is one of the most important moments of the Target run, and we know that a fast, easy experience — whether at self-checkout or the lanes staffed by our friendly team members — is critical to getting guests on their way quickly,” Target said in a company release.

The chain will also be expanding traditional checkout lanes in all of its stores.

The company said that it piloted the limited self-check-out lanes last fall and that customers were able to check out “twice as fast” as compared to traditional methods.

Target will also now allow store leaders to set specific self-checkout hours that “are right for their store” but noted that during peak busy hours, Express Self-Checkout will be available.

Target did not mention theft issues in its release about the checkout policy changes, but in September 2023, the company closed nine stores across four states in what the company said were high theft-traffic areas.

“We cannot continue operating these stores because theft and organized retail crime are threatening the safety of our team and guests, and contributing to unsustainable business performance,” the company said in a memo at the time. “We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all.”

Target’s CFO, Michael Fiddelke, said in a Q3 2023 earnings report that the company was estimated to lose about $500 million due to retail theft, and in 2022, the company lost out on an estimated $700 million from the issue.

Target was up just over 2% year over year as of Monday afternoon.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/target-limiting-self-checkout-adding-more-traditional-lanes/471333

Elon Musk Releases the AI Model Behind Grok, a Competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT

Elon Musk, founder of OpenAI competitor xAI, announced last week that xAI would open-source the AI model behind its ChatGPT rival Grok. On Sunday, xAI released the raw base AI model, Grok-1, to the public.

The company specified that Grok-1 was “trained from scratch” on a “large amount of text data, not fine-tuned for any particular task,” like dialogue. Grok first rolled out to U.S. Premium+ subscribers on X in December.

Researcher Igor Babuschkin highlighted the popularity of Grok-1 compared to other open-source AI models on X/Twitter.

The Grok-1 repo is getting pretty popular. I will be responding to pull requests and issues. Feel free to contribute! pic.twitter.com/NHhbyhuEaq

— Igor Babuschkin (@ibab_ml) March 18, 2024

However, not all X users were enthused about the AI model, with one calling xAI’s move to open-source with Grok-1 a “marketing stunt” and writing that “a for-profit company open-sourcing something usually indicates that it’s not good enough to be sold as a product.”

The AI model’s public release occurs on the heels of Musk’s recent lawsuit against OpenAI.

In the lawsuit, Musk asked for a court ruling that would force OpenAI to make its research and technology public. He alleged that OpenAI was working more to maximize profits than to benefit humanity.

^{The xAI and Grok logos are seen in this illustration photo taken on 05 November 2023 in Warsaw, Poland. Elon Musk’s xAI company this week introduced Grok, its conversational AI which it says can match GPT 3.5 in performance. (Photo by Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto via Getty Images)}

In response, OpenAI executives published a blog post that included emails they received from Musk showing that Musk knew about the for-profit turn of OpenAI.

“Elon wanted majority equity, initial board control, and to be CEO,” the post read. “In the middle of these discussions, he withheld funding. Reid Hoffman bridged the gap to cover salaries and operations.”

Grok-1 joins open-source AI models from other companies, like Mistral AI and Meta.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/elon-musk-xai-open-source-grok-ai-model-how-to-find-it/471319

‘It Should Be Sold’: Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian Sounds Off on Proposed TikTok Ban

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian is not shying away from his opinions on the potential TikTok ban in the U.S.

In an Instagram post on Thursday that’s now been viewed over 8,200 times, Ohanian explained that he’s “been advocating for something to happen for the last three or four years” when it comes to the social media app and how it is being used in the country.

“No American social media companies are allowed to operate in China, so as a matter of reciprocity, why are we letting a Chinese-owned social media company operate in America,” he asked viewers. “I don’t think it should be banned, I think it should be sold.”

Ohanian hypothesized which companies or media conglomerates could potentially take control, mentioning Amazon, Walmart, and even Meta as options.

But Ohanian would prefer someone not in the “tech elite.”

“There are plenty of folks who are very interested in buying TikTok who are not already part of the social media tech elite who would be great candidates and I hope that’s the outcome we get,” he said.

Earlier this week, a bipartisan bill called the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act” passed 352-65 in the House, which would require TikTok to separate from Chinese-operated ByteDance within six months or be banned from usage in the U.S.

The bill will move to the Senate, and, if passed, go to the desk of U.S. President Joe Biden, who has indicated that he would sign it.

“We are hopeful that the Senate will consider the facts, listen to their constituents, and realize the impact on the economy, seven million small businesses, and the 170 million Americans who use our service,” a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement earlier this week.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/reddit-founder-alexis-ohanian-sounds-off-on-tiktok-ban/471267