‘A Very, Very Dumb Idea’: HBO CEO Admits to Using Fake Accounts to Troll Critics

HBO and Max CEO Casey Bloys said he was doing an “unhealthy amount of scrolling” on Twitter, now X, during the pandemic. https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/hbo-ceo-admits-to-using-fake-accounts-to-troll-critics/464863

Top CEO of 2023? Taylor Swift and Beyoncé – Here’s Why.

Taylor Swift and Beyoncé’s tours have collectively added billions to the United States economy. https://www.entrepreneur.com/living/taylor-swift-and-beyonce-are-the-top-ceos-of-2023-heres/464807

Starbucks Is Debuting Two New Drinks For the Holiday Season — Here’s What’s New This Year

‘Tis the season — already — and major companies are wasting no time rolling out holiday specials and menu items.

And that includes Starbucks — the company is debuting its new holiday cups on November 2 and adding a magenta twist to the classic green and red, with four variations of patterns, such as a plaid cup and bauble pattern cup meant to look like ornaments with sparkle accents.

“When we were looking at trends when designing this year’s holiday, we kept seeing bright, bold, uplifting colors,” said Kristy Cameron, creative director at Starbucks, in a company release. “We found that magenta alongside the holiday reds and greens lifts the traditional holiday colors and makes the red look even brighter.”

^{The new “Bauble Wrap” holiday cup at Starbucks (via Starbucks)}

Some beverages are also getting a makeover this season.

An Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai, described as having “gingerbread notes, a cozy blend of chai spices, and creamy oatmilk,” is making its debut. Customers can also opt for a hot version.

Another new drink hitting menus this year — for the more adventurous of palettes — is the Oleato Gingerbread Oatmilk Latte, which uses the company’s Blonde Espresso with gingerbread and steamed oatmilk that is then infused with Partanna® extra virgin olive oil.

^{The new Iced Gingerbread Oatmilk Chai at Starbucks (via Starbucks)}

Past holiday season favorites are returning, namely the Caramel Brulée Latte, Chestnut Praline Latte, and Iced Sugar Cookie Almondmilk Latte.

While Starbucks is not debuting any new food items for the holidays, popular seasonal picks, including the Cranberry Bliss Bar, Gingerbread Loaf, Peppermint Brownie Cake Pop, Snowman Cookie, and Sugar Plum Cheese Danish, are all returning.

The coffee giant is coming off a strong fiscal Q4 2023 with overall revenue up to roughly $9.4 billion, an 11% quarterly increase.

Starbucks leadership attributed the boost to a successful launch of its fall beverage lineup, including the newly debuted pumpkin cream cold brew.

“We had a remarkable fall launch that led to record-breaking average weekly sales,” Starbucks CEO Laxman Narasimhan said during the earnings call.

Starbucks was up over 10.5% in a 24-hour period as of Thursday afternoon upon the news of the company’s successful quarter.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/what-are-starbucks-new-holiday-drinks-for-2023-see-new-menu/464805

Drivers Are Ditching Their Cars — ‘Give Car Back’ Searches Spike Amid Soaring Ownership Costs

A whole lot of drivers want to get rid of their cars, apparently.

Google searches for “give car back” have reached record highs, a trend first spotted by podcast host, CarDealershipGuy, who then posted the revelation on X, and showcased that searches are nearly double compared to almost 10 years ago.

Wow — thought this was fake (it’s not)

“give car back” searches at all-time high. try it yourself. pic.twitter.com/xwf6Mg1IcG

— CarDealershipGuy (@GuyDealership) October 30, 2023

The discovery that people are looking to ditch their vehicles isn’t exactly a shock considering the soaring costs associated with auto ownership.

The average monthly payment for a new car has increased by 28% over the past three years, according to data from online auto resource Edmunds, per Investopedia. The increase in car payments aligns with the rise in new car prices — which hit $46,229 in June, a 31% hike from three years ago, per the outlet.

An uptick in sticker prices also means more drivers took on auto loans, and now, auto loan debt currently stands at $1.58 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, an all-time high.

All of this has left many Americans in a bind.

“I’m paying a ton of money right now for a car that I don’t really need, and I’ve been struggling and struggling to sell it,” Sean Miller, who took out an auto loan in 2019, told CNBC. “If I were to sell it today, it would probably be at a $10,000 to $15,000 loss. This is something that right now is preventing me from being able to save up in order to start a family.”

Rising car loan rates have coincided with increasing interest rates, reaching levels not seen since 2008, subsequently leading to the surge of borrowing money, per Bankrate.

On the bright side, the Fed decided on Wednesday to maintain interest rates within a range of 5.25% to 5.50%, offering temporary relief from escalating interest rates.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/drivers-are-asking-how-to-give-back-their-cars-as-costs-rise/464790

DoorDash Is Now Warning Customers to Expect ‘Slower Delivery’ Times If They Don’t Leave a Tip

If you’ve ordered food from an online delivery platform or app, then you know tipping ahead of time doesn’t allow diners to factor in their experience before deciding on an amount.

That’s why some places allow customers to change a tip within 24 hours of getting their order. DoorDash, however, seems to be taking things in the other direction — tip or don’t expect good service.

Currently, customers on DoorDash can custom add any amount that they want for tip by typing in the amount at checkout.

Now, the company is testing a pop-up alert that warns customers who decide not to leave a tip that their order might take longer to be delivered.

^{The new pop-up warning being issued across the DoorDash platform (via DoorDash)}

“Orders with no tip might take longer to get delivered — are you sure you want to continue? Dashers can pick and choose which orders they want to do,” the warning on the payment screen reads. “Orders that take longer to be accepted by Dashers tend to result in slower delivery.”

A DoorDash spokesperson confirmed the new pop-up messaging to The Verge as a “pilot” test.

“As independent contractors, Dashers have full freedom to accept or reject offers based on what they view as valuable and rewarding,” spokesperson Jenn Rosenberg told the outlet. “While the vast majority of customers do leave a tip, offers that don’t include a tip can be seen as less desirable – this impacts our entire community, leading to longer wait times for customers, orders sitting longer at merchants, and less value for Dashers.”

In June, DoorDash became the first app-based delivery service to offer an hourly pay option for its drivers instead of only having the option to be compensated for each delivery completed.

The company reported strong Q3 2023 earnings on Thursday, earning $2.2 billion in quarterly revenue and 543 million total food delivery orders, an impressive 24% increase year-over-year.

DoorDash was up just under 16% in a 24-hour period upon the news of the company’s earnings.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/doordash-is-testing-an-in-app-warning-no-tip-slow-service/464793

The Founder of Lululemon Is Spending $100 Million to Try to Beat the Super Rare Disease That’s Destroying His Muscles

^{This article originally appeared on Business Insider.}

Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon, has been living with a rare muscular disease for the past several decades, and he’s funneling $100 million of his multibillion-dollar net worth into finding a cure.

Wilson was given the diagnosis of facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy, or FSHD, in 1987 when he was 32 years old, Bloomberg reported. The disease causes the progressive loss of skeletal muscle and affects a little under 900,000 people worldwide, according to FSHD Society. Wilson has an even less common form named FSHD2 that affects just 5% of those with the disease, Bloomberg noted. In other words, he’s one of about 43,000 people with FSHD2.

For years after the diagnosis, Bloomberg reported, Wilson maintained a pretty active lifestyle. But he told the outlet he had a “wake-up call” decades later when he was signing a deal with China’s biggest athletic-apparel maker, Anta Sports Products, to buy a stake in the Finnish sports company Amer Sports and found himself struggling to walk.

By 2022, he had launched a venture philanthropy fund named Solve FSHD, which aims to develop a cure for the disease by 2027, according to its website. Solve is particularly focused on finding new therapies for FSHD2 and has so far deployed close to $31 million into biotech companies working on various interventions, its website says.

Wilson seems to believe that ultrawealthy entrepreneurs can be powerful catalysts for medical innovation because they have the funds to attract talent and take a more results-driven mindset to research than charitable or government organizations. He told Bloomberg that capitalism had “created everything good in the world.”

Bloomberg reported that in the meantime, Wilson was also resorting to experimental procedures and testing several longevity and wellness treatments. He was undergoing electroacupuncture; going for IV drips of NAD, which is an enzyme that plays a critical role in healthy cell function; taking weekly doses of the immunosuppressive drug rapamycin; and taking daily doses of testosterone, the outlet reported.

Solve FSHD did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/lululemon-founder-chip-wilson-invests-100m-on-rare-disease/464730

Billionaire CEO Flies Over 1,000 Employees and Their Families to Tokyo Disneyland for Concerts, Parties, and Park Access

Ken Griffin certainly knows how to throw a party — for his employees, that is.

The billionaire and founder of Citadel and Citadel Securities treated an estimated 1,200 employees from the company’s Asia-Pacific offices to Tokyo Disneyland in October — with all expenses paid, including travel, food, and accommodations.

Last year, the company sent 10,000 employees to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, in December to celebrate Citadel Securities’ 20th anniversary and Citadel’s 30th anniversary (the real anniversary dates were in 2020 but were not commemorated due to the pandemic and related restrictions).

Members of the company’s Asia-Pacific division, however, could not attend due to certain COVID-related protocols that were still in place, so this Tokyo Disney event is a celebration for those who had to opt out of last year’s.

^{The Walt Disney Co. characters perform as they sail in front of Mount Prometheus around the Mediterranean Harbor during the “Minnie Bestie Bash!” show at Tokyo DisneySea (Getty Images)}

Guests were reportedly treated to a special party on Saturday that included performances by Maroon 5 and Calvin Harris. Employees and their families were also gifted express passes to Tokyo Disneyland for the weekend.

Griffin himself attended alongside the CEO of Citadel Securities, Zhao Peng.

Citadel and Citadel Securities doubled headcounts in the companies’ Asia-Pacific region over the last three years, per Bloomberg, with Citadel planning to open a Tokyo office next year.

In January, Citadel made history after clocking in a $16 billion profit after fees for 2022 — the highest ever recorded by a hedge fund.

Griffin’s net worth is an estimated $35.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/billionaire-ken-griffin-flies-1000-workers-to-disney-tokyo/464737

Armed Delta Co-Pilot Indicted After Threatening to Shoot Captain ‘Multiple Times’ Mid-Flight

Jonathan Dunn, a former Delta Airlines co-pilot, was indicted by a Utah grand jury on October 18 after threatening to shoot the captain on an August 2022 flight that was set to be diverted due to a passenger with a medical condition.

“Dunn was authorized to carry a firearm through the Transportation Security Administration’s Federal Flight Deck Officer program,” the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General confirmed on Tuesday. “After a disagreement about a potential flight diversion due to a passenger medical event, Dunn told the Captain they would be shot multiple times if the Captain diverted the flight.”

The TSA FFDO program was created in 2002 after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and allows qualified pilots to “use firearms to defend against an act of criminal violence and air piracy while attempting to gain control of an aircraft.”

This means that pilots in the program are permitted to carry TSA-approved weaponry to arm themselves in the cockpit during flights should there be an attempted hijacking or criminal takeover of the flight.

TSA confirmed to CBS that Dunn is no longer a part of the FFDO program, though more details were not given about the case at this time.

Delta did not immediately respond to Entrepreneur’s request for comment.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/delta-co-pilot-indicted-for-threatening-to-use-gun-on-flight/464735

A New Report Suggests the Retail Theft Narrative Is ‘Overexaggerated’ — Here’s Why

Retail theft hasn’t been a stranger to the news cycle, as big-name brands have publicly admitted to having big problems with crime — and have been taking action to address the issues over the past year.

However, a recent report by retail analysts at William Blair suggests that the documented theft rates at stores do not align with the “increase” in company commentary on the issue, and the scale and impact of theft might be exaggerated, masking underlying business issues such as weak consumer demand and mismanagement.

The report also found a mere 0.4% increase in shrink, or retail losses, as a percentage of sales in nine major retailers that cited a growing impact of theft in 2022.

“We believe companies like Target could indeed be using the current narrative around shrink to take broader action in lagging parts of their business,” the William Blair analysts said in the report. “We have to acknowledge potentially ulterior, more opportunistic motives.”

However, shrink is an issue, and according to a National Retail Federation survey of 177 retailers, shrink increased by 19% last year to $112 billion, up from $93.9 billion in 2021 — meaning that even if retailers are exaggerating, it’s still an issue that they are grappling with.

The analysts highlight that overall merchandise loss, encompassing external and internal theft, damaged goods, and inventory mismanagement, constitutes only 1.5% to 2% of retailers’ sales — a percentage that has remained relatively stable over the years despite retailers increasingly sounding the alarm about theft.

Although elevated levels of shrink are expected through 2024, the additional impact is expected to be somewhat “more contained” as compared to previous years, pointing to early signs of stability in shrink levels observed in 2023 and signs that recent measures, such as closures, might have been “overexaggerated.”

The analysts at William Blair state in the report that one of the reasons they believe retailers may be inflating a theft narrative is to “stimulate” government action, “given that there is little they can do on their own” — adding that actions within a retailer’s control to combat theft (putting items behind locked cases, price hikes, and cutting back on self-checkout options), can negatively impact engagement, sales, and productivity.

“This leaves government action as the best possible solution,” the analysts wrote.

Some retailers have already taken to local government intervention as a means to curtail shrink. In September, Walmart announced it would be reopening one of its formerly closed stores in Atlanta with a built-in police station to combat crime and increase security.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/report-says-retailers-may-have-exaggerated-theft-claims/464729

Some Lenders Are Offering ‘Buy Now, Refinance Later At No Cost’ Deals — But Is There a Catch?

Mortgage rates have soared over the past year and now stand at 7.79% for a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage, per Freddie Mac. Amid the skyrocketing rates, many would-be buyers have been priced out, and the housing market has experienced a decline from the competitive market seen for much of 2021 and 2022.

Now, lenders have a proposition for those deterred by the nearly 8% rates — buy the house now, and refinance later at no cost.

Typically, under a “buy now, refinance later at no cost” deal, buyers are given the option to refinance their mortgage if rates decrease, without bearing a significant portion of the closing costs — which were an average of $2,375 in 2021, according to Closing Corp, per The Wall Street Journal.

The specifics of the deal vary, as some lenders with the “buy now, refinance later” option cover all closing costs, while others may only waive their fees or roll the costs into the loan.

While the offer may seem enticing, there are caveats.

“Nothing is free,” Bradley Hilton, a financial planner in Atlanta, told the WSJ.

For example, some of the offers possess time restraints and short expiration dates, resulting in no real savings as failing to refinance within the timeframe means missing out on the deal and potentially incurring full closing costs out of pocket, Investopedia notes. Also, if the lender’s credits expire after a year or two, they may lose their value if rates don’t decrease within that period, making refinancing unfeasible.

Instead of taking a “refinance free” deal now, opting for the lowest mortgage rate available without strings attached and later searching for the most competitive refinancing deal may actually yield more savings down the line, Bankrate analyst Ted Rossman told the WSJ.

Plus, a “buy now, refinance later” deal doesn’t necessarily mean a buyer will be eligible to cash in on the offer by the time they’re ready to refinance. If credit deteriorates or the property’s value significantly drops, one may not be able to refinance later as they hoped, Laurie Goodman, a fellow at the think tank Urban Institute, told WSJ.

Some lenders may also use unclear terms in the agreement that could result in hidden fees or costs rolled into the loan, impacting long-term interest payments, Business Insider reported.

Furthermore, to benefit from the “buy now, refinance later” deal, borrowers must refinance with the same lender and may need to wait at least six months to be eligible. Such restrictions to work with the original lender may also limit the borrower’s ability to access better rates elsewhere.

“There’s really two aspects of [buy now, refinance later]. One is to unlock buyers who are on the sidelines right now,” Dan Richards, executive vice president of mortgage lender Flyhomes Mortgage which began offering a “buy now, refinance for free later” product in January, told Insider. “Secondly, it endears these borrowers to become long-term customers of Flyhomes.”

So, what’s one to do? Rossman told the WSJ that he recommends focusing on what you can afford at the time you’re looking to buy, rather than banking on future rate drops, because “sometimes things don’t go according to plan.”

https://www.entrepreneur.com/business-news/lenders-offer-buy-now-refinance-later-freewhats-the/464631