Starbucks is expected to reveal a reinvention plan on Tuesday at its Investor Day. The plan was developed by interim CEO Howard Schultz, who will step down from the role in April for incoming CEO Laxman Narasimhan. Narasimhan will join the coffee giant in Oct. 2022 to learn about the company and the reinvention plan from Schultz before taking full charge in April. More: - Schultz plans to remain on Starbucks’ board after he steps down from the role of CEO to help see the plan through.
- Schultz had previously stated he wanted to reinvent Starbucks’ employee, customer, and store experience.
- The company has been battling a union push and high employee turnover in recent months.
- Before Starbucks, Narasimhan was CEO of health and hygiene company Reckitt, which owns brands Lysol, Durex, and Mucinex.
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Activist investor Daniel Loeb signaled on Sunday via Twitter that he would no longer push for Disney to spin off its sports network ESPN. The reversal comes following Disney’s D23 Expo event, which was held over the weekend. Disney announced several new shows and films and upcoming plans for the company. More: - At the D23 Expo, Disney CEO Bob Chapek said the company has plans for ESPN to be a big growth driver for the company and a large part of its entertainment offerings.
- Last month, Loeb’s hedge fund, Third Point LLC, announced it had renewed its stake in Disney.
- Third Point had liquidated its position in the entertainment giant earlier this year.
- In August, Loeb wrote a letter to CEO Chapek wanting the company to make several changes, including spinning off ESPN.
- On Twitter on Sunday, Loeb noted Third Point has a better understanding of ESPN’s potential, and they look forward to seeing ESPN head James Pitaro execute the growth and innovation plans for the sports network.
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Google spun out a high-speed communications networks company called Aalyria on Monday. In a press release the startup said its mission is to manage hyper-fast, ultra-secure, and highly complex communications networks that span land, sea, air, near space, and deep space. The company claims that nothing like the scale and speed of its laser communications technology exists today. More: - Google did not provide details on how long the company has been working on the technology or how many employees will join the startup.
- According to sources, the project was codenamed “Minkowski” within Google.
- Aalyria’s software platform has been used in multiple aerospace networking projects for Google.
- The company said it has an $8.7M commercial contract with the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit.
- Aalyria will be led by CEO Chris Taylor, a national security expert who has led other companies that have worked with the government.
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Goldman Sachs is planning to lay off several hundred workers this month, according to sources. The investment bank is reinstating a tradition of annual employee culls, where it lays off between 1% and 5% of low performers across the firm. In June, Goldman reported it had about 47,000 employees, meaning job cuts could be between 470 and as much as 2,350. More: - Prior to the pandemic, Wall Street firms usually laid off their low performers in the months following Labor Day and before annual bonuses are paid out.
- The practice was paused during the pandemic and amid an economic and hiring boom.
- This year, an industrywide slowdown in mergers and IPOs has impacted various firms, including Goldman.
- Goldman’s investment-banking revenue fell 41% to $2.1B in Q2 compared to last year.
- Its profit fell 47% to $2.9B compared to $5.5B reported same period last year.
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Two of the largest railroad unions, the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers (BLET) and Trainmen and the SMART Transportation Division (SMART TD), are threatening to strike if their demands are not met. The BLET and SMART TD represent about half of all railroad union workers in the U.S. More: - The unions are demanding more quality-of-life provisions be added to the new contract, covering attendance policies and vacation and sick days, or they will strike.
- About 40% of long-distance trade in the U.S. moves by rail.
- A strike would mean about 7,000 idled trains a day, which would cost the rail industry about $2B a day.
- In addition to the financial costs, a strike could trigger shortages and shutdowns in sectors like retail and manufacturing across the U.S.
- Eight of 12 labor unions have reached tentative agreements with the railroad carriers, up from five last week.
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Netflix is partnering with one of Europe’s largest video game companies, Ubisoft, in hopes to boost its gaming business. Netflix will launch three new mobile games in 2023 based on Ubisoft games Assassin’s Creed, Mighty Quest, and Valiant Hearts. Ubisoft will develop the mobile games for Netflix. More: - Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
- The games will be available exclusively to Netflix subscribers, with no ads or in-app purchases.
- Netflix launched its gaming business in 2021 in hopes to diversify its revenue stream.
- The streaming company released 28 games and acquired three gaming studios: Night School Studio, Boss Fight Entertainment, and Next Games.
- Netflix has struggled to grow its gaming audience.
- According to market intelligence firm Apptopia, Netflix’s mobile games have about 1.9 million daily active users, compared to Candy Crush maker King, which has about 30 million daily active users.
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- Universal Studios Beijing has laid off about 25% of its staff since its grand opening last September. The company has suffered losses due to China's ongoing "Zero-COVID" shutdowns and policies.
- Ford is expanding the availability of its hands-free highway driving system to Lincoln's entry-level Corsair crossover. The 2023 Corsair starts at $40,000, making it the lowest-priced Ford vehicle to offer the technology.
- About 15,000 nurses in Minnesota staged a walkout on Monday to protest being understaffed and overworked. The strike is expected to last three days and is being described as one of the largest in U.S. history.
- GE will complete the spinoff of its healthcare business in January 2023. The new company, which will be called GE Healthcare, revealed its new board members, including CEO Peter Arduini and executives from Honeywell International and Amazon Web Services.
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 |  | Vanessa Omeokachie is a Freelance Writer for Inside.com. She writes the Inside Business and Inside Cloud newsletters. Her interests include finance, technology, and entrepreneurship. In her free time, she enjoys reading, hiking, attending concerts and music festivals, exploring cities, and traveling. Connect with her on Twitter @VanessaOmeo or on LinkedIn. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 and 1972 Fords. | |
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