Business

A collection of 1072 posts

Business

GDC survey: 33% of US games industry workers were laid off in past two years

The organizers of GDC released the 2026 State of the Game Industry Report, based on an annual self-reported survey of more than 2,300 games industry professionals. The data show 28% of respondents reported being laid off in the past two years, and 33% of US respondents said they had

Business

News Corp launches The California Post, a West Coast edition of the New York Post

News Corp has launched The California Post, a West Coast edition of the New York Post that started publishing on Monday and is based in Los Angeles, the paper’s new editor, Nick Papps, said. The launch follows a private event on the Fox studio lot in Los Angeles attended

Business

CFTC to rescind warning, may assert jurisdiction in Kalshi and Polymarket fights

CFTC chair Michael Selig said Thursday the agency will rescind warnings to prediction‑market operators and signaled it may fight state regulators that are trying to stop them. He told reporters the commission would yank a 2025 memo by senior staffers that advised platforms to have backup plans if courts

Business

Amazon, UPS job cuts stoke US recession fears — impact on crypto markets

In January 2026, major US firms including Amazon, Pinterest and UPS announced large job cuts, with Amazon removing about 16,000 corporate roles on Wednesday. The moves come after a year in which US employers eliminated roughly 1.2 million positions, the highest level since the pandemic-era 2020 crisis. Amazon

Business

Soho House goes private in $2.7B buyout led by Ron Burkle

Soho House has gone private again in a $2.7 billion deal helmed by billionaire Ron Burkle, the members-only club announced Thursday. Investors in the transaction include Ashton Kutcher, who will now join the company’s board of directors, as well as Goldman Sachs and Apollo Global Management, the announcement

Business

Costco sued over preservatives in its $5 rotisserie chickens

Two women in Southern California filed a proposed class-action lawsuit on Jan. 22 in the Southern District of California, alleging Costco falsely labeled its Kirkland Signature Seasoned Rotisserie Chicken as preservative-free. The complaint and Costco say the chickens are made with sodium phosphate and carrageenan. The filing includes a photo

Business

Blackstone credits QTS data centers as top driver of 2025 gains

Blackstone said QTS, the data-center provider it took private in 2021, was the single largest driver of gains in the firm’s $1.3 trillion portfolio in 2025, the company reported. On a year-end call, co-founder and chairman Stephen Schwarzman called QTS "the world's largest data center

Business

Founder of First Brands and brother indicted on fraud charges

Federal prosecutors on Thursday indicted Patrick James, the founder of First Brands, and his brother, Edward James, accusing them of an elaborate scheme to deceive lenders at the now-bankrupt auto-parts company, the indictment filed in federal court in Manhattan says. The indictment says the brothers “deliberately concealed massive amounts of

Business

Elon Musk urges US companies to build lithium refineries as Tesla scales Texas output

Elon Musk used the final moments of Tesla's earnings call to warn American companies they must build more battery-making infrastructure or risk falling behind, saying Tesla has taken unusual steps to protect itself by building lithium‑refining and battery facilities in Texas. Musk pressed the point with blunt

Business

New Mexico developer stopped installing gas lines at Metro Verde to cut costs

John Moscato, a land developer in Las Cruces, N.M., said he stopped installing natural gas lines at Metro Verde, a 2,200-acre development, about four years ago and that the decision saved his company roughly $3,000 per lot and sped delivery of sites to homebuilders. Mr. Moscato said

Business

Apple earnings after close: Wall Street eyes AI roadmap and iPhone sales

Apple will report fiscal first-quarter results after the closing bell on Thursday, and Wall Street is focused on the company’s AI roadmap and iPhone sales. Results are due shortly after markets close, with the analyst call expected to begin around 5 p.m. ET; Apple shares are down about

Business

Paradox posts SEK 245.4M loss after Bloodlines 2 write-down

Paradox Interactive said in its year-end report that, despite revenue rising 23% and delivering its "second-best quarter ever", it recorded an operating loss of 245.4 million Swedish kronor (around $28 million) largely because of a write-down tied to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. "The profit line,

Business

Jeff Gundlach urges 30–40% in non‑US stocks amid weak dollar, high inflation

Jeffrey Gundlach, the “Bond King” and DoubleLine Capital CEO, told CNBC on Wednesday he is positioning portfolios around the risks of higher inflation and a weaker U.S. dollar and laid out his top investment recommendations. Gundlach said inflation is running at about a 3% annualized rate, above the Fed’

Business

Saks Global bankruptcy revives questions about the future of department stores

Saks Global, the operator of Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus and Bergdorf Goodman, entered Chapter 11 bankruptcy, a development that the New York Times said has revived debate about whether department stores can regain their former appeal (report dated Jan. 29, 2026). The Times piece traces the cultural power of

Business

A.I. boom prompts massive capex at Meta and heavy spending elsewhere, payoff unclear

Meta said last night it would spend up to $135 billion on capital expenditures this year, much of it on artificial intelligence, and its stock rose; Microsoft’s stock fell more than 6 percent after the company reported earnings, DealBook said. Tech giants’ A.I. spending plans are enormous. Microsoft

Business

U.S. Trade Deficit Rebounds to $56.8 Billion in November

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services rebounded to $56.8 billion in November, a 95 percent increase from the previous month, according to Commerce Department data released on Thursday. Exports fell 3.6 percent in the month, to $292.1 billion, while imports rose 5 percent, to

Business

U.S. trade deficit rebounds to $56.8 billion in November as tariffs drive volatility

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services rebounded to $56.8 billion in November, rising 95 percent from the previous month, according to Commerce Department data reported Jan. 29, 2026. The increase follows months of volatile trade flows linked to the administration’s tariffs. Exports fell 3.6

Business

Lukoil agrees to sell its foreign assets to Carlyle, excluding Kazakhstan

Lukoil said on Thursday, Jan. 29, 2026, that it had agreed to sell its foreign assets to Carlyle, a Washington-based investment firm, while excluding its operations in Kazakhstan. The company did not disclose the financial terms of the deal and said it was still in talks with other prospective buyers.

Business

Dallas rug maker endured first year of tariffs but faces new uncertainties

Loloi, a family-run rug and textile company based in Dallas, stockpiled inventory before President Trump’s tariff campaign began in early April and managed to withstand the first year, but its pre-tariff stock is running low and new challenges loom, the New York Times reports. The company’s tariff bill

Business

States cut winter electricity rates to make heat pumps cheaper

Massachusetts and Minnesota are requiring most major utilities to offer discounted winter electricity rates for customers who heat with heat pumps, and Colorado is moving toward similar rules, the New York Times reports. Officials say the discounts respond to the fact that much of the U.S. grid is built

Business

Superhuman CEO scores his weeks with a 4-step system to spend 50% on to-dos

Shishir Mehrotra, CEO of Superhuman, uses a four-step time-management guide to calculate a weekly "alignment score" that measures how well his time matches his priorities, Business Insider reported. Mehrotra said he adapted a productivity hack from Intercom cofounder Des Traynor. Traynor's framework contrasts emails (what others

Business

Trump’s tariffs sort U.S. manufacturers into winners and losers

President Trump’s expanded tariffs are protecting some U.S. manufacturers while raising costs and uncertainty for many others, the New York Times reported on Jan. 29, 2026. A year into his second term, the policies have produced a mixed outcome for the factory sector. Overall factory employment has fallen

Business

Amazon Game Studios head Christoph Hartmann reportedly leaving amid mass layoffs

Amazon Game Studios has reportedly lost its studio head, Christoph Hartmann, as the company implements further layoffs. Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier says Hartmann "is leaving the company." This comes as Amazon makes a further 16,000 company-wide layoffs following 14,000 job cuts in October. Bloomberg's

Business

At Ningbo’s port, booming exports contrast with local housing collapse

Jan. 29, 2026 — In Ningbo, a two-hour drive south of Shanghai, the city’s vast port and export factories are bustling while local merchants and residents report severe economic strain, The New York Times reports. The port handles about 150,000 ships a year and is the world’s largest

Business

Microsoft plunges after big capex jump; Meta stock soars on larger 2026 plan

Wall Street reacted sharply after Meta and Microsoft reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday: both companies raised capital spending above expectations, with Meta's stock jumping as high as 9% after-hours and Microsoft's sinking more than 6%. Meta disclosed fourth-quarter capex of $22.1 billion and $72.2