Most eyes in the labor world are on Birmingham, Alabama, where the NLRB is hand-counting the 3215 ballots cast by workers in Amazon’s Bessemer, AL warehouse on whether to unionize. Though results could be released later today, challenges to contested ballots could mean 2-3 weeks before final resolution. Amazon had a comfortable 2-1 edge in early counting - NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg and TechCrunch
Journal reporting suggests that Procter & Gamble—“among the world’s largest advertisers”—is playing an active role in developing “a technique being tested in China to gather iPhone data for targeted ads, a step intended to give companies a way around Apple Inc.’s new privacy tools” - WSJ
Sony Pictures has inked a 5-year deal with Netflix that will give the streaming service “exclusive rights to Sony’s films once they leave theaters and premium video-on-demand services” - NYTimes and WSJ and MarketWatch
Plant-based meat alternatives purveyor Impossible Foods has set a timetable for its move to go public, with plans for either an IPO or a SPAC deal in the next 12 months - Bloomberg and MarketWatch
The quest for yields and growing reach of private debt funds is helping boost the rise of complex asset-backed bonds (ABSs) that are “funneling money to unprofitable software companies.” The vehicles allow the companies to “fuel growth without resorting to additional stock sales that dilute existing shareholders,” though some warn that “the new deals pile debt on debt, disregarding the risk of default in the relatively immature companies” - WSJ
Fed Chair Powell dipped his toe in epidemiological waters on Thursday, highlighting the “economic importance of controlling the coronavirus pandemic by getting the world vaccinated.” Speaking at an IMF conference, Powell stressed that until “the world, really, is vaccinated, we’re all going to be at risk of new mutations and we won’t be able to really resume activity with confidence all around the world” - NYTimes and Bloomberg
The recent double-whammy of Greensill and Archegos implosions are forcing Credit Suisse to examine how, after “years of beefing up compliance and risk” departments and spending, the bank managed to again look “the other way when warning signs argued for pulling back on lucrative corners of its business” - WSJ
Masa Son’s SoftBank empire is adding mortgage startup Better to its fold thanks to a $500M investment that values the company at $6 billion - WSJ
The Upshot on how, in the course of a year, we’ve swung from an “epic collapse of demand” to the current supply problems that threaten to slow a rapidly improving economy - NYTimes
Small music venues hoping to capitalize on $16 billion of relief funds aimed squarely at alleviating their pandemic-induced struggles faced a frustrating series of technical glitches that kept them from securing a spot in line—an especially bad outcome “because the funds are to be distributed on a first-come, first-served basis” - NYTimes
And finally, in a big flex of my Midwestern Dad status, please enjoy this favorable review of Toyota’s Sienna minivan redesign. Because I genuinely did - WSJ
Stay safe, and have a great weekend,
MDR
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