Hyatt Hotels revealed plans this weekend to buy resort company Apple Leisure Group from PE owners KKR and KSL Capital Partners for a reported $2.7 billion. The move is “the latest sign of optimism about a return to vacation travel even as the U.S. economy continues to grapple with the coronavirus pandemic” - WSJ and Bloomberg
Tough way to end the week for Google, which on Friday was the recipient of an adverse preliminary ruling from the U.S. International Trade Commission that sided with speaker-maker Sonos in its bid to block “imports of Google Home smart speakers, the company’s Chromecast systems and its Pixel phones and computers” over alleged IP violations. The full Commission will now be charged with deciding “whether to accept or reverse” the decision for a final ruling scheduled to occur on December 13 - NYTimes and Law360 and TechCrunch
Rival Apple didn’t have it much better, with a Texas federal jury finding that the company owes $300 million “for infringing Optis Wireless Technology LLC’s standard-essential 4G wireless patents.” The verdict came months after a federal judge had tossed “an earlier $506 million damages verdict after expressing ‘serious doubts’ about it” – Law360
Despite generally dropping marriage rates in the U.S (hitting a record low of 6.1 per 1000 people in 2019), the lost lockdown year of 2020 means that the summer of 2021 (and likely the next few to come) will be remembered for a wedding boom that’s big enough to provide a “short term jolt to the economy.” The real question is whether Covid will play any role in changing the overall trend away from couples making it official - NYTimes
Cryptos have small traders to thank for their recent surge in the face of “uncertainty over the proposed tax regulations” ahead for digital currencies from Congress. While institutional investors are dialing back their love for cryptos, individuals are filling the void, spurred on by big-megaphone cheerleaders like Elon Musk - WSJ and Bloomberg
Boeing can’t catch a break, and this time it means that the company’s Starliner spacecraft—“designed to take NASA astronauts to and from the International Space Station”—has been recalled over sticky valves. The project is “already years behind schedule,” forcing NASA to rely on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and hitched rides on Russian spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS - NYTimes
U.S.-based contractor Business Efficiency Solutions is accusing Huawei Technologies in a few federal lawsuit of “requir[ing] it to set up a system in China that gives Huawei access to sensitive information about citizens and government officials from a safe-cities surveillance project in Pakistan’s second-largest city of Lahore.” The suit also alleges that Huawei stole BES’s technology - WSJ
New York’s head of the powerful Department of Financial Services, Linda Lacewell, is out in the wake of the resignation of state governor Andrew Cuomo. She had previously served as Cuomo’s special counsel and chief of staff before assuming the role of NY’s top banking regulator nearly 3 years ago – Law360
Speaking of regulators, the Federal Reserve is reportedly “nearing an agreement to begin scaling back their easy money policies in about here months if the economic recovery continues.” That pull-back would likely begin with bond-buying tapering before extending to raising rates, and It comes well ahead of originally anticipated dates such action - WSJ
Streetwise, for one, is far from satisfied with Tether’s recent release of its first accountant-verified breakdown of “its issuer’s $63 billion of assets.” Why? Well, for starters, the disclosure “is still far less than is provided by regulated money-market funds,” and it’s limited to just one day - WSJ
Fintech startup Chime has pulled in $750 million in its latest funding round—a sum that values the company (which “provides checking and savings accounts and introductory credit cards to consumer through its popular smartphone app”) at $25 billion ahead of an anticipated early-2022 IPO - WSJ
Precisely the kind of message we need to hear (and embrace for those young athletes in our families) about the importance of prioritizing self-care—and even quitting, at times—and how it can lead to sustainable success in the future. Just ask marathon bronze medalist Molly Seidel - NYTimes
Stay safe, and get vaxxed,
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