Sara Fischer, media reporter at Axios, joins Cheddar to discuss Comcast's $31 billion offer for European broadcaster Sky. Fischer says this is part of Comcast's push to go global. Sky has about 23 million customers across Europe. Comcast, which owns NBC and Universal Pictures, could thwart Rupert Murdoch's years-long attempt to purchase Sky. Fox previously offered $15 billion for the part of Sky it doesn't already own. Fischer sees this move from Comcast as an attempt to fight Netflix's dominance in the media industry.
Apple plans to open two health clinics for its employees this spring. The company has already posted job openings for the clinics, which it's calling AC Wellness. For now, the health clinics are only for employees and their families, but many wonder if this could be part of a broader push into the health industry. This comes weeks after Amazon announced it was teaming up with JP Morgan Chase and Berkshire Hathaway to create an independent healthcare company for its employees.
Anthony Chan, chief economist at Chase, joins us to talk about the market volatility we've seen in recent weeks. Chan says he isn't worried about a serious market correction just yet. He also tells us he's not concerned about other countries buying U.S. debt. Rumors suggested China would stop buying U.S. Treasury Securities, but Chan notes that hasn't happened yet.
And Instacart is teaming up with Sam's Club to counter the growing threat from Amazon in the grocery space. Customers in three cities, Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, and St. Louis, will now be able to get Sam's Club groceries through Instacart. The grocery delivery service now has partnerships with eight of the leading grocers in the U.S. Since Sam's Club is part of Walmart, many are now wondering whether Walmart will eventually join forces with Instacart to compete with Amazon. Through its partnership with Whole Foods, Amazon continues to disrupt the grocery industry.
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
