Uber's China Rival Gets a Boost, and Spotify Takes a Step Toward Public Markets
Didi Chuxing secures a $4 billion investment from SoftBank and Mubadala, bringing its valuation to $56 billion. The latest funding round comes amid reports SoftBank is looking to invest in rival Uber at a significant discount to its last $68 billion valuation.
And Spotify will reportedly get approval to list its shares directly on the New York Stock Exchange, a step towards avoiding a traditional IPO. The company could be valued as high as $20 billion.
Plus, speaking of going public, Pinterest will reportedly delay its planned IPO until 2019, as the company expects to fall short of revenue forecasts for the year. The photo-sharing app will bring in sales of $490 million this year, according to The Information. That compares to early estimates above $500 million.
Alcohol brand White Claw is moving into spirits amid an industrywide shift away from hard seltzers. The spiked seltzer brand announced a new line of regular and flavored White Claw premium vodkas. The bottles are available in select markets across North America and come in an unflavored option as well as pineapple mango and black cherry white Claw has dominated the Heart Seltzer market for years. Now bringing the category into the mainstream as more consumers sought those low calorie alcohol drinks.
Stocks are holding relatively steady Wednesday as Wall Street bides its time until the Federal Reserve’s announcement in the afternoon about whether it will tighten the screws further on the economy.
Meme stocks are rising before the opening bell Wednesday after GameStop, one of the most heavily traded off-brand stocks during the pandemic, posted a surprise profit for the fourth quarter.
The rising cost of groceries is pushing more consumers to use Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services for necessities such as groceries, according to new data from Adobe Analytics.
White Claw helped make hard seltzer a staple for American drinkers. Now it's getting into the spirit business with its own vodka brand because of new rules passed during the pandemic.
