STREAMING
Netflix keeps adding subscribers, despite price hikes
Netflix registered its third-consecutive quarter of accelerating subscriber growth in the final three months of 2023, closing out a comeback year that included a crackdown on viewers freeloading on the video-streaming service and a smattering of price hikes. The fourth-quarter results announced Tuesday provided evidence that Netflix was able to come up with a formula that produced a spike in subscribers even as it became more expensive to watch its lineup of TV shows and movies. Netflix signaled it will try to justify the higher subscription prices — and perhaps reel in more advertisers to a low-cost plan that includes commercials — with a $10 billion deal announced Tuesday that will bring the popular wrestling program, WWE’s “Raw,” to its service. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
WIRELESS
Verizon added more than 300,000 mobile subscribers in fourth quarter
Verizon added more retail mobile customers in the fourth quarter than it has in any period since 2021, signaling a potential turning point for the phone giant that has been struggling to regain market share from competitors. Verizon’s consumer group added 318,000 mobile subscribers in the three months ended Dec. 31, the company reported Tuesday in a statement, beating Wall Street’s estimates of 95,900. The net gain, the first one after three down quarters, comes as the New York-based company works to win customers lost to rivals AT&T and T-Mobile. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
MEDIA
LA Times lays off a quarter of its newsroom
The Los Angeles Times plans to lay off 94 newsroom employees — one-fourth of its newsroom staff — starting Tuesday, a number that is substantial but less than feared, the head of the journalists union said. The announcement comes after the LA Times Guild walked off the job last Friday to protest the imminent layoffs, the first newsroom union work stoppage in the newspaper’s 143-year history. Layoffs and buyouts have hit a wide swath of the news industry over the past year. The Washington Post, NPR, CNN, and Vox Media are among the many companies hit. An estimated 2,681 news industry jobs were lost through the end of November, according to the employment firm of Challenger, Gray and Christmas. That was more than the full years of 2022 and 2021. The latest round of job cutting at the LA Times comes after more than 70 positions — about 13 percent of the newsroom — were slashed last June. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
TECH
TikTok cuts dozens of jobs
TikTok is laying off dozens of workers in its advertising and sales unit, becoming the latest tech company to trim roles in the new year. A spokesperson for the company confirmed Tuesday that the social media platform is cutting 60 jobs. The company did not provide a reason for the layoffs. It said impacted workers can apply to other open positions at TikTok, which currently has more than 120 similar job listings. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
LEGAL
‘Pharma Bro’ cannot work in drug industry
Martin Shkreli, the “Pharma Bro” who served almost seven years in prison for defrauding investors, will remain ineligible to work in the drug industry, after an appeals court upheld a judge’s lifetime ban. The Manhattan-based federal appeals court on Tuesday cited “Shkreli’s pattern of past misconduct, the obvious likelihood of its recurrence, and the life-threatening nature of its results.” It upheld the ban and an order that he pay $64 million over a scheme to control the market for the drug Daraprim. The court rejected arguments from Shkreli, 40, the former chief executive of Vyera Pharmaceuticals, who claimed the 2022 court order violated his constitutional rights, blocking him even from getting a job as a Walgreens cashier. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
TAX PREPARATION
TurboTax can’t claim it’s free
Federal regulators have ruled that Intuit, maker of the tax-filing software TurboTax, must stop marketing its services as free, unless they are free to everyone or exceptions are clearly disclosed. TurboTax had for years claimed customers could file their taxes online for free. The Federal Trade Commission said in an opinion and final order issued Monday that its advertising was deceptive because two-thirds of taxpayers were not eligible to file with the free product. — NEW YORK TIMES
PHILANTHROPY
Airbnb gives $10 million to nonprofits
Airbnb on Tuesday donated a total of $10 million to more than 120 nonprofits in 44 countries on six continents, the short-term rental giant’s latest outlays in its unusual distribution of $100 million through its Airbnb Community Fund. The grantees include Digify Africa, which helps young people join Africa’s digital economy, the Japanese Service Dog Resource Center, and the Atlanta Habitat for Humanity. All the groups receiving funds were selected, not by Airbnb or its employees, but by the hosts who rent out their properties on the platform. While many corporations are shifting more of their philanthropy decisions from corporate suite executives to employees by matching their donations, few have gone as far as Airbnb in turning over control of funds to outside groups. — ASSOCIATED PRES
INTERNATIONAL
Amazon fined over worker monitoring in France
The French data protection watchdog fined Amazon $34.9 million for setting up a system to monitor employee activity and performance that it called “excessively intrusive.” The authority is targeting scanners that track employee activity and performance, CNIL said in a statement on Tuesday. The watchdog said Amazon’s system differs from traditional monitoring methods “because of the scale on which they were implemented, both in terms of their exhaustiveness and their permanence.” The e-commerce giant was also fined for having insufficient security on its video surveillance. Amazon called CNIL’s conclusions factually incorrect and said in a separate statement that it reserved the right to appeal the decision. “Warehouse management systems are industry standard and are necessary for ensuring the safety, quality, and efficiency of operations and to track the storage of inventory and processing of packages on time and in line with customer expectations,” Amazon said. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
EQUITY
Women won’t reach parity on boards for another decade
Women keep reaching new highs in America’s boardroom — but they’re still a decade away from reaching parity. While women occupied a record 33.5 percent of S&P 500 companies’ board seats at the end of last year, the ratio was 50-50 or more at just 29 companies, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. At the current pace, the gender ratio won’t reach parity until 2032 as last year’s gains were below the pace set in 2019 and 2020, when boards responded to heightened activist pressure by adding more women and people of color. What’s more, the recent conservative-led backlash has had a chilling impact on some corporate diversity initiatives. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
PHARMACEUTICALS
Sanofi to buy California biotech
Sanofi agreed to buy the US biotech Inhibrx for as much as $2.2 billion, giving the French drug maker a potential therapy for a genetic disorder that affects the lungs and liver. The acquisition is the latest in a string of small- and mid-sized deals as Sanofi looks to double down on innovative medicines and reduce its reliance on the blockbuster asthma medicine Dupixent. — BLOOMBERG NEWS