The Newest Information, Headlines, and Enterprise Tales for December 29

Glad Friday! When you’re determining New 12 months’s plans in New York Metropolis, I’ve received a deal for you. For a mere $450 you may ring within the new yr within the coronary heart of tradition: the Instances Sq. Olive Backyard. That is a steal in comparison with how a lot tickets price at Applebee’s and Bubba Gump Shrimp Co.

In in the present day’s large story, we’re a few of the high enterprise tales from the previous yr.

What’s on deck: 

However first, again to enterprise.

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Story of the day

Better of biz

2023 wasn’t precisely enterprise as normal. 

An economic system grappling with excessive rates of interest and inflation meant loads of companies needed to buckle down. A number of main US firms made deep job cuts within the first half of the yr.  

Worker-employer relations took heart stage, as unions for auto employees, UPS drivers, and Hollywood writers and actors went on strike. A broader dialog concerning the efficacy of the 40-hour workweek — and methods to upend it to enhance employees’ happiness — additionally occurred. 

The ties between universities and companies garnered consideration in 2023 following Hamas’ assaults on Israel. Some executives’ anger over universities’ responses to the warfare highlighted the strain between Wall Road and the elite establishments. 

I requested Shona Ghosh, Enterprise Insider’s deputy government editor for enterprise within the UK, for 5 of the highest tales from her workforce. Test them out under, together with some ideas from Shona about what made them stand out.

MediaMath appeared destined for a $1B fairy-tale exit. As a substitute, most early buyers received nothing.

Lara O’Reilly reported deeply on the decline of MediaMath, an adtech big that appeared destined to make its buyers, workers, and founders wealthy with a $1 billion exit. As a substitute, the corporate offered to personal fairness, leaving virtually nothing on the desk. It is a enterprise fairy-tale gone improper.

Barbie is the star of the summer season’s hottest blockbuster. The much-hyped film is the head of a 60-year historical past full of rejections, lawsuits, and controversies for the world’s most iconic doll.

Greta Gerwig tapped into the world’s want for one thing — something — enjoyable after the pandemic years together with her crazy, enjoyable tackle Barbie. Do you know Barbie’s sometimes-controversial inventor was a girl, Ruth Handler, and her iconic toy would make her fabulously rich? Grace Dean delved into the historical past of Barbie.

GoStudent, the $3 billion edtech darling, scaled quick and partied laborious. The consequence was a large number.

Tasmin Lockwood and Riddhi Kanetkar uncovered stunning incidents at GoStudent, the $3 billion SoftBank-backed tutoring platform that hyperlinks up youngsters with personal tutors on-line. One father looking for a tutor for his daughter discovered one GoStudent candidate had been fired from his faculty for exchanging nudes with a feminine pupil. The corporate says it is a totally different, higher operation in the present day.

Finland is the world’s happiest nation, however Finns say we’re complicated happiness for one thing else

Finland is the world’s happiest nation. However, as Bea Nolan found when she visited, Finns are fairly irritated by this notion. They’re glad, they stated, simply not in the way in which you suppose.

Ex-Fb and DeepMind workers in talks to lift sizable preliminary funding spherical to construct OpenAI rival

Everybody needs to search out (and fund) the following ChatGPT. To that finish, Europe’s enterprise capitalists are in a mad sprint to again any continental firm that would rival OpenAI — and so they suppose they’ve discovered it. Callum Burroughs broke the information that former Meta and Google DeepMind workers arrange Mistral AI, which produces its personal giant language fashions. It is already value $2 billion.

3 issues in markets

1. US industrial actual property is headed for catastrophe. Specialists detailed why the business, which banks are closely uncovered to, might fall into disaster in 2024. Among the largest purple flags embody a decline in workplace property costs and rising defaults. However for others, it is a good time to get out there.
2. The brand new wealth whisperers. The wealth-management business was upended in 2023, with high-profile management adjustments at Merrill Lynch, Citi, and Morgan Stanley. Analysts clarify what’s at stake for executives trying to courtroom wealthy purchasers.
3. The wild and wacky state of the markets in 2023. Banks collapse. A meltdown within the bond market. This yr wasn’t a quiet one for the markets. Try eight of the extra memorable market tales from 2023.

3 issues in tech

1. Meet the previous government assistants behind essentially the most highly effective folks in tech. Influential leaders like Steve Jobs and Invoice Gates have had government assistants who labored across the clock to make their lives simpler — and went on to construct high-powered careers.
2. Specialists share what might occur with AI in 2024. Synthetic intelligence specialists informed BI that the tech will turn into additional ingrained into our every day lives — and that it might spell bother for OpenAI.
3. 2023 was Mark Zuckerberg’s comeback season. Over the previous yr, Zuckerberg has reinvented himself as being type of cool and even kind of relatable. Oh, and he additionally received $84 billion richer.

3 issues in enterprise

1. The way forward for the US economic system is within the South. The area is poised to play an even bigger position within the American economic system as a result of a inhabitants spike adopted by financial progress.
2. Tesla can nonetheless win the EV wars. Inside the subsequent few days, Tesla might lose its spot because the world’s hottest EV maker to Chinese language rival BYD. But it surely’s not all unhealthy information — Tesla’s EVs outstrip others relating to charging, and a redesigned Mannequin Y might be on the way in which.
3. How OpenAI and Microsoft might influence The New York Instances’ income. The outlet’s copyright infringement lawsuit lays out 3 ways the businesses might massively influence its enterprise, together with by undercutting its paywall.

In different information

What’s occurring in the present day

• NFL’s Professional Bowlers introduced. Rosters for the annual all-star sport, which can happen February 4 in Orlando, shall be revealed on NFL Community.
• Glad Birthday, Jon Voight! The “Warmth” star shares his big day with Jude Legislation, Danny McBride, and Dylan Mulvaney.
• Testing the confetti earlier than the ball drops. Handfuls of confetti shall be thrown from the Arduous Rock Cafe marquee in Instances Sq. forward of the 1.5 tons of confetti that shall be dropped on New 12 months’s Eve.

On your bookmarks

The anti-aging food plan

A millionaire obsessive about reversing his age shares what he eats for lunch and dessert. Bryan Johnson, who spends as a lot as $2 million a yr on his supposedly age-reversing routine, packs on the veggies for lunch and opts for his personal model of a pudding for dessert.

The Insider As we speak workforce: Dan DeFrancesco, deputy editor and anchor, in New York. Diamond Naga Siu, senior reporter, in San Diego. Hallam Bullock, editor, in London. Jordan Parker Erb, editor, in New York. Hayley Hudson, director, in Edinburgh. Lisa Ryan, government editor, in New York.