Tonight: Bed Bath & Beyond is back...sorta. Plus: the Trump media SPAC adds a round of federal indictments to its list of headaches. And one quick programming note: Nightcap will be offline next week for a little vacay. See you back here on July 10! Now, let's get into it. By Allison Morrow |
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| | Last updated June 29 at 7:44 PM ET | |
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Overstock.com is one of the biggest names in e-commerce. But it's trading up for an even bigger one. The home goods site will soon rebrand with the one it recently acquired out of bankruptcy, the beloved Bed Bath & Beyond. ICYMI: Overstock spent $21 million to buy Bed Bath & Beyond's name, domain and loyalty program assets earlier this week. (The acquisition doesn't include Bed Bath & Beyond's brick-and-mortar stores, which are closing.) Shares of Overstock jumped nearly 20% Thursday on the news. Surprising? Yes. Smart? Also yes ... Overstock, which began as a liquidator site, no longer sells only bargain-basement furniture and home goods. It's competing with brands like Wayfair and Article. But it's hard not to associate the word "overstock"with "cheap stuff we couldn't sell elsewhere." The company's CEO, Jonathan Johnson, described the rebranding as a "transformative step" for Overstock. "Bed Bath & Beyond is an iconic consumer brand ... The combination of our winning asset-light business model and the high awareness and loyalty of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand will improve the customer experience," he said in a statement. |
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The takeaway is that those who demand that no one think about race ... refuse to see, much less solve for, the elephant in the room — the race-linked disparities that continue to impede achievement of our great Nation's full potential. |
—Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson The Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action in college admissions overturned long-standing precedent and prompted unusually sharp criticisms between the court's two Black justices. In her dissent, Ketanji Brown Jackson tore into Clarence Thomas' "straw man" arguments. Thomas, in a concurring opinion, spoke out against affirmative action policies, which he described as "rudderless, race-based preferences designed to ensure a particular racial mix in their entering classes." |
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The US economy is chugging right along, and appears to be in much better shape than previously thought. And it's all thanks to you... And me. And everyone else continuing to shell out on services like dining and travel and concerts and all that fun IRL stuff we couldn't do during the pandemic. In the first three months of the year, gross domestic product grew at an annualized rate of 2% — revised up from 1.3%, and well above economists' expectations of 1.4%. |
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Showtime, folks! On tonight's Nightcap: UC Berkeley Professor Hany Farid tells host Jon Sarlin about how watermarking and fingerprinting content could help stop the spread of AI disinformation. Plus, NYU's Tessa West explains how to figure out if you're the office jerk and what to do about it. And The New Yorker's Evan Osnos discusses why the world's biggest pop stars are doing private gigs — for a price. Watch it all here. |
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Add three federal indictments to the laundry list of problems facing Donald Trump's effort to take his media business public. See here: Federal prosecutors arrested three investors on Thursday on insider-trading charges related to the deal.
According to the indictment, the three individuals together made more than $22 million in October 2021 by illegally trading on nonpublic knowledge of Digital World Acquisition Corporation's plan to buy Trump Media & Technology Group (the company that operates the former president's Truth Social platform).
The defendants allegedly tipped off friends and colleagues, who also purchased securities in Digital World before the deal became public.
Once the deal was announced, of course, the value of those securities spiked, allegedly racking up $22 million in profit.
There is no allegation that Trump himself was involved in the alleged insider trading. Trump Media did not respond to a request for comment.
But the criminal charges are hardly the first headache surrounding the deal, which has yet to be completed nearly two years after it was announced.
- Last month, the Nasdaq stock exchange threatened to delist Digital World because it hadn't filed a standard quarterly report.
- In late June, Digital World disclosed its board members had received subpoenas from a federal grand jury in the Southern District of New York related to due diligence around the merger.
- Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission, which hasn't signed off on the deal, has been investigating potential securities law violations related to conversations about a tie-up between Trump and Digital World prior to the company's public listing.
Look ahead: With investigations stalling the deal, Digital World shareholders approved a one-year deadline extension. That extension runs out in September, at which point the company may be forced to return the roughly $300 million it has raised in its IPO. |
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📸 Dylan Mulvaney, the trans woman whose Bud Light ad sparked a boycott among some on the far-right, spoke publicly about the controversy for the first time Thursday, saying she's been afraid to leave her home and that she had received a violent threats. She also criticized Bud Light, saying the company never reached out to her after the backlash began. 💍 Smoke poured out of Tiffany's flagship 5th Avenue store in Manhattan, just two months after an extensive renovation. 🌶 A black market for Sriracha has formed. Bottles of the hot sauce are selling for as much as $120. 📝 National Geographic laid off its last remaining staff writers this week. ✈️ A rash of flight delays and cancellations that plagued US travelers this week was mostly resolved Thursday — except at United Airlines. |
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Last updated June 29 at 4:00 PM ET | |
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