Rethinking tech funding could help solve the industry's problems

Oct 10, 2017
Venture capitalist Tim O'Reilly says his very industry needs to do better.
Employees of startup companies work at the offices of a business incubator in Washington, D.C.
MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images

Activist investor aims for a seat on P&G board

Oct 10, 2017
On Monday, General Electric gave a board seat to Ed Garden, co-founder of the $12.7 billion hedge fund Trian Partners. And this morning, when Procter & Gamble holds its yearly shareholder meeting, all eyes will be on another Trian partner, activist investor Nelson Peltz. Trian owns a 1.5 percent stake in the struggling Cincinnati-based consumer […]

Let's do the numbers: Halloween edition

Oct 9, 2017
Halloween spending is expected to hit a record $9.1 billion this year.
Rich Polk/Getty Images for Universal Studios Hollywood

Amazon encroaches on UPS and Fedex territory with deliveries for third party sellers

Oct 6, 2017
Amazon announced this week a new service on the West Coast which could encroach on territory currently held by the likes of UPS and Fedex. The online retail giant said it’s going to be overseeing deliveries for third party sellers. It will still use UPS and Fedex, but it might also choose to use its […]

Could Puerto Rico’s devastated power grid be rebuilt using solar energy instead?

Oct 6, 2017
It’s been weeks now since Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico, and still a vast majority of the island, nearly 90 percent, doesn’t have power. Elon Musk, on Twitter, suggested his solar power technology could be scaled up to rebuild the entire power grid, and the governor of the island, Ricardo Rossello, tweeted back “Let’s talk.”  […]

Can any person (or robot) put an end to fake news?

Oct 6, 2017
It's probably going to take more than algorithms.
GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images

Diet soda sales fizzle as health-conscious consumers turn to other drinks

Oct 5, 2017
Today we want beverages with “ingredients you can pronounce.”
By the end of 1983, Diet Coke was the top diet drink in the country.
George Frey/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

The largest data breach in history was bigger than we thought

Oct 5, 2017
All Yahoo accounts created before 2013 have been hacked.
The Yahoo logo is displayed in front of the Yahoo headquarters on July 2012 in Sunnyvale, California.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
“We don't ever want to be the cheapest provider of lodging services,” says Arne Sorenson, president and CEO of Marriott International.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

EU cracks down on tax avoidance by multinationals

Oct 4, 2017
Two giant American corporations got some bad news from the European Union today. Amazon was ordered to repay several hundred million dollars in back taxes. And the EU  stepped up its campaign to extract billions in allegedly unpaid tax from Apple. Click the audio player above to hear the full story.