Restaurant chain Hooters files for bankruptcy protection to enable founder-led buyout

Restaurant chain Hooters of America filed for bankruptcy protection in Texas on Monday, seeking to address its $376 million debt by selling all of its company-owned restaurants to a franchise group backed by the company’s founders. Hooters, like other casual dining restaurants, has struggled in recent years due to inflation, the high costs of labor and food and declining […]

Meta’s head of AI research announces departure

Meta’s head of artificial intelligence research announced Tuesday that she will be leaving the company.  Joelle Pineau, the company’s vice president of AI research, announced her departure in a LinkedIn post, saying her last day at the social media company will be May 30.  Her departure comes at a challenging time for Meta. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has […]

Trump commutes sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson

President Donald Trump commuted the criminal sentence of Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson on Friday, just hours before Watson was due to begin serving a 116-month prison term for a multi-million-dollar scheme that included falsely claiming the start-up had deals with Google and Oprah Winfrey, a senior White House official said. Watson had expected to surrender Friday afternoon to the Federal Correctional Institution in Lompoc, California, […]

Lululemon shares drop 15% as CEO says inflation, economic concerns are weighing on spending

Lululemon beat Wall Street expectations for fiscal fourth-quarter earnings and revenue, but issued 2025 guidance that disappointed analysts. On an Thursday earnings call, CEO Calvin McDonald said the athleticwear company conducted a survey earlier this month that found that consumers are spending less due to economic and inflation concerns, resulting in lower U.S. traffic at Lululemon and […]

FCC is investigating Disney and ABC for DEI initiatives

The Federal Communications Commission has alerted the Walt Disney Company and its ABC unit that it will begin an investigation into the diversity, equity and inclusion efforts at the media giant. The FCC, the agency that regulates the media and telecommunications industry, said in a letter dated Friday that it wants to “ensure that Disney and ABC have not been […]

Dollar Tree says it’s winning over higher-income shoppers and may offset tariffs with price hikes

Dollar Tree said Wednesday that it’s gaining market share with higher-income consumers and could raise prices on some products to offset President Donald Trump’s tariffs. The discount retailer’s CEO, Michael Creedon, said the company is seeing “value-seeking behavior across all income groups.” While Dollar Tree has always relied on lower-income shoppers and gets about 50% of its business […]

Oil executives bluntly criticize Trump tariffs and ‘drill, baby, drill’ mantra

Oil executives are warning that President Donald Trump’s tariffs and “drill, baby, drill” message have created uncertainty in energy markets that is already affecting investment. The executives, shielded by anonymity, bluntly criticized Trump in their responses to a survey conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from March 12 to March 20. “The administration’s chaos is a […]

Berkshire Hathaway employee wins $1 million in Warren Buffett’s March Madness bracket challenge

For the first time in nearly 10 years, a Berkshire Hathaway employee claimed Warren Buffett’s $1 million grand prize for his company’s NCAA bracket contest. An anonymous employee from aviation training company FlightSafety International, a subsidiary of Buffett’s Berkshire, won the annual internal bracket contest after correctly calling 31 of the 32 games in the first round of […]

Affirm announces JPMorgan Chase merchants can now offer installment loans at checkout

Fintech lender Affirm said Tuesday that it’s reached an agreement with JPMorgan Chase to offer its buy now, pay later loan services to merchants on the bank’s payments network. U.S. merchants who use JPMorgan to handle payments can soon add Affirm to their checkout pages, according to a release. Consumers will have access to loans ranging from 30 days […]