McDonald’s to close three CosMc’s locations — and open two more

McDonald’s will shutter three locations of its drinks-focused spinoff brand, CosMc’s. To test the concept, the fast-food giant opened its first CosMc’s location more than a year ago in the Chicago suburb of Bolingbrook, followed by six more in Texas. McDonald’s has converted larger namesake restaurants into CosMc’s, in addition to building smaller prototype locations. The smaller stores work […]

Meta announces end of its DEI programs. Read the memo.

Meta on Friday told employees that its plans to end a number of internal programs designed to increase the company’s hiring of diverse candidates, the latest dramatic change ahead of President-elect Donald Trump’s second White House term. Janelle Gale, Meta’s vice president of people, made the announcement on the company’s Workplace internal communications forum. Among the […]

Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery call off Venu sports streaming service

Disney, Fox and Warner Bros. Discovery have called off plans to launch their sports streaming service, Venu, the companies said in a joint statement Friday. “After careful consideration, we have collectively agreed to discontinue the Venu Sports joint venture and not launch the streaming service,” they said in the statement. “In an ever-changing marketplace, we determined that it was […]

Microsoft confirms performance-based job cuts across departments

Microsoft is cutting a small percentage of jobs across departments, based on performance, the company confirmed to CNBC on Wednesday. “At Microsoft we focus on high-performance talent,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email to CNBC on Wednesday. “We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the […]

Disney says about 157 million global users are streaming content with ads

Disney said Wednesday it has an estimated 157 million global monthly active users watching ad-supported content across its streaming platforms — Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+. That number includes 112 million users domestically and is an average per month over the last six months. While traditional TV outlets have a standard way of measuring ratings and viewership, […]

Dockworkers union, port companies reach tentative 6-year deal

Tens of thousands of dockworkers reached a tentative agreement Wednesday on a new, six-year contract with the U.S. Maritime Alliance, which represents 14 major ports from Boston to Miami and along the Gulf Coast from Mobile, Alabama, to Houston. Both sides say the tentative agreement will avoid a looming strike at midnight Jan. 15. “We […]

Tariff threat looms over the year’s biggest electronics show

Tech companies big and small are offering bold visions of artificial intelligence-infused products that could be headed into our everyday lives soon. Unless tariffs trip them up. That’s the message from the head of the Consumer Technology Association, which is holding its annual electronics show in Las Vegas less than two weeks before Donald Trump […]

Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is ‘dead wrong’ about quantum computers, D-Wave CEO says

D-Wave Quantum CEO Alan Baratz said Nvidia’s Jensen Huang is “dead wrong” about quantum computing after comments from the head of the chip giant spooked Wall Street on Wednesday. Huang was asked on Tuesday about Nvidia’s strategy for quantum computing. He said Nvidia could make conventional chips that are needed alongside quantum computing chips, but that those computers […]

Panera Brands CEO steps down; CFO to fill in as interim chief

Panera Bread’s parent company announced Tuesday that CEO Jose Dueñas is stepping down, effective immediately. The change in leadership is the latest challenge to the company’s plans to go public eventually, following several years of hurdles. Panera Brands CFO Paul Carbone will step in as interim chief executive while the board searches for a permanent replacement […]