What’s happening at Bed Bath & Beyond⁉️
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What’s happening at Bed Bath & Beyond⁉️
Scott D. Clary | Daily Business, Tech & Finance Newsletter
Scott D. Clary | Daily Business, Tech & Finance Newsletter
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Here’s whats happening:
Bed Bath & Beyond is going through a tumultuous period, with its share prices tanking
Apple hosted its biggest event of 2022 on September 7.
Avalanche Protocol suffers a $371k loss in the exploit.
Hebbia raises cash to launch an AI-powered document search tool.
Amazon has no Plan to Make Employees Return to the Office.
What’s happening at Bed Bath & Beyond⁉️
Bed Bath & Beyond (BBBY), the American chain of domestic merchandise retail stores, has been in the news recently, mostly for the wrong reasons.
Last week, the company’s shares plunged by more than 25%. What’s worse is that in the last six months, BBBY’s share price has dropped over 60%. 📉
However, in August, the company’s shares went from $6 to $30 (by mid-August), but before the month ended, the shares were below $10 per share.
Let’s look at some reasons for BBBY’s share price fall:
Instead of minimizing the debt, BBBY announced its buyback program in November 2021. Thus, by May 2022, the company had total debt of $1.4 billion.
The company’s sales dropped for the period ending May 28, and the net loss widened to $358 million from $51 million in the year-ago period. 🔻
The company announced job cuts by 20% and the closure of about 150 stores.
What’s next for BBBY? 🤔
Several analysts and investors have downgraded the company to underperform and given the target price of less than $10 per share, citing the company’s poor fundamentals, among other reasons.
Apple Event 2022: What Do You Need to Know? 💡
Apple hosted its biggest event of 2022 on September 7. During this event, the tech giant unveiled four new models under the iPhone 14 series- iPhone 14, iPhone 14 Plus, iPhone 14 Pro, and iPhone 14 Pro Max.
Besides this, the company also unveiled Apple Watch Series 8, Apple Watch Ultra, and next-gen AirPods Pro at the event.
Key highlights about the products:
The iPhone 14 comes with only a few upgrades over the iPhone 13, as they both come equipped with the A15-series chip and a notch. However, the new Plus model comes with a bigger 6.7-inch display and improved battery life.
The company added satellite connectivity to the new iPhone 14 and 14 Pro for emergencies in the US and Canada.
Apple’s next-gen Apple Watch Series 8 has been equipped with high-end features, including a new temperature sensor.
AirPods Pro comes with a new H2 chip and spatial audio and has double the noise-canceling capabilities as the previous model.
Avalanche Protocol Suffers $371k Loss in Exploit 🚨
Avalanche-based lending protocol Nereus Finance is the latest victim of a flash loan exploit that saw the hacker net $371,000 worth of USD Coin (USDC).
Here’s what happened:
The attack impacted Nereus-based liquidity pools related to Trader Joe.
The hacker used a custom smart contract, which used a $51 million flash loan from Aave.
Nereus Finance fell victim to the smart contract loan exploit, losing $371,000 in USD Coin (USDC).
Steps taken by Nereus Finance:
Nereus Finance said they reacted quickly, consulted security experts, developed a mitigation plan, and notified law enforcement. They also liquidated and halted the exploited JLP market.
It reportedly paid off the bad debt using NXUSD from the team’s treasury.
The company also reassured users that the team would amend its audit and security practices to make sure these types of events do not occur in the future.
Hebbia Raises Cash to Launch an AI-Powered Document Search Tool 💰
Hebbia, a startup developing AI-infused search tools, has raised $30 million in its Series A funding round.
The investors:
The funding was led by Index Ventures, along with participation from Radical Ventures. In addition, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and Raquel Urtasun (former head of AI research at Uber) also participated in the funding.
What will Hebbia do with the cash?
Hebbia will use the capital towards building out its engineering team and accelerating the development of its product platform.
The US-based company will also use the funds to expand its customer acquisition efforts into professional services industries.
About Hebbia:
Founded in 2020, Hebbia is reinventing the search engine to intelligently answer the world’s most complex questions.
The company’s AI understands and reasons over written knowledge to synthesize meaningful responses in seconds, enabling customers to make decisions more quickly & confidently.
Amazon Has no Plan to Make Employees Return to the Office 🎊🎉
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has said that the company has no plans to ask its corporate workers to return to the office. The company has embraced remote and hybrid work.
“We don’t have a plan to require people to come back,” the company CEO said at the Code Conference in Los Angeles. “We don’t right now. But we’re going to proceed adaptively as we learn,” he added.
That’s a wrap for today, ladies & gents. See ya next week!
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