This Week in 30 Minutes
by: Diego Ibazeta Lucero, Mabel Kim Taveras, and Hugues Duron
August 22th, 2020
Hi there! We are two economists-to-be sharing + one Business & Law major sharing with you, every Saturday, what we believe are the most relevant and interesting news of the week. The newsletter will be divided between all of our LinkedIn profiles. Please share, like, and comment all your thoughts and suggestions. Enjoy!
Regulatory news
Further delay to GDPR enforcement of 2018 Twitter breach
Twitter users have to wait longer to find out what penalties, if any, the platform faces under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) for a data breach that dates back around two years. In the meanwhile the platform has continued to suffer security failures — including, just last month, when hackers gained control of scores of verified accounts and tweeted out a crypto scam. The tech firm’s lead regulator in the region, Ireland’s Data Protection Commission (DPC), began investigating an earlier Twitter breach in November 2018 — completing the probe earlier this year and submitting a draft decision to other EU DPAs for review in May, just ahead of the second anniversary of the GDPR’s application. Read more here.
Bayer to pay $1.6 billion to resolve U.S. claims for Essure birth-control device
German drugs and pesticides group Bayer (BAYGn.DE) said on Thursday it will pay around $1.6 billion to settle the majority of U.S. claims involving its Essure birth-control device. The agreement follows a $10.9 billion settlement in June of U.S. lawsuits claiming the company’s weedkiller Roundup caused cancer. Bayer said the Essure settlement is for around 90% of the nearly 39,000 claims by women alleging injury from the devices and that it was in discussion with counsel for the remaining plaintiffs. Read more here.
Law firms to turn anti-racism alliance into nonprofit
Backers of a nationwide initiative by law firms, launched in the wake of George Floyd’s death, to tackle systemic racism in the law are drafting paperwork to formalize it into an industry-funded nonprofit. The Law Firm Antiracism Alliance since its launch in July quickly has grown to include 260 law firms in every state committed to using litigation and advocacy to overturn policies and laws that result in negative outcomes for people of color. Read more here.
Three Firms Scoop Lead Roles On Largest Ever Software Buyout
The $12.2 billion deal sees private equity firm Hg invest in European software business Visma. Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Linklaters and Kirkland & Ellis have won roles advising on the world’s largest-ever software buyout deal, as private equity firm Hg invests in European software business Visma in a deal that values the business at $12.2 billion. Read more here.
German Competition Watchdog to Investigate Amazon Over COVID-19 Price Manipulation
The e-commerce giant refutes the claim, stating that its systems are “designed to take action against price gouging”. E-commerce giant Amazon is being investigated by German authorities following allegations it abused its dominant market position during the COVID-19 pandemic, both parties have confirmed. Read more here.
DLA Piper Global Revenue Jumps 8.5% to Hit ￡2.1B
The firm grew its non-U.S. business revenue to over ￡1 billion for the first time. DLA Piper grew its global revenues by 8.5% in the last financial year to hit ￡2.1 billion, while its non-U.S. business revenue surpassed the ￡1 billion mark for the first time. Read more here.
King & Wood Mallesons, Allens Act in Sydney Airport's $1.4 Billion Capital Raising
The entitlement offer is the latest in an unprecedented rush of capital raisings. In the second-largest capital raising during the COVID-19 crisis, the Australian law firm Allens has acted for Sydney Airport in its $1.4 billion capital raising this week, while international law firm King & Wood Mallesons has acted for investment bank UBS. Read more here.
Start-up & Tech news
Lambda School raises $74M for its virtual coding school where you pay tuition only after you get a job
In the world of technology, online learning has been one of the bigger beneficiaries of the last several months, with people staying home and away from their normal routines because of the coronavirus pandemic and using that time to expand their knowledge, or more critically, figure out what to do next if they want to change careers, or have found themselves without a job. Lambda School, which runs virtual nine- and 18-month (part time) computer science courses for $30,000 — currently covering data science and full-stack web development — with payments for the course based on a sliding scale that only kicks in after you land a job that makes at least $50,000, has raised $74 million in equity in a Series C round. The investment is largely coming from Gigafund, the VC started by ex-Founders Fund partners in 2017 originally to put more money into SpaceX, with Tandem Fund and Y Combinator (where Lambda School was incubated) also participating. Read more here.
Airbnb declares all parties over indefinitely at its listings
Airbnb has been implementing measures to help limit hosting of unauthorized parties at listings booked through its platform, and today it implemented the strictest of all: a global ban on all parties and events. This includes an occupancy cap of 16 guests max at even the largest of the listings available on its platform, and the ban is “in effect indefinitely until further notice,” according to the company. Airbnb says that while that seemed to be sufficient at the time to encourage responsible and safe behavior, changing regional guidelines have meant that they’ve seen an increase in some individuals on their platform to turn listings into defect bars and clubs — hence the introduction of this new global ban, which is designed “in the best interest of public health.” Read more here.
China’s Waterdrop nabs $230M for its crowdfunded, mutual aid insurance platform
When people in the U.S. or Europe think of crowdfunding and medical expenses, sites like GoFundMe, where people fundraise around specific predicaments, come to mind. But today comes news of how another approach — a platform based around crowdfunding and mutual aid that pays out when its members fall into medical dire straits — is picking up some significant steam in its growth, and its financial backing. Waterdrop, which goes by Shuidihuzhu in China (translated as “water drop mutual help”), today said that it has raised $230 million in a new round of funding jointly led by two strategic investors, the insurance giant Swiss Re and returning investor Tencent, whose WeChat platform is used to sign up users and buy products using a quick QR code scheme. Read more here.
JD.com’s 1-year-old health unicorn to get $830M from Hillhouse
In recent years, China’s online shopping titans have been muscling into the prescription drug market. When JD.com, Alibaba’s archrival, realized the health market spans well beyond retail, it spun out its healthcare unit into a subsidiary last May for a potential initial public offering. That startup, JD Health, gained a staggering valuation of $7 billion fresh off its $1 billion Series A round in November. In less than a year, another massive check is on its way as JD Health announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with private equity firm Hillhouse Capital, which plans to shell out over $830 million for the infant company’s Series B financing. Read more here.
Apple reaches $2 trillion market cap
The broader market melt up has helped buoy shares of Apple to new highs this morning. In early trading today, the market capitalization of the tech industry giant and FAAMG member crossed the $2 trillion mark before slipping just beneath the threshold. Shares of Apple have advanced just over 59% in 2020, despite the company’s most recent earnings report bearing news of a more modest 11% year-over-year revenue gain. Earnings per-share advanced 18% in the same quarter, a more impressive metric but still a far smaller result than the value increase that Apple’s equity has managed. Read more here.
Human Capital: What’s next in Uber and Lyft’s court battle and a look at board diversity in Silicon Valley
Welcome back to Human Capital, where we unpack the latest in diversity, equity and inclusion, and labor issues in the tech industry. The Uber-Lyft versus people of California saga continued this week. The latest is that Uber and Lyft will not be shutting down their respective ride-hailing services today. That decision came following an appeals court judge’s decision to grant them a temporary stay on the preliminary injunction order that seeks to force them to immediately reclassify their drivers as employees. Read more here.
OpenUnit aims to be Shopify for self-storage facilities
So you’re looking for a storage unit to put some stuff in for a few months. Maybe you’re moving and your new place isn’t ready yet — or maybe you’re just looking to declutter and want to tuck some stuff away for a while and see if you’re really ready to part with it. As you may find, the process of finding a storage unit can be… not great. OpenUnit, a startup out of Toronto, wants to fix that. They’re aiming to be Shopify for the self-storage industry, with an all-in-one solution that provides a modern interface to help customers make reservations on the front end, and gives facility managers everything they need to keep things running on the back end. Read more here.
See you next week!