When the Trump administration announced a return-to-office mandate this week, it stated Americans “deserve the highest-quality service from people who love our country.” Federal employees like Frank Paulsen say that comment suggests they aren’t hardworking or loyal. Paulsen, 50, is the vice president of the Local 1641 chapter of the National Federation of Federal Employees, a federal workers union. He ...
Adidas plans to cut as many as 500 jobs in a bid to simplify its business, a person familiar with the matter confirmed to CNBC on Thursday. The layoffs will affect employees at Adidas’ headquarters in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and represent nearly 9% of the 5,800 staffers it employs at the location. The company has not determined how many jobs it will ...
American Express’ affluent cardholders got comfortable spending more freely again late last year, Chief Financial Officer Christophe Le Caillec told CNBC. Spending on AmEx cards jumped 8% year over year in the fourth quarter after slowing from a 7% growth rate early in the year to 6% during the second and third quarters, according to the firm’s earnings presentation. While the year-end pickup was seen ...
Target on Friday said it’s rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion programs — including some that aim to make its workforce and merchandise better reflect its customers. In a memo sent to its employees, the Minneapolis-based retailer said it will end its three-year DEI goals, stop reports to external diversity-focused groups like the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and end ...
Universal is hoping the excitement around “Wicked” can hang around — for good. The movie studio faces a unique challenge: promote and release two build-on films just one year apart. Part one of the “Wicked” cinematic project dazzled at the box office, collecting more than $700 million in global ticket sales through Sunday. Not only did it have the highest opening ...
A war of words between Elon Musk and Sam Altman escalated on social media Thursday, as two of the most powerful men in tech sparred over their rival artificial intelligence initiatives. The latest exchange began after OpenAI, where Altman is CEO, was revealed as a key player in Stargate, the AI infrastructure project President Donald Trump announced this week that is ...
UnitedHealthcare on Thursday tapped company veteran Tim Noel as its new CEO following the targeted killing of its former top executive, Brian Thompson, in Manhattan in December. Noel was the head of Medicare and retirement at UnitedHealthcare, the largest private health insurer in the U.S. It is the insurance arm of UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s biggest health-care conglomerate based on revenue and its ...
Store closures in the U.S. last year hit the highest level since the pandemic — and even more locations are expected to shutter this year, as shoppers’ dollars increasingly go to a few industry winners, according to an analysis by Coresight Research. Major retailers, including Party City and Macy’s, closed 7,325 stores in 2024, according to the retail advisory group’s data. That’s the ...
OpenAI is taking its ChatGPT chatbot to the next level, adding a feature to automate tasks like planning vacations, filling out forms, making restaurant reservations and ordering groceries. The tool, announced on Thursday, is called Operator. OpenAI describes it as “an agent that can go to the web to perform tasks for you” and added that it’s trained to interact ...
The California mom who pleaded guilty to running an organized retail crime ring that stole millions of dollars in beauty products from Ulta Beauty and Sephora to resell on Amazon will now have to pay those retailers back as part of her sentence. Michelle Mack, who began her five-year prison sentence on Jan. 9 following her arrest outside of San Diego in December 2023, was ordered ...