Raphael Stevens

General Motors is acquiring SoftBank Vision Fund 1’s equity ownership stake in its majority-owned Cruise autonomous vehicle unit for $2.1 billion.
Softbank’s exit comes as the technology investment firm was set to have to invest a second tranche of $1.35 billion upon Cruise’s commercial deployment of vehicles, which GM will now pay.
It also follows Cruise CEO Dan Ammann abruptly leaving the company in December.

A robot car of the General Motors subsidiary Cruise is on a test drive.
Andrej Sokolow | picture alliance | Getty Images

DETROIT – General Motors is acquiring SoftBank’s equity ownership stake in its majority-owned Cruise autonomous vehicle unit for $2.1 billion, the automaker announced Friday afternoon.
SoftBank Vision Fund 1 first acquired a minority ownership in Cruise through a $2.25 billion deal in 2018. Its exit comes as the prominent technology investment firm was set to have to invest a second tranche of $1.35 billion as part of the deal upon Cruise’s commercial deployment of vehicles, which GM will now pay.

It also follows Cruise CEO Dan Ammann’s abrupt departure from the company in December. Ammann was reportedly let go from Cruise by GM CEO and Chair Mary Barra, who also chairs Cruise’s board, over disagreements in strategy, including when to take the company public.
GM has signaled it plans to keep the company public for the foreseeable future. Ammann’s successor, Cruise founder Kyle Vogt, tweeted on Friday that an IPO would be a “major distraction, especially right now” as the company is scaling up its newly-launched driverless ride-hailing service in San Francisco.
The SoftBank announcement was made as GM and Cruise also announced the launch of a “Recurring Liquidity Opportunity Program”, in which Cruise employees with vested stock options will be able to sell them to GM.
“Employees can sell as many vested shares as they like at a fair price determined by a third party,” Vogt said on Twitter. “Or they can hold onto their shares and hope for appreciation over time.”
The program is apparently intended to help retain Cruise employees, who may have been hoping for a windfall from an IPO of the company, something that Wall Street has been hoping for as well.

A GM spokesman said SoftBank’s exit was not related to the employee program. He referred questions about Softbank’s decision to the company. A SoftBank spokesman declined to comment.
Since SoftBank’s initial investment, much of the hype and investor optimism surrounding autonomous vehicles has crashed down to reality, including GM and Cruise missing an initial deployment of self-driving vehicles in San Francisco in 2019.
The dramatic downturn in tech stocks since late 2021 also is problematic for SoftBank, which has been among the biggest investors in pre-IPO companies across the globe in the past half-decade. The new deal with GM frees up capital that SoftBank could deploy elsewhere.
SoftBank’s investment division ran into problems in 2019 after office-sharing company WeWork had to pull its IPO and massively downsize its business to skirt collapse. SoftBank took a multibillion-dollar writedown on WeWork after rescuing the company and becoming 80% owner.
While SoftBank bounced back during the pandemic, thanks to a large position in DoorDash, OpenDoor and other companies that had blockbuster market debuts, the rapid downturn in high-growth tech stocks this year has again created troubled for Japanese conglomerate.
It’s the biggest shareholder in South Korean e-commerce site Coupang and Chinese ride-hailing app Didi, which are both down significantly. With the IPO market shuttered indefinitely, SoftBank has limited opportunities to get liquidity from many of its big dollar bets.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

California water officials on Friday said they are slashing State Water Project allocations from 15% to 5% for urban water consumers and farmers as the state grapples with a third consecutive year of drought.
Water agencies serving roughly 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland will receive less water than they requested for this year from state reservoirs.
The megadrought in the U.S. West has produced the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years.

A cracked lake bed at Nicasio Reservoir during a drought in Nicasio, California, on Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

California water officials on Friday said they are slashing State Water Project allocations from 15% to 5% of normal for certain urban water consumers and farmers, as the state grapples with a third consecutive year of drought.
Water agencies serving roughly 27 million people and 750,000 acres of farmland will receive less water than they requested for this year from state reservoirs amid declining reservoir levels and reduced snowpack.

State officials originally announced a 15% allocation in January after hopes that a wet December would mitigate drought conditions. However, the state is set to experience the driest period on record from January to March in at least a century.
“We are experiencing climate change whiplash in real time with extreme swings between wet and dry conditions,” Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth said in a statement. “That means adjusting quickly based on the data and the science.”
The impact of the cuts will be different across California, since not all agencies depend on water supplies from the State Water Project. The project collects water from rivers in Northern California and delivers it to 29 urban and agricultural water suppliers. Roughly 70% of this water is used for urban areas and industry in Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, while 30% is used for agriculture in the Central Valley.
The megadrought in the U.S. West has produced the driest two decades in the region in at least 1,200 years, with conditions likely to continue through 2022 and persist for years. Researchers have estimated that 42% of the drought’s severity is attributable to human-caused climate change.

More from CNBC Climate:

California gets most its water during the winter months, when storms bring snow to the mountain ranges. The state’s reservoir levels have about 70% of average water storage for this time of year. Officials said they will preserve as much water storage as possible in Lake Oroville, the State Water Project’s largest reservoir.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has not implemented mandatory cutbacks but instead asked residents last year to cut household water consumption by 15% during dry conditions. Officials have urged residents to limit outdoor water use and using recycled water for outside projects, take shorter showers and only run the dishwasher and washing machine when full.
So far, residents have failed to conserve water. The state’s urban water use actually increased 2.6% in January compared to the same month in 2020, according to data from the State Water Resources Control Board.
Federal officials last year also ordered the first-ever water cuts for the Colorado River Basin, which impact supplies of water and power for more than 40 million people in the West. Water levels at the two largest reservoirs in the country, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are at their lowest levels on record. 
California officials said they will continue to provide any unmet critical health and safety needs for all water agencies that contract to receive State Water Project supplies, and will likely announce a final allocation for the water year in May or June.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More

Smart Tax Planning

The IRS has issued more than 45 million tax refunds worth almost $152 billion in total, as of March 11.
The average payment is currently $3,352, which is $537 larger than last year’s payment of $2,815.

Bill Oxford | E+ | Getty Images

The IRS has issued more than 45 million tax refunds worth almost $152 billion in total, as of March 11, the agency reported Friday.
Nearly half of Americans expect refunds this season, according to a Capital One report, providing a needed financial boost for a large percentage of filers. 

The average payment is currently $3,352 through March 11, $537 larger than last year’s $2,815, but it may still change with four weeks until the April 18 deadline.

More from Smart Tax Planning:

Here’s a look at more tax-planning news.

The latest filing season statistics come amid a tough period for the IRS, which is still digging out from tens of millions of unprocessed individual returns from last year.  
While the agency issues most refunds within 21 days, several factors may cause delays, including paper-filed returns, payments by mail, errors or returns affected by identity theft.
“We urge extra attention to those who received an economic impact payment or an advance child tax credit last year,” IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig said in a statement. “People should make sure they report the correct amount on their tax return to avoid delays.”

The IRS sent about 7.4 million “math error” notices for stimulus payment mistakes from Jan. 1 through July 15, 2021, delaying refunds, and many are still waiting for a resolution.

Your refund status

While the IRS couldn’t issue refunds for the earned income tax credit or the additional child tax credit by law until mid-February, those payments should have reached filers by March 1, according to the agency.     
You can check your refund status with the “Where’s My Refund?” online tool or through the IRS2Go app. You may see an update 24 hours after the IRS has received your electronic filing or four weeks after sending a paper return. More

Allison Greenwald, senior product manager at The Alley Group, spent five weeks in Alaska while working a flexible schedule.
Courtesy: Allison Greenwald

Millions of Americans are quitting their jobs and rethinking what they want when it comes to work and work-life balance. Companies are responding, meeting their employees’ needs in areas like remote work, flexible hours, four-day workweeks, compensation and more. This story is part of a series looking at the “Great Reshuffle” and the shift in workplace culture that is taking place right now.
Allison Greenwald has a work perk that many Americans are craving — flexibility.

As a senior product manager at information technology and services company Alley, she can work her remote job around other things that may pop up in her life — from errands and doctor’s appointments to exercising and traveling.
While there are no hours set by the company, each team decides when to hold meetings. For Greenwald, that means logging in for a 15-minute daily check-in at 11 a.m. Eastern time and some meetings in the afternoon. She does the rest of the work when it suits her.
“I’ve gotten to do really incredible things,” said Greenwald, who is 29 and based in Brooklyn, New York.
“You don’t have to be in the same place every week.”
More from Invest in You:This company lets you work remotely from anywhere in the worldThis company ‘surprises and delights’ employees to keep them happyMeet the company that offers its contract workers benefits and job security

So far, the highlight of her time at Alley, which she joined last May, was a five-week trip to Homer, Alaska, in August. She spent a lot of her free time in the weekday afternoons walking and exploring the area. On the weekends, she traveled to different parts of the state to do group hikes.
Since then, she has also spent time in Austin, Las Vegas and Utah. She also periodically visits Vermont.
“I’ve gone on winter hikes, from 8 to 11, before the day starts,” she said. “I’ve gone on long midday walks.”
Yet the flexibility doesn’t mean employees are slacking. The work is getting done.
“We have small close-knit teams and so when something doesn’t get done, you’re letting yourself down, you’re letting your team down, and you’re letting the company down,” Greenwald explained.
“It’s a really effective system.”

Alley, which has about 74 employees, has had a remote-first policy since it was founded over a decade ago. Its overall philosophy is that workers are adults and can govern themselves, said Bridget McNulty, partner and chief operating officer at the firm.
“It comes down to trust,” she said. “We trust the people that we hire to join our team.
“There is a mutual agreement to work together and we take that very seriously.”
Flexibility is a sought-after perk for workers in this era of the “Great Resignation,” also known as the “Great Reshuffle.”
Fully 55% of U.S. adults say the ability to work from home or have a more flexible schedule is more important to them now that it was before the pandemic, according to Bankrate’s 2022 Job Seeker Survey. In comparison, 52% cited higher pay as being of more importance. The survey polled nearly 2,500 adults, 1,416 of whom were either employed or searching for a job.

Flexibility can benefit employers, too

Allison Greenwald, senior product manager at The Alley Group, spent five weeks in Alaska while working a flexible schedule.
Courtesy: Allison Greenwald

The trend is evident in other surveys, as well. In LinkedIn’s 2022 Global Talent Trends, 64% of job-seekers called work-life balance a top priority when picking a new job. Meanwhile, 60% cited compensation and benefits.
That’s causing a shift in company culture, with more businesses offering flexible work arrangements and investing in their workers’ well-being.
“While it’s true that employees greatly benefit from flexible schedules, smart employers know that offering flexible schedules benefits them, too,” said Brie Reynolds, career services manager and career coach at FlexJobs.
“Flexible schedules can improve retention, attract top talent, increase productivity, drive employee engagement and more.”
Greenwald wouldn’t rule out returning to an office environment one day, but she doesn’t want to give up flexibility, which she said helps her well-being.
“I don’t stress out about running errands or running to the grocery store in between meetings,” she said.
“In an office setting, or really a setting where there was less trust, I think I would feel really anxious about doing all that stuff.”
SIGN UP: Money 101 is an 8-week learning course to financial freedom, delivered weekly to your inbox. For the Spanish version Dinero 101, click here.
CHECK OUT: 74-year-old retiree is now a model: ‘You don’t have to fade into the background’ with Acorns+CNBC
Disclosure: NBCUniversal and Comcast Ventures are investors in Acorns. More

ONS figures published Friday showed that close to 1 in 21 people, the equivalent of 3.28 million, in the U.K. were estimated to have tested positive for the coronavirus in the week ended March 12.
In England alone, 4.87%, equal to around 2.1 million or 1 in 20 people, were thought to have been infected with Covid-19 last week.

Shoppers walking along Oxford Street in London on Dec. 21, 2021.
Tolga Akmen | AFP | Getty Images

LONDON — Cases of Covid-19 are rising once again in the U.K., according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, just as the government lifts its remaining travel restrictions.
ONS figures published Friday showed that close to 1 in 21 people, the equivalent of 3.28 million, in the U.K. were estimated to have tested positive for the coronavirus in the week to March 12.

In England alone, 4.87%, equal to around 2.1 million or 1 in 20 people, were thought to have been infected with Covid-19 last week. That was up from an estimated 3.8% of England’s population in the week to March 5.
Hospitalizations linked to the virus were also up in England last week, to around 13 per 100,000 people, from 11 per 100,000 the previous week.
The uptick in cases comes as the U.K. lifted the last of its Covid travel restrictions. As of Friday morning, people entering the U.K. are no longer required to test for the virus or complete a passenger locator form.

The prevalence of the omicron BA.2 subvariant was said to have increased last week across England, Scotland and Wales, according to the ONS, while the number of omicron BA.1 subvariant infections decreased.
The BA.2 variant has been described as a “stealth” variant because it has genetic mutations that could make it harder to distinguish from the delta variant using PCR tests, compared with the original omicron variant, BA.1.

Indeed, the rise in cases across Europe more broadly is being attributed to the BA.2 subvariant.  
Cases were found to be rising across the U.K, with Scotland estimated to have had around 7% of its population testing positive for Covid last week, up from 5.7% the week prior.
The case rate in Wales was estimated to have risen to 4.1% from 3.2% over the same period.
ONS said the percentage of cases in Northern Ireland had increased in the two weeks up to March 12 but the trend was uncertain in the most recent week.
The number of deaths linked to Covid-19 across the U.K. fell to 814 in the last week, down from 879 for the week through to March 4.
Elsewhere, China is also dealing with its worst Covid-19 outbreak since the initial phase of the pandemic.

WATCH LIVEWATCH IN THE APP More