Raphael Stevens

In this articleLBPeople walk past a Victoria’s Secret store in Barcelona.John Milner | LightRocket | Getty ImagesAhead of Victoria’s Secret splitting away from Bath and Body Works later this summer, L Brands announced additional steps it’s taking to revamp its brand image.The lingerie brand has been criticized in recent years for a lack of inclusivity and its slow response to changing consumer attitudes. Les Wexner, the company’s former CEO, also came under fire due to his ties to the late Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself while in jail facing sex charges. Wexner has since stepped down from the company he founded, and he no longer serves on its board.Victoria’s Secret reported a 25% rise in fiscal first-quarter same-store sales this year. Multiple times L Brands raised its financial forecast, citing heightened sales momentum at Victoria’s Secret as a factor. Shoppers have been “responding positively” to new merchandise and marketing, which included its first-ever Mother’s Day campaign with a pregnant model, the company said.But shares of L Brands fell more than 4% on Thursday, amid selling in the broader market, after it outlined its next steps. L Brands stock has risen about 70% this year, putting the company’s market cap at more than $17 billion.In a research note, UBS analyst Jay Sole predicted that the Victoria’s Secret comeback will be sustainable. He expects U.S. sales next year to grow to its 2016 peak of $7.8 billion. The consensus estimate places next year’s sales at around $6.7 billion, he said.In addition to failing to evolve the brand to keep up with consumer tastes, Sole said Victoria’s Secret made other missteps between 2016 and 2019, such as ending distribution of its catalogue, which hurt consumer engagement; exiting the swimwear business and overly focusing on price promotions as sales slowed. The company has since reduced promotions and has reentered the swimwear business.As the company embarks on the next leg of its strategy, it will need to strike a balance between maintaining its current customers and bringing in new ones, which can carry some risk.Here are five steps L Brands announced late Wednesday that are aimed at continuing to stoke its growth:Out with supermodels, in with accomplished brand ambassadorsVictoria’s Secret was notorious for its “Angels,” who posed in all the brand’s marketing and were showcased at its annual fashion show. That is all going away as it phases out all of its Angels imagery. In its place will be new brand ambassadors the company has selected for their activism and accomplishments.The retailer is kicking off what it is calling the VS Collective with partnerships with seven women who will appear in ads, promote its products on Instagram and advise the brand on products and messaging. Some of these women include soccer star Megan Rapinoe, actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas and champion skier Eileen Gu.What they all have in common is how outspoken they are about women’s empowerment. It is one way Victoria’s Secret is trying to signal it has changed.A new executive teamThe company put in place a new top officer last year and named three other new executives to help turn the lingerie brand around.Martin Waters has been Victoria’s Secret’s CEO since November. He is backed up by a new chief human resources officer, executive vice president of North America store sales and operations and chief design officer of Victoria’s Secret lingerie.Before he was appointed, Waters had been head of the international division of the company since 2008.A majority female boardWhen Victoria’s Secret becomes its own publicly traded company later this year, it will be led by a board where six out of the seven directors are women, including its chair.The board also will be very independent, with only two members coming from within L Brands ranks.Some of the directors come from retail and consumer backgrounds, including Irene Chang Britt, former president of Pepperidge Farm and senior vice president, global baking and snacking at Campbell Soup, and Lauren Peters, former chief financial officer at Foot Locker.Other members include Anne Sheehan, former chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee; Sarah Davis, former President of Loblaw; and Jacqueline Hernandez, former chief marketing officer of Hispanic enterprises and content at NBCUniversal.Donna James, managing director at Lardon & Associates, will be chair of the board.The one man on the Victoria’s Secret board will be Waters, its CEO.Putting what women want firstThe biggest change is the store’s shift away from tailoring to what men want. This was one of the biggest critiques the company was receiving.New models who look more like the retailer’s customers are a start, but Victoria’s Secret still has a lot to prove to shoppers in order to grow its market share again. The company is going to be working on changing its messaging to be more inclusive.It will launch a podcast with its new brand ambassadors to give them an opportunity to talk about their experiences and what their partnership with the brand will look like.The company is also partnering with Pelotonia, an organization that raises funds for cancer research, as it launches The VS Global Fund for Women’s Cancers.New products to include mastectomy, nursing and maternity brasThe brand’s first Mother’s Day campaign this year showcased its first pregnant model. This is only the beginning, according to The New York Times. The company plans to create products geared toward mothers as it tries to widen the scope of what is considered “sexy.”The company will be releasing a wireless maternity bra soon as part of its Body by Victoria line, a spokesperson for the company told CNBC.Victoria’s Secret is also going to start selling nursing bras, maternity bras and mastectomy bras. This was a segment of the market Victoria’s Secret had left untapped because it didn’t fit the brand’s previous imaging, Waters told The New York Times.Rapinoe and Chopra Jonas are working on new product lines that will be launched next spring, according to the Times report.A wider variety of sizes is also on the way. Paloma Elsesser, one of the new brand ambassadors, was the first plus-size model to appear on the cover of Vogue. She will be lobbying for the company to increase its sizing to XXXXXL, she said to The New York Times. The company currently carries up to 42G in bras and XXL in nightwear.Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC. More

In this articleMEAnne Wojcicki, 23andMe co-founder & CEO (right) celebrates with 23andMe employees after remotely ringing the NASDAQ opening bell at the headquarters of DNA tech company 23andMe in Sunnyvale, California, U.S., June 17, 2021.Peter DaSilva | ReutersThe newest trade in the stock market is “ME.”Personalized medicine and at-home genetic testing kit company 23andMe went public on Thursday through a merger with a Richard Branson SPAC, VG Acquisition Corp., in a deal that raised near-$600 million and valued the company at $3.5 billion.23andMe shares rose by 21% on the Nasdaq in its first day of trading as a public company.Founded by Anne Wojcicki — the former spouse of Google founder Sergey Brin, who was an early investor in the company — 23andMe was created 15 years ago. Along with Ancestry, it has helped pioneer the idea that genetic testing is not just a medical field, but a big consumer business. Its at-home testing kits, which allowed people to learn about their genetic profiles and ancestry by sending a bit of saliva through the mail, ushered in a new era of personalized medicine, though not without controversy.23andMe, a five-time CNBC Disruptor 50 company, has not had a straight or sure path to success as a public company.It faced FDA scrutiny earlier in its history; continues to face questions about consumer privacy as it gathers genetic information on millions of individuals; ran into financial challenges in recent years as the market for personalized genetic tests seemed to get saturated; skepticism over the basis for its gene-based risk analysis remains contentious; and as it dives deeper into drug development, a gap in its current customer base and underlying genetic data between a majority European genetic profile and underrepresentation of many minority and ethnic groups.”It will take time … really making sure we are getting all communities to participate in research,” Wojcicki said in an interview with CNBC’s “TechCheck” on Thursday morning. “You can’t make discoveries in a population if you don’t have those people participating. We need the right customers and to represent the product back to them in the right way.”Wojcicki says the company sees big things ahead for both its consumer and drug research & development platforms. Roughly 80% of 23andMe’s now-11 million members opt into sharing their genetic information (de-identified) for research in drug development.”Our genetics represent all of life on this planet, and we have the opportunity to understand what it means and with that, it will improve your own life but also contribute to all kinds of research discoveries,” Wojcicki said.She says the controversy over the medical utility of the information when put in the hands of consumers won’t go away, and it ranges on a spectrum from critical, clinical information, such as mutations in the gene that causes breast cancer, BRCA, to “more controversial” genetic information on Alzheimer’s Disease variants. Some individuals with higher risk of blood clots make the decision to walk around more during plane flights as a result of their 23andMe reports.But she added that consumers have shown they want this information to help them make decisions.She said in the case of Alzheimer’s risk, “This information … really influences how they live their life … how they plan to retire … plan to be older.”Her own 10-year-old son used the company’s lactose intolerance analysis to diagnose his stomach aches and Wojcicki herself, while reticent to discuss her personal use of the product, did say as the daughter of a woman who suffered from breast cancer and who has a higher risk of the disease, the information does influence her decision on having that “recreational glass of wine.””The last 15 years was putting together the infrastructure for how we can take off, proving to consumers we can get the information and proving they can understand it without a medical professional,” she said.She says the key to its future is that consumers want to use the information to not only change their life but contribute to drug discovery.23andMe has 40 programs underway on its drug discovery platform.”We want them to truly have a personalized health-care experience and … benefit the human genome from seeing all of this aggregated data turned into therapeutic programs,” Wojcicki said. “When I think about the future of therapeutics, in the next five years it is really about moving these programs forward and getting them into the clinic.”The company also recently launched a subscription product to introduce more content and services for consumers who want to take additional steps after their genetic reports.”We get thousands of people who call every week to the customer care team who would like to know how to use this information and apply it to live a healthier longer life,” she said.The IPO market has already set an annual record for deal volume in 2021, at $171 billion, and only halfway through the year. Average first day trade gains in deals this year have been above 40%. Though both traditional IPO market and SPAC returns have cooled off in recent months, with the Renaissance IPO ETF and the CNBC SPAC Index negative year-to-date after starting 2021 with a continuation of last year’s big gains. Meanwhile, concerns about SPAC deals have mounted and some high-profile SPACs like Branson’s Virgin Galactic and electric vehicle maker Lordstown Motors have shown high levels of volatility.Nevertheless, Branson and other investors are planning to bring another space business public, satellite internet service Virgin Orbit, via a SPAC in the weeks ahead.This story has been updated for the company’s closing price in its first day of trading on Thursday.SIGN UP for our weekly, original newsletter that goes beyond the list, offering a closer look at CNBC Disruptor 50 companies, and the founders who continue to innovate across every sector of the economy. More

Two views of the Hopper app’s new Price Freeze feature, showing (left) a step in the search process and (right) a list of active freezes.HopperAfter a year of lockdown and limited travel, Americans want flexibility and freedom when planning trips.They got used to it during the coronavirus pandemic, as travel suppliers scrambled to adjust to both market and medical realities in spring and summer of last year by introducing not only new health and safety protocols but looser rebooking and cancellation policies, as well.Many of the changes are here to stay.”Airlines and hotels, so many of them are still offering flexible booking options,” said travel advisor Mike Rubinstein, owner and director of UprouteMe in Los Angeles. “And while airfares aren’t as insanely inexpensive as they were a few months ago, there are really still some great flight deals out there — and fantastic hotel rates to be had, too.”To capitalize on that zeitgeist while helping travelers lock in some of those great hotel prices, travel app Hopper rolled out its new “Price Freeze for Hotels” feature on Wednesday. The feature lets users lock in the best rate at a specific hotel for up to 60 days.More from Personal Finance:Travel advisors share theme park trip tips as industry reopensPrice trumps pandemic fears as Americans book travel againSun Belt beach, city stays top travelers summer wish listsIf the nightly rate increases during the freeze window, Hopper will cover up to $100 of total stay cost to help keep the rate lower. If prices drop, users pay the new lower rate.”Hotels don’t actually take on the risk; Hopper underwrites it,” said Anwesha Bhattacharjee, head of hotel fintech at Hopper. “When you’re coming onto Hopper, we’ll guarantee the price point for you.”Users place a deposit that’s determined by an algorithm that factors in trip length and the likelihood of price changes in a given market, said Bhattacharjee.When they’re ready to book their room at the rate they froze, their deposit is credited to the booking price. (An actual room is not reserved until they do so, despite the rate freeze.) If they want to change hotels, the freeze and deposit are transferrable to a new booking.Hopper estimates that for the average two- to three-night stay, Price Freeze users save an average $17 per night and $43 per stay. “But we’ve seen customers save $100, or in the high $80s,” she noted.Accommodation rates look like they’ll only keep rising, according to Boston- and Montreal-based Hopper, which has tracked a 130% jump in hotel searches since the beginning of 2021, increasing by 7% weekly.Thanks to leaps in seasonal and domestic travel demand, nightly rates will likely rise 17%, to $165 on average nationwide, by early July, Hopper said. “Users will always end up saving money by using Price Freeze,” said Bhattacharjee.Price-locks for online airfares have been around for a number of years.”As we entered the pandemic, we realized that a lot of our customers were feeling a lot of anxiety around not being able to commit to travel because they didn’t know which locations would close down or open up, or what the quarantine rules would be,” Bhattacharjee noted.”A 14- or 21-day freeze wasn’t what they were looking for so we started out offering a longer price freeze duration precisely for that,” she added. “We knew our customers were feeling they wanted to travel but couldn’t make up their minds just yet and need some more time.”Price Freeze is particularly helpful for large groups and families planning travel together, when multiple OKs are required on rates before committing to a hotel stay, Bhattacharjee said.”That need is not going to go away,” pandemic or no pandemic, she noted. “A lot of our customers also like the option to defer payment,” a side benefit of Price Freeze functionality.Hopper says it’s the largest North American travel app, with more than 50 million downloads and $1.2 billion in sales of travel and travel-related product in the past year from 2 million hotels, 300 airlines and a selection of car rental partners.Hopper is next developing functionality that will allow users to select the bed configurations they want (e.g., doubles, queen, king) when freezing rates, said Bhattacharjee. Price Freeze for Hotels is available on both iOS and Android versions of Hopper and anywhere the app operates. More

Starship prototype SN8 flies above Boca Chica, Texas.SpaceXThe leader of the Federal Aviation Administration’s space office defended Elon Musk’s SpaceX in front of Congress, despite the company launching a Starship prototype in December without authorization.The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee held a hearing Wednesday on the FAA’s role in spaceflight, with the regulator working to keep pace with the U.S. rocket launch market’s unprecedented growth in the past decade. The FAA is especially working to streamline the process of clearing and limiting airspace for launches, which can delay or divert flights.During the hearing, Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., noted that he and Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Wash., wrote a letter about SpaceX’s actions in reference to the Starship incident. DeFazio asked FAA associate administrator Wayne Monteith what SpaceX has “done to deal with the operational concerns” and “cultural issues.”Despite Monteith’s reported previous internal criticism of the company, he defended SpaceX – as well as the FAA’s decision to allow further flights of its Starship prototype rockets.”We would not have cleared them to start flight operations again had I not been confident they had modified their procedures effectively and addressed the safety culture issues that we saw,” Monteith said.Earlier this year, Monteith criticized SpaceX for actions “inconsistent with a strong safety culture,” according to The Verge, after the company violated its FAA launch license with the test flight of Starship prototype rocket SN8 in December.Monteith, who leads the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, reportedly told the company it launched SN8 “based on ‘impressions’ and ‘assumptions.” One of the company’s infringements included ignoring a safety inspector’s warning to not launch, with SpaceX reportedly telling the FAA that members of Starship mission control “assumed that the inspector did not have the latest information.”After a successful high-altitude flight test, SN8 exploded on impact with the ground as it attempted to land. Three test flights and destroyed Starship prototypes later, SpaceX rocket SN15 successfully stuck the landing, with the company now moving on to the next flight milestone: a launch to orbit.The Starship prototypes stand about 150 feet tall, or about the size of a 15-story building, and each one is powered by three Raptor rocket engines. Built of stainless steel, the prototypes represent the early version of the rocket that Musk unveiled in 2019 to carry cargo and people to the moon and Mars.Notably, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee did not invite SpaceX or Musk to testify at the “Starships and Stripes Forever” hearing, committee communications director Kerry Arndt confirmed to CNBC. That meant no SpaceX representatives were on hand to answer questions about the recent scrutiny – as well as other hearing topics, since the company launches more FAA-licensed missions than any other U.S. entity.Instead, the hearing featured one of SpaceX’s biggest competitors – United Launch Alliance, the rocket-building joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin – and space tourism company Virgin Galactic.SpaceX did not respond to requests for comment on the hearing.Become a smarter investor with CNBC Pro.Get stock picks, analyst calls, exclusive interviews and access to CNBC TV. Sign up to start a free trial today. More

In this articleMATMattel to launch Hot Wheels NFT.Source: MattelMattel is planning to take advantage of the latest cryptocurrency craze by auctioning its first digital art pieces featuring its Hot Wheels vehicles.The toymaker will sell three unique pieces of digital art in the form of NFTs, or nonfungible tokens, on its Mattel Creations website starting June 22, the company said Thursday. The sale will feature classic Hot Wheels cars, such as the Twin Mill, Bone Shaker and Deora II.The auction will run for one week, and the winner will have the option of paying via the cryptocurrency ethereum, another first for the company with this launch. Mattel also plans to expand its NFT portfolio throughout the year with new creations for its other toy brands.”Connecting to culture is core to Mattel’s DNA, and as we continually look to innovate, evolving physical product to digital art through NFTs was an obvious next step for Mattel Creations,” Mattel President and COO Richard Dickson said in a statement. “Mattel Creations is the perfect platform for us to present limited edition collector products that speak to our incredible fan base as well as attract new fans to our vast portfolio of pop culture brands. Toys as art, and art inspired by toys,” Dickinson said.NFTs are a type of digital asset designed to track ownership of a virtual item, such as online pictures and videos, using blockchain technology. NFTs soared in popularity earlier this year along with other digital currencies, like bitcoin. The New York Times first reported the news of a Mattel NFT. More

A home is seen destroyed in the aftermath of Hurricane Delta in Creole, Louisiana, U.S., October 10, 2020. Picture taken with a drone.Adrees Latif | ReutersThe first tropical system of the Atlantic hurricane season is forecast to make landfall in the U.S. by the end of the week, according to the National Hurricane Center, possibly bringing heavy rain and flooding from the Texas coast to the Florida Panhandle.If the weather disturbance strengthens into a tropical storm, it would be called Claudette, the third named storm of this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which began this month and ends Nov. 30.The Atlantic recorded the first named storm last month, when a subtropical storm named Ana formed near Bermuda. That marked the seventh consecutive year that a named storm arrived before the official start date of the season.U.S. President Joe Biden greets Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) staff as he visits its headquarters to receive a briefing on the Atlantic hurricane season, in Washington, May 24, 2021.Evelyn Hockstein | ReutersThe U.S. already faces a stretched disaster response. A record-shattering drought is gripping the West, raising fears of power outages and more severe wildfires. And residents in the Gulf Coast are still recovering and rebuilding from last year’s record number of storms.Hurricane season is becoming longer and more intense as climate change triggers more frequent and destructive storms. Global warming is also increasing the number of storms that move slowly and stall along the coast, a phenomenon that produces heavier rainfall and more dangerous storm surges.President Joe Biden, during a visit to Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in May, said the agency would double spending to help cities and states prepare for extreme weather disasters, to $1 billion this year from $500 million last year.CNBC PoliticsRead more of CNBC’s politics coverage:Biden to sign Juneteenth bill, creating first new federal holiday in decades11 GOP senators back bipartisan infrastructure plan, boosting its chances of moving forwardBiden vows to keep pressing Russia to release American prisoners”We all know that the storms are coming, and we’re going to be prepared,” the president said during a briefing. “We have to be ready. It’s not about red states and blue states. It’s about having people’s backs in the toughest moments that they face, ready with food, water, blankets, shelters and more.”There were so many storms last year that forecasters went through the entire alphabet and started using Greek letters to name storms.An average season has 12 named storms and six hurricanes, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. But the agency has forecast another above-normal season this year, with 13 to 20 named storms, of which six to 10 could become hurricanes, including three to five major hurricanes.Houses sit in floodwater caused by Hurricane Florence, in this aerial picture, on the outskirts of Lumberton, North Carolina, September 17, 2018.Jason Miczek | ReutersNOAA said it didn’t anticipate the historic level of storms seen in 2020, which saw a record 30 named storms, 13 of which were hurricanes, battering parts of the Gulf Coast and Central America.Acting NOAA administrator Ben Friedman, in a release of the agency’s 2021 forecast, said that while scientists don’t expect this year to be as busy as last year, “it only takes one storm to devastate a community.”The 2020 storms accounted for $43 billion in losses, nearly half of the total disaster loss in the U.S. last year, according to reinsurance company Munich Re. Residents in states like Louisiana, which experienced a record five storms last year, are still struggling to rebuild as this year’s season closes in. More

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., conducts a news conference outside the Capitol to reintroduce the Universal Child Care and Early Learning Act, on Tuesday, April 27, 2021.Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty ImagesDemocratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is pressing the CEO of a major pharmaceutical trade group on its lobbying efforts against a proposal to waive intellectual property rights for Covid-19 vaccines that would help boost production of the shots for poorer nations.Warren and other lawmakers asked how much money the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, and its member companies spent this year lobbying Congress and White House officials in opposition to the waiver, in a letter sent Wednesday to PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl that was obtained by CNBC.The Biden administration said in early May it would support waiving the World Trade Organization’s Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights, or TRIPs, agreement. PhRMA, whose members include Covid vaccine makers AstraZeneca, Pfizer and Johnson & Johnson, is trying to block the waiver.Removing patent protections on Covid vaccines would allow other drug companies to manufacture the lifesaving shots. Drugmakers worry that could set a precedent for future products and end their lucrative monopolies over sales of their new medicines.Warren also asked the trade group about its attempts to block a bill from House Democrats that would allow Medicare to negotiate directly with manufacturers for lower drug prices.CNBC Health & Science Read CNBC’s latest global coverage of the Covid pandemic:The fast-spreading delta Covid variant could have different symptoms, experts sayCosta Rica rejects delivery of China’s Sinovac Covid-19 vaccine, says it is not effective enough  Africa sees 44% spike in new Covid infections, 20% increase in deaths  WHO says delta Covid variant has now spread to 80 countries, and it keeps mutating “PhRMA and other pharmaceutical companies have pushed the Biden Administration to oppose the TRIPS waiver, arguing that it would “undermine the global response to the pandemic,”‘ Warren and other lawmakers wrote. The industry also said drug pricing provisions of the American Rescue Plan would “lead to fewer new cures and treatments,” and it opposed Medicare Part D price negotiation, the letter reads.”While taking credit for the development of new COVID vaccines — which were developed with massive infusions of federal funds — the pharmaceutical industry has not backed off of its efforts to block drug pricing proposals and maintain the status quo,” the lawmakers added.The lawmakers gave the trade group until June 30 to respond.In a statement to CNBC, PhRMA spokesman Brian Newell said the trade group was reviewing the letter.”We will continue our efforts to work with policymakers on solutions to lower what patients pay out of pocket for prescription medicines and ensure equitable global access to COVID-19 vaccines,” he said.Warren’s letter comes as global groups, including the World Health Organization, are urging wealthy countries and drugmakers to get Covid shots to low-income and lower-middle-income countries, some of which are witnessing an increasingly worrying rise in new infections.Ken Frazier, chairman and chief executive officer of Merck & Co., from left, Stephen Ubl, chief executive officer of Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), and Robert Hugin, chairman of Celgene Corp., arrive to a news conference outside the White House following a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, not pictured, in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2017.Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesMany countries and drugmakers have made pledges to share millions of doses around the world. President Joe Biden announced last week that his administration would donate 500 million vaccine doses produced by Pfizer to other nations.The pharmaceutical industry has previously said the TRIPS waiver would compromise safety, weaken supply chains and sow confusion between public and private partners.In the first three months of this year, pharma companies have spent a record $92 million on lobbying, according to data compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan campaign finance research group in Washington. PhRMA spent $8.6 million this year on lobbying after spending $25.9 million in 2020, according to its data. More