Business

LVMH is buying luxury eyewear brand Barton Perreira.
LVMH is trying to expand its portfolio in a growing segment.
The global luxury business has seen a recent downturn.

Barton Perreira sunglasses are displayed during ‘A Good Time At Goodman’s’ held at Goodman’s Men’s Store in New York City.
Astrid Stawiarz | Getty Images

LVMH is buying luxury eyewear brand Barton Perreira, famed for making James Bond’s shades, as it taps into the fast-growing designer sunglass market.
LVMH’s Thelios eyewear division agreed to acquire Irvine, California-based Barton Perreira for an undisclosed sum. The deal is Thelio’s second big acquisition in two months, after it bought French Alpine brand Vuarnet in September.

Luxury eyewear, which includes sunglasses and optical eyewear, is growing rapidly across the world. Luxury houses see eyewear as a lower-priced entry point to their brands for younger consumers, and now make a wider array of stylish, higher-quality frames. Sunglasses are becoming more popular in Asia, while demand for optical frames is growing as people spend more time on their computer and phone screens, analysts say.
Global eyewear sales topped $107 billion in 2022, according to EssilorLuxottica, with growth expected to be in the mid single digits in the coming years.
“For the maisons of luxury, eyewear is in many cases the first contact point with consumers,” said Alessandro Zanardo, CEO of Thelios. “There has also been a shift in the relevance of this category in the whole universe of the maisons. The product is not just something that is made in a factory, to put a logo on and sell. It is something that is really created and designed in the maison environment. The quality is really increasing so customers are developing a sensibility for what luxury eyewear is.”
The deal for Barton Perreira highlights the growing importance of eyewear for LVMH and the luxury industry. LVMH launched Thelios in 2017 to produce eyewear for LVMH’s in-house brands, including Louis Vuitton, Celine, Loewe and Berluti. Zanardo said that as Thelios developed its own design, manufacturing and distribution expertise, it decided to acquire outside brands that it could further develop, starting with Vuarnet.
Barton Perreira has a cult-like following among Hollywood stars and collectors of high-end sunglasses and frames. Its models typically retail for $500 or $600, and its limited edition designs, made in small quantities, are especially coveted. Daniel Craig wore a pair of Barton Perreira “Joe” sunglasses in “No Time to Die,” and Demi Lovato, Sandra Bullock and Ryan Gosling are also reported to be fans.

Zanardo said Barton Perreira was an ideal fit for LVMH because of its commitment to quality.
“Barton Perreira has a very strong founding principle, which is design and quality without compromise,” he said.
Since Barton Perriera only has a handful of stores in the U.S., LVMH can use its global reach to take the brand overseas, with better distribution in Europe and Asia, Zanardo said.
Barton Perreira was founded in 2007 by Bill Barton and Patty Perreira, after they left Oliver Peoples when it was acquired by Oakley. Zanardo said the two founders will stay at the company after the acquisition and “make sure the DNA of the brand remains in tact.”
LVMH’s acquisition shows that despite a global slowdown in the luxury business, the company is seeking acquisition targets that fit its long-term ambitions. LVMH’s stock price is down 20% over the past six months as its growth slows, especially in the U.S. wine and spirits market. LVMH executives often say downturns offer an opportunity to gain market share and make acquisitions, as competitors cut spending and valuations become more attractive.
For now, Thelios said it will focus more on integrating Vuarnet, Barton Perreira and a recently acquired manufacturing facility in Italy, rather than making more deals.
“This year has been very intense for us,” Zanardo said. “I think this is a moment for us to focus on what we have added to our organization, and start the path together.”
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The new Bed Bath & Beyond announced it was parting ways with its CEO, Jonathan Johnson, as the company faces activist pressure from hedge fund JAT Capital.
Two weeks ago, the company had been soliciting meetings with Johnson for Monday.
Johnson had been with the company, previously known as Overstock.com, for more than 20 years and led its acquisition of Bed Bath & Beyond out of bankruptcy.

Overstock.com CEO Jonathan Johnson, June 29, 2023.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

The new Bed Bath & Beyond announced Monday its CEO, Jonathan Johnson, is immediately stepping down from his position just days after activist hedge fund JAT Capital called for his ouster.
JAT Capital, which has a 9.6% stake in the company, sent a letter to the board dated Thursday that blamed Johnson for the company’s poor financial performance and said he needs to be “removed immediately.”

“He has performed poorly (as demonstrated by the company’s financials relative to its peer group), he has communicated poorly with investors and the sell-side community and he has recently taken actions that give the appearance that his own interests are being prioritized,” said the letter, which was revealed in a securities filing.
In the letter, JAT said Marcus Lemonis, the Camping World CEO and TV personality who starred in CNBC’s “The Profit,” should take over management of the company. He joined the Overstock board last month and has cheered its transition to Beyond Inc., which took effect Monday.
Johnson had been Overstock’s chief executive since 2019. He led the company through its acquisition of Bed Bath & Beyond earlier this year.
David Nielsen, Beyond’s president and a former Payless ShoeSource executive, has taken over as interim CEO while the board undergoes a search for a permanent candidate. 
“Following the recent acquisition of the Bed Bath & Beyond brand and our corporate renaming as Beyond, Inc., the Board and Jonathan determined that this is the ideal time for a transition in leadership to guide the company forward,” Allison Abraham, Beyond’s board chair, said in a statement. 

Beyond said Johnson’s departure “follows mutual agreement” between him and the board to transition the company to new leadership, but the move came on suddenly. About two weeks ago, the company had told reporters Johnson would be in New York on Monday – the same day its corporate name change went into effect – and said he would be available for meetings that afternoon. 
The company and Johnson didn’t immediately return a request for comment seeking additional information.
“As the company turns the page to become Beyond, now is the right time for me to also turn the page to the next chapter in my career,” Johnson said in a statement. “It has been an honor to work with such an exceptional team. I am confident the company is well-positioned to achieve broader popular reach as a bigger and better Beyond.”
Johnson had been with the company for more than 20 years and took over as chief executive after its founder and former CEO, Patrick Byrne, disclosed he had a relationship with a Russian spy.
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Hugh Johnston, PepsiCo’s longtime CFO, will become Disney’s next finance chief.
Disney’s previous CFO, Christine McCarthy, stepped down earlier this year.
The entertainment giant is scheduled to report quarterly earnings Wednesday.

Hugh Johnston, PepsiCo
David A. Grogan | CNBC

Disney said Monday that Hugh Johnston, longtime chief financial officer of PepsiCo, will join the company as its new CFO, as the entertainment giant contends with a sagging share price and streaming losses.
Johnston has spent the last 34 years with PepsiCo, holding various positions at the food and beverage company before becoming CFO in 2010.

Johnston, who starts at Disney on Dec. 4, will report directly to CEO Bob Iger.
“Disney is such a storied company, with the most beloved brands in the world and a strong financial foundation to support the company of the future that Bob and his team are building,” Johnston said in a statement. “Very few companies have withstood the test of time that Disney has, making the company as rare as it is special.”
Disney’s previous CFO, Christine McCarthy, stepped down earlier this year. Her resignation came amid the company’s massive restructuring during Iger’s second tenure as CEO, which began about a year ago. The company cut 7,000 jobs during several rounds of layoffs this year.
Disney is contemplating several transformative transactions, including potentially selling ABC and looking for strategic partners for ESPN, as the traditional pay TV business loses millions of customers each year. The company has already hired former Disney executives Tom Staggs and Kevin Mayer to advise on reshaping the businesses.
The entertainment giant is under new pressure from activist investor Nelson Peltz as it struggles with losses in its streaming business and a stock that has fallen about 2% this year. Peltz’s firm, Trian Fund Management, has increased its stake in Disney to about 30 million shares. CNBC previously reported that the firm plans to push for multiple seats on the board, including one for Peltz himself.

Disney is also searching for a successor to Iger as CEO after he returned to the role last November. Disney would like to name an heir apparent to Iger by early 2025, CNBC reported earlier this year.
Disney is scheduled to report quarterly earnings after the closing bell Wednesday.
Disclosure: Hugh Johnston is a member of CNBC’s CFO Council.
Read more: Cramer calls out Disney’s ‘great hire’ ahead of a key earnings report
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Managers and consultants working on Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser’s reorganization have discussed job cuts of at least 10% in several major businesses, according to sources.
Executives will see cuts beyond 10% because of Fraser’s push to eliminate regional managers, co-heads and others with overlapping responsibilities, they said.
The corporate overhaul, known internally as “Project Bora Bora,” has employees on edge.
The talks are early and numbers may shift in coming weeks.

CEO of Citigroup Jane Fraser testifies during a hearing before the House Committee on Financial Services at Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill on September 21, 2022 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images

When Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser announced in September that her sweeping corporate overhaul would result in an undisclosed number of layoffs, a jolt of fear ran through many of the bank’s 240,000 souls.
“We’ll be saying goodbye to some very talented and hard-working colleagues,” she warned in a memo.

Employees’ concerns are justified. Managers and consultants working on Fraser’s reorganization — known internally by its code name, “Project Bora Bora” — have discussed job cuts of at least 10% in several major businesses, according to people with knowledge of the process. The talks are early and numbers may shift in coming weeks.
Fraser is under mounting pressure to fix Citigroup, a global bank so difficult to manage that its challenges consumed three predecessors dating back to 2007. Already a laggard in every metric that matters to investors, the bank has fallen further behind rivals since Fraser took over in early 2021. It trades at a price-to-tangible book value ratio of 0.49, less than half the average of U.S. peers and one-third the valuation of top performers including JPMorgan Chase.
“The only thing she can do at this point is a really substantial headcount reduction,” James Shanahan, an Edward Jones analyst, said in an interview. “She needs to do something big, and I think there’s a good chance it’ll be bigger and more painful for Citi employees than they expect.”

Stock chart icon

Citigroup’s stock has been mired in a slump under CEO Jane Fraser.

If Fraser decides to part with 10% or more of her workforce, it would be one of Wall Street’s deepest rounds of dismissals in years.
Burdened by regulatory demands that hastened the retirement of her predecessor Mike Corbat, Citigroup’s expenses and headcount have ballooned under Fraser. While competitors have been cutting jobs this year, Citigroup’s staff levels remained at 240,000. That leaves Citigroup with the biggest workforce of any American bank except the larger and far more profitable JPMorgan.

An update on Fraser’s plan and its financial impact will come in January along with fourth-quarter earnings.

Nagging doubts

The stakes are high for America’s third largest bank by assets. That’s because, after decades of stock underperformance, missed targets and shifting goal posts, Fraser is taking steps analysts have long called for. Failure could mean renewed calls to unlock value by taking even more drastic actions like dismantling the company.
Fraser has vowed to boost Citigroup’s returns to at least 11% in the next few years, a critical goal that would help the bank’s stock recover. To get close, Citigroup needs to increase revenues, use its balance sheet more efficiently and cut costs. But revenue growth may be hard to achieve as the U.S. economy slows, leaving expense cuts the biggest lever to pull, according to analysts.
“Not one investor I’ve spoken to thinks they’ll get to that return target in ’25 or ’26,” analyst Mike Mayo of Wells Fargo said in an interview. “If they can’t generate returns above their cost of capital, which is typically around 10%, they have no right to stay in business.”

Fraser put Titi Cole, Citigroup’s head of legacy franchises, in charge of the reorganization, according to sources. Cole joined Citigroup in 2020 and is a veteran of Wells Fargo and Bank of America, institutions that have wrestled with expenses and headcount in the past.
Boston Consulting Group has a key role as well. The consultants have been involved in mapping out the bank’s organization charts, tracking key performance metrics and making recommendations.

Low morale, high anxiety

Although the project’s code name evokes the turquoise waters of Tahiti, employees have been anything but calm since Fraser’s September announcement.
“Morale is super, super low,” said one banker who left Citigroup recently and has been contacted by former colleagues. “They’re saying, ‘I don’t know if I’m getting hit, or if my manager is getting hit. People are bracing for the worst.”

American residents eligible to travel to French Polynesia are charged less for on-island Covid tests if they are vaccinated ($50 versus $120).
Dana Neibert | The Image Bank | Getty Images

The ultimate number of layoffs will be determined in coming weeks as the massive project moves from management layers to rank-and-file workers. But some things are already clear, according to the people, who declined to be identified speaking about the confidential project.
Executives will see cuts beyond 10% because of Fraser’s push to eliminate regional managers, co-heads and others with overlapping responsibilities, they said.
For instance, chiefs of staff and chief administrative officers across Citigroup will be pruned this month, said one of the people with knowledge of the situation.
Operations staff who supported businesses that have been divested or reorganized are also at higher risk of layoffs, said the people.

Citi’s statement

Even if Fraser announces a large reduction in workers, investors will probably need to see expenses drift lower before being convinced, said Pierre Buhler, a banking consultant with SSA & Co. That’s because of the industry’s track record of announcing expense plans only to see costs creep up.
Still, it’s up to Fraser and her deputies to sign off on the overall plan, and they may opt to deemphasize expense savings. The project is primarily about removing unnecessary layers to help Citigroup serve clients better, according to a current executive.
Publicly, the bank has only said that costs would start to ease in the second half of 2024.
Citigroup declined to comment beyond this statement:
“As we’ve said previously, we are committed to delivering the full potential of the bank and meeting our commitments to our stakeholders,” a spokeswoman said. “We’ve acknowledged the actions we’re taking to reorganize the firm involve some difficult, consequential decisions, but they’re the right steps to align our structure to our strategy and deliver the plan we shared at our 2022 Investor Day.” More

In early September New Yorkers may have noticed an unwelcome guest hovering around their parties. In the lead-up to Labour Day weekend the New York Police Department (NYPD) said that it would use drones to look into complaints about festivities, including back-yard gatherings. Snooping police drones are an increasingly common sight in America. According to a recent survey by researchers at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, about a quarter of police departments now use them.Even more surprising is where the technology is coming from. Among the NYPD’s suppliers is Skydio, a Silicon Valley firm that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make drones easy to fly, allowing officers to control them with little training. Skydio is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital (VC) giant, and Accel, one of its peers. The NYPD is also buying from BRINC, another startup, which makes flying machines equipped with night-vision cameras that can smash through window panes. Among BRINC’s investors are Sam Altman, the boss of OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT; and Index Ventures, another VC stalwart.That Silicon Valley is helping American law enforcement snoop on troublemakers may seem odd. Supporting state surveillance sits awkwardly with the libertarian values espoused by many American tech luminaries who came of age in the early days of the internet. Although Silicon Valley got its start supplying chips for America’s defence industry in the 1950s, its relationship with the state withered as its attention shifted from self-guided missiles to e-commerce and iPhones.Now, as the tech industry seeks out new frontiers of growth, selling to the state is coming back into vogue. Government is “the last remaining holdout from the software revolution”, wrote Katherine Boyle of Andreessen Horowitz in a blog post last year. Earlier this year the firm launched an “American Dynamism” fund to invest in government-related industries. Slowly but surely, the state is dragging itself into the digital age. At the end of 2022 the Pentagon awarded a $9bn cloud-computing contract to Alphabet, Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft, four tech giants. Last year 11% of the value of federal contracts awarded to businesses was for software and technology, up from 8% a decade ago, according to The Economist’s calculations.Surveillance is one government activity that is being upgraded. New technologies for observation and analysis are transforming the field. Conventional suppliers such as Axon Enterprise and Motorola Solutions, which sell cameras and sundry surveillance gubbins to police and other security organisations, are being joined by upstarts pushing whizzier technologies.The first of these is drones. That industry has been dominated by DJI, a Chinese manufacturer that last year provided nearly three-quarters of all drones sold in America. This has caused much hand-wringing in American government circles. On November 1st a bill was introduced in Congress that would ban all federal government departments from buying Chinese drones. Some states, including Florida, have already prohibited emergency services from doing so. All this is proving a boon for the likes of Skydio and Brinc. Other types of aerial snooping device are also in the works. Skydweller, another startup, is developing an autonomous solar-powered aircraft. If it works, it will not have to land to recharge. That, says the company, would allow for “persistent surveillance”.A second ascendant technology is satellites. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, and its copycats have helped reduce the price of sending objects into space to around one-tenth of the level two decades ago. That has led to a carpeting of low-Earth orbit with satellites, around one-eighth of which are used for observing the planet. PitchBook, a data firm, reckons there are now nearly 200 companies in the business of selling satellite imagery—so many that the market has become commoditised, according to Trae Stephens of Founders Fund, another VC firm. BlackSky, one of those firms, says it can take an image of a spot on Earth every hour or so. Satellite imagery has come a long way in the decade since police in Oregon used pictures from Google Earth to uncover an illegal marijuana-growing operation in a resident’s back yard.Techies are also selling tools to help law enforcement make better use of the profusion of images and information now at their fingertips. Ambient.AI, another startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, has developed technology that automatically monitors cameras for suspicious activity. Palantir, a data-mining firm that has injected itself into America’s military-industrial complex, sells its tools to the likes of the Los Angeles Police Department.Facial-recognition software is now used more widely across America, too, with around a tenth of police forces having access to the technology. A report released in September by America’s Government Accountability Office found that six federal law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Secret Service, were together executing an average of 69 facial-recognition searches every day. Among the top vendors listed was Clearview AI, a company backed by Peter Thiel, a VC veteran.Surveillance capabilities may soon be further beefed up by generative AI, of the type that powers ChatGPT, thanks to its ability to work with “unstructured” data such as images and video footage. Will Marshall, the boss of Planet Labs, a satellite company, says that analysing satellite imagery with the technology will let you “search the Earth for objects”, much like Google lets you search the internet for information.Silicon snoopersFor the industry’s upstarts, pushing clever new surveillance technologies to the government is not easy. Selling to law enforcement means getting to know a large and dispersed number of police chiefs. Rick Smith, the boss of Axon, notes that there are 18,000 police departments in America. One-fifth of them do not even use electronic records. As recently as 2009, the NYPD was still buying typewriters.For newcomers that do gain a foothold, however, the rewards can be rich. David Ulevitch, who runs Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, says word of mouth can spread fast, creating “virality”. Fusus, a startup that sells real-time crime-monitoring software, claims its sales grew by over 300% last year, albeit from a low base. In 2017 Flock Safety, another startup, launched a licence-plate reader that is now used in 47 American states. What’s more, notes Paul Kwan of General Catalyst, another VC firm, relationships with government buyers, once established, tend to be sticky.The bigger firms are not standing still. Motorola Solutions has made 15 acquisitions since 2019, including Calipsa, a video-analytics tool, and WatchGuard, which makes cameras for cop-car dashboards. Axon has also acquired startups and taken stakes in others, including Fusus and Skydio.The application of new technological wizardry to the job of surveilling citizens will make many uncomfortable. In 2020 Amazon, Microsoft and IBM swore off providing facial-recognition services to law-enforcement agencies over privacy concerns.But surveillance is likely to remain lucrative, not least because governments are not the only customers for these technologies. Skydio’s drones assess cell towers and bridges for damage. Hedge funds use satellite imagery to count the cars in retailers’ parking lots, hoping to gauge their revenues ahead of market disclosures. SmartEye, a Swedish firm, sells eye-tracking technology to monitor the mood of pilots. It also sells its wares to advertising firms. The trend towards greater surveillance, whether by big brother or big business, looks unlikely to reverse any time soon. ■ More

In early September New Yorkers may have noticed an unwelcome guest hovering round their parties. In the lead-up to Labour Day weekend the New York Police Department (NYPD) said that it would use drones to look into complaints about festivities, including back-yard gatherings. Snooping police drones are an increasingly common sight in America. According to a recent survey by researchers at the Northwestern Pritzker School of Law, about a quarter of police forces now use them.Even more surprising is where the technology is coming from. Among the NYPD’s suppliers is Skydio, a Silicon Valley firm that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to make drones easy to fly, allowing officers to control them with little training. Skydio is backed by Andreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital (VC) giant, and Accel, one of its peers. The NYPD is also buying from BRINC, another startup, which makes flying machines equipped with night-vision cameras that can smash through windows. Sam Altman of OpenAI, the startup behind ChatGPT, is among BRINC’s investors.It may seem odd that Silicon Valley is helping American law enforcement snoop on troublemakers. Supporting state surveillance sits awkwardly with the libertarian values espoused by many American tech luminaries who came of age in the early days of the internet. Although Silicon Valley got its start supplying chips for America’s defence industry in the 1950s, its relations with the state withered as its attention shifted from self-guided missiles to e-commerce and iPhones.Now, as the tech industry seeks out new frontiers of growth, selling to the state is coming back into vogue. Government is “the last remaining holdout from the software revolution”, wrote Katherine Boyle of Andreessen Horowitz in a blog post last year. Earlier this year the firm launched an “American Dynamism” fund to invest in government-related industries. Slowly but surely, the state is dragging itself into the digital age. At the end of 2022 the Pentagon awarded a $9bn cloud-computing contract to Alphabet, Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft, four tech giants. Last year 11% of the value of federal contracts awarded to businesses was for software and technology, up from 8% a decade ago, according to The Economist’s calculations.Surveillance is one government activity that is being upgraded. New technologies for observation and analysis are transforming the field. Conventional suppliers such as Axon Enterprise and Motorola Solutions, which sell cameras and sundry surveillance gubbins to police and other security organisations, are being joined by upstarts pushing whizzier technologies.The first of these is drones. That industry has been dominated by DJI, a Chinese manufacturer which last year provided nearly three-quarters of all drones sold in America. This has caused much hand-wringing in American government circles. On November 1st a bill was introduced in Congress that would ban all federal government departments from buying Chinese drones. Some states, including Florida, have already barred emergency services from doing so. All this is proving a boon for the likes of Skydio and Brinc.image: Travis ConstantineOther types of aerial snooping device are also in the works. Skydweller, another startup, is developing an autonomous solar-powered aircraft that will not have to land to recharge. That, says the firm, would allow for “persistent surveillance”.A second ascendant technology is satellites. SpaceX, Elon Musk’s rocket company, and its copycats have helped reduce the price of sending objects into space to around one-tenth of the level two decades ago. That has led to a carpeting of low-Earth orbit with satellites, around one-eighth of which are used for observing the planet. PitchBook, a data firm, reckons there are now nearly 200 companies in the business of selling satellite imagery—so many that the market has become commoditised, according to Trae Stephens of Founders Fund, another VC firm. BlackSky, one of those firms, says it can take an image of a spot on Earth every hour or so. Satellite imagery has come a long way since 2013, when police in Oregon used pictures from Google Earth to uncover an illegal marijuana plantation in a resident’s yard.Techies are also selling tools to help law enforcement make better use of the profusion of images and information now at their fingertips. Ambient.AI, another startup backed by Andreessen Horowitz, has developed technology that automatically monitors cameras for suspicious activity. Palantir, a data-mining firm that has injected itself into America’s military-industrial complex, sells its tools to the likes of the Los Angeles Police Department.Facial-recognition software is now used more widely across America, too, with around a tenth of police forces having access to the technology. A report released in September by America’s Government Accountability Office found that six federal law-enforcement agencies, including the FBI and the Secret Service, were together executing an average of 69 facial-recognition searches every day. Among the top vendors listed was Clearview AI, a company backed by Peter Thiel, a VC veteran.Silicon snoopsSurveillance capabilities may soon be further fortified by generative AI, of the type that powers ChatGPT, thanks to its ability to work with “unstructured” data such as images and video footage. Will Marshall, the boss of Planet Labs, a satellite firm, says that analysing satellite imagery with the technology will let users “search the Earth for objects”, much as Google lets users search the internet for information.For the newcomers, selling clever new surveillance technologies to the government is not easy. Rick Smith, the boss of Axon, notes that there are 18,000 police departments in America. One-fifth of them do not use electronic records. Until 2009, the NYPD was still buying typewriters.For newcomers that do gain a foothold, the rewards can be rich. David Ulevitch, who runs Andreessen Horowitz’s American Dynamism fund, observes that word of mouth can spread fast, creating “virality”. Fusus, a startup that sells real-time crime-monitoring software, says its sales grew by over 300% last year, albeit from a low base. In 2017 Flock Safety, another startup, launched a licence-plate reader that is now used in 47 American states. What’s more, notes Paul Kwan of General Catalyst, another VC firm, relationships with government buyers, once established, tend to last a long time.The bigger firms are adapting. Motorola Solutions has made 15 acquisitions since 2019, including Calipsa, a video-analytics tool, and WatchGuard, which makes cameras for cop-car dashboards. Axon has also acquired startups and taken stakes in others, including Fusus and Skydio.The application of new technological wizardry to the job of watching citizens will make many uncomfortable. In 2020 Amazon, Microsoft and IBM stopped providing facial-recognition services to law-enforcement agencies because of worries about privacy. But surveillance is likely to remain lucrative, not least because governments are not the only customers for these technologies. Skydio’s drones assess cell towers and bridges for damage. Hedge funds use satellite imagery to count the cars in retailers’ parking lots, hoping to gauge their revenues ahead of market disclosures. SmartEye, a Swedish firm, sells eye-tracking technology to monitor the moods of pilots. It also sells its wares to advertising firms. The trend towards greater surveillance, whether by big brother or big business, looks unlikely to reverse. ■To stay on top of the biggest stories in business and technology, sign up to the Bottom Line, our weekly subscriber-only newsletter. More

Struggling space company Astra disclosed in a securities filing late Friday that it defaulted on a recent debt agreement and may not be able to raise needed cash.
Astra twice last month failed to meet minimum cash reserve requirements associated with a $12.5 million note issuance to New Jersey investment group High Trail Capital.
The company warned it “can provide no assurance that it will be able to consummate any additional transaction in a timely manner, or at all.”

The company’s LV0010 rocket stands on the launchpad at Florida’s Cape Canaveral ahead of the NASA TROPICS-1 mission.

Struggling space company Astra disclosed in a securities filing late Friday that it defaulted on a recent debt agreement and may not be able to raise needed cash as funds dwindle.
Astra twice last month failed to meet minimum cash reserve requirements associated with a $12.5 million note issuance to New Jersey investment group High Trail Capital.

The debt raise first required that Astra have “at least $15.0 million of cash and cash equivalents” on hand. That liquidity requirement was adjusted after Astra failed to prove compliance a first time, to require “at least $10.5 million of unrestricted, unencumbered cash and cash equivalents.”
Having fallen out of compliance a second time, Astra now owes $8 million on the aggregate principal investment.

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While the company is “in continued discussions with a number of other investors,” it warned it “can provide no assurance that it will be able to consummate any additional transaction in a timely manner, or at all.”
Shares of Astra were little changed in after hours trading from their close of about 92 cents a share. The company performed a 1-for-15 reverse stock split in September to avoid a Nasdaq delisting, which temporarily brought Astra stock above $1 a share.
The company cut 25% of its workforce in early August to shift focus from its rocket development to its spacecraft engine production. It’s expected to report third-quarter results after market close on Nov. 13. More

After a whirlwind four weeks in theaters, Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour concert film has shattered records and helped the theater industry weather a light release calendar.
The Eras Tour film has collected $150 million in domestic receipts and more than $200 million globally.
So far, The Eras Tour film is the highest-grossing domestic and global concert film release of all time but lags just behind the “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” concert documentary’s global haul.

Taylor Swift performs onstage during her The Eras Tour concert at Lumen Field in Seattle, Washington, on July 22, 2023.
Mat Hayward/tas23 | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

Taylor Swift is seeking to smash more box office records as her Eras Tour concert film sticks around theaters.
Box office analysts initially believed the singer’s film would wrap up its limited run in the theaters on Nov. 5.

In AMC Entertainment’s initial announcement of ticket availability for the Eras Tour concert film, the company said audiences could “view showtimes and purchase tickets through November 5th.”
AMC clarified Friday that the Nov. 5 date was the cutoff for the first run of tickets available for the film when presales began.
The extra time in theaters can only benefit the film and the box office. Already Swift’s Eras Tour has shattered records and helped the theater industry weather a light release calendar.
Heading into the weekend, The Eras Tour film has collected $150 million in domestic receipts and more than $200 million globally. That global haul represents more than 18% of the $1.092 billion total global box office earned since the film was released Oct. 13, according to data from Comscore.
Read more: Beyoncé concert film will help boost weak December box office

“It’s been a remarkable, one-of-a-kind, record-breaking and influential run for The Eras Tour, not to mention a huge win for Taylor Swift and theater owners,” said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com.
Expectations are that Swift will add another $10 million domestically this weekend and the film could be No. 1 at the box office once again.
So far, The Eras Tour film is the highest-grossing domestic and global concert film release of all time but lags just behind the “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” concert documentary’s global haul of $262.5 million.

Box office records (Taylor’s version)

Highest opening weekend for a concert film: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — $92.8 million
Widest domestic release for a concert film: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — 3,855 locations
Highest-grossing concert film domestically: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — $150 million, and counting
Highest-grossing concert film worldwide: Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour — $203.8 million, and counting
Highest-grossing concert film documentary worldwide: “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” — $262.5 million

Source: Comscore

Swift’s concert film release came at an opportune time. Labor strikes in Hollywood led several films to depart the theatrical calendar, including the much-anticipated “Dune: Part Two” from Warner Bros. Discovery and Legendary Entertainment.
“One movie can make all the difference,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “This incredible box office performance is made all the more impressive given the film’s truncated release pattern that had it essentially playing on big screens four days a week.”
Swift’s unique release, coupled with her decision to distribute the film through theater chain AMC instead of a traditional Hollywood studio, has also led to increased speculation about where the concert film will land on streaming.

Taylor Swift’s previous movies

Taylor Swift: Journey to Fearless (2010): aired on The Hub, which has since been rebranded as Discovery Family, and then made available on DVD
Taylor Swift: Speak Now World Tour Live (2011): made available on DVD
The 1989 World Tour Live (2015): released through Apple Music
Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (2018): streaming on Netflix
Taylor Swift: City of Lover Concert (2020): ABC TV Special
Miss Americana (2020): streaming on Netflix
Folklore: The Long Pond Studio Sessions (2020): streaming on Disney+

Currently, it appears that Swift is waiting for the SAG-AFTRA strike to wrap up before negotiating with streamers for the rights to her concert film. The film is much coveted in the industry and a big bidding battle is expected.
Swift has previously worked with Apple Music, Netflix and Disney to release filmed versions of her concerts and documentary projects.
Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said it would be the Eras Tour movie’s last weekend at the box office. The headline and story have been corrected.Don’t miss these stories from CNBC PRO: More