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Amazon is considering offering veterinary telehealth as it looks to compete with Walmart, people familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Walmart began offering free access to pet telehealth to Walmart+ subscribers earlier this year.
The U.S. pet market is expected to grow to $200 billion by the end of the decade, and pet health is driving that boom.

Photo courtesy of Amazon

Amazon is considering an expansion into veterinary telehealth in its latest bid to compete with Walmart, which began offering the service to Walmart+ subscribers earlier this year, people familiar with the matter told CNBC. 
The e-commerce giant, which has already expanded into human health with its acquisition of One Medical, is a dominant player in pet food and supplies. But it has not so far meaningfully invested in pet health, which is expected to drive growth in the $137 billion pet market. 

The people who discussed Amazon’s consideration of the vet service declined to be named because the discussions are private.
Veterinary telehealth allows pet parents to have virtual appointments with veterinarians and veterinary technicians. The service is similar to human telemedicine. 
Earlier this year, Walmart signed a deal with veterinary telehealth provider Pawp to offer Walmart+ subscribers free access to the startup’s membership for a year. The offering is set to expire Nov. 19, less than a week before Black Friday and right around the time the pet holiday shopping season begins. 
Amazon could turn to Pawp to fuel a potential pet telehealth offering in time for the holiday season because Pawp has already proven it can scale with a large retailer. Amazon could also partner with one of the dozens of other pet telehealth startups on the market or build its own practice, which is what Chewy did when it began offering the service during the Covid pandemic.
As Amazon’s efforts to expand its health-care business show mixed results, the company has signaled that the pet market is a priority. Earlier this year, it spent big on a heartwarming Super Bowl ad that featured a rescue dog and how its family turned to Amazon when it needed supplies.

Amazon declined to comment.

Pet health to fuel market boom

Amazon’s potential foray into veterinary telehealth comes as the pet market becomes more competitive and retailers race to expand their offerings. 
As more and more mass retailers offer pet staples like food and toys, companies like Chewy, Walmart and Petco are expanding into pet health to stay competitive and grow their market share. 
The U.S. pet market is expected to grow to $200 billion by the end of the decade, and pet health care is driving that boom, according to research from Bloomberg Intelligence published earlier this year. 
Chewy has focused on building out its pet prescription, insurance and telehealth offerings. Petco has leaned on its brick-and-mortar footprint to develop clinics and grooming centers, making it one of the leading veterinary providers in the nation. 
Beyond its partnership with Pawp, Walmart recently announced plans to open a dedicated pet services center in Dallas, Georgia, as a pilot for what could become a larger program, the company previously told CNBC. The center, which will be staffed by employees of vet care and pet product company PetIQ, will offer a range of vet and grooming services, such as wellness exams, teeth cleanings and haircuts. 
If Amazon does move forward with a pet telehealth program, it could take a similar approach to Walmart and offer it through its Amazon Prime subscription service. 
The heart of the value propositions for both Amazon Prime and Walmart+ is unlimited free deliveries, but the paid subscription services also offer a host of competing perks that are designed to incentivize sign-ups and reduce churn. 
Perks that come along with the subscription services – such as Amazon Prime’s GrubHub+ offering and Walmart+’s addition of Pawp – are also designed to set the two offerings apart and keep the subscription services competitive. 

Lobbying for change 

Veterinary telehealth arose during the pandemic out of necessity, and the industry has grown as a convenient alternative to in-person visits. But some vets say the practice could be risky for pets. 
Dr. Lori Teller, former president of the American Veterinary Medical Association and a professor of telehealth at Texas A&M University, said pet telehealth can be beneficial, but she has concerns about companies that could be using it to drive product sales. 
“That’s when we can get into trouble with either delayed treatment or misdiagnosis, particularly when the emphasis is more on the product than the best thing for the animal,” Teller told CNBC in a recent interview. “The ones that are providing general advice and triage services are a benefit to the profession, definitely helps for after-hours issues or if you’re having a really busy day.”
A labyrinth of state and federal laws governing pet telehealth, and what veterinarians are permitted to do if they’ve never met an animal in person, has been a roadblock to expanding pet telehealth. It has sparked a growing lobbying movement to change regulations.
Corporate giants, such as Chewy and Mars Veterinary Health, a subsidiary of pet food and candy conglomerate Mars, have helped to fund those efforts. Amazon may be throwing its hat in the ring, as well. 
So far this year, Amazon and its affiliated businesses have spent around $430,000 on lobbying efforts that target “digital health oversight,” “telemedicine” and the Food and Drug Administration, among other issues, according to Senate disclosure reports.
It’s unclear if the efforts were directed at pet or human health, or both.  More

Coca-Cola topped Wall Street’s estimates for its third-quarter earnings and revenue.
The beverage giant also hiked its full-year forecast.

A Coca-Cola truck in New York City.
Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images

Coca-Cola on Tuesday reported quarterly earnings and revenue that topped analysts’ expectations as consumers shook off higher prices for its namesake soda, Simply juice and other drinks.
The company also hiked its full-year outlook.

Coca-Cola shares rose more than 2% in premarket trading.
Here’s what the company reported compared with what Wall Street was expecting, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 74 cents adjusted vs. 69 cents expected
Revenue: $11.91 billion adjusted vs. $11.44 billion expected

Coke reported third-quarter net income attributable to shareholders of $3.09 billion, or 71 cents per share, up from $2.83 billion, or 65 cents per share, a year earlier.
Excluding transactions gains, restructuring costs and other items, the beverage giant earned 74 cents per share.
Net sales rose 8% to $11.91 billion, excluding items. Organic revenue, which strips out the impact of acquisitions and divestitures, climbed 11%.

Like many companies, Coke has raised prices on its products over the last two years, citing rising commodity costs. But in July, the company said it was done hiking prices in the U.S. and Europe this year. This quarter, its prices were up 9% compared with the year-ago period.
Coke’s unit case volume, which unlike its net revenue excludes pricing and currency, grew 2% in the quarter despite its higher prices. While Coke has seen demand weaken somewhat, rival PepsiCo has seen steeper declines in demand.
In North America, the company’s volume was flat, but shoppers bought more Coke Zero Sugar and Fairlife dairy drinks. For comparison, Pepsi reported that its North American beverage volume shrank 6% in its third quarter.
All of Coke’s drink divisions reported volume growth. Both its sparkling soft drinks and juice, dairy and plant-based beverage divisions reported 2% increases in volume. Coke’s water, sports, coffee and tea business saw 1% volume growth.
For the full year, Coke now expects comparable earnings per share growth of 7% to 8%, up from its prior range of 5% to 6%. The company also adjusted its outlook for organic revenue, forecasting an increase of 10% to 11%, up from the prior range of 8% to 9%.
Looking ahead to 2024, Coke is projecting a mid single-digit headwind from currency. The company said it will share the rest of its 2024 outlook when it reports fourth-quarter earnings early next year. More

Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich is looking back on his career with his new book, “Know What Matters.”
The book recounts the highs and lows of his career and offers advice to aspiring entrepreneurs and CEOs, including rethinking IPOs.
“The reality is for 90% of the CEOs that take a company public, they live to regret it,” Shaich told CNBC.

Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich poses for a portrait at a Panera location in Newton, Massachusetts, on Dec. 12, 2017.
Suzanne Kreiter | Boston Globe | Getty Images

Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich led a public company for more than two decades, but that doesn’t mean he’s a fan of initial public offerings or Wall Street.
More than six years after selling the chain for $7.5 billion, Shaich is looking back on his nearly four decades at the helm of the company he transformed into a fast-casual restaurant giant. Shaich’s new book, “Know What Matters,” hits stores Tuesday.

The book starts with his first entrepreneurial endeavors as a college student and ends with Panera’s blockbuster sale to JAB Holding. Shaich mixes retelling his career with business advice aimed at entrepreneurs and CEOs navigating the highs and lows of leading a publicly traded company.
He cautions readers against chasing profits, trends and the prestige of being publicly traded. Ironically, Panera Bread is mulling an IPO, but Shaich, who is no longer involved with the chain, directs his advice toward founders.
The restaurant now known as Panera Bread started as a merger in 1981 between Cookie Jar, founded by Shaich, and the struggling French bakery Au Bon Pain. In total, Shaich spent 32 years at the top of the company, excluding the two years when he had technically retired but remained active as executive chair.
These days, Shaich is chief executive of Act III Holdings. He founded the venture firm, which mostly focuses on restaurant and entertainment startups, with some of his proceeds from selling Panera. Act III invested in Cava in 2018, getting in years before its initial public offering this year. Shaich owns a 10.3% stake in the Mediterranean chain, according to public filings.
One of the most unexpected pieces of advice in Shaich’s book is his caution about going public. Shaich took Au Bon Pain public through an IPO in 1991. Even as Au Bon Pain bought St. Louis Bread Company, renamed it Panera Bread and then shed Au Bon Pain to focus on Panera’s growth, Shaich’s company was publicly traded.

Still, Shaich said he thinks initial public offerings don’t make sense for most companies.
“The reality is for 90% of the CEOs that take a company public, they live to regret it,” Shaich told CNBC. “Why? Because you’re broadening, in a massive way, the number of constituents whom you have to really deliver for.”
In the book, Shaich recounts the various antagonists he encountered in his career, including Wall Street analysts and activist investors trying to take on Panera. He shares his reluctance to cede control to outsiders.
“With the benefit of hindsight, I have become more skeptical about raising capital — both from venture funds and from the public market,” Shaich writes in the book.
Shaich’s lack of appreciation for the typical venture capital model also comes through in his own firm. Act III doesn’t have any outside investors, known as limited partners, which allows the firm to focus on the long term, according to Shaich. The firm also provides continuous capital to its investments so founders can focus on the business rather than fundraising, he said.
In fact, Act III’s Cava deal is probably the firm’s most traditional venture investment. But Shaich, who serves as the company’s chair, is confident that the fast-casual chain is on the right path. In his opinion, Cava CEO Brett Schulman might be part of the 10% of chief executives who don’t regret going public.
“Cava is a company that will succeed as a public company. Quite frankly, because it’s a powerful niche: Mediterranean,” Shaich said. “This is a company that’s ready to be public, because it has a clear plan for the next 1,000 stores.”
Shaich hasn’t been so complimentary to other recent restaurant IPOs. He said at an Axios event earlier in October that salad chain Sweetgreen shouldn’t have gone public until it was profitable, the outlet reported. (Sweetgreen hasn’t reported a profitable quarter yet, but executives said they think the company could break even for the full year.)
Shaich is less transparent about Panera’s possible IPO. Last year, Panera called off a deal with restaurateur Danny Meyer’s special purpose acquisition company to be publicly traded for the first time since JAB bought the chain. Earlier this year, the company announced it’s preparing for an IPO as it unveiled a CEO succession plan.
Shaich declined to comment on Panera’s expected IPO, citing a nondisclosure agreement he signed as part of his exit deal from the company.
“But I’ll say this, I love Panera … I root for it in every sense of the word,” Shaich said. More

McDonald’s tried to buy Panera Bread, the fast casual chain’s founder Ron Shaich revealed in a new book.
Shaich writes that he thinks of former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz as a “frenemy” and that the coffee chain and Panera considered merging.
Shaich also had a job offer from the Obama administration, he writes.

Ron Shaich, founder and then-CEO of Panera Bread, in December 2017.
Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Panera Bread founder Ron Shaich uses his new book, “Know What Matters,” to impart lessons learned from his decades in the restaurant business — and reveals some juicy details in the process.
Shaich’s book charts his entrepreneurial journey, starting with the general store at Clark University he founded as a student and ending with his decision to sell Panera for $7.5 billion in 2017.

Along the way, Shaich turned Au Bon Pain from a nearly bankrupt bakery into a chain of bakery cafes, transformed the St. Louis Bread Company into fast-casual giant Panera, sold off Au Bon Pain and then turned Panera into a digital powerhouse that introduced free Wi-Fi, mobile and kiosk ordering and delivery years ahead of its rivals.
But that’s not all. Here are six of the most interesting reveals from Shaich’s book, which hits shelves Tuesday:

1. McDonald’s tried to buy Panera

McDonald’s expressed interest in buying Panera in the early 2000s, Shaich writes. He and his then-chief financial officer, Bill Moreton, met with McDonald’s executives to hear about their proposal. The Panera team wasn’t particularly interested in selling Panera at the time, as they had just divested Au Bon Pain to focus on the growing fast-casual chain.
The meeting didn’t change Shaich’s mind, either. He writes that he wasn’t impressed when one of the executives compared Panera with Donatos — a pizza chain that McDonald’s ultimately ended up buying, along with Chipotle Mexican Grill and Boston Market. (McDonald’s sold off those other chains several years later to focus on its core business.)

2. Shaich thinks of Howard Schultz as his ‘frenemy’

Howard Schultz, then-CEO of Starbucks, in 2015.
David Ryder | Reuters

Starbucks and Howard Schultz, the man who turned the small coffee chain into a global giant, are recurring characters in Shaich’s book.

While their menus overlap little, Shaich views Starbucks as Panera’s closest competitor. He recounts some of Panera’s strategic wins over Starbucks, such as offering free Wi-Fi while Starbucks still made its customers pay for access.
“I thought of Schultz as my oldest ‘frenemy’ — the guy whose proverbial rear end I’d been chasing for three decades, ever since we met when Au Bon Pain was a handful of cafés in Boston and he had seven coffee shops in Seattle,” Shaich wrote.
Shaich also names Chipotle founder Steve Ells as another restaurant entrepreneur who saw the future of the industry and helped create the fast-casual segment. Ells, however, is spared the “frenemy” label.

3. Panera and Starbucks almost merged

The McDonald’s agreement never came together. But another deal for Panera almost made it to the finish line. Shaich and Schultz began working on a merger between Panera and Starbucks in 2016, he said.
More than a decade after meeting with McDonald’s, Shaich started seriously considering selling Panera as he prepared to step down from the business. He had previously retired, in 2010, but the decision didn’t stick. Shaich writes in the book that he never really left, staying active as executive chair of the company, before he rejoined as a co-CEO in 2012. (Schultz has also had difficulty leaving Starbucks behind, twice returning to take the reins as chief executive again.)

A Starbucks employee organizes salads and sandwiches.
Jerry Cleveland | The Denver Post | Getty Images

Schultz first proposed a partnership between Panera and Starbucks. Panera would make soup, salad and sandwiches for Starbucks cafes, while the coffee giant would supply Panera’s bakery-cafes with coffee. But Shaich found the idea too complicated and instead proposed a merger.
Ultimately, though, the deal fell through. Panera’s stock was rising at the time, making the agreement too expensive, Shaich writes. He also says he thinks that Schultz’s decision to step down as CEO in early 2017 probably played a big role in the decision.

4. The Obama administration offered Shaich a job

Before becoming an entrepreneur, Shaich thought his career would be in politics. His political ambitions fell by the wayside as he turned Au Bon Pain and then Panera Bread into national chains.
But those aspirations didn’t disappear entirely. In 2009, the Obama White House called Shaich about a job in the administration. Coincidentally, Shaich received the call when he was getting ready to make his final speech at Panera’s companywide meeting, known as the Family Reunion. Shaich writes that he knew at the time that he would retire, but he hadn’t yet announced it.
However, Shaich ultimately didn’t end up in the Obama administration.
“The White House job hadn’t panned out — they needed to press forward before I was free …” he wrote.
Instead, Shaich helped create No Labels, a political organization meant to support centrism and bipartisanship. The group has floated mounting a third-party challenge for the presidential election next year.

5. Panera’s patent to review order accuracy by video

Panera’s yearslong transformation to prepare for the digital age didn’t just include installing self-order kiosks and creating a mobile app. The strategy envisioned by Shaich also involved reconstructing its kitchen operations so employees could handle the swell of new orders quickly and accurately. Panera redesigned its kitchen layouts and processes multiple times to make sure that it worked.
One change that came to kitchens was cameras. Shaich writes that Panera received a patent to use video to review the accuracy of sandwich orders.
“At one point, I used to joke that Panera’s production lines were among the most-watched TV, midnight to 8 a.m., in India,” Shaich wrote.
Today, cameras in kitchens aren’t as novel. For example, startup Agot AI installs overhead cameras in restaurant kitchens and uses computer vision to scrutinize whether workers are preparing orders correctly.

6. Panera’s enemy turned into Shaich’s partner

Today, Shaich leads Act III Holdings, which was an early investor in Mediterranean chain Cava. The firm’s chief financial officer and partner is Noah Elbogen.
Shaich reveals in his book that Elbogen was once an antagonist. In 2015, as Panera was in the middle of its digital transformation, an activist investment firm called Luxor nominated two directors to Panera’s board with no notice and a long list of demands. One of the nominees was Elbogen, who spoke at a meeting with 300 Panera leaders.
Shaich writes that after Elbogen left the room, he then fired up the audience and decried “predatory investors.”
“I got the crowd so riled up with the fear of working for Noah that by the end they were chanting in unison, ‘F___ you, Noah. F___ you, Noah,'” Shaich wrote.
But Shaich says he came to like and respect Elbogen, even though Luxor was still considered the enemy. Roughly two years later, Luxor sold its stake. Panera’s stock was climbing as its digital strategy took hold and bore fruit.
“I was a little sorry to say goodbye to Noah when Luxor cashed out, though I couldn’t admit it at the time,” Shaich wrote.
Years later, when Shaich started Act III, he asked Noah to join. More

General Motors beat Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations on Tuesday, as it battles through ongoing labor strikes by the United Auto Workers union.
Due to the ongoing volatility caused by the strikes, GM is pulling its previously announced earnings guidance for the year.
The automaker is also pulling near-term targets for its electric vehicles amid slower-than-expected demand.

The GM logo is seen on the facade of the General Motors headquarters in Detroit on March 16, 2021.
Rebecca Cook | Reuters

DETROIT — General Motors beat Wall Street’s third-quarter expectations on Tuesday, as it battles through ongoing labor strikes by the United Auto Workers union that’s costing the automaker roughly $200 million a week in lost vehicle production.
The labor strikes, which started Sept. 15, have cost the automaker roughly $800 million in pre-tax earnings due to lost vehicle production, including $200 million during the third quarter, according to CFO Paul Jacobson.

Due to the ongoing volatility caused by the strikes, GM is pulling its previously announced earnings guidance for the year that called for $12 billion to $14 billion in adjusted earnings and net income attributable to stockholders of between $9.3 billion and $10.7 billion.
Prior to the UAW strikes, Jacobson said the company was on track to achieve “toward the upper half” of its earnings forecast.
Here’s how the company performed in the third quarter, compared with average estimates compiled by LSEG, formerly known as Refinitiv:

Adjusted earnings per share: $2.28 versus $1.88, estimated
Revenue: $44.13 billion versus $43.68 billion, estimated

For the third quarter, GM reported net income attributable to stockholders of $3.06 billion, or $2.20 per share, down 7.3% from a year earlier when the company earned $3.31 billion, or $2.25 per share.
Revenue during the period increased 5.4% from $41.89 billion a year earlier, while adjusted earnings before interest and taxes (EBIT) declined 16.9% from the third quarter of 2022 to $3.56 billion.

GM’s North American adjusted earnings were off 9.5% during the third quarter from a year earlier to $3.53 billion. Its international operations increased earnings by roughly 7% to $357 million, while its equity income from operations in China were down year over year by about 42% to $192 million.
GM said on Tuesday from January to September of this year it lost roughly $1.9 billion on Cruise, the company’s majority-owned autonomous vehicle subsidiary. Those losses include $732 million during the third quarter, as the company geographically expands operations.

EVs

Jacobson said GM also is pulling near-term targets for its electric vehicles amid slower-than-expected demand. The automaker had previously set goals to sell 400,000 EVs in North America from 2022 through mid-2024 and produce 100,000 EVs in North America during the second half of this year.
Jacobson said GM will retain its targets of achieving low-digit profit margins on EVs as well as North American annual production capacity for the vehicles of 1 million by 2025.

“We’re really focusing on making sure that we’re driving toward demand targets,” Jacobson said. “We’re balancing production to demand.”
GM last week said it would delay production of electric trucks at a second plant in Michigan by at least a year until late 2025. The delay is expected to save GM about $1.5 billion in capital next year, Jacobson said.
GM continues to increase production of the EV models that are currently in production as well as battery cell production at a joint-venture plant with LG Energy Solution in Ohio, according to Jacobson.
He said the automaker is seeing improvement in earlier problems in battery cell production that hampered EV output, however officials are still “working through the issues.”
Overall, Jacobson said GM is focused on “streamlining the business” wherever it can to reduce costs and boost profits to achieve 2025 financial targets.
GM CEO Mary Barra, in a letter to shareholders, said through next year the company will launch “a wide range of new SUVs that are more profitable than the outgoing models.”

UAW

GM has been navigating ongoing strikes by the UAW after the union and Detroit automakers failed to reach tentative labor deals by a Sept. 14 deadline for contracts covering 146,000 union workers.
The UAW has been expanding work stoppages at GM, Ford Motor and Stellantis as bargaining continues.
As of Monday, more than 40,000 UAW members at the automakers, or roughly 28% of UAW members covered by the expired contracts, were on strike.
Of the Detroit automakers, GM has the fewest number of workers — roughly 9,200 — currently on strike. Another 2,350 or so GM employees have been laid off at other operations due to the strikes, according to the company.

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain during an online broadcast updating union members on negotiations with the Detroit automakers on Oct. 6, 2023.
Screenshot

The UAW, which has escalated strikes to pickup truck plants at Ford and Stellantis, hasn’t expanded strikes at GM since Sept. 29.
Jacobson declined to estimate how much the impact of the strikes would increase if expanded to other plants such as GM’s highly profitable Arlington Assembly, which the union has previously threatened as a potential target.
“We’re trying to prepare the best we can to whatever decisions they might make, but we remain optimistic and hopeful that we’ll make progress and get this resolved going forward,” he said.
During the last round of contract bargaining four years ago, a national 40-day UAW strike against GM cost the company about $3.6 billion in earnings that year.
This is breaking news. Please check back for additional updates. More

The United Auto Workers union is expanding its strike of the three major U.S. automakers to a Stellantis plant that produces Ram full-size pickup trucks.
The work stoppage includes roughly 6,800 workers at Stellantis’ Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit.
It marks the first escalation in the union’s strike in nearly two weeks and the first new work stoppage at Stellantis in over a month.

United Auto Workers members rally outside Stellantis’ Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights, Mich. after the union called a strike at the plant on Oct. 23, 2023.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union is expanding its strike to a Stellantis plant in Michigan that produces Ram 1500 full-size pickup trucks, dealing another blow to the Detroit automakers as negotiations drag on.
The new work stoppage includes roughly 6,800 workers at Stellantis’ Sterling Heights Assembly Plant in suburban Detroit, the union announced Monday after initiating the walkout.

“Currently, Stellantis has the worst proposal on the table regarding wage progression, temporary worker pay and conversion to full-time, cost-of-living adjustments (COLA), and more,” the UAW said in a release.
The walkout at the Sterling Heights plant brings the total number of UAW members on strike with the Detroit automakers to more than 40,000. It marks the first escalation in the union’s strike in nearly two weeks and the first new work stoppage at Stellantis in over a month.
“We’ve tried to do things the right way. We’ve taken our time, we’ve been patient with these companies. It’s time to amp up the pressure and SHAP just seemed like the the proper target at this time,” UAW President Shawn Fain said outside the plant on Monday, calling the facility Stellantis’ “money-maker.”
Stellantis said Monday it was “outraged that the UAW has chosen to expand its strike action against the company,” citing “a new, improved offer” made by Stellantis on Thursday, which included 23% wage increases, a nearly 50% increase in company contributions to retirement plans and other enhanced benefits.
“Following multiple conversations that appeared to be productive, we left the bargaining table expecting a counter-proposal, but have been waiting for one ever since,” Stellantis said in an emailed statement. “Our very strong offer would address member demands and provide immediate financial gains for our employees. Instead, the UAW has decided to cause further harm to the entire automotive industry as well as our local, state and national economies.”

United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain (right) and UAW Secretary-Treasurer Margaret Mock (left) lead a march outside Stellantis’ Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan after the union called a strike at the plant on Oct. 23, 2023.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

The company said the strike “will have long-lasting consequences,” including loss of domestic market share to non-union competition, company profits and profit-sharing bonuses for UAW members.
Sterling Heights is one of the most important U.S. plants to Stellantis. However, the automaker is better poised to wait out a work stoppage at the truck plant than its crosstown rivals General Motors and Ford Motor, with a relatively healthy supply of Ram pickups ready to go.
The company had a 114-day supply of the Ram 1500 pickup as of Oct. 17, according to Cox Automotive, compared with GM’s 100-day supply of the Chevrolet Silverado 1500, and Ford’s 99-day supply of the F-150. The industry average is roughly 62 days, according to Cox.
UAW Vice President Rich Boyer, who’s leading the Stellantis negotiations, told CNBC on Monday there’s been little movement by the company on key issues.
He said discussions about the company potentially moving Ram 1500 production to Mexico as well as the future of Belvidere Assembly in Illinois, which Stellantis indefinitely idled earlier this year, remain unresolved.
“It was time. We’ve been sitting at the table long enough with not enough resolution,” Boyer said regarding the walkout at the Sterling Heights facility.

Randy Harvard (right), an autoworker of 29 years, stands with other United Auto Workers members after the union called a strike Oct. 23, 2023 at Stellantis’ Ram 1500 plant in Sterling Heights, Mich.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

The unannounced walkout is the latest example of what Fain called a “new phase” of bargaining with the automakers in which the union would take a more aggressive tack. For several weeks since the targeted strikes began, on Sept. 15, the UAW was pre-announcing strike locations, typically on Fridays.
But on Oct. 11 the union announced its first unexpected walkout at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant — responsible for $25 billion in revenue annually — marking a major escalation in the ongoing negotiations.
Fain on Friday said there was “more to be won” from the automakers.
LaShawn English, UAW regional director overseeing the Sterling Heights facility for Stellantis, believes the new strike should make the company “come to the table” with better economics for workers.
“This is a plant that’s very profitable to the company,” English told CNBC. “I think this one will make them open their eyes a bit.”
Workers such as Randy Harvard marched alongside Fain, Boyer and other union leaders following the walkout, with chants such as “No bucks, no trucks!”
“I’m with the president. We have to stick together,” said Harvard, an autoworker of 29 years. “It’s a workers’ revolt. It’s not just us now. Everybody’s on strike now — from the actors, all the way to the casino workers.”
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Netflix Co-CEO Greg Peters said the streaming giant is taking a “crawl, walk, run” approach to its lesser-known push into gaming.
Less than 1% of all Netflix subscribers play a Netflix game on a daily basis, even as choices have more than tripled in the last year.
Netflix is doubling down on its efforts with plans to adapt more hit series into games and talks of releasing an iteration of Grand Theft Auto.

It’s been nearly two years since Netflix first announced its foray into gaming. Yet, as Netflix has more than tripled its game library from 24 to 77 games in the last year, subscribers have largely shrugged their shoulders.
This is all a part of the plan, though, according to Netflix.

“This trajectory is not dissimilar from what we’ve seen before,” Co-CEO Greg Peters said on the company’s prerecorded earnings call Wednesday. “When we’ve launched a new region — or when we launched new genres, like unscripted” we had to “crawl, walk, run, but we see a tremendous amount of opportunity to build a long-term center value of entertainment.”
Netflix’s push into gaming is part of a larger effort to plant seeds for future revenue streams to offset a potentially saturated subscriber environment. Others include sports and retail, each of which are in the early phases of development.
“The more potential revenue streams [Netflix] throws out there, the more things they can hang their hat on during an earnings call in the future when password sharing has run its course and they’re not adding new subscribers,” said Insider Intelligence analyst Ross Benes.
Netflix announced it was taking gaming seriously in 2021, rolling out titles as stand-alone apps for mobile phones. Netflix said that games are a strategy to keep subscribers engaged in between seasons of their favorite shows, such as “Stranger Things,” which has been adapted into two games.
Since 2021, the company has brought in several big names in the gaming space. Former Electronic Arts mobile gaming executive Mike Verdu joined Netflix as vice president of game development in 2021. Joseph Staten, who was the creative chief for Microsoft’s “Halo Infinite” game, announced in February that he was joining Netflix as “Creative Director for a brand-new AAA multiplatform game and original IP.”

Getting existing subscribers to download and play mobile games is a challenge, though, Benes noted. More than three-fourths of all streaming service subscriptions are utilized on a television screen, according to data released last year from video analytics firm Conviva. This presents an obstacle for Netflix in marketing its mobile game library to existing subscribers since customers don’t tend to use Netflix on their phones.
As of September 2023, Netflix’s games have been downloaded 70.5 million times, globally, according to data obtained from Apptopia. An estimated average of 2.2 million users played one or more of Netflix’s games per day, even as Netflix adds new games just about every month, according to Apptopia. Average daily users peaked at 2.7 million in January 2023, but dipped below 2 million between March and July, hitting a bottom of 1.45 million average daily users in March.
These numbers imply that less than 1% of Netflix’s 247.15 million subscribers play a game on a daily basis, even as the game library has tripled in its offerings in the last year.
Other mobile gaming publishers far outpace Netflix in downloads. Since the inception of Netflix’s first game offering, Gardenscapes publisher Playrix had 531 million downloads, Candy Crush maker King had 438 million downloads and Clash of Clans owner Supercell had 388 million downloads, according to Apptopia.
With interest lacking in its mobile games, though, Netflix has begun testing new games that can be played on any device, Netflix’s vice president of games, Mike Verdu, said in an August post. The beta rollout to limited users Canada and the U.K. included Oxenfree from Night School Studio, a Netflix game studio, and Molehew’s Mining Adventure, a gem-mining arcade game. Games played on a TV will require players to use a mobile phone as a controller, accessible through the Netflix app on Android and a separate controller-specific app on iOS.
Peters said earlier this year that gaming was “following a trajectory that we have seen before” with new content categories, “where we sort of build into this over a multiyear period,” but refrained from divulging specific data points.
Mention of any gaming developments was noticeably absent from the company’s second-quarter earnings conference call earlier this year, raising suspicions that Netflix may be gearing up to abandon its efforts.
But that was not the case. The Wall Street Journal reported last week, ahead of the Netflix’s third-quarter earnings report, that the company plans to adapt more of its big-name series, such as Wednesday, Black Mirror and Squid Game into mobile games. The streaming giant is also looking into releasing an iteration of Grand Theft Auto through a licensing deal, the Journal reported.
Then, gaming came up briefly in Netflix’s prerecorded third-quarter earnings conference call, where Peters said that games engagement currently “drives core business metrics in a way which is incremental to movies and series.”
Netflix’s attempt to woo gamers also faces technological hurdles.
“I don’t think that playing mobile games, but on a bigger screen, is something I would be bullish on,” said Sunny Dhillon, founder of VC firm Kyber Knight, which focuses on gaming and tech investments.
“The bandwidth and servers that are being used are inherently handicapping the gamer,” Dhillon said. “I don’t think that we’re in a place where streaming multiplayer hardcore games can be played successfully simply because of the lags.”
But Netflix is not looking to be a console replacement, Netflix gaming executive Verdu previously told Tech Crunch.
“It’s a completely different business model. The hope is over time that it just becomes this very natural way to play games wherever you are,” Verdu said.
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Alaska Airlines said a San Francisco-bound plane diverted to Portland after an off-duty Alaska pilot tried to interfere with the engines.
A recording of the incident appeared to show a pilot of the flight say that the person tried to shut the engines down.
The pilot, 44-year-old Joseph David Emerson, is in custody and has been charged with 83 counts of attempted murder.

Travelers wait to check-in at the Alaska Airlines counter at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) in San Francisco, California.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images

An Alaska Airlines flight operated by a subsidiary diverted to Portland International Airport in Oregon on Sunday after an off-duty Alaska pilot tried to interfere with the engines, the carrier said Monday.
Horizon Air was operating Alaska Airlines Flight 2059, which was flying from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco before it diverted and landed safely. Pilots regularly pick up jump seats in the cockpit to commute.

“The jump seat occupant unsuccessfully attempted to disrupt the operation of the engines,” Alaska Airlines said in a statement. “The Horizon Captain and First Officer quickly responded, engine power was not lost, and the crew secured the aircraft without incident.”
A recording of the incident from LiveATC appeared to show a pilot of the flight say that the person tried to shut the engines down.
“We’ve got the guy who tried to shut the engines down out of the cockpit and he doesn’t sound like he’s causing any issue in the back now,” according to the recording. “Other than that we want law enforcement as soon as we get on the ground and parked.”
The flight’s pilot landed the plane safely in Portland and no injuries were reported, Kieran Ramsey, FBI Portland special agent in charge, said in a statement. Ramsey said the FBI “can assure the traveling public there is no continuing threat related to this incident.”
The off-duty pilot, 44-year-old Joseph David Emerson, is in custody. He was charged with 83 counts of attempted murder, 83 counts of reckless endangerment and a count of endangering an aircraft, according to Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office booking records.

The pilots’ union didn’t immediately comment.
Alaska Airlines said all of the passengers were able to get on later flights.
“We are grateful for the professional handling of the situation by the Horizon flight crew and appreciate our guests’ calm and patience throughout this event,” the carrier said.
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