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About 65% of Ford dealers have agreed to sell electric vehicles as the company invests billions to expand production and sales of the battery-powered cars and trucks, CEO Jim Farley said Monday.
Ford offered its dealers the option to become “EV-certified” under one of two programs — with investments of $500,000 or $1.2 million.
Ford, unlike crosstown rival General Motors, is allowing dealers to opt out of selling EVs and continue to sell the company’s cars.

Ford F-150 Lightning trucks manufactured at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Dearborn Michigan.
Courtesy: Ford Motor Co.

DETROIT – About 65% of Ford Motor’s dealers have agreed to sell electric vehicles as the company invests billions to expand production and sales of the battery-powered cars and trucks, CEO Jim Farley said Monday.
About 1,920 of Ford’s nearly 3,000 dealers in the U.S. agreed to sell EVs, according to Farley. He said roughly 80% of those dealers opted for the higher level of investment for EVs.

Ford offered its dealers the option to become “EV-certified” under one of two programs — with expected investments of $500,000 or $1.2 million. Dealers in the higher tier, which carries upfront costs of $900,000, receive “elite” certification and be allocated more EVs.
Ford, unlike crosstown rival General Motors, is allowing dealers to opt out of selling EVs and continue to sell the company’s cars. GM has offered buyouts to Buick and Cadillac dealers that don’t want to invest to sell EVs.
Dealers who decided not to invest in EVs may do so when Ford reopens the certification process in 2027.
“We think that the EV adoption in the U.S. will take time, so we wanted to give dealers a chance to come back,” Farley said during an Automotive News conference.
Ford’s plans to sell EVs have been a point of contention since the company split off its all-electric vehicle business earlier this year into a separate division known as Model e. Farley said the automaker and its dealers needed to lower costs, increase profits and deliver better, more consistent customer sales experiences.

Farley on Monday also reiterated that a direct-sales model is estimated to be thousands of dollars cheaper for the automaker than the auto industry’s traditional franchised system.
Wall Street analysts have largely viewed direct-to-consumer sales as a benefit to optimize profit. However, there have been growing pains for Tesla, which uses the sales model, when it comes to servicing its vehicles.
Ford’s current lineup of all-electric vehicles includes the Ford F-150 Lightning pickup, Mustang Mach-E crossover and e-Transit van. The automaker is expected to release a litany of other EVs globally under a plan to invest tens of billion of dollars in the technologies by 2026.

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PepsiCo is eliminating hundreds of corporate jobs in North America, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The company’s beverage unit is expected to be hit harder by the cuts, according to the Journal.
In November, Coca-Cola said it would restructure its North American business through a voluntary separation program that included buyouts.

Pepsi soft drinks are displayed at a convenience store in San Francisco, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

PepsiCo is eliminating hundreds of corporate jobs in North America, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The layoffs will affect employees of its food and beverage businesses in Chicago; Plano, Texas and Purchase, New York, the Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter and a company memo. PepsiCo’s portfolio includes Gatorade drinks, Frito-Lay snacks and Quaker Oats foods.

The company’s beverage unit is expected to be hit harder by the cuts because the snacks unit already shrank its workforce through a voluntary retirement program, according to the Journal.
The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CNBC.
Pepsi employed 309,000 people worldwide as of Dec. 25, with more than 40% of those jobs located in the U.S., according to a company regulatory filing.
 In October, PepsiCo hiked its full-year revenue forecast after higher prices boosted its sales. However, some of its business units, including Frito-Lay North America, reported shrinking volume, a sign that consumers were cutting back their snacking to better manage their budgets.
In recent months, companies in the tech and media sectors have been laying off workers to trim costs as economic uncertainty pressures their businesses. Several food and beverage companies have also cut jobs, including Beyond Meat, Impossible Foods and PepsiCo’s main rival Coca-Cola. In November, Coke said it would restructure its North American business through a voluntary separation program that included buyouts.

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VF Corporation on Monday lowered its revenue and earnings expectations for the second half of its fiscal year.
The company owns brands such as The North Face and Timberland.
CEO and Chairman Steve Rendle is stepping down.

Igor Goloniov | Sopa Images | Getty Images

VF Corporation, owner of The North Face and Timberland, on Monday lowered its revenue and earnings expectations for the second half of its fiscal year and said its chairman and chief executive is retiring.
CEO Steve Rendle is stepping down from his post after almost six years, effective immediately, the company said in a press release. Benno Dorer, who sits on the company’s board, will serve as interim CEO while the company searches for Rendle’s permanent replacement. Richard Carucci will serve as interim chairman of the board.

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Shares of the company fell 11% to $29.51 by market close on Monday. Credit Suisse on Monday downgraded the stock to a “neutral” rating in light of what it called an “abrupt” CEO transition and the reduced forecast.
VF Corp. said it now expects full-year revenue to increase by 3% or 4% over the prior year, down from previously projected growth of 5% or 6%. It estimates its full-year earnings to come in at about $2.00 to $2.20 per share, down from previous guidance of $2.40 to $2.50, announced a few weeks ago.
VF Corp. reported full-year earnings of $3.18 per share last year.
This is the second time in less than two months that VF Corp. has slashed its guidance. VF attributed its lowered financial outlook to “weaker than anticipated consumer demand,” especially in its North American market, which has caused fewer sales and more order cancellations. It also cited the overall tightening of consumer spending as a result of inflation and Covid-related disruption in China.
Those challenges may take a toll on short-term profitability, the company said.

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Homeland Security has delayed the full enforcement of Real ID security standards until May 2025.
The department said Covid obstacles had made it more difficult to obtain a Real ID.
The Real ID Act was originally supposed to go into effect in 2008 but has been repeatedly delayed since then.

Homeland Security sign for REAL ID at entrance to passenger TSA security area, West Palm Beach, Florida.
Lindsey Nicholson | UCG | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

U.S. officials are delaying for two more years the enforcement of a rule requiring people to get new identification cards to board domestic flights, access federal facilities or enter nuclear plants.
The Department of Homeland Security said Monday the Real ID Act will not be enforced until May 2025, marking the latest postponement for the rule. The rule had most recently been slated to go into effect in May 2023.

The agency cited “the lingering impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic,” as partially responsible for the continued delay. It noted that the pandemic made it more difficult for people to obtain licenses or identification cards that are Real ID-compliant.
The Real ID Act, passed in 2005 in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, enhanced the security standards necessary for driver’s licenses and other identification cards to be accepted for certain activities, such as boarding planes. Real IDs can be identified by a star in the right-hand corner of a driver’s license or identification card.
“This extension will give states needed time to ensure their residents can obtain a Real ID-compliant license or identification card. DHS will also use this time to implement innovations to make the process more efficient and accessible,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro N. Mayorkas in a press release.
Enforcement of the Real ID rule has been repeatedly delayed since the original 2008 deadline. It was slated to go into effect in October 2020, but then the deadline was pushed back to October 2021 after states pressured the federal government for an extension due to Covid pandemic obstacles. That deadline never kicked in to gear either, and officials again pushed back enforcement until May 2023.
On Monday, DHS updated its countdown to the new date on its website.

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Warner Bros. Discovery plans to merge its HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services in the spring.
Lawyers are vetting the name executives have chosen for the service, “Max,” sources said.
The platform will feature hubs for content from HBO, Discovery, DC Comics and others.

In this photo illustration, the Warner Bros. Discovery logo is displayed on a smartphone screen and in the background, the HBO Max and Discovery Plus logos.
Rafael Henrique | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Warner Bros. Discovery executives are close to formalizing a new name and platform for its soon-to-be-launched streaming service that will combine the preexisting HBO Max and Discovery+ services.
The merged platform’s expected name, “Max,” is being vetted by the company’s lawyers, according to people familiar with the matter.

Executives haven’t finalized a decision and the name could still be changed, but Max is the likely choice, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions are private. Some senior executives are still debating a final name, said two of the people. Internally, Warner Bros. Discovery has given the new service a code name of “BEAM” while a final name is being debated, said the people. Lawyers are vetting other names, as well.
The app itself will share similarities with Disney+’s platform, with Warner Bros. Discovery’s brands as individual tiles, the people said. HBO, Discovery, DC Comics and Warner Bros. will be among the landing hubs on the platform, the people added.
A Warner Bros. Discovery spokesperson said a name was still being discussed.
CNBC reported last year that WarnerMedia executives wanted a new name for the combined streaming service. While branding HBO Max with HBO crystalized the prestige image of the product, several executives felt the name may eventually dilute the HBO brand as consumers conflated it with everything on the streaming service.
Chief Executive David Zaslav has cut back on HBO Max original series spending, which has helped reform HBO’s branding. Still, HBO has a limited audience that’s largely U.S. based, and the streaming service will offer much more than HBO — including reality TV from Discovery, news documentaries from CNN, movies from Warner Bros., kids programming, and possibly, eventually, live sports. Zaslav and his team see the value in making HBO a sub-brand within the larger streaming offering, said people familiar with their thinking.

Warner Bros. Discovery management pushed up the launch date for the combined service to spring 2023, the company announced in its most recent earnings call in November. Zaslav said during a earnings conference call that a team has been preparing for the launch of the combined offering, and also experimenting with changes “in large part to address some of the deficiencies of the existing platform.”
Zaslav noted recent changes already being rolled out on HBO Max that reflects that work, including the addition of Discovery content.
“These early green shoots bolster our strategic thesis that the two content offerings work well together and when combined, should drive greater engagement, lower churn and higher customer lifetime value,” Zaslav said on the call.
The pricing of the combined streaming service is still being discussed, the people said.

HBO’s confusing branding

There has been debate at Warner Bros. Discovery about keeping HBO in the name of the new streaming service given its prestige. But removing it from the name will also end a run of HBO-branded streaming services that have confused consumers. HBO Go and HBO Now preceded HBO Max.
Warner Bros. Discovery is trying to reform through a series of changes and cost cuts. The company is contending with a heavy debt load, and, like the rest of the industry, it is figuring out how to make the streaming business profitable, rather than chasing subscribers while spending heavily on content. Zaslav told investors in November that the focus for the business, and its streaming strategy, would be reaching profitability, and not necessarily subscriber numbers. The company’s goal is to notch $1 billion in earnings in streaming by 2025.
“While we’ve got lots more work to do and some difficult decisions still ahead, we have total conviction in the opportunity before us,” Zaslav said.
Commercial-free monthly subscriptions to HBO Max and Discovery+ cost $14.99 and $6.99, respectively. They both also offer cheaper ad-supported tiers.
WATCH: How Netflix lost its edge dominating the streaming world

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Health officials in the U.K. are warning parents to be alert after a recent spate of severe Strep A infections resulted in the deaths of at least six children.
Streptococcus A — or Group A Strep (GAS) — is a bacterial infection of the throat or skin which can sometimes cause scarlet fever.
In rare occasions, the bacteria can get into the bloodstream and cause an illness called invasive Group A strep (iGAS), which can be fatal.

Streptococcus A — or Group A Strep (GAS) — is a bacterial infection of the throat or skin, which typically arises during the winter months.
Halfpoint Images | Moment | Getty Images

Health officials in the U.K. are warning parents to be alert after a recent spate of severe Strep A infections resulted in the deaths of at least six children.
The U.K.’s Health Security Agency issued a rare health warning Friday urging parents to monitor their children for tell-tale symptoms of the illness, which can include a sore throat, headache, fever, and body rashes.

At least six children have died of severe cases of the infection since September, health agencies said, while reported cases have risen over 4.5 times the amount seen in recent years.

What is Strep A?

Streptococcus A — or Group A Strep (GAS) — is a bacterial infection of the throat or skin which typically arises during the winter months.
While most cases are mild and often go unnoticed, it can also lead to more serious illness and complications, such as scarlet fever.
Scarlet fever is a highly contagious bacterial infection that mostly affects young children. It typically causes flu-like symptoms and a fine, sandpaper-like rash, which can usually be treated with antibiotics.
However, in rare occasions, the bacteria can get into the bloodstream and cause an illness called invasive Group A strep (iGAS). 

These severe infections can be deadly, and are thought to be the cause of the recent spate of deaths.

Make sure you talk to a health professional if your child is showing signs of deteriorating after a bout of scarlet fever.

Dr Colin Brown
deputy director, UKHSA

Health officials have therefore urged parents to be vigilant for warning signs of the invasive illness, including a temperature above 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 degrees Fahrenheit).
“It is important that parents are on the lookout for symptoms and see a doctor as quickly as possible so that their child can be treated and we can stop the infection becoming serious,” Dr Colin Brown, deputy director at UKHSA, said.
“Make sure you talk to a health professional if your child is showing signs of deteriorating after a bout of scarlet fever, a sore throat, or a respiratory infection,” he added.

Cases surge post-Covid

Five of the deaths have occurred in children under the age of 10 in England, according to the UKHSA. The sixth death was reported at a Welsh primary school (elementary school) by Public Health Wales.
A further death of a 12-year-old schoolboy from London was reported Saturday, but has not yet been confirmed.
Typically, one or two children under the age of 10 die as a result of Strep A during winter in the U.K.
In the week to November 20., there were 851 cases of scarlet fever reported in the U.K., compared to an average of 186 for the preceding years.
Health officials have said there is currently no evidence that a new strain is circulating. The increase is instead likely related to high amounts of circulating bacteria and social mixing following the end of Covid-19 restrictions.
“(We) need to recognize that the measures that we’ve taken for the last couple of years to reduce Covid circulating will also reduce other infections circulating,” Dr Susan Hopkins, UKHSA’s chief medical adviser, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program Monday.
“That means that, as things get back to normal, these traditional infections that we’ve seen for many years are circulating at great levels,” she added.
The latest outbreak follows a surge in other illnesses this year, including monkeypox and a mysterious liver disease affecting children.
Some medics are concerned about the impact the latest outbreak could have on the U.K.’s already struggling National Health Service.
“The last thing we want is for A&E departments to be flooded with a new influx of worried parents,” Neena Modi, professor of neonatal medicine at Imperial College London, told the Guardian.
The UKHSA said concerned parents in the U.K. should contact NHS 111 or their local GP in the first instance if they notice early symptoms in their children, while more severe cases should contact 999 or visit A&E.

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It’s been more than 3 decades since Soo-man Lee founded SM Entertainment, one of South Korea’s music agencies known for bringing K-pop to the world.
The entertainment company, originally founded as SM Studio in 1989, became one of the first to kickstart the global Hallyu wave — better known as the Korean wave.

But Lee’s music was not always based off Korean pop music.
“I became a singer when I was 19. Although I was famous, I realized that the audience was really quiet when I sang because I sang folk songs,” he told CNBC’s Chery Kang in an interview for The CNBC Conversation.

SM Entertainment’s Soo-man Lee (fourth from the right) posing with K-pop supergroup SuperM.
Gabriel Olsen | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

“But when foreign bands come to [South Korea to] perform, they completely took over the stage and fans went wild. When I went to check out the concert, it seemed like the fans were more enthusiastic than in mine,” said Lee, who is founding chairman of the company.

A vision for K-pop is born

Lee said that’s when he began to think about taking South Korea’s pop music to the world.
“As I studied in the U.S., I learned a lot and thought it would be nice to promote Korean songs and singers overseas. That’s the start [of SM Entertainment].”

Over the years, the 70-year-old developed a system he calls “culture technology” — through which he recruited and nurtured talent in a systematic way of casting, training, producing, and management.
The system is behind the song production of SM Entertainment’s K-pop top bands — such as Super Junior, Girls’ Generation and Red Velvet. 

“There is a written ‘culture technology’ manual somewhere in my office,” he said, explaining that it combines both culture and technology in a “logically formulized” way.
“The manual will allow employees to learn and transfer ‘know-how’ out of it. Because I’m an engineer, it is to be understood by logic. It lays out formulas,” Lee said, sharing that he has a Master’s degree in computer engineering.
“So, I can say that I am an engineer rather than an artiste.”

We need to be at that world class level, and we are focusing on what’s missing and what kind of distinctions we can make…

Soo-man Lee
Founder, SM Entertainment

Even as SM Entertainment’s music continues to go global, Lee says it’s important to continually innovate and stay ahead of the competition in the music industry.
“We need to be at that world class level, and we are focusing on what’s missing and what kind of distinctions we can make” from other genres of music,” he told CNBC.
Lee works with producers and songwriters from the U.K. and U.S. on accompaniments, track songs, kick drum and bass, which he adapts to South Korean and Asian culture.
As for the significance of China’s influence in the K-pop industry, Lee admits that money will have a “powerful influence,” but said he remains confident creativity that comes from producing will have “infinite value.”

SM Entertainment has represented K-pop artists like boy band Super Junior.
Chung Sung-jun | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

The issue of mental health is something that remains a focus for his company, Lee says.
“‘Be humble, be kind and be the love’ is what we teach our talents and people in SM … Things are a lot better now and global management companies are trying to learn about it.”
Lee also said his company is “connecting them to counselors and doctors so that they can get help anytime. We may not have the same economies of scale like CNBC, but we learned these things are very important.”

Future of K-pop

As for the future of K-pop, “I think the metaverse that everyone is talking about these days is the future,” Lee says.
SM Entertainment established a metaverse world called SM Culture Universe, and launched its first metaverse girl band, Aespa in 2020. The group is made up of four real-life members – Karina, Winter, Ning Ning, and Giselle – and their corresponding virtual counterparts.

SM Entertainment established a metaverse world called SM Culture Universe, and launched its first metaverse girl band, Aespa in 2020.
Alexi Rosenfeld | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

“SM Entertainment is building ‘Play-2-Create’… people can discover their creative side and create in the metaverse. They will realize, ‘Oh, I can create. I can make music. I can create dance moves. I can make clothes. I can style artists.'”
To realize the concept of “Play-2-Create,” the company partnered with metaverse companies like The Sandbox earlier this year.
Players can create NFTs and games surrounding “K-content” in SMTOWN LAND, a virtual land in The Sandbox under SM Entertainment. NFTs are non-fungible tokens which are unique digital assets, like artwork and sports trading cards, that are stored using blockchain technology.
Lee believes that any country can create something as successful as K-pop, but the metaverse will be key.
“You cannot create a genre by copying K-pop. Everyone will view it as K-pop. Now, you need to show it in the metaverse.”

Without looking at yourself in the mirror, you have no idea what you’d look like when dancing, even if you danced really hard…

Soo-man Lee
Founder, SM Entertainment

“I think we just need to let the fans become producers and consumers at the same time. Let them create… Young people will have the huge satisfaction of creation and will end up creating massive amounts of intellectual property and content.”
For those aspiring to become K-pop artists some day, Lee has this piece of advice: “Self-assessment is very important.”
“Without looking at yourself in the mirror, you have no idea what you’d look like when dancing, even if you danced really hard … It is when you can see and feel what you don’t do well that you learn.”
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Over time, cars have become more expensive — but also more durable.
The average age of a car on U.S. roads rose to a record 12.2 years in 2022.
Here are the models with the greatest potential lifespan: The top two are Toyota SUVs, with the Sequoia and Land Cruiser both able to last nearly 300,000 miles.

New cars are getting increasingly expensive. But they’re also more durable than before, which means drivers have a better chance of getting their money’s worth.
As the average transaction price for new cars reached an estimated $45,872 in November — the highest on record, according to a joint forecast from J.D. Power and LMC Automotive — the average age of cars on the road also hit an all-time high of 12.2 years in 2022, a separate report by IHS Markit found.

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The average age had been just over 11 years a decade ago. In 2002, it was 9.6 years.
Advancements in everything from materials to technology have helped, according to Will Kaufman, news editor at Edmunds, “and it doesn’t hurt that today’s vehicles have better ways to alert owners when there are maintenance issues.”

10 cars with the greatest potential lifespan

Among the models with the greatest potential lifespan, Toyota Sequoia topped the list, with the ability to travel nearly 300,000 miles, followed by the Land Cruiser, according to a recent iSeeCars study, which analyzed more than 2 million cars over the past 20 years to see which vehicles could last the longest. 
Overall, SUVs and trucks are the most common vehicle types to rank in the top 10, while more fuel-efficient passenger cars, including the Prius and Avalon, earned two spots on the list.

“Shoppers really, really value reliability, and automakers are definitely sensitive to how big an impact a reputation for reliability — or unreliability — can have on their brand,” Kaufman said.

Six of the top 10 were Toyota SUVs, trucks or cars. Other contenders in the top five include the Chevrolet Suburban and GMC Yukon, both three-row SUVs.
Every car and truck on the list can reach nearly a quarter-million miles or more, the report found.
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As a general rule of thumb, most drivers consider the 200,000-mile mark the upper limit of a car’s lifespan, although some models clearly have the potential to travel much farther.
A limited supply of new cars and trucks due to the ongoing chip shortage has pushed consumers to use their existing vehicles for longer, according to IHS Markit, which tracks vehicle registrations in every state.
At the same time, millions of people who previously commuted to their jobs put fewer miles on their cars while they worked from home, further extending the life of their vehicles. 
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