Bed Bath & Beyond plans to close at least 40 stores this year but open 15 new locations - USA TODAY

Kelly Tyko USA TODAY

Published 1:00 AM EDT Apr 12, 2019

Bed Bath & Beyond will be closing and opening stores this year.

The New Jersey-based home goods retailer, which also operates Buy Buy Baby, Harmon Face Values and World Market, announced mixed results during its fourth-quarter call with financial analysts this week.

"We expect to open approximately 15 new stores in fiscal 2019. This will be offset by a minimum of approximately 40 stores we expect to close," Robyn D'Elia, chief financial officer and treasurer, said during Wednesday's earnings call. "This number will grow unless we are able to negotiate more favorable lease terms with our landlords."

D'Elia said most of the "planned closures are for Bed Bath & Beyond stores."

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In the fourth quarter, the company opened three stores and closed 21 stores. The company has more than 1,500 stores across all of its brands, which also includes Christmas Tree Shops.

Bed Bath & Beyond officials also discussed updates on some new initiatives, including its "next generation lab stores." During 2018, D'Elia said, the company "initiated 21 next generation lab stores, in which we are testing new and different assortments and visual merchandising to reimagine the in-store experience."

Those stores experienced higher sales, the company reported.

The year has been off to a rough start for all retail. Based on figures from global marketing research firm Coresight Research, bankruptcy filings and company earnings reports, more than 6,500 stores are slated to close in 2019.

The brick-and-mortar downturn is expected to continue, according to a report released this week from UBS Securities. Investment bank analysts said 75,000 more stores would need to be shuttered by 2026 if e-commerce “penetration rises from 16% currently to 25%.”

Follow USA TODAY reporter Kelly Tyko on Twitter: @KellyTyko

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2019-04-12 05:00:00Z
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Uber, Losing $1.8 Billion a Year, Reveals I.P.O. Filing - The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — Uber, the ride-hailing service that has upended transportation around the world, took a major step toward the largest initial public offering in years when it officially unveiled its finances in a prospectus on Thursday.

The offering, which could value Uber at around $100 billion, is expected to reverberate through global financial markets and to solidify the company’s position as one of the most consequential technology firms of the past decade. The share sale would be the biggest since the Alibaba Group of China began trading on the New York Stock Exchange in 2014, and would peg Uber’s value at more than four times that of United Airlines’ parent and double that of FedEx.

But the prospectus for Uber’s offering renewed questions about how sustainable the company’s business actually is. It said in the filing that it lost $1.8 billion in 2018, excluding certain transactions, on revenue of $11.3 billion. And the prospectus also showed that Uber’s rocket-ship trajectory for revenue growth was beginning to slow.

The company’s archrival in North America, Lyft, went public last month at a valuation of $24 billion. But Lyft, which is also deeply unprofitable, fell below its offering price in its second day of trading as investors questioned whether it could make money. This week, Pinterest, the digital pin board company that also is losing money, set a price range for its public offering that values it at below that of its last private market peg.

One potentially major concern for Uber is that it does not appear set to turn a profit in the near future. In the United States, the company is burning cash as it battles Lyft, cutting prices for passengers and spending to recruit drivers. In other parts of the world, Uber also provides discounts to riders and incentives to drivers as competitors like Ola fight for market share. The company is also investing heavily in businesses like food delivery and scooters.

“We will not shy away from making short-term financial sacrifices where we see clear long-term benefits,” Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s chief executive, wrote in a letter accompanying the prospectus.

To lessen the surprise of its losses when it did finally go public, Uber has disclosed its quarterly results for two years even though, as a privately held company, it was not obligated to do so. Still, the prospectus invites new scrutiny, particularly when Uber executives begin meeting with investors on a so-called road show in the coming weeks.

Uber did not disclose in the prospectus the valuation it is seeking from public investors; it was last valued at $76 billion in the private market. Its public offering is being led by Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. The company’s shares are set to begin trading next month after the road show closes.

The company said in its filing that it made a profit of $997 million in 2018, largely from the sale of parts of its business in places like Southeast Asia and Russia. Excluding those gains, plus interest, tax and other items, Uber lost $1.8 billion for the year. In 2017, its net loss totaled $4 billion.

Who’ll Get Rich When Uber, Pinterest and Other ‘Unicorns’ Go Public

Some of the most valuable tech start-ups are preparing to go public, and the I.P.O.s promise to generate big paydays for employees and investors.

Revenue growth also noticeably slowed. In 2018, revenue rose 42 percent to $11.3 billion from a year earlier. But revenue in 2017 more than doubled from 2016. At the same time, Uber’s spending continues to rise, reaching $14.3 billion last year, up 19 percent from 2017.

While revenue growth in its ride-hailing business slowed, its food delivery service, Uber Eats, is soaring. Revenue from Uber Eats nearly tripled to $1.5 billion in 2018 from $587 million a year earlier.

Founded by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick in 2009, Uber began as an on-demand black car service for wealthy clients, riding the wave of mobile-technology innovation that followed Apple’s introduction of the iPhone in 2007. Mr. Camp conceived of the service, initially called UberCab, because of the difficulties he had hailing a taxi in San Francisco.

Silicon Valley tech workers were quick to embrace Uber, but it wasn’t until around 2013 that the service took off more broadly. That year, Uber introduced UberX, a low-cost ride-sharing service that allowed anyone with a car and a license to drive for the company on a freelance basis. UberX was a hit, and the company expanded rapidly elsewhere, often by flouting local and state transportation laws.

Under Mr. Kalanick’s leadership, Uber also increased its footprint internationally. It now operates in more than 60 countries and 600 cities around the world, with more than three million monthly active drivers providing rides to over 75 million regular riders. Uber completes more than 15 million trips a day.

Amid its explosive growth, the company stumbled in 2017 when a series of legal and ethical scandals resulted in a boardroom coup that led to Mr. Kalanick’s ouster as chief executive. After trying to regain power for months, Mr. Kalanick has since moved on to a new start-up, City Storage Systems, which is focused largely on real estate.

Uber has been led by Mr. Khosrowshahi, a former chief executive of Expedia, since late 2017. The company has expanded beyond its original ride-hailing mission and is experimenting with scooters, bike-sharing and other alternative forms of transportation. It has also been investing in Uber Eats and is beefing up Uber Freight, its long-haul-trucking division.

“What began as ‘tap a button, get a ride,’ has become something much more profound,” Mr. Khosrowshahi said in his letter to investors. “Uber is a once-in-a-generation company, and the opportunity ahead of it is enormous.”

The company has tried stemming some of its losses, including by selling some of its businesses in China, Russia and Southeast Asia. It recently acquired Careem, its primary rival in the Middle East, for $3.1 billion, partly to help ease a fierce price competition in the region. It has also sought new investment from the Japanese telecommunications conglomerate SoftBank to support its development of autonomous vehicles.

The public offering will create many winners financially. According to the prospectus, Uber’s largest shareholders are entities affiliated with SoftBank, which owns 16 percent of the company; the venture capital firm Benchmark, which owns 11 percent; Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which owns 5 percent; Alphabet, which owns 5 percent; and Mr. Kalanick, who owns 9 percent.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/11/technology/uber-ipo-filing.html

2019-04-11 20:21:38Z
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Walmart slams Amazon tax payments in corporate catfight - Fox Business

Corporate giants Walmart and Amazon took aim at one another on Thursday, in an escalating fight over worker benefits and tax payments.

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After Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos may have taken a jab at rival Walmart in his annual letter to shareholders, a Walmart executive struck back on Twitter, asking its rival to pay its tax bill, tagging Bezos and using similar language.

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As previously reported by FOX Business, paid zero dollars in federal income tax in 2018, according to filings with the SEC – despite nearly doubling its profits.

Amazon has refuted that claim, however.

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“Amazon pays all the taxes we are required to pay in the U.S. and every country where we operate, including paying $2.6 billion in corporate tax and reporting $3.4 billion in tax expense over the last three years,” the company said. “Corporate tax is based on profits, not revenues, and our profits remain modest given retail is a highly competitive, low-margin business and our continued heavy investment.”

Walmart said it paid more than $3 billion in federal taxes.

Walmart was responding to Bezos’ letter, where he challenged his “top retail competitors” who “know who [they] are” to match its employee benefits and $15 minimum wage. He even went a step further urging competitors to up the ante with a $16 minimum wage.

Amazon raised its minimum wage to $15 an hour late last year, following a campaign of pressure from Independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The company has also said it would work with Congress to change the federal minimum wage.

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Sanders has similarly targeted Walmart, which pays a minimum wage of $11 per hour -- implemented in January 2018. The company has not committed to implementing a $15 minimum wage.

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https://www.foxbusiness.com/retail/walmart-slams-amazon-corporate-catfight

2019-04-11 17:35:08Z
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Jeff Bezos snubbed eBay in his annual shareholder letter, sending the stock sliding - CNBC

Shares of eBay fell nearly 5% on Thursday, after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos snubbed the rival e-commerce giant his annual letter to shareholders.

In the letter, Bezos compared the growth in merchandise sales of third-party sellers between Amazon and eBay from 1999 to 2018. His comparison showed that Amazon has clearly outperformed its rival.

"Third-party sales have grown from $0.1 billion to $160 billion — a compound annual growth rate of 52%. To provide an external benchmark, eBay's gross merchandise sales in that period have grown at a compound rate of 20%, from $2.8 billion to $95 billion," said Bezos.

EBay's shares slid to $36.00 on Thursday afternoon. Its market cap was $32.94 billion.

Bezos cited the Fulfillment by Amazon and Prime memberships as the company's two "very best selling tools" to secure Amazon's success with third-party sellers over rivals like eBay.

"We invested in both of these programs at significant financial risk and after much internal debate," Bezos said in the letter. "We could not foresee with certainty what those programs would eventually look like, let alone whether they would succeed, but they were pushed forward with intuition and heart, and nourished with optimism."

In response, eBay CEO Devin Wenig took to Twitter defend the company.

"While I appreciate the ink dedicated to @ ebay from the ceo of the company not focused on competition, think I"ll dedicate my letter to customers, purpose and strategy. We don't compete with our sellers. We don't bundle endless services to create barriers to competition."

eBay CEO tweet

Bezos also challenged rival retailers to match Amazon's minimum wage of $15 per hour. Bezos did not call out competitors by name, but it prompted a response from Walmart's executive vice president of corporate affairs, Dan Bartlett, who challenged Amazon to pay more taxes.

Read Bezos' 2018 annual letter here.

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https://www.cnbc.com/2019/04/11/ebay-stock-slides-on-bezos-comments-in-shareholder-letter.html

2019-04-11 18:16:00Z
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What's moving markets today: Live updates - CNN

US jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since October 1969 last week, the Labor Department reported. Only 196,000 people filed for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 6. The four-week average was 207,000.

The data stressed the strength of the US labor market in the face of worries about economic slowdown.

US stock futures were mostly unchanged Thursday, pointing at a flat to slightly higher open. The dollar, measured by the ICE US Dollar Index, was up 0.2% at 97.108.

In other economic data, the producer price index for March rose 0.6% on the month and 2.2% year-over-year, beating expectations. 

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https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/stock-market-news-today-041119/index.html

2019-04-11 14:05:00Z
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What's moving markets today: Live updates - CNN

US jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since October 1969 last week, the Labor Department reported. Only 196,000 people filed for unemployment benefits in the week ended April 6. The four-week average was 207,000.

The data stressed the strength of the US labor market in the face of worries about economic slowdown.

US stock futures were mostly unchanged Thursday, pointing at a flat to slightly higher open. The dollar, measured by the ICE US Dollar Index, was up 0.2% at 97.108.

In other economic data, the producer price index for March rose 0.6% on the month and 2.2% year-over-year, beating expectations. 

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https://www.cnn.com/business/live-news/stock-market-news-today-041119/index.html

2019-04-11 13:55:00Z
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Gold Prices Under Pressure As Producer Inflation Rises 0.6% In March - Kitco News

(Kitco News) - The gold market remains under pressure, but continues to hold on to support around $1,300 an ounce even as whole sale inflation pressures rose sharply last month.

Thursday, the U.S. Labor Department said its Producer Price Index (PPI) rose 0.6% in March, following February’s increase 0.1% ; the data was significantly stronger than expected with economists’ forecasting an increase of 0.3%.

This is the first time in four months that producer inflation beat expectations.

At the same time core PPI, which strips out volatile food and energy costs, increased 0.3% last month, following February’s increase of 0.1%. Economists were expecting to see wholesale inflation rise 0.2%.

However, the gold market is not seeing much reaction to the higher inflation data. June gold futures last traded at $1,301.40 an ounce down 0.94% on the day.

Economists pay close attention to producer prices as it is a leading indicator for consumer prices. Tradionally, companies pass on higher costs to their customers. Economists note that strong PPI data raises the downside risk to consumer inflation pressures.

According to some analysts, gold is not seeing much reaction to the inflation data because most of the increase was due to volatile energy prices. The gasoline index increased 16% last month, according to the report.

For the year, headline inflation rose 2.2%, up from 1.9% reported in February; however, core inflation for the year was 2%, down from February’s reading of 2.3%. According to reports, this is the lowest annual inflation reading since August 2017.

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https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-04-11/Gold-Prices-Under-Pressure-As-Producer-Inflation-Rises-0-6-In-March.html

2019-04-11 12:36:00Z
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