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(Corrects paragraph 3 to say 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, not April) The founder of 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki, has asked a U.S. judge to reopen an auction for the genetic testing company, saying she has the support of a Fortune 500 company with a current market capitalization of more than $400 billion. Wojcicki did not name the Fortune 500 company in court filings. South San Francisco, California-based 23andMe filed for bankruptcy in March, seeking to sell its business at auction after a decline in consumer demand and a 2023 data breach that exposed sensitive genetic and personal information of millions of customers. Last month, Regeneron Pharmaceuticals agreed to buy the firm for $256 million, topping a $146 million bid from Wojcicki and TTAM Research Institute, which was founded by Wojcicki and describes itself as a California non-profit public benefit corporation. In a filing dated May 31, Wojcicki claimed that 23andMe’s debtors had attempted to tilt the sales process away from TTAM and in favor of Regeneron. TTAM and Wojcicki said in the filing that 23andMes financial and legal advisers unfairly capped their maximum bid at $250 million due to misplaced concerns about TTAM’s “financial wherewithal”. The plaintiffs said the auction was prematurely concluded before they had the opportunity to submit a bid that would have exceeded $280 million. The company’s debtors said the auction results came after an extensive and careful consideration by a four-member special committee of independent directors, according to the filing. According to another filing, 23andMe is seeking court approval to let Wojcicki and Regeneron submit final proposals by June 12. 23andMe is also seeking a $10 million breakup fee for Regeneron if Wojcicki’s bid is ultimately accepted. Regeneron said it does not comment on the ongoing proceeding and aims to close the acquisition as intended. Lawyers for 23andMe’s debtors and TTAM parties did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment. Urvi Dugar, Reuters
Category:
E-Commerce
More than 25,000 residents in three provinces have been evacuated as dozens of wildfires remained active Sunday and diminished air quality in parts of Canada and the U.S., according to officials.Most of the evacuated residents were from Manitoba, which declared a state of emergency last week. About 17,000 people there were evacuated by Saturday along with 1,300 in Alberta. About 8,000 people in Saskatchewan had been relocated as leaders there warned the number could climb.Smoke was worsening air quality and reducing visibility in Canada and into some U.S. states along the border.“Air quality and visibility due to wildfire smoke can fluctuate over short distances and can vary considerably from hour to hour,” Saskatchewan’s Public Safety Agency warned Sunday. “As smoke levels increase, health risks increase.”Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said firefighters, emergency crews and aircraft from other provinces and U.S. states, including Alaska, Oregon and Arizona, were being sent to help fight the blazes.“We are truly grateful, and we stand stronger because of you,” Moe said in a post on social media.He said ongoing hot, dry weather is allowing some fires to grow and threaten communities, and resources to fight the fires and support the evacuees are stretched thin.“The next four to seven days are absolutely critical until we can find our way to changing weather patterns, and ultimately a soaking rain throughout the north,” Moe said at a Saturday news conference.In Manitoba, more than 5,000 of those evacuated are from Flin Flon, located nearly 645 kilometers (400 miles) northwest of the provincial capital of Winnipeg. In northern Manitoba, fire knocked out power to the community of Cranberry Portage, forcing a mandatory evacuation order Saturday for about 600 residents.The fire menacing Flin Flon began a week ago near Creighton, Saskatchewan, and quickly jumped the boundary into Manitoba. Crews have struggled to contain it. Water bombers have been intermittently grounded due to heavy smoke and a drone incursion.The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service deployed an air tanker to Alberta and said it would send 150 firefighters and equipment to Canada.In some parts of the U.S., air quality reached “unhealthy” levels Sunday in North Dakota and small swaths of Montana, Minnesota and South Dakota, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s AirNow page.“We should expect at least a couple more rounds of Canadian smoke to come through the U.S. over the next week,” said Bryan Jackson, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in the U.S.Separately, a fire in the U.S. border state of Idaho burned at least 100 acres (40 hectares) as of Sunday, prompting road closures and some evacuations, according to the Idaho Department of Lands. The agency said in a news release that at least one structure was burned, but did not provide additional details about the damage.Strong gusty winds of 15 to 20 mph (24 to 32 kph) and steep terrain were making it difficult for firefighters battling the fire, which ignited Saturday.Evacuation centers have opened across Manitoba for those fleeing the fires, one as far south as Winkler, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the U.S. border. Winnipeg opened up public buildings for evacuees as it deals with hotels already crammed with other fire refugees, vacationers, business people and convention-goers.Manitoba’s Indigenous leaders said Saturday at a news conference that hotel rooms in the cities where evacuees are arriving are full, and they called on the government to direct hotel owners to give evacuees priority.Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs Grand Chief Kyra Wilson said it was one of the largest evacuations in the province since the 1990s.“It’s really sad to see our children having to sleep on floors. People are sitting, waiting in hallways, waiting outside, and right now we just need people to come together. People are tired,” Wilson said at a news conference.Canada’s wildfire season runs from May through September. Its worst-ever wildfire season was in 2023. It choked much of North America with dangerous smoke for months. Associated Press reporter Julie Walker contributed from New York. Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
This week, home discount retail chain Big Lots will open dozens of additional stores, marking the culmination of the beloved brand’s dramatic turnaround after it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late last year. Heres what you need to know about Junes Big Lots store reopenings. Big Lots bankruptcy was expected to be the end In December 2024, Big Lots announced that it had filed for bankruptcy and would be closing all of its roughly 800 locations. But in a surprising turn of events, the chain was saved from completely going out of business after another discount retail chain operator, Variety Wholesalers, swept in and agreed to buy 219 Big Lots locations from liquidator Gordon Brothers. Variety Wholsalers, which also owns discount retail chains including Bargain Town and Super Dollar, said it would not only keep the 219 stores alive, but that it would operate them under the Big Lots brand, after a period of renovation and re-merchandising. Prior Big Lots reopenings Variety Wholesalers said it would reopen the 219 Big Lots stores it acquired in four waves, with the first beginning in April. Heres how many stores Big Lots opened in each prior wave: First wave: nine stores across six states in April Second wave: 54 stores across 12 states in early May Third wave: 78 stores across 13 states in mid-May Now, Big Lots will be commencing its fourth wave of store openings. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}}))}(); 78 Big Lots fourth wave June reopenings Big Lots fourth wave of store reopenings will happen this week, with 78 stores opening across nine states. The planned opening date is Thursday, June 5. The states with the most store reopenings in the fourth wave include North Carolina, with 22 locations reopening; Ohio, with 13 locations reopening; and Pennsylvania, with 11 stores reopening. Here is the full Big Lots store reopening list for June: Florida 6247 Highway 90, Milton, FL 32570 2384 Commercial Way, Spring Hill, FL 34606 3401 13th St Ste 100, St. Cloud, FL 34769 843 W Bloomingdale Ave, Brandon, FL 33511 3048 E College Ave, Ruskin, FL 33570 13970 N Cleveland Ave, North Ft. Myers, FL 33903 4901 Palm Beach Blvd Ste 230, Fort Myers, FL 33905 Georgia 127 Commerce Ave, LaGrange, GA 30241 3111 Highway 278 NW, Covington, GA 30014 13 Lester Rd Ste C, Statesboro, GA 30458 Kentucky 3000 Scottsville Rd, Bowling Green, KY 42104 North Carolina 125 Weaver Blvd, Weaverville, NC 28787 273 Franklin Plaza Dr, Franklin, NC 28734 1176 Russ Ave, Waynesville, NC 28786 1639 US Highway 74A Byp, Spindale, NC 28160 1450 Andrews Rd, Murphy, NC 28906 1251 Burkemont Ave, Morganton, NC 28655 711 E Innes St, Salisbury, NC 28144 280 Concord Pkwy N, Concord, NC 28027 720 NC 24 27 Byp E, Albemarle, NC 28001 950 S Cannon Blvd Ste A, Kannapolis, NC 28083 1677 Westchester Dr, High Point, NC 27262 2531 Eastchester Dr, High Point, NC 27265 630 Lakestone Commons Ave, Fuquay Varina, NC 27526 2950 S Horner Blvd, Sanford, NC 27332 1371 N Sandhills Blvd, Aberdeen, NC 28315 1664 S Main St Ste B, Laurinburg, NC 28352 520 Berne Sq, New Bern, NC 28562 2750C N Roberts Ave, Lumberton, NC 28358 1110 Western Blvd, Jacksonville, NC 28540 2900 Arendell St Ste 19, Morehead City, NC 28557 6832 F Market St, Wilmington, NC 28405 4600 Main St Ste 1, Shallotte, NC 28470 Ohio 8489 Market St, Mentor, OH 44060 12588 Rockside Rd, Cleveland, OH 44125 1890 W Market St, Akron, OH 44313 405 Howe Ave, Cuyahoga Falls, OH 44221 241 W Wooster Rd, Barberton, OH 44203 426 East Waterloo Rd, Akron, OH 44319 1336 Whipple Ave NW, Canton, OH 44708 10560 Harrison Ave, Harrison, OH 45030 3640 Werk Rd, Cincinnati, OH 45248 110 S 7th St, Marietta, OH 45750 9025 Ohio River Rd, Wheelersburg, OH 45694 400 Silver Bridge Plz, Gallipolis, OH 45631 367 County Rd 406 Ste B, South Point, OH 45680 Pennsylvania 750 Ohio River Blvd, Rochester, PA 15074 4717 McKnight Rd, Pittsburgh, PA 15237 2444 Philadelphia St, Indiana, PA 15701 11628 Penn Hills Dr, Pittsburgh, PA 15235 254 Oak Spring Rd, Washington, PA 15301 6041 State Route 30 Ste 20, Greensburg, PA 15601 1425 Scalp Ave Ste 130, Johnstown, PA 15904 389 N Reading Rd, Ephrata, PA 17522 500 Lincoln Hwy Ste 4, Fairless Hills, PA 19030 2140 White St, York, PA 17404 1150 Carlisle St, Hanover, PA 17331 South Carolina 1206 Highway 9 Bypass W, Lancaster, SC 29720 9221 Two Notch Rd Ste 30, Columbia, SC 29223 6169 St. Andrews Rd, Columbia, SC 29212 1641 Church St, Conway, SC 29526 710 Hwy 17 S Ste D, North Myrtle Beach, SC 29582 1370 S Kings Hwy, Myrtle Beach, SC 29577 1013 Old Highway 52, Moncks Corner, SC 29461 431 Saint James Ave Unit G, Goose Creek, SC 29445 10150 Dorchester RdUnit 227, Summerville, SC 29485 328 Robert Smalls Pkwy, Beaufort, SC 29906 Tennessee 633 S Jefferson Ave, Cookeville, TN 38501 1301 S James Campbell Blvd, Columbia, TN 38401 1913 Sherwood Rd, Kingsport, TN 37664 3901 Hixson Pike Ste 157, Chattanooga, TN 37415 1426 N Gateway Ave, Rockwood, TN 37854 Virginia 180 Kents Ridge Rd, Richlands, VA 24641 1090 Bypass Rd, Vinton, VA 24179 6610 Mooretown Rd, Williamsburg, VA 23188 2318 W Mercury Blvd, Hampton, VA 23666 1851 E Little Creek Rd, Norfolk, VA 23518 1971 S Military Hwy, Chesapeake, VA 23320 No more Big Lots openings? With the additional 78 Big Lots stores reopening in its fourth wave this week, Variety Wholesalers will have reopened all 219 stores that it said it would after acquiring them from Gordon Brothers. While fans of the retail brand are undoubtedly happy to have hundreds of locations reopened, the 219-store count represents just over a quarter of the Big Lots locations that were open at the end of last year. Privately held Variety Wholesalers has not publicly announced plans to open any brand-new Big Lots locations at this time. For now, if there isn’t a Big Lots location near you after the fourth wave of reopenings this week, it’s likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
Category:
E-Commerce
Care.com launched in 2006 as a platform that helps parents find babysitters and nannies. But nearly two decades later, the company came across some disconcerting data: According to Pew, 64% of young women and 50% of young men don’t want children, a figure that has been rising in recent years. As Care.com conducted its own research, it discovered that one significant reason for this phenomenon is that young people are overwhelmed by all the different forms of care they must provide. In a survey, the company found that 28% of people have caregiving responsibilities for parents, grandparents, and other loved ones; 35% say this makes them less likely to have children. Indeed, by 2034, the number of seniors will outpace children. “So many of us are living in the ‘sandwich generation,’ caring for both kids and aging parents,” says Brad Wilson, Care.com’s CEO. “There’s a compounding effect.” Care.com believes it can better position itself to be a resource at this cultural moment, providing much more than just childcare, but also senior care, pet care, home services, and even finding summer camps for kids. Today, it’s unveiling a new brand identity that highlights a more comprehensive approach to caregiving. It also launching new tools that help families manage the mental load of juggling all these different caregivers. But the company also acknowledges that the caregiving crisis in America is also rooted in systemic issues, including the high cost of raising children and the lack of government support for families. So Care.com is also playing a role in advocating corporate and government policies that bring down the cost of caregiving. [Image: courtesy Care.com] A Compounding Burden Care.com has observed the growing burden of caregiving, as society has evolved in recent decades. For one thing, as women’s workforce participation has increased, more families are looking for daycare, nannies, and babysitters. Also, Americans no longer live in multigenerational families. “Families no longer feel like they have a ‘village’ to raise their child,” says Meiling Tan, Care.com’s VP of Brand. “Grandparents often live across the country. We don’t live in places where we can ask a neighbor for help in a pinch.” Wilson points out that the pandemic exacerbated this situation. During the lockdowns, parents had to work while also taking care of their children, leading to overwhelm. Many professional caregivers also felt burnt out and left the industry altogether. And the cost of care kept increasing. “There’s a lot of mental anguish around caregiving,” he says. “People are losing sleep about all of this.” [Image: courtesy Care.com] Care.com allows users to search for caregivers for free; it also offers a premium membership that costs between $13 and $40 gives you more features like unlimited messaging and access to a broader range of caregivers. The company has been steadily adding new services to meet the needs of its customers. In the realm of childcare, for instance, the platform offers tutoring, night nurses, camps, and help finding pre-schools. But importantly, the company now offers more forms of care for adults, from housekeeping services to help with post-surgery recovery to dog walking. When it comes to senior care, it offers everything from hospice support to memory care. And yet, the company says most people still see Care.com as a platform that specializes in childcare support, which is why it has invested in a comprehensive rebrand to help change this perception. Today, it unveils a new logo: It’s a green box with a large letter “C” with a smaller letter “c” nestled inside it. The font and the green color scheme is a change from previous coral palette. The imagery on the site, as well as in the new advertising campaign, will emphasize different types of care. “Before the site definitely felt more childlike,” says Tan. “We wanted to redesign our homepage to make it look more sophisticated, and show that we provide more holistic care.” [Images: courtesy Care.com] This rebranding is designed to spur growth for Care.com. The team hopes it will attract customers who may not know all the services the company provides, while also introducing existing customers to new kinds of caregiving. Care.com built its user base with the help of venture capital: It received a total of $156.8 million in funding between its 2006 launch and 2012. Then, in 2019, it was acquired for $500 million by IAC, the conglomerate that also operates DotDash and People Magazine. Over the past two decades, it’s faced a growing array of competitors, from platforms like UrbanSitter and Sittercity, to Facebook groups which enable babysitters to connect with parents in a particular neighborhood. [Image: courtesy Care.com] A Mental Burden Along with this rebrand, the company is also focused on helping manage the complexity and stress of juggling all these different forms of care. For instance, creating a shortlist of nannies then interviewing them is a laborious task. Care.com has launched a messaging platform that allows you to easily eliminate caregivers from a search or keep them in the running. Soon, it will launch a hiring hub where you can take notes on the backend and sort through candidates more efficiently. It is also unveiling an AI search function so you can lay out what you are looking for in a caregiver in your own words. The platform will then search for the right person using descriptions from the caregivers’ profiles. “You can ask for a meal prep guru or someone who loves art so they can do crafts with your kids,” says Tan. “And we’ll deliver results tailored to your needs.” Care.com users have also said that safety is a big cause of concern. So the new website will feature a safety center that explains the platform’s robust background checks, from an initial criminal check to continuous monitoring of caregivers. It also allows you to pay for more comprehensive background checks. (There’s also a dedicated safety team at Care.com that is available around the clock for users to call in the case of a crisis.) Systemic Problems Wilson points out that while Care.com can be helpful to Americans struggling with all their responsibilities, the caregiving crisis is a product of many systemic issues. Paying for caregivers is very expensive, and many families feel crushed by these costs. One solution Care.com has developed Care for Business, where it partners with companies who can pay to give employees free premium Care.com memberships and also subsidize the cost of caregivers. Employees can get access to “backup care” for days when regular caregiving falls through; a caregiver can be sent at the last minute so the employee can return to work. “We’ve found that employees with caregiving benefits are more likely to stay at their job and not miss days of work,” says Wilson. “This is great for the employee, but it’s also great for the employer.” But ultimately, Wilson says that part of the burden American families feel has to do with the lack of government support. Care.com does policy work, advocating for child tax credits, for instance. And Wilson himself is the co-chair of the Future of Care Economy at the World Economic Forum, where he advocates for leaders around the world to prioritize the care sector. For Tan, part of her work as head of branding is to elevate the role of caregivers in society through the brand’s website and advertising. “From personal experience, many of our caregivers talk about themselves as just a babysitter or just a nanny,” she says. “We’re trying to change the narrative so that caregiving is a respected, celebrated profession. Caregivers do more than help families; they are what keeps our economy going.”
Category:
E-Commerce
Your time spent working has a real dollar amount attached to it. But I often find as a time management coach that people dont think about the expense of their daily work activities. If they did, they likely would be much more hesitant to spend the equivalent of hundreds of dollars a day on things like email. If youre curious how much your time is worth and how to use that information to make choices about what you do and dont do on the job, here are three simple steps you can take today. Calculate your hourly rate In some professions, the value of your time is pretty straightforward to determine. When you bill clients per hour or get paid at an hourly rate, you know exactly what your time is worth. Making these calculations is a little bit more difficult in other situations, but not impossible. For example, if you have a salaried job with paid vacation, this is how you figure out the value of your time: Multiply how many hours you work per week by the number of weeks in a year. So for example, if you work an average of 45 hours a week, then you would multiply 45×52 to get 2,340 hours per year. Then you divide your annual salary by those number of hours. So if you make $75,000 per year, the hourly rate would end up being about $32/hour. And finally, if you get paid by the project, youll want to take your project fee, subtract expenses like materials, and then divide the remaining amount by the number of hours it takes you to complete the project. So if you got paid $1,000 for a project, had no expendable materials, and spent about 13 hours on it, then your hourly rate would be around $75/hour. Evaluate your time spend Once youve calculated how much your time is worth, then you can start to evaluate your daily time choices through that lens. For example, maybe you have a mix between messages, tasks, and meetings throughout your day. If you find yourself frequently sucked into email, Slack, or other inboxes, ask yourself what percentage of your daily budget you think that communication is worth. Then try to limit your time in that area, such as I only give the equivalent of $250 a day to communications. Or if you notice some tasks on your list are time-consuming but not super high value, you may want to consider delegating them to someone else. If your time is worth about $60 an hour and a task takes five hours, thats $300 of time. But if youre paying an entry-level employee $15 per hour, that same task ends up only costing $75. For you to do the task might not make sense. And finally with meetings, youll not only need to consider your hourly rate, but also the hourly expense for each additional person in the meeting. Depending on how many people are attending and their particular level of compensation, a single meeting could cost $1,000 or more. By starting to look at meetings through this filter, you can better determine whether or not you should go to meetings, as well as when youre hosting, how many people really need to come, and how long the meetings need to be. Dont forget the opportunity cost Finally, to most accurately assess the value of your time, youll need to determine not only your hourly rate, but also the opportunity cost of spending your time in different ways. This varies quite a bit depending on your compensation structure. But here are a few examples of ways to consider the financial opportunity cost of different time choices. If youre in sales and choose to fill your calendar with current client meetings to the point that you dont have enough room for meeting with prospects, your client meetings could be costing you thousands in missed opportunities for sales commissions. If you own a business and only focus on day-to-day activities without investing in business development, those routine tasks could be at the expense of large amounts of unrealized business growth. If youve been told that you need to hit certain goals to receive a promotion or bonus, and you spend your time in areas that dont allow you to hit those goals, then youre missing out on all of that potential compensation. There are certain activities that you need to do for your job no matter what. But if you evaluate how youre spending your time with the mindset that every hour has a dollar amount attached to it, then you can make better choices on how much time you spend in different areas of your work as well as whether certain activities are even worth your time at all.
Category:
E-Commerce
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