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The Northern Lights, also known as aurora borealis, may be visible in more than a dozen U.S. states Tuesday, December 9, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Space Weather Prediction Center (NOAA). A full-halo coronal mass ejection (CME) is expected to reach Earth early to midday on Tuesday, potentially causing periods of “strong” G3 geomagnetic storms (on a scale of G1 to G5). The aurora borealis is the result of a geomagnetic storm that occurs when a coronal mass ejection (CME), an eruption of solar material, reaches Earth and causes swaths of purple, blue, and green in the night sky. This years increased solar activity (and thus, more frequent northern lights activity) is likely the result of an 11-year sun cycle peak. Here’s what to know about how to see the spectacular view. Where will the northern lights be visible? The aurora “may be visible over a number of northern U.S. states and lower Midwest to Oregon” on Tuesday, per the NOAA’s alert. According to the NOAA’s map, a total of 15 states are in the line of view for the aurora tonight. Those states include: Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan, New York, Vermont, and Maine. When is the best time to see the aurora borealis? For the best viewing, the NOAA recommends facing north, in a spot away from light pollution, between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. local time. You can track the aurora on the NOAAs website, where the agency is providing updates and visibility in real time, with a 30-minute aurora forecast.
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E-Commerce
When it comes to major U.S. industries, three tends to be the magic number. Historically, auto manufacturing was long dominated by Chrysler, Ford, and General Motorsthe so-called Big Three, which at one point controlled over 60% of the U.S. auto market. A dominant trio shows up elsewhere, too, in everything from the U.S. defense marketthink Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Northrup Grummanto cellphone service providers (AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon). The same goes for the U.S. airline industry, in which American, Delta, and United fly higher than the rest. The rule of three also applies to what Americans watch; the glory days of television were dominated by three giants: ABC, CBS, and NBC. Now, in the digital age, we are rapidly moving to a Big Three dominating streaming services: Netflix, Amazon, and Disney. The latest step in that process is Netflixs plan to acquire Warner Bros. for $72 billion. If approved, the move would solidify Netflix as the dominant streaming platform. When streams converge Starting life as a mail DVD subscription service, Netflix moved into streaming movies and TV shows in 2007, becoming a first-mover into the sphere. Being an early adopter as viewing went from cable and legacy to online and streaming gave Netflix an advantage in also developing support technology and using subscriber data to create new content. The subsequent impact was that Netflix became a market leader, with quarterly profits now far exceeding its competitors, which often report losses. Today, even without the Warner Bros. acquisition, Netflix has a dominant global base of over 300 million subscribers. Amazon Prime comes second with roughly 220 million subscribers, and Disneywhich includes both Disney+ and Huluis third, with roughly 196 million subscribers. This means that between them, these three companies already control over 60% of the streaming market. Netflixs lead would only be reinforced by the proposed deal with Warner Bros., as it would add ownership of Warner subsidiary HBO Max, which is currently the fourth-biggest streamer in the U.S. with a combined 128 million subscribers. While some of them will overlap, Netflix is likely to still gain subscribers and better retain them with a broader selection of content. Netflixs move to acquire Warner Bros. also follows prior entertainment industry consolidation, driven by a desire to control content to retain streaming service subscribers. In 2019, Disney acquired 21st Century Fox for $71.3 billion. Three years later, Amazon acquired Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer for $8.5 billion. Should the Netflix deal go through, it would continue this trend of streaming consolidation. It would also leave a clear gap at the top between the emerging Big Three and other services, such as Paramount+ with 79 million subscribers and Apple TV+, which has around 45 million. Paramount on Dec. 8, 2025, announced a hostile takeover bid for Warner Bros. in a proposed $108.4 billion deal that would, unlike the Netflix plan, include Warner Bros. subsidiary Discovery+. Why industries come in threes But why do industries converge to a handful of companies? As an expert on mergers, I know the answer comes down to market forces relating to competition, which tends to drive consolidation of an industry into three to five firms. From a customer perspective, there is a need for multiple options. Having more than one option avoids monopolistic practices that can see prices fixed at a higher rate. Competition between more than one big player is also a strong incentive for additional innovation to improve a product or service. For these reasons, governmentsin the U.S. and over 100 other countrieshave antitrust laws and practices to avoid any industry displaying limited competition. However, as industries become more stable, growth tends to slow, and remaining businesses are forced to compete over a largely fixed market. This can separate companies into industry leaders and laggards. While leaders enjoy greater stability and predictable profits, laggards struggle to remain profitable. Lagging companies often combine to increase their market share and reduce costs. The result is that consolidating industries quite often land on three main players as a source of stabilityone or two risks falling into the pitfalls of monopolies and duopolies, while many more than three to five can struggle to be profitable in mature industries. Whats ahead for the laggards The long-term viability of companies outside the Big Three streamers is in doubt, as the main players get bigger and smaller companies are unable to offer as much content. A temporary solution for smaller streamers to gain subscribers is to offer teaser rates that later increase for people who forget to cancel until companies take more permanent steps. But lagging services will also face increased pressure to exit streaming by licensing content to the leading streaming services, cease operations, or sell their services and content. Additionally, companies outside the Big Three could be tempted to acquire smaller services in an attempt to maintain market share. There are already umors that Paramount, which is a competing bidder for Warner Bros., may seek to acquire Starz or create a joint venture with Universal, which owns Peacock. Apple shows no immediate plan of discontinuing Apple TV+, but that may be due to the companys high profitability and an overall cash flow that limits pressures to end its streaming service. Still, if the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal completes, it will likely increase the valuation of other lagging streaming services due to increased scarcity of valuable content and subscribers. This is due to competitive limits that restrict the Big Three from getting bigger, making the combination of smaller streaming services more valuable. This is reinforced by shareholders expecting similar or greater premiums from prior deals, driving the need to pay higher prices for the fewer remaining available assets. The cost to consumers So what does this all mean for consumers? I believe that in general, consumers will largely not be impacted when it comes to the overall cost of entertainment, as inflationary pressures for food and housing limit available income for streaming services. But where they access content will continue to shift away from cable television and movie theaters. Greater stability in the streaming industry through consolidation into a Big Three model only confirms the decline in traditional cable. Netflixs rationale in acquiring Warner Bros. is likely to enable it to offer streaming at a lower price than the combined price of separate subscriptions, but more than Netflix alone. This could be achieved through additional subscription tiers for Netflix subscribers wanting to add HBO Max content. Beyond competition with other members of the Big Three, another reason why Netflix is unlikely to raise prices significantly is that it will likely commit to not doing so in order to get the merger approved. Netflixs goal is to ensure it remains consumers first choice for streaming TV and films. So while streaming is fast becoming a Big Three industry, Netflixs plan is to remain at the top of the triangle. This article was updated on Dec. 8, 2025, to take in news of Paramounts hostile bid. David R. King is a Higdon professor of management at Florida State University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Category:
E-Commerce
Layoffs have hit American workers hard in 2025, particularly in the government and tech sectors. Already this year, well over a million jobs have been lost due to layoffsand unfortunately, it doesnt look like a cessation of job cuts is on the horizon. Reports say that beverage and snack giant PepsiCo is the latest major American company getting ready to announce layoffs. Heres what you need to know. Whats happened? On Monday, PepsiCo (Nasdaq: PEP) issued a memorandum about its intention to enhance shareholder value in 2026. In the memo, PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said that the planned initiatives were to accelerate organic revenue growth, deliver record productivity savings and improve core operating margin, starting in 2026. The initiatives include using a targeted approach on affordable price tiers for its products in various channels in order to stimulate sales growth, reducing operational costs, and using automation and digitalization to advance and accelerate our global productivity initiatives, according to the company. These initiatives are widely seen as a response to demands from activist investor Elliott Investment Management, which took around a $4 billion stake in the company earlier this year. Elliott Investment Management is known for aggressively pursuing cost reduction and operational efficiencies in the companies in which it invests. But the above initiatives are allegedly not the only changes PepsiCo is preparing for. The company is reportedly also set to announce job layoffs. PepsiCo reportedly will cut jobs in the U.S. and Canada Besides the operational changes announced in its memo, PepsiCo is also reportedly set to eliminate jobs, according to multiple reports. Fast Company has reached out to PepsiCo for comment on the reported layoffs. Bloomberg reported on Tuesday that the company instructed employees in some of its major North American offices to work from home this week. Those offices include locations in PepsiCos headquarters in Purchase, New York, as well as its offices in Chicago and Plano. Companies have increasingly required employees to work from home during weeks when layoffs are announced. Such mandates often make it easier on the company conducting the layoffs, as they soften the emotional toll the layoffs have on affected employees and those left behind. Layoffs can severely hurt employee morale, and so companies want to lessen the impact on the remaining workforceand their productivityin any way they can. At the time of this writing, no new layoffs have officially been announced by PepsiCo. However, as Bloomberg noted, recently, PepsiCo executives have spoken about right-sizing the workforce. (Right-sizing is a phrase companies have begun using in recent years to refer to layoffs.) In November, PepsiCo announced 500 layoffs after deciding to close two Frito-Lay facilities in Orlando, Florida, according to FoodDive. How has PepsiCo stock reacted to the news? PepsiCos stock price seems to have shrugged off the companys announcements about its plans to enhance shareholder value. Yesterday, PEP shares got a modest boost of less than 2%. And today in early morning trading, PEP shares are currently down about half a percent. Since the year began, PEP shares have lost about 4.5% of their value. Over the past twelve months, PepsiCos stock price is down about 8.9%. In October, PepsiCo reported its latest Q3 2025 results, which saw the company announce net revenue of $23.9 billion, an increase of about 2.6% year-over-year.
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E-Commerce
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