Daily Digest: A's announce big move inland; Celebrity chef shutters FiDi restaurant - San Francisco Business Times
On Wall Street, Levi's stock rose over 15% while Oakland-based Elf Beauty dropped about 10%. Here's more on why and what else is happening in the Bay Area this wet Thursday morning. The Walt Disney Co. defeated a proxy challenge from activist investor Nelson Peltz, marking the most expensive corporate proxy fight in history. The Oakland Athletics announced a move to Sacramento for the 2025 -2027 MLB seasons at Sutter Health Park, home to the Sacramento River Cats Minor League Baseball team. In tech, Ghost Autonomy, a startup working on autonomous driving software, has shut down. Shares of Oakland-based Elf Beauty dropped about 10% after Ulta Beauty warned of a slowdown in demand across beauty categories due to high interest rates. The town of Portola Valley, California, has had its housing plan revoked by state officials due to changes to allow for denser housing and more multifamily homes. The announcement was made jointly with the Sacramento Kings. In other news, the Oakland Athletics will move to Las Vegas in 2028.
Published : a month ago by Ted Andersen in Entertainment Business
Good morning, Bay Area. In the world of entertainment, the Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) defeated a proxy challenge from activist investor Nelson Peltz in the most expensive corporate proxy fight in history, with at least $70 million spent by Disney and Peltz's Trian Partners, Axios reports. In tech, Ghost Autonomy, a startup working on autonomous driving software that had partnered with OpenAI, has shut down, TechCrunch reports. The startup had raised nearly $220 million, employed about 100 people and had operations in Mountain View, Dallas and Sydney. Turning to Wall Street, shares of Oakland-based Elf Beauty (NYSE: ELF) dropped about 10% after cosmetics leader Ulta Beauty warned of a slowdown in demand across beauty categories as consumers deal with amassing credit-card debt at high interest rates. In housing, the Chronicle reports that the town of Portola Valley has become the first jurisdiction in California to have its housing plan revoked by state officials after the wealthy city failed to approve changes to allow for denser housing and more multifamily homes. And finally in tech, Bloomberg reports that Apple investigating a new push into personal robotics, including exploring a mobile robot that can follow users around their homes. And now, on to this morning's top news story.
A's to play in Sacramento
The Oakland Athletics announced Thursday the team will play in Sacramento for the 2025 -2027 MLB seasons at Sutter Health Park — home to the Sacramento River Cats Minor League Baseball team — ahead of the A's move to Las Vegas in 2028. "We explored several locations for a temporary home, including the Oakland Coliseum. Even with the long-standing relationship and good intentions on all sides in the negotiations with Oakland, the conditions to achieve an agreement seemed out of reach," A's owner and managing partner John Fisher said in a prepared statement. "We understand the disappointment this news brings to our fans, as this season marks our final one in Oakland. Throughout this season, we will honor and celebrate our time in Oakland, and will share additional details soon." The announcement was made jointly with the Sacramento Kings, the majority owner of the Sacramento River Cats.
Michael Mina will close his upscale Greek restaurant Estiatorio Ornos on April 11, a representative for the Michael Mina restaurant group confirmed to the Chronicle. The group decided not to renew its lease at 252 California St., previously the site of Mina’s eponymous, Michelin-starred restaurant Michael Mina, which closed during the pandemic and became Estiatorio Ornos. However, despite the impending high-profile closure, reporter Alex Barreira has an update on the rate of restaurant openings in the city.
Sutter Health is nearing the last phase of a long-planned build-out of its California Pacific Medical Center Mission Bernal hospital campus, with plans to break ground on a $442 million care center next summer, the Chronicle reports. The five-story, 129,000-square-foot medical office building will sit adjacent to Sutter’s existing 120-bed CPMC hospital at the corner of Cesar Chavez and Valencia streets, which was built in the place of the former St. Luke’s Hospital and officially opened in 2018. Services in the new building will include ambulatory surgery and a center for brain health. The care center is expected to welcome its first patients in 2028. Sacramento-based Sutter Health is Northern California’s largest health care system.
About 2,500 homeowners in California who sold their homes to San Francisco's Opendoor Labs are getting payments from a $62 million settlement first announced 2022 after the Federal Trade Commission found they were deceived by the company’s marketing claims, the Orange County Register reports. The FTC online settlement tracker says California home sellers are getting a median refund of $1,553 after its investigation found that home sellers who used Opendoor actually lost money.
Levi Strauss (NYSE: LEVI) stock has popped more than 18% since Wednesday, when the company bumped its full-year profit forecast higher, helped by cost cuts and better demand for products in the U.S. and abroad. This all came as Levi's posted a first-quarter loss following a restructuring charge and raised its outlook for the year as the company refocuses toward its direct-to-consumer channel to offset sagging wholesale sales, the Wall Street Journal reports. The San Francisco-based jeans maker posted a net loss for the three-months ended Feb. 25 of $11 million and booked a $116 million restructuring charge after reducing its workforce by 12% in the quarter.
Newmark announced that Josh Peterson has joined the firm as director based in its San Francisco office.
S.F.-based cyber insurance provider Cowbell announced two executive promotions: Sahar Sabouni to chief people officer and Dan Palardy to chief actuary.
Aerospike, a Mountain View-based NoSQL database, raised $100 million in Series E funding. Sumeru Equity Partners led, and was joined by insider Alsop Louie Partners.
S.F.-based provider of data management software Coalesce.io raised $50 million in Series B funding led by Industry Ventures and Emergence Capital.
EV Realty, a San Anselmo-based commercial vehicle charging provider, is forming a $200 million joint venture with GreenPoint Partners to develop charging hubs for medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, Axios reports.
Whirlpool is laying off the entire team for San Carlos-based cooking and recipe app Yummly, which has fewer than 100 employees. Whirlpool acquired Yummly in 2017.
An eclipse is coming and Airbnb is feeling the effects. In fact, with the eclipse approaching in less than a week, over half of U.S. cities along the eclipse's path are fully booked for the night of April 7, according to this data map. Now that's what I call planning.