Opening Bell: 6.2.16
HSBC cutting 'dozens' of senior jobs in investment bank (Reuters)
HSBC has begun cutting senior posts in its investment banking division in a cull that could lead to dozens of staff worldwide losing their jobs, according to sources with direct knowledge of the cuts. HSBC began informing staff in its global banking and markets division in London last week, one of the sources said, with a further round of cuts this week expected to affect around 10 senior people in the unit.
Mickelson Says He Needs to Be Wary of Company He Keeps (AP)
Phil Mickelson says he needs to be responsible for the company he keeps off the golf course. In his first public appearance since he was linked to insider trading allegations, Mickelson said Wednesday he was disappointed to be involved in it. He says he is glad his part in the investigation is over. In a federal complaint, Mickelson was said to have paid off a debt to Las Vegas gambler Billy Walters with nearly $1 million that was unfairly made in an insider trading scheme involving Dean Foods.
Facebook Could Get You Kicked Out of This Apartment Building (Fortune)
An apartment complex in Salt Lake City, Utah angered its tenants last week when it presented them with a “Facebook addendum.” The addition to the renters’ lease agreements requested that they like City Parks Apartments on Facebook, adding that if they don’t they could be considered in breach of contract, KSL reports. It also gave the company the authority to post pictures on its Facebook page of tenants and their guests.
As Banking Evolves, ‘Fintech’ Emerges From the Branch (WSJ)
At the end of March, customers of PayPal held more than $13 billion in accounts at the online-commerce company. Compared with the most similar type of bank deposit, the figure would put PayPal just behind TD Bank, the U.S. unit of Toronto-Dominion Bank, or Capital One Financial Corp., according to data provider S&P Global Market Intelligence...PayPal, independent of eBay Inc. since last year, offers many of the services that people think of when they envision banks. The central role PayPal seeks to play in the financial lives of its users shows the rapid evolution of what people think of as banking and could spark many of the world’s largest financial institutions to reconsider their own long-held customer relationships.
Chinese city creates female-only parking spaces for unskilled women drivers (UPI)
Officials in a Chinese city said larger parking spaces meant only for female drivers are in response to difficulties women have while parking. The female-only spaces, designated in parking lots in the Tonglu highway service area in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, are 50 percent larger than normal parking spaces and are outlined in pink with a drawing of a skirted figure similar to one that might be found on a bathroom door.
‘Uber for IVF’ under fire for marketing tactics (NYP)
Progyny, a startup that bills itself as “the Uber of fertility” as it touts new tactics and technologies to democratize the $10 billion-a-year IVF industry, has been forced to flip its strategy over the past six months in a bid to keep itself alive — and on the right side of health regulators, according to an investigation by The Post. The New York company is angling to bring the joy of childbirth to millions of American couples by creating a national network of IVF clinics to lower the price of assisted reproductive technology, or ART, which now costs up to $24,000 a cycle...But Progyny has run into stiff headwinds from the medical community. Doctors balked at the company’s request for discounts of up to 30 percent to join the network — as well as patient referral fees of up to $1,000. Some doctors claimed the referral fees ran afoul of state regulations. And there are even doctors who claim Progyny lied to their clinics’ staff as it sought to amass data on their pricing. “Entrepreneurs who built game-changing companies — I suspect the same criticisms have been directed at them,” Progyny Chief Executive Gina Bartasi told The Post in a recent interview at Progyny’s new headquarters in Tribeca. “I’m OK with that.”
Startups Get an Unusual Message: Go Slow, Think Small (WSJ)
In an era of startup accelerators, the Good Work Institute, a free business-education program for entrepreneurs with modest-sized firms, might best be called a decelerator. Run by Etsy.org, the philanthropic offshoot of online craft marketplace Etsy Inc., the program counsels founders to focus on virtues like sustainability rather than new storefronts and staff. It also cautions them against “just growing to grow,” in the words of Matthew Stinchcomb, Etsy.org’s executive director and the company’s former sustainability chief.
Facebook's Sandberg on Thiel lawsuit: Peter did it on his own (CNBC)
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said billionaire investor Peter Thiel — Facebook's longest standing board member other than CEO Mark Zuckerberg — financed wrestler Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against media company Gawker Media independently. "Peter did what he did on his own," she said. "You should talk to him." "Everyone in this audience wears different hats," said Sandberg at the Code Conference in Rancho Palos Verdes on Wednesday. "He did this, it's not a Facebook thing," she said. "We have very independent board members with very independent thoughts they share publicly."
Human remains included with freezer bought at yard sale (NYP)
A North Carolina woman made a chilling discovery after buying a deep freezer for $30 at a yard sale – and discovering human remains inside. “My heart was in my throat and I ran outside, called 911,” said the unidentified Goldsboro woman, who bought the bargain freezer from her neighbor three weeks earlier, WNCN reported. The woman said she believed the remains are those of her neighbor’s mother, who had not been seen since September...The woman said she waited three weeks to open the freezer because her neighbor told her it was being used as a “time capsule” — part of a class project she was doing with her church Sunday School class. “A church was supposed to come, pick up the items inside the freezer. I was supposed to get the freezer back. The church never came. I decided to open it,” the buyer said.