Sneaker site StockX valued at $2.8 billion in new funding roun
a fast-growing web destination of hard-to-find sneakers — said Wednesday it had raised $275 million in a new funding round that values the company at $2.8 billion.
The latter figure, which includes the value of the fresh pile of cash, follows an exclusive report by The Post on Dec. 7, which said the company was looking to raise about $250 million at a valuation of $2.5 billion.
The fast growing auction house has more than doubled its valuation from its January 2019 last major fund-raising round that valued it at a little over $1 billion.
The Detroit-based company is currently planning to file for an initial public offering in mid-2021, according to sources close to the situation. Proceeds are expected to fuel growth in Asia for the site, which assigns ticker symbols to sneakers in a scrolling feed that displays bids, offers and green and red arrows to show how prices are moving.
Cleveland Cavaliers Owner Dan Gilbert is a cofounder and rapper Eminem is an early investor.
StockX, which authenticates all the sneakers it resells, charges a 9 to 14 percent commission on transactions.
While many of the sneakers on the site are being offered for resale after being snatched up in limited edition sales, most have never been worn. The pandemic has helped the business as it is harder now to shop at stores for sneakers, executives have said.
The average sale on the site is about $230, according to an investor presentation reviewed by The Post.
Despite its growth, it still projects losing $56 million this year, according to its presentation.
MacKenzie Scott gives nearly $4.2B to charity in 4 months amid pandemic
the ex-wife of Amazon boss Jeff Bezos — gave nearly $4.2 billion to charity over the last four months to support struggling Americans during the coronavirus crisis.
In a blog post Tuesday, the world’s third-richest woman said she doled out the money to 384 organizations across the country, including food banks, social services programs, civil rights groups, colleges and universities.
Scott, 50, said she decided to “accelerate” her giving to help people suffering from the pandemic’s devastation following her July announcement that she’d donated almost $1.7 billion to dozens of nonprofits. Her latest donations bring her total giving for the year to roughly $5.8 billion.
“This pandemic has been a wrecking ball in the lives of Americans already struggling,” Scott said in her blog post, noting that the crisis has also “substantially increased” the wealth of billionaires like herself.
“It would be easy for all the people who drew the long demographic straws in this crisis to hole up at home feeling a mix of gratitude and guilt, and wait for it to be over — but that’s not what’s happening,” she added.
Scott said her team of advisers selected the recipients of her gifts from an initial pool of nearly 6,500 organizations based on their ability to use the money effectively. The advisers conducted extensive research into the charities that involved hundreds of emails and phone interviews and “thousands of pages of data analysis,” she said.
Each donation will be paid upfront and left unrestricted so the organizations have plenty of flexibility in how to use the funds, Scott said.
“The responses from people who took the calls [from Scott’s team] often included personal stories and tears,” she wrote. “… Their stories and tears invariably made me and my teammates cry.”
Scott is still a long way from fulfilling her goal of giving away more than half her wealth, which has surged by about $24 billion to roughly $61 billion so far this year, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index. Her roughly 4 percent stake in Amazon makes up the bulk of that fortune, Bloomberg says.
Scott set her charitable goal by signing onto the Giving Pledge in May 2019 after announcing her divorce from Bezos, who is not among the more than 200 signatories to the pledge despite being the richest man in the world.
Google reportedly could be hit with second antitrust lawsuit this week
A group of states is preparing to file a second antitrust lawsuit against Google this week — setting the tech titan up for a tough court battle, according to new reports.
The coalition of states, led by Colorado and Nebraska, is putting the finishing touches on the antitrust complaint against Google that could be filed as soon as Thursday, Politico reported, citing two people close to the investigation.
The suit is expected to focus on Google’s dominance in the online search market, particularly changes it has made to the designs of its signature search engine that put rivals at a disadvantage, according to the outlet.
The complaint would come about two months after the US Department of Justice filed its own antitrust case accusing Google of maintaining “unlawful monopolies” in its search and advertising businesses. That suit criticized deals Google made to ensure that its search engine was set as the default on iPhones and Android smartphones.
The states will bring their lawsuit in the same Washington, DC federal court where the feds filed theirs, according to Politico. The state attorneys general hope to eventually consolidate their case with the Justice Department’s, Reuters reported.
Meanwhile, Texas attorney general Ken Paxton’s office has hired two outside law firms — Keller Lenkner and the Lanier Law Firm — to represent the Lone Star State in a lawsuit against Google, which could also be filed this month.
Texas’ trial team may be led in part by Kenneth Starr, the Lanier lawyer known for his roles in the impeachment proceedings against President Bill Clinton and President Trump, according to Bloomberg News.
Google declined to comment Wednesday. The Silicon Valley giant has pushed back against claims that it abuses its market power and called the federal antitrust lawsuit “deeply flawed.”
“People use Google because they choose to, not because they’re forced to, or because they can’t find alternatives,” Kent Walker, the company’s senior vice president of global affairs, said in an October blog post.
Marriott axes more than 800 workers at Times Square hotel
Marriott Marquis in Times Square
Getty Images
Marriott plans to permanently lay off more than 800 workers at its Times Square hotel as the coronavirus crisis keeps New York City’s hospitality industry in a chokehold.
The 852 workers at the New York Marriott Marquis will be axed for good on March 12 — almost exactly a year after they were put on temporary layoff as the pandemic bore down on the Big Apple, the hotel giant said in a notice filed with the state Department of Labor.
“These are actions we never thought would become necessary at our location,” the hotel’s general manager told the laid-off staffers in a Dec. 9 letter, according to The Wall Street Journal. “The unprecedented severity of the COVID-19 crisis, however, has forced the location to make these difficult decisions.”
The Times Square Marriott initially furloughed 1,265 employees this past March as the state shut non-essential businesses and the city emptied of tourists and business travelers who would normally fill hotel rooms, according to the labor notice.
Marriott did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday, but a company spokeswoman told the Journal that the staffers who remain employed have either returned to work or are expected to come back soon.
The pandemic has kept New York City’s hotel industry under pressure even though officials have lifted some of the strict lockdown measures that were imposed this spring.
Hotel occupancy was still about 80 percent below normal levels last month as the city and state battled an uptick in infections, the Associated Press reported, citing data from the Hotel Association of New York City.
Maryland-based Marriott, meanwhile, saw its net profits for the July-to-September quarter plunge 74 percent to $100 million from $387 million in the same period last year.
The company’s shares were trading up about 2.4 percent at $129.63 as of 3:48 p.m. Tuesday, a price that puts the stock down about 14 percent for the year.
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