Top CEOs and their companies are pledging to donate millions of dollars to President-elect Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, as they seek to get on his good side and make inroads before he takes office. Some of the planned donations reportedly include $1 million each from Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Facebook parent company Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg. Others include...

If the Covid era marked a boom time for digital health companies, 2024 was the reckoning. In a year that saw the Nasdaq jump 32%, surpassing 20,000 for the first time this month, health tech providers largely suffered. Of 39 public digital health companies analyzed by CNBC, roughly two-thirds are down for the year. Others...

The toy industry is headed for its second consecutive annual sales decline, but it’s got one thing propping it up: colorful, interlocking plastic bricks. At a time when toy companies are struggling to match the massive gains of pandemic-era sales, Lego is growing rapidly. The Danish company saw revenue jump 13% in the first six months...

The IRS plans to issue automatic “special payments” of up to $1,400 to 1 million taxpayers starting later this month, the agency announced last week. The payments will go to individuals who did not claim the 2021 Recovery Rebate Credit on their tax returns for that year and who are eligible for the money. The Recovery Rebate...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing Walmart and a financial technology firm, alleging they illegally forced drivers into using costly deposit accounts to receive their pay. The agency alleges that Walmart and the vendor, Branch Messenger, forced the drivers, who were part of Walmart’s Spark Driver gig-work platform, to use Branch Messenger’s deposit accounts...

Netflix on Friday announced it has secured exclusive rights in the U.S. to the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2027 and 2031. The announcement comes just days before Netflix will stream its first ever National League Football Christmas Day games. Adding the Women’s World Cup to its portfolio shows the streaming giant is continuing to bulk up its sports rights...

Love Starbucks holiday drinks? This week, you may not get them. Starbucks Workers United announced baristas will strike starting Friday in three key markets — Seattle, Los Angeles and Chicago.  The union said the move is in response to the coffee chain’s “failure to bring viable economic proposals to the bargaining table” and “to resolve...

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is suing America’s three largest banks, accusing the institutions of failing to protect customers from fraud on Zelle, the payment platform they co-own. According to the suit, which also targets Early Warning Services LLC, Zelle’s official operator, Zelle users have lost more than $870 million over the network’s seven-year existence...

Party City on Friday announced it will close all of its stores and has initiated corporate layoffs effective immediately, according to a CNN report. CEO Barry Litwin told corporate employees in a meeting viewed by CNN that Party City has to “commence a winddown process immediately,” and that Friday would be their last day of work...

The fate of President Joe Biden’s landmark climate legislation, the Inflation Reduction Act, is in the hands of the incoming Republican-controlled White House, Senate and House of Representatives. At the White House level, President-elect Donald Trump has already nominated three people to posts in his administration who are likely to be key to the future of the IRA,...