Telsa CEO Elon Musk confirmed that, between his own considerable wealth and loans from banks led by Morgan Stanley, he has lined up the financing to buy Twitter, which is something you can do when you’re the richest person in the world As companies continue to raise prices to offset inflation, wage hikes and product shortages, sales numbers from Nestle and P&G (the world’s largest CPG companies by revenue) indicate that shoppers are still spending like it’s 2019 Last year Shopify said it was...
Apr 22, 2022•9 min
Rogers announced a double dose of good corporate news yesterday, posting a 7% quarterly year-over-year revenue increase for wireless services and confirming the company is on track to close its $26 billion acquisition of Shaw by the end of June. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is urging lawmakers to terminate the self-governing privileges that Disney World holds in the state Inflation rose 6.7% from the prior year in March, a full percentage point higher than February’s 5.7% pace and the highest r...
Apr 21, 2022•9 min
The Canadian Real Estate Association and the Toronto and Vancouver real estate boards are gearing up to fight a proposed ban on ‘blind bidding’ for houses—which keeps potential homebuyers in the dark about the other bids on a property. Netflix has reported that its earnings dropped last quarter, but it’s hardly the only video streaming service struggling to attract new subscribers and some are even considering adding an advertising tier for the first time. Coachella the music festival (dubbed th...
Apr 20, 2022•10 min
A new report from PitchBook found that venture capital investment in Canadian startups surpassed $13.6 billion in 2021, crushing the previous record of $5.8 billion in 2019—and the good times are rolling on, with investment set to match that pace this year. Here’s an obstacle Tesla may not have seen coming: a crackdown by US regulators on its self-driving technology that could make consumers think twice about the promise of autonomous vehicles and threaten the company’s sky-high valuation. Quebe...
Apr 19, 2022•10 min
The federal government is writing off $20 million paid to Ottawa-based Spartan Bioscience for COVID tests that didn’t work. OpenAI’s widely hyped DALL-E AI image generator can now edit pictures, too. Zoom, the omnipresent conference call platform is venturing into sales automation software (SAS), a space that could grow to a $7.3 billion industry by 2028. Celebrating something? Let us know for a shoutout here: https://thepeak.typeform.com/to/GuHjLDoa The Peak Daily is produced by 306 Media Produ...
Apr 14, 2022•11 min
Last month, Ontario became the first province to create a law that protects everyday investors from unqualified financial professionals, per The Globe and Mail. “All that and a bag of chips” isn't the compliment it once was, as bags of chips contain fewer salty morsels than ever thanks to “shrinkflation.” The Bank of Canada (BoC) is set to hike interest rates further today, with experts agreeing it will likely be the first “oversized” hike in over two decades—going up half a percentage point ins...
Apr 13, 2022•11 min
As Etsy tries to graduate from niche online marketplace status to the e-commerce big leagues, a public battle over fee increases is heating up between the company and its sellers. Two Canadian employees for GlobeNewswire are under investigation by the Ontario Securities Commission for allegedly using their access to unpublished corporate press releases to carry out advantageous trades. Canada is the world’s largest lobster exporter, shipping out a whopping 86% of the world’s supply and making a ...
Apr 12, 2022•12 min
According to The Logic, Goodfood let go of 70 employees this week (the third round of cuts affecting a quarter of its workforce since last year) and has announced it’s closing its Ontario distribution centre. Following Robinhood, Snap, Roku and Uber, Shopify has moved to give employees more choice between cash and equity compensation in addition to their base salary. There’s a new kid on the motorcoach block—FlixBus, the world's largest-reaching bus provider, is rolling out three routes in South...
Apr 11, 2022•12 min
Meta draws up plans to introduce virtual coins (dubbed ‘Zuck bucks’) and other financial services to diversify its ad-based revenue system. The federal transportation regulator has determined that Edmonton-based Flair Airlines may be in violation of the law that requires it to be controlled by Canadians. Minister Freedland’s budget commits to doubling the number of new homes that are built in the next decade and includes a range of new measures designed to make housing more affordable, but analy...
Apr 08, 2022•11 min
At 4:00 p.m. today, Minister (of so many things) Chrystia Freeland will unveil the 2022 federal budget, the first budget announcement since the 2021 election. A new survey of Canadian office workers found that ‘meaning’ and ‘flexibility’ are now the biggest job incentives, with 71% of respondents saying they’d never take a frustrating or unrewarding job—even if the pay was higher. Wealthsimple is giving Canadian retail investors access to a venture capital (VC) fund investing in tech and health ...
Apr 07, 2022•9 min
Canada’s federal employment ministry has annouced changes to a Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) Program that will increase the number of TFWs allowed into Canada. Amazon is going to head-to-head with SpaceX in the satellite-internet service arena, by securing 83 planned rocket launches that would bring satellites into low-Earth orbit and establish a new satellite-internet service called Kuiper. The Canadian government has spent over $650 million over the past 11 years on an IBM payroll system for ...
Apr 06, 2022•11 min
Just one week after Elon Musk tweeted about giving “serious thought” to building a new social media company, he has become one of the biggest shareholders in Twitter. Famed futurist Nikolas Badminton (who is paid to consult companies like Google and Microsoft) has published a list of the top-paying jobs of 2040. A US$1 billion biotech fund backed by over 20 major drugmakers has made two investments worth tens of millions in startups looking to fight against the growing threat of antibiotic-resis...
Apr 05, 2022•11 min
The federal government raised its carbon tax yesterday by $10, meaning that large-scale emitters like corporations and the oil and gas sector will have to pay more for emitting greenhouse gasses (primarily CO2). After missing a self-imposed deadline for proposing online harm legislation back in February, the federal government has decided to form an expert panel that will meet regularly over the next two months to inform what should be in the new bill. In a massive win for organized labour in th...
Apr 04, 2022•10 min
President Biden announced a massive release of the US’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve as the administration tries to combat soaring prices at the pump. One month after Western nations smacked Russia with unprecedented sanctions that put pressure on the country’s financial system and reduced the ruble’s value to an [all-time low](https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russian-rouble-slips-past-100-vs-dollar-banks-hunt-fx-2022-03-02/#:~:text=NEW YORK%2C March 2 (Reuters,over the invasion of Ukraine....
Apr 01, 2022•11 min
This week, Meta, the company formerly known as Facebook, announced its building an engineering hub in downtown Toronto and will look to hire 2,500 skilled workers to build technology for the metaverse. Remember when things at the dollar store were actually $1? That hasn’t been the case at Canada’s largest dollar store chain since early 2009. We explore why. After slow but steady declines in recent months (and years) Canadian cannabis companies are seeing a surge as the US House of Representative...
Mar 31, 2022•12 min
Canada has announced a new emissions plan outlining how it will absolutely, positively meet its net-zero commitments by 2050. Eleven of Canada’s most prominent crypto and Web3 companies including Wealthsimple and Dapper Labs formed an industry council to help grow the Canadian Web3 space and collaborate with the government on creating a unified national strategy for blockchain regulation. According to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Canadian organizations are the victims of th...
Mar 30, 2022•10 min
The Group of Seven - not the Canadian painters... but France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the US, the UK and Canada, have rejected Moscow’s demands to pay for Russia’s gas exports with rubles Postmedia, which owns more than 120 media outlets across Canada, closed a $16.1 million deal to acquire media publisher Brunswick News, a move to expand its reach to the Atlantic region…and help grow its parcel delivery service. Oat-milk maker Oat Canada struck a $4.1 million deal with French food processor Roqu...
Mar 29, 2022•10 min
The EU is passing the Digital Markets Act (DMA) a landmark deal that will curb the powers of tech giants, like Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft. According to the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre (CAFC), Romance scams are leaving Canadians heartbroken and broke, totaling $64.6 million in losses last year. Canada and the UK have begun negotiations on a new and improved free trade agreement that would encourage even more trade with Canada’s third-largest trading partner and lessen dependenc...
Mar 28, 2022•10 min
Canada’s Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson announced yesterday that Canada could increase its oil and gas exports by up to 300,000 barrels per day to help European allies replace Russian oil and gas. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) chairman Larry Tanenbaum has submitted an offer to buy the Premier League soccer (or football, if that’s your persuasion) club Chelsea joining several other bidders in the chase. Higher interest rates could trigger a “severe correction” and “t...
Mar 25, 2022•10 min
The Fast Identity Online Alliance (FIDO), an association of tech companies including Apple and Alphabet, are one step closer to making a password-less world a reality, announcing a new development in their technology. Following a victory against organized labour last year, Amazon is facing more union votes this week at a number of their US warehouses. Netflix is hosting The Queen’s Ball, which the company bills as a 90-minute long “Bridgerton experience,” will welcome fans in Montreal, Chicago, ...
Mar 24, 2022•12 min
The federal NDP Party struck a deal with the governing Liberal Party that would see the Liberals remain in power until 2025 in exchange for “progress” on a number of NDP priorities, including pharmacare and a dental care program. Nike’s quarterly results tied up its laces and sprinted past analysts’ expectations in Q3, which is a win not just for the company, but for the viability of the direct-to-consumer (D2C) model it has created. Okta, a user authentication company used by organizations incl...
Mar 23, 2022•11 min
Germany has agreed to a long-term agreement with Qatar for the supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG), hastening the process of Germany cutting ties from Russian energy. Los Angeles restaurateur Andy Nguyen is looking to demonstrate how the power of NFTs can translate into building a real-life brand by opening the first NFT-centred restaurant. Two Canadian biopharma companies (the confusingly named) Arbutus and Acuitas, are embroiled in a legal battle regarding the patent rights to a key delivery...
Mar 22, 2022•11 min
Travel companies are preparing for a busy season since the pandemic began, in response to Canada shedding pre-travel COVID tests for fully-vaccinated visitors. Don’t feel like returning to the office just yet? Try telling your manager you’re working from home to save the world from an energy crisis. That’s just one of ten recommendations made by the International Energy Agency (IEA) to encourage people and governments to curb oil consumption as Russia’s war in Ukraine reduces the global energy s...
Mar 21, 2022•12 min
No, it’s not all in your head… Statistics Canada reported that food prices rose 7.4% from last February, with Canadians paying more for common items like beef, milk, chicken, and fruits. Russian tech entrepreneurs are launching an Instagram dupe–called Rossgram–to help fill the void left by this week’s block on the Meta-owned picture-sharing app*.* Canadian Pacific Railway has threatened to lockout over 3,000 employees from work this Sunday, at a time when Canada’s resources need a more efficien...
Mar 18, 2022•13 min
Russia failed to pay its dollar bonds yesterday, kicking off a process that will see the country default on its debt if it doesn't make the payments within 30 days. Vancouver-based miner Alpha Lithium is suspending a deal to sell a stake in its lithium mine to a company owned by Russia’s state nuclear energy corporation, per The Logic. The U.S. Senate unanimously voted to pass the Sunshine Protection Act, a bill that would make daylight time permanent. If approved by the House of Representatives...
Mar 17, 2022•12 min
You think it would make sense for the largest producer of plant-based protein (Canada) and the country with the most vegetarians (India) to be two peas in a pod when it comes to trade. Yet, a comprehensive trade agreement between the two nations has never been signed. That could change as Canada and India have announced that they are resuming talks to reach a new trade agreement. A federal government program aimed at helping businesses go digital is under fire from critics who claim it amounts t...
Mar 16, 2022•10 min
Russian prosecutors threatened several major companies with arrests and asset seizures in response to Western sanctions. Signs of a COVID outbreak across number of cities in China have sent tens of millions of people into lockdown and caused a major Apple supplier to halt operations in the southmost city of Shenzhen, which analysts believe may worsen inflation. As gas prices reach unprecedented heights, so has the demand for electric cars in Canada, a recent survey found that 62% of dealerships’...
Mar 15, 2022•10 min
Canada’s economy added 337,000 new jobs in February—blowing past analyst expectations and driving the unemployment rate down to its pre-COVID 19 levels for the first time. Canada’s legalization of single-game sports betting back in August has opened the door for the NHL to sign its first-ever sports betting partner in Canada: sportsbook ProLine+. Hermeus raises $100 million in search of the future of aviation. Celebrating something? Let us know for a shoutout here: https://thepeak.typeform.com/t...
Mar 14, 2022•10 min
Amazon is following the recent lead of Tesla and Google by executing a 20-to-1 stock split. What’s happening to nickel prices right now is so outrageous that experts are comparing it to the “meme stocks” craze back in early 2021. The British Government has stepped up with UK banks shutting out Russian oligarchs, including seizing Chelsea from owner Roman Abramovich and limiting the team’s revenue streams.
Mar 11, 2022•13 min
How do you regulate something that was designed to be unregulated? The US government intends to find out as President Biden signs an executive order for the government to devise new regulations for cryptocurrencies. Canadian banks are announcing a collection of new initiatives to help them get to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. We dig into what that means for you. Match Group-owned Tinder is rolling out background checks through its in-app safety centre—so you can put on your little detective...
Mar 10, 2022•12 min
