Wrong address

MARKETS

• Bonds: The 10-year Treasury yield fell to its lowest level since December 2017. Those global growth concerns don’t play.

MEDIA

Apple, but Make It +

It was a dark day for ampersand lovers everywhere. Apple (-1.21%) unveiled a roster of new products, including Apple News+ and Apple TV+, that further cemented its move into the realms of services and plus signs.

Let’s recap.

Apple TV+

Welcome to Apple’s new video service for original shows. The details (like pricing) are still fuzzy, but the star power is not. Hollywood A-listers like Jennifer Aniston, Oprah, Steven Spielberg, and even Big Bird took the stage to hype their shows. Okay, so maybe a little fuzzy.

But knowing that Apple spends a fraction of what Netflix dishes out for original content, the announcement we were most looking forward to was…

Apple TV Channels

The company’s new storefront for other content providers, like Showtime, HBO, and Starz. As we described yesterday, Apple is ripping a page out of Amazon’s playbook (where the service is also called Channels ) to sell subscriptions and become your only TV watching destination. Channels is coming in May as a redesign of Apple’s current TV app.

• Worth noting: The app will be available on devices outside of Apple’s own hardware (aka Samsung, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV).

Best of the rest

• Apple News+: a news and magazine subscription service that’ll provide access to more than 300 magazines. For $9.99 a month, you can read articles from The New Yorker, National Geographic, and more.
• Apple Card: a credit card developed with Goldman Sachs. You sign up in the Apple Wallet and get 2% cash back on Apple Pay purchases. There’s also a physical, titanium card made exclusively for tossing dramatically on dinner tables.
• Apple Arcade: a video game subscription service designed for the App Store.

Zoom out: This event was supposed to be a watershed moment in Apple’s shift to services and subscriptions, but after it wrapped up, many were left wondering: Where are the details?

COURTROOM

Michael Avenatti Comes for Nike...

But Just Do It doesn’t *always* apply to shakedowns. Lawyer-to-the-stars Avenatti was arrested yesterday in NYC on charges of attempting to extort up to $25 million from Nike (+0.17%).

Yes, that Nike. Avenatti reportedly threatened to reveal that the company greenlighted payments to the families of top basketball recruits—unless Nike paid an unnamed client $1.5 million and agreed to hire Avenatti and another lawyer for $15 to $25 million (but a one-time payment of $22.5 million would also work).

The timeline: Avenatti tweeted pre-cuffs that he’d hold a presser at 11am today profiling Nike’s "criminal conduct" that "involves some of the biggest names in college basketball."

Avenatti allegedly told Nike lawyers last week that if his demands weren’t met, he’d "take $10 billion off your client’s market cap...I’m not [word that autocorrects to ducking] around."

The trouble wasn’t confined to just one coast. In an unrelated case, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles charged Avenatti with wire fraud and bank fraud.

BIZ HISTORY

JAB’s Reimann Family Owns Up

The Reimann family (believed to be the second-wealthiest in Germany with a $37 billion fortune) just confirmed its past support for the Nazi regime following a report alleging as much in one of Germany’s most popular papers.

This is the family behind JAB Holdings. And even if you don’t know JAB, you know JAB. It’s sunk about $60 billion into acquiring brands that dominate many Americans’ morning routines—from Peet’s and Keurig Green Mountain coffee to Panera Bread and Einstein Bros. Bagels.

Now-deceased members of the Reimann family used Russian civilians and French POWs as forced labor for their businesses and private villas during the Third Reich, and they contributed to Nazi organizations as early as 1931.

• The Reimann offspring said they’ll donate about $11.3 million after learning the extent of the family’s Nazi ties. Where the money will go? TBD.

Zoom out: The Reimanns aren’t the first German dynasty owning up to Nazi ties decades later—other companies include Hugo Boss, Daimler, Deutsche Bank, and more.

COURTROOM

How to Close a Deal, Mike Lynch Style

Step 1: Firm handshake

Step 2: Artificially inflate your revenue so one of the world’s biggest tech companies buys you

Entrepreneur Mike Lynch—once dubbed the U.K.’s answer to Bill Gates—is facing Britain’s biggest-ever fraud trial.

Lynch appeared in London’s High Court yesterday, kicking off litigation in a dispute claiming Lynch inflated sales at his software company, Autonomy, before selling it to Hewlett Packard for $11 billion.

The backstory: HP bought Autonomy in 2011 to help the computer/printer maker pull an IBM (i.e. make the leap to enterprise software services). But one year later, HP wrote down Autonomy’s value by $8.8 billion after unearthing some shady accounting practices.

• The allegations: Autonomy engaged in some good ol’ fashioned revenue-pumping, encouraging customers to buy its products and promising to buy goods from them it didn’t need, among other bookkeeping misconduct.

Now, HP is suing Lynch and his former CFO for $5 billion. Lynch denies any wrongdoing, instead pinning Autonomy’s epic failure on HP’s own mismanagement.

AVIATION

What’s a Quick Detour When You’re Having Fun?

A British Airways flight bound yesterday for Düsseldorf, Germany, from London landed instead in Edinburgh, Scotland. But when an obnoxious person didn’t board the plane and ask to turn up the music, passengers realized: This wasn’t a British Airways Pool...this was a mistake.

What happened: WDL Aviation, a German company that operated the flight for BA, must have filed the wrong flight plan. And after a 2.5-hour wait on the tarmac, the plane took off for Düsseldorf.

There was one hilarious moment, as described by a passenger to the BBC:

• When the plane landed in Edinburgh, passengers thought it was a joke. The crew then asked the passengers if they had intended to go to Düsseldorf.
• Every hand shot up.

Looking ahead...British Airways and WDL said they’re investigating the incident, but since this type of mistake is ultra-rare, it may be more the case of a freak accident than a systemic issue.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• WeWork doubled both its revenue ($1.82 billion) and net loss ($1.9 billion) last year.
• Naspers, the South African tech company, plans to spin off its internet business (which includes a $133 billion stake in China’s Tencent) in an Amsterdam listing.
• The Department of Transportation has formed an “expert” committee to review the FAA’s aircraft approval process.
• An Asus software update system was hacked and used to deliver malware to about 1 million Windows computers, per cybersecurity firm Kaspersky Lab.
• NJ lawmakers called off a vote on legalizing recreational marijuana in the state.

BREAKROOM

Düsseldorf or Edinburgh
That British Airways flight might have had trouble distinguishing between the two European cities. Can you do better?

1. The city with the larger population
2. Home to the Royal Mile
3. Considered its country’s fashion
4. Closer to London (as the crow flies)
5. Featured in this picture

Breakroom Answers