Japan got strawb’d

Japan and South Korea are embroiled in a heated dispute over… strawberries

Last month, at the Winter Olympics, Japanese curler Yumi Suzuki was briefly spotted eating strawberries in between matches.

In a post-game conference, she told the press that the strawberries — a Korean variety — were “surprisingly delicious.” And with this seemingly innocuous comment, she reignited a decades-old dispute between Japan and South Korea over fruit copyrights.

A bitter berry battle

Japan takes a lot of pride in their strawberry cultivation — and according to the country, Korea ripped off their seeds.

According to the WSJ, in the early 1990s, 2 varieties of Japanese strawberry seeds were taken to South Korea, and immediately gained popularity there. Over time, Korean farmers developed their own hybrids of the Japanese seeds and started claiming the strawberries as their own.

In Japan, this has been a great source of consternation: The government estimates these “plagiarized” strawberries cost their farmers $38m per year and contend that Korea is stifling its produce exports.

The bigger trade war

In recent years, Japan has blamed South Korea for the decline of their international dominance in the electronics and auto industries. In a competitive Asian trade market, Japan has watched Korea earn an increasingly larger share of the business.

That goes for strawberries, too. In 2017, Korea exported $44m worth of the fruits to Japan’s $17m, thanks largely to sales that tripled between 2000 and 2014.

Of course, there’s a twist: The strawberries that Japan claims as its own actually originated in Holland.

iH8teMedia: The largest US radio station owner files for bankruptcy

The biggest radio station operator in the US, iHeartMedia, filed for Chapter 11 yesterday to restructure the overwhelming $20B debt they’ve accrued since a private-equity buyout over a decade ago.

The Texas-based holding company owns over 850 radio stations throughout the US, but, like others in the space, their revenue was decimated by the rise of major technology companies like Pandora and Spotify.

The private equity blues

iHeartMedia has spent the last several years trying to get out from under the mountain of debt piled on them by private-equity firms — *ahem* Bain Capital and Thomas H. Lee — that bought them out in 2008, just before the financial crisis.

Unfortunately, that’s proved impossible, and the radio brand’s only fallen further down the financial rabbit hole.

For example, in 2017, they used the ol’ “snooze button” tactic to put off a $476.4m debt securities payment they owed in 2018 in exchange for the same amount of debt at a higher interest rate, due in 2021.

Sexy… for radio

As audio streaming continues to dominate, the company is fighting to stay relevant. Last year, they launched a fairly successful subscription service with Napster, but it wasn’t enough to break out of the floundering radio mold.

The bankruptcy filing will allow the company to reduce their debt to $10B to keep the company afloat for at least a little longer.

Companies in Amazon’s finalist cities are pissed about tax break favoritism

For the past several months, Amazon has been running a Bachelor-worthy contest to determine where they’ll build HQ2, their new 50k-employee headquarters, and cities have been fighting desperately, offering the company multibillion-dollar tax breaks to win Jeff Bezos’ final rose.

But the bidding war has created an unforeseen headache for officials in the contending cities: The companies currently based there want the same red carpet treatment.

Where’s Chris Harrison when you need him?

Since announcing their new headquarters in September, Amazon has whittled down a list of over 238 proposals to just 20 finalists, including Newark, NJ, Chicago, and Washington, DC.

But these last cities standing have gone to some pretty insane lengths to sway the decision in their favor.

The $7B and $5B tax breaks promised by Newark and Maryland, for example, are in the top 4 largest tax incentives ever offered to a corporation (Washington leads with an $8.7B tax break for Boeing).

“Can I steal you for a minute?” — other companies to elected officials

In DC, a group of tech companies sent a list of requests to the city’s mayor, including the same bonuses and tax incentives offered to Amazon.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon also plans to make the same demand in whichever city is chosen, arguing that, in many of the finalist cities, JPM “already has tens of thousands of employees.”

Former president of ESPN says his abrupt exit was tied to an extortion attempt

John Skipper, the former president of ESPN who resigned without warning in December, says his decision to leave was prompted by an extortion attempt made by a cocaine dealer.

In an interview, Skipper said he spoke with Bob Iger, the CEO of Disney (ESPN’s parent company), and both agreed he put the company in an “untenable” position and had to resign.

Guy buys cocaine once…

While Skipper maintains his cocaine use never hindered his 20-year performance at ESPN (other than a few rescheduled meetings), he admitted his nose had a familiar relationship with the booger sugar over the course of his life.

Though, he said the instance that led to his extortion was the one time he wasn’t “careful” about who he purchased his cocaine from.

His exit came a few days after Disney agreed to buy $52.4B of assets from Fox (including 22 regional sports networks), and the announcement of ESPN’s new streaming service.

ESPN has been struggling for a while

The network had a rough 2017, beset with layoffs and numerous political controversies — but their struggles long precede last year.

With cord-cutting, rising programming costs, and a fractured relationship with the NFL, the network was really feeling the pinch of the ever-changing TV landscape under Skipper’s watch.

Nonetheless, Skipper was highly respected around ESPN, and many of his colleagues are reportedly devastated by his departure.

1. You know you’ve won the procrastinator of the year when you don’t have to move the clock ahead today because you never bothered to move it back last fall.
2. If you go to jail for tax evasion, you’re living off taxes because you didn’t pay taxes.
3. Gum is the human version of a dog bone.
4. Using a dollar bill as a bookmark is cheaper than buying a bookmark.
5. An Uncrustables sandwich is technically a ravioli.
6. via Reddit

The missing laptop-shaped piece in your life

When it comes to reaching your professional nirvana, there’s nothing holding you back. Except maybe that crusty personal computer from college that you still call “powerhouse.”

You have dreams outside the 9-to-5. So when the office lights go off and that midnight oil lamp comes on, you need a computer to call your own.

Your work laptop might be a sweet piece of silicon, but your boss also sees everything you do on it.

You’re an adult. It’s time to have a comp to call your own.

Thin on the edges, not specs

Acer’s Swift 5 laptop is built for the ones making their mark on the world.

Between its gold-and-navy aluminum skin is the hardware you need, without the fluff and puff you despise. Swift 5 packs Intel power, touchscreen capability, and Windows 10 productivity, all at a backpack-friendly weight.

From gym to desk, from couch to bed, the Swift 5 has the power and versatility to keep your dreams rolling — at a price that won’t make you second-guess next month’s rent.

Check out the Swift 5 models and spec breakdowns at Acer.com.