Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Apple hands over operation of its Chinese iCloud servers. The iPhone maker is partnering with Guizhou-Cloud Big Data, owned by the provincial government, to comply with strict new rules for foreign tech companies. Apple says it will maintain control of users’ encryption keys, but privacy advocates are leery.
The Commerce Department publishes its GDP estimate. The US economy is expected to have grown at a 2.5% annual rate in the fourth quarter, slightly slower than the initial reading in January and the previous quarter, but still buoyed by consumer spending and global economic growth.
Lowe’s shows its numbers. Like market leader Home Depot, which posted great results last week, Lowe’s is expected to have reaped the benefits of the upbeat US homebuilding market in the fourth quarter.
While you were sleeping
Toys R Us went into administration in the UK. Stores will continue trading for the time being, but the search to find a buyer failed, putting 3,000 jobs at risk. Toys R Us filed for bankruptcy in the US in September.
Adidas was on a roll. CEO Kasper Rorsted said sales surged between 15% and 20% last year to more than €20 billion ($24 billion) powered by China, North America, and online retail. Adidas and Fitbit also announced a collaboration this week to create a special edition of their smart watch, the Fitbit Ionic.
Bayer’s Monsanto takeover is going to drag on even longer. The German pharma group said it’s prepared to make even more concessions to secure approval for its $66 billion deal (paywall) with the US seed giant. The deal, which would make Bayer and Monsanto the world’s largest pesticides and seeds company, has been under EU scrutiny since August.
Chinese factories limped into the Year of the Dog. Manufacturing sector growth in February slowed to its weakest in more than one-and-a-half years, as the Lunar New Year holiday and stricter pollution rules dampened factory output. The February PMI reading dropped to 50.3, from 51.3 in January—the 50 level separates expansion from contraction.
“China’s Netflix” registered its US IPO. Baidu-controlled iQiyi, which has over 50 million paying subscribers, filed for an offering of $1.5 billion on Nasdaq. Twenty-one Chinese companies went public on US exchanges last year, raising a combined $3.9 billion.
Quartz obsession interlude
Ananya Bhattacharya on Indian tech workers now chasing the Canadian Dream. “Canada currently admits far more high-skilled workers than the US—one permanent skilled visa for every 409 Canadian residents in 2016, nearly six times more per capita than the US… ‘The wait time for getting a green card is over 20 years. This makes it as good as never.'” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Trending content needs to die. Online systems that don’t account for quality are too easy to manipulate.
China’s Anbang takeover is a “too big to fail” moment. The troubled financial firm would cause chaos (paywall) if it couldn’t repay investors.
Ride-sharing is increasing congestion. Uber and Lyft are adding to traffic instead of complementing public transportation, as they were intended to.
Surprising discoveries
Barbra Streisand cloned her dog—twice. Streisand says the two cloned puppies have “very different personalities.”
The startup Amazon just bought for $1 billion was rejected by Shark Tank judges. They didn’t like the idea of a “smart doorbell” enough to invest $700,000 in 2013.
Quebec doctors are turning down raises. More than 250 physicians called for the government to increase pay for nurses, orderlies, and other medical staff instead.
Bitcoin’s self-styled inventor was accused of stealing $5 billion. The family of Craig Wright’s deceased business partner says Wright forged contracts to obtain about 300,000 bitcoins.
An Egyptian pop star was sentenced to jail for insulting the Nile. Sherine Abdel-Wahab said the river contains parasites and people should “drink Evian” instead.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, magnanimous doctors, and smart doorbells to hi@qz.com. You can follow us on Twitter for updates throughout the day or download our apps for iPhone and Android. Today’s Daily Brief was written by Jill Petzinger and edited by Eshe Nelson.