Good morning, Quartz readers!
Here’s what you need to know
Nelson Peltz walked away from his Disney proxy fight with a pretty penny. His asset management firm Trian Partners made about $300 million from its 16-month investment in the media company’s stock.
Spotify hired a new CFO as it goes all in on price hikes. The appointment of a former Saab financial leader comes as the streaming service seeks to turn around its lackluster performance.
Paramount may need to raise billions to close its deal with Skydance. That news sent shares of the media company down about 9% yesterday.
Lyft played chicken with Minneapolis and lost. The car service had threatened to leave the city in light of new minimum wage requirements, but may not follow through with that after all.
Google is after shady crypto schemers
1: Lawsuit filed by Google
2: Developers called out in the lawsuit
87: Fake investing and crypto apps the developers were accused of putting on Google Play
100,000: Users that were allegedly lured to the apps
Similar scams have been on the rise since the pandemic, and Google is over it. It’s also considering charging people to use its AI-powered search, and it also (if rumors are to be believed) may buy HubSpot, so it has a lot going on.
Home Depot and Lowe’s are branching out
Home improvement companies like Home Depot and Lowe’s took off during the pandemic when everyone was spending a lot more time looking around their home and wondering how they could improve it.
That time has passed, and so DIY companies are trying new things to attract more customers. For Home Depot, that involves buying a roofing company for $18 billion. For Lowe’s, it’s partnering with DoorDash to deliver products.
Read more about what Home Depot’s CFO Richard McPhail has to say about these types of nontraditional expansions.
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Surprising discoveries
Viagra users could be at lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical trials would be needed to confirm this, but a link is emerging.
NASA is working on its first lunar rovers since Apollo. Companies have been tapped to create the buggies for a combined maximum of $4.6 billion in contracts.
You can easily store your car for a year. Well, “easily” may not be the right word — it does take some prep.
When lightning strikes a plane, nothing really happens. But it does look cool.
Take Kodak’s eclipse legacy into your own hands, because the company told Quartz it isn’t doing anything for it. If you happen to stop by the University of Rochester, its rare books collection includes a 1959 Eastman Kodak guide on how to photograph a solar eclipse.
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Our best wishes for a productive day. Send any news, comments, lunar buggy designs, and Kodak moments to talk@qz.com. Today’s Daily Brief was brought to you by Morgan Haefner, Susan Howson, and Melvin Backman.