JetBlue, Ledger, Soul Cycle, and more! Let’s dive in.
Ledger NFT Platform
Ledger, the company behind the world’s most popular physical cryptocurrency wallets, has launched their first NFT marketplace platform. Named [L] Market, the service is designed to target fashion and luxury brands as a means of distributing innovative projects. Two of the launch partners included Tag Heuer and RTFKT.
Meta’s Metaverse Looses $5.7B
Meta’s increased efforts in the metaverse might not be panning out as well as they hoped. The company reported a $2.8 billion loss in the second quarter, adding to the $2.9 billion loss in the first quarter. The “Reality Labs” division is responsible for virtual reality hardware and software, where it has had $452 million in sales.
JetBlue + Spirit Airlines
JetBlue is buying Spirit Airlines for $3.8 billion. Once complete, the new merger will create the fifth-largest airline in the United States. The name of the merged company will remain JetBlue, and all Spirit planes will be rebranded accordingly. The airline will have an increased presence in Orlando, Los Angeles, Fort Lauderdale, and San Juan as it overtakes some of Spirit’s most high traffic routes.
Soul Cycle Deal
As a friendly jab at one of their main competitors, Soul Cycle is offering Peloton customers a savage trade-in deal: any customer that trades in their Peloton bike can receive credits for 47 free Soul Cycle classes. The offer is available for the first 100 people to sign up, and will only be open for registration between July 27 and August 3.
Shopify Layoffs
Shopify is laying off roughly 10% of its staff, mainly from the recruiting, support, and sales departments. In a recent blog post, they explain the pandemic’s spike in e-commerce growth caused them to over-scale their team and hire too quickly. Affected employees were offered generous severance packages.
New Best Buy Store Experience
The big-box electronics store is testing a new retail store concept in Monroe, North Carolina. The new design is only 5,000 square feet, much smaller than a typical location. Products will include TVs, computers, smartphones, headphones, and other mainstream electronics. Absent, however, will be appliances, which take up the bulk of the space in a standard store. Most on-floor products will be display-only; the real product will be fetched from the back room stock when a customer is ready to check out.
Fun fact: JetBlue was founded in February of 1999 by David Neeleman.
