Los Angeles Times - 26.11.2019

LATIMES.COM/BUSINESS TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2019C3

Netflix said Monday that
it signed a lease to keep open
New York’s Paris Theatre,
one of the oldest art houses
in the nation.
The terms of the lease
were not disclosed. Netflix
said it will use the Paris for
special events, screenings
and theatrical releases of its
films.
“After 71 years, the Paris
Theatre has an enduring leg-
acy, and remains the desti-
nation for a one-of-a-kind
moviegoing experience,”
Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief
content officer, wrote in a
statement. “We are incred-
ibly proud to preserve this
historic New York institu-
tion so it can continue to be a
cinematic home for film
lovers.”
The deal comes as Netflix
and large theater chains
such as AMC Theatres have
been unable to reach an
agreement on the length of
time Netflix original films
can be shown in movie
houses before appearing on
the service. Netflix shows
movies in cinemas at the
same time or shortly before
they are streamed in the
home, a practice that many
theater chains say under-
mines their business.

One potential solution

for Netflix is to lease or buy

its own theater chains. That

would allow the Los Gatos,

Calif., streaming company

to screen its films while en-

dearing itself to filmmakers.

Netflix has been in talks to

buy the Egyptian Theatre

on Hollywood Boulevard.

Showing movies on the big

screen also makes them eli-

gible for awards consider-

ation.

Sarandos recently told

The Times that Netflix’s in-

creasing number of original

movies adds value to the

service and that the plat-

form’s global reach is ap-

pealing to filmmakers.

“For less than the cost of

the movie ticket, you get a

month of Netflix,” Sarandos

said. “At the end of the day,

filmmakers want their films

to be seen, their work to be

out there in the culture, and

that happens on Netflix bet-

ter than anywhere in the

world.”

The Paris opened in 1948,

originally showing French ti-

tles, and later became

known for introducing for-

eign-language films to

American audiences with

movies such as Claude

Lelouch’s drama “A Man and

a Woman” and the Marcello

Mastroianni-starring come-

dy “Divorce Italian Style.”

The theater closed in Au-

gust after its lease expired

and reopened in November

to show the Netflix film

“Marriage Story” by Noah

Baumbach.

Netflix lease

will keep NYC

art house open

THE PARIS THEATRE,which closed in August,
reopened this month for Netflix’s “Marriage Story.”

Netflix

The 71-year-old Paris

Theatre will show the

streaming giant’s films.

By Wendy Lee

campus in Westlake, Texas.
Schwab’s San Francisco op-
erations would remain a siz-
able hub.
TD Bank, which holds
43% of TD Ameritrade,
would own roughly 13% of
the new business. Its voting
stake would be limited to
9.9%, with the rest of its posi-
tion in a nonvoting class of
stock. The Canadian lender
would have two new seats on
the combined firm’s board,
while TD Ameritrade would
name a single director.
As a result of the deal,
Schwab would see its busi-
ness add 12 million client ac-
counts, $1.3 trillion in assets,
and roughly $5 billion a year
in revenue.
If the deal goes through,
the combined company will
have unparalleled clout as a
provider of custody services,
safeguarding assets man-
aged by registered invest-
ment advisors. That may
give authorities pause,
Keefe, Bruyette & Woods an-
alyst Kyle Voigt wrote
Thursday. He estimates
Schwab has about a 50%
market share of registered
investment advisor custody
assets, while TD Ameritrade
may have as much as 20%.
The deal also could allow
Schwab to boost fees on
other services, or reduce in-
terest paid to investors on
their accounts. Effectively,
the company eliminated
commissions for U.S. stocks,
exchange-traded funds and
options, but that headline-
grabbing move could very
well mask hidden charges
elsewhere.
One of Schwab’s main
competitors, Fidelity Invest-
ments, released a statement
on Monday that played on
some of these concerns.
“Unfortunately for in-
vestors, the combination of
Charles Schwab and TD
Ameritrade means they will
likely be doubling down on
revenue practices that di-

rectly disadvantage in-

vestors, including paying ex-

tremely low cash sweep

rates [what it pays on cash in

investment accounts] and

taking significant payment

for order flow,” said Kathy

Murphy, president of Fidel-

ity’s Personal Investing

business. “These practices

can easily outweigh any ben-

efit of $0 online commis-

sions.”

Bettinger downplayed

the potential antitrust risks.

“We have numerous com-

petitors, many of which are

far larger than us today and

far larger than a combined

organization,” he said on the

call. “They’re going to con-

tinue to come right after us,

as they are now in all aspects

of the business.”

Schwab said in the state-

ment that the new firm

would have “the resources of

a large financial services in-

stitution that will be

uniquely positioned to serve

the investment, trading and

wealth management needs

of investors across every

phase of their financial jour-

neys.”

Schwab last month elimi-

nated commissions for U.S.

stock trading, forcing other

brokerages to follow suit and

sweeping away an impor-

tant revenue stream. Ana-

lysts speculated that online

brokerages might have to

cut deals to survive the in-

creased industry pressure.

TD Ameritrade has re-

lied more on commissions

than some competitors,

drawing 36% of its net reve-

nue from commissions in

2018, compared with 7% at

Schwab.

Founder Charles Schwab

hinted he was open to deal-

making in an interview with

Bloomberg Radio in Octo-

ber. “I don’t know whether

we’ll be successful in that

pursuit, but in the industry

you’re going to see more con-

solidation, more firms get-

ting together,” he said. “You

just have to have that scale

and volume.”

The acquisition comes

after TD Ameritrade an-

nounced in July that CEO

Tim Hockey would leave

early next year. Hockey de-

nied at the time that his de-

parture had anything to do

with a potential deal.

Massa and Gittelsohn write

for Bloomberg.

Schwab to buy TD Ameritrade

UNDER THE DEAL, Charles Schwab would see its business add 12 million client

accounts and $1.3 trillion in assets. Above, a Schwab branch in Burlington, Mass.

Elise AmendolaAssociated Press

[Brokerage,from C1]

Google has terminated

four employees for what the

tech firm said were “re-

peated violations of our data

security policies.” All four

had spoken out publicly

against company initiatives

including Google’s past

work with government agen-

cies.

One of the four, Rebecca

Rivers, was one of two em-

ployees whose recent sus-

pension by Google sparked a

rally last week outside the

company’s San Francisco

office by colleagues who de-

manded their reinstate-

ment.

In a memo first obtained

by Bloomberg News, the

company said the four em-

ployees “were involved in

systematic searches for

other employees’ materials

and work. This includes

searching for, accessing, and

distributing business infor-

mation outside the scope of

their jobs.”

The memo added that

one of the fired employees

subscribed to the calendars

of workers on other teams

“so that they received emails

detailing the work and

whereabouts of those em-

ployees, including personal

matters such as 1:1s [one-on-

one meetings], medical ap-

pointments and family ac-

tivities — all without those

employees’ knowledge or

consent.”

At the Friday rally, Rivers

said she never accessed any

documents that were la-

beled “need to know,” nor

did she share any docu-

ments with anyone who did

not already have access.

Laurence Berland, a

Google staffer suspended

alongside Rivers, acknowl-

edged viewing the calendars

of people on different teams

at Friday’s demonstration,

but said such calendars were

visible to all workers. He said

at the time that the suspen-

sions were an attempt to sti-

fle dissent.

“This isn’t really about

me, or Rebecca, or any indi-

vidual,” Berland said Friday.

“They are retaliating against

us because they want to in-

timidate everyone who

dares to disagree with lead-

ership.... They want us

afraid, and they want us

silent.”

Berland could not be im-

mediately reached for com-

ment.

After Rivers tweeted that

she had been terminated,

several former and current

Google staffers who have

spoken out against the com-

pany hinted that protests

would continue.

“This is craven retalia-

tion, and I ask everyone who

can to show up and sup-

port,” tweeted Meredith

Whittaker, who helped or-

ganize a large walkout at

Google last year and left the

company after saying she

faced retaliation. “More

soon...”

Google would not com-

ment beyond confirming the

authenticity of the staff

memo.

Tensions between em-

ployees and executives at

Google have soured in the

last two years. The rift first

broke into the open with the

November 2018 walkout.

As The Times reported,

that global protest signaled

employees’ growing concern

with a breakdown of the

transparency and trust that

long defined Google’s corpo-

rate culture.

Since then, workers have

complained that the com-

pany has become cagier and

attempted to censor those

who speak out against new

and existing policies.

Google recently an-

nounced it would hold fewer

“TGIF” all-hands meetings

due to leaks, took down

memes that criticized the

hiring of a former Depart-

ment of Homeland Security

staffer, and deleted ques-

tions during an all-staff

meeting about the appoint-

ment of that staffer. It also

put in place new rules that

limit the kinds of political

speech employees can en-

gage in on company time.

Meanwhile, workers in

Zurich, Switzerland, re-

cently held a meeting to dis-

cuss their rights as workers

and what unionizing would

entail in defiance of Google’s

repeated attempts to cancel

the event.

Employees also accused

the company of creating an

internal tool that kept tabs

on organizing efforts by

automatically reporting

staffers who created a calen-

dar event that included

more than 10 rooms or 100 or

more participants.

GOOGLE HAS TERMINATEDfour employees for what it alleged were violations of data security policies.

Walter BieriAssociated Press

Google fires 4 workers who

spoke out against tech giant

Activist who left firm

last year calls action

‘craven retaliation.’

By Johana Bhuiyan

EBay Inc. is selling its

ticket marketplace Stub-

Hub to European rival Via-

gogo for $4.05 billion in cash,

allowing the company to fo-

cus on its main retail site and

address pressure from

shareholder activists.

Starboard Value and Elli-

ott Management Corp., the

New York hedge fund run by

billionaire Paul Singer, earli-

er this year proposed a plan

to improve EBay’s perform-

ance, including a sale of

StubHub and the classifieds

business. In March, the com-

pany agreed to add two di-

rectors to the board and

pledged to launch a strate-

gic review as part of the set-

tlement with the hedge

funds.

EBay’s shares rose 2% to

$35.85 on Monday. They’re

up about 29% this year, giv-

ing the San Jose company a

market value of about $29

billion.

The pressure for change

led to Devin Wenig’s depar-

ture as EBay chief executive

in September. Wenig was

fired after he failed to grow

the marketplace platform

and clashed with the board

about not wanting to sell the

classifieds business, people

familiar with the matter said

at the time.

Wenig took over EBay af-

ter its split with PayPal in

2015 and made bold promis-

es of returning the market-

place to prominence. To

compete against Ama-

zon.com Inc., Wenig tried to

freshen EBay’s image with

younger shoppers, made the

site easier to navigate and

harnessed artificial intelli-

gence to give EBay mer-

chants real-time insights

about what shoppers want

and how much they’re will-

ing to pay.

But the results have been

slow to appear and EBay has

continued to watch Amazon

gobble up more market

share and customers.

EBay bought StubHub in

2007 for $310 million as it

sought to bolster its online

marketplace for secondary

sales of seats to concerts and

sporting events. Today, it’s

the largest resale ticket

marketplace in the U.S.,

with about $1.1 billion in net

transaction revenue in 2018,

according to EBay filings.

Eric Baker, Viagogo’s

founder and chief executive,

co-founded StubHub while

in business school but left

before the business was sold.

“It has long been my wish to

unite the two companies,” he

said. “I am so proud of how

StubHub has grown over the

years and excited about the

possibilities for our shared

future.”

Viagogo said in a state-

ment that it has raised capi-

tal for the deal from in-

vestors including Bessemer

Venture Partners and Ma-

drone Capital Partners.

Combined, the compa-

nies will sell hundreds of

thousands of tickets daily in

more than 70 countries, the

statement said. The deal will

give Viagogo its first expo-

sure to the U.S. market.

Baker writes for Bloomberg.

EBay is selling

StubHub site to

European rival

Sale to Viagogo for

$4.05 billion allows

auction firm to focus

on its main retail site.

By Liana Baker