BuSINESS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2019:: LATIMES.COM/BUSINESS
C
DOW26,573.04▼343.79 S&P5002,940.25 36.49▼▼NASDAQ7,908.69 90.65 GOLD$1,482.00 16.30▲ OIL$53.62 0.45▼EURO$1.0936▲ .0034 U.S. T-NOTE(10-yr.)1.64% 0.03▼Beverly Hills
billionaires
Stewart and
Lynda
Resnick
garnered a
heaping
helping of
adulatory
publicity last
week with the announce-
ment of their record-break-
ing $750-million pledge to
Caltech for research into
climate change and “envi-
ronmental sustainability.”
The donation, according
to the university’s an-
nouncement, is the largest
single gift it has ever re-
ceived, and the second
largest ever to an American
university. (It’s topped only
by a $1.8-billion gift from
businessman and former
New York Mayor Michael
Bloomberg to his alma
mater Johns Hopkins.)
News coverage of the
Resnicks’ gift bristled with
praise for their generosity
and testimonials to their
devotion to the cause of
addressing climate change.
Some articles quoted Stew-
art Resnick describing the
donation as having arisen
from a desire to serve his
children and his children’s
children. “My grandkids ...
they would yell at me all the
time, ‘How can you help
with this? What are you
doing about it?’ ” he told my
colleague James Rainey. “A
lot of the adults are not
concerned, but the kids are
concerned. And rightfully
so.”
What was missing in all
this coverage, or at least got
The flip
side of
Resnick
gift to
Caltech
MICHAEL HILTZIK
[SeeHiltzik,C4]United Parcel Service Inc. won
U.S. certification to fly drones
under regulations similar to those
for airlines, a milestone that al-
lows the company to vastly ex-
pand airborne deliveries.
The Federal Aviation Adminis-
tration gave the courier permis-
sion to use delivery drones at hos-
pital, university and corporate
campuses with few restrictions,
including letting operators fly the
aircraft at night and over people.
Current regulations prohibit
drone flights after dark, above
people, beyond the remote pilot’s
line of sight and at weights heavier
than 55 pounds.
“We believe now there are hun-
dreds of campuses across the
United States where we’re going
to be able to offer this solution,”
UPS Chief Transformation Offi-
cer Scott Price said in an inter-
view. “We’re pretty confident we’regoing to be at the forefront of tri-
aling the various models.”
The FAA’s decision, an-
nounced Tuesday, is a big step for-
ward in the move toward routine
drone shipments. The devices
promise to reduce carriers’ costs
as the surge of e-commerce in-
creases demand for home deliv-
ery, which squeezes profit mar-
gins because there are fewer pack-
ages per location than at business
addresses.
So significant is the FAA certi-
fication that UPS Chief Executive
David Abney plans to mark the oc-
casion by ringing a bell at the com-
pany’s headquarters that is re-
served for corporate milestones,
such as big mergers.
The Atlanta-based company
said it has made more than 1,000
revenue-generating test flights at
the WakeMed hospital campus in
Raleigh, N.C. One recent flight
was beyond the operator’s line of
sight. UPS expects to roll out more
drone deliveries in advance ofTHE CERTIFICATIONallows UPS to use drones at hospital, university and corporate campuses. The devices promise to cut costs.Photographs byUPSFAA certifies UPS for drone
deliveries with few limitations
Courier will use devices for campus settings but has sights on home shipments
By Thomas Black
and Alan LevinFAA RULES prohibit flights after dark and above people, but
UPS has permission to make deliveries under those conditions. [SeeUPS,C5]Airbnb Inc.’s long-
awaited Wall Street debut is
officially earmarked for 2020,
but the home-share start-up
is charting an unconven-
tional path to the public
markets.
San Francisco-based
Airbnb is laying the ground-
work for a direct listing
rather than an initial public
offering, according to people
familiar with the matter who
asked not to be named dis-
cussing private information.
Airbnb declined to com-
ment.
Technology start-ups
usually choose a traditional
IPO to tap into the public
markets. Some of the new
generation of tech firms
have spent years raising pri-
vate funds and don’t neces-
sarily need money from an
IPO to expand their busi-
ness but are looking for aAirbnb looking to forgo a traditional IPO
AIRBNBhas a private valuation of $31 billion. The company is weighing how best to go public in 2020.Toshifumi KitamuraAFP/Getty ImagesCompany may opt for
direct listing, in which
market sets the price.
bloomberg[SeeAirbnb, C6]More than 40 Forever 21
stores in California are in
danger of closing as part of
the apparel chain’s bank-
ruptcy reorganization, court
records show.
When it filed for Chapter
11 bankruptcy protection
Sunday, the Los Angeles
company said it planned to
close about 350 of its 800
stores worldwide, including
about 178 of its 549 U.S. out-
lets.
Forever 21 listed 178 U.S.
stores for possible closure in
its filings with the U.S. Bank-
ruptcy Court on Tuesday, in-
cluding 41 California stores.
Twenty-six are in Southern
California, from Santa Bar-
bara to San Diego.
They also include a few of
the chain’s F21 Red branded
stores. Among the Southern
California stores set for clo-
sure are outlets in Los Ange-
les, Culver City, Pasadena,
Arcadia and Newport
Beach.
Privately held Forever 21,
a major player in the fast-
fashion sector that provides
a rapidly changing assort-
ment of apparel at modest
prices, sought bankruptcy
protection amid a cash
crunch caused by slowing
mall traffic, its own over-ex-
Forever 21
may shut
26 stores
in region
Fast-fashion chain says
some will be spared if
it can negotiate lower
rents from landlords.
By James F. Peltz
[SeeForever 21,C3]