New York Post - USA (2020-12-03)

New York Post, Thursday, December 3, 2020

nypost.com

Walmart is scrapping the

online-order minimum for its

new subscription service as

the holiday season gets into

full swing.

Starting Friday, Walmart+

members will be able to have

any order from Walmart’s

Web site shipped to their

homes for free in one or two

days no matter the price, the

nation’s biggest retailer said

Wednesday.

Subscribers have had to or-

der at least $35 worth of items

to qualify for free shipping

since Walmart launched the

service in September to com-

pete with Amazon Prime,

which promises free delivery

within two days on millions

of products.

“Customers have been

clear — they want this bene-

fit,” Janey Whiteside, Wal-

mart’s chief customer officer,

said in a news release. “Being

able to toss an item into your

cart, regardless of the total,

and check out right away lets

them knock little things off

their to-do list in no time.”

Walmart+ members will

still have to meet the $35 min-

imum for groceries and other

items that are delivered

straight from Walmart’s

stores, the Arkansas-based

company said.

Walmart has benefited

from the pandemic’s digital-

spending boom, reporting a

79 percent surge in its US

e-commerce sales for the

third quarter. Walmart+ costs

$98 a year or $12.95 a month.

Noah Manskar

Walmart

delivery

freebie

Amazon is in exclusive

talks to purchase podcast

startup Wondery, according

to people familiar with the

matter, as the tech giant

pushes further into the grow-

ing audio sector.

The talks value Wondery at

more than $300 million, the

sources said. Wondery’s last

funding round, in June 2019,

valued the company at

$100 million, The Wall Street

Journal reported.

The company is on track to

increase revenue to more

than $40 million this year, ac-

cording one person familiar

with the matter. Dow Jones

Amazon eyes

podcast buy

Shares of Palantir Technologies Inc.

had their worst day on Wednesday,

extending a four-day losing streak

and wiping off some gains from a

stunning rally that had seen the stock

more than triple in value since its

September debut.

Shares of the data-analytics firm,

known for its work with the CIA and

other government agencies, tumbled

as much as 17.6 percent to $21.15 in

heavy volumes before finishing at

$22.51, down 12.3 percent.

Investors have exchanged $3.9 bil-

lion worth of the shares per day on

average in the past five days, making

Palantir Wall Street’s 11th most traded

company over the period, according

to Refinitiv data.

Morgan Stanley downgraded the

stock to “underweight” from “equal-

weight” on Wednesday, citing an

overpriced valuation compared to its

software peers. Reuters

Palantir slide continues

The National Labor Relations

Board will file a complaint accusing

Alphabet Inc.’s Google of unlawfully

monitoring and questioning workers

who were fired for protesting against

company policies and trying to orga-

nize a union, the former employees

said in a statement on Wednesday.

The NLRB did not respond to a re-

quest for comment.

Google said it was confident in its

legal position. It said, “Actions under-

taken by the employees at issue were

a serious violation of our policies and

an unacceptable breach of a trusted

responsibility.”

The complaint follows a yearlong

investigation prompted by a petition

by five people fired by Google after

they led efforts to protest company

policies and organize colleagues into

a potential union. The Communica-

tions Workers of America helped au-

thor the workers’ charge. Reuters

NLRB in slap at Google

By Lisa Fickenscher

Nike is facing a backlash in

Japan over a video ad that

takes on racism and the bully-

ing of mixed-race schoolchil-

dren.

The two-minute ad, “Keep

Moving Yourself: The Fu-

ture,” features three teenage-

girl soccer players who are

bullied at school, on a train

and in a locker room, each

questioning whether they

should accept the abuse.

One scene depicts a teen,

whose father is black, sur-

rounded by girls who are

pulling at her hair.

In the end, each of the bul-

lied kids scores goals for their

teams and are celebrated by

their teammates with a decla-

ration by Nike, “You can’t

stop sport.”

The ad dropped on Nov. 30

and has already gotten 14.4

million views, more than

64,000 likes and 34,000 re-

tweets on Twitter — as well

as an avalanche of angry

comments, with some threat-

ening to boycott the brand.

“Dear executives in Nike.

We Japanese are not familiar

with this kind of Ad. Rather,

we HATE THIS. Did you

hear from local employees’

opinion? Localization is very

important. Do not think from

US culture. I would like not to

hate your company,” one user

tweeted.

“NIKE divides the society,

creating unnecessary hates

and making it difficult to

eliminate discrimination,”

tweeted another.

Others supported the ad’s

call for social justice.

“Kudos to @Nike for such a

bold but much needed

ad...and to those who com-

mented this isn’t an issue in

Japan, you guys should get

your eyes checked,” tweeted

@1987Mamu.

Japan’s most famous

mixed-race sports star, tennis

player Naomi Osaka, who

also has an endorsement deal

with Nike, has not yet

weighed in on the ad on her

social media. It’s unclear

whether this ad will hurt

sales or boost them, as did the

controversial ad featuring

former NFL quarterback Co-

lin Kaepernick, who inspired

athletes to kneel during the

national anthem to protest

race discrimination in the US.

In a statement, Nike said

the ad “is based on the testi-

monials of real athletes who,

like many young people to-

day, struggle to feel accepted

for who they are,” adding that

“discrimination is a global is-

sue, and it exists around the

world. The testimonials of

these real athletes inspired us

to take action and speak more

openly about bullying and

discrimination.”

[email protected]

It’s game over for a notorious

Nintendo hacker and pervert.

Ryan Hernandez, who leaked de-

tails about the Nintendo Switch

prior to its 2017 launch and was

later caught with child porn when

authorities investigated, has been

sentenced to three years in prison.

Hernandez, 21, who went by

“Ryan Rocks” and gained access to

the information by tricking a Nin-

tendo employee, will also be re-

quired to pay just under $260,000

to Nintendo.

The sentencing, for the hacking

and the porn, is the culmination of

a years-long saga that began when

the Palmdale, Calif., man stole

confidential information from the

Japanese gaming giant in 2016.

When contacted by the FBI in

2017, Hernandez promised to stop

his behavior, the Department of

Justice said, only to continue

“hacking into multiple Nintendo

servers and stealing confidential

information about various popular

video games, gaming consoles and

developer tools” between June

2018 and June 2019.

When the feds investigated

him, they found a folder on his

computer labeled “Bad Stuff ”

filled with more than 1,000

pictures and videos of kiddie

porn.

Following his stay at a Bureau

of Prisons facility for inmates

with cognitive challenges, Her-

nandez will be required to regis-

ter as a sex offender.

Nicolas Vega

Nintendo hacker is caged

Walma

Nike on the ‘spot’

Anti-bullying ad stirs backlash in Japan

This Nike ad, titled

“Keep Moving Yourself:

The Future,” features

three teenage female

soccer players who are

bullied at school for

being mixed race —

before finding

happiness through

sports — and it has

drawn criticism in Japan

from those who blast

the spot as depicting an

American problem and

not a Japanese one.

Just say... whoa!