Yahoo Finance Lyft halts hiring, McDonald’s poised to win proxy fight with Icahn, NFL renews Pepsi deal
Notable business headlines include transport company Lyft announcing that it will halt hiring as it looks to cut costs, new details from American financier Carl Icahn’s legal battle with McDonald’s, and the NFL renewing its nearly four-decade-long sponsorship deal with Pepsi.
Video transcript
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JULIE HYMAN: Some other business headlines we're watching at this hour, yet another company is cutting back. Lyft says it will slow down hiring and consider budget cuts in a number of different departments to try and tamp down costs. The president, John Zimmer, there said, there would be no employee layoffs, adding that eligible employees would receive special stock options. Uber recently made a similar move in terms of slowing down that hiring. Shares of Lyft, by the way, have fallen over 60% this year, tumbling over 17% on Tuesday alone.
According to the "Wall Street Journal," Carl Icahn is likely to lose a proxy fight with McDonald's after challenging the burger chain over its suppliers' treatment of pregnant pigs. Early tallies show McDonald's have a considerable lead over Icahn, who had nominated two directors to the company's board. But voting will continue through the end of a shareholder meeting on Thursday.
Icahn, who got involved in the animal rights movement at the behest of his daughter 10 years ago, objects to the restaurant chain's use of small gestation crates to constrain pregnant pigs. McDonald's says that more than 60% of its pork supply does not come from pigs in such crates. And it expects that number to climb to more than 85% by the end of the year.
And Pepsi's pigskin partnership will continue-- different kind of pig-- with one major change. The soda and snacks maker has renewed its nearly four-decade sponsorship deal with the NFL, but it's giving up the Super Bowl halftime show. Team owners voted to extend the deal at the league's spring meeting in Atlanta yesterday, allowing Pepsi to use NFL rights for its brands like Tostitos and Frito-Lay.
Pepsi will also remain the soda provider to stadiums and events like the draft. And its Gatorade sports drink will maintain its sideline presence at games and I'm sure get dumped on lots of winners as well. The terms of the renewal have not been disclosed, though the previous deal was reportedly worth $2 billion over 10 years.
