Howard Schultz to exit Starbucks
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced this week that he’ll be leaving his position as executive chairman at the end of the month, reports The New York Times.
Schultz bought Starbucks in the late 1980s and oversaw its expansion as a global cafe giant with about 28,000 outlets in 77 countries.
Schultz had moved from chief executive to chairman in April 2018, “shifting his focus to social-impact initiatives and developing the company’s high-end coffee shops,” writes The Wall Street Journal.
Device makers got Facebook data
Facebook struck agreements allowing at least 60 device makers to access its users’ personal information over the past decade, reports The New York Times.
The deals, which were reached with companies like Apple and Amazon, let Facebook expand its reach and allowed device makers to offer some of the social network’s features, according to the report.
The Times says many of the partnerships remain active, even as Facebook began winding down the agreements in April.
Young Americans buying homes again
First-time buyers making up about half of all new mortgages — excluding refinancing — a sign that young people are getting a boost from the booming job market and cheap credit, according to Bloomberg.
The data, which looked at Freddie Mac-backed mortgages, found that 46 percent of new mortgages are new buyers, a share not seen since 2012.
“This is a millennial-driven rise,” Freddie Mac’s Chief Economist Sam Khater told Bloomberg. “You’ve got a strong economy that’s helping, along with the appetite of the financial market to invest in mortgages.”
