Month: September 2024

Tupperware Brands, Inc. has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Delaware. The Orlando, Florida-based food storage and kitchen products company, which has been in business for nearly 80 years, is seeking bankruptcy protection amid growing struggles to revitalize its business.  Tupperware says that they plan to continue operating during the bankruptcy proceedings and will seek court approval to sell the company, “in order to protect its iconic brand.”

Tupperware sales increased during at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sales have been in steady decline since 2018 due to rising competition.  Last year, the company sought additional financing as it warned investors about its ability to stay in business and its risk of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange; and earlier this year, Tupperware received an additional non-compliance notice from the NYSE for failing to file its annual results with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In their bankruptcy petition, Tupperware reported more than $1.2 billion in total debts and $679.5 million in total assets. Shares for the company have fallen 75% this year and closed Tuesday at about 50 cents apiece. According to court documents, Tupperware currently employs more than 5,450 employees across 41 countries — and additionally partners with global sales force of over 465,000 consultants who sell products on a freelance basis in nearly 70 countries.

In a statement, Tupperware President and CEO Laurie Ann Goldman (who previously served as CEO of Spanx) said that the bankruptcy proceedings are to provide “essential flexibility” as the company pursues this transformation: “This process is meant to provide us with essential flexibility as we pursue strategic alternatives to support our transformation into a digital-first, technology-led company better positioned to serve our stakeholders. Whether you are a dedicated member of our Tupperware team, sell, cook with, or simply love our Tupperware products, you are a part of our Tupperware family. We plan to continue serving our valued customers with the high-quality products they love and trust throughout this process.”

Tupperware was founded in 1946 as a solution to food storage. The concept of “Tupperware parties” took off in 1948, often hosted by independent female contractors out of their homes, and became its main sales vehicle.   Tupperware said that there will be no current changes to its independent sales consultant agreements, adding it would file court motions to address employee wages and benefits and payment of vendors and suppliers while in bankruptcy.

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The Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday that it is lowering its key interest rate by 50 basis points (or a half percent) in the first interest rate cut since 2020 — with the hopes to protect the economy from a further slowdown. The Federal Reserve’s FOMC said in a statement, “In light of the progress on inflation and the balance of risks, the Committee decided to lower the target range for the federal funds rate by 1/2 percentage point to 4-3/4 to 5%.” The cut was made possible by inflation that has fallen from a COVID-19 pandemic high of 9.1% to the current inflation rate of 2.5%.

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said during Wednesday’s press conference that the cut is designed to maintain the strong U.S. economy. Powell said in the announcement that the central bank noted job gains had slowed, while inflation had made further progress toward its 2% goal, adding the labor market and the economy is in “solid shape. The U.S. economy is in a good place and our decision today is designed to keep it there. Our intention is to maintain the strength we currently see in the U.S. economy.”

Powell added that the inflation rate is considerably lower now and he believes the lower inflation level is sustainable: “We had a burst of inflation and many other countries around the world had a similar burst of inflation. Interest rates were raised to reduce inflation. People don’t experience that as pleasant but, in the end, you get low inflation restored .. [which will] benefit many people over a long time.”

Powell added that he is encouraged by the progress that’s being made, and that most members of the FOMC anticipate that economic conditions will allow a succession of more interest rate reductions. The FOMC Wednesday statement said, “The Committee has gained greater confidence that inflation is moving sustainably toward 2%, and judges that the risks to achieving its employment and inflation goals are roughly in balance. “

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Meta said that it is banning some of Russia’s largest state media networks from its platforms for using ‘deception to run an influence campaign and to hide its efforts.’ The ban on the state-run media networks will expand to all Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp platforms, beginning sometime this week.

Meta said in a statement: “After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity.”

The latest restrictions come after the U.S. State Department earlier this month designated Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other Russian news outlets as foreign missions after accusing two RT employees of taking part in a $10 million scheme to finance a company that published English-language videos on Instagram as well as TikTok, X and YouTube.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov responded harshly to the ban, telling reporters during a daily conference call that “such selective actions against Russian media are unacceptable. Meta with these actions are discrediting themselves. We have an extremely negative attitude towards this. And this, of course, complicates the prospects for normalizing our relations with Meta.”

RT (formerly known as Russia Today) and Russia Segodnya (the parent company behind state news agency RIA Novosti and news brand Sputnikalso) also denounced the move.  RT shared in a statement: “It’s cute how there’s a competition in the West — who can try to spank RT the hardest, in order to make themselves look better.” While Rossiya Segodnya added that Meta’s decision “was not unexpected for us. Meta is a deeply politicized organization. We will continue our work in the countries where we are present and this decision will not affect our work.”

Meta had previously joined other social media outlets to block Russian state media outlets in the European Union, Britain and Ukraine after the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken also announced last week new sanctions against RT, alleging the Russian government had embedded “a unit with cyber-operational capabilities and ties to Russian intelligence” within the outlet.

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Sean “Diddy” Combs was denied bail and will be held in custody after his indictment on charges of sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution on Tuesday, September 17, one day following his arrest in New York.

Combs appeared at his arraignment Tuesday wearing a black long-sleeve shirt and gray sweatpants, and entered a plea of not guilty in court.  But despite a bail proposal made by Combs’ attorneys, a federal judge in New York ruled that Combs be held behind bars during his arraignment on Tuesday, Sept. 17, while prosecutors alleged that Combs had drugs in the hotel room in which he was arrested on Monday, September 16.

The Southern District of New York had announced that Combs was arrested by federal agents on Monday, with ABC News detailed that the arrest took place at the Park Hyatt hotel on West 57th Street in Midtown Manhattan by Homeland Security Investigations agents. In March, federal authorities raided Combs’ homes in Miami and Los Angeles.

According to the indictment unsealed on Tuesday, federal prosecutors allege that dating back to 2009, Combs, 54, ran an “enterprise that he engaged in sex trafficking, forced labor or, kidnapping, arson and other crimes, adding that he “abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation, and conceal his conduct.” Prosecutors also allege that Combs “ensured participation” by giving them narcotics, holding sway over their careers, threatening to cut them off from financial support and using violence and intimidation.

Speaking outside the federal courthouse in New York, Combs’ attorney Marc Agnifilo said that the music mogul was “going to plead not guilty, obviously. He’s going to fight this with all of his energy and all of his might and the full confidence of his lawyers, and I expect a long battle with a good result for Mr. Combs.”  In an additional statement, Agnifilo said: “Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal. To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts. These are the acts of an innocent man with nothing to hide, and he looks forward to clearing his name in court.”

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