TheChek News Flow

To those of us who are longtime Sonos customers, it wasn’t much of a surprise that the maker of internet-connected speakers parted ways this morning with Patrick Spence, its embattled CEO. Last May, the company introduced a new version of its mobile app for controlling its speakers.

But the updated app left out a number of features that had been available in the older app for years. The changes enraged many Sonos diehards like me (I own eight of its devices). Many vented their frustrations on Reddit and other social media forums, even after Sonos began restoring missing features in the months afterward. (Sonos’ revenue fell 8% in the year to September, so the brouhaha appears to have also affected sales).

Sonos has always been a bit of an odd duck. There aren’t that many consumer electronics startups of its size created in the last quarter century (Sonos was founded in 2002) that have survived as independent companies. Its products are expensive relative to the wireless speakers that have flooded the market from big-name tech rivals like Amazon and no-name competitors from China. And yet, Sonos held on partly because it had a commitment to high-quality sound and an Apple-like dedication to user experience, both of which gave it a passionate fan base.

The events of the last year seem to have ruptured that relationship with many of its customers. Today, Spence’s replacement—Tom Conrad, a Sonos board member, who is now interim CEO—reportedly told staff he’s focused on repairing those relations. If he’s unsuccessful, it’s fair to wonder whether Sonos—whose market capitalization is around $1.7 billion—might be better off selling itself to a bigger rival like Amazon, Google or Apple.

Years ago, a former senior Apple executive told me he once begged Steve Jobs, who was then Apple’s CEO, to buy Sonos. Jobs wasn’t interested. A lot has changed since then, but the Sonos brand still might have enough cachet to interest a more powerful suitor.

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The Italian luxury footwear brand has named tennis stars Jasmine Paolini and Zizou Bergs and padel aces Marta Ortega and Juan Lebrón brand ambassadors.

MILAN — Golden Goose is doubling down on its ties with sports by tapping four new athlete ambassadors, including its first female ones.

Tennis star Jasmine Paolini and padel champion Marta Ortega are both joining the Italian luxury brand’s roster of ambassadors, alongside tennis player Zizou Bergs and padel athlete Juan Lebrón.

“Jasmine, Zizou, Marta and Juan embody everything we stand for and the communities we want to connect with. Family, passion, authenticity, positivity and success are values at the heart of sports and of Golden Goose,” said Golden Goose chief executive officer Silvio Campara. “We are honored to welcome these talented athletes to our family, where dreams are pursued with purpose, and every step reflects dedication and excellence,” he said.

The Italian Polish Paolini, who rose to the fourth spot in the 2024 global female tennis players’ ranking after landing in the finals at the French Open and Wimbledon tournaments, among other achievements, said that “as an Italian athlete, it’s an honor to represent Golden Goose, a brand I’ve long admired. Being part of this family feels incredible, and I’m proud to share the values of such an iconic Italian brand.”

Fellow tennis player Bergs is also new to the roster of Golden Goose ambassadors. The Belgian athlete, who competed in the Paris Olympics and advanced to the third round of the 2024 French Open, is also known for his charity and advocacy commitments in supporting Burundi’s young tennis players by providing dedicated gear, helping disabled athletes through the “Tous à Bord” association, underprivileged youth in Antwerp to pursue tennis and funding education for marginalized students. “I am honored to join Golden Goose in their mission to not only elevate racket sports but also to make a meaningful impact within communities,” Bergs said.

The pair is joined in the ambassador role by Ortega and Lebrón, two of Spain’s highest-ranked padel athletes. The former, a trained physician, was the youngest player to rank first in the 2019 global female ranking, while Lebrón, also the youngest to reach the first spot in the global ranking in 2020, maintained that position for three years until 2022.

“Partnering with a brand that has such a strong connection to padel is truly meaningful to me. I look forward to building something special together through this collaboration,” Ortega said. As reported, Golden Goose is due to open a branded padel pavilion in Milan this year.

“I’m truly honored by this partnership. We’ve already done incredible things together, and I look forward to what’s next, especially with the upcoming opening of the Padel Pavilion,” Lebrón said.

In their new role at Golden Goose, the athletes join the likes of skatera Keegan Palmer and Olympic bronze medalist and leader of the U.S. National Team Cory Juneau, as well as padel ace Arturo Coello and Chinese actor and singer Jackson Yee.

Golden Goose was established in 2000 and is best known for its successful Superstar sneakers and intentionally distressed styles. In 2020, the company was acquired by the private equity fund Permira from the Carlyle Europe Buyout fund.

Last year the company, which had revealed plans to go public, postponed its initial public offering “as a result of European market volatility.”

The luxury firm has championed a community-driven approach, for example hosting Haus of Dreamers all-encompassing cultural events in Paris, Los Angeles and most recently in Marghera, Italy, where the company is based.

The Italian company recorded revenues of 1.28 billion euros last year.

MILAN — Brunello Cucinelli is closing 2024 on a high note — and 2025 looks equally promising.

On Monday, Cucinelli’s namesake company reported preliminary 2024 revenues of 1.28 billion euros, a 12.2 percent increase compared with 1.14 billion euros in 2023.

Boosted by the strong performance in the last few weeks of 2024, especially in the direct channel, the figure is even better than Cucinelli’s forecast at the end of December, when he said he expected a growth of between 11 and 12 percent. In fact, in the fourth quarter, sales amounted to 358 million euros, “the best result ever in absolute terms,” with an increase of 11.6 percent year-on-year.

Cucinelli, who holds the role of executive chairman and creative director, said that “given the quality of sales,” he anticipated “very strong profits” for 2024. He confirmed earlier forecasts of a revenue growth of around 10 percent in both 2025 and 2026, with the intention of doubling 2023 turnover by 2030.

Cucinelli said 2024 “has been a particularly meaningful year for consolidating our style and identity, firmly anchored in the concept of absolute luxury characterised by exclusivity, quality and craftsmanship. On a global scale, we have received recognition that honors us and strengthens the vision of work conducted with respect for the moral and economic dignity of human beings, especially in relation to the dignity of labor.”

He credited the customers’ acknowledgement of the brand’s exclusivity and positioning, their trust in the quality of craftsmanship, as well as innovation and creativity for the strong performance. The “very pleasant and familiar atmosphere” in the brand’s stores was also seen as important to strengthen fidelity.

To continue to innovate its stores and showrooms, Cucinelli last year invested approximately 108 million euros, with an impact on sales of 8.5 percent. This also includes the expansion of the company’s Solomeo headquarters, already partly operational in 2025, and the production capacity for the 10-year project running from 2024 to 2033. These investments will allow the company to pursue its objectives for the next decade. The company is also investing in the opening of new production facilities in Italy, in Penne (Abruzzo) and Gubbio (Umbria), key manufacturing hubs of men’s outerwear and tailored suits.

“We sense the desire and will of every human being to return to a greater balance in life, rediscovering the ‘living within measure’ so dearly cherished by our Greek masters,” said Cucinelli. “During this time, which we call tempus novum [new times], we have launched within the company our ‘project for the soul,’ which simply consists of living and working whilst listening to and supporting one another, especially when that unwelcome guest of ours — which we might call the ‘malady of the soul’ — becomes more pressing and burdensome. At such times, perhaps talking and actively listening can help to heal the soul.”

In 2024, sales in Italy rose 9.3 percent to 140.8 million euros, representing 11 percent of the total.

Revenues in Europe, excluding Italy, were up 5.4 percent to 315.6 million euros, accounting for 24.7 percent of the total, boosted by both local and tourist spending.

Sales in the Americas climbed 17.8 percent to 476.5 million euros, accounting for 37.3 percent of the total. “The growth in North America reaffirms and certifies the great potential we still see in this region, where the search for exclusivity, uniqueness and to ‘dress up’ in special garments is not new but is increasingly desired by a growing number of customers,” said Cucinelli.

Sales in Asia were up 12.6 percent to 345.3 million euros, accounting for 27 percent of the total. The company recorded solid growth across the board from China to Japan and from South Korea to the Middle East.

“Sales in China are confirmed to be of great value for growth and continuity of results. Increases in turnover were reported for all quarters of the year, with particularly positive results in the last part of the year and around double-digit year-on-year growth,” said Cucinelli, citing exclusive distribution, and the no-logo ready-to-wear offer among the key factors for the strong performance.

The strong demand from local customers, together with the constant and balanced contribution of tourism, had a more than positive effect on sales results in South Korea and Japan, the company said.

Retail revenues rose 14 percent to 851.2 million euros, accounting for 66.6 percent of total sales.

As of Dec. 31, there were 130 boutiques, four more compared to the end of June last year, and 50 hard shops.

The wholesale channel, which continues to be central to Cucinelli’s strategy, was up 8.8 percent to 427.2 million euros, representing 33.4 percent of sales.

As of Dec. 31, net debt stood at 105 million euros, after the distribution of 66 million euros in dividends.

The billionaire tech entrepreneur has cast the far-right party as moderate, but many in Berlin beg to differ

BERLIN—During Elon Musk’s freewheeling conversation with the leader of a far-right German party last week, spanning Hitler, multiplanetary civilizations and the existence of god, the billionaire tech entrepreneur insisted that the Alternative for Germany was moderate.

“Hopefully, people can tell just from this conversation, like nothing outrageous is being proposed, just common sense,” he said, during their live discussion on his X social-media platform.

That has been hard for many in Germany’s mainstream political parties to understand—much less accept.

After all, the party, also known by its German acronym AfD, is critical of Germany’s culture of Holocaust remembrance and several of its regional chapters are classified as right-wing extremist organizations by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. An AfD leader in Thuringia was fined for repeatedly using a banned Nazi slogan—something he denied doing knowingly.

Even more perplexing for many in Berlin, some of the AfD’s goals clash with Musk’s own positions and with core U.S. interests.

The AfD is closer to Russia than some of its European peers. It has called for lifting sanctions on Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine and wants to resume Russian natural-gas deliveries via the closed Nord Stream 2 pipeline. It opposes the stationing of U.S. long-range conventional missiles on German soil, as recently agreed between Berlin and Washington.

The party has also criticized electric-car subsidies that have benefited Musk’s Tesla in the past. And it has called for Germany to leave the European Union—a decision that would make it harder for Tesla to export the cars it makes in its plant near Berlin.

“If Musk’s rocket science and knowledge of electromobility were as superficial as his analysis of German politics, then his cars wouldn’t drive, and his rockets wouldn’t fly,” Jens Spahn, a center-right lawmaker and former government minister, told Germany’s Cicero magazine last week. “Is it really clever to support such a pro-Russia, pro-Putin, at its core anti-American party like the AfD?”

In many ways, Musk’s support for the AfD isn’t surprising. The party’s anti-immigration rhetoric, its rejection of wokeism and its populist style match Musk’s preferences as expressed in countless online posts. But the AfD is seen as more radical than many of the other European parties Musk has backed, such as Reform U.K. and Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy.

In May last year, the AfD’s European allies expelled the party from their joint group in the European Parliament after its top candidate at the European election told several newspapers that members of the SS weren’t all criminals. This echoed an earlier comment by Björn Höcke, the AfD leader in Thuringia, a state in eastern Germany considered a stronghold of the party’s right wing. Höcke had said in The Wall Street Journal that Adolf Hitler shouldn’t be considered “absolutely evil.”

AfD leaders have sent mixed signals as to whether the party could tweak some of its positions to accommodate its U.S. backer.

The AfD has consistently opposed Tesla’s German factory in Grünheide, in the state of Brandenburg. AfD councilors last year voted against a plan to expand the plant, which they claimed endangers the water supply, brings excessive traffic and doesn’t create jobs for locals.

Kathi Muxel, an AfD lawmaker in the Brandenburg state parliament whose constituency includes Grünheide, said in an email that she wouldn’t drop her opposition “just because of Elon Musk’s supportive engagement with our national political goals.”

Steffen Kotré, an AfD member of the federal parliament from Brandenburg, disagreed, saying local AfD representatives should “rethink their position…You won’t be able to separate this factory, whether you like it or not, from the engagement of its founder in favor of free speech.”

But, he added, central political positions, such as the push to resume Russian energy purchases or the rejection of policies to cut CO2 emissions, were nonnegotiable. “The AfD more than any other party should be very careful never to expose itself to accusations of corruption,” he said.

In an interview with the American Conservative, a U.S. magazine, ahead of her conversation with Musk, Alice Weidel defended her party’s call for resuming Russian gas purchases regardless of the U.S.’s opposition to it, saying: “We will make our own decisions and [Donald Trump] must accept them, whether he likes them or not.”

Unlike other right-wing parties in Europe, the AfD hasn’t softened its positions over the years to court broader appeal. Delegates at its national convention on Sunday toughened its immigration agenda, calling for the detention of asylum seekers and banning nonresidents from receiving welfare benefits unless they have worked in Germany for at least 10 years.

Stefan Möller, co-chair of the AfD in Thuringia, where the party won its first state election last October, said Musk and the AfD didn’t have to agree on everything to get along.

“Naturally, there are always intersections with other people where you share similar convictions. And then there are potential areas of conflict,” he said. “Here, the shared political convictions clearly are the dominant focus.”

Pollsters say it is too early to tell whether Musk’s endorsement can broaden the AfD’s appeal by unlocking new pools of voters.

A Forsa survey conducted between Jan. 4 and Jan. 6 showed support for the party was stable at 19%, while 74% of respondents said it was inappropriate for Musk to interfere in German politics. The party remains 10 points behind the front-runner, the center-right Christian Democratic Union, according to Forsa, and well off its peak of early last year before it was hit by a series of scandals.

“Musk doesn’t have a positive image,” said Manfred Güllner, head of Forsa. “And Trump himself is incredibly disliked among Germans.”

However, other polls published this month show the AfD’s ratings crossing the 20% threshold, continuing a slow but steady rise that started last summer.

Even if it caught up with the CDU and won February’s election, the AfD would be exceedingly unlikely to lead the next government because all other parties have ruled out joining it in a coalition. Yet, an AfD victory would still be a political earthquake, and one the party’s leaders think has now become a little likelier.

“People who are still sitting on the fence and are unsure if they can trust us,” said Leif-Erik Holm, an AfD lawmaker. “They may look at someone like Musk, and if he supports us, then maybe they can too.”

Coffee chain reverses policy that had allowed open access to its cafes, in a push to improve store environments

If you’re walking into a Starbucks SBUX 1.37%increase; green up pointing triangle cafe, you now need to be prepared to buy something.

Starbucks this month is rolling out a new code of conduct at its cafes across North America, aiming to improve guests’ and staff’s safety and experience. Included in the shift is a reversal of a nearly seven-year policy of allowing the general public to linger or use the bathroom, regardless of whether they buy a latte or a croissant.

The new chain policies include adding signs banning harassment, violence, threatening language, outside alcohol, smoking and panhandling in its stores, according to employee notices viewed by The Wall Street Journal. The new code of conduct for customers is part of the coffee giant’s effort to make its stores more hospitable, as it seeks to reverse a slide in customer traffic and falling sales.

“There is a need to reset expectations for how our spaces should be used, and who uses them,” Starbucks North America President Sara Trilling said in a letter sent this week. Executives said customers need a clean, safe environment, and that employees have also shared concerns about the chain’s open-to-all approach.

Starbucks since 2018 has allowed access to its cafes and bathrooms regardless of purchase. The policy was a response to the arrest of two men at one of its Philadelphia locations that year, after one of them attempted to use the bathroom while the other sat at a table.

Employees there told police that the men were trespassing because they hadn’t bought anything, and refused to leave after they were denied use of the restroom, authorities said at the time.

The incident drew widespread criticism, and Starbucks afterward temporarily closed all of its U.S. stores to conduct racial-sensitivity training. The men later sued the company and settled for an undisclosed amount.

People have said they appreciate being able to pop into a Starbucks to use the bathroom. But Starbucks baristas have said the policy can lead to messes, loitering and inappropriate behavior.

The chain said the new policy for company-owned cafes would take effect Jan. 27 at its more than 11,000 North American stores. Code-of-conduct signs will state that cafes, patios and restrooms are for customers, those accompanying them, and employees, according to the company communications viewed by the Journal.

Baristas will need to ask those not complying with the code to leave, one of the employee communications said. Free water will be restricted to customers and those accompanying them.

Starbucks said it hopes the new code will provide baristas clearer guidance about who can remain in its stores. The updated code will lay out guidelines for law-enforcement representatives who respond to disorderly-person calls at cafes.

Retailers for years have tried to balance welcoming the public and maintaining some restrictions on who is allowed to linger. Starbucks has been on the vanguard of opening up its cafes, but new CEO Brian Niccol is revamping the chain’s approach to improve the environment in its U.S. stores.

Many customers have said the rise in Starbucks’ to-go business has eroded its appeal as a place to linger over a latte, filling cafes with people waiting for orders. Others have complained about people loitering in cafes and long bathroom lines, sometimes as a result of the public coming in to use them.

Jim Fewel, a 72-year-old retired customer-service representative from Fremont, Calif., said a handful of Starbucks locations near him closed their bathrooms because of people coming in off the street. “Some areas just do not support the type of Starbucks that originally opened there,” Fewel said.

During a speech on corporate responsibility in 2018, Howard Schultz, the company’s longtime leader and then chairman, said Starbucks needed to embrace its place in the communities where it does business, including an open-door policy. “We don’t want to become a public bathroom, but we’re going to make the right decision 100% of the time and give people the key,” Schultz said.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in 2020, Starbucks closed its store interiors, removing furniture in some cases.

When Schultz in 2022 returned to lead Starbucks for the third time and tackle problems at the company, he said its cafe policy needed to evolve in response to societal problems that had increased since the pandemic.

The company closed 16 U.S. stores struggling with safety concerns including drug use among both customers and members of the public who were at the cafes but not buying anything.

“We read every incident report you file—it’s a lot,” leaders of Starbucks’s U.S. operations wrote in a 2022 letter to employees.

Niccol has targeted Starbucks’s cafes for improvement since joining as CEO last September. The company reported three consecutive quarters of declining same-store sales last year, and suspended its 2025 financial guidance in October.

“Our stores will be inviting places to linger,” Niccol wrote in an open letter last year.

The company is restoring condiment bars that the chain had removed in response to pandemic-era health concerns, allowing customers once again to fine-tune their beverages. Niccol has pledged to bring back comfortable furniture, along with ceramic mugs and plates. Baristas have resumed scrawling messages on cups as a personal touch for customers.

Later this month, Starbucks will also begin offering free refills on hot and iced coffee for customers who buy a drink and want to hang out in its cafes.

David Lakey, 67, a retired executive in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, Calif., said he hoped Starbucks can restore its old cafe environment. “I’m still scarred by Starbucks’s response to Covid-19, and it feels like that vibe is still present,” Lakey said.

Beijing’s leaders have denounced U.S. ban threat and said any forced divestiture would be like robbery

SINGAPORE—Chinese officials, facing a looming U.S. TikTok ban, have internally discussed options including the possibility of allowing a trusted non-Chinese party such as Elon Musk to invest in or take control of TikTok’s U.S. operations, people familiar with the discussions said.

China has protested a U.S. law that would ban TikTok in the U.S. unless its Beijing-based parent, ByteDance, divests itself of the operation. The Supreme Court last week seemed inclined to let the law stand. It goes into effect on Sunday unless the court issues a stay.

It couldn’t be determined whether the Chinese officials had presented the Musk idea to top leadership.

The law is one of many issues straining U.S.-China relations ahead of Donald Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20. Top leadership in Beijing views openness on TikTok as one possible card to play, with confrontations expected over tariffs and other issues, the people said.

Trump has said he wants to find a way to let TikTok remain in the U.S.

In discussions to date, officials concluded that it was best to let the ban take effect and keep TikTok under ByteDance’s ownership so that negotiations could continue after Trump takes over, the people said.

In preparing the tool kit for possible options after Trump’s inauguration, officials have examined possible openness to a deal with Musk, one of Trump’s closest allies, the people said. Tesla, the electric-vehicle maker headed by Musk, has a factory in Shanghai, and China is one of its biggest markets.

Musk has frequently met top Chinese officials and expressed favorable views about the country and its leadership. He owns X, another social-media app.

Still, any willingness to make a deal would run counter to Chinese leaders’ position that they need to stand up to what they view as an unacceptable American law.

“It is sheer robbers’ logic to try every means to snatch from others all the good things that they have,” a Foreign Ministry spokesman said last year.

The Chinese government hasn’t communicated with ByteDance about the contingency plans it has considered, the people said. Beijing wouldn’t order ByteDance to sell the app to a specific investor, they said, but it has a key role to play in the discussions because China’s export controls require government approval for the sale of domestically developed algorithms for recommending content to foreign entities.

The core of TikTok’s video-sharing app is the algorithm containing software code originally written by its parent, ByteDance, for figuring out what users want to watch and delivering relevant content to them.

Chinese officials have in recent months asked ByteDance about its plans for responding to the U.S. law. ByteDance employees have answered that the company was focusing on the legal battle and was confident it would win, without mentioning other backup plans such as a divestiture, people familiar with the matter said.

Beijing’s potential involvement in a deal to help TikTok avert a U.S. ban could undermine the company’s assertion that it operates independently of Chinese authorities.

“For some, an official move to protect TikTok could suggest that the Communist Party or Chinese government have some particular equity in the firm,” said Ja Ian Chong, a National University of Singapore professor who studies Chinese foreign policy. “This could raise further debate about whether TikTok is a tool” for Beijing.

TikTok says the U.S. law violates First Amendment protections for speech, while the U.S. government says the law is justified by the need to protect national security. Supreme Court justices expressed sympathy for the government’s view, though they also shared some of the speech concerns. A decision is expected as soon as this week.

Bloomberg earlier reported on Beijing’s discussions about the possibility of a deal with Musk. Asked about that report, a TikTok representative said to The Wall Street Journal, “We cannot be expected to comment on pure fiction.”

Last month, TikTok Chief Executive Shou Chew met Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, people familiar with the matter said. Chew, who has known Musk for years, has also talked to the X owner to seek his opinions about the incoming administration, The Wall Street Journal reported in November.