TheChek News Flow

Trade unions are touting the move as a promising start under new owner Peter Kern, the former CEO of Expedia.

MILAN — La Perla is headed to greener pastures under the new owner, American industrial entrepreneur Peter Kern, the former chief executive officer of Expedia.

Italian trade unions Filctem Cgil and Uiltec Uil said Monday that all former employees, about 220 people, have been rehired by La Perla Atelier, the brand’s parent company. Often referred to as “perline,” which means small pearls in Italian, the company’s workers will get back to their jobs at the recently reopened Atelier in Bologna, Italy, starting Monday.

“This marks the end of more than two years of uncertainty, a period defined by sacrifices and fear, but also by unwavering determination. The craftspeople, accustomed to stitching true works of art for the luxury sector and appreciated internationally, held together what financial speculation was dismantling piece by piece,” the unions said in their statement.

“The signing of the contracts is not the final objective but the beginning of a new chapter. Starting today, the new owner inherits a unique human capital, capable of creating value with every single stitch. It is on this legacy that the relaunch of the factory and of the brand will be built,” the unions continued.

La Perla had been in a state of chaos for more than two years before Kern completed the acquisition last June through his Luxury Holding company.

The entrepreneur’s business plan for the luxury innerwear brand hinges on investments of almost 30 million euros by 2027, according to the Ministry of Enterprises and of Made in Italy, which has been actively involved in all stages of the business rescue plan.

As reported, the innerwear brand was declared insolvent by an Italian court in February 2024. A trifecta of court commissioners was named, marking the exit of the brand’s former owner Tennor, the private equity firm, previously known as Sapinda, helmed by German businessman Lars Windhorst.

Under his lead, La Perla had failed to relaunch in recent years, weighed down by debts, albeit searching for new revenue streams by expanding into beauty and swimwear. At one point it became one of the first brands to join Amazon Luxury Stores. The company also invested $50 million in the now-shuttered British couture house Ralph & Russo.

In May 2024, a Bologna court ruled in favor of putting La Perla’s Italy-based manufacturing arm and subsidiary, La Perla Manufacturing Srl, into judicial administration, which allowed the business to continue to operate and the preservation of jobs.

A few months later, Tyche Bank said 500,000 euros were being made available for La Perla, as reported, to keep operations at its plant in Bologna alive as the search for potential investors continued to be carried out by the courts commissioners, until Kern, the former CEO of Expedia, finalized the transaction.

La Perla was founded in 1956 by the corsetry-maker Ada Masotti. Her son, Alberto Masotti, headed the business until it was sold to private equity player JH Partners in 2007. Ownership of La Perla passed to Silvio Scaglia in 2013, who sold it to Sapinda in 2018.

The leader of the world's largest beauty company talks breaking boundaries even amidst unlikely circumstances.

“You cannot stand still in beauty,” said L’Oréal Groupe chief executive officer Nicolas Hieronimus at the 2025 WWD Beauty Inc Awards, where he received the 2025 WWD Beauty Inc Pete Born Impact Award.

The CEO — L’Oréal’s sixth in its 116-year history — would know.

Since taking the helm in 2021, Hieronimus has furthered the French conglomerate’s position as the biggest beauty company in the world: He’s made acquisitions — including a recent 4-billion-euro transaction to acquire Kering’s beauty properties; launched the L’Oréal Circular Innovation Fund and the L’Oréal Climate Emergency Fund; furthered the company’s investments in emerging technologies and the dermaesthetics space, and more.

And still, as the 2025 Pete Born Impact Award honoree told Beauty Inc editor in chief Jenny B. Fine during a fireside chat, he remains laser-focused on what’s ahead.

“I’m often asked, ‘what is your legacy? What trace do you want to leave?,’ and I don’t believe in traces,” said Hieronimus. “Traces, like footprints in the sand, can vanish once a wave passes. But I like the concept of movement — of beauty that moves the world.”

In order to move the world, he said, L’Oréal must understand and reflect it. This objective has led the company to deepen its presence in emerging geographies and move in lockstep with culture.

“That’s why we make acquisitions, because sometimes you have to know what you don’t know; making acquisitions through BOLD [Bold Opportunities for L’Oréal Development, the company’s venture fund] is a way for us to learn and to grow,” said Hieronimus, whose recent investments have included Omani fragrance brand Amouage and Chinese clean skin care brand, Lan.

“We’re talking about beauty technology, about dermatology, about new types of consumers. I don’t know if Elon Musk is right to say we’re going to be on Mars someday, but I’m sure if the martians want to look great, we’ll be there for them,” laughed Hieronimus. “That’s the impact we want to make at L’Oréal.”

It was roughly two years ago that L’Oréal — whose Luxe division includes Valentino Beauty, YSL Beauty and Jacquemus’ soon-to-launch beauty line, among others — became the largest luxury beauty player in the world. Now Hieronimus, who previously helmed the Luxe division, looks to steepen the company’s dominance in the category.

“We were very proud to conquer the title of worldwide number-one in luxury two years ago, and with this acquisition of Kering’s beauty assets, we’re going to broaden that lead,” said Hieronimus, adding, “I love to race in front.”

L’Oréal’s growth under Hieronimus has come even as geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty steepen around the world.

“Beauty is more important than ever,” said the honoree. “It is there to provide people with self-esteem, transformation — it’s one of the few categories that systematically grows, at the global level, higher than the GDP.”

And beauty’s playing field is growing.

“We talk about longevity, about investing in your own health and wellness; beauty is getting broader,” Hieronimus said. “What started [via BOLD] as an intention to invest in brands has ended up being more about investing in technologies. Because the world needs innovation. Beauty needs innovation — whether it’s around sustainability or new ingredients or biotech or transformative formulas.”

Hieronimus pointed to Gjosa, the Switz tech start-up L’Oréal acquired in 2024, which plans to introduce a water-saving shower head that can reduce water consumption by 60 percent.

“You have to come up with products, solutions and services that make a difference,” he said.

Maintaining the kind of scrappy and agile thinking more often associated with smaller players, Hieronimus said, has also been crucial to success.

“I’ve been at this company for 38 years; I know it’s big, I know the numbers, I have my quarterlies — but I don’t feel it’s big. We have this culture of entrepreneurship. People see us as the behemoth, and there is indeed a benefit to scale, but it has to come with agility,” said the CEO. “We are managing a best-of-both-worlds approach.”

As for how the beauty company is navigating China, the world’s second-largest beauty market, which has seen tempered growth in recent years, Hieronimus said: “[China] has been a major growth engine for more than a decade; it has stabilized, and I think it will start growing again. You feel the energy, the appetite for innovation.”

The CEO added that the country’s Double 11 shopping period this year was one of growth for L’Oréal. “L’Oréal Paris retained the number-one spot on Double 11, and we have a few other brands in the top 10. It confirms that in China, like everywhere, if you come up with exciting brands and great products, people will go for it.”

He also advised on how emerging brands can best think about emerging markets.

“You have to understand that, because beauty is cultural, every region has a different understanding of beauty,” said Hieronimus, adding that Saudi Arabia has a significant appetite for fragrance; meanwhile in South Africa, hair care is soaring. “That’s why we have different labs in different parts of the world — you have to understand the specificities of the climate and the consumers.”

It’s a task that is incumbent on every person across the org chart, he said.

“Beauty is about what’s happening now. It’s made by the younger generations, and you have to feel it. As I’m being presented ideas by my teams, if I don’t know what they’re talking about — and sometimes that happens — I L’OréalGPT it. You have to feel the vibe of the youth,” Hieronimus said.

Nvidia announced new infrastructure and AI models on Monday as it works to build the backbone technology for physical AI, including robots and autonomous vehicles that can perceive and interact with the real world.

The semiconductor giant announced Alpamayo-R1, an open reasoning vision language model for autonomous driving research at the NeurIPS AI conference in San Diego, California. The company claims this is the first vision language action model focused on autonomous driving. Visual language models can process both text and images together, allowing vehicles to “see” their surroundings and make decisions based on what they perceive.

This new model is based on Nvidia’s Cosmos-Reason model, a reasoning model that thinks through decisions before it responds. Nvidia initially released the Cosmos model family in January 2025. Additional models were released in August.

Technology like the Alpamayo-R1 is critical for companies looking to reach level 4 autonomous driving, which means full autonomy in a defined area and under specific circumstances, Nvidia said in a blog post.

Nvidia hopes that this type of reasoning model will give autonomous vehicles the “common sense” to better approach nuanced driving decisions like humans do.

This new model is available on GitHub and Hugging Face.

Alongside the new vision model, Nvidia also uploaded new step-by-step guides, inference resources, and post-training workflows to GitHub — collectively called the Cosmos Cookbook — to help developers better use and train Cosmos models for their specific use cases. The guide covers data curation, synthetic data generation, and model evaluation.

These announcements come as the company is pushing full-speed into physical AI as a new avenue for its advanced AI GPUs.

Nvidia’s co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang has repeatedly said that the next wave of AI is physical AI. Bill Dally, Nvidia’s chief scientist, echoed that sentiment in a conversation with TechCrunch over the summer, emphasizing physical AI in robotics.

“I think eventually robots are going to be a huge player in the world and we want to basically be making the brains of all the robots,” Dally said at the time. “To do that, we need to start developing the key technologies.”

Gapping up:

MDB +23.4%, CRDO +17.9%, CANG +6.2%, DRVN +5.8%, SB +3.1%, FCF +2.1%, APYX +2%, OOMA +1.9%, WBD +1.9%, BCS +1.4%, BLTE +1.3%, NVTS +1.3%, MIR +1.3%, AGRO +1%, WAB +0.9%, LAD +0.9%, AMZN +0.8%, CMC +0.8%, ACIC +0.8%, EHC +0.7%, AMRX +0.6%, BA +0.6%, AZN +0.5%

Gapping down:

JANX -39.9%, BWLP -6.9%, VSTS -6.7%, IREN -4.5%, BKV -3.3%, HUN -3.3%, EXK -3.2%, CART -3%, XPO -3%, HL -2.3%, VVV -0.9%, DASH -0.8%

OpenAI Co-Founder Sutskever Joins the Skeptics

As Sri and I head to San Diego for the annual Neural Information Processing Systems conference this week (get in touch if you’ll also be there!), we’re excited to learn more about reinforcement learning, the model training technique du jour at all the major AI developers.

There’s rising skepticism among researchers, including OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever, about the effectiveness of RL and whether it can advance AI to the level of artificial general intelligence, on par with human experts in scientific research, healthcare and other domains.

Sutskever, who left OpenAI last year to start his own AI lab, explained in a rare interview on the Dwarkesh podcast why AI models are struggling to handle real-world tasks that aren’t part of the evaluations that researchers use when they develop the models.

He said researchers use RL to help the models ace the evaluations, but that doesn’t improve the way the models generalize, or handle a wide variety of tasks. (We covered this topic last week in the context of OpenAI versus Google.)

His lukewarm opinion of RL puts him in a similar camp as another OpenAI co-founder, Andrej Karpathy.

Sutskever also questioned the definition of artificial general intelligence, the concept of AI that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work. Sutskever said AGI should instead refer to AI that can learn how to excel at tasks after it starts working on them, much like a teenager who can learn how to drive in the real world after just a few hours behind the wheel.

Sutskever said nobody knows how to develop this kind of machine intelligence yet. And that’s why we’re entering what he calls an “age of research,” meaning smaller-scale experiments of new methods, rather than the “age of scaling” of existing methods by putting more computing power behind them.

The comments suggest Sutskever disagrees with the current approach used by many leading AI developers. That approach includes relying on people to evaluate thousands of AI responses to specific queries or giving models simulated versions of popular apps so they can try hundreds of times to complete tasks successfully in the apps. Billions of dollars have been spent on those techniques this year!

Still, he acknowledged that even if today’s advanced AI developers stall out, their technology can still make “stupendous” revenue along the way, though he cautioned that profits would be harder to come by as they “work hard to differentiate [from] each other.”

Sutskever also had a lot of thoughts on existential risks from AI—unsurprising since it was likely one of his reasons for leaving OpenAI in the first place, given his current lab’s focus on safe superintelligence. One potential solution for ensuring AI acts in the best interest of humans is to essentially merge human bodies with AI, which he referred to as a more advanced version of Elon Musk’s Neuralink efforts, to make sure humans know everything an AI is thinking and so the AI would want to protect the human body on which it depends, Sutskever said.

This sounds somewhat in line with Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity vision in which humans and AI will merge by 2045!

Before then, making AI that learns on-the-fly will likely require a completely different way of developing models, Sutskever said. For instance, he believes models are missing something similar to the emotions that guide human judgment and decision-making. Models also need a “value function,” something that humans have that tell us whether any decision will lead us to a good or bad outcome, he said.

If you’re wondering how long it might take to get to this kind of AGI, don’t hold your breath. Sutskever estimated it could take anywhere from five to 20 years.

Belgian authorities detained three suspects after ‘strong suspicions’ of wrongdoing in award of contract

Belgian police raided the EU’s diplomatic arm in Brussels and the College of Europe in Bruges as part of a probe into suspected fraud related to funding of junior officials, the bloc’s prosecutors said.

The raids on Tuesday morning, which resulted in the detention of three suspects, were prompted by “strong suspicions” of fraud in a 2021-2022 decision by European External Action Service (EEAS) to award the European Union Diplomatic Academy to the College.

Italian former diplomat Federica Mogherini, who had previously led the EEAS, became rector of the college in September 2020 and director of the diplomatic academy in August 2022.

The searches by Belgian police took place at the EEAS in the heart of Brussels’ EU quarter, several buildings of the College of Europe and at the houses of suspects, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) said in a statement. The investigation was supported by the European Anti-Fraud Office, it added.

“Prior to the searches, the EPPO requested the lifting of the immunity of several suspects, which was granted,” the prosecutor’s office said.

Spokespersons of the EEAS and the College of Europe did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the Belgian police declined to comment on an ongoing case.

The EPPO said the investigation, which was first reported by EurActiv, focuses on whether the college or its representatives were given prior notice of the EEAS tender to establish the diplomatic academy before its official publication.

“There are strong suspicions that, during the tendering process for the programme, article 169 of the Financial Regulation related to fair competition was breached,” the EPPO said. “That confidential information related to the ongoing procurement was shared with one of the candidates participating in the tender.”

The EPPO said the facts under investigation “could constitute procurement fraud, corruption, conflict of interest and violation of professional secrecy. The investigation is ongoing to clarify the facts and assess whether any criminal offences have occurred.”

Company is expected to promote from within, with parks chief Josh D’Amaro and TV head Dana Walden considered leading contenders

Disney’s DIS 2.20%increase; green up pointing triangle past attempts to pick a successor to CEO Bob Iger have been less than magical. Now the company is trying to write a happier ending.

Iger, who replaced Michael Eisner in 2005 following a shareholder revolt, has postponed planned retirement dates five times and helped push out a number of top executives poised to succeed him. Veteran insider Bob Chapek became CEO in 2020, only to be replaced by Iger himself in a dramatic 2022 corporate coup.

Disney’s board of directors has said it would announce in early 2026 its pick to succeed Iger. The company is widely expected to promote from within, with parks chief Josh D’Amaro and television head Dana Walden considered the leading contenders by employees and people who work with Disney.

The two executives met with Disney’s board this summer in Orlando, Fla., to discuss their visions for the company should they become CEO, according to people with knowledge of the meeting.

Whoever is named as the next CEO is expected to work alongside Iger for a while to learn the ropes before officially taking over, according to a person familiar with the board’s thinking. Iger’s contract expires next December.

One of the board’s top priorities for the current succession process is to ensure there is as little drama surrounding it as possible, with no major exits or brain drain when the new CEO is picked, according to people familiar with the matter.

The company recently extended the contracts of its general counsel, chief financial officer and heads of communications and human resources so they end between 2027 and 2029, according to public disclosures. Disney has also had contract extension talks with other top executives who report to Iger, including the people who operate key business units, one of the people familiar with the matter said.

The board itself has been tight-lipped. “I think that the best the board can do is run a really thorough process so that in the end, when a decision gets made, people feel very good that we have done our homework,” board member Carolyn Everson said at a Wall Street Journal Leadership Institute event in November.

D’Amaro, who chairs Disney’s experiences unit that includes theme parks, consumer products, cruise ships and videogames, is widely considered the leading contender to be the next CEO. His strongest rival is Walden, a veteran television executive who is co-chair of Disney entertainment, which includes streaming.

Supporters of D’Amaro say he is analytical, comfortable talking to Hollywood talent who’ve collaborated with the parks and a charismatic public ambassador for the Disney brand.

Theme parks have become Disney’s most important business in recent years as traditional television has faltered and streaming isn’t nearly as profitable as TV networks once were. D’Amaro has overseen numerous price increases at the parks while remaining popular with fans.

D’Amaro’s vision for Disney’s future includes giving videogames a bigger role at the company and integrating gaming technology throughout its creative processes, said a person familiar with his thinking. The Experiences boss, who has been with Disney since 1998, championed a $1.5 billion investment in Epic Games last year and has overseen the relationship with the “Fortnite” maker.

Walden is less of a Disney native, having joined when it acquired the entertainment assets of 21st Century Fox in 2019. But her backers say she is the company’s most experienced and accomplished creative executive. Hit film and TV content, they say, is the engine that powers all of Disney’s businesses.

She shares oversight of streaming and helped manage that business’s improving profit margins. She also has experience managing some of the company’s most delicate and important commercial and creative relationships, from the recent carriage dispute with YouTube TV to September’s benching and reinstatement of late-night host Jimmy Kimmel.

Veteran film executive Alan Bergman, who runs streaming with Walden and oversees brands such as Pixar, Lucasfilm and Avatar, is considered unlikely to replace Iger by employees and company partners.

ESPN head Jimmy Pitaro, Disney’s other top operating executive, has expressed he is in his “dream job” and doesn’t expect to become CEO given his lack of experience in scripted entertainment and parks, according to people with knowledge of the matter. His contract has multiple years left on it, according to one of the people.

Many employees have aligned behind-the-scenes with D’Amaro or Walden, but no candidate wants to be seen as engaging in politicking, said people close to the company. Even so, every move and public appearance by senior executives is interpreted through the lens of how they may be positioning themselves for a post-Iger world.

Disney’s board has considered outside candidates including videogame company Electronic Arts chief Andrew Wilson, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. But people close to Disney believe an internal executive will probably be promoted to CEO.

The board hasn’t said whether it might consider appointing co-CEOs. Disney has never had multiple leaders before, though it has at times had a CEO working alongside a powerful deputy—another possibility in the post-Iger configuration.

Whoever takes over will face many challenges including managing a $60-billion expansion of theme parks, growing a collection of streaming services that face intense competition and re-energizing key movie brands such as Marvel. They will also have to contend with continued cord-cutting that has weighed on the legacy TV business at Disney and its rivals.

Disney board chair James Gorman is leading the CEO selection process. When the board picked Chapek in 2020, Iger was chairman.

Gorman was widely praised for managing a CEO transition at Morgan Stanley that, like Disney, featured internal candidates jockeying for the position. Executives who didn’t get the top job stayed with the financial institution, and Disney is hoping to do the same with its leadership team.

Disney executive contracts typically last three-to-five years, according to people who have worked at the company. Bergman, D’Amaro and Walden were appointed to their current positions in early 2023.

Contract extensions could include expanded responsibilities or bigger titles for top executives who don’t become CEO, as well as compensation increases, to motivate them to stay, according to people close to Disney.