Nashville Councilwoman Calls Amazon's Withdrawal from New York 'Disheartening'
*By Kristen Lee*
A Nashville councilwoman called Amazon's abrupt cancelation of its plan to build a campus in New York City "disheartening" on Thursday, saying it sends a negative signal about the company's willingness to work with local officials.
"It seems like the politicians up there and the local elected officials started asking tough questions, and that's what elected officials are supposed to do ー we're supposed to be stewards of the taxpayer dollars," Councilwoman Kathleen Murphy told Cheddar. "If we ask questions, are they just going to run away?"
Nashville was chosen as the site of a smaller Amazon outpost that will create 5,000 jobs for the city at the same time the e-commerce giant announced its larger "HQ2" campuses in Queens, New York, and suburban Virginia.
Murphy, who has been critical of some of the incentives Nashville is providing Amazon, said debate is important. "We need to have open and transparent conversations so our constituents know what is going on and we know that we're doing what's best for Nashville."
Oracle soars as it cashes in on the AI boom, Plus: Starbucks shares continue to fall under its new CEO, and does anybody actually want a new iPhone Air?
Swedish buy now, pay later company Klarna is making its highly anticipated public debut on the New York Stock Exchange Wednesday, the latest in a run of high-profile initial public offerings this year. The offering priced at $40 Tuesday, above the forecasted range of $35 to $37 a share, valuing the company at more than $15 billion. The valuation easily makes Klarna one of the biggest IPOs so far in 2025, which has been one of the busier years for companies going public. Other popular IPOs so far this year include the design software company Figma and Circle Internet Group, which issues the USDC stablecoin..
Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison wrested the title of the world’s richest man from longtime holder Elon Musk early Wednesday as stock in his software giant rocketed more than a third in a stunning few minutes of trading. That is according to wealth tracker Bloomberg. A college dropout, the 81-year-old Ellison is now worth $393 billion, Bloomberg says, several billion more than Musk, who had been the world’s richest for four years. The switch in the ranking came after a blockbuster earnings report from Oracle. Forbes still has Musk as the richest, however, valuing his private businesses much higher.
