Top of the Order:
Full House: The inauguration of Donald Trump is four days away. And thousands upon thousands of spectators will crowd along the Mall in Washington, D.C. to watch the ceremony that marks the transition from one American president to the next.
What else can we say about Jan. 20? Well, Airbnb is going to have a very good business day on Friday. And through the rest of the weekend, too.
San Francisco-based Airbnb has said that more than 13,000 guests have used the room-rental service to book a place to stay on inauguration night. Airbnb said that total is 10 times higher than the number of bookings Airbnb handled in Washington during President Barack Obama’s second inaugural in 2013, and will set an Airbnb single-night record for the nation’s capital.
At least some of those guests are planning on making a weekend out of the inaugural festivities: Airbnb said more than 15,100 guests have used its services to book rooms for the three days of Jan. 19-21.
Airbnb added that of those clients putting rooms up for rent with the service on inauguration night, 25 percent are first-time hosts.
Middle Innings:
Shaking it up at Samsung: Last year didn’t end well for Samsung, what with the company pulling the plug on its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone because of several reports of the device exploding and catching fire in consumers’ hands and pants pockets.
Well, Samsung seems to have figured out what caused the Note 7 to self-destruct. And it looks like it came down to the battery.
Citing “a person familiar with the matter,” Reuters reported that Samsung has determined that problems in the manufacturing process at one of the company’s suppliers were behind the defects in the batteries. Samsung tried to right the matter with new batteries that were supposedly safe, but enough of those exploded to force Samsung to discontinue the Note 7 entirely, and take a $5.2 billion charge as a result.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, Samsung is finding itself caught up in a bribery scandal.
Prosecutors in South Korea are looking to arrest Lee Jae-young, the heir to the entire Samsung corporate behemoth, on charges of bribery, perjury and embezzlement. The charges stem from allegations that Samsung doled out bribes in return for the South Korean government giving its OK to the merger of two Samsung affiliates. That merger gave Lee more power at Samsung, including control over Samsung Electronics.
Bottom of the Lineup:
Here’s a look at how some leading Silicon Valley stocks did Monday…Oh wait. U.S. stock markets were closed Monday for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. The Dow Jones industrial average will have to wait until Tuesday to continue its quest to reach the 20,000-point mark for the first time in history.
Quote of the Day: “I can go bing bing bing … and they put it on and as soon as I tweet it out — this morning on television, Fox — ‘Donald Trump, we have breaking news’.” — President-elect Donald Trump, who said he’s probably going to continue tweeting out his thoughts and comments via his @realDonaldTrump Twitter feed after his Inauguration.
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