Crypto News: Welcome back to Nike, Mr. Hill

New leadership taking over today at Nike looks a lot like the old guard. Bloomberg's Lily Meier writes about the hopes for a turnaround. Plus: Why OpenAI is at war with a guy named Guy, and how cities should think about compromise with Airbnb and its peers. If this email was forwarded to you, click here to sign up.

The Nike roster is starting to look a whole lot like 2019. On Monday, Elliott Hill takes the reins of the largest sportswear company in the world, replacing John Donahoe, who'd been the company's CEO since early 2020.

Hill returns to Nike Inc. after having spent more than 30 years there, starting as a sales intern (his LinkedIn résumé went a bit viral for his allegiance to the company). He retired as consumer division president in 2020, after the top job was given to Donahoe, a former Bain & Co. and eBay Inc. executive who was new to Nike.

"Things haven't been easy," Hill told his new and old team in a video shared with employees the day he was appointed CEO. He was right.

As reported in an article I co-wrote for Businessweek last month, under Donahoe's leadership the retailer had financial success reaching $50 billion in revenue; released the Panda Dunk, one of its most successful sneakers; and hit its highest stock price. Nike also struggled—embarking on a plan to cut $2 billion in costs and laying off 2% of the company's global staff. The retailer pulled back from relationships with key partners including Dillard's, Urban Outfitters and Zappos. The share price of Nike fell almost 21% from the day Donahoe joined to the day his successor was announced.

Hill isn't the only once-retired veteran returning to the sneaker giant. Former executive Tom Peddie also left retirement to return to the Swoosh. Last week the company announced that Peddie, who'd initially come back as vice president of marketplace partners, would return to his old role as VP and general manager of the North America region.

The Swoosh is ready for a new game plan. Photographer: Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images North America

"With a team of company vets back at the helm, we think they're moving in the right direction," Truist Securities said in a note after Peddie's most recent move was announced.

It makes sense the retailer would want to turn back the clock. From the last quarter of 2015 to the third quarter of 2020, Nike had consistently positive year-over-year revenue growth. Its shares were climbing. The retailer released big innovations including Flyknit and the self-lacing HyperAdapt 1.0 shoes. On an earnings call in June 2019, Nike said it was confident it was investing in the right areas.

That doesn't mean the company didn't have problems. In 2018 employees brought up concerns of a boys-club culture, resulting in a company investigation. Nike closed its on-site day care, upsetting employees. And there was more to come. The mass layoffs, strained retail strategy and frustration with leadership left employees and analysts questioning if Nike still had it.

Now, as the company brings back its old guard, many wonder who else may be joining (or rejoining). Analysts at the investment bank Piper Sandler said "hope is still alive" for the retailer, noting that "leadership changes are likely." As Hill begins his job, all eyes are on his game plan.

US earnings season kicks off today, and markets are sounding an optimistic note.
Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson and James A. Robinson share the 2024 Nobel Prize in economics for their study of Europe's colonial legacy.
SpaceX stunned the world during its Starship rocket test over the weekend, catching its booster in midair.

Illustration: Antoine Maillard for Bloomberg Businessweek

It sounded like the setup to a joke, and for a while I thought it was: A company called OpenAI sues a company called Open AI. … The case, formally named OpenAI Inc. v. Open Artificial Intelligence Inc., showed up on the docket for the US District Court in Northern California, to zero fanfare, in August of last year. Companies with near-identical names entangled in a lawsuit usually means trademark infringement—more the makings of a one-liner than a riveting story. Still, it did involve the OpenAI, the generative AI kingpin and maker of ChatGPT, backed by Microsoft Corp. to the tune of (at the time) $13 billion.

I pulled some of the case documents and immediately found what seemed like the punch line. Open Artificial Intelligence Inc., aka the other Open AI (with a space), was in fact just one guy, named Guy. Guy Ravine, according to the suit, was a self-styled Silicon Valley technologist who'd managed to grab the URL open.ai back in 2015, before OpenAI (no space) launched. When Sam Altman and Greg Brockman announced their venture to the world that Dec. 11, they'd been forced to go with the less buzzy openai.com.

Ravine then appeared to have moved beyond domain squatting, filing for a trademark on the name "Open AI" (with a space) on the very evening Altman and Brockman made their announcement. Scanning the documents, I had to respect the hustle. Ravine asserted fantastically that he'd been working on an idea identical to Altman and Brockman's. This wasn't the first time he'd had a world-changing innovation yanked out from under him, either. He professed to have invented the video-sharing technology later made famous by Snapchat and TikTok.

As Evan Ratliff went down the rabbit hole of the lawsuit, he found not a simple trademark dispute but a struggle over turning ideas into reality, and about who and what determine Silicon Valley's winners and losers. Read the whole tale: Why OpenAI Is at War With an Obscure Idea Man

Photograph by Annika Kafcaloudis for Bloomberg Businessweek

Talk to any resident of a world city popular with visitors, and two complaints inevitably come up: Rents are too high, and there are too many tourists.

It's tempting (and, data suggest, not unjustified) to place some of the blame for these woes on Airbnb Inc., Vrbo and other websites that facilitate short-term rentals. Critics accuse them of reducing the supply of available homes and saturating popular neighborhoods with wild partygoers. Shops catering to these visitors end up elbowing out other smaller businesses, making daily life even harder for locals.

In response, many cities have already introduced restrictions on short-term rentals, with some moving toward total bans. But bans also penalize city residents and visitors, including short-stay hosts conscientiously trying to follow rules and be good neighbors and guests who mind their manners. Is there a compromise that enshrines the benefits of short-term stays without driving up costs and frustrations for year-round residents?

In the latest edition of Common Ground, Feargus O'Sullivan weighs the case for and against short-term rental bans: How Airbnb Hosts and Frustrated Neighbors Can Find Common Ground

400,000

That's how many new residents Dubai has attracted since the pandemic. The influx of expatriates chasing high-paying jobs is boosting the business hub's almost $115 billion economy, but it's also exposing the limitations of its infrastructure.

"If you've been living in Paulding County all your life, you know how things were. And now you know how things are."

Cord Franklin

Pastor at Mt. Olivet Missionary Baptist Church in Rockmart, Georgia

Paulding County, dubbed one of the best places to be Black in America, hints at some of the economic, cultural and political changes the future might hold. Read the full story here.

Like Businessweek Daily? Check out these newsletters:

Business of Space for inside stories of investments beyond Earth
CFO Briefing for what finance leaders need to know
CityLab Daily for today's top stories, ideas and solutions from cities around the world
Tech Daily for exclusive reporting and analysis on tech and AI
Green Daily for the latest in climate news, zero-emission tech and green finance

Explore all newsletters at Bloomberg.com.