One of the many buttons to pay for your online order is having a bit of a meltdown. PayPal, the payment company that once revolutionized how to buy jeans over the internet, announced yesterday that it was replacing its CEO and it expects 2026 earnings to fall. The double whammy update sent stocks cratering more than 20%.

Former HP CEO Enrique Lores will replace Alex Chriss as CEO, effective March 1. Chriss joined PayPal in late 2023 to restart growth after the Covid pandemic:

• He did make some headway with PayPal’s buy now, pay later (BNPL) program, crypto, and monetizing Venmo (which it has owned since 2013)…but the company’s stock continued to fall.
• The company’s stock has lost nearly half of its value in the last year. It’s tanked more than 84% in the last five years.

PayPal’s board didn’t publicly offer much reasoning for the C-suite swap, only saying that the turnaround wasn’t happening fast enough under Chriss.

What the heck happened to PayPal?

PayPal has steadily lost market share as users ogled the hot new BNPL processors and big-name rivals like Apple and Google Pay. Pair that with lower- and middle-income consumers (its main user base) tightening nonessential spending, and the company hasn’t been able to claw its way back from a Covid slump.

Its market cap is hovering around $50 billion, while its rival Stripe is reportedly valued at $110 billion, according to Yahoo Finance data.

The new guy: Lores served on PayPal’s board for the last five years. His new job will mark the end of a nearly 37-year tenure at HP, where he started in 1989 as an engineering intern. Lores oversaw the split between HP and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, navigated an unsolicited takeover from Xerox, and took on the mammoth task of integrating your office printer with AI.—MM

Disney named theme parks boss, Josh D’Amaro, as its new CEO. For the first time since 2005, Disney’s CEO will not be named Bob. Following months of speculation, the Mouse House tapped Josh D’Amaro, the head of its parks business, as CEO effective March 18, succeeding Bob Iger. Meanwhile, Dana Walden—the company’s entertainment co-chair who was widely seen as the runner-up to D’Amaro—was promoted to president and chief creative officer. The elevation of D’Amaro coincides with Disney’s theme parks business becoming its biggest profit center, well ahead of movies and TV. The company’s experiences unit, which includes parks and cruises, reported a record $10 billion in profit last quarter.

The House passed a funding package to reopen the government. The three-day partial US government shutdown ended yesterday after the Republican-led chamber voted to approve $1.2 trillion in funding for most agencies through the rest of the fiscal year. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), however, will only be funded through Feb. 13 as Democrats and Republicans continue to negotiate potential restrictions on immigration agents. Democrats have said they will not support funding for DHS until Immigration and Customs Enforcement is “reined in,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said. Most Republicans have pushed back on those demands, but a small number of GOP lawmakers appeared to be open to them.

Spain became the first European country to ban social media for teens. Starting next week, people under 16 will no longer be able to access many social media platforms after the Spanish government passed a series of measures designed to hold tech companies responsible for the harm done to their users. “Social media has become a failed state, a place where laws are ignored, and crime is endured,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said. Spain joins Australia in officially banning social platforms for teens, while France and other countries are considering similar restrictions.—AE

After years of price hikes and numerous complaints, PepsiCo is finally listening to its customers. The maker of Doritos announced yesterday it will cut the cost of its most popular snacks “up to 15%” as early as this week to appeal to Americans feeling the pinch in a K-shaped economy.

Now, the pain that comes with a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos will still exist after you eat them but less so when you’re buying them. It’s a new direction:

• The average price of PepsiCo products climbed about 4% in the last two years after skyrocketing by double-digit percentages in 2022 and 2023.
• Since 2020, retail prices for salty snacks across the industry were up 38% as of June 2024, according to Jefferies analysts.

Market adjustment: PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta said this was a direct response to low- and middle-income consumers either abstaining from snacks or purchasing cheaper store-brand options. The company was also barraged with complaints about high prices via voicemails and emails.

No shrinkflation: Sizing will remain the same, but the new sales tag will be advertised at a lower price.

Zoom out: The price reductions coincide with this weekend’s Super Bowl, a big day for snacking. During the big game in 2024, Americans spent $670 million on snacks—tortilla chips were among the biggest sellers.—DL

It now costs two euros (~$2.35) to visit Rome’s treasured Trevi Fountain—not including the three coins you’ll have to toss to marry a local, as the superstition goes.

In a bid to tame crowd chaos, the city started charging tourists a fee this week to access the ornate sculptural fountain featured in Federico Fellini’s film La Dolce Vita and the Instagram story of every Roman holidayer. Additionally, there’s now a five-euro charge for some city museums.

Still worth it

The city says it’s not trying to deter visitors, but rather aims to raise a projected $7.6 million yearly to fund historic preservation and crowd control efforts at the site, insisting that two euros is peanuts for the chance to behold the Baroque-era marble masterpiece. A local official conjectured that if the fountain were located in New York, it would cost “at least $100.”

But there are still two ways to visit Italy’s landmark water spewer for free: Go after 10pm, or relocate to Rome permanently, since locals are exempt.

Rome isn’t alone…in combating overcrowding by tourists. Paris recently hiked the Louvre’s ticket price for non-Europeans from $26 to $37, while Venice imposed a daily five-euro city visit fee.—SK

Give yourself a pat on the back—your latest Walmart order of red solo cups, a tub of creatine powder, garbage bags, and a reading light you won’t actually use may have been what tipped the company over the edge and into $1t territory.

The big-box retailer hit $1 trillion in market cap yesterday, thanks to the growth of its digital business:

• Walmart is only the 11th company ever to reach the $1t club, joining a group that largely consists of tech giants like Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft.
• It’s the first traditional retailer to hit $1 trillion in value, the Wall Street Journal noted.

Walmart still has a ways to go to catch its biggest rival, Amazon, which is valued at more than $2.5 trillion.—AE