The daily business briefing: April 19, 2023

1. Netflix ending DVD business after 25 years

Netflix said Tuesday it would end its DVD-by-mail business. Netflix, now known as a video-streaming service, started out by mailing DVDs to customers in distinctive red-and-white envelopes, lining up 20 million subscribers at its 2010 peak. But as streaming caught on and people stopped replacing old DVD players, the mail service lost customers. "Those iconic red envelopes changed the way people watched shows and movies at home — and they paved the way for the shift to streaming," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos wrote in a letter. Netflix, reporting mixed quarterly results, also said it was pushing back plans to clamp down on password-sharing more broadly to late June. The streamer says getting all users to pay could be an important source of new revenue.

The New York Times The Wall Street Journal

2. Tesla cuts U.S. prices for 2nd time this year

Tesla shares dropped nearly 3 percent in pre-market trading after the electric-vehicle maker cut U.S. prices for the second time this month. Tesla lowered Model Y sport utility vehicle prices by $3,000. It also slashed the Model 3 by 4.7 percent, pushing its price below $40,000. The 2023 price cuts followed several quarters with disappointing deliveries. The base prices for the Model Y and the Model 3 are now 29 percent and 15 percent cheaper, respectively, than they were at the start of the year. Tesla shares are up 50 percent in 2023. "We're not 'starting a price war,'" CEO Elon Musk tweeted several days ago. "We're just lowering prices to enable affordability at scale."

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Bloomberg

3. Apple opens its 1st store in India

Apple on Tuesday opened its first brick-and-mortar store in India, part of the iPhone maker's push to boost its business in what is now the world's most populous country. CEO Tim Cook was on hand for the event. Apple is moving some production to India to diversify its supply chain, but it also hopes to boost its smartphone sales with a push into India's huge market. Apple is the world's No. 2 smartphone producer behind Samsung, but it only has 6 percent of the market in India. The tech giant opened the first store in Mumbai, and plans to open a second in New Delhi, India's capital, on Thursday. Apple also opened a financial hub in India. Apple recently expanded iPhone production in India after facing supply-chain bottlenecks in China.

The Wall Street Journal CNN

4. Fox News agrees to pay Dominion $787.5 million in defamation settlement

Fox News on Tuesday agreed to pay Dominion Voting Systems $787.5 million to settle a defamation lawsuit the voting-equipment company filed, accusing the conservative news channel of publicizing false claims that the company's machines were used to switch votes from former President Donald Trump to President Biden in the 2020 election. The agreement came as the trial started with jury selection. The settlement allows Fox to avoid a high-profile trial in which its stars, including Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, and Maria Bartiromo, and top executives, including Executive Chair Rupert Murdoch, were expected to be called to testify. Before the trial, Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis ruled Fox couldn't justify airing false statements about Dominion by claiming they were newsworthy because Trump had made them.

Los Angeles Times

5. Stock futures drop ahead of more earnings reports

U.S. stock futures fell early Wednesday ahead of more key corporate earnings reports. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down 0.4 percent and 0.5 percent, respectively, at 7 a.m. ET. Nasdaq futures were down 0.8 percent. Investors were struggling with fresh concerns about stubbornly high inflation around the world after a U.K. inflation reading came in at 10.1 percent, higher than expected. Treasury yields jumped overnight as the data fueled expectations that the Federal Reserve would have to raise interest rates again in May. Morgan Stanley posts earnings Wednesday morning, and electric-vehicle maker Tesla reports after the closing bell. U.S. stocks were little changed on Tuesday.

CNBC