The daily business briefing: March 28, 2023

1. Chipotle to pay $240,000 after closing store that tried to unionize

Chipotle Mexican Grill agreed Monday to pay $240,000 to former employees to settle a lawsuit over its decision to close one of its restaurants in Maine after the workers there tried to become the chain's first outlet to unionize. Workers there had staged walkouts to protest working conditions and understaffing. Chipotle said it respected their rights but had to close the restaurant due to staffing issues. The National Labor Relations Board, which ruled the closure was illegal, sued, along with the Maine AFL-CIO labor union. The settlement requires Chipotle to pay about 20 former workers and offer them preferential hiring at other Maine restaurants, and post notices in dozens of New England outlets saying it won't discriminate against employees for union support.

CNBC The Associated Press

2. Lyft founders step aside as new CEO focuses on competing with Uber

Lyft, which is struggling to compete with larger rival Uber, announced Monday that the ride-hailing service's founders, Logan Green and John Zimmer, would step down as CEO and president and be replaced by board member David Risher. The transition followed a weak quarterly forecast that deepened fears that price cuts necessary to compete with Uber would reduce profits. "One of the first things we're very focused on is making sure we are matching Uber on price," Risher, who ran non-profit Worldreader before joining Lyft's board in 2021, told Reuters. Risher said expanding into offering food delivery like Uber wasn't an option. "The last thing they want is to get into a car that just dropped off a pizza," he said.

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Reuters

3. CNN nears deal to sign Gayle King to host a show in drive to revive ratings

CNN is close to a deal to bring CBS Mornings anchor Gayle King to the network to host a weekly prime-time show as part of a push to reverse falling ratings, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing people familiar with the situation. King, 68, could start hosting the weekly show this fall while continuing her work at CBS. CNN also is talking to former NBA star Charles Barkley about starring alongside King. Network leader Chris Licht has been working on remaking CNN's prime time offerings since he arrived last May. CNN has had the biggest slide as cable news channels lose viewers after several years of viewership boosted by the coronavirus pandemic, the 2020 presidential election, and the war in Ukraine.

The Wall Street Journal

4. Stock futures hover as banking concerns ease

U.S. stock futures were little changed early Tuesday as concerns about the health of the banking sector eased. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 were down by 0.1 percent and 0.2 percent, respectively, at 7 a.m. ET. Nasdaq futures were down 0.3 percent. Bank stocks rose in Europe, and First Republic Bank gained in pre-market trading after surging by 12 percent on Monday. The Dow and the S&P 500 gained 0.6 percent and 0.2 percent on Monday after First Citizens BancShares agreed to buy much of failed Silicon Valley Bank, lifting Wall Street sentiment, and deposit flows from small banks to big ones slowed.

Bloomberg CNBC

5. Regulator accuses Binance of crypto trading violations

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Monday sued the world's largest crypto exchange Binance, its CEO and founder, Changpeng Zhao, and its former top compliance executive, accusing them of running an "illegal exchange" with a "sham" compliance program in "willful evasion" of U.S. law. The complaint accuses Binance and its CEO of breaking trading laws by "secretly coaching 'VIP' customers within the United States on how to evade compliance controls" to trade crypto derivatives illegally. Zhao, a billionaire born in China and raised in Canada, called the complaint "unexpected and disappointing," saying it "appears to contain an incomplete recitation of facts."

Reuters CNN