BusinessAnalysis

Seine-itary conditions: Paris mayor takes a dip in ‘clean’ river as Olympics approach

Planet Business: Hillbilly Elegy streams jump, Burberry changes its chief executive again, and companies that moved their headquarters from California to Texas

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo swims in the Seine to demonstrate that the river is clean enough to host the outdoor swimming events at the Paris Olympics. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo swims in the Seine to demonstrate that the river is clean enough to host the outdoor swimming events at the Paris Olympics. Photograph: Emmanuel Dunand/AFP via Getty
Laura Slattery's picture
Laura Slattery
Sat Jul 20 2024 - 06:15

Image of the week: Olympic anticipation

After narrowly losing out to London to host the 2012 games in the International Olympic Committee vote in 2005, Paris has been keenly waiting for its turn to stage the summer Olympics for quite some time now. The games were last in the city a century ago in 1924.

Now there’s just a week left to go before the opening ceremony. The rings are dotted about the French capital for convenient selfie purposes, the torch has been busy doing the rounds, the strike-threatening airport workers have secured their “Olympic bonus”, and the mayor, Anne Hidalgo, took a dip in the Seine on Wednesday in apparent proof that the river will be clean enough for the swimming marathon and the triathlons.

Although it might seem strange that people might need reminding of the existence of Paris, French authorities will be hoping that the games deliver a legacy of higher tourist numbers, with the Seine far from the only scenic backdrop to proceedings.

The beach volleyball will take place close to the Eiffel Tower, the fencing and taekwondo will be held at the Grand Palais and the new (but already dropped for Los Angeles 2028) Olympic sport of breaking – otherwise known as breakdancing – is among the events destined for Place de la Concorde. But will the organisers claim a gold medal or fall agonisingly short of a podium finish?

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In numbers: Hillbilly Elegy

Amy Adams in Hillbilly Elegy
Amy Adams in Hillbilly Elegy

19.2 million

Total minutes of Hillbilly Elegy, the Netflix film based on the memoir by JD Vance, that were streamed on Monday, the day he was announced as Donald Trump’s running mate, according to US streaming data firm Luminate.

164,000

Based on its running time of 171 minutes, this works out as almost 164,000 views of the film, which stars Amy Adams, Glenn Close and Gabriel Basso (as Vance) and was widely panned on its release in 2020.

1,179%

Percentage leap in the minutes of Hillbilly Elegy consumed on Netflix compared with Sunday, when Vance was merely one of several possible future vice-president picks.

Getting to know: Joshua Schulman

At Burberry, chief executives go out of fashion fairly quickly. This week it was out with the old (Jonathan Akeroyd) and in with the new again, with Joshua Schulman taking on the check-patterned mantle, following veteran Akeroyd’s exit after just 2½ years “by mutual agreement with the board” and after Burberry warned that it could make a loss in the first half of 2024.

Los Angeles native Schulman, the former boss of US brands Michael Kors, Jimmy Choo and Coach, inherits a company that, under Akeroyd and newish creative designer Daniel Lee, had launched a “refocus” of its brand image amid slowing demand for its trench coats, handbags and other luxury style items. Lee’s contribution to date includes introducing a new brand colour called “Burberry blue”.

But with a mismatch between supply and demand resulting in high stock levels, the British company has found itself in something of a blue period in more ways than one.

The list: California to Texas

Elon Musk has announced that he will relocate the headquarters of his companies X and SpaceX, currently based in San Francisco and Hawthorne, both in California. In making the move to Texas, they will be following this lot, just a small sample of the companies to be wooed by the business climate in the Lone Star State.

1. Toyota: The Japanese car giant was ahead of the trend, moving its US sales headquarters from Torrance, near Los Angeles, to Plano in Texas a decade ago.

2. Charles Schwab: The financial services company, known for pioneering low-cost stock trades in the US in the mid-1970s, upped sticks from San Francisco to Westlake, Texas, in 2019.

3. Hewlett-Packard: By the time the tech company moved its headquarters from San Jose to Houston in 2020, an exodus was in full swing.

4. Oracle: The database software company also switched states in 2020, shifting its headquarters from Redwood, California, to the Texan state capital, Austin.

5. Tesla: Musk has done this move before. In 2021 he relocated his electric vehicle company’s headquarters from Palo Alto in Silicon Valley to Austin’s “Silicon Hills”.

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