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One of the stocks with the highest surges in premarket trading this morning is Beyond Meat, Inc. (Nasdaq: BYND). As of the time of this writing, shares in BYND are up a staggering 67% before the opening bell. But whats driving this surge? Heres what you need to know. Beyond Meats recent struggles Todays premarket stock price jump follows a significant rally on Friday for Beyond Meat, the California-based producer of plant-based meat alternatives, whose shares closed up more than 24% to end the trading week at 64 cents per share, according to data from Yahoo Finance. The stock price surge, which is now in its second trading day, may come as a surprise to many, considering that Beyond Meat is experiencing significant financial woes as of late. As noted by Bloomberg, the company has seen a decline in interest in its plant-based products in recent years, with consumers being put off by high prices, the taste of the product, and its excessive processing. Weakening demand for meat alternatives in the U.S. helped lead to a 19.6% decline in sales in Beyond Meats most recent quarter, Q2 2025. Beyond Meat reported $75 million in revenues during that quarter. Earlier this year, Beyond Meat had attempted a brand pivot in hopes of returning to its former glory, as Fast Company reported. More recently, however, the company announced that its creditors had agreed to a debt swap, in which the company will issue 316 million new sharesthereby diluting the value of its current shares. This event contributed to a significant fall in the stock. As of Fridays closing price, BYND shares were down more than 82% for the year. Beyond Meat shares surge in premarket trading So why are BYND shares surging this morning? Yahoo Finance points out that Fridays and todays share price surge is not due to any fundamental financial shifts in the company. Instead, it is the result of a sudden spike in trading volume amid a classic short squeeze, where a heavily shorted stock experiences a sharp rise, forcing bearish investors to buy back shares to limit losses. As investors are forced into buying back the stock, its price rises. Some retail traders on Reddit have been pumping up the stock, even though analyst ratings have largely turned negative. In the past, Beyond Meat has been cited as being among the so-called meme stocks that online traders rally behind, a list that has included Krispy Kreme, GoPro, and others this year. Even with todays premarket stock price surge, BYND shares have performed poorly in 2025. In February, they were trading above $4.40 per share at one point. And even that 2025 share price high is dismal when you consider the company’s stock price going back further. In 2019, shortly after Beyond Meat went public, its shares were trading north of $230 at one point. The stocks price has dropped massively since its IPO debut, leading to a decline of more than 98% as of Fridays close. Earlier this month, it entered penny stock territory, hitting a low of around 50 cents a share.
Category:
E-Commerce
The week is not off to a great start for much of the internet. In the early hours of the morning Pacific time, internet users around the world began experiencing issues with accessing various apps, websites, and platforms. Shortly after, a culprit emerged: Amazon Web Services (AWS)or, more specifically, an outage at Amazons cloud computing platform. Heres what you need to know about the AWS outage and what websites are affected. Whats happened? At around midnight Pacific time, internet users around the globe began experiencing issues accessing high-trafficked parts of the internet. Websites like Reddit, services like Lyft, and even apps from restaurant chains like McDonalds seemed to be down or working intermittently. The source of the problem was shortly found: AWS, Amazons cloud computing platform that hundreds of thousands of websites and services rely on, including Reddit, Netflix, Pinterest, Spotify, and more. At 12:11 a.m. PDT, the AWS Health Dashboard posted its first notification about the problem, stating that the platform was investigating increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS services in the US-EAST-1 Region. By 12:51 a.m. PDT, AWS confirmed increased error rates and latencies for multiple AWS Services in the US-EAST-1 Region, and by 1:26 a.m. PDT, AWS said it could confirm significant error rates for requests made to the DynamoDB endpoint in the US-EAST-1 Region. But though the problem seemed to be affecting only the endpoint located in one region of the United States, any website, app, or service that ran data through that endpoint could be affected by its outageno matter where in the world the end-user was located. And that was bad news for users around the globe who were attempting to access some of the globes most highly trafficked sites and apps. What websites went down? Users around the world have reported troubles accessing dozens of websites, apps, and services, according to data compiled by DownDetector. As of this writing, the DownDetector home page is showing that multiple websites and services that rely on AWS are being reported as down, including: Amazon Amazon Alexa Amazon Prime Video Apple Music AT&T Chime Delta Air Lines Epic Games Store Fortnite Internet Movie Database (IMDb) Lyft Max McDonalds app Reddit Ring Robinhood Roblox Roku Playstation Network Signal Snapchat Spectrum Starbucks Steam Ubisoft Connect Venmo Xbox Network Xfinity by Comcast Zoom This list above is not exhaustive. Users of many other websites, apps, and services have also reported additional outages, including on Coinbase and United Airlines. Its also worth noting that some report being able to access select sites and services, while others report no luck while attempting access. What caused the AWS outage? Amazon has not yet mentioned whether a specific cause has been identified. A spokesperson for AWS referred Fast Company to its status page, which is still being updated with new developments. How long will the outage last? Its unknown how long the AWS outage will last or for how long your favorite site or service will be down. The last update on the AWS Health Dashboard, posted at 3:35 a.m. PDT and stated that the underlying DNS issue has been fully mitigated, adding most AWS Service operations are succeeding normally now. However, the same notice warned that Some requests may be throttled while we work toward full resolution. In other words, if you still cant access your favorite site or platform, its best to try again in a little bit. This story is developing . . .
Category:
E-Commerce
Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday. Gregg Renfrew is back. Four years after the entrepreneur sold her clean skincare and cosmetics brand Beautycounter to The Carlyle Group in a deal valued at $1 billionand more than a year after she and the private equity firm shut down the company amid falling salesRenfrew today is officially launching Counter, a new company built on Beautycounter assets she acquired from Carlyles lenders. A season of learning Counter, which has been quietly selling products online since June 25, shares its predecessors clean ethos and uses some of its formulations. Renfrew also secured data on all of Beautycounters customers. But Counter is an upstart compared with Beautycounter, which reportedly booked $400 million in annual sales at the time of the Carlyle acquisition. Despite her considerable experience as an entrepreneurshe previously cofounded a bridal registry site bought by Martha Stewart Living OmnimediaRenfrew is, in many ways, going back to basics, focusing on profitability and listening to customers and sellers. I come into this today with a level of humility, she tells Modern CEO. I dont claim to have all the answers. Im in a season of learning. Beautycounters demise was indeed humbling. (My Fast Company colleague Elizabeth Segran offers a thorough recounting of the companys rise and fall.) Sales foundered and the company struggled to service its debt. Efforts to revive Beautycounter, such as a deal to sell its products in retailer Ulta Beauty, and changes to leadership, including the return of Renfrew as CEO in 2022, ultimately could not save the business. Renfrew says buying back the Beautycounter assets instead of starting a new company from scratch wasnt just a way of kick-starting a business. It was an emotional decision, too. To let the old company completely go and die when it pioneered, created, and led clean beautyknowing that it had been a very successful entity at one point in timeI didnt want to let go of all that, Renfrew says. She adds: My daughter Georgie was literally bawling in front of me saying, You cant just let this thing die. Mom, you worked so hard for so long. Second chances and lessons learned Renfrew is not the first founder with sellers remorse. In 2023, Ben and Nate Checketts took back control of Rhone, the apparel brand they started, from investor L Catterton. Sprout Pharmaceuticals founder Cindy Eckert sold her company to Valeant Pharmaceuticals (now known as Bausch Health Companies Inc.) in 2015 for $1 billion, then bought it back two years later because the giant didnt make reasonable efforts to commercialize Sprouts female sexual health drug. At Counter, Renfrew is applying lessons learned the hard way from the Beautycounter collapse. She is not the majority shareholder, but she says she has a high degree of decision-making authority. Her backers are mostly individuals, most of whom invested with her before. The one institutional investor came in knowing that we were going to do things a little bit differently, such as prioritizing profitability over growth. Profitability gives you optionality, she says. One of the things Im very acutely aware of is you dont ever want to be in a situation where youre not profitable. And if that means the business is slightly smaller and it takes longer to grow, thats okay, because your customers then know that youre going to be around in five years. Shes doing teleconference meetings with customers and sellers, asking whats working and whats not. Im seeking to understand and learn, she says, adding that she recognizes that were here in service of others who will afford us the opportunity to build a great brand and a great community. Counters success is by no means assured. The clean beauty category Renfrew helped create is now crowded with competitors, and the demise of Beautycounter left employees, sellersthe company sold through its website but also through so-called ambassadors who earned a commission on salesand customers in the lurch. Counter may have to, well, counter lingering negative feelings. Those who continue to purchase from us in this new companywe owe a debt of gratitude, Renfrew says. We need to treat them with the respect that they deserve. For Renfrew, one way of showing them that respect is, this time, to build a company thats built to last. What’s your approach to business longevity? If youre a founder or work at a founder-led company, what are the ways that your business is ensuring its longevity? Share your insights with me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and well include some of the best reader feedback in a future newsletter. As a reminder, Im soliciting nominations for Modern CEO of the Year via this form. Submissions are due November 21, and well share our pickor picksin a newsletter at the end of December. Read and watch: entrepreneurial second acts Cindy Eckert on buying back sexual health company Sprout Pharmaceuticals Chipotle founder Steve Ells wants to shake up restaurants with his new concept, Kernel Mark Lore on what it takes to be a serial entrepreneur
Category:
E-Commerce
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