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Swiss food giant Nestlé said Monday it dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate.The maker of Nescafé drinks and Purina pet food said in a statement the dismissal was effective immediately. An investigation found the undisclosed romantic relationship with a direct subordinate violated Nestlé’s code of conduct.Freixe, who had been CEO for a year, will be replaced by Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive.“This was a necessary decision,” said Chairman Paul Bulcke. “Nestlé’s values and governance are strong foundations of our company.”The company didn’t give any other details about the investigation.Freixe had been with Nestlé since 1986, holding roles around the world. When Nestlé revamped its geographic structure in January 2022, Freixe became CEO of Zone Latin America. In August 2024, he was tapped to replace then-CEO Mark Schneider in the top role, and started Sept. 1, 2024.Navratil started his career with Nestlé in 2001 as an internal auditor and served in a variety of roles in Central America. In 2020, he joined Nestlé’s Coffee Strategic Business Unit, and in 2024, he became CEO of Nestlé’s Nespresso division.It’s the latest in a string of personnel changes for the company. In June, Bulcke, a former CEO who has been chairman of the board since 2017, said he wouldn’t stand for reelection in 2026. And in April, Steve Presley, an executive vice president and CEO of Zone Americas, said he was retiring after almost 30 years of service.Based in Vevey, Switzerland, Nestlé has been facing headwinds like other food makers, including rising commodity costs and the negative impact of tariffs. It said in July it offset higher coffee and cocoa-related costs with price increases. Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Klarna Group, the Swedish fintech startup known for its popular buy now, pay later services, has reveled the target share price for its long-awaited initial public offering (IPO). In a filing Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the company said it plans to offer roughly 34.3 million ordinary shares at a price ranging between $35 and $37, raising as much as $1.27 billion in an offering led by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley. The IPO has been a long time coming. Klarna had been one of big winners of the early pandemic era’s online shopping boom, reportedly reaching a peak valuation of $45.6 billion in 2021, only to see that figure significantly reduced after stay-at-home restrictions were lifted and the world opened back up again. At its current target price, the company would have a valuation of roughly $14 billion, Reuters reports. Klarna intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the ticker symbol KLAR. No listing date was mentioned in the filing. A spokesperson for Klarna declined to comment. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data["datawrapper-height"][t]+"px";r.style.height=d}}})}(); High-profile tech IPOs are a thing this year Earlier this year, Klarna reportedly put its IPO on hold in the wake of economic uncertainty brought on by President Trump’s tariff regime. But since then, a number of well-known tech companies have gone public with marked success, including stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Group, design software startup Figma, and crypto exchange Bullish. Despite those and other listings making headlines over the last few months, the global tech IPO market has remained muted. Proceeds from tech IPOs generated $6.3 billion in the second quarter of 2025, compared to $34.9 billion for the same period in 2021, according to data from CB Insights. Founded in 2005, Klarna said it generated revenue of $2.8 billion last year, eking out a net profit of $21 million. That’s compared to revenue of $2.3 billion and a net loss of $244 million the year before. This story is developing…
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E-Commerce
A new startup called Ridley wants to make it cheaper to sell a home by challenging the traditional real estate commission model. Founder and CEO Mike Chambers says he started Ridley after trying to sell his house earlier this year in a desirable Boulder, Colorado, neighborhood. Frustrated by the lack of agents offering what he considered fair rates, he documented the process of marketing the home himself in a series of viral Instagram videos under the handle @realtorshateme, regularly taking shots at the industry. “The story was picked up by the press,” he says. “We really had tapped into what I would argue is this sort of underlying sentiment that a lot of consumers are feeling right now, that this process of buying and selling homes is antiquated and somewhat broken.” Once the house was under contract, Chambers began promoting the business idea that became Ridley. Launched in July, the platform lets sellers pay a flat fee for access to an AI-guided checklist of steps and paperwork, pricing guidance, a listing page, yard sign, and distribution to Zillow. [Image: Ridley] Through a partnership with Thumbtack, sellers can also book stagers or photographers, and Ridley connects users with lawyers, either at a $1,200 package rate or hourly. “We’re trying to unbundle this commission modelthis sort of traditional modeland give people the freedom and the choice to choose which aspects of the process they want help with,” says Chambers. Traditionally, U.S. real estate commissions have ranged from 5% to 6%, typically paid by the seller and split between agents. While a recent court settlement has nominally introduced more flexibility, buyers and sellers havent yet seen dramatic shifts in practice. So far, Ridley has logged more than $150 million in listings, growing by several million dollars daily, Chambers says. Closed sales have saved users an average of $25,000 in commissions, with one seller saving as much as $135,000. Most users, he adds, have sold at least one home before. Pricing and plan details vary from state to state, based in part on differing regulations. In its home state of Colorado, for example, the company offers a $2,999 plan that includes the assistance of a licensed real estate brokerincluding listing via the multiple listing service (MLS) database accessible to buyers’ agents. Despite Chambers’ public comments on the real estate industry, he says the company has a waitlist of more than 1,000 Colorado agents looking to work with Ridley clients, thanks in part to frustrations many have with traditional industry practices. Ambierre Rediger, a Denver-area agent who has begun working with Ridley users, says they tend to be slightly more informed about prices and market conditions, but the core of her job is the same. “I’m offering them a similar sort of agent relationship that they would have with anybody,” she says. In other states, Ridley offers an “essentials plan” for $999 without an agent. Its AI collects property details to generate pricing analyses Chambers says are more accurate than generic online estimates. “Our model is able to provide you with a detailed pricing analysis that gives you a step-by-step breakdown on a bunch of different pricing scenarios and how you might want to go to market,” he says. The AI can also guide users through sale stages and explain industry terms. Entrepreneur Bradd Fisher used Ridley to sell a home in Yorba Linda, California, after finding Chambers videos. He says Ridleys price estimate was closer to the final sale price than one provided by a human appraiser, and he was satisfied with the attorney he hired through the platform. Fisher handled other tasks himself, like shooting a property video, working with his photographer son, and hosting his own open house. “We closed in 30 days, and I can say legit, with not one single hiccup, no problems at all,” Fisher says. Chambers says Ridley plans to add buyer services in the future. The company already offers “Buyer Alerts,” which notify buyers of new or off-market listings. But focusing on sellers, who traditionally pay both commissions, was the logical place to start, he says. The company, which is in the process of raising a seed round, is likely to add additional options to work with human real estate brokers in more states, even as its AI may gain more abilities to automate parts of the process like pricing or vendor selection. “We’re trying to make this really complicated process as simple and easy to navigate as possible for sellers,” Chambers says. “And I think that’s a really critical component here.”
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E-Commerce
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