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As the pandemic wanes, US retailers are frantically moving to clear excess hand sanitizer.

After frantically stocking up on disinfectants last year, consumers have largely stopped buying them, partly because the CDC now says that there is minimal risk of getting COVID-19 by touching surfaces.

That’s a big headache for stores that have anti-germ products piled up in their warehouses and retail shelves. Some businesses are practically giving the stuff away with buy-one, get-three sales or gift cards for buying multiple bottles.

Target.com is offering a $5 gift card to anyone who buys four 8-ounce bottles of Dove hand sanitizer. B&R Stores, a Nebraska-based retailer, told the Wall Street Journal it is selling sanitizers for as much as 60 percent off after paying twice as much for the products last year compared to 2019, according to the report.

“It’s worth more to us gone than it is clogging our shelves,” Mark Griffin, president of B&R Stores Inc. in Nebraska told The Wall Street Journal.

Hand sanitizer sales are down 80 percent to $9.2 million in the first week of May compared to a year ago, while the average unit price consumers pay is down 40 percent over the same time period, according to NielsenIQ. 

Retailers are finding themselves practically giving away hand sanitizers after stockpiling them during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.Getty Images/iStockphoto

Retailers are hoping to offload the surplus before the products’ two-year expiration date, the paper reported. Some, including big chains Target and Staples, have even turned to auction sites like Liquidity Services and Liquidation.com to get rid of the large pallets in their warehouses. 

Distillers, which jumped into the fray last year to help meet the demand because they had access to pure alcohol, are also sitting on gallons of disinfectant that some are now simply giving away, according to the Journal.

But at least one company is betting that germaphobe behavior is a lasting trend.

Gojo Industries, which makes Purell, added three manufacturing facilities over the past year, spokeswoman Samantha Williams told The Journal. She said demand for Purell hand sanitizer is still higher than pre-pandemic levels as consumers have an “increased awareness of hygiene practices,” according to the report.

Apple CEO Tim Cook described the company’s ironclad control over its mobile app store as a way to keep things simple for customers while protecting them against security threats and privacy intrusions during Friday testimony denying allegations he has been running an illegal monopoly.

The rare courtroom appearance by one of the world’s best-known executives came during the closing phase of a three-week trial revolving an antitrust case brought by Epic Games, maker of the popular video game Fortnite.

Epic is trying to topple the so-called “walled garden” for iPhone and iPad apps that welcomes users and developers while locking out competition. Created by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs a year after the iPhone’s 2007 debut, the App Store has become a key revenue source for Apple, a money-making machine that helped power the company to a $57 billion profit in its last fiscal year.

Epic is trying to prove that the store has morphed into a price-gouging vehicle that not only reaps a 15 percent to 30 percent commission from in-app transactions, but blocks apps from offering other payment alternatives. That extends to just showing a link that would open a web page offering commission-free ways to pay for subscriptions, in-game items and the like.

Apple CEO Tim Cook arriving to federal court in Oakland, California, Friday, trailed by his security detail. Getty Images

Guided by friendly questioning from an Apple lawyer, Cook’s testimony often sounded like a commercial for the iPhone and other products that he hailed as the best in the world. The tone was not coincidental. Besides counting on Cook to help win the case against Epic, Apple viewed his closely watched courtroom appearance as an opportunity to tell its story while the app store is also under scrutiny by lawmakers and regulators in the US and Europe.

“For us, the customer is everything,” Cook explained while wearing a face shield, but no mask in an Oakland, California, courtroom that has limited access to a handful of people because of the pandemic. That commitment includes ensuring technology remains “simple, not complex” for users of Apple products, Cook said, and protecting their privacy, which he called “one of the most important issues of the century.”

Cook is expected to face a much more daunting challenge later Friday when Epic lawyer Gary Bornstein gets a chance to grill him. That sparring could take about two hours and will likely to delve into the strategies Cook has drawn up since taking the CEO job nearly a decade ago, just a few months before Jobs died of cancer in October 2011.

Apple fiercely defends the commissions as a fair way for app makers to help pay for innovations and security controls achieve those goals while also providing benefits for app developers, including Epic. Apple says it has invested more than $100 billion in such features.

Epic Games, maker of the popular online game Fortnite, is suing Apple in federal court, accusing Apple of anti-competitive behavior regarding commissions charged to developers by its App Store.LightRocket via Getty Images

It also argues that App Store commissions mirror fees charged by major video game consoles — Sony’s PlayStation, Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Switch — as well as a similar app store run by Google for more than 3 billion mobile Android devices. That is roughly twice the number of active iPhones, iPads and iPods that rely on Apple’s store for apps.

The App Store ranks among Apple’s biggest successes during Cook’s reign. Since beginning with just 500 apps in 2008 the store has ballooned to 1.8 million apps, most of which are free. Apple has drawn upon its commissions and exclusive in-app payment system to help more than double the annual revenue of its services division from $24 billion in fiscal 2016 to $54 billion last year.

“I think it has been an economic miracle,” Cook boasted Friday.

This boom wasn’t something Jobs foresaw. Shortly after the store opened, Jobs publicly said Apple didn’t expect the App Store to be very lucrative. Epic’s lawyers have repeatedly cited those comments as evidence that Apple reshaped the store to fuel its earnings growth once the popularity of mobile apps became clear.

Exactly how profitable the App Store is has been a point of contention throughout the trial. An accounting expert hired by Epic estimated that its profit margins range from 70 percent to 80 percent, based on a review of confidential Apple documents. But Apple has insisted those numbers aren’t accurate because they don’t reflect expenses spread throughout the company’s operations.

Phil Schiller, a longtime Apple executive and former Jobs confidant, conceded earlier this week that the company’s commission system had generated more than $20 billion in revenue through June 2017. Epic lawyer Katherine Forrest had presented him with that estimate, based on numbers that Apple publicly released in mid-2017.

Cook also acknowledged the App Store is profitable but said he didn’t have a concrete number. “I have a feel, if you will,” he testified.

 Snap Inc said Friday it will acquire WaveOptics, a British augmented reality technology company, for over $500 million.

The deal, first reported by The Verge and confirmed by a Snap spokesman, will help the owner of photo messaging app Snapchat push its way into a future where AR eyewear could be ubiquitous.

Snap, along with other tech giants like Facebook and Apple, are racing to build AR devices as the next technological frontier after the smartphone.

The vision behind AR eyewear is that it could allow a user to virtually see route directions in front of them, or see information about a landmark in their surroundings, for example.

Snap said it will pay half the $500 million for WaveOptics in stock at closing, and the other half will be paid in either cash or stock in two years. Snap is based in Santa Monica, California, while WaveOptics is headquartered in Oxford, England.

On Thursday, Snap unveiled a new version of its Spectacles glasses, the first to incorporate AR with two built-in cameras, two speakers and four microphones.

The new Spectacles won’t be sold to the public, and will only be available to AR developers who apply to use the glasses.

Microsoft’s CEO has finally weighed in on reports that the tech giant’s co-founder Bill Gates had an affair with an employee two decades ago — and insists that the company’s culture has changed.

“The Microsoft of 2021 is very different from the Microsoft of 2000,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told CNBC on Friday, noting that Microsoft has had a policy requiring employees to disclose office relationships since 2006. “Anyone can raise any issue, even an issue from 20 years ago, we will investigate it, take action to the satisfaction of the person who has raised it.”

Gates had an affair with a female employee in the year 2000, Microsoft has acknowledged. The tryst reportedly lasted five years, and the company’s board allegedly became aware of the relationship in 2019 and opened an investigation.

Last year, Gates left the board before the full board could make a decision on the matter, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“The power dynamic in the workplace is not something that needs to — can be abused in any form,” added Nadella, who has served as CEO since 2014. “The most important thing is for us to make sure that everybody’s comfortable in being able to raise any issues they see and for us to be able to fully investigate it.”

Bill and Melinda Gates announced earlier this month that they are divorcing.Elaine Thompson/AP

Gates has also come under fire in recent weeks for his apparently close relationship with serial pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. Their friendship reportedly angered his wife Melinda Gates and contributed to their decision to divorce, which the couple announced earlier in May.

Gates served as Microsoft CEO until 2000 and remained on the board until last year.

Bill and Melinda Gates in the late 1990s announcing the formation of a charitable effort to help get vaccines to children in the developing world.Jeff Christensen/Getty Images

In Friday’s television appearance, Nadella insisted that Microsoft’s current culture is no longer the same as during the Gates era.

“We have no forced arbitrations, so I feel that we have created an environment that allows us to really drive that everyday improvement in our diversity and inclusion culture,” he said.

The price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies dropped Friday after Chinese authorities called for a crackdown on “mining” and trading.

The Chinese government said in a statement that greater reform and regulation is needed to protect the country’s financial system and economy.

Among the recommendations listed, the authorities said it is necessary to “crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading behavior, and resolutely prevent the transmission of individual risks to the social field,” according to a Google translation of the Chinese statement.

The statement was the result of a meeting held earlier Friday by the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council, which was presided over by Vice Premier Liu He, who also serves on the 25-member Politburo of the Communist Party of China.

Bitcoin’s price fell more than 8 percent after the statement was published, according to data from Coinbase. The price of ether, the native currency on the Ethereum blockchain, fell more than 13 percent and the price of dogecoin plunged over 14 percent.

A bitcoin mine site manager seen inside the facility near Kongyuxiang, Sichuan, China.Paul Ratje/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Bitcoin was the only cryptocurrency mentioned by name in the statement from Chinese authorities.

“It is necessary to maintain the smooth operation of the stock, debt, and foreign exchange markets, severely crack down on illegal securities activities, and severely punish illegal financial activities,” the statement said.

An aerial view of a bitcoin farm next to a hydropower station in Mabian Yi Autonomous County, in southwest China’s Sichuan province.Imaginechina via AP Images

Haobtc’s bitcoin mine is pictured in remote mountains on the edge of the Tibetan Plateau near Kongyuxiang, Sichuan, China.Paul Ratje/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

Ryan Xu, chief strategy officer and co-founder of Bitcoin Group Limited, shows off mining equipment inside his company’s bitcoin mine near Kongyuxiang, Sichuan, China.Paul Ratje/For The Washington Post via Getty Images

The statement also touched on using monetary policy to “ensure employment” and support the real economy.

Friday’s statement comes after another issued earlier this week by three Chinese banking and payment industry bodies. On Tuesday, they warned financial institutions not to offer clients any service involving cryptocurrency, including registration, trading, clearing and settlement.

“Recently, crypto currency prices have skyrocketed and plummeted, and speculative trading of cryptocurrency has rebounded, seriously infringing on the safety of people’s property and disrupting the normal economic and financial order,” they said in the statement.

That statement helped prompt a major sell-off that sent the price of bitcoin below $40,000 per coin for the first time in three months.

China has already banned crypto exchanges and initial coin offerings but has not barred individuals from holding cryptocurrencies.

The statement also comes after US regulators signaled Thursday that they could soon crackdown on cryptocurrency here in the States. The Treasury Department announced it will require any transfer worth $10,000 or more to be reported to the Internal Revenue Service, saying that cryptos pose a rise of tax evasion.

Bitcoin mining machines seen running at a bitcoin farm in Mabian Yi Autonomous County, China.Imaginechina via AP Images

Julius de Kempenaer, senior technical analyst at Stockcharts.com, told the Post earlier this week, before China’s Friday announcement, that a rapid recovery of bitcoin and the broader crypto market is possible, but the overall upside potential is limited and the downside risk is huge.

“The saying never catch a falling knife seems very appropriate as it is raining knives in the crypto space at the moment,” he said.

Shareholders of Tribune Publishing, parent company of the New York Daily News and one of the country’s largest newspaper chains, voted Friday on a takeover bid by hedge fund Alden Global Capital. In a statement, Alden appeared to say the deal was approved, an assertion questioned by the union representing Tribune journalists.

Alden, which already owned nearly one-third of Tribune, stands to take full control of the New York Daily News, Chicago Tribune, Baltimore Sun and other Tribune papers in a deal worth roughly $630 million. Through its Digital First Media chain, Alden also owns the Boston Herald, Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News.

Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Los Angeles Times and Tribune’s No. 2 shareholder, abstained from the vote. Union officials cast doubt on the outcome because of that.

They cited Tribune’s proxy statement of April 20, which states that approval of the deal required the votes of at least two-thirds of shares not owned by Alden, and that an “abstain” vote counted the same as an “against” vote. Soon-Shiong, in a statement issued through a representative, said he “abstained from voting” and that he viewed Tribune as a “passive investment.”

“We’re digging into this question right now,” said Jon Schleuss, president of the NewsGuild journalists union.

The Chicago Tribune, citing unnamed Tribune officials, reported that Soon-Shiong’s ballots were submitted without the “abstain” box checked, and so were counted as a “yes” vote on the Alden takeover, which was in accordance with the instructions on the ballot.

Patrick Soon-Shiong abstained from voting on the deal to have Alden buy out Tribune Publishing, his spokesperson said.FilmMagic

Representatives for Soon-Shiong, Alden, Tribune and the special committee of Tribune’s board did not immediately reply to questions about the vote count.

If successful, Alden’s deal would be the latest acquisition of a newspaper company by a financial firm. The collapse of print advertising as readers migrate to digital publications has rocked the traditional newspaper business. Publishers have shut down more than 2,000 papers over the past 15 years and half of newsroom jobs have disappeared. Investment firm owners are often criticized for valuing profits over the mission of local journalism, and Alden is no exception.

The deal had drawn opposition from many of the company’s journalists at papers in an unusual spate of employee activism.

They set up rallies, tried to find local buyers and begged for a rescue in their own newspapers. They had rooted for a higher bid from hotel mogul Stewart Bainum in the belief that it would be better for local journalism, although the bid never came to fruition. They lobbied Soon-Shiong to vote no and stop the deal.

Alden became Tribune’s largest shareholder in 2019. The union representing Tribune’s journalists says the hedge fund’s cost cuts have already led to shrinking newsrooms and closed offices.

“The purchase of Tribune reaffirms our commitment to the newspaper industry and our focus on getting publications to a place where they can operate sustainably over the long term,” said Heath Freeman, president of Alden, in a statement.

At the end of 2019, the US had 6,700 newspapers, down from almost 9,000 in 2004, according to a 2020 report by the University of North Carolina’s journalism school. UNC Hussman School of Journalism and Media usnewsdeserts.com

“Alden as top shareholder is an ongoing crisis, but Alden in full control will likely destroy Tribune publications,” wrote Gregory Pratt, head of the Chicago Tribune Guild and a Tribune reporter, in a plea to Soon-Shiong to reject the Alden deal.

Tribune itself is no stranger to cost cuts and shrinking newsrooms. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2012, it split from its TV broadcasting arm in 2014 and since then has bought and sold papers including the Los Angeles Times (sold), the San Diego Union-Tribune (bought and then sold) and the New York Daily News (bought, then hit with layoffs that cut its editorial staff in half). Its annual revenue has fallen by more than half since 2015, and by the end of 2020, its number of full- and part-time employees stood at 2,865 people, just 40 percent of its headcount five years earlier.

Financial firms view newspapers primarily as short-term investments, according to a 2020 report by the University of North Carolina’s journalism school. Private equity firms and hedge fund owners prioritize shareholder returns over journalism’s civic mission, it found, leading other newspaper owners to adopt similar practices as print-ad revenue, previously key to the industry’s financial health, collapsed. The result: round after round of layoffs, more than 2,000 papers shut down over 15 years and many surviving papers reduced to shells of their former selves.

The financial firms have played a significant role in consolidating the industry as online competition drew away readers’ attention and ad dollars. Hedge fund Chatham Asset Management bought newspaper chain McClatchy in an auction last year following the company’s bankruptcy, beating a bid from Alden. A newspaper company managed by private equity firm Fortress bought Gannett in 2019 with a high-interest loan from another private equity firm. The newspaper company, which retained the Gannett name and is publicly traded, has since ended the management arrangement with Fortress.

The battle for Tribune’s fate accelerated in December, when Alden offered to buy all of the company. A special committee of Tribune’s board recommended that shareholders accept the deal. Tribune CEO Terry Jimenez, who is on the board, had opposed the bid as too low.

Gregory Pratt, head of the Chicago Tribune Guild and a Tribune reporter, warned an Alden takeover will likely destroy Tribune publications.Getty Images

An expected higher bid for the whole company from hotel mogul Bainum never fully materialized. He was unable to find a buyer for the Chicago Tribune, a key element in his plan to return the company’s papers to local ownership. Hansjörg Wyss, a billionaire from Wyoming who expressed interest in owning the Chicago Tribune, joined Bainum’s bid, then subsequently dropped out. He did not say why.

Prior to his bid for all of Tribune, Bainum struck a side deal to buy Baltimore Sun Media from Tribune for $65 million via a nonprofit. It’s unclear what happens to the Sun now that the Alden bid has apparently succeeded. Messages left for Bainum through his hotel company and a family foundation were not returned.

Uber and Lyft drivers in California will be forced to shift plans to go electric into high gear under a new rule from the state’s clean-air regulator. 

By 2030, at least 90 percent of both ride-hailing companies’ miles driven must be through plug-in vehicles, California’s Air Resources Board decreed on Thursday. 

The edict will help move California closer to the state’s goal of essentially eradicating gas-powered vehicle ownership in the state. Sales of new gas-powered passenger vehicles will be banned by 2035, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom said last year. 

“The transportation sector is responsible for nearly half of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, the vast majority of which come from light-duty vehicles,” said California Air Resources Board Chair Liane Rudolph in an announcement of the ride-share rule. “This action will help provide certainty to the state’s climate efforts and improve air quality in our most disadvantaged communities.”

California officials say the transportation sector is responsible for nearly half of the state’s greenhouse gas emissions.Getty Images

California’s rule, however, is actually less ambitious than Uber and Lyft’s self-imposed targets. Both companies have promised to shift to all-electric fleets by 2030, and both have said the California government needs to spend more money to help their workers afford plug-in cars, according to Reuters.

Electric vehicles are currently pricier in general than gas-powered alternatives.

Uber and Lyft already have been pushing for an aggressive switch to electric vehicles in California, pledging to require 100 percent of drivers in the state to make the switch by 2030.AFP via Getty Images

Paul Augustine, senior manager of sustainability at Lyft, expressed support for the California rule in a statement to The Post, saying the company “advocated for aggressive targets throughout the process.”

Uber global head of sustainability Adam Gromis said the company “shares California’s climate and EV goals,” adding that Uber plans to help drivers purchase electric vehicles.