1. DELTA AIR LINES SHARES THE WEALTH FROM A HEALTHY 2019: Following a stellar performance in 2019, Delta Air Lines has revealed plans to pay its employees $1.6 billion in profit-sharing bonuses. Next month, every eligible employee will receive a check for 16.6 percent of their annual salary, or an extra two months' pay. CNN: “‘Delta would be nothing without our 90,000 people. They deserve all the credit,’ Delta C.E.O. Ed Bastian said on LinkedIn. The profit payout to employees for 2019 is a record amount. It is also the sixth year in a row that the company has paid out more than $1 billion to workers, a Delta spokesperson said. The profit-sharing plan started in 2012 following Delta's merger with Northwest."
2. FYRE FESTIVAL PRODUCER STRIKES UP A PARTNERSHIP WITH EVIAN: Viral sensation Andy King, an event producer tied to the Fyre Festival, has leveraged his infamous remark about Evian into a partnership with the water company. King became known last year after the airing of Fyre, a Netflix documentary about the disastrous event. He stated in the film that he was ready to ‘take one big thing for the team’ to get festivalgoers Evian, which was stuck in customs in the Bahamas. In return, the premium water company is now creating a custom Evian bottle with a new slogan: "so good you’d do anything for it." New York Post: “Evian also launched a contest on Friday, in which 10 participants can win one of the custom bottles from King. ... Since the release of Fyre, King revealed he has also gotten TV offers and movie cameos.”
3. NEWCOMER WITH STRONG BACKING SET TO BE A MAJOR PLAYER AT THE SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL: An astonishing one-quarter of the documentaries shown during part of the iconic Sundance Film Festival later this week will come from a newly created production company, Concordia Studio. The firm is backed by wealthy philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs—the former wife of the late Steve Jobs, the Apple magnate—and was founded by Davis Guggenheim, an Oscar award-winning documentary filmmaker. The New York Times: “Four of Concordia’s nonfiction films will be among the 16 shown as part of Sundance’s U.S. documentary competition, an auspicious start for a newcomer to the country’s preeminent festival for independent cinema. Documentaries have always been an emphasis at Sundance, which starts on Thursday in Park City, Utah. But they have become hot properties in the age of streaming, with YouTube shelling out $20 million for a 10-part Justin Bieber documentary series and Apple spending $25 million for a film about the pop star Billie Eilish.”