Spanx founder rewards workers with $10,000 and first-class plane tickets
CBSN
When it comes to expressing gratitude to employees, Spanx founder Sara Blakely could teach Jeff Bezos a thing or two. A day after reaching a deal to sell the underwear maker to a private equity firm, she gave each of her 500 workers first-class plane tickets and $10,000 in spending money.
Blakely revealed her largess at a party last week to celebrate an October 20 announcement that Blackstone was buying a majority stake in the Atlanta-based maker of slimming briefs, bras, pantyhose and other undergarments. The transaction, which values the company at $1.2 billion, will have Blakely keeping a sizable interest and continuing to run the company with its current management team. She'll also be executive chairwoman once the deal closes.
To celebrate, Blakely told her employees they were all getting two first-class plane tickets to anywhere around the world along with $10,000 to cover the cost of accommodations, prompting cheers and some tears in a video posted to social media.
Beijing — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Friday with Chinese President Xi Jinping and senior Chinese officials, warning of the dangers of misunderstandings and miscalculations as the United States and China butted heads over a number of contentious bilateral, regional and global issues. Blinken met with Xi in Beijing after holding talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Public Security Minister Wang Xiaohong.
The death of a highly regarded Missouri emergency room doctor whose body was found 11 months ago in a northwest Arkansas lake has been ruled a suicide, Arkansas authorities said Thursday, in a case that fueled social media speculation about whether his disappearance had been tied to his cryptocurrency dealings.
Chaos erupted overnight as police tried to break up a pro-Palestinian encampment at Emerson College in Boston, the latest flashpoint in a growing movement on college campuses around the country protesting Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza. Hundreds of people have been arrested in Massachusetts, Texas and California during the tense protests, following several rounds of arrests in New York in recent days.