The proposed valuation equates to roughly ten times Golden Goose's expected year-end core profit, including debt. The Venice-based brand, known for its '500-plus distressed sneakers, recorded '655m in revenue and '227m in adjusted core earnings in 2024. HongShan has asked former Gucci chief executive Marco Bizzarri to become Golden Goose's future chairman. The Chinese private equity group plans to expand the company's directly operated retail network, with a particular focus on Asia, and is targeting a medium-term stock market listing once conditions improve. Golden Goose abandoned an IPO in Milan last year, citing volatility linked to European political uncertainty. A sale to HongShan would represent one of the largest luxury fashion transactions of the year and a major exit for Permira, which has backed the brand during a period of rapid global growth. Subscribe to our Newsletter to increase your edge. Don't worry about the news anymore, through our newsletter you'll receive weekly access to what is happening. Join 120,000 other PE professionals today....

While that's all far more chaotic and destructive than even some of the worst behavior that Waymo's robotaxis have been guilty of, the in-game autonomous vehicles nonetheless resemble the company's earlier-generation Chrysler Pacifica vans. The expansion is called 'A Safehouse in the Hills' and is available starting December 10. It's not clear if the vans in the trailer have been, in true Grand Theft Auto fashion, hijacked by playable characters, or if they've gone rogue. It seems likely it's the latter, though, as Rockstar Games says players will be encouraged to 'stop the development of a mass surveillance network in an all-new action-packed adventure' as part of the DLC. (The trailer also teases a storyline that involves an AI assistant named 'Haviland,' so the tech world in general appears to be a part of this particular storyline.) Waymo has said it will deny government requests for the footage its vehicles capture if those requests are 'overly broad and unlawful.' But its robotaxis have nevertheless drawn criticism for being part of a growing surveillance state. That frustration has contributed to the company's vehicles becoming a target of multiple instances of vandalism. Waymo SUVs have been burned, smashed, and had their tires slashed in different cities over the last few years....

The region's 500-year transformation into a Catholic stronghold seemed capped in 2013, when Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina was elected as the first Latin American pope. Once a missionary outpost, Latin America is now the heart of the Catholic Church. It is home to over 575 million adherents ' over 40% of all Catholics worldwide. The next-largest regions are Europe and Africa, each home to 20% of the world's Catholics. But even as Protestant ranks swelled, another trend was quietly gaining ground: a growing share of Latin Americans abandoning institutional faith altogether. And, as my research shows, the region's religious decline shows a surprising difference from patterns elsewhere. While fewer Latin Americans are identifying with a religion or attending services, personal faith remains strong. In 2014, 8% of Latin Americans claimed no religion at all. This number is twice as high as the percentage of people who were raised without a religion, indicating that the growth is recent, coming from people who left the church as adults....

In its latest retreat from India's crowded online retail market, Walmart-backed fintech giant PhonePe has wound down its Pincode e-commerce app and will shift the business toward B2B services for offline merchants. On Thursday, PhonePe founder and group CEO Sameer Nigam said operating a consumer-facing quick-commerce app had become a distraction from the company's core focus on small retailers. The company instead wants to concentrate on helping stores 'achieve operational efficiency, improved margins and visibility,' he said, citing this as its primary objective. PhonePe launched Pincode in April 2023 as a major push into e-commerce, building it on the Indian government-backed Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The hyperlocal app offered groceries, medicines, food, electronics, and home decor from neighborhood shops. It rolled out first in Bengaluru and later expanded to other cities. Within a little over a year of launch, Pincode pulled out of most categories except food. Earlier this year, the app shifted to a quick-commerce model, offering 10-minute deliveries through local kirana shops and retailers in cities such as Bengaluru, New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Pune. The company also expanded the service to 10-minute medicine deliveries in Bangalore, Mumbai, and Pune in April....