• WarnerMedia CEO puts pressure on Amazon to carry HBO Max by holidays
• Former PayPal exec Stephane Kasriel will head Facebook Pay, its Venmo
• Uber and Lyft ordered by California judge to classify drivers as employees
• China industrial data offsets trade jitters; oil rises

WarnerMedia CEO puts pressure on Amazon to carry HBO Max by holidays

• As disputes between Amazon and WarnerMedia over HBO Max continue, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is putting pressure on the tech giant to make an agreement by the holidays.
• Kilar wouldn't go into reasons as to why the disputes haven't been resolved yet - HBO Max came out at the end of April, and there's still nothing set in stone - Kilar argued that Amazon would have to put the streamer on its devices by the holidays.
• Customers who want to have HBO Max on their streaming devices will look for alternatives when it comes time to purchase devices, including Google Chromecast and Apple TV, where HBO Max is currently available.
• As part of WarnerMedia's mainlining of its various streaming platforms, the company announced it would sunset its HBO Go app on August 1st. WarnerMedia also announced that its HBO Now app would simply become HBO. There were originally no plans for Amazon to carry HBO Now on Fire TV devices as of August 1st, but late last month, WarnerMedia and Amazon reached an agreement that allowed HBO Now customers to use the newly renamed HBO app.
• As part of the agreement, Amazon also told customers that they "Can continue watching HBO content on Amazon devices with an HBO subscription via Prime Video Channels," according to Variety.
• So what are they really fighting over? Amazon wants more control over how HBO Max is distributed.
• WarnerMedia reportedly wants HBO Max offered as a standalone app, like Disney Plus currently is on Fire TV devices.

Former PayPal exec Stephane Kasriel will head Facebook Pay, its Venmo

• Facebook is bringing in former PayPal executive Stephane Kasriel to head Facebook Pay, its Venmo-like service, Facebook's cryptocurrency head David Marcus said Monday.
• Facebook is also forming a new team that will oversee the handful of payment services Facebook has announced in the past year, in a move that could help link its family of apps even closer.
• Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
• Facebook has ventured further into the payment space over the past year.
• The company launched Facebook Pay, which allows users to send money over its family of apps, on Facebook proper and Facebook Messenger last November.
• Facebook is also backing a digital payment system called Libra, with the intention of making it easier for people to send money across the world.
• While Libra will be run by a nonprofit association, Facebook houses and could profit off of Novi, a digital wallet for storing and exchanging the digital coin.

Uber and Lyft ordered by California judge to classify drivers as employees

• A California judge ruled that Uber and Lyft must classify their drivers as employees in a stunning preliminary injunction issued Monday afternoon.
• Uber and Lyft say drivers prefer the flexibility of working as freelancers, while labor unions and elected officials contend this deprives them of traditional benefits like health insurance and workers' compensation.
• In May, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, along with city attorneys of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego, sued the companies, arguing that their drivers were misclassified as independent contractors when they should be employees under the state's AB5 law that went into effect on January 1st. Becerra later filed a motion for a preliminary injunction that could compel the ride-hailing companies to classify drivers as employees immediately.
• Last week, the state's labor commissioner alleged in a pair of lawsuits that the companies were stealing wages from drivers by refusing to classify them as employees.
• "Today's ruling affirms what California drivers have long known to be true," Mike Robinson, a Lyft driver and member of the Mobile Workers Alliance, a group of Southern California drivers, said in a statement, "Workers like me have rights and Uber and Lyft must respect those rights."
• "The vast majority of drivers want to work independently, and we've already made significant changes to our app to ensure that remains the case under California law," an Uber spokesperson said.
• If drivers were classified as employees, Uber and Lyft would be responsible for paying them minimum wage, overtime compensation, paid rest periods, and reimbursements for the cost of driving for the companies, including personal vehicle mileage.

China industrial data offsets trade jitters; oil rises

• NEW YORK - Stocks across the globe were little changed on Monday as upbeat industrial data out of China and hopes for more stimulus in the United States were offset by jitters over tensions between Washington and Beijing.
• Technology stocks fell after a run of recent gains, while crude oil prices jumped.
• Industrial output in China is returning to levels recorded before the coronavirus pandemic halted huge swathes of the economy, driven by pent-up demand, government stimulus and surprisingly resilient exports.
• Tension between the United States and China ahead of scheduled trade talks at the weekend to review an agreement signed in January was blamed for the lack of market direction.
• MIWD00000PUS gained 0.15%. Emerging market stocks lost 0.26%. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan.
• N225 lost 0.39%. Oil rose, supported by the Chinese factory data, rising energy demand and hopes for an agreement in the United States on more coronavirus-related economic stimulus.
• The Japanese yen weakened 0.01% versus the greenback at 105.95 per dollar, while Sterling GBP= was last trading at $1.3074, up 0.18% on the day.