Forbes Daily: The Unlikely Profiteers In Class Action Lawsuit Settlements

Forbes

21-05-2025

Think back to your first job out of school. Was there formal training? An onboarding experience? Did you have a clear sense of your job's structure, as well as the path for advancement?
As Forbes' latest ranking of the Best Employers For New Grads shows, there are a number of companies setting their new Gen Z hires up for success on these fronts, and more. This young cohort values work-life balance, but that doesn't mean they pass on a challenge.
'The best way to engage them isn't with rules, it's with responsibility,' says workplace consultant Natalie Dawson. 'If you challenge them early and give them access to leaders and outcomes, they'll outperform your most seasoned hires.'
ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY SCHERER FOR FORBES; PHOTOS BY HANS NELEMAN, EYEEM MOBILE GMBH, SOUBRETTE / GETTY IMAGES
Settlements from mass class action lawsuits can be infamously low: When Equifax was found liable for a 2017 data breach, some impacted customers were given just $7.44 on a prepaid gift card. Forbes estimates that over the past five years, $300 to $400 million of damages distributed through these digital cards has been left unspent, and the unused funds end up lining the pockets of fintech companies, banks and the very class action administration companies that award the contracts for the digital cards.
The most troublesome loan in Donald Trump's empire, a $115 million mortgage against a struggling skyscraper in New York, is due in exactly 46 days. The president could foot some or all of the bill for 40 Wall Street himself, Forbes last estimated Trump's liquid crypto holdings at $770 million in March, or could refinance the debt, but how he plugs the hole will reveal a lot about his current financial situation—and the politics shaping it.Home Depot held its sales forecast for 2025 during its earnings call Tuesday, despite missing first-quarter estimates, and CFO Richard McPhail said the retailer doesn't plan to raise prices because of tariffs. McPhail credited their strong, diverse supply chain in an interview with CNBC.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk said Tuesday that he's committed to being the automaker's chief executive for the next five years, saying that he wants to hold his position in order to have 'sufficient voting control' so he cannot be removed by activist investors. The world's richest man also confirmed he would move forward with his lawsuit against OpenAI, claiming he created the company's name and provided its first $50 million in funding.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House on May 20 in Washington, D.C.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced details for the 'Golden Dome,' a ground- and space-based missile defense system designed to detect, track and stop missiles at multiple stages of flight. The project, which Trump said would take about three years to construct, would cost more than $500 billion, according to estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.
Nurses draw vaccine doses from a vial.
The FDA announced Tuesday that it will adopt a new framework for Covid-19 vaccines, with the agency's commissioner and top vaccine regulator saying that the U.S. will no longer follow a 'one-size-fits-all' strategy for recommending vaccines. The change, which will likely narrow recommendations to people over 65 or high-risk, will more closely align the U.S. with other countries.
Abel Avellan hopes his network of satellites will bring fast, reliable internet to billions of people in less-developed nations.
Last September, a crowd of seasoned spectators gathered in Cape Canaveral, Florida to watch as SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket took flight for the 373rd time. But it wasn't carrying Elon Musk's Starlink satellites, onboard instead were five satellites from AST SpaceMobile, a tiny Starlink rival.
Each satellite was equipped with a 700-square-foot antenna that would unfold in orbit, an early step in establishing a network AST hopes will someday best its high-profile competitor. Large antennas, including an even larger, 2,400-square-foot version to come, are key to CEO and founder Abel Avellan's plan to win a new market: satellite internet beamed directly to your phone. 'Our vision is to provide connectivity without disadvantage to wherever people are located,' says Avellan.
This isn't Starlink's main business: Its $12.3 billion in revenue largely comes from providing internet to fixed-base stations attached to homes and businesses, not mobile phones. So too for AST, the big opportunity is not off-grid connectivity for Europeans and North Americans, but providing internet to the more than 2.6 billion people, largely in the developing world, who struggle to get online at all. Most of them can't afford Starlink.
Deutsche Bank (which is not an AST investor) estimates that the company's revenues could top $370 million in 2026 once its commercial service is up and running, and surpass $5 billion by 2030—with far less capital expenditure than Starlink will need to keep launching thousands of satellites.
WHY IT MATTERS 'Anyone who's been stuck on a lonely highway in the middle of nowhere when their car breaks down knows how much we take internet connectivity for granted,' says Forbes senior editor Alex Knapp. 'Satellites offer a big market opportunity for the players who can establish themselves as the best way to get online no matter where you are.'
MORE This Founder's Gene Therapy Company Helped Blind Kids See Again
News of former President Joe Biden's late-stage cancer diagnosis is fueling conspiracy theories, including from the current president, that he covered up his health issues while in office. But doctors say many aspects of Biden's diagnosis timeline are plausible:
70 and older: Men in this age group are typically not recommended for prostate cancer screening, per the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. Biden is 82.
8%: The share of prostate cancers that have already metastasized at the time of their detection, according to a 2017-2021 CDC study
'Excellent care means not…over-testing': 'He could be receiving the best medical care that we have to offer as a nation and not be screened for prostate cancer,' Memorial Sloan Kettering oncologist Dr. Michael Morris told USA Today
With the economy facing turbulent waters, the impacts of tariffs and cooler consumer spending stand to affect entrepreneurs and small business leaders the most. To maintain a growth mindset amid broader economic contraction, try to position your product or service as an essential 'must have,' explore pricing strategies that balance flexibility and consistency, and utilize data to quickly spot and respond to trends. The leaders who can adapt in 2025 will thrive when the market rebounds.
A tech giant announced a new online service yesterday that claims it will help users detect AI-generated content made with its own AI tools. Which company unveiled the SynthID Detector Portal?
A. Meta
B. OpenAI
C. Google
D. Nvidia
Check your answer.
Thanks for reading! This edition of Forbes Daily was edited by Chris Dobstaff and Caroline Howard.