Swedish electric vehicle maker Polestar saw its first-quarter sales jump 76% compared to the same period in 2024 after it began offering discounts and other promotions, including ones geared toward locking in Tesla owners. Polestar sold 12,304 cars in the first three months of the year compared to 6,975 in Q1 2024. Sales were relatively flat quarter-over-quarter, even amidst competition from other automakers and an uncertain economic outlook. 'We are on the right track and doing the right things,' Michael Lohscheller, Polestar CEO, said in a statement. 'With a more active selling model, more retail partners and attractive cars, we are delivering results.' One of Polestar's more 'active selling' strategies has been to tap into Tesla's brand devaluation due to its CEO Elon Musk's involvement in DOGE. The company recently started offering up to $5,000 in discounts for Tesla drivers looking to lease the company's new Polestar 3 crossover. Polestar makes the Polestar 2 electric fastback, the Polestar 3 electric SUV, and, soon, the Polestar 4 electric SUV coupe. The automaker doesn't break out its sales numbers by models, but in March after Polestar began offering its Tesla conquest bonus, head of sales Jordan Hofmann posted on LinkedIn that orders for the Polestar 3 had been 'incredible.'...

Tailwind's investment will support Cloud for Good's roadmap to scale across new verticals, develop its AI and data solutions, and strengthen its position within the broader Salesforce ecosystem. The deal marks Tailwind's latest move in the IT services space, following prior investments across the SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Cisco, and Google partner landscapes. Tailwind Partner Will Fleder added, 'Cloud for Good is an exceptional business with clear leadership in its verticals. Our experience scaling IT services platforms makes us the right partner for this next phase of growth.' Cloud for Good had previously secured backing from Achieve Partners in 2021. Legal and financial advisers for the deal included Guggenheim Securities, Baird, Holland & Knight, and Davis Polk & Wardwell. 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....

In 2023, Donald Trump posted that electric-car supporters should 'ROT IN HELL.' Now he is showcasing Teslas on the White House lawn. Yesterday, the president stood with Elon Musk and oohed and ahhed at a lineup of the electric vehicles, saying that he hoped his purchase of one would help the carmaker's stock, which had halved in value since mid-December thanks to a combination of customer backlash and general economic uncertainty. (The stock has rebounded by 7.6 percent since yesterday.) Trump does not own shares in Tesla, as far as we know. He has said that he is supporting the carmaker because protesters are 'harming a great American company,' and has suggested that people who vandalize Tesla cars or protest the company should be labeled domestic terrorists. But he also seems interested in helping his friend, the special government employee Elon Musk, maintain his status as the wealthiest man in the world. Yesterday's White House spectacle was, my colleague Charlie Warzel wrote, 'a stilted, corrupt attempt to juice a friend's stock, and certainly beneath the office of the presidency.'...

Apple Fellow Phil Schiller, the executive in charge of leading the App Store, testified in court on Monday that he had originally raised concerns about the 27% commission the iPhone maker planned to charge app developers on any purchases made outside the App Store. In addition to being a potential compliance risk, he suggested that the fee would create an 'antagonistic relationship' between Apple and developers and seemed to require Apple to have audit rights to check whether or not they owed Apple money for the transactions that took place outside the App Store. Apple typically charges a 30% commission on in-app purchases, but the reduced fee of 27% was a result of the Epic Games-Apple ruling. In 2021, the court determined that although the tech giant was not a monopolist, it would have to stop blocking app developers from linking to other ways for customers to pay beyond Apple's own in-app purchases (IAP). Apple technically complied with the ruling by changing its App Store Guidelines to permit developers to link to their websites from their iOS and iPadOS apps to give customers an alternative way to pay....