When the fog clears from the pandemic, Adidas’ business operations will have transformed. 

Adidas weathered the pandemic in the last quarter of 2020 with a 53% bump in online sales, and revenue growth in Greater China — trends the company intends to continue in its next chapter.

The Herzogenaurach, Germany-based company also announced a partnership with Peloton, signaling a bet on the home fitness movement.

While the company has reopened over 95% of its stores around the globe, in-person retail will take a backseat to online sales in the company’s growth strategy. 

• In a five-year plan released alongside its Q4 earnings on Wednesday, Adidas said it plans to double e-commerce sales to between $9.5 billion and $10.7 billion by 2025. The company will invest over $1.2 billion in the digital transition.
• It also expects sales to grow by 20-30% in Latin America, Asia-Pacific, and Greater China this year.

China in particular will be a focus for the shoe and apparel maker. The company is reorganizing its bookkeeping to separate out the Greater China region from Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and the rest of the region.

Adidas announced last month that it plans to fully divest Reebok, casting off an underperforming brand as it looks toward a new era.

Conor McGregor is set to double his net worth and he didn’t have to fight to do it.

The former UFC champion and his manager Audie Attar are reportedly selling their 51% stake in Irish whiskey Proper 12 to Mexican spirits giant Becle — owner of Jose Cuervo and 1800 Tequila.

McGregor launched Proper 12 in 2018. Becle had a 20% share at the time, but increased its stake to 49% last year for more than $230 million. The whiskey’s name references McGregor’s hometown of Crumlin in postal district Dublin 12.

McGregor and Attar are expected to split roughly $155 million under parent company Eire Born Spirits in the sale. McGregor made $48 million last year and $5 million for his shock loss to Dustin Poirier at UFC 257, per Forbes.

Despite harsh reviews, many are still interested in Proper 12. In 2018, the brand was limited to two bottles per customer in Tesco Ireland due to high demand and sold out of a six-month supply in 10 days. It’s since expanded to the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia.

Becle released its 2020 full-year earnings in February. The conglomerate’s net sales increased 19.4% year-over-year to $1.7 billion.

McGregor has other business ventures with his apparel brand August McGregor and Reebok, which pays the MMA fighter roughly $5 million per year. “I’m 30 now, say by 35 I’ll be a billionaire,” he said in 2018.

After months of speculation, Japan has decided to block foreign spectators from attending the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics to prevent the spread of COVID-19, per Kyodo News. 

The Summer Games are scheduled to run from July 23 to Sept. 5 and were expected to host around one million foreign spectators.

“We would really like people from around the world to come to a full stadium, but unless we are prepared to accept them and the medical situation in Japan is perfect, it will cause a great deal of trouble also to visitors from overseas,” Seiko Hashimoto, president of the Tokyo Olympic committee, told reporters last week.

The decision was difficult for the Japanese government, as the games were set to stimulate the country’s economy.

• The one-year delay from the originally scheduled 2020 games caused costs to surge to at least $15 billion.
• The financial hit will be compounded with no foreign spectators. Japan projected ticket revenue to reach almost $830 million. 

Governing bodies anticipate a decision on domestic attendance in April. Around 4.45 million tickets were sold in Japan, but roughly 810,000 refund requests have already been made.

The 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea saw 80% of its ticket sales come from local spectators.