Credit Suisse’s CEO Tidjane Thiam is out, to be succeeded next week by longtime company vet Thomas Gottstein. Thaim appeared to have ridden out the corporate spying scandal involving a former employee last year, and he had delivered relatively solid results as the Swiss bank moved away from investment banking and more into wealth management. In the end, though, the scandal was too much for Thiam, despite an outside counsel report that found no evidence he knew about the surveillance at hand – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Jobs Report Friday again. Here’s what we’re looking for in the numbers – WSJ and Bloomberg
Activist fund Elliott Management Corp. has “quietly built up a more than $2.5 billion stake in Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp. and is pushing the sprawling technology giant to make changes that would boost its share price.” That stake makes SoftBank one of Paul Singer and Elliott’s biggest projects, and given recent reports about SoftBank’s free-spending ways, it appears to be ripe for the picking – WSJ and NYTimes
A new Dutch inquiry into a 2009 plane crash near Amsterdam “that had striking parallels with two more recent accidents” involving Boeing’s 737 Max has reportedly been met with resistance from company and American safety officials, both of whom have “refused to cooperate” with the probe. Boeing and the NTSB aren’t commenting so far on that decision – NYTimes
The investigation is poorly timed for Boeing, which is in the midst of fixing a newly discovered flaw in its 737 Max software but still promising to return the plane to the skies this summer – Bloomberg
Plenty of downplayed expectations about its launch in recent weeks may have initially helped Casper off to a solid first day of public trading, with shares jumping more than $2 above offering price yesterday. In the end, Casper ended up a buck above its opening price, but overall consensus is that markets’ perceived coolness to the launch was well warranted – NYTimes and CNBC
The SEC and North Carolina criminal prosecutors are exploring allegations that “bid-rigging helped Ernst & Young LLP win a competition” run by bubble-wrap manufacturer Sealed Air Corp. – WSJ
SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce unveiled her proposed crypto safe harbor rule while speaking at the International Blockchain Congress in Chicago this week. The measure would “implement a three-year safe harbor for cryptocurrency projects, allowing startups to issue digital tokens and develop their product without worrying about securities law violations” while requiring companies to “provide significant disclosures” and comply with existing anti-fraud regulations – Law360
The New Jersey state court trial that featured testimony from company president Alex Gorsky ended on Thursday with a jury ordering $750 million in punitive damages against Johnson & Johnson over an alleged link between its talc products and cancer. Trial judge Ana Viscomi announced nearly immediately that she planned to substantially reduce that amount to $186.5 million – WSJ
The latest in an ongoing dispute between Chinese tech firm Huawei and the U.S. is taking the form of a lawsuit in which Huawei accuses Verizon of failing to obtain licenses “for the use of a dozen patents in its networks.” Verizon calls the suit, which doesn’t allege a damage amount, a “PR stunt” and intimated that Huawei’s true target is the White House – WSJ
Ladies and gentlemen, meet Mount Fargo—the prairie-wind fueled 80-foot-high pile of snow that grows even when the city goes without white stuff of its own for weeks at a time – WSJ
Have a good weekend.
