Just days after profiled Walmart’s efforts to keep pace with Amazon in the grocery biz, a whistleblower and former WM director of business development is accusing Walmart of issuing “misleading e-commerce results” and mislabeling products in an attempt to “win the e-commerce war at all costs” – Bloomberg
The White House’s dramatic intervention into Broadcom’s bid for Qualcomm may have been unprecedented, but it’s part of a broader move by countries like Canada, Australia, and some European nations to push back against Chinese buyers bidding on companies within their borders – NYTimes
The Journal explores the details of the antitrust battle between the DOJ and AT&T over the latter’s $85 billion agreement to buy media giant Time Warner Inc. and suggests that the impending trial will have much to say about whether “antitrust enforcers will have real practical authority to challenge so-called vertical mergers involving two complementary companies that operate at different levels of the same industry” – WSJ [and Marketplace]
A former star Deutsche Bank trader has pleaded guilty to conspiring to rig Euribor, a benchmark rate similar to Libor. DB has paid $2.5 billion in recent years to regulators for “failing to prevent attempts to rig benchmark interest rates” – Bloomberg and Law360
The SEC is reportedly close to unveiling its take on the DOL’s controversial [and 5th-Circuit-vacated] fiduciary rule for retirement advisers. The reg is likely to require brokers to “provide advice that puts the client’s interest before their own financial incentives” and may not be limited to retirement accounts – WSJ
At least one “Law360 Expert” believes that ICOs could be strong candidates for a bit of New York Martin Act treatment – Law360
The much-ballyhooed Saudi Aramco IPO is looking a lot less like a sure bet these days, both in terms of its outsized valuation and of anticipated US investor interest – Bloomberg
Sunday night: the iHeartRadio Music Awards. Thursday morning: the iHeartMedia bankruptcy filing. It’s been quite a week for the former Clear Channel Communications, the largest American broadcaster (with 850 stations across the US) – NYTimes and Law360
With this week’s announcement that all US Toys R Us locations are closing, the private equity model of troubled asset takeover that often includes loading up a company with debt to pay for the initial deal appears increasingly risky—especially in the age of Amazon – NYTimes
A bit of a deeper dive on the remarkable news this week that Astronaut Scott Kelly’s genes appear to have been altered permanently thanks to his year in space – Mashable
Have a great weekend.
