Weekly Brief: BoA Sued; SCOTUS Shortlists; Fund Fights Argentina
Fiat Chrysler and rival Peugeot have agreed to binding merger terms that, if approved by US and European regulators, would create a “$50 billion auto giant that would rank among the world’s largest car companies by sales”....more
Paul Singer’s Elliott Management hedge fund revealed a $3.2 billion stake in AT&T and, along with it, a healthy-skepticism of the company’s 2018 purchase of Time Warner and general calls to divest as part of a 24-page letter...more
Carlos Ghosn, the onetime “savior” of Nissan, faced another indignity while again behind bars in Japan—the automaker officially removed the former chair from the board altogether....more
Monsanto’s (and, in turn, Bayer AG’s) terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day in court over its Roundup products’ links to cancer continued yesterday, as a jury awarded $80 million to the California man who it had already...more
As world economic leaders (sans the U.S. government) gather in Davos this week, China’s economic cooling (coming just “when the world needs its spark”) is both a hot topic of conversation and a cause for concern....more
A lot of the furor over Elon Musk’s recent “going private” tweets has centered on whether he actually had the financial backing needed to pull it off. The Times sets aside that initial inquiry to explore the why and how,...more
Financial Industry Developments - FHFA Announces $5.5 Billion Settlement With Royal Bank of Scotland - On July 12, 2017, the Federal Housing Finance Agency ("FHFA"), as conservator of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac,...more
Financial Industry Developments - Changes Proposed to CAS and STACR Programs - On May 8, 2017, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac announced that they are considering certain changes to the structure of their CAS and STACR...more
Another tech-related disappointment for the Winklevii, this time with ramifications for an entire means of payment, as the SEC has rejected an application by the brothers to create an ETF tied to the price of bitcoin....more