Sprint and T-Mobile are facing new merger headwinds in the form of a NY & CA state AG-led lawsuit in the Southern District of New York that seeks to block the deal, alleging that it would cost customers of the companies “at least $4.5 billion a year” – NYTimes and WSJ and Law360
The good news? The post-financial-crisis reforms enacted as part of Dodd-Frank and other protective measures have largely helped keep big banks from making the kind of risky loans that “nearly destroyed the financial system.” The really bad news? A $15 trillion shadow-banking industry has stepped into its place, and they’re increasingly dishing out risk loans and other financial products by the billions – NYTimes
Wells Fargo is having trouble filling one of the least-enviable positions in finance these days: its CEO chair. PNC Financial CEO William Demchak and US Bank’s Richard Davis have both reportedly taken a pass on the position in recent weeks – WSJ and Marketplace
Streetwise is doing its damnedest to find a silver lining in the White House-led global trade war, and here’s its best shot: the global trade uncertainty is helping tamp down a “runaway” US economy that might otherwise be unsustainable. Sure. Okay – WSJ
Speaking of trade wars, both Google and Apple revealed this week that they’re moving production out of China (or at least have contingency plans to do so if the situation demands) – Bloomberg and Fortune and more Bloomberg
Google also made the surprise announcement this week that it’s firing a handful of its biggest lobbying firms and overhauling its global governmental affairs and policy operations “amid the prospect of greater government scrutiny of its businesses.” Former U.S. trade rep and GE exec Karan Bhatia is leading the charge for change at the company – WSJ
Activist investor and major United Technologies shareholder Bill Ackman has some serious concerns about the proposed merger with Raytheon, and he also has the e-mail address to UT’s CEO to make those concerns known – MarketWatch and Bloomberg
Amazon’s calling it quits on its restaurant delivery service project (which served customers in nearly 200 cities in the US) and said it will focus instead on grocery delivery – NYTimes and WSJ and Mashable
Slack’s non-traditional direct IPO route means that it doesn’t have a cadre of Wall Street insiders hyping it, but word is out that it’s still expecting a valuation at nearly $10 billion more than at its last funding round—something in the neighborhood of $16 to $17 billion – Bloomberg
More rough Foxconn news for Wisconsin and its Economic Development Corp. A state audit has found that the quasi-public entity “awarded state tax credits to companies that ultimately didn’t create the number of jobs they had promised” and “paid companies using tax dollars for jobs created outside of Wisconsin,” a nasty double whammy for the Badger state – WSJ
Whoa Nellie. Did the USWNT come to play at this World Cup debut match, or what? Yowza – ESPN and NYTimes
