A nearly $5 billion deal between French energy company Total and the oil and gas arm of Danish shipping giant Maersk is making waves this morning. Total will also assume a few tankers-full of Maersk Oil’s debt – NYTimes and Bloomberg and WSJ
We’ve heard about Elliott Management’s challenge to Berkshire Hathaway’s interest in Oncor Energy, but it now appears that a mystery third party is in the thick of things as well. The dust has settled, and Sempra Energy has emerged victorious – NYTimes and WSJ and Bloomberg
Speculation a week ago was that China’s discouragement of overseas investments by its conglomerates might be softening. Not so, according to Beijing, which has affirmed its attempt to curb excessive borrowing by promising to punish companies for violating foreign investment rules and threatening to blacklist those that did so – NYTimes
The SEC is currently considering a Public Company Accounting Oversight Board-proposed rule that would change the rules for corporations and their auditors by requiring companies annual reports to “include information about some of the most important issues raised by accountants in the annual audit.” The Journal’s Intelligent Investor column suggests the move could help shed light on a process that currently gives little more than a binary thumbs up or down note – WSJ
The New Yorker took a long hard look at Carl Icahn’s role as “special adviser to the president on issues relating to regulatory reform,” and, not so coincidentally, Icahn announced on Friday that he’s done with that role – NewYorker and NYTimes and Bloomberg and Law360
A duo of LendingClub shareholders filed a derivative suit last week accusing the company’s board of breaching its fiduciary duties by “not ensuring LendingClub had sufficient internal financial controls and lied about them in regulatory filings” – Law360
An update on negotiations at the end to the first round of NAFTA discussions – Bloomberg
Because at Barclays, it’s all about trust, riiiiiight? . . . – Bloomberg
End of summer got you down? I can one-up you on that one. How about the end of what’s been, remarkably enough, a more-than 8-year bull market. Because, you see, “some things just can’t last” – NYTimes and MarketWatch [or maybe not quite yet – WSJ]
After years of teasing aging hippies as concept vehicles at auto shows around the world, Volkswagen has announced that its iconic Microbus is heading into production in 2022. No diesel for this one, though. VW’s going all electric, man. Groovy – Mashable
Eclipse Day! – NYTimes and XKCD
