Apple and Fortnite-maker Epic Games kick off their “high-stakes” trial over App Store fees, Apple’s payment system, and breach of contract. At the core of the dispute is Apple’s incredibly lucrative App Store, which charges...more
So . . . . Nice, quiet week while we were gone, right? Wall Street forecasts are always dicey, but it sure looks like Pfizer’s solid vaccine news (along with this weekend’s newfound presidential certainty) could make for...more
With “Twit-tok” trending this weekend, you should be unsurprised to learn that Twitter has joined the group of suitors for TikTok, revealing that it’s held preliminary talks with the video-sharing app about a possible combo. ...more
J.Crew filed for bankruptcy protection; the company’s lenders have agreed to “convert $1.65 billion . . . into equity.” Neiman Marcus Group Inc. and J.C. Penney are also on the bankruptcy path, already entering talks with...more
BLACK SWANS AND WHITE ELEPHANTS - A recent essay from the National Association of Corporate Directors (NACD) provides useful guidance on how boards may prepare themselves for risks associated with external volatility. ...more
Wall Street’s post-tariff-delay jubilance was short lived, as an inverted bond yield curve reared its ugly head yesterday, sending shares plummeting on a brutal day across all markets....more
All of Treasury Secretary Mnuchin’s “great progress” reports be damned, apparently. Over the weekend, the White House threatened to fast-forward plans to raise tariffs from 10 to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese imports,...more
Zuck and Co. are launching a major platform redesign as Facebook attempts to move beyond years of privacy-related scandals and promote group-based communications rather than the public-square newsfeed....more
GE—still in streamlining mode—agreed yesterday to sell its biopharma business to Danaher (current CEO Larry’s Culp’s former company, btw) for a reported $21.4 billion in the form of $21 billion in cash and $400 million in...more
Mr. Buffett and his Berkshire crew just dropped nearly a billion on its own stock, a likely sign, according to analysts, of a “dearth of appealing investment options” for the company’s “large cash pile”....more
We’ve begun exploring here the impact that the White House’s Iran deal pullout (and subsequent threat to impose sanctions on Iran’s trading partners) will have on particular EU-based companies (right, Peugeot)? Now we’ve...more
A surprisingly strong May US jobs report helped propel stocks up on Friday and end a tumultuous week on a high note....more
Takeda has officially emerged victorious in the battle for Shire. The Japanese drug giant will pay more than $66/share to acquire Shire in a deal valued at $62 billion....more
Yahoo—via new parent Verizon Communications—has officially tripled its estimate of the number of accounts affected by its 2013 cyber hack, putting the total at a staggering 3 billion (aka, all of them)....more
Mr. Buffett’s decided to sell his massive 10.6 million share stake in General Electric, withdrawing from the company to which he lent roughly $3 billion to help see it through the 2008 financial crisis....more
Here’s the other shoe for that news that all the big banks passed their Fed stress tests the other day: are the “bad old days of enormous leverage and freewheeling deals” and the risk inherent in them back, too?....more
A collection of corporate heavy hitters are betting big on the blockchain technology behind bitcoin rival Ethereum to build a computing system to track data and financial contracts. The project is seen by some as a way to...more
It may lack some of the flourish of a BBG missive, but you can be sure that plenty of insiders are paying close attention to Mr. Buffet’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders....more
All those traders excited about a burgeoning US economy ahead may want to keep an eye on the commercial real estate market, which is seeing a rise in defaults and delinquencies as pre-crisis 10-year loans come due....more
Recently, a group of prominent corporate executives, including Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon, as well as investment managers and institutional investors, issued a set of “Commonsense Principles of Corporate Governance.”...more
Citing the importance of publicly owned companies to the U.S. economy, a group of thirteen leading executives issued a set of principles, on July 21, 2016, outlining their vision for the critical elements of good corporate...more
Gannet’s still after Tribune Publishing, and it’s upped its ante after Tribune “resoundingly rejected” early overtures – NYTimes... The Journal walks us through the fall of the Laplanche empire at Lending Club with a...more
We’ve been hearing a lot about Verizon’s bid for Yahoo. But it’s not alone. In fact, it’s bringing some odd folks to the table together. Case in point: Warren Buffet and Quicken Loans’ Dan Gilbert – NYTimes and Bloomberg...more
Warren Buffet, the Oracle of Omaha, understands the importance of corporate culture and adhering to a code of ethics. He has been quoted: Lose money and I will forgive you. Lose even a shred of reputation and I will be...more
Renewable Energy Focus: SolarCity says new fund will finance $1 billion in commercial solar: Silicon Valley Business Journal - Apr 22: SolarCity is activating a fund that will finance more than $1 billion in commercial...more