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11

Bloomberg Businessweek

May 14, 2018

HAWAII: U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY; VEKSELBERG:ANDREY RUDAKOV/BLOOMBERG;KLM:THIERRY TRONNEL/CORBIS;AIR FRANCE:CHRISTOPHE MORIN/BLOOMBERG

IN BRIEF

By Kyle Stock

○ Facebook reorganized

its executive ranks on

May 8, putting its product

chief oicially in charge of

Instagram and WhatsApp,

and announced the creation

of a blockchain unit.

○ Nestlé agreed

to spend more

than $7 billion

on rights to

sell Starbucks

products globally.

The Swiss conglomerate hopes the

deal will fuel sales, now growing at their

slowest rate in two decades. Starbucks

will use the cash to buy back shares.

An alliance led by former premier

Mahathir Mohamad bested the United

Malays National Organisation on

May 9. Najib, who didn’t immediately

comment, had been defiant going

into the election despite having been

caught up in a corruption scandal.

○“Oh, ‘We need a

woman for a board.’

Oh, it is like, ‘We need

a plant on the table.’”

○ A fissure opened in the Leilani Estates area of Pahoa, Hawaii, on May 5. The

eruption of the Kilauea volcano has displaced more than a thousand people so far.

Designer and fashion magnate Diane von Furstenberg spoke at Bloomberg’s

Business of Equality Summit on May 8 about the way women are viewed in

corporate settings. “I mean, women are not an accessory,” she added.

○ President Trump pledged

to withdraw the U.S. from

the multilateral Iran nuclear

deal, despite warnings from

European allies. The U.S.

simultaneously restarted

sanctions that had been

halted by the agreement.

Some will go back into

efect in August and the

rest in November.

○ Takeda Pharmaceutical

won a long battle to buy

Shire, an expert at making

drugs for rare diseases, for

$62b

If shareholders sign off, it

would be the largest foreign

acquisition by a Japanese

company.

○ As it courts investors

for a planned IPO, Chinese

smartphone maker

Xiaomi lowered its target

stock market value from

$100 billion to a range of

$70 billion to $80 billion.

Even at the reduced level,

Xiaomi, which doesn’t yet

sell phones in the U.S.,

would have a higher price-

to-sales ratio than Apple.

○ A shell company

created by Trump lawyer

Michael Cohen received

$4.43 million from Novartis,

AT&T, and other businesses,

as well as from a company

associated with

Viktor Vekselberg,

a Russian oligarch

with connections to Vladimir

Putin. The shell company

was used to pay $130,000

to porn star Stephanie

Cliford, aka Stormy Daniels.

○ Malaysia Prime

Minister Najib

Razak’s party lost

its parliamentary

majority after six

decades in power.

○ French oicials warned

that Air France-KLM may

not survive a protracted

wage negotiation with

its pilots. The carrier has

canceled 1 in 5 flights

since walkouts began in

February, and CEO

Jean-Marc Janailla

resigned on May 4

○ Argentina asked the IMF for a $30 billion line of credit in an efort to stop a slide in the country’s currency.

○Wireless giant Vodafone said it would buy $23 billion in European assets from cable company Liberty Global.

○ Nigeria shut down three cough-syrup factories after a probe found workers selling the medicine to addicts.

○ California regulators approved a measure to mandate solar panels on new homes starting in 2020.

c

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