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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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