NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - The shared-office provider’s long-awaited IPO filing is packed with pointless life-affirming tropes. But it also details a host of conflicts of interest and other risks that should send investors running. Plus: India’s powerhouse Reliance is building a war chest for dominance.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - CBS and Viacom, both controlled by the Redstone family, have agreed to a $30 billion reunion. Rogue chief executives, supine boards and dumb disputes gummed up the process. Hefty cost savings won’t make up for the billions in lost value after three years of limbo.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - The White House’s decision to brand Beijing a currency manipulator is the latest move in a conflict riven by miscommunication, unrealistic expectations and no obvious way out. Plus: Why the LSE is paying $27 bln for Refinitiv, and which of the data firm’s owners comes out on top.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - The meatless-burger maker is the best-performing IPO of the year by far. Now insiders are selling stock early as the company deals with rising competition, regulations and even a potential pea shortage. Plus: Using wine goggles to look at Western firms’ joint ventures in China.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Two of America’s fabled technology giants have traded places, with Tim Cook’s Apple playing tortoise to the hare that is Satya Nadella’s Microsoft. This new drama could be on for an extended run.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - Boris Johnson helped persuade Britons to vote to leave the EU. London’s former mayor now leads the country – and may find his pledge to quit the European bloc hard to keep. Meanwhile, U.S. watchdogs are circling Amazon, Alphabet, Apple and Facebook. Plus: Protests rock Hong Kong.
NEW YORK/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters Breakingviews) - The four horsemen of Silicon Valley could soon be facing their Microsoft moment. The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating whether dominant search engines, social-media platforms and e-retailers squelch competition. Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook, while not mentioned, are obvious targets. The mandate is broad and could conflict with other watchdogs’ efforts. As the software giant founded by Bill Gates discovered two decades ago – and AT&T more recently - such investigations may ultimately come to little or nothing. But the distractions they cause come at a cost.
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - A weak Facebook penalty reflects the state of its U.S. watchdog. The social network will pay a $5 billion fine and form a privacy oversight panel to settle allegations that it mishandled user data. The Federal Trade Commission, which is expected to announce the settlement on Wednesday, doesn’t have enough powers or staff to punch harder.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - The $150 bln brewer of suds like Budweiser and Stella has scrapped its Asia unit’s Hong Kong float. CEO Carlos Brito now needs new ways to reduce the company’s debt. And as the second pulled IPO in weeks amid civil unrest, it puts the city’s financial hub under a spotlight.
NEW YORK (Reuters Breakingviews) - America’s World Cup soccer winners are being treated like losers when it comes to pay. The women’s team that beat the Netherlands on Sunday – for its fourth win since the 1990s – is fighting for equal wages in a lawsuit against the U.S. Soccer Federation. As in the corporate world, proving inequality is complex, but reasons to fix it are simple.
At least 100,000 anti-government protesters joined a mass rally in Hong Kong on Sunday, filling major thoroughfares in heavy rain in the eleventh week of what have been often violent demonstrations in the Asian financial hub.