THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. **** Saturday/Sunday, October 19 - 20, 2019 |B
Johnson & Johnsonsaid it re-
called one lot, about 33,000 bottles,
of its Johnson’s Baby Powder be-
cause the U.S. Food and Drug Admin-
istration found a small amount of as-
bestos in a single bottle, a discovery
likely to fuel existing concerns about
the safety of the famous product.
The health-products company,
which is well known among consum-
ers for its namesake powder, said
Friday it is recalling the bottles out
of an abundance of caution despite
the low levels reported. J&J said it
issued the withdrawal after receiving
the FDA test report Thursday.
The recall comes at a vulnerable
time for J&J, which has been fight-
ing tens of thousands of lawsuits
over its talcum powder, opioid drugs
and other products. The stock fell
6.2% on Friday.
The recall “is a negative for JNJ’s
reputation and potentially strength-
ens the plaintiffs’ argument in the
ongoing talc lawsuits,” Wells Fargo
analysts said in a research note Fri-
day. The action probably increases
the chances that J&J will settle its
talcum-powder litigation, SVB
Leerink analysts said.
J&J faces lawsuits from about
15,500 people in the U.S. claiming
Please turn to page BBYPETERLOFTUSJ&J Recalls
Baby Powder
For Asbestos
PG&ECorp.’s chief executive said
Friday that it could take as long as
10 years for the company to improve
its electric system enough to signifi-
cantly diminish the need to pull the
plug on customers to reduce the risk
of sparking fires.
Bill Johnson, who joined the com-
pany in May, made the disclosure at
aCalifornia Public Utilities Com-
missionhearing where the panel’s
president, Marybel Batjer, sharply
criticized the company’s “inadequate
execution” of a shut-off in which it
turned off power to large portions of
Northern California for more than
two days last week.
The commission convened an
emergency meeting to examine
PG&E’s handling of the massive black-
out, which left roughly two million
people in the dark and created wide-
spread havoc from the Bay Area to the
northern reaches of the state. Several
of the company’s top executives were
summoned to detail the problems and
take questions from regulators.
“I can tell you that you guys failed
on so many levels on fairly simple
stuff,” Ms. Batjer said.
The agency earlier this week or-
dered PG&E to address numerous
problems with its strategy for such
blackouts, known as public safety
power shut-offs. It condemned the
company’s failure to provide maps
and other critical information to res-
idents and local officials ahead of
the shut-off. PG&E’s website crashed
Please turn to page BBYKATHERINEBLUNTCEO Kevin Johnson said data-driven deci-
sion making is the secret blend he has used
to keep the coffee empire percolating since
the departure of Howard Schultz, the entre-
preneur who turned the green siren logo
into a global icon.
The rise of data, however, shouldn’t mean
the fall of gut instinct.
Take the case ofSoftBank GroupCorp.
founder Masayoshi Son, a billionaire venture
capitalist whose approach has been de-
scribed as more Yoda and less Warren Buf-
fett. He likes to “feel the force” when sizing
up an opportunity.
Please turn to page BON BUSINESS|JOHN D. STOLL
‘Feel the Force’: Gut Instinct,
Not Data, Is the Thing
Three years ago, accounting
firm PricewaterhouseCoopers
LLP asked senior executives to
peer into their crystal balls
and predict how reliant they
would be on computer-gener-
ated analytics in 2020.
The answer: much more. Duh.
Data has flooded the C-Suite. Managers of
the Arkansas Children’s Hospital, for in-
stance, have 14 different data dashboards at
their fingertips to help speed and streamline
decision making.
Many executives say it’s time for statis-
tics to replace guesswork. Starbucks Corp. Softbank founder Masayoshi Son has been described as more Yoda and less Warren Buffett.A
t 83, Carl Icahn, the billionaire finan-
cier legendary for waging guerrilla
warfare with corporate targets from
TWA to Dell, finally has a succession
plan. It’s a little complicated.
Fed up with New York, Mr. Icahn says
he’s moving his hedge fund to Miami and laying the
groundwork to hand it over to his son, Brett.
Mr. Icahn says Brett is the “leading candidate” to
take over the firm—once Mr. Icahn is ready to let
go, which he doesn’t seem to be just yet. “I’m not
going to give up making the real decisions,” Mr.
Icahn says. “I’m still in charge, but he’d get a piece
of the action.”
Brett, 40, is likely to rejoin Icahn Enterprises LP
in the coming months after a more than three-year
hiatus. He would run a small new investment fund.For over a year on and off, father and son have been
negotiating an arrangement that has already
stretched to a roughly 90-page contract. Nothing is
official yet and neither appears to be in any rush,
partly because Brett is bearish on the market and
hasn’t seen many good investment opportunities
with stocks near all-time highs.
His return would reunite two men who are oppo-
sites in many ways. Where Carl is outspoken and oper-
ates on instinct, Brett is more laid-back and fond of
spreadsheets. Brett likes chess, while his father prefers
poker. Carl has never been afraid to go on TV to make
his views heard, while Brett has operated under the ra-
dar for much of his career. The elder Mr. Icahn has
long hedged his portfolio with significant short posi-
tions—bets that stock prices will decrease that have
Please turn to page B‘I’m not
going to
give up
making
the real
decisions,’
Carl Icahn
said. ‘I’m
still in
charge.’SHO TAMURA/AFLO/ZUMA PRESSEXCHANGE
Hot Line
Thefuturistswho
wanttobringback
thephonecallBAct Fast
Anewtaxbreak
comeswithstrings
attachedBBUSINESS|FINANCE|TECHNOLOGY|MANAGEMENTDJIA26770.20g255.68 0.9% NASDAQ8089.54g0.8% STOXX 600391.84g0.3% 10-YR. TREAS.À3/32, yield 1.747% OIL$53.78g$0.15 GOLD$1,488.20g$4.10 EURO$1.1170 YEN108.PG&E
Warns on
Blackouts
California could face
shut-offs for decade
Replacing an Icahn
Brett Icahn is emerging as the likely successor to
one of the most famous investors of all time. But his father
is not ready to hand over the reins just yet.BYCARALOMBARDO
PHOTOS: BRETT: ICAHN ENTERPRISES; CARL: ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY C.J. BURTON