TUESDAY, AUGUST 27, 2019 The Boston Globe Business C
TALKING POINTS
CLEANENERGY Agenda
TRUMP SAYS
WIND POWER
ISN’T ‘WORKING
ALL THAT WELL’
President Trump scoffed yet again at a source of electricity
championed by his own energy secretary, saying wind power
doesn’t work “all that well.” “We’re the No. 1 energy producer in
the world,” Trump said at the end of a summit of Group of Seven
in Biarritz, France. “I’m not going to lose that wealth on dreams,
on windmills, which, frankly, are not working all that well.” The
comment, in response to a question about climate change, is the
latest in a line of statements from the president disparaging
wind power. Trump has said turbines are “monstrous,” are “kill-
ing all the eagles,” and cause cancer. His comment Monday
came after the Energy Department released a report finding em-
ployment in the industry has risen to a record 114,000 full-time
jobs. It’s also the cheapest new source of electricity in many re-
gions of the United States. “The president is making a political
miscalculation in his comments on wind energy,” Tom Kiernan,
chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Associa-
tion, said in a statement. — BLOOMBERG NEWSFOOD
KRAFT HEINZ ASKS
ITS FORMER CFO
TO COME BACK
Kraft Heinz Co. is bringing back its former chief financial officer amid accounting problems
and falling sales. Paulo Basilio, 44, joined H.J. Heinz as CFO in 2013 and remained in the
job after the company’s 2015 merger with Kraft. He most recently served as Kraft Heinz’s
chief business development officer. He replaces David Knopf, 31, who will return to Brazil-
ian private equity firm 3G Capital. 3G and investor Warren Buffet engineered the Kraft Hei-
nz merger in 2015. The company’s familiar brands like Oscar Meyer and Velveeta are strug-
gling as consumers opt for more natural foods or store brands. — ASSOCIATED PRESSPHARMACEUTICALS
AMGEN TO PAY
$13.4 BILLION
FOR CELGENE’S
PSORIASIS MEDICINE
Amgen Inc. will pay $13.4 billion for a blockbuster psoriasis drug from Celgene Corp.,
which is shedding the asset in order to win antitrust regulators’ sign-off for its $74 billion
merger with Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. The all-cash deal will give Amgen a growing product
at a time when the blockbuster biotechnology drugs it made its name on are beginning to
fade. For Celgene and Bristol-Myers, the divestiture will pave the way to one of the pharma-
ceutical industry’s largest mergers of the past decade. The price is $11.2 billion once future
cash tax benefits are taken into account, Thousand Oaks, Calif.-based Amgen said in a state-
ment Monday. Bristol-Myers has a competing psoriasis drug in development, and in June
announced its plan to divest Summit, N.J.-based Celgene’s Otezla. The psoriasis drug had
sales last year of $1.61 billion, and is expected to bring in revenue of $2.71 billion in 2023,
according to analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Shares of Bristol-Myers and Cel-
gene both rose after the announcement. — BLOOMBERG NEWSRESTAURANTS
KFC TRYING OUT
PLANT-BASED
‘CHICKEN’ NUGGETS,
WINGS
It’s finger lickin’ fake chicken. Kentucky Fried Chicken plans to test
plant-based chicken nuggets and boneless wings Tuesday at one of
its restaurants in Atlanta. Depending on customer feedback, the
chain could expand the test to other markets. KFC is partnering with
Beyond Meat to develop the new product. Beyond Meat also sells
plant-based burgers and sausages at grocery stores and some fast-
food chains like Carl’s Jr. and Del Taco. It sold frozen plant-based
chicken strips until earlier this year, but pulled them off the market
because it wanted to improve the recipe. Restaurants are responding
to a surge in consumer demand for plant-based food that taste like
meat. — ASSOCIATED PRESSPETS
STORES SUE OVER
LAW BANNING SALE
OF COMMERCIALLY
BRED CATS AND DOGS
Pet stores are suing to block a Mary-
land law that will bar them from sell-
ing commercially bred cats and dogs,
a measure billed as a check against
unlicensed and substandard ‘‘puppy
mills.’’ The stores’ federal lawsuit
challenges a ban set to take effect on
Jan. 1, 2020. Maryland is the second
state, after California, to pass such re-
strictions on the sale of dogs and cats.
The pet stores fear the ban will put
them out of business. Their suit says
animal welfare organizations have
made unfounded claims that pet stores are fueling the growth of puppy mills. The lawsuit
also claims the ban effectively will shift the sale of puppies from regulated retailers to un-
regulated sources, such as sellers placing ads on the Internet or in newspapers. The first law
of this kind took effect in January in California. Maryland’s law encourages animal welfare
organizations to collaborate with retail pet stores to showcase cats and dogs for adoption or
purchase from ‘‘local breeders,’’ according to a summary of the legislation. The pet stores’
lawsuit claims the ban is unconstitutional, and violates the Commerce Clause. The legisla-
tion’s intent to facilitate sales from local breeders discriminates against out-of-state breed-
ers and brokers, the suit says. — ASSOCIATED PRESSBREXIT
JOHNSON WORKS
TO MITIGATE
BRITAIN’S EXIT FROM
EUROPEAN UNION
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson talked trade with the leaders of Australia and Egypt at
the Group of Seven summit Monday as he sought to position his nation for a post-Brexit
world. Johnson and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison agreed at the summit in
France to do a trade deal after the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, a departure
now set for Oct. 31. Morrison said he believed a UK-Australia pact could be done within a
year. “But at the end of the day it’s got to be in our interests,’’ Morrison said. After a one-on-
one meeting with Johnson in Biarritz on Sunday, US President Trump promised they would
work out ‘‘a very big trade deal’’ between their nations once Brexit happens. Johnson also
met Monday on the sidelines of the G7 summit with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sis-
si. The two discussed their shared desire to strengthen economic, trade, and security coop-
eration between the UK and Egypt. Despite the optimistic outlook given for Britain’s trade
and future, the country’s departure from the EU and its single market of 500 million hasn’t
taken place more than three years after voters backed leaving. Johnson has told EU officials
it won’t be possible to stop Britain’s departure from the trading bloc without the removal of
language about the border between Ireland and Northern Ireland. — ASSOCIATED PRESSSOCIALMEDIA
GERMAN AUTHORITIES
INVESTIGATING
FACEBOOK’S AUDIO
TRANSCRIPTION
Facebook Inc. is being probed by Hamburg’s data protection authority over transcribing au-
dio from users of its services in Germany, adding to an investigation into Google’s automatic
speech assistant. Facebook “is currently the subject of a separate investigation” into tran-
scription of human-to-machine and human-to-human communications, the Hamburg
Commissioner for Data Protection said in a press release on Monday. “Manual evaluation
was used in Facebook Messenger to optimize the transcription function.” Bloomberg report-
ed earlier in August that Facebook has been transcribing the audio of users who chose the
option in Facebook’s Messenger app to have their voice chats transcribed. The human re-
view was aimed at checking whether Facebook’s artificial intelligence correctly interpreted
the messages. In an e-mailed statement, the Irish data protection commissioner’s office, Fa-
cebook’s main privacy watchdog in the EU, said that while the voice-to-text feature was not
offered to users in Europe, Facebook inadvertently manually transcribed the audio clips of
fewer than 50 European users across 14 countries. The situations occurred when a US-
based user of the feature engaged with a European-based contact. — BLOOMBERG NEWSTuesdayJOBFAIR
Get the gig
Dust off your resume for this career fair
from organizer JobFairX. Prospective
employers will include Amazon, Air
Canada, Comcast, and the IRS. Tuesday,
11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Courtyard Marriott
Boston Downtown, 275 Tremont St.,
Boston. Free. Register online or go to the
business agenda at bostonglobe.com.NETWORKING
Connect with
professional womenBuild bridges over drinks at this happy
hour social from She+ Geeks Out.
Tuesday, 6 to 9 p.m., Fenway Community
Center, 1282 Boylston St., Boston. $10.
Register online or go to the business
agenda at bostonglobe.com.WednesdayWORKSHOP
Build a brand
Figure out your small company’s “brand
identity” at this class presented by
Staples Spotlight. Topics covered will
include how to develop an identity and
how to work with designers. Wednesday,
6:30 to 7:30 p.m., Staples, 1660
Soldiers Field Road, Boston. Free. Register
online or go to the business agenda at
bostonglobe.com.MEETUP
Linking up over coffee
Get to know other Boston-area
entrepreneurs, innovators, and investors
at this event from District Hall Boston.
Coffee and tea will be complementary.
Wednesday, 8:30 to 9:30 a.m., District
Hall, 75 Northern Ave., Boston. Free.
Register online or go to the business
agenda at bostonglobe.com.Eventsofnote?E-mailusat
[email protected]