The Wall Street Journal - 23.08.2019

***** FRIDAY, AUGUST 23, 2019 ~ VOL. CCLXXIV NO. 46 WSJ.com HHHH$4.

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Tensions

In Asia

Weaken

Alliance

South Korea quits

intelligence-sharing

pact with Japan,

surprising U.S. officials

for, Mr. Greenspan knew. People typically

took DNA tests to find long-lost relatives or

learn more about their ancestry. They didn’t

expect their genetic data might become part

of a criminal investigation.

But one case involved a dead child whose

body had never been claimed. The other was

from a rape crime scene. Mr. Greenspan was

horrified by the details.

He didn’t tell the FBI attorney to come back

with a court order. He didn’t stop to ponder the

moral quandaries. He said yes on the spot.

“I have been a CEO for a long time,” said Mr.

Greenspan, 67 years old, who founded the

Houston-based company in 1999. “I have made

decisions on my own for a long time. In this

PleaseturntopageA

Humanitarian Crisis Grows in Yemen, as Coalition Rift Widens

IN NEED: Yemenis collected clean water from a donated source in San’a on Thursday. A widening rift in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition

fighting Houthi rebels is undermining attempts to end Yemen’s four-year war, which has caused a major humanitarian crisis. A

YAHYA ARHAB/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

The trouble started when the Federal Bu-

reau of Investigation attorney made a per-

sonal appeal to Bennett Greenspan.

Mr. Greenspan, president of Fami-

lyTreeDNA, was used to fielding requests

from genealogists, customers, even friends of

friends, seeking help with DNA testing. The

FBI’s Steve Kramer wasn’t among them.

The company’s database of over 1.5 million

customers could help solve heinous crimes,

the attorney said. He wanted to upload DNA

data in two cases to see if there were genetic

links to other users. Turning up matches to

even distant relatives might generate leads.

This wasn’t what his customers signed up

BYAMYDOCKSERMARCUS

served, there weren’t many

choices,” said Bob Sheehy, the

company’s chief executive.

Enrollment in plans sold

through the ACA’s market-

places, or exchanges, totaled

around 10.6 million in the first

quarter, roughly the same as

the year-earlier figure, accord-

ing to the Kaiser Family Foun-

dation. But the overall number

of people with individual in-

surance has dropped—to 13.

million in the first quarter of

this year, according to the Kai-

PleaseturntopageA

tively flat or even down this

year, analysts and insurers said.

“The market is now clearly

stabilizing,” said Mario

Schlosser, chief executive of

Oscar. Oscar has proposed pre-

mium decreases in three

states for next year.

In some cases, insurers are

going into markets where

there have been few options.

For instance, Bright Health is

entering Nebraska, which cur-

rently has just one ACA in-

surer. “We saw places where

people were being under-

Health Inc., Molina Healthcare

Inc. and Centene Corp., the

biggest seller of ACA plans,

also plan larger footprints

next year. Anthem Inc. is ex-

panding in at least two of its

states, California and Virginia.

The insurers’ moves reflect

the improved finances of the

business after sharp rate in-

creases in previous years

helped revenue catch up to

claims costs. Premium in-

creases for 2020 so far appear

likely to be moderate in many

markets, after rates were rela-

Insurers are expanding

their Affordable Care Act plan

offerings for next year, with

the once-troubled business

now generating profits even as

the overall individual-insur-

ance market has shrunk.

Oscar Insurance Corp. is the

latest to announce its expected

growth for 2020, adding six

new states, including Pennsyl-

vania and Georgia, to its cur-

rent roster of nine. Insurers

including Cigna Corp., Bright

BYANNAWILDEMATHEWS

Health Insurers Add Options

As Profits Make a Recovery

South Korea said Thursday it

was withdrawing from an

agreement to share military in-

telligence with Japan—widening

a rift between two U.S. allies

and undermining Washington’s

efforts to counter rivals North

Korea, China and Russia.

U.S. officials said Seoul’s de-

cision could make it more diffi-

cult to manage a security crisis

in the region. The development

comes as the U.S. has been fac-

ing other challenges, including

a trade war with China and

tensions between India and

Pakistan over Kashmir.

South Korea’s move ap-

peared to take the White

House by surprise and fol-

lowed an appeal by the Trump

administration to Seoul to re-

new the intelligence-sharing

accord. U.S. officials worry

the agreement, once dead, will

be hard to revive, and that its

demise would send a message

of disunity.

Seoul, whose relationship

with Tokyo has grown increas-

ingly acrimonious, complained

in scrapping the deal that

Japan had arbitrarily accused

it of being a national security

concern and downgraded its

status as a trading partner.

Secretary of State Mike

Pompeo called on the two

countries to overcome their dif-

PleaseturntopageA

ByMichael R. Gordon

in Washington,Andrew

Jeongin Seoul and

Alastair Galein Tokyo

The FBI Came Calling.

The DNA Firm Answered.

Home tests soar, and how data is used is left largely to companies

TOMORROW

WSJ.

MAGAZINE

women’s

fashion

College Football Long Snappers

Finally Get Their Due

iii

Sport, awash in awards, now has two

honors for the guy who hikes for kicks

College football is awash in

awards. The Heisman Trophy

goes to the nation’s best player.

There are all-conference teams

and All-America teams. There

are awards for the top interior

lineman, the best player who

began his career

without an ath-

letic scholarship

and the best as-

sistant coach.

Chris Rubio

saw someone left

out: the long

snapper.

The long snap-

per is the guy

who bends over and hikes the

ball to a teammate several

yards behind him, who then

punts it or holds it for a field

goal. He’s often recognized

only when he makes a terrible

mistake.

In recent years, long snap-

ping has evolved from a task

tacked onto the duties of an of-

fensive lineman to a special-

ized position that can earn a

college scholarship or lucrative

spot in the NFL. With that rise

in esteem have come long-

snapping recruiting ratings,

camps—and advo-

cates for an

award.

“It’s like the in-

vention of the seat

belt—‘Yeah, why

don’t we have

this?’ ” Mr. Rubio

said.

This season—

which begins this

weekend—Mr. Rubio, a former

long snapper for UCLA who

runs long-snapping camps

around the country, and two

associates are launching the

Mannelly Award to recognize

PleaseturntopageA

BYRACHELBACHMAN

Punter’s best friend

Overstock

CEO Ends

Turbulent

Tenure

Patrick Byrne made a career

of provoking Wall Street. In

his two decades as chief exec-

utive of Overstock.com Inc., he

tormented short sellers,

picked fights with journalists

and burned millions of dollars

on cryptocurrency projects.

That career ended Thursday

when Mr. Byrne announced his

resignation in a discursive let-

ter to shareholders that alluded

to a romantic relationship with

jailed Russian agent Maria Bu-

tina and covert activities on be-

half of the U.S. government.

It would have been a shock-

ing statement from most any

other CEO. But for Mr. Byrne,

it was in typical fashion.

Mr. Byrne said in his letter

he didn’t want his presence to

distract from the company’s

ability to do business. “It has

been an honor to serve you

through thick and thin, threats

grand and arcane,” he wrote.

Mr. Byrne is the longtime

public face and largest share-

holder of a company that is

facing many problems. Over-

stock, a well-known online

seller of rugs, sofas and other

goods, has lost roughly 31% of

its stock-market value over the

past year and posted a string

of money-losing quarters. The

Securities and Exchange Com-

mission is investigating part

of its crypto business.

Mr. Byrne declined to com-

ment Thursday afternoon be-

yond his letter. He said in his

letter he planned on “disap-

pearing for some time.”

Sam Antar, a longtime

critic of Overstock and Mr.

Byrne, said he thinks Mr.

Byrne’s resignation is due to

the company’s performance,

rather than his personal life.

PleaseturntopageA

BYPETERRUDEGEAIR

ANDPAULVIGNA

Salesforce.

#1 CRM.

Ranked #1 for CRM Applications based on

IDC 2018 Revenue Market Share Worldwide.

16.8%

5.6%

5.7%

3.4%

3.5%

salesforce.com/number1CRM

Source:IDC,WorldwideSemiannualSoftwareTracker,April2019.CRMmarketincludesthefollowingIDC-definedfunctional markets: Sales Force Productivity and Management, Marketing Campaign Management, Customer Service,

Contact Center, Advertising and Digital Commerce Applications. © 2019 salesforce.com, inc. All rights reserved.

Salesforce.comisaregisteredtrademarkofsalesforce.com,inc.,asareothernamesandmarks.

2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

Source: IDC, Worldwide Semiannual

Software Tracker, April 2019.

CONTENTS

Banking & Finance... B

Business News.. B3,

Crossword............... A

Heard on Street. B

Life & Arts....... A10-

Mansion.............. M1-

Markets..................... B

Opinion.............. A13-

Sports........................ A

Technology............... B

U.S. News............. A2-

Weather................... A

World News. A7-8,

s2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

All Rights Reserved

>

What’s

News

South Korea saidit was

withdrawing from a pact to

share military intelligence

with Japan, widening a rift

between two U.S. allies and

undermining Washington’s

efforts to counter North Ko-

rea, China and Russia.A

Banks planto be more

active in the 2020 elec-

tions, with a large industry

group promising to boost

campaign spending.A

Trump has decidednot to

move ahead with a plan to

cut about $4 billion in for-

eign-aid funding, after crit-

icism from lawmakers.A

PG&E conductedan un-

usual inspection of the power

line that sparked the deadliest

wildfire in California history

just weeks before it failed.A

Uighurs fromChina’s Xin-

jiang region are using a

popular app to post videos

that appear to memorialize

missing family members.A

Chinese policealleged that

a detained British consulate

employee from Hong Kong

had committed a prostitu-

tion-related offense, but

offered no evidence.A

MLB won’t letplayers par-

ticipate in Venezuela’s winter

league as it seeks clarifica-

tion on how to comply with

an economic embargo.A

Traffic congestionhas

worsened as the U.S. econ-

omy has improved, adding

roughly 12 minutes a day to

the average car commute.A

U.S. health authorities

are investigating the cases

of 153 people who devel-

oped severe lung illnesses

after using e-cigarettes.A

I

nsurers are expanding

ACA plan offerings, with

the once-troubled business

now generating profits even

as the overall individual-in-

surance market has shrunk.A

Overstock.com CEO Byrne

resigned in a letter that al-

luded to a relationship with a

Russian agent and covert ac-

tivities on behalf of the U.S.A

HP chief Weisleris step-

ping down later this year

for family health reasons.

He will be succeeded by

company veteran Lores.B

Powell’s challengein the

weeks ahead, including with

his Jackson Hole speech on

Friday, will be to hone the

Fed’s message on rates.A

An index of factoryactiv-

ity in August declined in the

U.S., Japan, Germany and the

eurozone, IHS Markit said.A

The S&P 500 stalledaf-

ter the weaker-than-ex-

pected manufacturing data.

The Dow gained 0.2%.B

Large telecom firmsand

attorneys general from ev-

ery state unveiled a new pact

for combating robocalls.B

MGM Resorts acquireda

50% stake in the firm that op-

erates the boutique NoMad

hotels and other brands.B

VW unveiledthefirstofa

line of vehiclesthe firm is bet-

ting will take the electric car

out of its tiny market niche.B

News Corp is developinga

news-aggregation service to

address publishers’ concerns

about Google and others.B

Novartis’s delayin launch-

ing a formal inquiry into test-

data manipulation is being

examined by regulators.B

Business&Finance

World-Wide