The Wall Street Journal - 09.08.2019

B2| Friday, August 9, 2019 **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

INDEX TO BUSINESSES

These indexes cite notable references to most parent companies and businesspeople
in today’s edition. Articles on regional page inserts aren’t cited in these indexes.

A

Activision Blizzard......B
Adidas.........................B
Advanced Micro Devices
...................................B
Alibaba Group...........B
Alphabet...A2,A4,B1,B
Amazon.com...B1,B3,B
Apollo Global
Management.............B
Apple....................B1,B
Axel Springer..............A

B

Barnes & Noble...........B
Berkshire Hathaway.B
Blackstone Group.......B
Boeing.......................B
Broadcom....................B

C

CA Technologies.........B
CBS..............................B
ClickSoftware
Technologies.............B
Conagra Brands.........B

D

Didi Chuxing Technology
.....................................A

E

Electronic Arts............B

Elliott Management...B

Eventbrite...................B

F

Facebook...A1,A2,A4,B

Fidelity Investments..A

J

J.C. Penney..................B

K

Kellogg.........................B

Kraft Heinz..........B1,B

L

Lyft............................B

M

McDonald's................B

Microsoft.............B4,B

N

Naspers.....................B

News Corp.............A2,B

Nike.............................B

Nikko Asset

Management...........B

P

Privinvest Group.......B

Q

Qualcomm...................B

R

Roark Capital Group...B

Roku............................B

S

Salesforce...................B

Sentinel Capital

Partners....................B

Symantec....................B

T

Take-Two Interactive

Software...................B

Tencent Holdings......B

Themis Trading...........B

Thyssenkrupp..............B

TransUnion................B

Twitter...........A1,A4,B

U

Uber Technologies....B

UBS Wealth

Management...........B

Upstart......................B

V

Viacom.........................B

Virtu Financial............B

W

Walt Disney................A

Y

Yelp..............................B

Z

Zillow Group.............B

INDEX TO PEOPLE

A

Allen, Byron...............M
Arnuk, Sal...................B

B

Baker, Charles.............B
Bakish, Bob.................B
Barton, Rich..............B
Birol, Fatih................B
Boustani, Jean..........B
Buffett, Warren........B

C

Cifu, Douglas...............B
Czerwonko, Alejo......B

D

Daunt, James..............B
Döpfner, Mathias........A

G

Galy, Sebastien.........B
Girouard, Dave..........B
Greeson, Michael........B
Griffin, Ken................M

H

Hamilton, Colin.........B

Hill, Rick......................B

I

Ianniello, Joe...............B

K

Kerkhoff, Guido...........B

Khosrowshahi, Dara.B

Klein, Aaron..............B

Klein, David...............B

Kotick, Bobby..............B

L

LaPierre, Wayne.........A

Lerner, Keith...............B

M

Mamut, Alexander......B

Meir, Edward.............B

Miln, James................B

Murray, Brian..............B

O-P

Oliver, Keith..............B

Patricio, Miguel........B

Peretti, Jonah.............A

R

Rorsted, Kasper..........B

S

Safa, Iskander...........B

Sappington, Brett.......B

Severino, Andre........B

Slavov, Georgi...........B

Soltau, Jill...................B

Staunovo, Giovanni..B

T

Tan, Hock....................B

Thomson, Robert........B

W

Weinstein, Harvey.....M

Weinstein, Robert.....M

Williams, Rana..........M

Wood, Anthony...........B

Z

Zuckerberg, Mark.......A

BUSINESS & FINANCE

those results didn’t include

Kraft Heinz because of the

food company’s delayed finan-

cial disclosure.

After Thursday’s results

and share drop, Mr. Buffett’s

stakeinKraftHeinzisvalued

at around $9 billion, compared

with $13.8 billion last year.

Kraft Heinz has tried to

shed some of its weakest

brands to reduce debt. But the

company has struggled to find

bidders for old brands such as

Maxwell House, according to

people familiar with those dis-

cussions.

Mr. Patricio has said he

would put attempted sales on

hold until he gets a better

sense of the company.

3G is known for its zero-

base budgeting approach

through which a company jus-

tifies all of its spending each

year.

Some former employees

and suppliers say Kraft relied

too much on that approach,

leaving its brands starved of

innovation as the company

boosted profit early after the

merger.

Mr. Patricio on Thursday

defended zero-base budgeting

but said the company’s brands

needed more investment. “Our

brands are icons. It’s our job

to ensure they are living

icons,” Mr. Patricio told inves-

tors.

Kraft Heinz has introduced

products and marketing cam-

paigns in recent months to

boost sales. It launched a line

of frozen meals co-branded

with Oprah Winfrey last week

and recently listed the Oscar

Mayer Wienermobile as a

place to stay on Airbnb Inc.

Kraft is seeing sales declines

in big categories that include

coffee and cheese in the year

through July 13, according to a

UBS market analysis.

Kraft Heinz executives said

Thursday that sales suffered

after retailers reduced their

inventories during the year.

Net income for the six-month

period fell to $854 million, or

70 cents a share, from $1.

billion, or $1.43, during the

comparable period last year.

between tech’s biggest rivals:

For example, until July,

Google’s YouTube wasn’t avail-

able on Amazon Fire TV, and

Amazon Prime Video wasn’t

available on Google Chrome-

cast. Walmart, the world’s

largest retailer, doesn’t sell

Amazon products.

“One of our advantages is

that we’re not one of those

guys,” Mr. Wood said. An Am-

azon spokeswoman declined to

comment on its relationship

with Roku.

While its rivals are used to

competing on a global scale,

Roku’s expansion outside the

U.S. has been small. It hasn’t

announced an international

strategy, but Mr. Wood said,

“We think it’s an open market.

There are no leaders yet inter-

nationally.”

Roku’s smart-TV operating

system could be its ticket

abroad. Most people outside the

U.S. prefer smart TVs over

streaming sticks and boxes,

Brett Sappington, principal ana-

product ambitions. On Wednes-

day, it announced a partnership

with Walmart that includes au-

dio products under Walmart’s

Onn brand. But a Roku spokes-

woman confirmed it has can-

celed plans to launch an Alexa-

like voice assistant announced

in January 2018.

Mr. Greeson said Roku is

smart to stay away from Ama-

zon’s voice-assistant turf.

“Roku can play the under-

dog card, and that’s good for

them if they’re too small right

now for Amazon to notice,” he

said. “If Roku becomes truly

competitive against Amazon

devices, though, Amazon can

decide, ‘Hell, let’s give [Fire

sticks] away for free.’ ” On

Prime Day last month, Ama-

zon’s Fire TV Sticks were a

top-selling item—at $14.99.

Mr. Wood called Amazon a

partner in content and a com-

petitor in hardware, but says

Roku’s lead is expanding. “We

compete with them well,” he

said.

Tough Year

SharesofKraftHeinzsufferedasthecompanyreportedfalling

salesandreducedthevalueofitsassetsagain.

Year-to-date performance

Source:FactSet

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KraftHeinz

t34%

S&PFood&Beverage

selectindustryindex

s13%

lyst and senior director of re-

search at Parks Associates, said.

Regulations giving consum-

ers greater control over their

data could potentially hamper

Roku’s advertising business.

Europe’s General Data Protec-

tion Regulation, which took ef-

fect in 2018, could make it

more difficult for Roku to have

highly targeted ads. And in the

U.S., in the wake of California’s

landmark Consumer Privacy

Act in June 2018, other states

have proposed or passed simi-

lar legislation. Mr. Wood said

Roku’s direct relationship with

viewers is an advantage.

Roku has scaled back some

Ad sales, the chief

source of income,

could be harmed by

privacy regulations.

ThyssenkruppAG said a dif-

ficult economic environment led

to a loss in the third quarter,

while it revised its outlook for

its financial year.

The German industrial con-

glomerate posted a third-quarter

net loss of €94 million ($105.

million) compared with a group

net loss of €131 million a year

earlier.

“Growth was slowed by in-

creasingly weaker global eco-

nomic momentum, a marked

downturn in the automotive sec-

tor and continued high import

pressure for steel,” the company

said.

Net sales rose to €10.78 bil-

lion from €10.77 billion the same

period a year before, the com-

pany said. Order intake for the

full group was €10.22 billion,

down from €10.55 billion.

The company, which makes

steel, elevators and auto compo-

nents, said its adjusted earnings

before interest and taxes fell to

€226 million from €331 million in

the third quarter of its previous

financial year.

“Overall we cannot be satis-

fied with our performance in the

first nine months,” said Thyssen-

krupp Chief Executive Guido

Kerkhoff.

Thyssenkrupp revised its full-

year outlook and said its ad-

justed EBIT for the financial year

will be around €800 million,

down from €1.1 billion to €1.

billion. The company also ex-

pects a negative net income.

—Ruth Bender

German Industrial Firm Thyssenkrupp Posts Loss, Cuts Outlook

FRIEDEMANN VOGEL/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

face a federal probe into its

accounting practices and law-

suits alleging insider trading

by executives and top share-

holders.

Mr. Patricio, a former An-

heuser-Busch InBev SA execu-

tive who took over at Kraft

Heinz in June, is tasked with

bringing the company back

from its biggest crisis since in-

vestment fund 3G Capital LLC

and Warren Buffett helped

broker the merger of Kraft

Foods with H.J. Heinz in 2015.

Mr. Buffett said earlier this

year that he overpaid for Kraft

Heinz but didn’t plan to sell

his 27% stake. Berkshire Hath-

away Inc. reported upbeat

earnings last week, though

come up with products for in-

ternational markets, such as

condiments in China, he said.

Kraft Heinz had delayed the

release of its results for the

first half and said it would

continue delaying filings asso-

ciated with that period as it

considers further write-downs

on the value of its brands.

Mr. Patricio said the com-

pany would stop offering fore-

casts for its future earnings as

it sorts out its problems. “We

have a big agenda to build,”

Mr. Patricio said. “I think that

working on short-term targets

will not help.”

Kraft Heinz belatedly re-

leased its full-year 2018 finan-

cial results in June after com-

pleting an internal

investigation into accounting

misstatements by employees.

The irregularities understated

the costs of goods sold across

roughly three years by $

million, an amount that Kraft

Heinz said wasn’t material to

its revenue of around $26 bil-

lion annually.

The company continues to

Continued from the prior page

Kraft Heinz

Brands

Lose Value

ing room is “over the top”
video, which refers to video
delivered directly over the in-
ternet instead of via traditional
broadcast and cable networks.
Total U.S. ad revenue for these
services, not including You-
Tube or social media, hit $2.
billion in 2018, according to
media-research group Magna
Global. Hulu was No. 1, at $1.
billion. Roku was second. While
it doesn’t break out ad reve-
nue, Roku reported $416 mil-
lion in platform revenue last
year—the vast majority of it
from ad sales. Advertising ana-
lysts say Amazon’s share is
smaller but increasing.
Because Roku doesn’t have
its own content, it is in a posi-
tion to partner with many
competing sides, as the
streaming market becomes
oversaturated: Roku already
has Netflix, Amazon Prime,
Hulu and many more services.
This fall, Disney+ and Apple
TV+ are set to launch, followed
by AT&T’s HBO Max. All are
expected to have Roku apps.
Cable cutters have more de-
vices than ever to choose
from, but Roku has an advan-
tage over the bigger names: It
isn’t involved in what the CEO
calls “political battles.” Roku
has been left out of skirmishes

Continued from the prior page

Roku Stays

Strong in

Streaming

The company’s hardware regularly

outsells that of Apple and Amazon. ROKU/ASSOCIATED PRESS

J.C. PenneyCo. said it is
considering a reverse stock
split to ensure that its shares
remain listed on the New York
Stock Exchange.
The company said Thurs-
day that it received a notice
from the NYSE that it is no
longer in compliance with list-
ing rules that require a com-
pany to maintain an average
closing share price of at least
$1 for 30 consecutive trading
days.
Penney has six months to
address the issue.
It would need stockholder
approval for a reverse stock
split, which would reduce the
number of shares outstanding,

thereby boosting the value of

each individual share.

Penney’s shares closed at

69 cents, an increase of 9.1%

on the day.

Once the go-to apparel re-

tailer for America’s middle

class, Penney has struggled in

recent years with a series of

management and strategic

changes.

New Chief Executive Officer

Jill Soltau, who has yet to out-

line a vision for how she plans

to turn the company around,

has been reaching out to cred-

itors in an attempt to refi-

nance some of the company’s

debt.

The company is scheduled

to report second-quarter re-

sults next week.

BYSUZANNEKAPNER

J.C. Penney Considers

Reverse Stock Split

F