Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-05-27)

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BloombergBusinessweek May27, 2019

SMITH:

MARCUS

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RIHANNA:

JOHNNY

NUNEZ/WIREIMAGE/GETTY

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OLIVER:

LORENZO

BEVILAQUA/GETTY

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BUNNY:

JOHN

LAMPARSKI/GETTY

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DATA:

COMPILED

BY

BLOOMBERG

 IN BRIEF

By Benedikt Kammel

○ The U.S.

blacklisted

Huawei, saying

the company

assists spying

by Beijing.

○ Hedge fundb

Steve Cohenwa

mystery buyero

3-foot-tall JeffK

sculpture ofan

inflatable rabbit

May 15 in NewY

for $91 million,

according toon

publication Artn

○ Commencement speakers, the bar has been raised: Billionaire investor Robert

Smith promised to pay off the student debt of Morehouse College’s Class of ’19.

○ A U.S. district

judge backed a

decision by the

Federal Trade

Commission that

found Qualcomm’s

licensing practices

violated antitrust

law. The company

is appealing.

○ A day before cancer-

treatment company

Peloton Therapeutics was

to sell shares in an IPO,

Merck & Co. swooped in

and bought it for

$2.2b

in cash and additional

payments, far in excess

of what Peloton expected

to raise from investors in

the listing.

○ As Brexit roils

the U.K., some

of its best-known

brands are on

the ropes:

① On May 20 shares of

debt-laden Thomas Cook,

which organized the first

round-the-world tour in

1872, plummeted.

②OnMay 21 celebrity

chef Jamie Oliver’s

restaurant empire

slid into insolvency,

leaving about 1,000 people

unemployed.

③ And on May 22, British

Steel, a national champion

once owned by the

government, collapsed.

○ Ford announced plans

to cut 7,000 jobs around

the world to save about

$600m

a year, as the auto industry

struggles with diminishing

demand and the massive

cost of transitioning to

the production of electric

vehicles.

○ Luxury powerhouse

LVMH will begin selling pop

singer Rihanna’s

Fenty brand in

late May online

and at pop-up stores,

pairing the world’s largest

luxury conglomerate with

one of its biggest cultural

influencers.

○ Former Formula One driver Niki Lauda, who won the championship three times and went on to start an airline, died at 70.

○ Wedbush Securities says EV pioneer Tesla is in a “code red situation” after it reported poor first-quarter deliveries.

○ Nestlé plans to sell its skin-care business to a group of private equity firms for 10.2 billion Swiss francs ($10.1 billion).

○ The final episode of Game of Thrones drew 19.3 million U.S. viewers on May 19, a record for the fantasy drama and HBO.

○ “Enough

is enough.

I want to

work for our

beautiful

country,

but without

incidents,

accidents,

and

scandals.”

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz

called for snap elections after a

secretly filmed video showed an

alcohol-fueled meeting at which his

deputy promised state contracts to

a woman claiming to be a Russian

oligarch’s niece in return for cash.

Huawei denies spying for China.

The ban threatens the technology

giant’s partnerships with suppliers,

including Google. The U.S. is

considering barring five other tech

companies from work on American

components or software, people

familiar with the matter say.  39

billionaire

asthe

of the

Koons

on

York

line

net.

£

5/18/

£

5/22/