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But last week, Chinese state media slammed Goldman Sachs after the Wall Street firm recommended selling shares in local banks because of their exposure to risks in the domestic economy. Group of 20 central bankers and finance ministers are meeting this week in India, with this data adding to their worries about the state of the global economy. Some pessimists say the Chinese economy has peaked and a significant slowdown is coming. But, Mr. Pettis added, international investors need to look at China differently than they once did. “When China was growing at double-digit rates, even poor parts of the economy were growing,” he said.

Persons: ” George Magnus, DealBook, Xi, Goldman Sachs, Covid, Michael Pettis, Pettis, ”, “ Organizations: Oxford University’s China Center, UBS, West, Street, Peking University Locations: China, Beijing, India, Russia, Ukraine, Moscow, Kyiv

Trouble in TinseltownIt’s happening: America’s $134 billion movie and TV industry has ground to a halt after the Hollywood actors’ union voted to strike, joining screenwriters and shutting down virtually all productions. The move reflects the growing aggressiveness of the American labor movement, which has been battling against Starbucks, Amazon, UPS and others. The actors’ union blasted studios for refusing to bend on key issues, including higher payouts from streaming titles and clear limits on the use of artificial intelligence. Shame on them!”The studios argue that the unions’ demands are unrealistic, given the challenges the entertainment industry faces, from streaming to fallout from the pandemic. “This is the worst time in the world to add to that disruption,” Bob Iger, Disney’s C.E.O., said on CNBC yesterday.

Persons: ’, ” Fran Drescher, Bob Iger, Disney’s Organizations: Hollywood, Starbucks, SAG, CNBC Locations: Amazon, —

The PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, facing pressure from the Justice Department about their ambitions for a new company to shape global golf, have in recent days abandoned a crucial provision of their tentative deal: a promise not to recruit each other’s players. Three people familiar with the change, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential negotiations, signaled that the decision was an early casualty of an antitrust review by Justice Department regulators, who are expected to decide in the coming months whether to try to block the transaction. The tour moved to notify its board of the decision only on Thursday, after The New York Times asked the tour to comment on its reporting. The framework agreement between the tour and the wealth fund included few binding provisions. But one of them was a nonsolicitation clause, which said the tour and wealth fund-backed LIV Golf league would not “enter into any contract, agreement or understanding with” any “players who are members of the other’s tour or organization.”

Persons: LIV, ” Organizations: Tour, Saudi, Justice Department, The New York Times, LIV Golf

Musk and Meta enter the A.I. ringThe rivalry between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk won’t be confined to social media posts or a cage fight. Meta is further along than Mr. Musk in developing a commercial A.I. The social media giant is set to release an open-source version of its A.I. Well before Meta took a turn into the metaverse, the firm’s programmers developed LLaMA, an A.I.

Persons: Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk, Meta, Yann LeCun Organizations: Meta, Microsoft, Google, Financial Times, OpenAI Locations: buzziest

A reckoning for Lina KhanA federal judge’s decision to let Microsoft close its $70 billion takeover of the video game maker Activision Blizzard didn’t just represent a win for the tech giant. Microsoft is close to clinching the deal. In her 53-page ruling, Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley wrote that the F.T.C. had failed to show that Microsoft buying the maker of Call of Duty would substantially reduce competition in the video game market. That means the Activision deal, the largest tech acquisition ever, could close as soon as next week.

Persons: Lina Khan, Jacqueline Scott Corley Organizations: Microsoft, Activision, Britain’s, Authority

Ramaswamy rethinks political givingAs a biotech entrepreneur, investor and conservative activist, Vivek Ramaswamy cuts a different profile from the veteran politicians who are also seeking the Republican presidential nomination. With the plan that he announced on Monday — in which fund-raisers will get 10 percent of what they drum up for him — Mr. Ramaswamy told DealBook that he’s trying to shake up the business of politics now, too. How it works: Called “Vivek’s Kitchen Cabinet,” the system will give participants a personal link they can share with others, and the campaign will pay them as independent contractors. Mr. Ramaswamy said he’s taking aim at a political norm. After announcing his candidacy in February, he said he had met with professional fund-raisers who promised that they could find wealthy donors in Palm Beach, Fla., in Silicon Valley, and on Wall Street.

Persons: Ramaswamy, Vivek Ramaswamy, DealBook Locations: Palm Beach, Fla, Silicon Valley

‘Serious concerns’ at the PGA TourJust days before Tuesday’s PGA Tour hearing before the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, a prominent tour board member, Randall Stephenson, has resigned. His reason? He said he cannot support the golf organization’s proposed tie-up involving LIV Golf, its Saudi -backed rival, DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch and The Times’s Alan Blinder report. In a scathing resignation letter obtained by DealBook, Mr. Stephenson, the former AT&T chair, said that he — like most of the board — was left out of the loop as the tour negotiated a deal with Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund that jolted the sports world. (In fact, he had already lately taken to attending most board meetings via videoconference, save for last month’s meeting in Michigan.)

Persons: Randall Stephenson, LIV Golf, DealBook’s Lauren Hirsch, Alan Blinder, DealBook, Stephenson, —, Mr, Jamal Khashoggi, ” Mr Organizations: Investigations, AT Locations: Saudi, Michigan

☆ Several Executives of P.R. Firm Joele Frank to Start Own Firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-09 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | More About Lauren Hirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

There was a time when companies doing big deals could turn to only a handful of firms for advice. But the booming demand for counsel on acquisitions, activist investors and corporate crises has widened that circle and, increasingly, led to the creation of new firms. The latest example is Collected Strategies, which is being started by several executives at the communications firm Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, along with Ed Hammond, a longtime mergers-and-acquisitions reporter for Bloomberg. “Communications advice needs to as well.”The firm is starting in a period of elevated scrutiny of Wall Street’s activities. While overall deal making has been down, last year was the busiest in four years for activist investors, who take stakes in companies and demand change.

Persons: Joele Frank, Wilkinson Brimmer Katcher, Ed Hammond, Mr, Hammond Organizations: Bloomberg, “, Communications, Investment

Threads is integrated into Instagram, giving it potential access to roughly two billion monthly active users. Threads isn’t available in the European Union, where privacy watchdogs have long been concerned with how Meta handles users’ information. Being big doesn’t run afoul of antitrust law. Leveraging them to enhance the quality of Threads would not in and of itself violate antitrust laws, Mr. Melamed said. “The Threads example shows that big tech companies can also be valuable entrants, bringing new competitive pressure,” Mr. Francis said.

Persons: Nancy Rose, DealBook, ” Ms, Rose, ”, Doug Melamed, Melamed, “, Daniel Francis, Mr, Francis, — Ephrat Livni Organizations: Federal Trade Commission, European Union, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Twitter, Stanford Law School, Justice Department, New York University, Competition Locations: ’

But that call could change too, depending on Friday’s jobs numbers. It’s a sign that the recent boom in A.I.-related spending has failed to overcome other weaknesses in the semiconductor market. That is expected to wrap up a yearslong investigation into Ant, after government officials blocked the company’s plans to go public. New vehicle purchases rose 10 percent in the April quarter, as truck demand roared back. But Ford’s shares fell on Thursday because its electric cars sales declined in the same period, underperforming its biggest rival, Tesla.

Persons: Ant, Ford’s, Uber Organizations: Samsung, Ant Group, Reuters, Tesla, Analysts, New York Locations: A.I, Beijing, New

Twitter’s parent company sued a leading corporate law firm on Friday for what it said were unjust payments related to Elon Musk’s $44 billion acquisition of the social media company last year. A $90 million payment that Twitter made to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, a top mergers and acquisitions firm, amounted to “unjust enrichment” and should be paid back, according to the lawsuit, which the parent company, X Corp., filed in San Francisco Superior Court. The lawsuit said Wachtell Lipton took “funds from the company cash register while the keys were being handed over” to Mr. Musk, who owns X Corp.Twitter’s previous management hired Wachtell Lipton after Mr. Musk tried to terminate his agreement to acquire the company last year. He was unsuccessful, and the purchase closed in October.

Persons: Elon, Wachtell, Lipton, Katz, Wachtell Lipton, Musk Organizations: Elon Musk’s, Rosen, X Corp, San, San Francisco Superior Court Locations: San Francisco, ”

Has Zuckerberg invented a Twitter killer? Meta’s new social network had already racked up more than 10 million sign-ups within seven hours of its launch, and attracted celebrities and politicians like Oprah Winfrey and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York. But the presence of big-name advertisers such as Procter & Gamble and Ford points to the bigger commercial stakes in the fight between Mark Zuckerberg’s new platform and Elon Musk’s Twitter. Meta is billing Threads as a “friendly” forum, but the social media giant is gunning for the blue bird. Advertisers are watching closely, even if they can’t buy ads there yet.

Persons: Zuckerberg, Oprah Winfrey, Alexandria Ocasio, Ford, Mark Zuckerberg’s, gunning, ” Martin Sorrell, DealBook Organizations: Procter, Gamble, Elon, Twitter, Meta, S4 Capital Locations: Cortez, New York

Such a penalty would be far higher than any previously imposed by Brussels. But China’s stuttering economy and Beijing’s focus on elections in the United States and Taiwan next year are driving a calculation by Chinese policymakers that it is still worth engaging. But the Chinese are looking beyond the United States, and 2023. “Beijing policymakers are hedging their bets,” Rana Mitter, director of Oxford University’s China Center, told DealBook. “They believe that the Biden administration is using softer language but in practice seeking to contain China.

Persons: Illumina, Janet Yellen, Biden, Yellen’s, ” Rana Mitter, DealBook, “, ” Organizations: European Union, Financial Times, Economic, China, Oxford University’s China Center Locations: Brussels, China, Beijing, United States, Taiwan, Tianjin, Netherlands, Washington

☆ Fireworks Have a New Competitor: Drones
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | Michael J. De La Merced | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Like many in the fireworks industry, Stephen Vitale is in the family business. In October, he struck a surprising alliance with Nova Sky Stories, the drone company that Kimbal Musk acquired from Intel. Increasingly, drones are lighting up skybound entertainment shows. Drone shows are in some ways the newer, hipper brand of fireworks. Fireworks providers like Vitale face a tough decision: Invest in the expensive equipment and regulatory clearance required to get into the drone business, or believe that demand for fireworks will remain steady even as a new type of competition skyrockets.

Persons: Stephen Vitale, Kimbal Musk, King Charles III, Vitale Organizations: Nova Sky, Kimbal, Intel, Allied Market Research, Invest Locations: New, Pa

Turmoil ahead for diversity in hiringThe Supreme Court’s decision on Thursday to strike down affirmative action at colleges and universities sent shock waves throughout higher education. But the effects of the 6-3 ruling, which found that race-conscious admissions programs were unlawful, promise to go much wider. Many in corporate America fear that years of efforts to promote diversity are now vulnerable to legal challenges. While this particular case may not upend such initiatives, lawyers and executives say, future ones that go before the Supreme Court could. What the Supreme Court found: Affirmative action programs can’t be reconciled with the Constitution’s equal protection clause, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.

Persons: can’t, John Roberts, ”, Roberts Organizations: Harvard, University of North Locations: America, University of North Carolina

The money men aiding Robert Kennedy Jr.’s political surgeAs the 2024 race heats up, President Biden faces a persistent thorn in his side: Robert Kennedy Jr., the scion of the Democratic dynasty, who both touts an array of fringe theories and boasts surprisingly durable poll numbers. The Times notes that Mr. Kennedy is drawing support from an array of political outsiders. But perhaps his most powerful base is a group of financial and tech moguls, including the Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey, who have given him money and something arguably more important: exposure. That includes things like cryptocurrency — he has spoken at industry conferences and accepts campaign donations in Bitcoin. Mr. Kennedy has also embraced some of their favored podcasts, speaking with popular hosts like Joe Rogan and the venture capitalists behind the show “All-In.”And in endorsing Mr. Kennedy, Mr. Dorsey (who’s also a major Bitcoin booster) cited the candidate’s criticism of government censorship.

Persons: Robert Kennedy Jr, Biden, Kennedy, Jack Dorsey, Joe Rogan, Mr, Dorsey, who’s Organizations: Democratic, Twitter Locations: Bitcoin

Will the U.S. tighten a cordon around A.I. The deliberations underscore the White House’s worries about falling behind in the race to dominate A.I. chips, after the Biden administration limited exports of the most advanced semiconductors last year, according to The Journal. That would include Nvidia’s A800 chips, which the company created specifically to comply with earlier restrictions, set by the Commerce Department, on computational performance. Those chips might now require a license to be sold to Chinese companies.

Persons: Biden, isn’t, Janet Yellen Organizations: Nvidia, AMD, Street Journal, Commerce Department Locations: U.S, China, A.I, Beijing

Golf’s big deal — a planned partnership between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund — is not how big deals are ordinarily done. There were almost no outside bankers or lawyers involved in negotiations that led to a five-page framework agreement, and only so much input from the PGA Tour board. The plan that would, as the PGA Tour commissioner, Jay Monahan, put it, “take the competitor off of the board” came as the tour faced a Justice Department investigation over antitrust matters. “The fact that they were willing to publicly announce it does mean that the parties are pretty committed to doing something,” Sreepada said. “But I guess that leaves us with a question of who holds the leverage at this point?

Persons: Jay Monahan, “, ”, Suni Sreepada, ” Sreepada Organizations: PGA Tour, Saudi, Justice Department, & Gray

Bidenomics gets a rebootPresident Biden plans to double down on his economic record in a big campaign-style speech on Wednesday. Yet despite the good news, Mr. Biden hasn’t seen a big jump in his popularity, and he trails his Republican rivals, according to some polls. “Bidenomics” will be at the heart of the president’s message. “But it’s working.” The Donilon-Dunn memo tries to give the messaging around Bidenomics a reboot. They point to how, for example, the CHIPS Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the infrastructure law are creating jobs in the high-tech, manufacturing and green sectors.

Persons: Bidenomics, Biden, Biden hasn’t, “ Bidenomics, Anita Dunn, Mike Donilon, Michael D, ”, Dunn Organizations: Republican, Biden

Who is Mr. Prigozhin? Europe and the United States have been trying to shut down Prigozhin’s sprawling business operations for years. On the F.B.I.’s most wanted list, Mr. Prigozhin rose quickly in Putin’s Russia — from being the president’s favored caterer to winning major contracts that bankrolled Wagner Group, his private mercenary operation. Mr. Prigozhin also relies on a global network of corporate lawyers to fend off Western authorities, according to a separate F.T. Bill Browder, a former investor in Russia who has become one of Mr. Putin’s biggest critics, told DealBook that the president would look to reassert his authority by whatever means necessary.

Persons: Prigozhin, caterer, bankrolled, Wagner, Putin’s, , China’s, Putin, Bill Browder, DealBook, ” Organizations: bankrolled Wagner Group, Treasury Department, Evro, Central African, Financial Times, Treasury, — Terra Tech, BARL Locations: Prigozhin, Europe, United States, Russia, Syria, Ukraine, Evro Polis, Sudan, Central African Republic

☆ Deal for Formula 1 Team Reflects Growing U.S. Interest in the Sport
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-26 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

They are buying a 24 percent stake in Alpine F1 Team owned by Renault Group. The investors are paying about 200 million euros ($218 million) for the stake, valuing the team at roughly $900 million. Formula 1 has jumped in popularity in the United States since its sale to Liberty Media in 2017. For Renault, the Alpine deal is aimed at raising the visibility of its Alpine electric vehicle line, as it pushes to have more than half its sales in E.V.s by 2030. In a news release, Renault’s chief executive, Luca de Meo, said the deal would increase the value of the Alpine F1 brand.

Persons: Ryan Reynolds, ”, Luca de Meo Organizations: RedBird Capital Partners, Otro, Alpine F1 Team, Renault Group, Liberty Media, Netflix, Renault, Alpine Locations: United States, Las Vegas, Miami, E.V.s

But all the deals and pomp of the visit — including an address to Congress and a lavish state dinner — may not have accomplished what the White House had wanted. U.S. leaders gave Modi a hearty welcome, as Washington seeks to nudge India further into the American sphere of influence. “The partnership is among the most consequential in the world,” Biden said at a news conference on Thursday. Biden and Modi largely brushed off criticism of the Indian government’s crackdown on human rights and religious freedom. And Modi made no pledges to endorse U.S. efforts to restrain China, nor to cut ties to Russia.

Persons: Modi, ” Biden, Dave Calhoun, Larry Culp, G.E, James Taiclet, Lockheed Martin, Sam Altman, OpenAI, Tim Cook, Sanjay Mehrotra, Sundar Pichai, Lisa Su, Ken Chenault, Jane Fraser, Adena Friedman, Deven Parekh, Hemant Taneja, ” Taneja, DealBook, Biden Organizations: White, General Electric, chipmakers, Micron, Materials, World Trade Organization, America, Boeing, Lockheed, Tech, Apple, Citigroup, Nasdaq, Insight Venture Partners, Catalyst, The Times, House Locations: India, China, Russia, U.S, Washington, portobello, United States

☆ Fortress Investment Group Set to Acquire Vice Out of Bankruptcy
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-22 | by ( Lauren Hirsch | Benjamin Mullin | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Mr. Lokhandwala and Mr. Dixon said in their note that they expected the sale to close in July; the company would then begin operating under new ownership. In the past, bidders sought to acquire Vice Studios, the film and TV production business; Virtue, its ad agency; and i-D, one of the company’s magazines. Vice, which had unsuccessfully sought to sell itself for years, filed for bankruptcy in May, with Fortress, as one of its lenders, in pole position to take over the company. It had since sought run a sale of the business in bankruptcy to see if it could kick up further interest. As the sale process proceeds, Vice has some pressing issues to sort out.

Persons: ”, Lokhandwala, Dixon, “ Organizations: Fortress, Vice, “ Bama, American Gladiators, ESPN

Lina Khan takes on her longtime targetIn 2017, Lina Khan, then a 29-year-old law student, shot to fame with an academic article about why Amazon should be contained. Cutting against prevailing trends in antitrust law, Khan argued that the e-commerce giant was unfairly dominating huge swaths of the American economy. Now the chair of the F.T.C., Ms. Khan has finally taken on Amazon, though her agency’s new lawsuit against the company isn’t focused on antitrust. “Amazon tricked and trapped people into recurring subscriptions without their consent,” Ms. Khan said. wants the courts to stop Amazon from engaging in those practices and impose a financial penalty.

Persons: Lina Khan, Khan, “, ” Ms

Biden rolls out the red carpet for Modi and business is watchingThe White House is rolling out the red carpet for Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, with a state dinner on Thursday. High on the agenda: Talks to strengthen economic and security ties as the Biden administration cultivates partners to counter China. met Mr. Modi in New York on Tuesday and said India had more promise than any other big country. Enticed by the country’s sustainable energy potential, Mr. Musk said he hoped his electric carmaker could start doing business there “as soon as humanly possible.”India is booming. Mr. Modi has cannily managed to stay in the good graces of the West and Russia since the Kremlin declared war on Ukraine.

Persons: Biden, Narendra Modi, India’s, Elon Musk, Modi, Musk, cannily Organizations: Modi, SpaceX, Kremlin, Investors Locations: China, New York, India, West, Russia, Ukraine

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