DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Aesop deal spreads scent of stressed M&A
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

TORONTO, April 4 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The scent of stress is wafting from the Brazilian backer of Aesop. Natura (NTCO3.SA)agreed to sell the luxury lotion maker to French cosmetics giant L’Oreal (OREP.PA) for about $2.5 billion. It offloaded the successful investment to shore up its balance sheet, an M&A motivation that probably will spread. With recessions being anticipated in a higher interest rate environment, more companies are bound to consider a similar calculus. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ Icahn and Khan make for odd bedfellows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Case in point is Illumina (ILMN.O), which on Monday was ordered by the Federal Trade Commission, led by Chair Lina Khan, to unwind its $7 billion acquisition of Grail (GRAL.O). This puts Khan on the same side as Carl Icahn, who wants Illumina to ditch the deal for seemingly opposite reasons. Illumina makes DNA sequencing machines used in medical research. The commission believes Illumina could use its dominance in DNA sequencing to hurt Grail’s competitors and raise prices. Icahn, on the other hand, worries Grail is burning Illumina’s cash, and this hurts the parent firm’s effort to keep ahead of rivals.

☆ How Modi can grab India’s geopolitical “moment”
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +7 min

India is in a geopolitical sweet spot because of growing tension between the United States and China. The hard-nosed realpolitik view is that this doesn’t matter as India and the United States have a common threat. This matters for India’s economic future, as geopolitical considerations are increasingly driving global commerce. The United States is encouraging this process through what it calls “friendshoring”. Modi can do a lot to make the most of India’s geopolitical opportunity.

☆ Explainer: The business of water: no one-size-fits-all approach
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( Isla Binnie | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPSA group of experts established by the Dutch government is proposing "Just Water Partnerships" in which development finance institutions would invest alongside private firms to improve water systems in lower-income countries. One of those, the Calvert Global Water Fund, tracks the performance of an index of companies that "are offering products or services that are part of a solution to global water challenges," said portfolio manager Jade Huang. "There is no one-size-fits-all approach that can help to approach the many aspects of dealing with water challenges," Huang added. Lance Coogan, who developed that concept for water price indexing, describes it as "the volume-weighted average of the actual water transactions that are taking place". How can you have those things without having the water price?"

☆ Exclusive: Republican U.S. Senator Rick Scott, Democrat Warren unveil Fed oversight bill
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-22 | by ( David Morgan | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Republican Rick Scott and Democrat Elizabeth Warren blamed the collapse of the two banks on regulatory failures at the U.S. central bank, which has operated up to now with an internal inspector general who reports to the Fed board. "Our legislation fixes that by establishing a presidentially-appointed, Senate-confirmed inspector general at the Fed, like every other major government agency," Scott said in a joint release with Warren. Warren said this month's banking upheavals "have underscored the urgent need for a truly independent inspector general to hold Fed officials accountable for any lapses or wrongdoing." She sits on both the Senate Banking Committee and the Senate Finance Committee, and chairs subcommittees of both panels. Reporting by David Morgan and Heather Timmons; Editing by Scott Malone and Jonathan OatisOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Airtel would be a complex saviour for Paytm
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Shritama Bose | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

An investment from tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal would deliver a timely vote of confidence in the loss-making Indian financial technology darling whose Chinese investors are exiting. Currently it only has a payments bank licence, so it can accept deposits but not lend. New shareholders might also help ease an ongoing regulatory freeze on Paytm accepting deposits from new customers. He is seeking a stake in Paytm by merging his financial services unit – Airtel Payments Bank – into Paytm’s comparable unit, and wants to buy shares in its parent too from other holders, per Bloomberg. Mittal seeks to fold Airtel Payments Bank into Paytm Payments Bank in a stock deal and is also seeking to buy Paytm shares from other holders, the people said, asking not to be identified discussing private information.

☆ Biden and Republican senators join forces in attack on Big Tech at Supreme Court
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-18 | by ( Lawrence Hurley | David Ingram | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

A person walks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building during rainy weather, in Washington, U.S. January 17, 2023. WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden and some of his most prominent Republican adversaries in Congress have become allies, of sorts, in an upcoming Supreme Court showdown between Big Tech and its critics. Biden took a shot at tech companies in his State of the Union address earlier this month, although he did not mention Section 230. "I think this is an opportunity for the Supreme Court to disentangle some of the knots that the courts themselves have woven here into the law," he said in an interview. "The rhetoric is that these are bad powerful tech companies that are harming ordinary people and causing a lot of harm and injustice," Rathi said.

☆ A reckless version of free speech is spreading across America, partly because of unchecked rhetoric by Elon Musk, Kayne West, and Kyrie Irving. We can't be complicit.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( Marguerite Ward | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk and Ye are among multiple notable figures embracing a misguided notion of free speech. And it's likely to get worse amid a growing, misguided movement for free speech. Twitter CEO Elon Musk, Ye (previously known as Kanye West), and the basketball star Kyrie Irving have become strange bedfellows in a growing fight for so-called free speech. Americans are on the precipice of accepting hate speech as free speech, and nobody is stepping up to say, "This is wrong." Speaking out on social media against unbound free speech, or withholding your business from a company, sends a message to executive board rooms.

☆ That nondescript building on the side of the highway is the newest gold mine Wall Street is trying to tap
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Dan Defrancesco | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

But first, inside the latest Wall Street investment trend that's offering double-digit returns. Meet Wall Street's newest gold mine. So why should you care about Wall Street's sudden interest in warehouses? To read more about Wall Street's appetite for warehouses, check out the full story here. PE firms have started buying up stakes in law firms.

☆ Trump says Joe Manchin has gone 'off the rails' and should have been 'brought into the Republican Party long ago'
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-29 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post that Sen. Joe Manchin had gone "off the rails." One of the most prominent examples was when he gutted President Joe Biden's "Build Back Better" spending plan. "When people ask, 'What happened to Joe Manchin, why did he go off the rails?' "The fact is, Joe Manchin should have been brought into the Republican Party long ago," Trump wrote. In December, McConnell invited Manchin to join the GOP and slammed the Democratic Party for calling Manchin a "liar."

☆ 'Heavy lifting' needed to overcome opposition to permitting bill, Joe Manchin says
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-23 | by ( Valerie Volcovici | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) holds up a visual aid while speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., September 20, 2022. Senator Joe Manchin on Friday warned that bipartisan opposition to his bill to overhaul energy permitting could derail his plan to attach it to temporary spending legislation and pass it by the end of the month. Manchin, who was interrupted by protesters opposed to the fossil fuel focus of his permitting plan, said that if Congress fails to reform the permitting process, it would jeopardize the clean energy investments the larger bill incentivizes. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Friday said the Biden administration continues to support congressional efforts to reform the energy permitting process. "We are very excited at DOE about the potential for streamlining permitting on clean energy projects," Granholm told reporters.

☆ Joe Manchin Blames ‘Revenge Politics’ for Opposition to Energy Permitting Bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Katy Stech Ferek | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

‘I’ve never seen stranger bedfellows than Bernie Sanders and the extreme liberal left siding with the Republican leadership,’ Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) said of the opposition Tuesday in Washington. WASHINGTON—Sen. Joe Manchin (D., W.Va.) said he would soon release the complete details of his permitting bill, designed to speed up energy projects, as he blamed “revenge politics” for opposition to his proposal from liberal Democrats as well as Republicans. “We have to have energy independence,” he said at a press conference, pitching the bill as a balanced way to both boost fossil-fuel and renewable energy production, while helping to rein in inflation. “That’s what I’m all about.”

☆ Manchin bemoans the 'strange bedfellows' of Bernie Sanders and the Senate GOP teaming up to oppose his plan to streamline construction of fossil fuel projects
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( Joseph Zeballos-Roig | Bryan Metzger | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Manchin bemoaned the bipartisan opposition that's brewing against his energy bill. "What I'm hearing is that this is like revenge politics," Manchin said Tuesday. Democratic leaders want to overhaul the permitting process for fossil fuel and clean energy projects. "I've been around a long time in state politics and federal politics," Manchin said at a Tuesday press conference. That Democrat-only bill poured $433 billion into clean energy tax credits, healthcare subsidies and imposed a minimum tax on profitable corporations.

☆ U.S. Senator Manchin to unveil energy permitting measure on Wednesday
▼ + stars: | 2022-09-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) holds up a visual aid while speaking to reporters at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, U.S., September 20, 2022. Senator Joe Manchin will unveil his full energy permitting bill on Wednesday to speed fossil fuel projects and offer incentives for renewable energy electricity transmission, legislation that faces an uphill battle. Manchin, an important swing vote in the 50-50 Senate, reached a side deal with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer during talks for the wider Inflation Reduction Act for his permitting measure to be voted on this fall. "I've never seen stranger bedfellows than Bernie Sanders and the extreme liberal left siding up with Republican leadership" and its rank-and-file senators, Manchin said. But Schatz said the bill has a chance if it offers incentives for renewable energy including transmission lines.

Search resuls for: "bedfellows"

14 mentions found