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☆ Brookfield buys payments firm Network International for $2.76 bln
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 9 (Reuters) - Canada's Brookfield Asset Management (BAM.TO) said on Friday it would buy payments provider Network International (NETW.L) for 2.2 billion pounds ($2.76 billion) in cash, as it expands its payments business in the Middle East and Africa. The Canadian firm said Network directors intended to unanimously recommend that shareholders vote in favour of the deal. Brookfield, which has over $5 billion in assets under management in the Middle East, last year bought a 60% stake in Magnati, the payments business of First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB.AD). The investment firm said the deal would be financed by a combination of equity investment, as part of which Brookfield Business Partners expects to invest up to about $150 million. Network International, whose top investors include Capital Research and Mastercard UK, listed in London in April 2019 at an initial public offering price of 435 pence a share.

Persons: Brookfield, Aby Jose Koilparambil, Eva Mathews, Nivedita Bhattacharjee, Jason Neely Organizations: Brookfield Asset Management, Network, United, Capital, Francisco Partners, Brookfield, Abu Dhabi Bank, Brookfield Business Partners, Network International, Capital Research, Mastercard, Thomson Locations: Brookfield, East, Africa, United Arab Emirates, Magnati, London, Bengaluru

☆ The Fed Failed but Wants More Power
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( The Editorial Board | ) www.wsj.com time to read: +1 min

Federal Reserve Board of Governors Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr testifies at a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in March. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Associated PressAn iron law of the modern administrative state is that the solution to regulatory failure is always to give regulators more power. That’s the key to understanding Federal Reserve Vice Chair for Supervision Michael Barr ’s autopsy, released Friday, of Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) failure. The report offers a token mea culpa for not having responded fast enough to troubles at the bank. But that’s mainly a deflection from the report’s main purpose, which is to protect the Fed and bolster the Biden Administration’s financial regulatory agenda.

☆ Fox's $787 million settlement won't restore damage to US democracy
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-19 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

CNN —Fox News will pay $787.5 million for transmitting lies that a small voting technology firm helped steal the 2020 election. And Trump himself is facing several criminal probes related to his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the run-up to the January 6, 2021, insurrection. And is there any chance that Fox’s humiliation can repair some of the damage from the disastrous election aftermath in 2020? That missing moment of accountability will be important because claims that the 2020 election was corrupt are not some artifact of recent history. No single case can repair the damage of 2020The extent to which Trump’s falsehoods and conspiracy theories harmed democracy is open to debate.

☆ Fox News apologizes to judge for ‘misunderstanding’ over Rupert Murdoch’s role that sparked investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-15 | by ( Marshall Cohen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

Washington CNN —Fox News formally apologized to the judge in the Dominion defamation case, taking responsibility for the “misunderstanding” regarding Rupert Murdoch’s role at the network that led the judge to launch an investigation into potential legal misconduct by Fox, according to a letter obtained by CNN. We apologize and never intended to avoid responding to a question from the Court.”The legal spat revolves around Murdoch’s roles at Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corporation. In past court filings, and when asked directly by the judge, Fox lawyers have repeatedly said he didn’t have an official title at Fox News. But last week, Fox disclosed that he is also an executive officer at Fox News. At hearings this past week in Wilmington, Delaware, Fox attorneys said they never withheld any material from Dominion.

CNN —Former President Donald Trump is suing Michael Cohen for $500 million in damages for allegedly breaching his contract as Trump’s former personal attorney. According to the lawsuit, Cohen revealed confidential information in talking about his prior-attorney-client relationship with Trump during media interviews about the Manhattan District Attorney’s grand jury investigation that led to the former president’s indictment. Cohen also violated an employee confidentiality agreement he signed with The Trump Organization when he published his two books that discuss Trump, the lawsuit claims. Cohen never asked for permission from Trump to disclose any confidential information that should’ve been protected by that agreement and his attorney-client obligations before publishing the books, according to the lawsuit. The complaint also alleges that, like his books, Cohen has put out “inflammatory, misleading, or outright false” information in his podcast “Mea Culpa.”This story has been updated with additional developments.

☆ Trump sues former lawyer Michael Cohen, key witness in Manhattan DA probe, for $500 million
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-12 | by ( Kevin Breuninger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Former President Donald Trump sued his onetime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen on Wednesday, seeking at least $500 million for alleged breaches of contract and "unjust enrichment." The allegations against Cohen, whose once-close relationship with Trump imploded in 2018, come as the disbarred lawyer has become a key witness against the former president in a criminal case in Manhattan. It centers on hush money payments made before the 2016 presidential election, which Cohen facilitated for Trump. The spokesman said in a statement that the lawsuit and Cohen's alleged wrongdoings "stand for themselves." The complaint alleged Cohen's fiduciary obligations owed to Trump "survive the attorney-client relationship and Defendant's disbarment and are still in effect today."

☆ 4 steps the Fed needs to take to calm markets after the Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and what investors should remember amid the chaos, according to JPMorgan's chief strategist
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( Marley Jay | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

The Fed needs to stop raising interest rates now, says David Kelly of JPMorgan Asset Management. Step one: don't hike interest rates any more. "You just pause on interest rates and you say that we're making good progress on inflation," he said. "What you need to do in the long run is have a very steady level of interest rates," he said. He explained that interest rates do a bad job controlling demand and end up creating bubbles and economic problems.

☆ Cramer says sudden collapse of SVB caught many by surprise, changed everything for this market
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Jim Cramer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailCramer says sudden collapse of SVB caught many by surprise, changed everything for this marketMad Money host Jim Cramer goes deep into the weeds to explain what happened last week with the collapse of SVB Financial, offers a mea culpa for recommending the stock, and discusses how it's changed everything for the markets.

☆ Read the email billionaire Ron Baron sent Elon Musk telling him to stop tweeting when angry: 'Get an ice cream cone. Just don't use Twitter'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Grace Kay | Sindhu Sundar | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Tesla investor Ron Baron once emailed Elon Musk and told him to stop tweeting when upset. Baron told CNBC that Musk has made him "$5 billion so far, on a $400 million investment." In his 2018 email, Baron told Musk to turn the other cheek. When an attorney for the plaintiffs showed him the email, Musk offered his own take on Baron's message to him. "He's not saying don't use Twitter, he's saying I shouldn't respond to criticism in the news on Twitter," Musk said on the stand at the time.

☆ The unraveling of fintech darling Vise
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +28 min

It was April, and more than two dozen salespeople who worked for the fintech startup Vise had been ordered to a multiday off-site at the W Hoboken hotel in New Jersey to share exhaustive reports on their performance. Even salespeople at bigger, established, top-tier investment-management firms typically wouldn't close $250 million in a year, multiple sales employees said. (K-means clustering is an unsupervised machine-learning algorithm often referred to as a form of AI, Vise's founders said). (Vise's founders disputed this, saying the company received updated financial data only once a day for its portfolio-construction engine.) And to address its "leaky funnel" of overestimating prospective sales, Vise was to stop outreach to new clients while it onboards and upsells to existing clients, the document said.

☆ Walmart says it charged Beauty Box subscribers nearly $700 instead of $6.98 due to a 'coding error'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Walmart Beauty Box products cost subscribers $6.98 without taxes every three months of the year. On Tuesday, customers took to social media to say that they were charged for 100 boxes, at $698. Some customers took to social media Tuesday to say that Walmart charged them for 100 Beauty Boxes instead of one, a grand total of $698 before taxes. Beyond the refunds, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant will also be giving customers $100 Walmart gift cards and complimentary spring and summer Beauty Boxes, according to Walmart. Are you a Walmart Beauty Box customer who was overcharged?

☆ Walmart says it charged Beauty Box subscribers for 100 boxes instead of one due to a 'coding error'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-02 | by ( Ben Tobin | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Walmart Beauty Box products cost subscribers $6.98 without taxes every three months of the year. On Tuesday, customers took to social media to say that they were charged for 100 boxes, at $698. Some customers took to social media Tuesday to say that Walmart charged them for 100 Beauty Boxes instead of one, a grand total of $698 beofre taxes. Beyond the refunds, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based retail giant will also be giving customers $100 Walmart gift cards and complimentary spring and summer Beauty Boxes, according to Walmart. Are you a Walmart Beauty Box customer who was overcharged?

☆ Analysts bail on Lyft after latest earnings, say Uber is cementing its place as leader
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-10 | by ( Sarah Min | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Lyft shares fell more than 30% during Friday premarket trading as traders weighed a weaker-than-expected forecast from the ridesharing company in its most recent earnings report. LYFT 1D mountain Lyft shares tumble For market observers on Wall Street, that was hardly a good enough explanation. As of Thursday's close, Lyft shares jumped more than 47%, following a 74% drop in 2022. While the analyst did not have a price target available, his previous target in January was $24 for the stock. Lastly, Loop Capital's Rob Sanderson downgraded Lyft to hold from buy, and dropped the price target to $10 from $17.

☆ We asked ChatGPT to write a layoff memo and it turns out this is 'a difficult time'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( Rebecca Knight | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Insider asked ChatGPT, the AI chatbot, to draft a layoff memo for a pretend tech company, Gomezon. After a little prodding, the chatbot wrote a layoff memo just as formulaic as the others. Surely it could compose a layoff memo of reasonable quality, right? ChatGPT can write a layoff memo InsiderThat wasn't the answer I'd expected, but in some ways it made me feel somewhat better about the technology. Maybe I should have accepted the technology's initial reluctance to write the layoff memo.

☆ Nick Clegg led Meta's decision to reinstate Trump to Facebook and Instagram. Here's how the former UK deputy prime minister charmed his way into Mark Zuckerberg's inner circle.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-26 | by ( Philip Webster | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +18 min

Nick Clegg has risen quickly to become one of Mark Zuckerberg's closest confidants at Meta. Clegg, a former UK deputy prime minister, led the decision to reinstate Donald Trump to Facebook. It was updated on February 16, 2022 following the news that Nick Clegg had been promoted to the role of President for Global Affairs. In a challenging economic climate, the Lib Dems and their Conservative coalition partners voted to raise tuition fees. Nick Clegg (left) and Chris Huhne appearing on the BBC's "The Andrew Marr Show" in October 2007.

☆ Mexico cracks down on solar geoengineering, forcing startup to pause operations
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +6 min

The sun sets behind power lines near homes during a heat wave in Los Angeles, California on September 6, 2022. On Friday, the government of Mexico issued a statement that it plans to "prohibit and, where appropriate, stop experimentation practices with solar geoengineering in the country." Both Wanser and Make Sunsets both indicated their support for thorough and detailed study of sunlight reflection technologies. But it's not known whether the damage caused by sunlight reflection technology — possibly including damage to the ozone layer, increased respiratory illness, and acid rain — could be worse than the future effects of global warming. Understanding its risks and benefits through research is critical for the world's most climate-vulnerable people," she said in a statement.

☆ I'm a top OnlyFans creator who sold $30,000 worth of NFTs in one month. I love that it gives me ownership of my content, and I don't plan to leave Web3 anytime soon.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Jenna Gyimesi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Jean says she has no plans of leaving the Web3 space. Artist credit: MeaI sold over $30,000 worth in just one month, and I don't plan on leaving the Web3 space anytime soon. The exclusive content I offer for holders isn't available anywhere else; I host virtual parties, post voice notes, and other things. And for me, it keeps my content exclusive and more valuable to my community who invests in it. I don't think NFTs are going to fall off.

☆ California Storm Forces Evacuations, Rescues Amid Severe Flooding
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Tech Layoffs Pile Up as Bosses Reverse CourseAfter a period of aggressive hiring to meet heightened demand for online services during the pandemic, tech companies are now laying off many of those workers. And tech bosses are saying “mea culpa” for the miscalculation. WSJ reporter Dana Mattioli joins host Zoe Thomas to talk through the shift and what it all means for the tech sector going forward.

☆ Brazilians Demand Punishment for Rioters, Lula Vows Investigation
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

☆ Mike Rogers posts mea culpa to Florida congressman Matt Gaetz for lunging at him on the House floor
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Cheryl Teh | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Alabama congressman Mike Rogers posted a mea culpa to his colleague, Matt Gaetz. Rogers was seen lunging at Gaetz in a tense moment on the House floor on Friday night. "I regret that I briefly lost my temper on the House Floor Friday evening and appreciate Matt's kind understanding." Rogers was seen lunging at Gaetz on the House floor on Friday night. McCarthy was then seen engaging in a tense conversation with Gaetz amongst a huddle of Republicans on the House floor.

☆ Silicon Valley layoffs go from bad to worse
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

At Amazon and other tech companies, the second half of last year was marked by hiring freezes, layoffs and other cost-cutting measures at a number of household names in Silicon Valley. Rising interest rates also dried up the easy money tech companies relied on to fuel big bets on future innovations, and cut into their sky-high valuations. While there have been some layoffs recently in the consumer goods sector and hints of more to come elsewhere, the situation in Silicon Valley remains in stark contrast to the economy as a whole. And despite the robust overall labor market, there are growing concerns that tech layoffs could spread elsewhere. In that sense, at least, Silicon Valley may once again be ahead of the curve, but not in the way it wants.

☆ A CEO's apology is a make-or-break moment. Here's how to do it right.
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( Josée Rose | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

When a CEO or company messes up and trust is broken, the apology must be done right. Trust is the everyday currency of business, PwC's Wes Bricker says. CEOs must be aware that the way they apologize is just as important as the words "I'm sorry." In recent years, a corporation's or CEO's apology has taken on greater significance because customers and employees are often quick to demand that leaders take ownership and show transparency around their actions. Sucher said CEOs were receptive to a framework on how to apologize because "everyone messes up at times."

☆ The Oath Keepers promised to defend liberty — and ended up trying to overthrow American democracy
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Charles R. Davis | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

The Oath Keepers were founded in 2009, pledging to stand up to tyranny. The Oath Keepers, to be sure, are not to be confused with a charming but a little bit problematic ex. A look at the list of 10 orders the Oath Keepers insisted its members — cops and soldiers — would not carry out reveals as much. Thanks to the magic of the Internet Archive, however, we can see just how they were received on the Oath Keepers' website at the time. But there is, in my take, nothing different about the underlying threat that Oath Keepers posed from day one."

☆ The year that brought high-flying Silicon Valley back down to earth
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Catherine Thorbecke | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +9 min

The tech industry, already dominant, only seemed destined to grow even bigger at the start of this year. The spread of the Omicron variant suggested a continued pandemic-fueled demand for digital goods and services, which had buoyed many tech companies. The result was a bloodbath unlike anything the tech industry has seen in the past decade. For years, Silicon Valley has held up its founders as visionaries who can see far into the future. “I do not think venture is cratering, or the tech industry is cratering as an industry.”But for now, at least, there appears to be no end in sight to the pain for Silicon Valley and those who work in it.

☆ Elon had to choose between Twitter and Tesla. He's choosing Tesla.
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( Hasan Chowdhury | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Elon Musk has been forced to make a tough choice: Tesla or Twitter. He's picking Tesla, which represents nearly half his $156 billion in estimated wealth, and the Twitter poll gave him a handy escape pod. That red ink wasn't as much of a problem when interest rates were low, and Tesla's shares were soaring. But as the Federal Reserve has aggressively hiked interest rates to curb inflation, using Tesla stock to pay off the debt on the Twitter buyout is a problem for Tesla. "Tesla is so much an Elon stock, it stands or falls because of him," Beauchamp said.

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