“One-share, one-vote is a bedrock tenet of good corporate governance as far as most long-term shareholders are concerned.” Twenty votes per share, ...
For Milton Friedman, it was simple. “There is one and only one social responsibility of business,” the Nobel economist wrote in 1970: to “engage in activities designed to increase its profits.” Companies must obey the law. But beyond that, their job is to make money for shareholders...
Who's right, the sleuth who exposed Bernie Madoff's gigantic Ponzi scheme, or GE's prestigious board and highly-regarded CEO, a team lauded on Wall Street for making great progress in rescuing and reforming the battered conglomerate?
In his flame-throwing report released on August 16, titled "General Electric, A Bigger Fraud Than Enron," Harry Markopolos––the forensic accountant who nailed Madoff––accuses GE of engaging in $38 billion in accounting fraud...
General Electric Co. tumbled the most since 2008 after a prominent financial examiner working with a short seller accused the company of “accounting fraud.” GE Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp called the claims “market manipulation—pure and simple.”...
Overstock shares fell for a third day Wednesday as investors reacted to statements by Chief Executive Officer Patrick Byrne that he was a part of federal investigations related to the 2016 election...
Verizon will sell the image-centric blogging website Tumblr to Automattic, owner of the blogging tools suite WordPress, according to the Wall Street Journal. The terms of the sale were not disclosed, but Axios reports the amount was "well below" $20 million...
So-called unicorn tech startups just keep on proliferating. July saw a dozen privately owned firms cross the $1 billion-plus threshold—more than any other month this year, per Pitchbook data. By August, there were 62 new unicorns minted in 2019, more than the 51 inducted by that time in 2018, or the 33 crowned by then in 2017....
The former vice president of marketing and communications for Tinder has filed suit against the company’s former CEO and the site’s owners over an alleged sexual assault.
Rosette Pambakian alleges Gregory Blatt made unwanted sexual comments toward her at a company party in December 2016 and groped her breasts and upper thighs without consent in front of other coworkers. She further accuses the company of firing her when she reported the incident...
As a few friends and I were settling a dinner bill last night, I noticed a Capital One credit card peeking out amid a table-full of taco scraps and emptied margarita glasses.
"Uh, oh," I remarked. “Who’s got the Capital One card? Are you pissed?"
The owner revealed himself, yet he was oblivious to the week’s news. I informed him: A hacker had gotten her hands on personal information for more than 100 million of the bank's customers and credit card applicants...
So many people have made claims in the data-breach settlement against consumer credit rating agency Equifax that, according to the Federal Trade Commission, each claimant is now likely to get “nowhere near” the $125 payout that was initially promised to victims in lieu of free credit monitoring. The FTC outlined the problem in a blog post on July 31st, just days after the settlement was reached and the claims process was launched...
EVERYONE’S TALKING – Busting the ‘overboarded’ myth. Bloomberg introduced a new word to the gender diversity lexicon yesterday: overboarded...
After more than a year of wrangling with regulators, Sprint and T-Mobile finally won the Justice Department's permission on Thursday for a $26.5 billion merger.
The deal combines two smaller wireless networks to compete better with market leaders AT&T and Verizon...
After trying, and failing, to crack the smartphone wireless modem business, Intel sold what remained of its efforts to Apple Thursday for $1 billion.
The iPhone maker will get the rights to all of Intel's intellectual property around modems, as well as some 2,200 new employees, along with all of their offices and equipment. Intel was the sole supplier of modems for last year's iPhones, but Apple didn't buy the business to supply the next few years of iPhone upgrades...
What's more, an array of financial maneuvers behind the scenes at the company have cast further questions over its corporate governance . As the ...
Today, we learn that WeWork CEO Adam Neumann has cashed out more than $700 million from the company ahead of its IPO via a mix of stock sales and debt, according to The Wall Street Journal. He has reportedly sold some of his stake in the company and borrowed against some of his holdings.The story notes that Neumann recently set up a family office to invest the proceeds and has begun to hire financial professionals to run it....
2019 is well on its way to being the year of the high-profile IPO.
Still, the year that gave investors the likes of Uber, Slack and Beyond Meat is just getting started, according to Wall Street insiders.
"This has been the year when cloud-based companies and on-demand services came of age," Santosh Rao, head of research at Manhattan Venture Partners, told Fortune...
Accenture has named Julie Sweet as its new chief executive officer, replacing interim CEO David Rowland, who stepped in after the death of Pierre Nanterme in January. Rowland will become executive chairman...
Its namesake service isn’t slated for North American launch until April 6, 2020, but Quibi, the short-form media startup founded late last year by Hollywood kingpin Jeffrey Katzenberg and led by Silicon Valley skipper Meg Whitman, is well on its way to building a star-studded team...
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will remain as chairman after a shareholder vote to curtail his power failed. The proposal, voted down at Facebook’s annual shareholder meeting on Thursday by an undisclosed margin, required that Facebook appoint an independent chair to replace Zuckerberg...
As Boeing takes steps to get its embattled 737 MAX aircraft up and flying again, investigations and lawsuits continue to pile up in the aftermath of October’s Lion Air Flight 610 crash and March’s Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 accident, taking a total of 346 lives. The crisis has caused frustrated stakeholders and corporate governance experts to question both the makeup of the board, and how they’re responding— placing a collection of people who are used to operating in inner sanctums under intense scrutiny and pressure...
Women will make up more than half of GM’s board next month after two male directors retire, leaving six female directors, including chair Mary Barra, to five men...
Facebook Inc. is nearing a settlement with U.S. regulators that would elevate responsibility for privacy oversight to the company’s board of directors, according to a person familiar with the matter...
The eternal battle for control at public companies between executives and shareholders is one of the most important narratives in business. And on one front, shareholders have won decisively: They’ve sharply reduced the use of “staggered” boards of directors, which can help protect business leaders from the pressures of reform-minded investors...
If you asked Disney CEO Robert Iger how 2018 went at work, he’d probably say great, given the company’s success its businesses, hot reception for the new streaming service, and Monday’s five-year high stock price. Plus, there is the $65.6 million in compensation he received over the year, according to the company’s current proxy statement. The number meant a CEO-to-median employee pay ratio of 1,424 to 1...