5 things FDs need to know this week
As the new week begins, we pick out five highlights from the past week
It’s been a busy week, so we’ve included more than five things in this article.
1. Deliveroo valued at more than $2 billion after huge investment boost
The UK start-up has received a new round of funding amounting to $385 million, from investors T Rowe Price and Fidelity, as well as previous backers Accel Partners, Index Ventures, General Catalyst and DST Global.
The company plans to use the money for global expansion of their food delivery service, which currently operates in over 1000 cities around the world.
2. AIG reorganising into three new business units
American International Group, the US’s largest commercial insurer, has announced a restructuring of its business, including shedding their commercial and consumer businesses.
The three units will be General Insurance, Life & Retirementand a stand-alone technology-enabled platform. Rob Schimek, CEO of the Commercial unit, will leave the company at the end of October.
3. ABB buys GE’s industrial solutions unit for $2.6bn
Swiss engineering firm ABB has bought General Electric’s electrification business in a $2.6 billion deal that will propel it to second spot in the market.
Ulrich Spiesshofer, ABB CEO, has said he will retain GE’s brand and management team and the deal, set to close in 2018, is expected to incur integration costs of about $400 million over the next five years.
4. Twenty-first century Fox bid for sky under scrutiny
Rupert Murdoch’s Twenty-first century Fox bid to buy the 61% of Sky it doesn’t already own, has been referred to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) for further scrutiny.
Culture Secretary, Karen Bradley, has public interest concerns over the amount of power it will give to Murdoch, who already owns The Sun and The Times newspapers.
5. Toshiba to sell chip unit for $17.7bn
Toshiba Corp. has signed a deal to sell its memory-chip unit to private equity group, Bain Capital LLC, for 2 trillion yen.
The consortium includes backing from Japanese and overseas companies, including Toshiba, which is selling off its chips business to pay for billions of dollars in losses in its US nuclear business.
The deal needs to gain approval from antitrust authorities and faces a legal challenge by rival bidder Western Digital Corp., Toshiba’s partner in the chip unit.
6. Equifax CEO steps down
Richard Smith has stepped down as CEO and a Chair of the credit-reporting agency as it deals with the aftermath of a huge data breach.
The move has come after the company was criticised for not doing enough to deal with the data breach, which saw the personal data, including Social Security numbers and birthdates, of 43 million Americans hacked,
Paulino do Rego Barros Jr., who was president of the APAC region, has been named interim CEO, while Mark Feidler has been made non-executive chairman.
Equifax is on the hunt for a permanent CEO, and has said it will consider internal and external candidates.
7. Ford signs driverless car agreement with Lyft
Ford Motor Co. has signed a deal to develop driverless cars with the US-based ride-hailing service, Lyft.
The plan is to develop software that will enable Ford vehicles to ‘talk’ to Lyft’s app-based services, and is another in a strong of collaborations between motor companies and software companies to develop driverless cars.
8. HSBC to launch app that accesses multiple bank accounts
HSBC is set to launch an app that allows customers to view all of their bank accounts in one place — including those accounts with other banks.
If successful, the app will give HSBC a huge advantage over other high-street lenders, positioning it as a financial hub for consumers.
The app, set to launch next year, would allow customers to add accounts from up to 21 different banks, including Santander, Lloyds Banking Group and Barclays, and allow them to view the different products they had taken out, as well as offer money management tools, such as spending categories and savings tools, which app-based banks like Monzo and Starling already offer.
9. Alphabet. seeking $1.86bn in damages from Uber
Alphabet Inc’s self-driving unit, Waymo LLC, is seeking an eye-watering $1.86 billion in damages from Uber Technologies Inc., in a lawsuit over a trade secret that Waymo alleges a former Uber executive stole from them.
Uber have denied the allegations.
Was this article helpful?
YesNo
