BUSINESS
Billionaire Sam Zell-backed SPAC to return cash to investors
Equity Distribution Acquisition Corp., which is chaired by Zell, plans to stop trading at the close on Sept. 16, two years after it went public. The SPAC will redeem all outstanding Class A shares on Sept. 19, and “shall cease all operations except for those required to wind up the company’s business,” it said.
BUSINESS
World’s top coffee crop shrinks in a market thirsty for supply
Luis Fernando Ferreira da Silva, a grower in Brazil’s top producing Minas Gerais state, expected this season’s crop to be cut by more than half after drought and frost hit his farm last year. He initially expected to reap 8,000 60-kilogram bags, but later slashed his estimate to 3,500 bags. Things ended up even worse.
BUSINESS
SoftBank buyout talk resurfaces after record loss piques market
SoftBank has evolved rapidly over the last ten years from a telecom company and strategic investor to the world’s biggest pool of tech capital. It’ll look even more like a pure investment house as it continues to buy back its own stock and sell or pare assets, including its stake in Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
BUSINESS
Crypto hit by new security woes in incident at DeFi protocol
Viewed as one of the most important projects in decentralized finance, Curve tweeted that an “issue has been found and reverted” after earlier warning against using its curve.fi website.
BUSINESS
Domino’s Pizza Quits Italy After Locals Shun American Pies
Domino’s Pizza Inc.’s footprint in the home of Pizza proved to be short lived with Italians favoring local restaurants over the American version.
BUSINESS
SoftBank pledges sweeping cost cuts after $23.4 billion loss
The Tokyo-based company lost the vast majority of that money -- $17.3 billion -- in the Vision Fund, as it marked down the value of holdings such as Coupang Inc., SenseTime Group Ltd. and DoorDash Inc. SoftBank also reported a $6.1 billion foreign exchange loss because of the weaker yen.
BUSINESS
Meme-stock frenzy returns, baffling Wall Street’s ‘smart guys’
The home-good retailer nearly tripled at one point during its nine-day winning streak while the movie-theater firm capped a 65% rally of its own as speculative pockets of the stock market surge.
BUSINESS
Why India produces twice as many women airline pilots as the US
Three decades after Bhasin’s career began, female pilots are no longer a rarity in India, making the country a success story when it comes to diversity in the airline industry.
BUSINESS
Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey, 68, is starting a chain of cafes, wellness centers
Corporate records list Mackey, 68, as a partner in Healthy America LLC, a startup that raised about $31 million from investors earlier this year and aims to launch a “national network” of medical wellness centers and vegetarian restaurants.
BUSINESS
UK auto-capital Mayor wants India to rev up motorcycle industry
Street, the former head of retailer John Lewis Plc, is targeting Mahindra as part of a bid to lure automakers with incentives while promoting the expertise of a wider Midlands region that’s still home to more than 400 specialist firms including Aston Martin Lagonda and India-owned Jaguar Land Rover.
BUSINESS
India seeks to oust China firms from under Rs 12,000 phone market
The move is aimed at pushing Chinese giants out of the lower segment of the world’s second-biggest mobile market, according to people familiar with the matter. It coincides with mounting concern about high-volume brands like Realme and Transsion undercutting local manufacturers, they said, asking not to be identified discussing a sensitive matter.
BUSINESS
Carlyle CEO Kewsong Lee steps down in sudden reversal of generational shift
Co-Founder Bill Conway, current non-executive co-chairman, will immediately serve as interim CEO during the search for a permanent replacement, the company said in a statement late Sunday.
BUSINESS
Elon Musk questions why SEC not investigating Twitter spam data
Responding to a thread initiated by another user, Musk said the deal to buy the company “should proceed on original terms” if Twitter would provide their method for sampling accounts and confirm them to be genuine. “However, if it turns out that their SEC filings are materially false, then it should not,” he also said.
BUSINESS
New rules may pull rug out from India’s bid to boost bond market
While the proposed framework is designed to protect investors and is therefore being welcomed by some, a few of the proposals by the Securities and Exchange Board of India could actually prove counterproductive and hurt liquidity, according to experts who spoke to Bloomberg.
BUSINESS
Warren Buffett’s Berkshire pounces on market slump to buy equities
The conglomerate was a net buyer of equities in the quarter, reporting $3.8 billion in purchases, according to results released Saturday. It was a net seller in the second quarter of last year.
BUSINESS
‘Snoozefest’ no longer: Volatility seizes Europe’s bond market
Europe’s bond investors, caught between a central bank raising rates for the first time since 2011 and the prospect of a recession are braving some of the wildest swings on record by some metrics.
BUSINESS
Taiwan vows not to bow to pressure with China drills due to end
China’s military exercises have made trade ships think twice about heading into one of Taiwan’s most important ports, creating potential delays for shipments of electronic goods
IPO
China primary market trounces the world with record $58 billion boom
China’s IPO market has defied headwinds such as rising interest rates and fears of a US recession, which have brought major equity fundraising elsewhere to a virtual standstill
ECONOMY
Respite in US inflation unlikely to derail Fed rate-hike plans
After a sizzling July payrolls report that included a larger-than-forecast pickup in hourly earnings, Federal Reserve policy makers remain tilted toward large interest-rate hikes
ECONOMY
‘Sizzling’ US jobs data make case for bigger Fed rate increases
US employers added 528,000 jobs last month, more than all estimates, the unemployment rate fell to a five-decade low of 3.5%, and wage growth accelerated
BUSINESS
Crypto Bridge Nomad offers 10% bounty after $190 million hack
Anyone returning at least 90% of stolen tokens will be viewed as a so-called white-hat hacker that seeks to spotlight vulnerabilities rather than make malicious gains, according to a statement from Nomad. The remaining 10% would effectively become the reward.
BUSINESS
Insatiable Lithium demand fuels investment boom in Australia
Executives from Australia’s lithium industry were inundated by bankers and brokers at the Diggers & Dealers Mining Forum in the outback town of Kalgoorlie this week, talking up deals to secure some of the estimated $42 billion worth of investment needed for metal producers to meet their goals.
BUSINESS
SoftBank talent drain worsens, adding pressure on Masayoshi son to deliver
Two more managing partners at the company’s Vision Fund, Yanni Pipilis and Munish Varma, are leaving, Bloomberg News reported last week, bringing the number of top level departures from the world’s largest investment fund to at least 10 since March of 2020.
BUSINESS
Cooling semiconductor sales heighten fears of a global recession
Semiconductor sales rose 13.3% in June from a year earlier, down from 18% in May, data from the global peak industry body showed. The current slowdown is the longest since the US-China trade war in 2018.
