Tag: Mergers and acquisitions

Italy’s premier slams Stellantis over reduced Italian footprint since Peugeot-FiatChrysler tie-up

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MILAN — Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni slammed carmaker Stellantis, accusing it of weakening Italy’s industrial footprint since the merger of FiatChrysler and PSA Peugeot that created the world’s fourth largest auto maker.

As one of Italy’s top private sector employers, Fiat and its successors, FiatChrysler and then Stellantis, have always gotten government attention, but rarely have premiers been so pointed in their comments. Meloni also characterized the merger that created Stellantis in 2021 as a French takeover.

“We want to return to making 1 million vehicles a year with whomever wants to invest in the historic Italian excellence,’’ she said in a speech to parliament Wednesday.

Meloni cited figures that motor vehicle production in Italy had dropped from 1 million in 2017 to under 700,000 in 2022 and that Stellantis had slashed 7,000 jobs since the merger.

“If you want to sell cars on the international market advertised as Italian jewels then these cars need to be produced in Italy,” Meloni said.

Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares, who was visiting a plant in Abruzzo, told reporters that he didn’t think the company’s Italian workers would appreciate Meloni’s characterizations.

“We have more than 40,000 workers in Italy who work very hard to adapt the company to the new reality, as decided by politicians, and they are full of talent,’’ he said.

The carmaker said production in Italy grew by nearly 10% last year to 752,000 vehicles, two-thirds of which were exported, “contributing to the Italian trade balance.” Stellantis said it has invested several billion euros in Italian operations for new products and production sites in recent years.

Automotive industry expert Franceso Zirpoli said annual car production in Italy fell from 2 million two decades ago to about 800,000 before the pandemic, despite the goal of the late former FiatChrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne of creating a luxury pole in Italy producing 1.4 million cars a year.

FiatChrysler instead started looking for a European partner, putting a hold on new investments, which only weakened Turin’s claim to remain a research and development center after the merger in 2021, he said.

“It was evident that the technological heart of Europe could not be Turin, it had to be Paris,’’ said Zirpoli, director of the Center for Automotive and Mobility Innovation at Venice’s Ca’ Foscari University.

Without the anchor of research and development activities “you can easily move production from one place to another, and Italy became just one other place where you can locate production,” he said.

Zirpoli said the key for any government that wants to boost production is to make Italy an attractive place to invest.

While Meloni touted Italy’s automotive “jewels,” such as Fiat, Maserati and Alfa Romeo, Zirpoli noted that most of the 474,000 Stellantis vehicles produced in Italy last year for export bore the U.S. brand Jeep nameplate — not the group’s storied Italian brands.

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January 25, 2024
JetBlue and Spirit Airlines say they will appeal a judge's ruling that blocked their merger

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NEW YORK — JetBlue and Spirit Airlines said Friday they will appeal a federal judge’s ruling this week that blocked their plan to combine into a single carrier.

The airlines said they filed a notice of appeal with the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, following the terms of their agreement.

The Justice Department, which sued to block JetBlue’s proposed $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit, declined to comment.

JetBlue and Spirit are the nation’s sixth- and seventh-largest carriers. JetBlue, which outbid Frontier Airlines, said it needed to acquire Spirit to compete more effectively against even bigger airlines.

But on Tuesday, a federal judge in Boston ruled that the deal violated antitrust law. The U.S. Justice Department had sued to stop the deal, arguing that consumers would be harmed and forced to pay higher fares if Spirit — the nation’s biggest discount airline — were eliminated.

The airlines announced their appeal in a statement that provided no other details.

Earlier Friday, Spirit said that a strong holiday-travel season in December boosted its fourth-quarter revenue. The Miramar, Florida-based airline also said that it is trying to refinance $1.1 billion in debt that is due for payment in September 2025.

Spirit also said that negotiations with Pratt & Whitney over engines that need to be reworked — resulting in the grounding of an average of 26 planes a day throughout 2024 — “have progressed considerably since October.” The airline said it expects compensation that will provide “a significant source of liquidity over the next couple of years.”

Spirit has been losing money since the start of 2020. Some analysts said it could face bankruptcy without the merger with JetBlue.

The airlines announced their intention to appeal U.S. District Judge William Young’s ruling after the stock market closed on Friday.

Shares of Spirit, which fell 62% over three days following the ruling, gained 17% in regular trading Friday, and rose another 13% in after-hours trading. JetBlue’s shares fell 2% in extended trading.

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January 19, 2024
Illinois high court hands lawmakers a rare pension-overhaul victory

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SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — The Illinois Supreme Court on Friday endorsed the consolidation of local police and firefighter pension systems, a rare victory in a yearslong battle to find an answer to the state’s besieged retirement accounts.

The court’s unanimous opinion rejected claims by three dozen working and retired police officers and firefighters from across the state that the merger of 649 separate systems into two statewide accounts violated the state constitution’s guarantee that benefits “shall not be diminished or impaired.”

For years, that phrase has flummoxed governors and legislatures trying to cut their way past decades of underfunding the retirement programs. Statewide pension systems covering teachers, university employees, state employees, judges and those working for the General Assembly are $141 billion shy of what’s been promised those current and retired workers. In 2015, the Supreme Court overturned lawmakers’ money-saving overhaul approved two years earlier.

Friday’s ruling, which does not affect pension programs in Cook County, which includes Chicago, deals with a law Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed in late 2019 intended to boost investment power and cut administrative spending for hundreds of municipal funds. The Democratic governor celebrated the unusually good pension news.

“We ushered in a new era of responsible fiscal management, one aspect of which has been consolidating over 600 local pension systems to increase returns and lower fees, reducing the burden on taxpayers,” Pritzker said in a statement.

It would appear to be working. As of 2021, the new statewide accounts together had a funding gap of $12.83 billion; a year later, it stood at $10.42 billion, a decline of 18.7%.

Additionally, data from the Firefighters’ Pension Investment Fund shows that through June 2023, the statewide fund had increased return value of $40.4 million while saving, through June 2022, $34 million in investment fees and expenses.

But 36 active and former first responders filed a lawsuit, claiming that the statewide arrangement had usurped control of their retirement benefits. They complained the law violated the pension-protection clause because they could no longer exclusively manage their investments, they no longer had a vote on who invested their money and what risks they were willing to take, and that the local funds had to pay for transitioning to the statewide program.

The court decreed that none of those issues concerned a benefit that was impaired. Beyond money, the pension-protection law only covers a member’s ability to continue participating or to increase service credits.

“The ability to vote in elections for local pension board members is not such a constitutionally protected benefit, nor is the ability to have local board members control and invest pension funds,” Chief Justice Mary Jane Theis said in writing the court’s opinion. The remaining six justices concurred.

Matters concerning benefits are still decided by remaining local boards, and the nine-member panels operating the statewide programs are a mix of executives from the member municipalities, current employees elected by other current employees, retirees elected by other beneficiaries and a representative of the Illinois Municipal League, the opinion noted.

The court also dismissed the plaintiffs’ contention that the law violated the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause which allows government to take property in return for just compensation. It decided the pension law involved no real property of the type the federal constitution envisioned.

House Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch, a Democrat from the Chicago suburb of Hillside, called the measure a “commonsense reform” borne of collaboration.

“Smart decision making can produce real savings for taxpayers, while protecting what workers have earned,” Welch said in a statement. “We’re continuing to rebuild Illinois’ fiscal house and move our state forward.”

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January 19, 2024
Deutsche Bank CEO says acquisitions not a 'priority' as Commerzbank rumors swirl

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Christian Sewing, Chief Executive Officer of Deutsche Bank, has acknowledged that a recession in Germany is inevitable, and urged leaders to accelerate its decoupling from China.

Denis Balibouse | Reuters

Deutsche Bank CEO Christian Sewing on Thursday said that merger and acquisition activity is not a priority for his group, as speculation resurfaces over the future of domestic rival Commerzbank.

The two German lenders abandoned a merger plan in 2019, but concerns about bank profitability, and reports that the German government’s is considering selling some of its company stakes, have rekindled whispers about a possible tie-up in recent weeks.

The state still has a 15% stake in Commerzbank, but Reuters reported earlier this week that Finance Minister Christian Lindner is open to disposing of it.

The merger of Germany’s two biggest banks would create a combined entity with around $2 trillion in assets, although Deutsche Bank’s low valuation could complicate any such move. The bank trades at around 12 euros per share, a fraction of its book value, and a significant portion of assets would need to be marked down.

Speaking to CNBC on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on Thursday, Sewing appeared to pour cold water on the rumors, at least for now.

“I wouldn’t say it’s on top of my priority, to be honest. I have always said for years that M&A in the banking industry, particularly in Europe, must come at some time, but most important for that is that certain preconditions are met — preconditions from a regulatory point of view, finalization of the banking union,” Sewing said.

“Obviously, with regard to the sharply increased interest rates, you have to think about fair value gaps given the mortgage books of a lot of banks, so I don’t think it is a priority for this year.”

The European Banking Union was created in 2014 and seeks to ensure the bloc’s banking and financial systems are stable.

In December, Italy’s lower house of parliament voted down reforms to the European Stability Mechanism, the euro zone’s bailout fund, which had been approved by all other euro zone countries.

This left the bloc unable to implement a portion of its banking union legislation described by Eurogroup President Paschal Donohoe as “a key element of our common safety net.”

“Therefore, we are focusing on our own business,” Sewing concluded. “If, in this own business, there are possibilities and options for doing the one or the other smaller add-ons, like we have done with Numis, then obviously we are looking at it.”

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January 18, 2024
Microsoft's OpenAI investment could trigger EU merger review

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LONDON — Microsoft’s multibillion-dollar investment in ChatGPT-maker OpenAI could trigger a European Union merger investigation, the bloc’s executive branch said Tuesday.

The European Commission said it’s “checking whether Microsoft’s investment in OpenAI might be reviewable” under regulations covering mergers and acquisitions that would harm competition in the 27-nation EU.

The review could lead to a formal investigation into whether the deal should be unconditionally cleared, allowed with concessions from the companies or blocked. Britain’s antitrust watchdog opened a similar review last month.

Antitrust enforcers in the U.S. also have signaled concerns about competition in the AI industry. The Federal Trade Commission in November approved new measures enabling it to more easily investigate AI products and services, noting that “AI can raise competition issues in a variety of ways, including if one or just a few companies control the essential inputs or technologies that underpin AI.”

OpenAI has received several rounds of funding from Microsoft, including an initial $1 billion in 2019 and a multibillion-dollar investment last year.

OpenAI’s generative AI chatbot ChatGPT has captured world attention with its advanced capabilities, catapulting the San Francisco-based startup to the top ranks of AI companies. Generative AI systems like ChatGPT can spit out new text, images, videos or audio recordings based on prompts from users.

The European Commission, the bloc’s top antitrust enforcer, is asking businesses and experts for input on any competition issues that they see in generative AI and has asked “several large digital players” — which it didn’t identify — for information.

The commission is “also closely monitoring AI partnerships to ensure they do not unduly distort market dynamics,” the EU’s antitrust enforcer, Margrethe Vestager, said in a press release.

Vestager is due to meet with OpenAI executives on a trip this week to the U.S., as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Apple CEO Tim Cook and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.

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January 9, 2024
Malaysia's Capital A paves way for merger of AirAsia's operations globally

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Malaysia’s Capital A Berhad CAPI.KL said on Monday it intends to sell its aviation business to long-haul unit AirAsia X Bhd AIRX.KL, with a goal of consolidating both its long and short-haul operations under a single AirAsia brand.

Nicky Almasy | Moment | Getty Images

Malaysia’s Capital A Berhad said on Monday it intends to sell its aviation business to long-haul unit AirAsia X Bhd, with a goal of consolidating both its long and short-haul operations under a single AirAsia brand.

The proposed deal, which is subject to a final agreement being signed and to approvals from shareholders and courts, involves the sale of AirAsia Berhad and AirAsia Aviation Group Ltd, which includes AirAsia units in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, and Cambodia, Group Chief Executive Tony Fernandes told reporters without disclosing any deal value.

Full details of the deal would be announced “in the next two weeks”, he told reporters at AirAsia’s 2024 outlook briefing.

“Eventually AirAsia X and AirAsia will be merged into one airline… my dream is for it to be one ASEAN airline,” Fernandes said, referring to the 10-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations.

AirAsia was founded in 2001 with two aircraft and has since become one of Asia’s largest budget airline operator with a fleet of some 200 planes serving markets including Southeast Asia and China.

Both Capital A and AirAsia X were hard hit by pandemic travel restrictions and classified by Malaysia’s stock exchange as PN17, or financially distressed. Such firms may be de-listed from the exchange if they fail to stabilize their finances within a set time frame.

AirAsia X was removed from the classification in November, after undertaking measures to improve its financial position.

Fernandes said the group’s airlines will likely return to full pre-pandemic capacity by the end of the first quarter. He said they have 400 planes on order and Airbus will start delivering new A321 aircraft by the second quarter of 2025.

We are confident that by separating the aviation business from Capital A, the non-aviation businesses within the group, which we feel are currently undervalued by the market, will also be recognized for their intrinsic value and potential.

Tony Fernandes

Group Chief Executive of Capital A Berhad

It also hopes to add routes to Europe, South America and Africa by the end of this year.

Fernandes, who told the briefing that he intends to retire within five years, said the airline sale would help Capital A raise funds and focus on its non-aviation business, which include payments firm BigPay, logistics arm Teleport, and online travel agency airasia MOVE.

“We are confident that by separating the aviation business from Capital A, the non-aviation businesses within the group, which we feel are currently undervalued by the market, will also be recognized for their intrinsic value and potential,” he said in a separate statement.

Capital A plans to present a PN17 regularization plan by June 30, after the completion of the aviation disposal, he said.

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January 8, 2024
Top 3 M&A stories of 2023 | Bank Automation News

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The Federal Reserve tightened monetary policy to rein in inflation, spurring banking mergers and acquisitions throughout the year.

As the industry grappled with the rise of the Federal Funds Rate from 0.25% at the beginning of 2022 to 5.25% at the end of 2023, some banks — including Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank — suffered a liquidity crunch and saw regulators step in to broker merger deals.

Meanwhile, some major banks also looked to trim their expansive operations by exiting multiple markets and implementing a strategic refocus for their organizations.

Here are Bank Automation News’ top three stories on M&A in banking this year:

1. RBC to buy HSBC Canada for $10B

Royal Bank of Canada agreed to acquire HSBC Canada for $10 billion, with the deal expected to close in the first quarter of 2024.

HSBC International has been restructuring as it looks to trim operations in certain geographic areas while expanding in others, according to an S&P Global 2021 report.

In October, HSBC bought Citibank’s consumer wealth portfolios in China for $3.6 billion. The sale, which included Citi’s clients, assets under management and deposits, aligns with the bank’s plan to end its consumer banking business in China as part of a broader restructuring.

2. BMO, Bank of the West conversion update

BMO Financial Group completed its acquisition of Bank of the West in February and started converting customer accounts to the BMO platform on Labor Day.

The Canadian bank completed the conversion of Bank of the West consumer accounts during its fiscal fourth quarter, according to its Q4 earnings supplement.

With Bank of the West accounts onboarded to the BMO platform, the bank has posted increased customer activity in checking accounts sold digitally on the platform, Chief Executive Darryl White said during the bank’s Q4 earnings call on Dec. 1.

3. Integrating First Republic Bank, JPM tech stacks

JPMorgan expected to spend close to $2 billion integrating First Republic Bank into its operations after spending $13 billion on the acquisition in May.

Acquiring First Republic gave JPMorgan $173 billion in First Republic’s loans, $30 billion in securities and $92 billion in deposits, bolstering its fortress of a balance sheet.

The $3.4 trillion JPMorgan started integrating First Republic into its operations in Q2 and expects to complete the merger by mid-2024, Chief Financial Officer Jeffrey Barnum said during the bank’s second-quarter earnings call in July.

Get ready for Bank Automation Summit U.S. 2024 in Nashville on March 18-19! Discover the latest advancements in AI and automation in banking. Register now.

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Vaidik Trivedi

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December 28, 2023
US online retailer Zulily says it will go into liquidation, surprising customers

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The U.S. ecommerce company Zulily says it is closing down, surprising customers, after efforts to salvage the business failed

SEATTLE — The U.S. online retailer Zulily is closing down, surprising customers and laying off hundreds of workers after efforts to salvage the business failed.

The Seattle-based company said in a notice on its website that it had tried to fill all pending orders and expected to manage that within the coming two weeks. Zulily said it was trying to ensure that orders that could not be filled were cancelled and refunded and offered a contact for customers who did not get their orders or refunds.

“This decision was not easy nor was it entered into lightly. However, given the challenging business environment in which Zulily operated, and the corresponding financial instability, Zulily decided to take immediate and swift action,” said the notice, signed by Ryan C. Baker, vice president at management consultant Douglas Wilson Companies, which is handling the receivership for the company.

Founded in 2010 by Darrell Cavens and Mark Vadon, Zulily made a splash with products catering to families with young children and staged a successful IPO on the Nasdaq in 2013. But it was taken private after it was acquired in 2015 for $2.4 billion by QVC parent company Qurate, formerly known as Liberty Interactive. Zulily’s CEO Terry Boyle left the company at the end of October as financial troubles mounted following its acquisition by private equity firm Regent from Qurate in May.

The company’s liquidation followed several rounds of layoffs as Zulily struggled to compete with Amazon.

Instead of declaring bankruptcy, Zulily is using an alternative for winding down the business known as an Assignment for the Benefit of Creditors, or ABC. The company has transferred all its assets and business in trust to Zulily ABC, LLC, to pay creditors out of proceeds from selling them.

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December 27, 2023
In a slow year for enterprise tech M&A, there were few standout deals | TechCrunch

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Cisco was the most active company

It’s that time of year when we look back at the year’s biggest tech M&A deals. Typically by this time, the usual acquisitive suspects like Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe, SAP Oracle and Cisco have taken at least a few big swings. But this year, only Cisco took a big bite, ultimately announcing 11 total deals.

SAP made a couple smaller deals, but Microsoft, Salesforce, Adobe and Oracle mostly stayed on the sidelines this year. The $61 billion Broadcom-VMware deal announced in May 2022 finally closed last month, and Adobe and Figma agreed to end their $20 billion deal this month, which has been stuck in regulatory limbo since it was announced in September 2022.

It’s not our imagination that there are fewer deals from the biggest players. CB Insights reported zero deals in Q3 this year from Big Tech. Compare that with 2019, when there were 10 such deals in Q3, or with 2020, when there were eight.

Image Credits: CB Insights

Perhaps the high cost of borrowing put a damper on the deals we saw in 2023. Long gone are the days of 2020 when the top deals totaled $165 billion. This year it was just $67.7 billion, the lowest total we’ve seen since 2019’s all-time low of $40 billion, the second year we compiled these top deal lists.

It’s worth noting that a good number of the deals this year involved private equity firms either buying companies or selling them off at a nice profit.

Maybe the smaller deals involving AI mattered more, like Atlassian buying Loom for $975 million; Salesforce acquiring Airkit.ai for an undisclosed amount, one of only two small acquisitions this year; or Snowflake nabbing AI search company Neeva, also for an undisclosed amount.

Regardless, here’s what the top 10 enterprise deals looked like this year from cheapest to most costly:

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Ron Miller

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December 25, 2023
Warner Bros. and Paramount Just Met to Discuss a Possible Mega Merger | Entrepreneur

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In a meeting that’s shaken the media world, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Paramount CEO Bob Bakish had lunch at Paramount’s Manhattan headquarters today to discuss a possible merger, according to multiple sources.

Zaslav is also said to have met with Shari Redstone (daughter of Sumner), who owns Paramount’s parent company, National Amusements Inc (NAI).

The landmark deal would create a news and entertainment colossus—but there would also be some challenges.

Warner Bros/Paramount would be a “behemoth with an awful lot of debt. There’s no question about it,” William Cohan, Puck News Founding Partner, told Yahoo Finance.

Related: What’s the Deal With These ‘Snowball’ and ‘Avalanche’ Debt Repayment Methods? Here’s How to Know Which One Is Right For You.

Why the merger?

Paramount Global, known for its movie studio and TV network CBS, has substantial debt ($15 billion) and needs to make a strategic move to compete with monster companies such as Netflix and Disney. Conversely, Warner Bros. Discovery needs to make a big play following its 2022 fusion of Warner Media and Discovery. Under Zaslav’s leadership, the company has been meticulous in cutting costs and making money. For example, its streaming operations have turned profitable. But Warner Bros. Discover is still $43 billion in debt.

According to reports, Warner Bros. Discovery is also in talks with Comcast’s NBCUniversal.

Stock market reacts

Wall Street did not appear to be impressed with the talks.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s shares ended down 5.7%, falling another 1.4% in after-hours trading. Meanwhile, Paramount’s stock rose initially during the first hours of the news, but dropped 1% by the end of the day.

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Jonathan Small

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December 20, 2023
Vietnamese companies eye the U.S. IPO market amid a lull in Chinese listings

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A VinFast EV car on display at the New York Auto Show, April 13, 2022.

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

BEIJING — A new group of Asia-based companies are contemplating initial public offerings in the U.S., where international listings were once driven mostly by Chinese startups.

Vietnam-based electric car company VinFast broke new ground with its U.S. listing in August, via its merger with the U.S.-listed special purpose acquisition company Black Spade Acquisition.

While not strictly an IPO, the listing was soon followed by Vietnamese tech unicorn VNG’s filing to list on the Nasdaq. VNG’s products include gaming, fintech and music streaming.

“Something like VinFast puts the [country] on the map,” said Johan Annell, Beijing-based partner at ARC Group.

It sends a message that “despite capital controls, which I think is the major formal barrier for companies, it is possible for them to do IPOs,” he said.

VNG noted in its prospectus that Vietnamese law prevents “foreign investors” from owning more than 49% of the capital used to establish a local company operating in gaming and certain other sectors. As a result, VNG is part of a reorganization which uses a Cayman Islands holding company to list in the U.S., the filing said.

“Our corporate structure involves unique risks, has not been tested in any court and may be disallowed by Vietnamese regulatory authorities,” the filing said.

It’s unclear when VNG will go public. But firms that scour for potential IPO clients years in advance say they are talking to more companies in Vietnam and the surrounding region.

As local companies grow, “they are outgrowing the ability of those markets to provide the capital that they need,” said Drew Bernstein, co-chairman of accounting firm MarcumAsia. “It’s still the very early stages of the game.”

Bernstein said he attended investing conferences in Malaysia and Vietnam in late October, where many of the attendees were the same people who’d he’d met over the last 10 to 15 years in the China-U.S. IPO circuit.

Since the fallout over Didi in the summer of 2021, regulation and a tepid U.S. IPO market have stalled most Chinese listing plans. Only one of the 20 China-based companies that listed in the U.S. this year raised more than $50 million, according to Renaissance Capital.

Investor relations, capital markets advisory and financial media relations firm The Blueshirt Group has also worked with many Chinese companies to list in the U.S.

But the firm’s managing director, Gary Dvorchak, said Blueshirt organized a seminar in April with 20 to 30 Vietnamese-based companies about the path to a U.S. IPO. Many of the companies were in tech, such as payments, online games and e-commerce, he said.

“Just in contrast the rest of Asia there’s nothing in Thailand, some in Indonesia,” he said. “So the fact that you see so many in Vietnam is really meaningful.”

A growing startup ecosystem

CNBC reached out to about two dozen startups with headquarters or a major office in Vietnam to ask about their U.S. IPO plans. Most of those who responded indicated any listing was still a ways off, but noted rapid growth in local startups over the last 15 years.

“Capital available to Vietnamese startups has increased tremendously compared to 10 years ago,” said Nguyen Nguyen, CEO of fintech startup Trusting Social, whose offices in the region include Singapore and Vietnam.

He added the growing startup ecosystem has attracted many people of Vietnamese heritage to return to their home country, while domestic economic growth has increased the market size for local players.

Vietnam’s gross domestic product surged 3.6 times on a per capita basis between 2002 and 2022, to nearly $3,700, according to the World Bank.

ELSA, which uses artificial intelligence to help people learn English, is based in the U.S. while co-founder and CEO Vu Van hails from Vietnam. She said given the success of Southeast Asian ride-hailing company Grab, more Vietnamese companies are starting to look beyond the domestic market to regional business.

For ELSA, “when we started the company our aspiration has always been a global business with a global footprint,” Van said, adding that a “U.S. IPO would help us with that global footprint.”

Out of 103 U.S. IPOs this year, 10 were from companies based in Southeast Asia — split between Singapore and Malaysia, according to Renaissance Capital data as of Nov. 29.

“It is unusual to see this many listings from Asian companies outside of China,” the firm said. “However, none of these are of a significant size.”

George Chan, global IPO leader at EY, expects “a lot” of companies from Southeast Asia will reach the IPO stage in the next 12 to 18 months, and might also consider the Hong Kong exchange.

Read more about China from CNBC Pro

The trend is not replacing Chinese IPOs in the U.S., Bernstein said, but rather creating new opportunities. MarcumAsia is expanding its offices in Beijing, Tianjin, Guangzhou and Shanghai, and opened an office in Hong Kong this fall.

MarcumAsia opened an office in Singapore in May 2022 and doesn’t have plans for other offices in Southeast Asia right now, he said. “There haven’t been enough large deals done in the markets outside of China to give people the sense of security that they can get the deal done.”

Ultimately, global IPO markets need to recover before any company can make serious plans.

“There is definitely a very robust pipeline of companies from Southeast Asia who are evaluating the U.S. markets,” Bob McCooey, a vice chairman at Nasdaq, said in a phone interview this fall. He noted that given market conditions, many companies are delaying their listing plans to the first half of next year.

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December 5, 2023
A trial deciding if JetBlue can buy Spirit — and further consolidate the industry — nears its end

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BOSTON — A lawyer for JetBlue Airways said Tuesday that the biggest U.S. airlines are using their size to cement their dominance in a post-pandemic world, making it critical that a federal judge allow JetBlue to buy Spirit Airlines.

The lawyer, Ryan Shores, said JetBlue needs Spirit to be a “viable challenger” to the four airlines that control most of the domestic air-travel market.

“That mandate is even more urgent today,” Shores said during closing arguments in a federal court trial over the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit to block JetBlue’s $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit, the nation’s biggest low-fare carrier.

A Justice Department lawyer argued that the deal would push fares higher by 30% and leave fewer options for travelers on a budget.

Edward Duffy said if JetBlue absorbs Spirit, it would cut the ultra-low-cost-carrier share of the market by half — or 6 million fewer budget flights per year.

Duffy said JetBlue was contradicting itself by arguing that because of its smaller size it needs Spirit to grow fast enough to challenge the bigger airlines, while also claiming that even smaller low-cost rivals such as Frontier Airlines would have no trouble growing fast enough to replace Spirit’s presence in the market.

“And most tellingly, they have invited the court to look past the harms caused to passengers who can’t pay for JetBlue’s richer experience,” Duffy said.

There is no jury in the trial, which has stretched over several weeks and included testimony by the CEOs of both airlines. No ruling is expected Tuesday from U.S. District Judge William Young.

During the closing arguments, the judge peppered JetBlue and Spirit lawyers with questions. Young, who was nominated for the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, said, “if the merger goes forward, there is going to be some disruption. That is inevitable.”

The judge asked Shores how long it would take for consumers to see benefits that JetBlue promises, such as more competition with the bigger airlines.

The JetBlue lawyer suggested that it could be two or three years, “after the market has arrived at its post-merger competitive equilibrium.”

Before the trial started, JetBlue sought to win regulatory approval by agreeing to sell Spirit’s gates and takeoff and landing slots at airports in Boston and the New York City area and give up some gates in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

On Tuesday, the judge said he was “having trouble” with a permanent injunction that would block the merger in “a dynamic industry facing unique opportunities and challenges in this post-COVID environment.”

The judge asked both sides if there were other divestitures by JetBlue and Spirit that might make the merger acceptable.

Duffy, the Justice Department lawyer, tried to close the door on more divestitures. He said the merger is so anti-competitive that nothing short of a full injunction against the deal would suffice. Shores, the JetBlue lawyer, said any remedies imposed by the court should be narrow.

The government sued to block the deal in March.

The trial represents another test for the Biden administration’s fight against consolidation in the airline industry. Earlier this year, the Justice Department won an antitrust lawsuit and broke up a partnership in New York and Boston between JetBlue and American Airlines.

The outcome of the current trial could reshape the field of so-called ultra-low-cost airlines, which charge low fares but tack on more fees than the traditional carriers that dominate the U.S. air-travel market. If Spirit is acquired by JetBlue, Frontier would become the biggest discount carrier in the U.S., followed by Allegiant Air and new entrants Breeze and Avelo.

JetBlue is the nation’s sixth-largest airline by revenue, but it would leapfrog Alaska Airlines into fifth place by buying Spirit.

On Sunday, Alaska announced an acquisition of its own — it struck an agreement to buy Hawaiian Airlines for $1 billion. The Justice Department has not indicated whether it will challenge that deal.

Previous administrations allowed a series of mergers that consolidated the industry to the point where four carriers – American, Delta, United and Southwest – control about 80% of the domestic air-travel market. The Justice Department filed lawsuits to extract concessions in some of those earlier mergers, but JetBlue-Spirit is the first one that has gone to trial.

Spirit agreed to merge with Frontier Airlines, which shares its ultra-low-cost business model, but JetBlue beat Frontier in a bidding war.

Some Wall Street analysts have recently suggested that JetBlue is paying too much for Spirit, which has struggled to recover from the pandemic, and believe it should renegotiate the deal. JetBlue has given no indication that intends to do so, however. If it wins in court, JetBlue will nearly double its fleet, repaint Spirit’s yellow planes and remove some of the seats to make them less cramped, like JetBlue planes.

Shares of JetBlue fell 4% and Spirit dropped 12% in trading Tuesday.

___

AP Airlines Writer David Koenig contributed from Dallas.

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December 5, 2023
Trial to determine whether JetBlue can buy Spirit comes to a head

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BOSTON — A lawyer for JetBlue Airways said Tuesday that the biggest U.S. airlines are using their size to cement their dominance in a post-pandemic world, making it critical that a federal judge allow JetBlue to buy Spirit Airlines.

The lawyer, Ryan Shores, said JetBlue needs Spirit to be a “viable challenger” to the four airlines that control most of the domestic air-travel market.

“That mandate is even more urgent today,” Shores said during closing arguments in a federal court trial over the U.S. Justice Department’s lawsuit to block JetBlue’s $3.8 billion purchase of Spirit, the nation’s biggest low-fare carrier.

A Justice Department lawyer argued that the deal would push fares higher by 30% and leave fewer options for travelers on a budget.

Edward Duffy said if JetBlue absorbs Spirit, it would cut the ultra-low-cost-carrier share of the market by half — or 6 million fewer budget flights per year.

Duffy said JetBlue was contradicting itself by arguing that because of its smaller size it needs Spirit to grow fast enough to challenge the bigger airlines, while also claiming that even smaller low-cost rivals such as Frontier Airlines would have no trouble growing fast enough to replace Spirit’s presence in the market.

“And most tellingly, they have invited the court to look past the harms caused to passengers who can’t pay for JetBlue’s richer experience,” Duffy said.

There is no jury in the trial, which has stretched over several weeks and included testimony by the CEOs of both airlines. No ruling is expected Tuesday from U.S. District Judge William Young.

During the closing arguments, the judge peppered JetBlue and Spirit lawyers with questions. Young, who was nominated for the federal bench by President Ronald Reagan in 1984, asked Shores how long it would take for consumers to see benefits that JetBlue promises the merger will deliver, such as more competition with the bigger airlines.

The JetBlue lawyer suggested that it could be two or three years, “after the market has arrived at its post-merger competitive equilibrium.”

The government sued to block the deal in March.

The trial represents another test for the Biden administration’s fight against consolidation in the airline industry. Earlier this year, the Justice Department won an antitrust lawsuit and broke up a partnership in New York and Boston between JetBlue and American Airlines.

The outcome of the current trial could reshape the field of so-called ultra-low-cost airlines, which charge low fares but tack on more fees than the traditional carriers that dominate the U.S. air-travel market. If Spirit is acquired by JetBlue, Frontier would become the biggest discount carrier in the U.S., followed by Allegiant Air and new entrants Breeze and Avelo.

JetBlue is the nation’s sixth-largest airline by revenue, but it would leapfrog Alaska Airlines into fifth place by buying Spirit.

On Sunday, Alaska announced an acquisition of its own – it struck an agreement to buy Hawaiian Airlines for $1 billion. The Justice Department has not indicated whether it will challenge that deal.

Previous administrations allowed a series of mergers that consolidated the industry to the point where four carriers – American, Delta, United and Southwest – control about 80% of the domestic air-travel market. The Justice Department filed lawsuits to extract concessions in some of those earlier mergers, but JetBlue-Spirit is the first one that has gone to trial.

Spirit agreed to merge with Frontier Airlines, which shares its ultra-low-cost business model, but JetBlue beat Frontier in a bidding war.

Some Wall Street analysts have recently suggested that JetBlue is paying too much for Spirit, which has struggled to recover from the pandemic, and believe it should renegotiate the deal. JetBlue has given no indication that intends to do so, however. If it wins in court, JetBlue will nearly double its fleet, repaint Spirit’s yellow planes and remove some of the seats to make them less cramped, like JetBlue planes.

Shares of JetBlue were down about 3% and Spirit fell more than 10% in midday trading Tuesday amid a broad market decline that included the travel sector.

___

AP Airlines Writer David Koenig contributed from Dallas.

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December 5, 2023
Former US ambassador arrested in Florida, accused of serving as an agent of Cuba, AP source says

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MIAMI — A former American diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Bolivia has been arrested in a long-running FBI counterintelligence investigation, accused of secretly serving as an agent of Cuba’s government, The Associated Press has learned.

Manuel Rocha, 73, was arrested in Miami on Friday on a criminal complaint and more details about the case are expected to be made public at a court appearance Monday, said two people who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss an ongoing federal investigation.

One of the people said the Justice Department case accuses Rocha of working to promote the Cuban government’s interests. Federal law requires people doing the political bidding of a foreign government or entity inside the U.S. to register with the Justice Department, which in recent years has stepped up its criminal enforcement of illicit foreign lobbying.

The Justice Department declined to comment. It was not immediately clear if Rocha had a lawyer and a law firm where he previously worked said it was not representing him. His wife hung up when contacted by the AP.

Rocha’s 25-year diplomatic career was spent under both Democratic and Republican administrations, much of it in Latin America during the Cold War, a period of sometimes heavy-handed U.S. political and military policies. His diplomatic postings included a stint at the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba during a time when the U.S. lacked full diplomatic relations with Fidel Castro’s communist government.

Born in Colombia, Rocha was raised in a working-class home in New York City and went on to obtain a succession of liberal arts degrees from Yale, Harvard and Georgetown before joining the foreign service in 1981.

He was the top U.S. diplomat in Argentina between 1997 and 2000 as a decade-long currency stabilization program backed by Washington was unraveling under the weight of huge foreign debt and stagnant growth, triggering a political crisis that would see the South American country cycle through five presidents in two weeks.

At his next post as ambassador to Bolivia, he intervened directly into the 2002 presidential race, warning weeks ahead of the vote that the U.S. would cut off assistance to the poor South American country if it were to elect former coca grower Evo Morales.

“I want to remind the Bolivian electorate that if they vote for those who want Bolivia to return to exporting cocaine, that will seriously jeopardize any future aid to Bolivia from the United States,″ Rocha said in a speech that was widely interpreted as a an attempt to sustain U.S. dominance in the region.

The gambit angered Bolivians and gave Morales a last-minute boost. When he was finally elected three years later, the leftist leader expelled Rocha’s successor as chief of the diplomatic mission for inciting “civil war.”

Rocha also served in Italy, Honduras, Mexico and the Dominican Republic, and worked as a Latin America expert for the National Security Council.

Rocha’s wife, Karla Wittkop Rocha, would not comment when contacted by the AP. “I don’t need to talk to you,” she said before hanging up.

Following his retirement from the State Department, Rocha began a second career in business, serving as the president of a gold mine in the Dominican Republic partly owned by Canada’s Barrick Gold.

More recently, he’s held senior roles at XCoal, a Pennsylvania-based coal exporter; Clover Leaf Capital, a company formed to facilitate mergers in the cannabis industry; law firm Foley & Lardner and Spanish public relations firms Llorente & Cuenca.

“Our firm remains committed to transparency and will closely monitor the situation, cooperating fully with the authorities if any information becomes available to us,” Dario Alvarez, CEO of Llorente & Cuenca’s U.S. operations, said in an email.

XCoal and Clover Leaf Capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Foley & Lardner said Rocha left the law firm in August.

____

Tucker reported from Washington.

___ Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/

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December 3, 2023
Broadcom CEO tells VMWare workers to 'get butt back to office' after completing a $69 billion merger of the two companies

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Chip manufacturer Broadcom wrote the latest chapter in the long story of return-to-office tensions between bosses and employees.

After completing its $69 billion acquisition of cloud computing company VMWare, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan issued a direct order to his new employees about where they must work. “If you live within 50 miles of an office, you get your butt in here,” he told the workers of previously remote-friendly VMWare.

The comments came during a meeting Tan hosted on Tuesday after the merger between the two companies officially closed, following approval from Chinese regulators. Like many other executives, Tan cited in-person work’s benefits to collaboration and company culture. “Collaboration is important and a key part of sustaining a culture with your peers, with your colleagues,” he said.

There was no word on what employees thought of the mandate specifically, but there had been reports of broader concerns regarding the merger with Broadcom, according to Business Insider. Broadcom has a history of chafing at remote work even during the pandemic, going as far as ordering some employees back to the office as early as April 2020, in defiance of California’s statewide stay-at-home orders.

In recent months, a growing amount of research has pointed to the benefits of in-person work, especially when it comes to on-the-job training and career advancement. Proponents of remote work say it can help close gaps in promotion rates for women, for example. And workers seem to prefer at least partial remote work flexibility to the point that some would even be willing to take a 20% pay cut in order to keep the perk. However, in contrast to Broadcom, some companies, such as Atlassian, Dropbox, and Airbnb, have remained committed to remote work.

Broadcom isn’t alone in its back-to-the-office mandate. Insurance company Farmers Group faced an outcry from employees when new CEO Raul Vargas reversed his predecessor’s remote work policy. In February, Amazon changed its pandemic-era remote work policy to require employees to be in the office at least three days a week. The ecommerce giant went as far as asking managers to consider office attendance alongside other factors like job performance when evaluating whether someone should get a promotion.

Many other CEOs have opted for the carrot instead of the stick when trying to curb remote work. In KPMG’s annual CEO survey, 90% of respondents said they’d reward employees who make an effort to come into the office with “favorable assignments, raises or promotions.” Others have tried to spin it as a necessary sacrifice for the greater good of the company. “You might be able to execute your work on time and to standard in a remote environment, but what about your colleagues?,” wrote Jake Wood, CEO of software company Groundswell, on LinkedIn this summer. “Absent your presence, leadership, mentorship—can they thrive?”

At Broadcom, Tan only permitted remote work in very limited cases, such as employees in the sales department who had to meet with clients regularly. Those who didn’t meet Tan’s requirements would need to clear an extraordinarily high bar. “Any other exception, you better learn how to walk on water if you want to work remote,” he told employees. “I’m serious.”

Throughout the meeting, Tan and VMWare employees discussed how the two corporate cultures would mesh now that they were part of the same company. Return-to-office, though, wasn’t the only point of contention between VMWare and its new parent. When a VMWare employee asked if Broadcom would support employee resource groups (ERG), Tan again offered a skeptical answer. “What is that? I’m just kidding. You want me to be direct? That’s an alien concept to me,” he said.

While Tan admitted ERGs, which provide support for groups of underrepresented employees, weren’t part of Broadcom’s culture, he said he was open to them. Broadcom did not respond to a request for comment from Fortune about whether it would allow VMWare employees to continue their existing ERGs.

Adding to the difficulties in integrating the two companies were the looming layoffs that are often a harsh reality of corporate mergers. Broadcom laid off approximately 1,300 VMWare employees after the deal was completed while VMWare president Sumit Dhawan left to become the CEO of cybersecurity firm Proofpoint.

Many of Broadcom’s employees will move into VMWare’s Palo Alto, Calif. headquarters, which ironically had been largely empty thanks to its longstanding remote work policy, according to the San Francisco Standard.

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Paolo Confino

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December 2, 2023
RBC to acquire HSBC Canada for $10B | Bank Automation News

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Royal Bank of Canada is set to close its CA$13.5 billion ($10 billion) all-cash acquisition of HSBC Canada in the first quarter of next year as the bank works through its integration plans. The acquisition will give RBC’s clients access to HSBC’s trade finance and cash management capabilities and create additional cross-selling opportunities for the […]

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Vaidik Trivedi

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November 30, 2023
Broadcom planning to complete deal for $69 billion acquisition of VMWare after regulators give OK

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SAN JOSE, California — Computer chip and software maker Broadcom has announced it has cleared all regulatory hurdles and plans to complete its $69 billion acquisition of cloud technology company VMware on Wednesday.

The company, based in San Jose, California, announced it planned to move ahead with the deal after China joined the list of countries that had given a go-ahead for the acquisition.

Broadcom is paying $61 billion in cash and stock for VMware and taking on $8 billion of its debt, making this one of the biggest technology deals ever.

The announcement came soon after Microsoft acquired video game-maker Activision Blizzard for $69 billion, also one of the most expensive tech acquisitions in history.

It took 18 months for Broadcom to get all the regulatory approvals, just days before the merger agreement was due to expire.

The acquisition was able to go ahead after China’s State Administration of Market Regulation said Broadcom’s commitments, submitted Monday, would reduce the impact of the merger.

The massive buyouts are occurring at a time of heightened anxiety because of turmoil on the global supply chain, war in Europe and the Middle East, and rising prices that have the potential to cool both business and consumer activity.

Broadcom’s acquisition plan earlier gained approval from Britain’s competition regulator.

Countless businesses and public bodies, including major banks, big retailers, telecom operators and government departments, rely on Broadcom gear and VMware software. The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm and top antitrust enforcer, cleared the deal after Broadcom made concessions to address its concerns about competition.

Broadcom wants to establish a stronger foothold in the cloud computing market, and VMware’s technology allows large corporations to blend public cloud access with internal company networks. VMware, which is based in Palo Alto, California, has close relations with every major cloud company and provider, including Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

In a statement, Broadcom said it had legal greenlights in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, the European Union, Israel, Japan, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and “foreign investment control clearance in all necessary jurisdictions.”

“There is no legal impediment to closing under U.S. merger regulations,” it said.

There has been a flurry of such deals after technology companies’ shares fell from stratospheric levels attained during the pandemic, making such acquisitions more affordable.

But Broadcom’s CEO, Hock Tan, has been pursuing such deals for years, building out the company with big acquisitions like Symantec for close to $11 billion in 2019, and CA Technologies for about $19 billion the year before.

In an earnings call not long after the deal was announced, Tan described the plan to acquire VMWare as a “very unique opportunity to take our company and its business to the next level.”

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November 22, 2023
Wilbur Ross Fast Facts | CNN Politics

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CNN
—

Here’s a look at the life of former Commerce Secretary Wilbur L. Ross Jr.

Birth date: November 28, 1937

Birth place: Weehawken, New Jersey

Birth name: Wilbur Louis Ross Jr.

Father: Wilbur Louis Ross Sr., a lawyer

Mother: Agnes (O’Neill) Ross, a teacher

Marriages: Hilary (Geary) Ross (October 9, 2004); Betsy (McCaughey) Ross (December 7, 1995-August 2000, divorced); Judith (Nodine) Ross (May 26, 1961-October 1995, divorced)

Children: with Judith Nodine: Jessica and Amanda

Education: Yale University, A.B., 1959, Harvard University, M.B.A., 1961

He was called the “King of Bankruptcy,” as he built new companies from the assets of defaulted ones.

Ross was known for investing in distressed companies in a wide range of industries including auto parts, steel, textiles and financial services.

1976-2000 – Works for the investment bank Rothschild Inc. During his tenure, he becomes a top bankruptcy adviser.

January 1998 – Pledges $2.25 million towards then-wife and Lt. Governor Betsy McCaughey Ross’ campaign for governor of New York. He withdraws the funding in September and files for divorce in November.

2000 – Purchases a small fund he started at Rothschild and opens his own private equity firm, WL Ross & Co. LLC.

2002 – Establishes the International Steel Group (ISG), with himself as chairman of the board, through a series of mergers and acquisitions starting with Bethlehem Steel Corp.

December 2003 – ISG goes public.

2004 – Forms the International Coal Group (ICG) after purchasing the assets of Horizon Natural Resources in a bankruptcy auction.

October 2004 – Merges ISG with Mittal Steel for $4.5 billion.

January 2, 2006 – Twelve miners are killed after an explosion at a West Virginia mine operated by an ICG subsidiary. Families of the dead and Randal McCloy, the lone survivor, sue ICG and WL Ross claiming negligence. All of the lawsuits are settled by November 2011.

April 2010 – Purchases a 21% stake in Richard Branson’s Virgin Money. In November 2011, Ross helps Branson fund a successful bid for the British bank Northern Rock.

August 2, 2010 – During an interview with Charlie Rose, Ross states that he’s fine with higher taxes on the wealthy as long as the government puts the money to good use.

June 2011 – Arch Coal, Inc. acquires ICG for $3.4 billion.

September 2011 – WL Ross is one of five US and Canadian companies that purchase a 34.9% stake in the Bank of Ireland. Ross’ share is reportedly 9.3%.

March 21, 2016 – Nexeo Solutions, a chemical distribution company, announces their merger agreement with WL Ross Holding Corporation. The merger is valued at nearly $1.6 billion.

August 24, 2016 – The Securities and Exchange Commission announces that WL Ross will pay a $2.3 million fine for failing to properly disclose fees it charged.

November 30, 2016 – Ross announces in a CNBC interview that President-elect Donald Trump has asked him to serve as his commerce secretary.

February 27, 2017 – The Senate confirms Ross as commerce secretary by a 72-27 vote. He is sworn in the next day.

November 5, 2017 – The New York Times reports that Ross has financial ties to a shipping company whose clients include a Russian energy company co-owned by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s son-in-law. Another customer of the shipping company is Venezuela’s state-run oil company, which has been sanctioned by the US government. The information comes from the Paradise Papers, a release of 13.4 million leaked documents.

November 7, 2017 – Two days after the Paradise Papers are released, Forbes reports that Ross inflated his net worth to be included in the magazine’s annual list of the world’s wealthiest individuals. His name is removed from the magazine’s website. An investigation by the magazine reveals that Ross has likely been providing inaccurate financial information since 2004. Ross claims that the magazine overlooked trusts for his family while tallying his fortune.

March 2, 2018 – During an appearance on CNBC, Ross says the Trump administration’s steel and aluminum tariffs won’t hurt consumers. He holds up a can of Campbell’s soup as he explains that the price of soup will go up less than a penny due to the tariffs.

March 26, 2018 – Ross announces that a citizenship question will be added to the 2020 census.

July 12, 2018 – Ross admits to “errors” in failing to divest assets required by his government ethics agreement and says he will sell all his stock holdings. The admission comes after the Office of Government Ethics took Ross to task for what it said were inconsistencies in his financial disclosure forms.

September 21, 2018 – A federal judge rules that Ross must sit for a deposition in a lawsuit regarding his department’s decision to include a question about citizenship in the 2020 census. The US Supreme Court later blocks the deposition.

December 19, 2018 – The Center for Public Integrity reports that Ross failed to sell a bank stock holding within the required time frame after his 2017 confirmation and subsequently signed ethics documents indicating the holding had been sold.

February 15, 2019 – Ross’ financial disclosure form is rejected by the Office of Government Ethics. Ross later releases a statement saying, “While I am disappointed that my report was not certified, I remain committed to complying with my ethics agreement and adhering to the guidance of Commerce ethics officials.”

June 27, 2019 – The Supreme Court issues a 5-4 ruling that blocks the citizenship question from being added to the census.

July 17, 2019 – The House votes to hold Ross in criminal contempt over a dispute related to the citizenship question on the census. Attorney General William Barr is also held in contempt. Ross releases a statement in which he dismisses the vote as a political stunt. “House Democrats never sought to have a productive relationship with the Trump Administration, and today’s PR stunt further demonstrates their unending quest to generate headlines instead of operating in good faith with our Department.”

July 18, 2020 – A department spokesman says that Ross has been hospitalized for “minor, non-coronavirus related issues.” On July 27, the Commerce Department says Ross has been released from the hospital.

September 28, 2020 – Ross announces that he intends to conclude the 2020 census on October 5. This is more than three weeks earlier than expected and against the October 31 court reinstated end date. Ross asks Census Bureau officials if the earlier date would effectively allow them to produce a final set of numbers during Trump’s current term in office, according to an internal email released the following day as part of a lawsuit.

October 13, 2020 – The Supreme Court grants a request from the Trump administration to halt the census count while an appeal plays out over a lower court’s order that it continue. The Census Bureau announces that the count is ending on October 15.

July 19, 2021 – According to a letter made public from Commerce Department Inspector General Peggy Gustafson to Democratic lawmakers, the Justice Department decides to decline prosecution of Ross for misrepresentations he made to Congress about the origins of the Trump administration’s failed push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.

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November 10, 2023
Screen Actors Guild Fast Facts | CNN

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CNN
—

Here’s a look at the Screen Actors Guild. In 2012, a merger was completed between the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). The SAG-AFTRA labor union has more than 160,000 members.

June 30, 1933 – Articles of incorporation are filed. The guild is formed to get better working conditions for actors.

1935 – Granted an American Federation of Labor charter.

May 1937 – In order to prevent a strike, producers sign a contract with the guild ensuring minimum pay and recognizing the guild.

1943 – Actress Olivia de Havilland sues Warner Brothers studio for extending her contract. She later wins her case.

1945 – The US Supreme Court hands down the “de Havilland decision,” which declares that studios may no longer hold contract players for more than seven years. This breaks up the system of the studio maintaining control over an actor’s career.

1952 – The Guild signs its first contracts for filmed television programs.

December 1, 1952-February 18, 1953 – The first SAG strike is over filmed television commercials. The strike ends with a contract that covers all work in commercials.

August 5-15, 1955 – SAG holds its second strike. This time for increased television show residuals.

March 7, 1960-April 18, 1960 – Third strike over residuals for feature films sold, licensed, or released to television.

December 19, 1978-February 7, 1979 – SAG strikes for better residuals on television advertisements.

July 21, 1980-October 23, 1980 – SAG strikes with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA). This strike centers on the distribution of profits from pay television and video cassette production.

March 21, 1988-April 15, 1988 – SAG and AFTRA television commercials strike. The strike is over payment for commercials appearing on cable TV.

February 25, 1995 – The first annual Screen Actors Guild Awards show is held.

May 1, 2000-October 30, 2000 – SAG and AFTRA strike against the advertising industry over commercial work compensation for basic cable and internet.

July 1, 2008 – SAG’s TV/theatrical agreement expires.

November 22, 2008 – Talks between SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) end after federal mediation fails to jumpstart a five-month stalemate.

January 26, 2009 – SAG chief negotiator Doug Allen is fired in a bid by the union’s moderate faction to re-enter contract talks with the studios.

April 19, 2009 – SAG leadership split 53% – 47% to accept a new two-year contract with AMPTP.

June 9, 2009 – Members ratify the two-year contract covering television and motion pictures.

January 29, 2012 – Ken Howard, president of the guild, announces during the SAG Awards, that the merger between SAG and AFTRA has been approved by both groups.

March 30, 2012 – The merger of SAG and AFTRA is completed with more than 80% approval from both unions. The one union is named SAG-AFTRA.

January 27, 2013 – The first SAG Awards are held under the union banner “SAG-AFTRA One Union.”

March 23, 2016 – SAG-AFTRA President Ken Howard dies. Executive Vice President Gabrielle Carteris assumes his duties until the regularly scheduled national board meeting April 9.

April 9, 2016 – Carteris is elected president. She will serve the balance of Howard’s unexpired term, which ends in 2017.

August 24, 2017 – Carteris is elected to a two-year term as president.

February 10, 2018 – SAG-AFTRA introduces new guidelines for members, called “Four Pillars of Change,” aimed at fighting sexual harassment in the workplace.

September 2, 2021 – Actress Fran Drescher is elected to a two-year term as president.

July 14, 2023 – SAG-AFTRA goes on strike after talks with major studios and streaming services have failed. It is the first time its members have stopped work since 1980. On November 8, SAG-AFTRA and the studios reach a tentative agreement, officially ending the strike.

Ralph Morgan 1933, 1938-1940
Eddie Cantor 1933-1935
Robert Montgomery 1935-1938, 1946-1947
Edward Arnold 1940-1942
James Cagney 1942-1944
George Murphy 1944-1946
Ronald Reagan 1947-1952, 1959-1960
Walter Pidgeon 1952-1957
Leon Ames 1957-1958
Howard Keel 1958-1959
George Chandler 1960-963
Dana Andrews 1963-1965
Charlton Heston 1965-1971
John Gavin 1971-1973
Dennis Weaver 1973-1975
Kathleen Nolan 1975-1979
William Schallert 1979-1981
Ed Asner 1981-1985
Patty Duke 1985-1988
Barry Gordon 1988-1995
Richard Masur 1995-1999
William Daniels 1999-2001
Melissa Gilbert 2001-2005
Alan Rosenberg 2005-2009
Ken Howard 2009-2016
Gabrielle Carteris-2016-2021
Fran Drescher 2021-present

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November 9, 2023
Higher funding costs forcing Asia’s biggest REIT to set a ‘much higher’ bar for acquisitions: CEO

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Link REIT's CEO George Hongchoy explains the company's appetite for more M&A amid capital management challenges.

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November 8, 2023