“@Europarl_EN The ‘European Union’ were NOT participants in #Olympics at#Rio2016 so stop pretending you were part of it” — An angry UK tweeter, lashing out after the EU Parliament’s account tweeted that the EU won the most Olympic medals out of any country. The only problem? The EU isn’t a country. Whoops.
MARKET SNAPSHOT
Big Picture
- U.S. stocks finished mixed as investors wait nervously for Janet Yellen’s end-of-week speech, weary that she may signal it’s time to start raising rates after only one hike in the past decade
Alternatives to Watch
- Oil prices fell significantly after China increased its exports of oil refinery products along with the U.S. rig count increasing significantly
Market Movers
- Conglomerate Icahn Enterprises fell 5% yesterday, and the stock has now lost a sixth of its value over the past four days as the company’s performance has been subpar compared to its past returns
CORPORATE PRIMER
Light at the End of the Tunnel
…Gets a bit brighter for Valeant. The controversy-ridden pharmaceutical company is all too aware that it needs to shake things up on the leadership side, and yesterday represented a decisive step in that direction. Bringing in seasoned pharmaceutical executive Paul Herendeen as Valeant’s new CFO was a tactical move, not only for the company’s rep, but also given his experience running a similar operation at fellow drugmaker Zoetis. Perhaps it’s a step in the right direction for Valeant (investors seemed to think so, with shares soaring over 8% yesterday), but trust is a hard thing to win back.
The Medivation Bandwagon Keeps Growing
…But Pfizer is closing in. After months of offers, rejections and counteroffers,Pfizer is acquiring highly-coveted biotech firm Medivation. What’s the price tag? A mere $14 billion, which Pfizer says is worth it purely for Medivation’s state-of-the-art prostate cancer drug, the wonderfully-named Xtandi. It’s worth noting that Pfizer was far from the only pharmaceutical company in a frenzy to acquire Medivation—pharma M&A is all the rage these days. Throw in a company like Medivation that’s both profitable and controls a drug that can sell for over $100,000, and Medivation could only run solo for so long.
China Strikes Again
…ChemChina might get its way. Starting the week off with a bang, U.S. regulators gave the nod of approval to ChemChina in the largest Chinese overseas takeoverever—of Swiss-based agribusiness Syngenta. Weighing in at $43 billion, the state-owned chemical giant needed to obtain the all-clear from the U.S. since 25% of Syngenta’s sales come from America, thus making the deal a potential national security risk. While analysts and experts were divided over whether the deal would survive—and it still must clear EU regulators—markets responded favorably: Syngenta’s stock rose by 12%.
And Again
…This time, it’s in ad tech. Yesterday, advertising tech start-up Media.net (a Yahoo ad partner) was acquired by Chinese investors for $900 million. Why is this important? For starters, it’s the third-largest ad tech deal to date. The company is bringing some special talents to China, too: it specializes in products that auto-learn to display relevant ads to users. To add icing on the cake, the investor group is led by the chairman of a Beijing-based telecom firm, which most likely means good things for Media.net.
OTHER STORIES
- Ryan Lochte loses all four commercial sponsors after Rio Olympics incident
- Tyra Banks is teaching a Stanford business school class
- Sony to reveal a thinner, cheaper PlayStation 4 next month
- KFC launches fried chicken-scented sunscreen
ECONOMIC CALENDAR
- Monday: Chicago Fed National Activity Index (+)
- Tuesday: Bank of Montreal, Best Buy, J.M. Smucker Earnings; New Home Sales
- Wednesday: Royal Bank of Canada, HP Inc. Earnings; Existing Home Sales
- Thursday: Dollar General, Dollar Tree, Tiffany, GameStop Earnings; Durable Goods Orders; Weekly Jobless Claims; Monetary Policy Symposium Begins
- Friday: U.S. Q2 GDP (2nd Estimate); Consumer Sentiment; International Trade; Monetary Policy Symposium Ends
OLYMPIC AFTERTHOUGHT?
The Olympics have just finished up (if you’re counting, Team USA won, not the EU)—and just in time for another international athletics competition: the Paralympics. The good news: in 2012, the Paralympics became the third-largest sporting event ever in terms of ticket sales. The bad news? It doesn’t look like the ones in Rio will be as much of a hit. Here’s the breakdown:
- So how many tickets did the 2012 London Paralympics sell? 2.72 million, an all-time record. International audience numbers also rose by 37%.
- So what about Rio? So far, only 300,000 tickets have been sold. Not only is this a far cry from London’s numbers, but it also represents a depressing 13% of all available seats.
- And it gets worse: the $9 million in travel grants awarded to competing athletes and officials was coughed up two weeks late. For athletes and spectators alike, getting there looks like a harder challenge than the games themselves.
INTERVIEW QUESTION OF THE DAY
Suppose that you have a triangle with three ants on different vertices (corners) of the triangle. What is the probability that either two of the ants or all of the ants collide if all three ants start walking on the sides of the triangle? (Answer)
BUSINESS PERSON OF THE DAY
Kobe Bryant — The Black Mamba needs no introduction, but what’s he doing here? Simple: Kobe has teamed up with serial entrepreneur Jeff Stibel to start a venture capital firm, aptly (if uncreatively) named Bryant Stibel. The fund has already invested in 15 companies—including The Players Tribune, LegalZoom and Juicero. With Kobe and Stibel contributing $100 million to the fund, expect more investments in the future—Kobe can only hope his investing acumen will rival his on-court abilities.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Apple’s first ever computer, the Apple 1, was originally released in 1976 for $666. About 200 were made and only around 70 are accounted for today. True to form, an Apple 1 is currently being auctioned off, and the highest bid currently stands at$500,000. Looks like some computers hold their value pretty well…and then some.
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