The daily business briefing: June 21, 2018
Disney raises its bid for 21st Century Fox, four airlines refuse to fly migrant kids separated from parents, and more
- 1. Disney sweetens bid for 21st Century Fox
- 2. Four U.S. airlines want no part in separating migrant kids from parents
- 3. White House to propose merging Labor and Education departments
- 4. Tesla accuses former employee of hacking
- 5. Harvard doctor to head Berkshire Hathaway, J.P. Morgan, Amazon health initiative
1. Disney sweetens bid for 21st Century Fox
Disney on Wednesday raised its offer for 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets to $71.3 billion. Fox accepted the offer but shareholders still have to vote on it, giving Comcast or others time to make higher bids. Comcast's recent $65 billion cash-only bid had trounced a previous Disney offer of $52.4 billion in stock. Both companies want to beef up their content to contend with Netflix and other streaming-video rivals. If the Disney deal goes through, it will acquire the 21st Century Fox film and TV studio, Fox's American cable channels, and the U.K.-based Sky News. An unnamed "New Fox," focused on news and sports, would retain Fox News, Fox Sports, and Fox's TV stations. The deal requires Justice Department approval, but a judge's recent rejection of an antitrust challenge to the AT&T-Time Warner merger bodes well for Disney.
The Wall Street Journal Bloomberg
2. Four U.S. airlines want no part in separating migrant kids from parents
American Airlines, United Airlines, Southwest, and Frontier Airlines on Wednesday all asked the federal government not to use their aircrafts to transfer migrant children who have been separated from their families at the border. Trump reversed the policy on Wednesday but didn't address the status of 2,300 children already separated from their parents. All four of the airlines said they had no evidence they had flown any of the children yet. United said it wants "no part" of the Trump administration's "zero tolerance" immigration policies, "based on our serious concerns about this policy and how it's in deep conflict with our company's values." American said "we have no desire to be associated with separating families, or worse, to profit from it." The Department of Homeland Security called the requests "unfortunate" and unpatriotic.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
3. White House to propose merging Labor and Education departments
The White House is preparing a proposal to merge the Labor and Education departments, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday, citing a person familiar with the plan. The announcement, planned for Thursday morning, is coming after a months-long review of Cabinet agencies as part of an effort to reduce the size of the federal government. Any such change would require the approval of Congress, which has been reluctant to get behind previous efforts to eliminate federal agencies. Combining the Labor and Education departments reflects the Trump administration's desire to shift higher-education programs toward more directly training and preparing students to join the workforce.
4. Tesla accuses former employee of hacking
Tesla on Wednesday filed a lawsuit in a Nevada federal court accusing a former employee of hacking trade secrets from the electric car maker and handing over data to third parties. Tesla said the former employee, Martin Tripp, worked in the Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada. The company said in the $1 million suit that Tripp admitted to writing software to hack into its manufacturing operating system, and that he sent several gigabytes of Tesla data to third parties. Tesla said Tripp put the software on other people's computers to cover his tracks and implicate others. Tripp said he didn't tamper with Tesla's systems, describing himself as a whistleblower who spoke out about "some really scary things," including dangerously punctured batteries installed in cars.
5. Harvard doctor to head Berkshire Hathaway, J.P. Morgan, Amazon health initiative
Berkshire Hathaway, J.P. Morgan, and Amazon announced Wednesday that Dr. Atul Gawande would lead their joint health-care venture.
The three companies unveiled their plans for the health program in January, saying it would aim to provide employees with comprehensive health care while keeping down rising costs by being "free from profit-making incentives and constraints." Gawande is the founding executive director of health-systems innovation center Ariadne Labs. He also is a general and endocrine surgeon at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
-
'Make legal immigration a more plausible option'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
LA-to-Las Vegas high-speed rail line breaks ground
Speed Read The railway will be ready as soon as 2028
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Israel's military intelligence chief resigns
Speed Read Maj. Gen. Aharon Haliva is the first leader to quit for failing to prevent the Hamas attack in October
By Justin Klawans, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 24, 2024
Business Briefing The S&P 500 sets a third straight record, Netflix adds more subscribers than expected, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 23, 2024
Business Briefing The Dow and S&P 500 set fresh records, Bitcoin falls as ETF enthusiasm fades, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 22, 2024
Business Briefing FAA recommends inspections of a second Boeing 737 model, Macy's rejects Arkhouse bid, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Geopolitics and the economy in 2024
Talking Point The West is banking on a year of falling inflation. Don't rule out a shock
By The Week UK Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 19, 2024
Business Briefing Macy's to cut 2,350 jobs, Congress averts a government shutdown, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 18, 2024
Business Briefing Shell suspends shipments in the Red Sea, December retail sales beat expectations, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 17, 2024
Business Briefing Judge blocks JetBlue-Spirit merger plan, Goldman Sachs beats expectations with wealth-management boost, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
The daily business briefing: January 16, 2024
Business Briefing Boeing steps up inspections on 737 Max 9 jets, Zelenskyy fights for world leaders' attention at Davos, and more
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published