Shares of residential solar installer, Vivint Solar (VSLR), tumbled nearly 22.1% in Friday trading after the news of a huge stake sell-off by a major shareholder hit the market.
313 Acquisitions LLC, a fund managed by Blackstone Group LP and Vivint’s principal stockholder, has decided to sell 8 million shares of the rooftop solar company.However, the major twist regarding the sale is that shares are being sold at $5.50 per share, a massive 21% discount to its yesterday's close price of $7.00 per share.
According to analysis firm Loup Ventures, Apple has 45 million paid subscribers – the second largest number of users after Spotify (whose music service is already available on Echo).Apple’s popularity in music streaming coupled with Amazon’s leadership in the home device market could potentially spell a win-win for the duo’s latest deal.
Earlier this month, Apple said that its new line of iPhones, headphones, watches and laptops will be available on Amazon’s online marketplace. Apple’s home speakers won’t.
An appeals court decision upheld a $140 million jury verdict in favor of Sprint Corp. in a patent-infringement case against Time Warner Cable Inc.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said there is adequate evidence that suggests that Time Warner (now owned by Charter Communications Inc) infringed five Sprint patents concerning Voice over Internet Protocol services.In 2011, Sprint filed the lawsuit against Time Warner Cable and other cable television companies, alleging that they used, without permission, Sprint inventions related to packet-switched networks for transmitting phone calls over digital lines. Comcast Corp. agreed to pay $250 million to Sprint as settlement in 2017 .
Instagram users will now have more flexibility to share Stories with a select few.
The Facebook-owned photo & video-sharing website announced on Friday that a new feature called Close Friends will allow users to share photos/content with smaller groups.The ‘Close Friends’ option might give people an extra layer of privacy and a more flexible way to select who they want to share certain pictures with - something that could potentially attract even more users and/or engagement.
Marriott International has some unwelcome 'visitors' - hackers.
The hotel-chain said a cyber attack affected its Starwood reservation database, that includes the St. Regis, Westin, Sheraton and W Hotels that it owns.Hackers infiltrated the data in 2014, but Marriott came to know of it only last couple of weeks ago.
Hackers accessed personal information – such as names, phone numbers, email addresses, passport numbers, date of birth and arrival and departure - of 324 million guests.
A basic version will be concentrated in movies, a premium one will offer original programming and “blockbuster” movies, and there’ll be a bundle containing both of those services plus some other content of WarnerMedia along with that licensed from other producers/platforms.
With its streaming service, the AT&T-owned media giant is looking to penetrate a market already crowded by players like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu.Without naming any potential rival, Stankey indicated that he expects libraries of “incumbent” streamers to eventually get reduced in volume.
The autonomous vehicle wing of GM, Cruise Automation, gets a new CEO in Dan Ammann.The new CEO will take the reins of the self-driving car subsidiary of GM, which was acquired by GM in 2016.
Ammann will replace one of the co-founders and the current CEO of the company Kyle Vogt, who is expected to move into the role of chief technology officer.
According to GM’s CEO, Mary Barra, "these appointments further demonstrate the company’s commitment towards transforming mobility through the safe deployment of self-driving technology and move us closer to our vision for a future with zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.
The company told CNBC that "only a small percent" of accounts were possibly affected.It also advised customers to avoid re-using password from other online accounts.
The Kraft Heinz Company announced Thursday that it plans to acquire paleo ingredient and dressing company Primal Kitchen for about $200 million.
Given the rising trend among consumers to switch to healthy foods, Kraft Heinz - the third-largest food and beverage company in North America - could potentially benefit from buying Primal Kitchen as the latter apparently specializes in offering food/ingredients rich in proteins and vegetables, while cutting back on carbohydrates.Primal's products include organic unsweetened spicy ketchup, avocado oil and collagen nut and seed bars among other items. Primal Kitchen is expected to generate about $50 million in revenue this year, according to Kraft Heinz.
As it looks to add a new brand, Kraft Heinz has also been planning to sell some businesses.
The Bundeskartellamt (Federal Cartel Office) in a press release on Thursday said that it had “initiated an abuse proceeding” against the online giant’s treatment of third-party sellers on it’s website Amazon.de.
This investigation is being conducted by the German antitrust authority, in order to see if Amazon was involved in or was preventing fair competition in the country’s online marketplace, after it had received “many complaints” over Amazon’s conduct.
Bundeskartellamt President Andreas Mundt in the press conference said that "because of the many complaints we have received, we will examine whether Amazon is abusing its market position to the detriment of sellers active on its marketplace."He further added that the office would be closely monitoring Amazon to see if it’s dominance is hampering other online retailers and whether sellers have become too much dependent on Amazon for their sales.
With an investigation already running on Amazon regarding the use of data gathe
Several locations in Frankfurt - including the headquarter - of Deutsche Bank were raided by 170 police officers and tax investigators on Thursday as part of a money laundering investigation.
Authorities are probing into whether the multinational bank with German headquarter has a role in helping clients set up offshore companies in tax havens, and whether the bank failed to report illegal/suspicious transactions.The investigation is related to 2016 investigation of the Panama Papers.
The main suspects of the Deutsche Bank probe are two of its employees who were not identified beyond their ages ,50 and 46.
"As far as we are concerned, we have already provided the authorities with all the relevant information regarding [the] Panama Papers," Deutsche Bank said in a statement to reporters.
Paul Polman is resigning from his role as CEO of Unilever, after 10 years of leading the company.
Unilever is a consumer goods behemoth owning brands like Lipton, Dove and Ben & Jerry's.The multinational company credits a large part of its performance to Paul Polman – during his tenure as CEO, shareholders received a return of 290% according to the company.
Unilever has long been using London and Rottendam as its headquarters.
Deutsche Bank's headquarters in Frankfurt were raided by Germany's public prosecutor for alleged money laundering.In September, Germany's financial regulator had ordered the bank to take action to prevent so-called terrorism financing and money laundering.
Oil prices fell on Friday to their lowest levels in more than a year, deepening a rapid seven-week sell-off that has plunged crude futures deep into a bear market.
READ MORE...
Cryptocurrency mining operations in China are reportedly selling mining machines by weight, as opposed to price per unit.This selloff was reported by local Chinese crypto outlet 8BTC Wednesday, Nov. 21, with reference to the cryptocurrency mining pool F2Pool.
READ MORE...
A fresh burst of arctic air around the Midwestern United States helped U.S. natural gas futures surge more than 11% on Wednesday.
With the forecast of snow showers continuing over the next several weeks, coupled with an indication that stockpiles may simultaneously plunge, Nymex natural gas prices increased by 11.2% to stand at $4.74/MMBtu.
Although production has increased in this year, further increased demand since the beginning of November has kept inventories well below normal.With an unusually cold start to the winter season, analysts expect supply to be constrained for the entire peak heating season considering the low levels of inventory, which in turn can make prices go up further.
With the potential for natural gas shortages at the end of the season, several gas-focused companies like Antero Resources (AR, +2.91%), Gulfport Energy Corporation (GPOR, +3.40%), EQT Corporation (EQT, +2.14%) and Cabot Oil & Gas (COG, +2.64%) were some of the top gainers in Wedn
Exxon entered a 12-year agreement with Denmark’s Orsted A/S to buy 500 megawatts of wind and solar power in the Permian Basin, in-line with the company’s strategy to use renewable energy to produce oil in West Texas.
Although the terms of the contract are yet to be disclosed, according to Bloomberg NEF it is the largest ever renewable power contract signed by an oil company in the fastest growing U.S. oil field.
As per the company’s investor presentation, 50% of the power that Exxon will buy would come from the Sage Draw wind farm, which Orsted plans to get operational in 2020.The other 50% would come from the Permian Solar farm, scheduled to be operational in 2021.
Exxon, which has for some time now been criticized for downplaying the risks of climate change, has finally turned to clean energy as it also becomes cheaper.
General Motors recently announced their new restructuring plan, whereby the company intends to cut 15,000 jobs and possibly shutter four U.S. factories across North America.
Hearing about this decision, U.S. President Donald Trump lashed out at GM on Twitter and said that he may consider cutting “all” of the automaker’s “subsidies” if they plan to close down factories in U.S. Further, he pointed out that nothing was “being closed in Mexico & China” and that GM’s bet on China wouldn’t pay off.
But avoiding China is just not on the cards for GM, as it could spell disaster for them.
Why?
First, China has emerged as the world’s largest car market, and GM has been selling more cars in China than in all of North America since 2014.In Q3 2018, GM sold 835,934 cars in the Chinese market including joint ventures, versus 700,000 in the U.S.
There is still a lot of Ethereum tied up in ICO projects and the fear is that a mass liquidation could send the token back below three figures in price or, even worse, to early 2017 levels.
READ MORE...
Investors may know Eli Lilly (LLY) as a venerable member of the Big Pharma club whose bread and butter now comes from diabetes treatments.But analysts say Lilly stock is due for a boost from the drug giant's burgeoning migraine prevention and immunology medicines.
READ MORE...