BREAKINGVIEWS

YouTube makes itself a needless political football

21 February 2020READY SOON

President Trump has bought prominent ads on the video platform on election day. That’s because YouTube has enormous reach. Yet, parent Alphabet is in regulators’ crosshairs and campaign money is tiny slice of revenue. It’s a wonder why it accepts political ads at all.

Texas becomes oil vampire squid

21 February 2020

Even though fracking doesn’t produce corporate profits, the Lone Star state’s plentiful oil continues to attract investment. That’s been a boon for state coffers. But much like OPEC, U.S. drillers elsewhere are feeling the squeeze. Texas’s success is at the expense of others.

Fintech M&A shows bank disruption stuck in infancy

21 February 2020

LendingClub set out to upend retail finance by making small loans online. But like Radius, the digital bank it’s now buying, it’s still small fry. Sure, venture-capital funding for such upstarts is robust, but deep-pocketed incumbents like JPMorgan retain the upper hand.

HSBC succession farce may undercut strategic plan

21 February 2020

Chairman Mark Tucker is considering UniCredit’s Jean Pierre Mustier for the CEO job. Interim boss Noel Quinn has unveiled an overhaul but the ambitious Mustier likely has his own ideas of what’s needed. If the outsider is picked, the restructuring may eventually be restructured.

UBI will struggle to rebuff Intesa’s embrace

21 February 2020

The Italian bank is exploring alternatives to its larger rival’s $5.3 billion hostile takeover bid. A tie-up with state-owned lender Monte dei Paschi would be complex and costly. Other escape routes look equally unattractive. And Intesa has some room to woo reluctant investors.

India-born CEOs take one step back, two forward

21 February 2020

The governance mess at Gulf hospital operator NMC has put an Indian executive on the map for the wrong reason. But the country’s huge business diaspora is taking charge of giant firms like IBM. The international influence highlights a dearth of local opportunity.

SoftBank gives only an inch to clear Sprint static

20 February 2020

Masayoshi Son’s firm is taking a modest $5 bln hit to clinch Sprint's $120 bln merger with T-Mobile US. The latter could have pushed harder, but that might have put the long-awaited deal at risk. The dance with each other, and with regulators, seems to be over without a fall.

HP’s fire-with-fire defense does it no favors

20 February 2020

The printer maker adopted a poison pill to stop bidder Xerox from digging in further. Aggressive bids justify robust responses. But HP would gain more credibility by laying out its valuation argument clearly for shareholders before putting up prohibitively defensive measures.

Morgan Stanley-E*Trade deal puts D.C. on the spot

20 February 2020

It’s the first major acquisition by a big bank in over a decade, which virtually guarantees political scrutiny. Yet regulators like the Fed seem amenable to financial mergers. Political detractors can’t easily sabotage the $13 bln deal, but they could upset the delicate timing.

E*Trade embodies Wall Street’s stodgy middle age

20 February 2020

Serving armchair investors is as unracy as it gets for erstwhile masters of the universe. Yet Morgan Stanley’s $13 bln purchase of an online broker makes sense given the rise of passive funds and decline of securities trading. Wall Street’s future is boring, and profitably so.

Speedway could leave 7-Eleven with overfull tank

20 February 2020

The convenience store chain’s Japanese owner Seven & i may buy Marathon’s gas station business for $22 bln. If it does so with cash, then the acquisition would load it up with debt for what looks like a measly return. That might be why investors sent the shares down 9%.

Dutch grocer can afford $7 bln U.S. shopping spree

20 February 2020

Ahold Delhaize, the $28 bln owner of Stop & Shop supermarkets, churned out cash after another strong quarter. The success suggests it could hoover up smaller U.S. players. Several grocers might be an option, though Ahold might have to compromise on its preferences.

Morgan Stanley beats Goldman to E*Trade punch

20 February 2020

Buying the online broker for $13 bln gives James Gorman’s Wall Street firm stable income, higher returns and cheap retail deposits. David Solomon has promised that too at Goldman Sachs, albeit via other means. It leaves Solomon, still tackling regulatory issues, on the back foot.