6 Most Important Things in Business Today

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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6 Most Important Things in Business Today

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General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE) was thrown out of the Dow Jones industrial average.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ), AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) and Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) have ended relationships with companies that may have misused their customer data. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Verizon Communications Inc., AT&T Inc. and Sprint Corp. pledged to stop selling the locations of individual customers to two middlemen amid accusations that one of the firms mishandled the information.

The carriers said they will wind down data-sharing agreements with LocationSmart and Zumigo Inc., which buy access to the real-time locations of users from major U.S. carriers and allow other businesses to tap into it. The data are used for everything from marketing nearby shops to preventing credit-card fraud.

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Volkswagen and Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) may work together to build new cars. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Ford Motor Co. and Volkswagen AG are exploring how they could work together to better compete globally as cars become more technologically advanced and customer expectations evolve.

The companies said Tuesday they were exploring a strategic alliance that could include jointly developing a range of commercial vehicles as well as other projects. The two companies said they weren’t discussing cross-ownership stakes or stock arrangements, implying that the two companies aren’t in merger talks.

CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) has gotten into the home delivery business. According to The Wall Street Journal:

CVS Health Corp. has enlisted the U.S. Postal Service for a new home delivery service, as the drugstore giant strives to stave off Amazon.com Inc. and other rivals.

CVS struck a deal with the Postal Service to pick up prescriptions at CVS stores and bring them to customers’ homes in one or two days. Customers will be charged $4.99 per delivery, which could include over-the-counter products such as aspirin or face wash.

The theft of cryptocurrency coins caused the value of the market to drop. According to Bloomberg:

Cryptocurrencies dropped after the second South Korean exchange in as many weeks said it was hacked, renewing concerns about the safety of digital-asset trading venues.

Bithumb, ranked by Coinmarketcap.com as the world’s seventh-largest crypto exchange by traded value, said on Wednesday that hackers stole about 35 billion won ($32 million) and that Ripple was among the coins taken. The exchange halted cryptocurrency deposits and withdrawals, said it will compensate victims and moved investor assets to a so-called cold wallet, which is disconnected from the Internet and less vulnerable to theft.

The use of recreational pot in Canada took another step forward. According to CNBC:

Canada’s upper house of parliament on Tuesday approved a revised bill to legalize recreational marijuana, setting the stage for the country to become the first Group of Seven nation to legalize cannabis.

The Senate voted 52-29 in favor of the revised bill from the elected House of Commons, paving the way for a fully legal cannabis market within eight to 12 weeks.

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Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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