6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 4:01PM EDT · Published Jul 11, 5:07AM EDT

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © Courtesy of Toyota

The bidding war for U.K. media company Sky has heated up. According to MarketWatch:

Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox Inc. significantly lifted its offer price to consolidate ownership of Sky PLC, heating up a bidding war with Comcast Corp. for the British TV broadcaster.

Fox raised its bid for the roughly 61% of Sky it doesn’t already own by more than 30%, to GBP14 a share, in a deal that values all of Sky at GBP24.5 billion ($32.5 billion). Fox said Sky’s independent directors have agreed to the new offer.

The United States has threatened to sharply increase the level of tariffs on Chinese goods. According to MarketWatch:

The White House said it would assess 10% tariffs on a further $200 billion in Chinese goods, deepening the dispute with Beijing, while sending a message to other trading partners that the U.S. won’t back away from trade fights.

The new round of tariffs — hitting products from fish to luggage — comes on top of two others and is bound to be met with threats of retaliation from Beijing, though U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said he was open to talks with China about a resolution of the dispute. “As in the past, the United States is willing to engage in efforts that could lead to a resolution of our concerns about China’s unfair trade practices and to China opening its market to U.S. goods and services,” he said in a statement.

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Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) will not raise some drug prices after attacks on the plan from President Trump. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Pfizer Inc. said Tuesday it will defer some recent drug-price increases, reversing course after President Donald Trump criticized the company.

The New York-based drug maker, one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies by sales, had faced criticism from Mr. Trump and others after raising the prices of more than 40 drugs last week.

Pfizer backtracked after Chief Executive Ian Read had what the company described as an extensive talk with Mr. Trump Tuesday about the July 1 price increases.

In a blow to Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA), JetBlue Airways Corp. (NASDAQ: JBLU) has ordered planes from rival Airbus. According to The Wall Street Journal:

JetBlue Airways Corp. on Tuesday said it would buy 60 CSeries jetliners from Airbus SE with options for more, as the European plane maker’s rivalry with Boeing Co. extends into the market for smaller planes.

Airline executives said the new aircraft would expand the reach of the smaller aircraft in JetBlue’s fleet, allowing them to take transcontinental U.S. flights while burning 40% less fuel per seat.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) will be penalized by the United Kingdom because it provided data to an outside firm. According to CNBC:

Facebook will be fined £500,000 ($662,900) in the U.K. after the country’s privacy watchdog said its data sharing scandal broke the law.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is hitting the social network with the maximum possible fine it can impose, for two breaches of the U.K.’s Data Protection Act.

Facebook failed to safeguard people’s information, the ICO said, and was not transparent about the way in which user data was harvested by others.

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) is getting into the car-sharing service in one U.S. state. According to Fortune:

Toyota Motor Corp. is on the road less traveled with Hui, its new car-sharing service, available exclusively in Hawaii.

The service, which offers reservations through a smartphone app, gives drivers in Honolulu 25 pick-up and drop-off locations in the city, and a choice of 70 Toyota and Lexus vehicles, including Priuses and Camrys. Cars can be unlocked with started with the smartphone app using technology called Smart Key Box, and they must be dropped off where they were picked up.

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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.