6 Most Important Things in Business

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 10:01AM EST · Published Jul 19, 5:05AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

6 Most Important Things in Business — © Thinkstock

IBM (NYSE: IBM) missed revenue expectations, and its stock fell again. The oft-mentioned turnaround is now into its fourth year, with only modest advances in its cloud initiative. IBM still sits well behind the tech company leaders in cloud market share.

Discovery Communications (NASDAQ: DISCA) and Scripps Networks Interactive (NASDAQ: SNI) are in merger talks, according to Reuters. The news service reports:

Discovery Communications and Scripps Networks Interactive Inc are in merger talks, revisiting a deal that was scrapped three years ago, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

Scripps, whose channels include HGTV, Travel Channel and a majority stake in Food Network, is looking for a buyer at a time when it and other smaller media companies are under pressure to grow to give them negotiating power with cable and satellite companies.

Google, a division of Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), will try to re-launch its Glass wearable product, which sold poorly when it first came to market. The Wall Street Journal reports that the target of the new product will be companies and not consumers.

[nativounit]

Restaurant chain Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG) faces another food poisoning scandal. It closed one of its restaurants due to an outbreak of food poisoning. Similar problems drove away customers and tanked its stock over a year ago. The stock fell nearly 5% on the news.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) has a new chief in China. It has struggled with iPhone sales, lagging behind Samsung and several local manufacturers. The company announced:

Apple today announced that Isabel Ge Mahe, vice president of Wireless Technologies, has been named vice president and managing director of Greater China, reporting to CEO Tim Cook and COO Jeff Williams. In this newly created role, Isabel will provide leadership and coordination across Apple’s China-based team.

The fact that she reports to Cook signals the importance of her job.

A new legal action against Uber claims that it discriminates against people in wheel chairs, according to the AP. The news service reported:

A nonprofit disability rights organization filed a class-action lawsuit against Uber, claiming the ride-hailing service discriminates against New York City riders with disabilities by not providing enough access to vehicles that can accommodate wheelchairs.

“Having grown rapidly since it began operating in New York in 2011, Uber provides hundreds of thousands of rides a day in New York City, but for riders who need wheelchair-accessible vehicles, it provides vastly inferior service, or in many cases, no service at all,” according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Tuesday by Disability Rights Advocates.

[wallst_email_signup]

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.