6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:59PM EDT · Published Jul 24, 4:53AM EDT

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KKR & Co. L.P. (NYSE: KKR) is close to a deal to buy WebMD Health Corp. (NASDAQ: WBMD) according to The Wall Street Journal

“Dunkirk” won the weekend box office. According to Box Office Mojo:

With an estimated $50.5 million, WB’s release of Dunkirk finished in first position from 3,720 locations. Of that gross a whopping 23% ($11.7 million) was from IMAX showings at just 402 locations ($29,129 PTA). Heading into the weekend the critics had already expressed their love for the film (92% on RottenTomatoes and 94 on Metacritic) and audiences tended to agree. The film received an “A-” CinemaScore from opening day audiences, though of the 60% male audience vs. 40% female audience, women graded the film slightly lower at “B+”. Of that overall audience, a massive 76% was over the age of 25.

Jeffrey Bewkes, the CEO of Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX), will leave the company after its buyout by AT&T Inc. (NYSE: T) is complete, according to The New York Times.

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Mutual fund company Vanguard may take the top spot in the world as an asset manager according to the Financial Times. The current holder of the title is BlackRock Inc. (NYSE: BLK).

The International Monetary Fund reaffirmed its outlook for global growth. Executives at the organization wrote, in their July 2017 World Economic Outlook Update:

The pickup in global growth anticipated in the April World Economic Outlook remains on track, with global output projected to grow by 3.5 percent in 2017 and 3.6 percent in 2018. The unchanged global growth projections mask somewhat different contributions at the country level. U.S. growth projections are lower than in April, primarily reflecting the assumption that fiscal policy will be less expansionary going forward than previously anticipated. Growth has been revised up for Japan and especially the euro area, where positive surprises to activity in late 2016 and early 2017 point to solid momentum. China’s growth projections have also been revised up, reflecting a strong first quarter of 2017 and expectations of continued fiscal support. Inflation in advanced economies remains subdued and generally below targets; it has also been declining in several emerging economies, such as Brazil, India, and Russia.

German car companies will be hit with antitrust charges. According to CNNMoney:

News magazine Der Spiegel dropped the bombshell on Friday, citing a letter it said Volkswagen (VLKAY) had written to German antitrust officials last summer in which it admitted to possible anti-competitive behavior.

The article alleges that hundreds of executives from Volkswagen (VLKAY) (and its subsidiaries Audi and Porsche), Mercedes-Benz owner Daimler (DDAIF), and BMW (BMWYY) had participated in 60 secret industry working groups over decades.

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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.