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

© tesla.com

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) is developing a self-driving truck, according to an exclusive report by Reuters. It has filed with Nevada to begin to test the vehicle there.

Essential Products, a smartphone marketer that uses Android, said it has gotten $300 million of investment capital from Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and China online firm Tencent. One of the founders of the company, according to The Wall Street Journal, is Andy Rubin, who helped create the Android operating system. Some remain skeptical that Essential Products can compete with much larger smartphone companies.

Seeso, a streaming media service that focuses on comedy, will be shut down. It was started by NBC Universal, a division of Comcast Corp. (NASDAQ: CMCSA). The news comes at the same time as an announcement by Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) that it will break ties with Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) to start its own sports and movie streaming channels.

European telecom company Altice may make a bid to buy U.S. cable giant Charter Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: CHTR). The deal could be worth as much as $185 billion. Charter has been in off and on in talks with Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) about a merger. Sprint’s largest shareholder has even contemplated a bid for Charter.

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CNBC reports that Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) will launch a competitor to Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) YouTube, which is by far the largest video site in the world. The new network reports:

In a blog post on Wednesday, Facebook revealed that it will soon offer users a new way to watch videos on its social network called Watch.

Facebook had been rumored to be getting into TV-like shows for months now, but Watch looks more like YouTube. It will let users discover videos outside of their own feed more easily, while also giving them a way to create Watchlists, and an easier means of following the videos made by a favorite artist, brand or publisher like those from Tastemade or Major League Baseball.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) had a gun promotion as part of its back-to-school program. According to CNNMoney, criticism was based on a display at one of its stores.

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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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