Media

6 Most Important Things in Business Today

Douglas A. McIntyre

Published: September 15, 2017 5:06 am

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 8:09 am

According to The Wall Street Journal, Japanese conglomerate Softbank has made an offer to invest funds into Uber. However, the firm wants a large discount to the current valuation of the ride-sharing service to do so.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) will stop advertisers from changing headlines in news stories they promote.

Nissan and Renault, both run by Carlo Ghosn, have set a goal to sell 14 million vehicles a year by 2022. The figure would be an increase of nearly 50% over last year’s numbers.

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) may make an investment of nearly $1 billion in ride-sharing company Lyft, according to Bloomberg. Lyft is the primary competition for Uber. Alphabet owns self-driving car company Waymo. Bloomberg reports:

Alphabet is also an Uber shareholder through its GV venture capital arm, but Waymo, a unit of Alphabet, is currently suing Uber over self-driving car technology. As the relationship has deteriorated, Waymo signed a partnership with Lyft to work together on testing autonomous vehicles.

While Lyft has recently focused on controlling spending, the cash would allow the San Francisco-based startup to pursue more aggressive growth with subsidies for drivers, discounts for riders and marketing.

Lyft kicked off a major television campaign this month that stars Jeff Bridges.

With an extra $1 billion, Lyft would be able to ensure its independence for the near future, something co-founder John Zimmer has said is a priority. But some investors have suggested Alphabet would be a natural home for the ride-hailing startup. Lyft held informal talks with Alphabet and other potential acquirers last year but didn’t pursue a sale.

Several former Google employees claim that pay inequality between men and women at the company is commonplace. According to CNNMoney:

Three former female employees have sued Google, alleging that the company has “engaged in systemic and pervasive pay and promotion discrimination.”

The women claim they were paid less than men, frequently assigned to lower paying jobs, and promoted less often than men in similar jobs. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in state court in San Francisco. It asks a judge to certify it as a class action and seeks wages, interest and damages.

Google denies the claims made in the lawsuit.

Verizon Communications Inc.’s (NYSE: VZ) CEO no longer has an interest in owning a cable company. According to The New York Post:

 The need to own a cable company is so last year that Verizon Chief Executive Lowell McAdam doesn’t even think about it anymore.

“We’ve moved on,” the head of America’s largest telecom said at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia Conference on Thursday. “The facts show you can build it better than buy it.”