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

© courtesy of General Motors Co.

A huge tax bill is in danger in the Senate due to concerns about the financial state of the U.S. government in future years. According to Reuters:

The U.S. Senate on Thursday delayed voting on a Republican tax overhaul as the bill was tripped up by problems with an amendment sought by fiscal hawks to address a large expansion of the federal budget deficit projected to result from the measure.

CVS Health Corp. (NYSE: CVS) may make an Aetna Inc. (NYSE: AET) buyout offer soon. According to The Wall Street Journal:

CVS is moving closer to a $66 billion-plus agreement to buy Aetna, with a possible deal announcement by Monday.

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General Motors Co. (NYSE: GM) will have a self-driving taxi in just over a year. According to The Wall Street Journal:

General Motors said the robotaxi service it is developing could potentially eclipse the profits it earns in the core automotive business within a decade.

OPEC and Russia will hold the line on oil production next year. According to The Wall Street Journal:

OPEC and a Russia-led group of big-oil producers agreed to keep limiting their output through the end of 2018, as they seek to provide assurance for an oil industry still working through a fragile recovery.

Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC (NYSE: RBS) closed a large number of branches. According to Bloomberg:

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc will close 259 more branches across Britain in its latest round of cuts as customers shift to online banking.

Outlets under both the NatWest and Royal Bank of Scotland brands will close in the middle of next year, resulting in about 680 job cuts, the company said Friday. RBS said it will use the savings to invest in its smartphone offering, which has seen mobile transactions rise more than 70 percent since 2014.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) may buy one or more drug companies. According to CNBC:

Amazon has held preliminary talks with makers of generic drugs about its potential entry into the pharmacy space, according to people familiar with the discussions.

The conversations, including with generics giants Mylan and Sandoz, a unit of Novartis, have been high-level, and the nature of Amazon’s plans isn’t yet clear, said the people, who asked not to be named because the discussions aren’t public.

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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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