The founder and former CEO of Uber will sell some of his shares. According to Bloomberg:
Former Uber Technologies Inc. Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick, who has long boasted that he’s never sold any shares in the company he co-founded, plans to sell about 29 percent of his stake in the ride-hailing company, people with knowledge of the matter said.
Kalanick stands to reap about $1.4 billion from the transaction with SoftBank Group Corp. and a consortium of investors who have agreed to buy equity valuing Uber at $48 billion, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing private negotiations. Kalanick, who owns 10 percent of the company, had offered to sell as much as half of his stake — the maximum board members were allowed to tender. He had to pare back the amount because of limits outlined in the agreement between Uber and the buyers, the people said.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) will issue software to fix a major new bug. According to Reuters:
Apple Inc will release a patch for the Safari web browser on its iPhones, iPads and Macs within days, it said on Thursday, after major chipmakers disclosed flaws that leave nearly every modern computing device vulnerable to hackers.
Browser makers Google, Microsoft Corp and Mozilla Corp’s Firefox all confirmed to Reuters that the patches they currently have in place do not protect iOS users. With Safari and virtually all other popular browsers not patched, hundreds of millions of iPhone and iPad users may have no secure means of browsing the web until Apple issues its patch.
The Weinstein Company, formerly run by now-disgraced Harvey Weinstein, may be sold — at a very low price. According to The Wall Street Journal:
Weinstein Co. is nearing the end of a sale process in which the embattled independent film studio could go for less than $500 million and its shareholders may lose all of their equity, said people close to the discussions.
Following a Dec. 22 deadline that brought in about 20 offers, Weinstein Co.’s owners and board of directors have narrowed down a list of potential buyers to six, the people said.
Former corporate giant Westinghouse may be sold for a very low sum. According to The Wall Street Journal:
Westinghouse Electric Co., a faded industrial giant that once helped electrify the world but recently fell into bankruptcy because of bad bets building nuclear power plants, is being sold to a Canadian conglomerate in a deal valued at $4.6 billion.
Brookfield Business Partners LP and institutional partners announced their deal to buy the troubled company’s assets on Thursday.
Legal pot sales may run into a barrier. According to The New York Times:
Federal prosecutors will be given discretion to more aggressively enforce marijuana laws, threatening to undermine the legalization movement at the state level.
Controversial venture capitalist Peter Thiel may get into the news business. According to Bloomberg:
Billionaire investor Peter Thiel is exploring starting a conservative news outlet, with backing from the powerful Mercer family and a cast of Fox News celebrities, according to revelations in a new book and a report from BuzzFeed News.
Last May, Thiel was set to meet with former Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes to discuss the idea, according to an excerpt of the book, “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House,” by the journalist Michael Wolff. But two days before the scheduled meeting, Ailes fell, hit his head and went into a coma, and died soon thereafter.
Nonetheless, Thiel, one of Facebook Inc.’s earliest backers and a prominent conservative activist, has continued to pursue the idea, according to BuzzFeed News, and is talking with the Mercer family about helping to back it. A spokesman for Thiel declined to comment.
Robert Mercer, a hedge fund mogul, was a major backer of U.S. President Donald Trump and bankrolled conservative news outlet Breitbart News.
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