6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 3:45AM EST · Published Feb 5, 5:11AM EST

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © courtesy of Sony Pictures

Broadcom Ltd. (NASDAQ: AVGO) will raise its offer for Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ: QCOM). According to The Wall Street Journal:

Broadcom Ltd. plans Monday to raise its offer for Qualcomm Inc.to around $120 billion, a person familiar with the matter said, a move aimed at increasing pressure on the takeover target in what would be the largest-ever technology deal.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) may pass Spotify as the number one music service in the United States. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Apple Music is on the verge of overtaking Spotify AB in U.S. paid subscribers, a sign that the music-streaming world’s dominant force is facing growing competition ahead of its hotly anticipated public stock offering.

Apple Inc.’s AAPL streaming-music service, introduced in June 2015, has been adding subscribers in the U.S. more rapidly than its older Swedish rival—a monthly growth rate of 5% versus 2%—according to people in the record business familiar with figures reported by the two services. Assuming that clip continues, Apple will overtake Spotify in the world’s biggest music market this summer.

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“Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” was the number one movie over the weekend. According to Box Office Mojo:

Super Bowl weekend is looking mostly as expected with Sony’s Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle returning to the weekend top spot after a one week hiatus with a domestic cume topping $350 million and a worldwide total over $855 million. Meanwhile, the weekend’s lone new wide release, the gothic thriller Winchester, delivered on expectations with a third place finish while several Oscar contenders continued to play well.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) expects a surge in Asia sales. According to Bloomberg:

Asia Pacific is likely to have 3.5 billion passengers by 2036, adding more than double the forecast for North America and Europe combined, according to estimates by the International Air Transport Association. To meet that demand, Boeing estimates carriers will need 16,050 new aircraft valued at $2.5 trillion by 2036.

Bon-Ton Stores has filed for Chapter 11. According to CNBC:

Bon-Ton Stores on Sunday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, making it the largest retailer to do so thus far in 2018.

The regional department store chain, which has dual headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and York, Pennsylvania, has been struggling to grow sales and move operations online in the face of Amazon, while hampered by a massive debt load.

Bon-Ton said it received a commitment of as much as $725 million in debtor-in-possession financing from existing asset-backed lenders to support its operations.

Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) is building a new kind of power plant. According to CNNMoney:

Tesla already put together the world’s biggest lithium battery in Australia. Now it’s going for another record.

The state of South Australia has announced plans to equip at least 50,000 homes with solar panels and Tesla (TSLA) battery storage units, connecting them all to the electricity grid to form the world’s largest “virtual power plant.”

More than 6,500 homes have already signed up to register their interest in participating, South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill said in a tweet Monday.

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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.