6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:42PM EDT · Published Mar 8, 5:12AM EST

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Cigna Corp. (NYSE: CI) may buy Express Scripts Holding Co. (NASDAQ: ESRX). According to The Wall Street Journal:

Health insurer Cigna Corp. is nearing a deal to buy Express Scripts Holding Co., according to people familiar with the matter.

A deal could be announced as soon as Thursday, the people said. As of Wednesday, Express Scripts had a market value of $41 billion, meaning that with a typical premium, the transaction could be worth $50 billion or more.

The former head of Uber has started an investment fund. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Travis Kalanick, the co-founder of Uber Technologies Inc. who last year was ousted as chief executive by the ride-hailing company’s venture investors, is now becoming a venture capitalist.

The 41-year-old said Wednesday that he formed a new venture fund called 10100, pronounced “ten one-hundred.” The announcement, made on Twitter, states that Mr. Kalanick’s fund will invest in e-commerce, real estate and companies in China and India. It will also make nonprofit investments in education and the future of cities, he said.

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Troubled Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) will lay off more people. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Snap Inc., which has struggled with slowing growth, plans to layoff about 10% of its engineers, people close to the social-media company said.

The reductions would mark the third and largest round of layoffs since the company, which currently employs about 3,000 people, went public in 2017. It previously laid off a few dozen employees in its recruiting and video-recording Spectacles units.

Starbucks Corp. (NASDAQ: SBUX) is trying to get more customers after lunch. According to Bloomberg:

Starbucks Corp., facing flagging growth in the U.S., is testing digital menu boards to boost sales, especially for the slower afternoon period.

The chain has installed the new menus in a handful of U.S. locations. There are also digital menus in some Starbucks airport stores.

Several nations will sign a trans-Pacific trade deal. The United States will not be among them. According to CNBC:

Eleven countries are expected to sign a landmark Asia-Pacific trade agreement in Santiago on Thursday, as an antidote to the increasingly protectionist bent of the United States, which last year pulled out of the pact.

The signing ceremony comes the day after Europe and the International Monetary Fund urged U.S. President Donald Trump to step back from the brink of a trade war sparked by plans to slap duties on steel and aluminum imports.

The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will reduce tariffs in countries that together amount to more than 13 percent of the global economy – a total of $10 trillion. With the United States, it would have represented 40 percent.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) plans to regulate cryptocurrencies. According to CNNMoney:

Cryptocurrencies have been on a wild ride and the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to rein them in once and for all.

The SEC warned on Wednesday of “potentially unlawful online platforms for trading digital assets.” The federal agency said that cryptocurrency traders should only buy and sell them on exchanges registered with the SEC.

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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.