6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:41PM EDT · Published Mar 27, 5:01AM EDT

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The governor of Arizona has banned Uber self-driving car use in the state. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday ordered Uber Technologies Inc. to suspend testing autonomous vehicles on public roadways in the state, a rebuke by a former supporter that takes the company’s decision on testing out of its hands.

The governor’s decree follows the fatal crash of a self-driving Uber on a Tempe street two Sundays ago when it struck a pedestrian walking her bike across the street outside of a crosswalk.

An activist investor has taken a seat at struggling Avon Products Inc. (NYSE: AVP). According to The Wall Street Journal:

Avon Products Inc. plans to cede a board seat to an activist investor, the company said Monday, as part of a deal that will help the struggling beauty company avoid a proxy fight.

James Mitarotonda of Barington Capital Group LP is expected to get a board seat in exchange for an agreement to support management. In connection with the agreement, Barington and its allies have agreed to support the board’s nominees rather than nominate their own as they told the company they intended to do earlier this month.

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GlaxoSmithKline made a major M&A deal. According to Bloomberg:

GlaxoSmithKline Plc agreed to buy out Novartis AG’s stake in their consumer-health joint venture for $13 billion, days after abandoning its pursuit of a similar unit put on the block by Pfizer Inc.

The transaction gives Glaxo full control of a business that sells Theraflu cold medicine and Panadol pain relievers while arming Novartis with more firepower for its pharmaceutical operations and acquisitions. It’s the first big strategic move for new chief executive officers at two of Europe’s largest drug companies.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) is the latest company that has a shot at a $1 trillion market cap. According to CNNMoney:

Don’t count out Microsoft in the race to $1 trillion. Apple, the most valuable company in America, is already valued at about $850 billion. Amazon and the parent company of Google are each above $700 billion.

So is Microsoft. And analysts at Morgan Stanley say the company could hit $1 trillion in market value within a year.

Morgan Stanley’s new price target for Microsoft is $130 a share. That would be 45% higher than where the stock closed on Friday and enough to clear the trillion mark

Some college students with education loans use some of their money to buy cryptocurrencies. According to a study by The Student Loan Report:

In a recent survey conducted by The Student Loan Report, we found that 21.2 percent of current college students with student loan debt have used financial aid money to fund a cryptocurrency investment.

The survey was administered over the course of four days and the participants were asked the following question: “Have you ever used student loan money to invest in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin?”

Marijuana may help people with certain addictions. According to Fortune:

Marijuana may be useful in combating alcoholism and curbing cocaine cravings.

A recent study published in Neuropsychopharmacology found that a substance found in cannabis called cannabidiol, or CBD, can help prevent relapses in drug and alcohol patients, especially when those patients are re-entering stress-filled environments.

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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.