6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:34PM EDT · Published Jun 7, 4:51AM EDT

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6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © Thinkstock

Consumers will be hit by rising fuel prices. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Jet-fuel prices have surged more than 50% over the past year, pushing carriers to raise fares and Delta Air Lines Inc to cut its profit expectations.

Delta, the nation’s No. 2 carrier, said Wednesday it could take six to 12 months to recoup the extra fuel costs via pricier tickets.

Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) plans to raise money:

Twitter Inc. said Wednesday it plans to sell at least $1 billion in bonds that convert to equity, joining a rush of tech companies taking advantage of soaring share prices to issue convertible debt.

The move comes as Twitter shares have surged to three-year highs after S&P Dow Jones Indices said the company would be added to the S&P 500 before the start of trading Thursday.

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The CEO of Athenahealth Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHN) left under a cloud. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Athenahealth Inc. co-founder Jonathan Bush stepped down as president and chief executive amid takeover pressure from an activist hedge fund and roughly a week after apologizing for domestic abuse involving his then-wife more than a decade ago.

The health-software company on Wednesday said that the departure of Mr. Bush was effective immediately and that the firm had begun exploring strategic alternatives, a move that could lead to a sale or other changes.

Volvo announced new plans to grow. According to the Financial Times:

Volvo aims to double sales by middle of next decade. Business plan aims for 50% of cars to be fully electric by around 2025

Two of America’s most prominent businessmen want public companies to end the practice of forecasting earnings. According to Bloomberg:

Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon are doubling down on their plea for corporations to stop providing quarterly earnings guidance.

Buffett, who runs Berkshire Hathaway Inc., and Dimon, JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s chief executive officer, said in a joint Wall Street Journal editorial that they are encouraging all public companies to consider moving away the practice, arguing that it can stifle long-term investments.

“Quarterly earnings guidance often leads to an unhealthy focus on short-term profits at the expense of long-term strategy, growth and sustainability,” they said.

Short sellers in Tesla Inc.’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) stock were burned. According to Bloomberg:

Investors betting against Tesla lost more than $1 billion Wednesday as the company’s shares rallied the most in over two years, according to estimates from financial technology firm S3 Partners.

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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.