5 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 10:33PM EST · Published Jun 11, 4:36AM EDT

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After a research firm criticized one of Amazon’s (NASDAQ: AMZN) suppliers in China, the supplier will review its labor practices. According to Reuters:

Contract manufacturer Foxconn said on Sunday it is investigating a plant in China that makes devices for Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), after a U.S. watchdog group criticized what it described as harsh working conditions at the factory.

A 94-page report by New York-based China Labor Watch that followed a nine-month investigation cited excessive hours, low wages, inadequate training and an overreliance on “dispatch” or temporary workers in violation of Chinese law at the Hengyang Foxconn plant in Hunan province, which makes Echo Dot smart speakers and Kindle e-readers.

KKR is expected to make another large M&A deal. According to The Wall Street Journal:

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KKR & Co. is nearing a deal to buy Envision Healthcare Corp. for $46 a share, or about $5.5 billion, according to people familiar with the matter, in one of the largest recent leveraged buyouts.

The Nashville, Tenn., provider of physician services to hospitals and other health-care facilities has been conducting an auction after announcing a strategic review last fall. A deal with the private-equity firm is expected to be announced Monday, the people said.

There was a new No.1 film at the box office last week. According to Box Office Mojo:

With an estimated $41.5 million, WB’s Ocean’s 8 topped the weekend box office and outperformed pre-weekend industry expectations, which anticipated an opening in the mid-thirties, though fell a little short of Mojo’s pre-weekend forecast, which saw potential for a debut over $45 million.

An investigation of Bitcoin chopped it value. According to the FT:

Bitcoin tumbles to two-month low in wake of futures probe. Cryptocurrency falls as much as 11.5% after report that regulators are examining possible manipulation

One of China’s huge telecom companies announced a huge loss. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Chinese smartphone and gadget maker Xiaomi Corp. lost money in the first three months of the year, the company revealed in new filings ahead of its coming stock listing that is expected to value the company at about $70 billion.

Xiaomi said it lost 7 billion yuan ($1.1 billion) in the first quarter, on revenue of 34.4 billion yuan, due to one-off accounting charges. Excluding those charges, the company reported a profit of 1.7 billion yuan, boosted by an 88% rise in smartphone sales during the quarter.

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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.