6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 8:56PM EST · Published Jul 17, 5:36AM EDT

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Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) agreed to a payout for potentially dangerous airbags. According to Reuters:

Ford Motor Co agreed to a so-called economic loss settlement of $299.1 million covering at least 6 million U.S. vehicles with potentially faulty Takata air bag inflators, court documents filed in a federal court in Miami on Monday show.

The settlement covers several forms of economic damages linked to the inflators, including claims that vehicles were inaccurately represented to be safe, buyers had overpaid for cars with defective or substandard air bags and faced out of pocket costs to deal with recalls.

Netflix Inc. (NASDAQ: NFLX) underperformed Wall Street’s quarterly expectations and the stock was hammered. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Netflix Inc. missed its own forecasts by more than a million subscribers in the second quarter, slowing the streaming-video site’s strong momentum this year. Shares of Netflix, which had more than doubled in 2018, fell 14% to $344.24 in after-hours trading Monday.

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The founder of Papa John’s International Inc. (NASDAQ: PZZA) said it was a mistake for him to resign. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Papa John’s International Inc.’s founder said “it was a mistake” to step down as chairman and is questioning how the company’s board investigated his use of a racial slur.

John Schnatter resigned last week after publicly apologizing for using the slur during media training with a marketing agency. Days later, in a letter to the directors reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, he accused the board of failing to do due diligence on the matter.

Walmart Inc. (NYSE: WMT) and Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) have set a partnership against Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN). According to The Wall Street Journal:

Walmart Inc. agreed to use Microsoft Corp.’s cloud technology to power functions that could include algorithms for purchasing and sales-data sharing with vendors, the two companies said, deepening a partnership between two of Amazon.com Inc.’s most powerful rivals.

The five-year deal, to be announced Tuesday, pairs Amazon’s largest retail competitor with its closest challenger in cloud computing. Walmart has warmed recently to working with technology companies, as it fends off Amazon’s retail ambitions and expertise in data.

The Federal Communications Commission could kill a deal for Sinclair Broadcasting Corp Inc. (NASDAQ: SBGI) to buy Tribune Media Co. (NYSE: TRCO). According to The Wall Street Journal:

A top federal communications regulator said Monday that he had “serious concerns” about Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.’s $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media Co. and took action to block the deal.

Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said in a written statement that the evidence suggests that proposed station divestitures by Sinclair to meet FCC media-ownership regulations would leave the company in practical control of those stations “in violation of the law.”

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) and rival Airbus posted huge orders at an industry invent. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Boeing Co. and Airbus SE announced more than $43 billion in airliner orders, adding pressure on both to further boost plane production despite supply-chain bottlenecks that have hampered output this year.

Single-aisle planes, the backbone of global air travel, dominated the deals, which come as the biennial Farnborough Airshow kicks off outside London. Airbus and Boeing are building those planes at a record pace and both have announced they will increase output again next year.

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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.