5 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:07PM EDT · Published Aug 22, 5:09AM EDT

Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google

This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

5 Most Important Things in Business Today — © Spencer Platt / Getty Images

Uber has added a chief financial officer. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Uber Technologies Inc. picked a finance chief who is well-versed in the IPO process, strengthening and stabilizing the company’s executive team as it prepares for a listing.

The ride-hailing company named Nelson Chaias its new CFO on Tuesday following a long search. Mr. Chai held the top finance job at Merrill Lynch & Co., and NYSE Euronext Inc., the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange. He also helped take public electronic stock exchange Archipelago Holdings Inc. in 2004 in his first CFO role.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) found accounts meant to affect the upcoming elections and purged them. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Facebook Inc. dismantled a new set of influence campaigns originating in Iran and Russia designed to sow division in global politics, part of the social-media company’s broader purge of bad actors on its site.

Those originating in Iran, a total of 652 pages and accounts, were flagged for “coordinated inauthentic behavior” and targeted internet services in the U.S., Middle East, U.K. and Latin America. The activity appears to reflect increasing attempts by the Iranian regime to push its geopolitical agenda through online subterfuge.

[nativounit]
American Airlines Group Inc. (NASDAQ: AAL) chopped flights because of fuel prices. According to The Wall Street Journal:

American Airlines Group Inc. is cutting some unprofitable international flights as U.S. carriers adjust their business plans to reflect higher fuel prices.

The world’s largest airline by revenue said Tuesday that it plans to cut flights from Chicago to Shanghai, Philadelphia to Munich, and Los Angeles to Toronto among 11 total routes that will be dropped later this year and early in 2019.

The current market run-up set a new mark. According to CNNMoney:

The bull market turns 3,453 days old on Wednesday. It’s the longest period of uninterrupted gains in American history.

The remarkable run began on March 9, 2009, in the ashes of the Great Recession and the scariest financial crisis since the 1930s.

Newspaper publisher McClatchy Co. (NYSE: MNI) made large staff cuts as ad revenue continues to fall. According to CNNMoney:

McClatchy, the publisher of more than two dozen daily newspapers across the country, will reduce its staff by approximately three and a half percent, cut expenses across the company, and implement other measures to save money, the company announced in an internal memo obtained by CNN on Tuesday.

Craig Forman, president and chief executive officer of McClatchy, told employees in the memo that the decisions were “painful and difficult” but “necessary to protect and further our future.” He placed blame, in part, on the decline in revenue from print advertising

[wallst_email_signup]

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.