6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 11, 6:34PM EST · Published Aug 31, 5:11AM EDT

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Coca-Cola Co. (NYSE: KO) is getting into the coffee business. According to Reuters:

Coca-Cola Co has agreed to buy the world’s second largest coffee chain Costa from Britain’s Whitbread Plc for $5.1 billion including debt, opening a new front in its push into healthier markets.

The two companies said on Friday that Coke, one of the biggest soft drinks groups in the world, would buy Costa’s almost 4,000 outlets across markets such as Britain, Europe and China after Whitbread’s board unanimously backed the deal.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) wants some of its partners to offer parental leave. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Microsoft Corp. will soon require its suppliers and contractors to provide at least 12 weeks of paid time off to new parents, the software giant said Thursday.

The policy applies to Microsoft vendors with more than 50 employees and covers workers given substantial assignments for Microsoft. For example, a staffing agency that provides information-technology professionals to Microsoft and other clients would only have to cover employees assigned to Microsoft. It will impact thousands of workers around the country, the company said.

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Softbank will not invest in a Chinese electric car company despite earlier plans to do so. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., which was in talks earlier this year to take a stake in Chinese electric-vehicle maker NIO Inc., has decided not to invest in the Shanghai-based startup’s initial public offering, according to people familiar with the matter.

SoftBank had considered buying about $200 million worth of shares in NIO’s IPO, The Wall Street Journal reported in April. It couldn’t be learned why the Japanese tech giant walked away from the potential investment. One of the people said SoftBank is actively looking at the electric-vehicle sector but hasn’t decided which company to back.

The United States may hit China with $200 billion in tariffs. According to CNBC:

While the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump is considering slapping another $200 billion in tariffs on Chinese goods, 16 economies in Asia Pacific are racing to conclude a mega trade deal that would become the largest trading bloc in the world.

What’s happening in the U.S. “has actually given us the urgency” to press on with negotiations to reach an agreement, Ramon Lopez, the Philippines’ secretary of trade and industry, told CNBC’s Sri Jegarajah on Friday.

Boeing Co. (NYSE: BA) is moving further into the drone business. According to CNBC:

The Pentagon announced Thursday that Boeing won a contract worth $805 million to build the Navy’s first four carrier-based unmanned aerial refueling tankers.

Boeing’s drone tanker, the MQ-25 Stingray, will launch from a ship at sea and aerial refuel Navy fighter jets such as the F/A-18 Super Hornet, the EA-18G Growler, and the F-35C.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) may release new iPhones next month. According to CNNMoney:

How will Apple follow up its biggest iPhone announcement since the original? Probably with the same device in more colors, but we’ll find out for sure on September 12, according to an invite reporters received Thursday morning.

Most Apple watchers expect the company to unveil a number of new iPhone models and a release date for its next iOS operating system during the event, held at the company’s slick Apple Park headquarters. It could expand the iPhone X design and naming across its entire phone lineup, with more sizes, colors and price points, according to Bloomberg. The Apple Watch and Air Pods could also get a refresh.

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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.