6 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:23PM EDT · Published Nov 16, 5:00AM EST

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.

6 Most Important Things in Business Today — © Jonathan Weiss / Shutterstock.com

T-Mobile US Inc. (NASDAQ: TMUS) said its transaction to buy Sprint Corp. (NYSE: S) may be finished in a few months. According to Reuters:

T-Mobile US Inc could close its acquisition of Sprint Corp as early as the first quarter of next year, based on indications it is getting from regulators, Chief Financial Officer J. Braxton Carter said at an investor conference.

T-Mobile, majority owned by Deutsche Telekom AG, agreed in April to buy Sprint in a $26 billion deal that is expected to close in the first half of 2019. The deal is currently under scrutiny by the Federal Communications Commission and the Department of Justice.

MoviePass has started to lose subscribers. According to The Wall Street Journal:

MoviePass experienced a significant decline in subscribers in the third quarter, the latest sign of trouble for majority owner Helios & Matheson Analytics Inc. as it looks to stave off insolvency.

While Helios flagged the drop in a securities filing Thursday, it didn’t provide an exact figure. MoviePass had 3.2 million subscribers as of Aug. 10, compared with 1 million in December 2017, according to an August filing. A spokesman didn’t respond to a request for comment.

[nativounit]
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) increased its bet on long-form video programs. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc. will begin making independent, feature-length films through a multiyear partnership with the Oscar-winning studio A24, broadening the iPhone maker’s push into original content beyond TV programming and into movies.

New York-based A24 will produce multiple films for Apple, according to people familiar with the partnership. The world’s most valuable company, which last year allocated more than $1 billion to build out a slate of scripted shows, is following the playbook of Amazon.com Inc. and Netflix Inc. in pushing into feature-length, adult-oriented films.

A court gave Sears Holdings the right to sell some of its stores. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Sears Holdings Corp. won court approval to pursue a sale of its best stores, a process that would be the retailer’s only hope of avoiding liquidation.

Judge Robert Drain of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in White Plains, N.Y., on Thursday signed off on the company’s sale timeline to sell at least 400 of its best-performing stores.

The company must find a so-called stalking horse, or lead bidder, by Dec. 15, which would set the floor price for other offers. If there is more than one qualifying bid for the stores, an auction would be held in mid-January.

Economist Larry Summers said there is a 50% chance the United States will go into recession in 2020. According to CNBC:

Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers has put the chances of a U.S. recession at 50 percent within the next two years.

The economist told CNBC’s Joumanna Bercetche on Thursday that a slowdown in growth was a “near certainty” before adding “the recession risk is nearly 50 percent over the next two years, maybe slightly less.”

Huawei believes it soon could be the top smartphone company in the world. According to CNBC:

Walk around any major city in China, and you’ll see Huawei stores and ads everywhere. That’s because it’s the number one player in the world’s biggest smartphone market, and has become a major contender on the world stage.

The Chinese technology firm overtook Apple to become the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor by market share at the end of the second quarter of the year and has set its sights on the number one spot — currently held by Samsung — by 2020.

[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.