5 Most Important Things in Business Today

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Mar 13, 3:07PM EDT · Published Dec 20, 5:03AM EST

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Former Nissan chief Carlos Ghosn probably will be released from prison. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Nissan Motor Co.’s former Chairman Carlos Ghosn moved closer to being released on bail after the Tokyo District Court took the highly unusual step of rejecting a request by prosecutors to extend his period of detention without the possibility of bail.

Mr. Ghosn remained in jail Thursday as prosecutors filed an appeal of the Tokyo court’s decision. If that appeal is also turned down, Mr. Ghosn’s lawyer will seek bail, said a person familiar with Mr. Ghosn’s defense.

Pinterest is aiming at a 2019 initial public offering. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Pinterest Inc. is actively preparing for an IPO that could come as soon as April, according to people familiar with the company’s plans, the latest in a line of tech companies ramping up plans to go public.

Pinterest has told bankers it could choose its slate of underwriters to run the initial-public-offering process as soon as January, these people said. It could achieve a valuation in the public market at or in excess of $12 billion—the level at which it most recently raised funding, some of the people said. Valuations can change until a company prices its initial public offering.

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Softbank may not take piece of WeWork as it had planned to. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Key investors in SoftBank Group Corp.’s giant tech fund have balked at a planned $16 billion investment in co-working startup WeWork Cos., leaving SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son to find an alternative as his ambitions hit up against the limits of his financial firepower.

Government-backed funds in Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi, according to people familiar with the matter, have told SoftBank executives they have concerns about SoftBank’s negotiations to buy a majority of money-losing WeWork, whose industrial-chic workspaces and short-term leases have made it one of the world’s hottest startups.

American chief financial officers are down on doing business with China. According to Bloomberg:

Mounting trade risks are dragging down the the confidence of senior finance officers at companies operating in China, according to the results of a survey by Deloitte released Wednesday.

The consultancy polls financial executives twice a year about their attitudes on trade and business for its China CFO Survey. Asked to describe changes in sentiment over the past six months, 82 percent of respondents said their economic outlooks had become less optimistic. That marked a significantly change from the prior poll, where just 30 percent said their expectations had grown less rosy.

Brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev N.V. (NYSE: BUD) is getting into the pot drink business. According to CNNBusiness:

Could Budweiser drinkers soon be swapping beer for pot?

AB InBev, the world’s biggest brewer, said Wednesday that it’s teaming up with Canada’s Tilray (TLRY) to research cannabis-infused drinks.

It’s the latest major company to start exploring the pot market following decisions to legalize recreational marijuana in Canada and a number of American states. AB InBev and Tilray will invest a combined $100 million into researching non-alcoholic drinks containing cannabis elements.

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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.