6 Most Important Things in Business Today

June 28, 2017 by Douglas A. McIntyre

A new ransomware cyberattack hit over 300,000 computers, primarily in Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe. Some portions of the software seem to have been taken from the NSA. The attack is similar to the WannaCry attack last month.

Illinois’s finances are so badly crippled that the state may not be able to pay lottery winners.

Nestle may buy back $21 billion worth of its shares, partially as a reaction to aggressive tactics employed by hedge fund titan Dan Loeb to increase shareholder returns. His Third Point fund recently bought $3.5 billion in Nestle shares.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) bought eye-tracking software company SensoMotoric, presumably to increase is arsenal of virtual reality products.

Facebook Inc.’s (NASDAQ: FB) user base has hit 2 billion people. CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a comment on his Facebook page:

As of this morning, the Facebook community is now officially 2 billion people! We’re making progress connecting the world, and now let’s bring the world closer together. It’s an honor to be on this journey with you.

The comment was shared by 9,600 people and received 19,000 comments. From a potential universe of 2 billion people.

The International Monetary Fund made negative comments about the growth rate of the U.S. economy. In an announcement, the organization’s leadership wrote:

U.S. economic model is not working as well as it could in generating broadly shared income growth. It is burdened by a rising public debt. The U.S. dollar is moderately overvalued (by around 10-20 percent). The external position is moderately weaker than implied by medium term fundamentals and desirable policies. The current account deficit is expected to be around 3 percent of GDP over the medium-term and the net international investment position has deteriorated markedly in the past several years. Most critically, relative to historical performance, post-crisis growth has been too low and too unequal.

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