6 Most Important Things in Business Today

August 23, 2017 by Douglas A. McIntyre

The European Union may kill a huge deal for Bayer to purchase Monsanto Co. (NYSE: MON) for $57 billion. Worries about cost increases for farmers who use the products of the companies were among the reasons given.

Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE: VZ) launched a new set of pricing plans for mobile subscribers. Among the effects are that people who use the service will get less bandwidth to stream video, resulting in lower quality.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is close to starting an experiment to offer installment loans to customers. It is another attempt by the large retailer to find services to help it compete with Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN).

Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) and Walmart have set a deal to allow people to use the Google Assistant voice product to shop the huge retailer. According to a blog post by Google management:

We’re entering an exciting partnership with Walmart to bring you hundreds of thousands of products at Walmart’s Every Day Low Prices—everything from laundry detergent to Legos—that you can buy through voice with your Assistant on Google Home or on the Google Express website or app.

If you’re an existing Walmart customer, you can choose to link your Walmart account to Google and receive personalized shopping results based on your online and in-store Walmart purchases.


The Financial Times reports that Vanguard and Fidelity cut the value of their positions in Uber by 15%. The world’s largest ride-sharing service has been plagued by the firing of its CEO and charges of sexual harassment.

Bloomberg reports bank profits could soar under deregulation proposals by the U.S. president:

The deregulation winds blowing through Washington could add $27 billion of gross profit at the six largest U.S. banks, lifting their annual pretax income by about 20 percent.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley would benefit most from changes to post-crisis banking rules proposed by Donald Trump’s administration, with pretax profit jumping 22 percent, according to estimates by Bloomberg based on discussions with analysts and the banks’ own disclosures. Goldman Sachs Group Inc. would have the smallest percentage increase, about 16 percent.

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