6 Most Important Things in Business Today

February 6, 2018 by Douglas A. McIntyre

At 5 a.m. Eastern Time, Dow futures were slightly higher after a 1,130 drop yesterday.

As a trial between Uber and Alphabet Inc.’s (NASDAQ: GOOGL) self-driving car company Waymo began, Waymo called Uber “a cheater.” According to The Wall Street Journal:

Silicon Valley’s biggest legal battle in years began on Monday as lawyers from Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and Uber Technologies Inc. traded barbs in a federal case that could have significant implications for the race to bring robot cars to the streets.

During opening remarks in front of a 10-person jury sitting less than a mile from Uber headquarters, Waymo’s lawyers portrayed Uber’s former chief executive, Travis Kalanick, as a cheater who would do anything to catch up to his competitor.

The head of Lululemon Athletica Inc. (NASDAQ: LULU) left suddenly. According to CNBC:

 Lululemon Athletica CEO Laurent Potdevin is resigning from the retailer, effective immediately, the company announced Monday.

Lululemon said Potdevin “fell short of … standards of conduct” to respect employees and show integrity. Meanwhile, the company’s board of directors has started searching for a new global CEO. Potdevin will also be removed from his position on the board

U.S. colleges and universities raised a huge amount of money last year. According to Bloomberg:

U.S. colleges led by Harvard and Stanford reaped a record $43.6 billion in charitable contributions in the last fiscal year, thanks to booming stock markets.

The richest schools continue to get richer, with less than 1 percent of all colleges accounting for almost 30 percent of the total for the year ended June 30, the Council for Aid to Education, which tracks university giving, said in a survey released Tuesday. The previous record was set a year prior at $41 billion.

The value of bitcoin continued to crash. According to CNBC:

Bitcoin dropped to its lowest in more than two months.

The digital currency fell to a low of $5,947.40, its lowest since mid November, according to CoinDesk, whose bitcoin price index tracks prices from four major exchanges.

Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR) will dump its convenience store operation. According to MarketWatch:

Kroger Co. said Monday that it has entered into an agreement with to sell its convenience store business for $2.15 billion to EG Group, a U.K.-based company that counts convenience stores among its portfolio. The transaction is expected to close during Kroger’s fiscal first quarter, which ends in April. Kroger operates convenience stores in 18 states under names including Kwik Shop, Loaf ‘N Jug and Tom Thumb.

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