6 Most Important Things in Business Today

April 9, 2018 by Douglas A. McIntyre

Deutsche Bank has a new chief executive officer. According to The Wall Street Journal:

Deutsche Bank AG replaced its British chief executive, John Cryan, with the senior German head of its retail bank, a switch that signals a less ambitious future after years of grim financial results and sputtering attempts to regain a spot among global investment-banking powerhouses.

Germany’s biggest bank, struggling after a string of money-losing years, named as Mr. Cryan’s replacement an executive steeped in auditing, risk control and retail banking. Mr. Cryan will leave at the end of this month, Deutsche Bank said.

“A Quiet Place” was number one at the box office over the weekend. According to Box Office Mojo:

Paramount’s A Quiet Place finished atop the weekend box office in impressive fashion and while Universal’s Blockers didn’t deliver even half of what A Quiet Place did, the film’s $21 million debut was a solid start for the low budget R-rated comedy. The weekend also saw a very strong hold for Warner Bros.’s Ready Player One and Disney and Marvel’s Black Panther topped Titanic this weekend to become the third highest grossing domestic release of all-time

Paramount’s horror/thriller A Quiet Place debuted with an estimated $50 million, topping the weekend box office and delivering the year’s second largest three-day opening. The $17 million production was written and directed by John Krasinski who also starred in the feature alongside Emily Blunt, and it received nearly unanimous praise from critics while opening weekend audiences gave the film a “B+” CinemaScore. The opening weekend audience breakdown was 49% male vs. 51% female with 63% of the crowd coming in aged 25 or older. As for that $50 million figure, don’t be surprised to see it climb a million or so once actuals arrive on Monday afternoon.

Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB) killed its relationship with another data collection firm in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal. According to Bloomberg:

Facebook Inc. suspended another data firm after allegations surfaced that it may have improperly handled users’ information.

The social media giant said it suspended Cubeyou pending an investigation. CNBC reported the data-analytics company was misleading users by saying information it collected through quizzes was for academic research, even though it was in fact being shared with marketers.

Airline service ratings have hit an all-time high. According to CNBC:

Despite a slew of headlines last year about airline customers having miserable, sometimes horrific experiences, a new report says the quality of airline service hit a record high in 2017.

“I would have to say overall the airline experience is getting better for most people, although there are still people that are disappointed,” said Dean Headley, a professor at Wichita State University.

Headley and Dr. Brent Bowen from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are the authors of the Airline Quality Rating. For the last 26 years they have calculated the performance of carriers based on four factors measured by the U.S. Department of Transportation (DoT): Percentage of bags mishandled, on-time arrivals, denied boardings and complaints to the DoT.

Treasury Secretary Mnuchin commented on the trade friction with China. According to CNNMoney:

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said there’s a “potential for a trade war” with China, but expressed hope that the world’s two largest economies can work out their differences.

“There is a level of risk that we could get into a trade war,” Mnuchin said in an interview with CNBC on Friday. “I’m cautiously optimistic we’ll be able to work it out.”

The highest valued artificial intelligence firm in the world is Chinese. It just raised hundreds of millions of dollars. According to TechCrunch:

The future of artificial intelligence (AI), the technology that is seen as potentially impacting almost every industry on the planet, is widely acknowledged to be a war between tech firms in America and China.

In a notable side-note to that battle, China now has the world’s highest-valued AI startup after SenseTime, a company founded in 2014, announced a $600 million Series C investment round. A source with knowledge of discussions told TechCrunch that the round values the company at over $4.5 billion, while it is also raising an extension to this round. That marks a hefty increase on the company’s most recent $1.5 billion valuation when it raised a $410 million Series B last year.

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