C.E.O.s fret about society at Milken

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What C.E.O.s are talking about at Milken 

Billionaires and business leaders have flocked to Los Angeles for the annual Milken Institute Global Conference, where they plan to get business done — and find refuge from populist movements.

The conference is seen as more business-focused than other global meetings like the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. (It was founded by Michael Milken, the former banking mogul.)

This year’s meeting acknowledges the political climate. Its theme is “driving shared prosperity,” Bloomberg notes, at a time when democratic socialism is ascendant and presidential candidates talk about raising taxes on the rich.

Among those expected to attend are David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone and Leon Black of Apollo Global Management.

One hot topic of conversation: Edelman’s latest “Trust Barometer: Expectations for C.E.O.s,” an online survey of over 33,000 people in 27 markets about what people want from business leaders. Here’s a sneak peek at what the study found:

• 76 percent of respondents said that C.E.O.s can improve society by changing their corporate policies, particularly over equal pay and discrimination.
• 64 percent of respondents said the business leaders they trust most know how to prioritize out-of-office time.
• Respondents want C.E.O.s to speak like regular people, not an educated elite, and for senior executives to use social media more.

Uber is channeling Amazon to investors

When Uber meets prospective investors for its I.P.O. this week, it will make the pitch that its trajectory will follow that of Amazon, Mike Isaac of the NYT writes.

Like Amazon, Uber thinks it can do anything. It has already diversified beyond ride-hailing into:

• Food delivery, with Uber Eats
• Shipping, with Uber Freight
• E-bikes and electric scooters, with Jump
• Autonomous vehicles

“Cars are to us what books were to Amazon,” Dara Khosrowshahi, Uber’s C.E.O., said last July. “Just like Amazon was able to build this extraordinary infrastructure on the back of books and go into additional categories, you are going to see the same from Uber.”

Uber also faces the same problems that Amazon has. As the updated prospectus that it filed last Friday shows, its revenue growth in its main business is slowing sharply. And like Amazon for much of its existence, the ride-hailing company isn’t profitable.

Will investors buy the pitch? Uber will hope that the Amazon comparison will keep investors comfortable with the fact that it’s losing money. But it has already tempered expectations about how much money its I.P.O. will raise.

More: How Uber changed Silicon Valley by getting companies to focus on real-world issues.

Elon Musk’s new list of what not to tweet

The S.E.C. and Elon Musk have reached an agreement about how to limit the Tesla C.E.O.’s tweeting, Matthew Goldstein of the NYT reports.

Mr. Musk has been facing contempt of court charges. The S.E.C. claimed that some of his tweets violated an earlier settlement, which demanded that Tesla lawyers vet any tweets of his that contained material information about the company.

But the original settlement had a “lack of clarity,” according to Judge Alison Nathan of Federal District Court in Manhattan. Now the two sides have tried to agree on exactly what must be preapproved:

• “The list includes comments about the electric-car company’s financial condition, earnings forecast, proposed acquisitions and production data.“
• “It also covers remarks about ‘nonpublic legal or regulatory findings or decisions’ and any event that Tesla would have to disclose to the S.E.C. in a regulatory filing.”
• And a footnote reads: “This list is not intended to be an exhaustive list of topics.” In other words, Mr. Musk must tread carefully around any topic that could affect Tesla’s stock price.

If approved by a federal judge, the deal would resolve contempt accusations against Mr. Musk.

U.S.-China trade talks are in “the final laps”

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that Washington and Beijing are closer than ever to reaching a trade agreement, Alan Rappeport of the NYT reports.

• “We’re getting into the final laps,” Mr. Mnuchin said in an interview on the sidelines of the Milken Institute Global Conference in Los Angeles.
• But he added that more work remains, and “that the talks are nearing a point where they would either produce a deal or end with no agreement.”

Mr. Mnuchin didn’t say which obstacles remained. “But he said this round of talks would continue to focus on China’s longstanding practice of subsidizing its industries” and include discussion of “Mr. Trump’s move this month to end waivers that allowed countries like China to import oil from Iran.”

Nor did he predict timing, though he did say that “he believes that both countries want to reach a deal.” He also “would not say if a breakdown in the talks would lead Mr. Trump to impose more tariffs.”

Mr. Mnuchin heads to China today with Robert Lighthizer, the Trump administration’s top trade negotiator, to continue talks. Chinese officials are expected to come to Washington on May 8.

Anadarko may accept Occidental’s takeover bid

Anadarko is reportedly considering backing Occidental’s $38 billion takeover bid over the $33 billion offer it had accepted from fellow oil company Chevron, James Fontanella-Khan and Eric Platt of the FT report, citing unnamed sources.

It’s rare for an unsolicited bid to win this early. Takeover targets usually rebuff interlopers at this stage, the FT notes. It’s even more unusual for a company to switch to an offer from a suitor that it had rejected before, which Anadarko would be doing.

But Anadarko has been under pressure. Investors including the hedge fund D.E. Shaw have reportedly demanded that the oil and gas producer be open to Occidental’s offer — or any others that emerge, according to Bloomberg.

There may not be a bidding war after all. The FT reports that Chevron may not offer a higher bid: It had refused to raise its offer in private negotiations.

The Avengers saved movie theaters (for now)

Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” took in $1.2 billion worldwide this past weekend, obliterating records — and giving the theater industry some hope, Brooks Barnes of the NYT writes. (FYI: No spoilers here!)

The status quo of theaters has been bleak. Attendance has been stagnant for a decade, as Netflix and other streaming services grow.

“Avengers: Endgame” ended the gloom. The movie, which closed the chapter on several of Marvel’s most popular characters, collected $350 million in the U.S. and Canada, beating “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.” Demand was so strong that AMC Theaters added 5,000 last-minute additional showtimes.

“It shows the power of theaters — the ability, even in a hyper-fragmented culture, to deliver that wildly big communal experience,” Megan Colligan, the president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, told the NYT.

But the future of theaters remains uncertain. Industry insiders like Steven Spielberg worry that the only movies that will be shown in theaters will be blockbusters, and that everything else will be streamed.

Limits on iPhone addiction apps raise antitrust issues

Over the past year, Apple has removed or restricted at least 11 of the 17 most downloaded screen-time and parental-control apps, Jack Nicas of the NYT writes.

• “In some cases, Apple forced companies to remove features that allowed parents to control their children’s devices or that blocked children’s access to certain apps and adult content. In other cases, it simply pulled the apps from its App Store.”
• This happened after Apple created its own screen-time tracker.
• “Some app makers with thousands of paying customers have shut down. Most others say their futures are in jeopardy.”

“Executives at the app makers believe they are being targeted because their apps could hurt Apple’s business,” Mr. Nicas writes. “Apple’s tools, they add, aren’t as aggressive about limiting screen time and don’t provide as many options.”

Apple said that it removed apps or required changes because they could obtain too much data from users’ devices. It added that the moves were not related to its introduction of similar tools.

But the news raises antitrust concerns. “By controlling the iPhone App Store, where companies find some of their most lucrative customers, Apple has unusual power over the fortunes of other corporations,” Mr. Nicas writes.

Boeing was silent on a shut-down safety feature

The plane maker reportedly didn’t tell airlines or the Federal Aviation Administration that a warning system about malfunctioning sensors on its 737 Max jets had been disabled, the WSJ reports.

• An alert about failed “angle-of-attack” sensors — thought to be a contributing factor in two recent fatal 737 Max crashes — was an optional extra on the planes.
• But “Southwest’s management and cockpit crews didn’t know about the lack of the warning system for more than a year after the planes went into service in 2017,” the WSJ reports.
• “They and most other airlines operating the Max learned about it only after the Lion Air crash in October led to scrutiny of the plane’s revised design.”

“Boeing hasn’t addressed why it turned off the feature,” the WSJ says.

And more safety issues could come to light. Another WSJ report saysthat “U.S. aviation regulators and congressional investigators are looking into complaints by roughly a dozen purported whistleblowers alleging safety problems” with the 737 Max jets — not all of them about the systems currently implicated in the fatal crashes.

Revolving door

Bayer’s supervisory board backed Werner Baumann as C.E.O. after investors rebuked his performance.

Oliver North won’t seek another term as the N.R.A.’s president, amid an investigation by the New York attorney general.

Jesse Panuccio is stepping down as acting associate attorney general, the No. 3 position in the Justice Department.

Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey named Kevin Quinn, a former Goldman Sachs banker, as head of the state’s Economic Development Authority.

The speed read

Deals

• The industrial equipment maker Gardner Denver is reportedly near a deal to merge with a division of Ingersoll-Rand that makes industrial pumps and compressors. (WSJ)
• After spending billions on technology investments, SoftBank is starting to see billions of dollars in returns. (FT)
• Apple reportedly held talks to buy part of Intel’s smartphone modem chip business. (WSJ)
• Slack has filed to list its shares on the N.Y.S.E., disclosing big revenue growth and a $141 million loss last year. (NYT)
• Nissan and Tokyo officials rejected an offer by Renault to merge with the Japanese carmaker. (FT)
• How Len Blavatnik made billions from aluminum, chemicals and Warner Music. (Bloomberg)

Politics and policy

• Lobbyists for Juul in Washington say the company is keeping its products away from teens. Its lobbying efforts in states and cities tell a different story. (NYT)
• President Trump reportedly told a top House Democrat that he wants to spend $2 trillion on infrastructure improvements. His administration proposed just $200 billion. (Axios)
• Stephen Moore, Mr. Trump’s likely nominee for a Fed board seat, apologized for columns he had written that denigrated women. (WaPo)
• Six Democratic presidential candidates took aim at companies like McDonald’s over pay and labor issues. (Bloomberg)
• Joe Biden raised $6.3 million on the first day of his presidential campaign. (Politico)

Trade

• President Trump’s new Nafta agreement may be crippled by opposition from House Democrats and labor groups. (WSJ)
• Mr. Trump is withdrawing the U.S. from a U.N.-negotiated global arms treaty, claiming that it exerts unfair influence over Americans. (FT)
• The president hopes to sign a trade deal with Japan by May. That may be overly ambitious. (Axios)
• China plans to invest $3.4 billion into trading hubs in Dubai. (Bloomberg)

Tech

• How apps like TikTok are quietly racking up U.S. users. Also: Why you probably don’t get it. (CNBC, WSJ)
• How bike sharing made, then ruined, a Chinese town. (NYT)
• Retailers are tracking not just where you shop, but where you sleep, too. (Bloomberg)
• E*Trade is reportedly planning to let customers trade cryptocurrencies on its platform. (Bloomberg)
• The F.C.C. approved SpaceX’s plans to build a constellation of internet-beaming satellites that will orbit the earth at lower altitudes. (Verge)
• Many big tech companies “want to remain anonymous while criticizing the automation of criminal justice.” (Quartz)

Best of the rest

• JPMorgan Chase barred employees from staying at Brunei-owned hotels over the country’s anti-homosexuality laws. (FT)
• How the discount brokerage Schwab has taken on Wall Street. (WSJ)
• Was the college admissions scandal a conspiracy, or did prosecutors overreach? (DealBook)
• PG&E’s plan to prevent wildfires: Shut down the power grid. (WSJ)
• The gig economy might be distorting U.S. economic data. (Axios)
• The Fed published a guide to monetary policy — in comic-book form. (NYT)

Thanks for reading! We’ll see you tomorrow.

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