Microsoft Layoffs, Greek Concessions & Other Must-Reads

Microsoft announced that it is cutting up to 7,800 positions in a major reorganization of its phone hardware business. The company will also take a $7.6 billion write-down of its Nokia unit, a business that has struggled since Microsoft acquired it last year in a more than $9 billion deal.

While Microsoft wants to become a bigger player in the smartphone market, it's had little luck convincing consumers to buy its phones. In an email to employees, CEO Satya Nadella said the smartphone group now planned to focus its attention on three areas: business customers, value phone buyers and "Windows fans" who wanted the company's flagship devices.

Nadella is working to streamline Microsoft, which had 118,000 employees at the end of March. But that's meant multiple rounds of layoffs. Last year, Microsoft said it planned to cut 18,000 employees.

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Greece was given two deadlines by frustrated creditors: Come up with a plan by Thursday, and agree to a plan by Sunday. “Until now I have avoided talking about deadlines,” a frustrated European Council president Donald Tusk told reporters. “But tonight I have to say it loud and clear — the final deadline ends this week.”

Greece may be on the verge of satisfying the first condition: Gabrielle Steinhauser and Tom Fairless of The Wall Street Journal have seen a copy of a request by Greece to a three-year bailout and a pledge “to start implementing some of the overhauls demanded by creditors by early next week.”

So, we’ll see. But the bomb run continues: European President Jean-Claude Juncker revealed that Europe has now formally drawn up a detailed “Grexit scenario,” addressing the contingency that Greece becomes the first nation to exit the EU. Officially, Greece isn’t angling for a way out. But Tsipras sometimes sure seems like Brer Rabbit, begging not to be thrown into the briar patch.

#Quote

"I have no doubt that this is the most critical moment in our history.”

European Council President Donald Tusk, on the Greece situation

Barclays Bank CEO Antony Jenkins was ousted. Independent board members led by John McFarlane lost confidence in Jenkins’s ability to execute a turnaround plan. McFarlane, elected chairman only three months ago, will step into the corner office on an interim basis. Jenkins took over from Bob Diamond after the bank’s Libor interest rate rigging scandal. Four of Europe’s biggest banks have now changed leaders this year.

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The Fed releases its June minutes. Still topping the agenda: Clues on when the Fed will raise rates, and what it intends "post liftoff." The June 16-17 meeting came before the China stock market and the Greek debt crises,,so July's minutes should be the read you need.

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#Stat

51%

The number of companies traded in China that have elected to pull their shares.

A consumer advocacy group has petitioned the FTC to order Google to offer Americans the “right to be forgotten.” Google was ordered by a European court to offer this service, which allows a citizen to ask the search giant to remove links to web pages s/he doesn’t want others to find. The request by Consumer Watchdog is likely to go exactly nowhere. FTC Chair Edith Ramirez told Time’s Victor Luckerson last year that “An expansive ‘right to be forgotten’ is not something that’s likely to pass Constitutional muster here in the United States because there is a First Amendment right to both access to public information and freedom of expression.”

One of the most recognizable faces of an American brand and the company he represents have decided to separate, amicably but under a troubling cloud. Jared Fogel has been Subway’s pitchman since 2000, when the company learned that the then student had lost 235 pounds in 11 months just by eating their sandwiches and getting some mild exercise. Fogel became Subway’s marketing star for years. He kept the weight off and recently returned as the company’s TV pitchman after a hiatus. Fogel also started a foundation to fight childhood obesity. And that’s where the story goes south: Fogel has been accused of no wrong-doing, and is cooperating with law enforcement, but he has been caught up in a probe which two months ago saw the arrest on child pornography charges of the Jared Foundation’s former executive direction, Russell Taylor. Subway is calling the split “a suspension,” which leaves plenty of room to lift it if the smoke clears properly.

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