Business

TechCrunch report: After a long year fighting underage use of its products, Juul Labs has today struck a deal with Altria Group, the owners of Philip Morris USA and makers of Marlboro cigarettes. The deal values Juul at $38 billion, according to Bloomberg, and injects the company with a fresh $12.8 billion in exchange for a 35 percent stake in …

The New York Daily News reports: After being accused of defrauding its internet subscribers, Charter Communications Monday agreed to a whopping $174.2 million settlement with state Attorney General Barbara Underwood, the Daily News has learned. In February 2017, the AG charged in a civil lawsuit that Charter Communication, and its predecessor Time Warner Cable, knowingly delivered since 2012 slower internet …

Reuters reports: U.S. stocks are skidding Monday as another day of big losses takes the market to its lowest level in more than a year. Retailers and technology stocks are sinking, and health insurers and hospitals are falling after a federal judge in Texas ruled that the 2010 Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional. Many experts expect the ruling will be …

Talking Points Memo reports: Google today is announcing plans to invest over $1 billion in capital improvements to create a new 1.7-million-square-foot campus in Lower Manhattan, dubbed “Google Hudson Square.” As part of the New York City expansion, Google and Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said in a blog post out this morning that the company “will have the …

CBS News reports: Facebook said Friday that a security glitch may have let third-party apps access the private photos of as many as 6.8 million users, the latest example of the social-media company failing to protect people’s online content. The incident, which took place during a 12-day period in September, included images never fully uploaded to the platform and those …

MarketWatch reports: Stocks ended the week on a down note Friday, falling sharply on worries about global growth after weaker-than-expected Chinese data. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.02% fell around 496 points, or 2%, to finish near 24,101, according to preliminary figures. The close put the Dow back into correction territory, defined as a pullback of at least 10% …

NPR reports: Apple plans to build a 133-acre campus in Austin, Texas, that will cost $1 billion and employ 5,000 new workers, the company announced Thursday. The company says the move is expected to make it the largest private employer in Austin. Apple already employs more people in Austin, some 6,200 workers, than it does in any other city outside …

Billboard Magazine reports: Verizon Communications has recorded a steep goodwill impairment charge on its Oath media division. The telecom giant said on Tuesday that the creation of Oath after it acquired Yahoo for $4.5 billion and merged it with AOL has led to a charge of around $4.6 billion during the fourth quarter of 2018. “The goodwill balance of the …

USA Today reports: The maker of Jimmy Dean Heat ’n Serve Original Sausage Links is recalling more than 14 tons of its frozen, ready-to-eat sausage links because they may have pieces of metal inside. CTI Foods of Owingsville, Kentucky, is recalling about 29,028 pounds of Jimmy Dean Heat ‘n Serve Original Sausage Links Made with Pork & Turkey after the …

Reuters reports: The European Union ruled out renegotiating the Brexit divorce treaty or its Irish border protocol on Tuesday as Prime Minister Theresa May sought last ditch assurances from the bloc to save her deal after pulling a vote she acknowledged she would lose. Less than four months until the United Kingdom is due to leave the European Union on …

The New York Post reports: Now 47, Armstrong reached a $5 million settlement with the US federal government in April when they could have sought up to $100 million if the doping fraud suit went to trial. But that doesn’t appear to come close to the windfall he’s made on an early investment in Uber. The Texas native invested $100,000 …

The Associated Press reports: The Commerce Department said Thursday that the gap between the United States sells and what it buys from foreign countries hit $55.5 billion in October, the fifth straight increase and highest since October 2008. The politically sensitive deficit in the trade of goods with China rose 7.1% to a record $43.1 billion.  The goods gap with …

The New York Times reports: Can play help refugee children heal from trauma? That’s the belief behind a new partnership formed by the Lego Foundation, Sesame Workshop and organizations working with Syrian and Rohingya refugees. In its first major humanitarian project, announced on Wednesday, the foundation will provide $100 million over five years to the makers of “Sesame Street” to …

Reuters reports: Volkswagen will develop its final generation of vehicles using combustion engine technology in 2026, the company’s strategy chief said today. VW made a strategy shift toward battery-driven vehicles in the wake of a damaging diesel-emissions cheating scandal in 2015, which forced the carmaker to pay billions of dollars in fines for hiding excessive pollution. “In the year 2026 …

CNBC reports: Marriott International said on Friday that a guest reservation database of its Starwood Hotel brand was breached, potentially exposing information on about 500 million guests. The company said its investigation showed that an unauthorized party had copied and encrypted information, and that there had been unauthorized access to the Starwood network since 2014. The company said it had …

The BBC reports: The Frankfurt headquarters of Deutsche Bank have been raided by prosecutors in a money laundering investigation. Germany’s public prosecutor alleged that two staff members have helped clients launder money from criminal activities. Police cars were seen outside the tower blocks that house the headquarters of Germany’s biggest bank. Other Deutsche offices in the city were searched in …

CNBC reports: It’s been a year in the making, but CVS Health finally closed Wednesday on its acquisition of Aetna, creating a new health-care powerhouse. The merger combines CVS’ pharmacies with Aetna’s insurance business, blurring traditionally distinct lines in hopes of lowering costs. CVS also has one of largest pharmacy benefits managers through CVS Caremark and a major Medicare Part …

Slate reports: President Trump signaled in a Wall Street Journal interview that he is expecting to place tariffs on all Chinese imports, including potentially the iPhone and other Apple products, if negotiations at the upcoming G20 summit with President Xi Jinping fall through. “I can make it 10 percent and people could stand that very easily,” Trump said of price …

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump will consider cutting all subsidies to General Motors after the company announced plans to slash productions at several American plants, he said Tuesday. The automaker’s shares fell following the tweet and were down more than 2 percent on Tuesday afternoon. The tweet escalates the president’s public threats against GM as he pushes the company to …

NBC News reports: A New Jersey college asked its students what new restaurant they wanted on campus — but then took Chick-fil-A off the menu. Rider University, a private university in central New Jersey, polled students in the spring about what franchise they would like to see on campus. The results showed a preference for Chick-fil-A, which boasts the slogan …