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McDonald’s announced the ouster of CEO Steve Easterbook Sunday over an inappropriate relationship with an employee. The company’s board determined that Easterbrook “violated company policy and demonstrated poor judgment involving a recent consensual relationship with an employee,” it announced. The CEO switchup came less than two weeks after McDonald’s reported its first quarterly profit miss in two years, with a 4 percent drop compared to a year earlier.
GlaxoSmithKline is recalling the popular heartburn medicine Zantac in all markets, days after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found “unacceptable” levels of probable cancer-causing impurity in the drug. Zantac, also sold generically as ranitidine, is the latest drug in which cancer-causing impurities have been found. Regulators have been recalling some blood pressure and heart failure medicines since last year.
VW has rejected a judge’s plea to settle a mass lawsuit in Germany over the diesel emissions scandal. A lawsuit involving about 450,000 owners of diesel Volkswagen cars began on Monday. While the company settled in the US, where emissions rules are stricter, it is resisting settling with its domestic customers. The scandal has already cost VW €30bn (£26.6bn) worldwide.
Forever 21, the fast fashion clothing chain anchoring shopping malls across the United States, filed for bankruptcy protection on Sunday, reporting more than $1 billion in liabilities. The New York Times reported that the company would end its operations in 40 countries, including Canada and Japan, and could close as many as 350 of its more than 800 stores worldwide.
Shares of Peloton Interactive Inc, the fitness startup known for on-demand workout programs on its exercise bikes, slid as much as 7% in their market debut on Thursday, indicating that investors are becoming increasingly skeptical of money-losing startups. The New York-based company’s shares opened at $27.00, down from its initial public offering price of $29.00 that raised about $1.16 billion at a valuation of $8.1 billion.
Google has won a court battle that could have forced it to take requests from around the world to wipe personal information from its search results. The tech giant was braced for a potentially landmark ruling from the EU Court of Justice (ECJ), which could have decided to expand the remit of the so-called “right to be forgotten” law beyond Europe.
Fifty U.S. states and territories, led by Texas, announced an investigation into Google’s “potential monopolistic behavior.” The Monday announcement closely followed one from a separate group of states Friday that disclosed an investigation into Facebook’s market dominance. The two probes widen the antitrust scrutiny of big tech companies beyond sweeping federal and congressional investigations and enforcement action by European regulators.
US toy maker Hasbro will acquire Peppa Pig owner Entertainment One for around £3.3bn ($4bn), the firms said in a statement. Hasbro said the deal would expand its entertainment and “family-oriented storytelling” portfolio. UK-listed Entertainment One owns other preschool titles including PJ Masks. The American toy giant is behind a diverse range of titles including the My Little Pony and Transformers franchises, as well as the Monopoly board game and Play-Doh.
Apple has agreed to buy the majority of Intel’s smartphone modem division, the companies announced on Thursday. Apple currently purchases Intel modems for iPhones, which allow it to connect to networks operated by carriers such as Verizon and AT&T. But in April, Intel announced that it planned to leave the smartphone modem market because Intel had “no clear path to profitability and positive returns.
The US justice department is opening a broad antitrust review into major technology firms, as criticism over the companies’ growing reach and power heats up. The investigation will focus on growing complaints that the companies are unlawfully stifling competition. “Without the discipline of meaningful market-based competition, digital platforms may act in ways that are not responsive to consumer demands,” added the assistant attorney general Makan Delrahim, of the antitrust division.