Lauren Silva Laughlin
Reuters Top News
Dallas, TX, United States
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Past articles by Lauren:
Goldman doubles down on the wealthy, as it should
The last day of February brought the season’s first meaningful snow in Manhattan. But Goldman Sachs’ headquarters at 200 West St. were particularly warm on Tuesday as the firm hosted its second ever in-person investor day in its more than 150-year history. Top bankers, from Chief Executive David Solomon to Chief Operating Officer John Waldron, harkened a return to the old grind of servicing… → Read More
Disney clash with activist Peltz will have sequel
Activist investor Nelson Peltz often plays a long game. So his truce with Walt Disney last week, after a short bid to get a seat on the media group’s board, might seem uncharacteristic. But earlier battles at Dupont and Procter & Gamble suggest that such plot twists aren’t out of the ordinary, raising the possibility that Peltz may still get what he asked for. → Read More
Meme investors go to bed, take a bath
Investors have nothing if not for hope. And that showed on Monday, when American sheets and curtains retailer Bed Bath & Beyond moved to bring in a new cash injection. The deal could keep the New Jersey-based company out of bankruptcy for another few months, potentially. But delaying the inevitable has opportunity cost. → Read More
Davos, Inc. finds reasons to be less gloomy
When the chairmen of some of the world’s largest companies got together behind closed doors at the World Economic Forum this week, they had plenty of reasons to feel sombre. Higher interest rates are putting a brake on economic growth, trade tensions are fracturing supply chains, and investors have just suffered their worst year since the 2008 financial crisis. Yet when the assembled crowd were… → Read More
TikTok’s best U.S. charm offensive involves an IPO
TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew is in a tough spot. The chief executive of the social media app owned by China’s ByteDance is trying to persuade U.S. officials that it will protect American users’ data. But even if proposed fixes get past federal officials – no sure thing – it still must contend with activist state leaders. The company’s best defense is to add some transparency through an initial public… → Read More
The Davos party returns, with the shakes
There’s a hangover happening in the Alps even though the party hasn’t started, and the return to business as usual highlights the changes that have taken place since the last full gathering, Lauren Silva Laughlin writes. → Read More
Bowling Green, Kentucky is the next big U.S. city
Population growth in the U.S. state of Kentucky has lagged behind the rest of America overall for much of the last 75 years. A push by President Joe Biden to move manufacturing onshore will change not just its trajectory, but that of others like it, too. New investments will drive overhauls everywhere from upstate New York to Ohio to Illinois, reinventing parts of the country that languished for… → Read More
Mark Zuckerberg will split Meta, take the 'verse
Meta Platforms is the tale of two companies, tied together only by their potential to sell advertising and their owner Mark Zuckerberg. As big marketers tighten pocketbooks in 2023, the social media firm, which operates Facebook and Instagram, will become less of a cash machine. This will encourage its founder and chief to pluck his pet project, the metaverse, away from the rest of the business. → Read More
Breakingviews: FTX sins don’t absolve its big-money enablers
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission wants everyone to know that Sam Bankman-Fried was a bad actor. That’s hardly surprising at this point. The financial watchdog and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Tuesday alleged that the founder of bankrupt currency exchange FTX committed fraud, while federal prosecutors made a criminal case. But none of that absolves his establishment… → Read More
Airbnb has promise as the quasi-immobility firm
Airbnb is a boon to mobile travelers - but soon might benefit from immobile, old-school renters too. The $60 billion shared-housing platform run by Brian Chesky is partnering with property management giants Equity Residential , Greystar Real Estate Partners and others to help rent out apartments. The arrangement will allow tenants at their big housing complexes to sublet on Airbnb’s platform.… → Read More
Breakingviews: Twitter deal sadly upholds primacy of shareholders
That was one helluva ride. After more than six months of ping-ponging, second-guessing, whistleblowing, arguing and mud-throwing, Elon Musk on Thursday closed his $44 billion deal to buy Twitter . The social media firm, its employees, its new owners, its creditors and the rest of the world are probably worse off. But hey, shareholders made out like bandits. → Read More
Amazon gets irrationally swept up in tech angst
Amazon.com is caught in the crossfire. Following abysmal earnings from Facebook owner Meta Platforms on Wednesday, the $1 trillion online retailer took a big hit after unveiling its own third-quarter results. A warning on the upcoming holiday season erased $200 billion from the company’s market value, despite strong performance in North American sales and the cloud business. When an industry’s… → Read More
Meta’s spending splurge starts to look troubling
Meta Platforms’ present is indicating problems for the future. The social media company plans to invest nearly a tenth of its $370 billion market capitalization on various projects, including its concentrated bet on the metaverse. Last year, existing operations generated enough cash to justify the spending spree. If results slip – and the third quarter suggests they could – spending will become… → Read More
GE is hurting but Larry Culp’s legacy has hope yet
For Larry Culp, it’s not the journey but the destination. The chief executive of General Electric said on Tuesday while reporting third-quarter earnings that the $80 billion industrial conglomerate was on track to break up into three pieces. He will run the aviation division – the strongest unit at the company, by far. And renewables, the weakest, looks set to benefit from a massive U.S.… → Read More
Truss’s exit highlights America’s free pass
There but for the grace of the currency gods stays the U.S. dollar. While British Prime Minister Liz Truss’s tax proposals cut her time in office short, U.S. fiscal policy for years hasn’t been that much different. If it weren’t for the greenback’s status as the world’s reserve currency, the laws of economics would apply to America, too. → Read More
Ticktock starts on Twitter’s board, too
Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of Twitter board members’ jobs. After Elon Musk said earlier this week that he wanted to close his $44 billion deal to buy the social media firm, a Delaware judge put a trial on hold to give him the chance to do just that. If he doesn’t close by Oct. 28, the judge will set a new trial for November. But a lot can happen in a few weeks, and as Musk… → Read More
Amazon is already valued like a monopoly
Amazon.com says the idea it’s illegally squeezing its merchants is “exactly backwards." California Attorney General Rob Bonta last week accused the company started and chaired by Jeff Bezos of violating antitrust law, in the $1.3 trillion e-commerce giant’s biggest legal challenge yet. Whether California prevails or not, investors have already granted Amazon a market valuation fit for a monopoly. → Read More
FedEx packages economic pain with bad judgement
If only FedEx delivered profit as reliably as parcels. The $42 billion freight company warned that its operating income would fall short of expectations and withdrew its annual forecast , sending its shares plummeting by nearly a quarter on Friday morning. Boss Raj Subramaniam blamed macroeconomic trends, but the performance at United Parcel Service suggests poor judgement made matters worse. → Read More
BlackRock could be Carlyle's succession strategy
Carlyle co-founder David Rubenstein once sounded like he had asset management envy. Interviewing BlackRock head Larry Fink in 2017, Rubenstein several times pointed out that Fink had created the world’s largest asset manager. BlackRock has only grown since, reaching over $10 trillion of assets under management at the end of last year and dwarfing Carlyle at around $380 billion. But now,… → Read More
CEOs, not proxy cards, are what fuel activists
Investors in U.S. companies have a new way to weigh in on corporate matters. Thursday marks the launch of changes to how they vote for board directors, and it’s likely more companies will be targeted by cage-rattlers, sometimes with absurd demands. Still, chieftains who are doing their jobs have little to worry about. → Read More