Rob Cox
Reuters Top News
Nanuet, NY, United States
Contact Rob
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
| Past: |
|
Past articles by Rob:
Breakingviews’ song remains the same 22 years on
It is easy to get nostalgic when cleaning out a desk. Especially when its drawers contain the artefacts of more than two decades of business and financial history. → Read More
Breakingviews’ song remains the same 22 years on – Breakingviews
Much has changed since the journey began in the era before Twitter, when print ads financed journalism, China was an upstart, and Lehman Brothers still alive. What has not is the value propositions of agenda-setting financial insight. Founder-editor Rob Cox bids farewell. → Read More
Viewsroom: Spotify, Peloton and failed chip deals
Neil Young’s podcast protests have shone a light on a potential flaw in Spotify’s business model, says Liam Proud. Peloton highlights the danger of giving company founders too much voting power, Rob Cyran argues. And semiconductor M&A gives global antitrust regulators agita. → Read More
The Exchange: Zurich CEO takes on 2022’s big risks
Failure to reduce carbon emissions is top of mind for Mario Greco, who has run the 65 bln Swiss francs insurer for the past six years. But other hazards, like loss of social cohesion and geopolitics, are also on the horizon, he tells Rob Cox in a Breakingviews Predictions chat. → Read More
Viewsroom: A $3 trln Apple, Theranos boss busted
The company led by Tim Cook hit another mega-milestone thanks to a lightning focus on the iPhone universe and investor willingness to accord it a market-beating multiple, Richard Beales explains. And Elizabeth Holmes draws bright lines between hype and fraud, Gina Chon says. → Read More
Big transitions are better embraced than resisted
The dictionary defines transition as a “change from one state or condition to another.” That sums up the world as 2022 arrives. Whether it is the move away from an economic system reliant upon hydrocarbons, vanquishing the Covid-19 plague or central banks ending the free-money era, extraordinary shifts are occurring across the planet that will shape markets, corporate finance, politics and… → Read More
Viewsroom: More 2022 predictions and prescriptions
M&A bankers will need to think small, in size, but big when it comes to helping clients meet net-zero climate targets. Watch for Big Pharma to tool up in the data arms race. And the Great Resignation will hit executive suites because running companies remotely is no fun. → Read More
The Exchange: Environmentalist on Exxon’s board
Kaisa Hietala was one of the directors elected by shareholders in May through activist Engine No. 1’s successful campaign to green up the $250 bln oil giant. The former Neste executive from Finland sat down with Rob Cox to explain her vision for creating sustainable businesses. → Read More
ESG acronym is due for a spin-off of its initials
General Electric’s doing it. So is Toshiba . And Johnson & Johnson . Breakups are all the rage and rightly so: The individual parts of sprawling corporations can be better managed on their own and are arguably worth more separately than the whole. But the biggest breakup of 2022 won’t be company specific. It’s time to spin off the letters in ESG. → Read More
Viewsroom: Some of our 2022 predictions, Part One
Look for an end to the cult of revenue and another milestone for Microsoft . As net-zero efforts falter, investors ready a Plan B. Riyadh becomes strangely appealing. The World Cup pays dividends for the Gulf. And chips become Taiwan’s green calling card. Our columnists explain. → Read More
The Exchange: Top chef who turned his back on meat
Daniel Humm’s Eleven Madison Park in New York garnered three Michelin stars and was voted the world’s best restaurant in 2017. But after the pandemic, the marathoning Swiss transplant pivoted his kitchen entirely towards plant-based cuisine. He tells Rob Cox why. → Read More
The Exchange: Making nukes greener and friendlier
The fight to reduce CO2 emissions is forcing a rethink about the role of nuclear power, says Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency. But convincing holdouts like Greta Thunberg will take more than turning Homer Simpson into a paragon of nuclear safety. → Read More
Cox: French finance will take an electoral pause
It should have been what the French call “une évidence” – a no-brainer. Nearly a year ago, Alimentation Couche-Tard , a Quebec convenience store chain, offered to drop $20 billion in the land of its founders’ forebears to buy French grocer Carrefour . The Quebecois promised to invest billions of euros in the business and not to fire anybody. Yet Gallic President Emmanuel Macron’s government… → Read More
Cox: French finance will take an electoral pause – Breakingviews
Parisian executives who want President Emmanuel Macron to win another term will avoid deals that could become political hot potatoes for the former M&A banker. Shopping abroad is chic but domestic takeovers and synergy-squeezers are out for now. After the election, le déluge. → Read More
Cox: Telecom Italia and the curse of the euro era
The leveraged takeover of Telecom Italia in 1999 by an obscure auto-parts magnate from Mantua was the deal that baptised the euro era. For the first time, bankers were able to assemble a consortium of risk-takers in debt, equity and other securities – all denominated in the single currency which had been born a few months earlier – to launch an unthinkably large and aggressive capital markets… → Read More
Viewsroom: Barbarians invade Rome; Biden’s Fed
The board of Italy’s phone monopoly has a golden opportunity to end years of creeping control, poor governance and dismal performance by considering a sale following the unsolicited $12 bln bid from KKR. And Gina Chon explains why Jay Powell has the hardest job in finance. → Read More
Cox: Telecom Italia and the curse of the euro era – Breakingviews
The 1999 buyout of Italy’s phone monopoly baptised Europe’s new single currency. The years since have been terrible for the company and its many trophy-seeking owners, who have lost some $23 bln. Here’s why the latest offer from private equity firm KKR offers hope for redemption. → Read More
Viewsroom: European bank M&A, De-Dutching Shell
Big lenders in the euro zone are doing deals, but not the kind investment bankers dream about. BNP Paribas is in U.S. retreat, BBVA bulks up in Turkey and KBC goes Bulgarian. Liam Proud explains. George Hay explains why the Anglo-Dutch oil major is dropping the Dutch bit. → Read More
Cox: Whiff of Donald Trump redux hangs over COP26
Donald Trump did his damnedest to yank America from global efforts to combat climate change. The former president is not actually at COP26, the big UN climate conference in Glasgow, but his presence is palpable. And not just because he owns a Scottish golf club not so far away which played host to Indonesia’s delegation. A potential return to the White House hovers over the deliberations. → Read More
Cox: Whiff of Donald Trump redux hangs over COP26 – Breakingviews
The former U.S. president isn’t in Glasgow, but as nations sign up to long-term green commitments many wonder if he’ll boomerang back to the White House in 2024. The hope is that things will be too far along to unwind should he return. That lends urgency to the deliberations. → Read More