North America

Longtime senior executives Greg Abel and Ajit Jain were promoted to vice chairman on January 10 and joined Berkshire’s board of directors. The announcement might suggest that Abel and Jain, alone or together, might lead the company in the near future.

With the Nestle acquisition, Ferrero has now become the third-largest confectionary company in the United States.

The  construction-equipment giant finds itself at the center of a tax controversy involving the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the impact of US tax reforms on domestic and international companies.

Overall global FDI declined last year with developed economies seeing a decrease in flows even as developing economies saw an increase.

M&A deals between companies like CVS and Aetna and Amazon and Whole Foods will test what it means to create value in business today, as well as whether such deals provide value for consumers.

Westfield has developed shopping venues in such prime locations as London’s Shepherd Bush, New York’s World Trade Center and Los Angeles’ Century City. 

Shazam, which is headquartered in London, has more than one billion downloads worldwide. 

Vanessa Colella, head of Citi Ventures and chief innovation officer at Citi, visited Global Finance to discuss integrating innovation into global banking, the role of employees in driving change, and emerging trends in technology and banking.

The repeal of net neutrality sparked immediate political response from consumers, but its impact on business will be complicated, and take time to unfold and to absorb.

European Union countries saw lower bankruptcy rates in the first half of 2017, as did Canada. US bankruptcy filings dropped 5.5% in the 12-month period ended September 30, 2017.

It is a dramatic drop compared not just to the 1990s, when stock-for-stock deals accounted for over half of all mergers, but also to 2016, when the average equaled 23.9% by dollar value.

There’s a growing push to replace Generally Accepted Accounting Principles with an accounting system that better reflects companies’ finances.

While the percentage of female CFOs dipped slightly in 2017, more women were internally promoted to the CFO position.

A year into President Trump’s term, America’s political life has changed beyond recognition. But what has his administration meant for companies?

GE stock has lost more than 40% of its value since 2000, when Flannery’s predecessor, Jeffrey Immelt, was appointed. 

The $69 billion CVS-Aetna deal points to companies working in different industry sectors looking at synergies of merging with one another for improved services, cost advantages, market dominance, profits and more.

Jerome Powell is President Donald Trump’s nominee to replace Janet Yellen as chair of the US central bank. He will start his tenure in February 2018.

US treasury bond yields could rise sharply in 2018, as central-bank liquidity begins to recede and heavy new supply hits the market.

The proposal includes review of additional categories of transactions, such as nonpassive investments in critical technologies or infrastructure companies.

Companies are concerned about the vague language of the bill about the applicability of the tax, and the fact that bilateral tax treaties, designed to avoid double taxation, will not function well under these circumstances.