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The Morning Risk Report: How Companies Secretly Boost Their Glassdoor Ratings |
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SAP’s stand at a job fair in Berlin. PHOTO: KRISZTIAN BOCSI/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Good day. As Glassdoor, a company ratings site, has become an important arbiter of employee sentiment, The Wall Street Journal discovered it can be manipulated by employers trying to sway opinion in their favor.
An analysis of millions of anonymous reviews posted on Glassdoor’s site identified more than 400 companies with unusually large single-month increases in reviews. During the vast majority of these surges, the ratings were disproportionately positive compared with surrounding months.
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Well-known names with large spikes included messaging-app developer Slack Technologies Inc., networking site LinkedIn, health insurer Anthem Inc., household-products maker Clorox Co. and Brown-Forman Corp., the maker of Jack Daniel’s whiskey. Some companies, including Elon Musk’s rocket company Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and software giant SAP SE, have had multiple spikes.
Glassdoor’s problem echoes the challenges faced by other online rating platforms, which are trying to ensure their rankings are real. Amazon.com Inc., local-business site Yelp Inc. and TripAdvisor Inc. have all had to fend off attempts to game reviews and ratings.
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| From Risk & Compliance Journal |
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Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska leaves a court hearing in London. PHOTO: CHRIS RATCLIFFE/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Two private-equity executives were among the three people chosen to exercise voting rights on certain shares of EN+ Group PLC that will be relinquished as part of a deal to remove U.S. sanctions on the company.
They were named as EN+ works to adhere to the terms of a deal struck in December with the U.S. Treasury Department. The deal would remove sanctions on EN+ and two companies it controls, aluminum giant United Co. Rusal and energy firm JSC EuroSibEnergo.
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Mastercard was fined by the EU, the bloc’s latest move in its crackdown on credit-card companies. PHOTO: DANIEL ACKER/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The European Union fined Mastercard Inc. €570.6 million ($648.2 million) over charges it artificially raised the costs of card payments inside the bloc, continuing a European crackdown on U.S. credit-card companies over fees. Mastercard flagged last month that it expected a $650 million fine and said Tuesday the closure of the long-running chapter represents “an important milestone for the company.”
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Some companies are finding unexpected savings as they comply with new lease-accounting rules. Companies listed in the U.S. and Europe this year must report lease obligations on their balance sheets to comply with the new rules, which aim to increase transparency for investors and lenders. The rules are effective for 2019 financial reports.
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Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. agreed to pay more than $269 million to settle federal and state lawsuits that accused it of overbilling federal health-care programs. Two separate settlements involving Walgreens, approved last week by U.S. District Court judges in Manhattan, were unsealed Tuesday. U.S. officials said the company accepted responsibility for conduct the government alleged in complaints under the False Claims Act.
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Subaru Corp. said it has temporarily shut down two factories that account for two-thirds of global output after finding a problem with power steering, the latest quality issue to hit the Japanese auto maker.
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has been forced to furlough workers who inspect imports of goods. PHOTO: MIKE BLAKE/REUTERS
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The partial government shutdown over President Trump’s demand to wall off the Mexican border opened a hole for unsafe products to enter the U.S., the head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission said. Only about 20 of the commission’s 550 employees are now working, said Ann Marie Buerkle, the commission’s acting chairwoman.
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Startup investors and company founders in Silicon Valley warn that the unchecked growth of the past several years, which by some metrics exceeded heights from the dot-com boom, could be hitting a limit.
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Thierry Bolloré, then chief competitive officer of Renault, left, and Carlos Ghosn in Paris in February. PHOTO: CHRISTOPHE MORIN/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Renault SA plans to name a successor to jailed Chairman and Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn at a board meeting Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter, a move that would end the reign of an executive whose more-than-two-decade stint at the French car maker made him an auto-industry star.
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Two big hedge-fund investors are circling eBay Inc. and suggesting it part ways with its StubHub ticketing and classified-ads businesses, moves that could again fracture the company at the hands of activists. In recent years, eBay shares have languished as the company has sought to distance itself from its reputation as an online auction house and has battled the likes of Amazon.com Inc. in the e-commerce arena.
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A battle for control of America’s largest natural-gas producer may be headed for a shareholder vote, after EQT Corp. failed to reach agreement with brothers who sold Rice Energy Inc. to EQT for $6.7 billion in 2017.
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Bunge Ltd. named a new acting chief executive and said three directors would step down as the agricultural company warned of lower-than-anticipated profits.
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Hedge fund Cruiser Capital Advisors LLC is abandoning a proxy fight with Ashland Global Holdings Inc. after the specialty-chemicals manufacturer struck a deal last week with investor Neuberger Berman Group LLC.
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In the latest lineup of iPhones, only the XR uses the displays in which Japan Display specializes. PHOTO: KIYOSHI OTA/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The disappointing performance of Apple Inc.’s iPhone XR is rippling through the global supply chain, leading a major Japanese supplier for the model to seek a bailout from an investor group from China and Taiwan. Japan Display Inc. is in advanced talks with Taiwan’s TPK Holding Co. and Chinese state-owned Silk Road Fund about an investment that would include a stake of about 30% with the possibility of greater control later, people familiar with the matter said.
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Apple Inc.’s largest iPhone assembler, Foxconn Technology Group, is considering producing the devices in India, people familiar with the matter said, a move that could reduce Apple’s dependence on China for manufacturing and potentially for sales.
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Developers across the U.S. are racing to build larger and more sophisticated warehouses, aiming to capitalize on retailers’ desire for ever-faster deliveries.
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A Pluto TV exhibit at the CES consumer-technology show in Las Vegas earlier this month. The service streams thousands of hours of content, including movies, news broadcasts and cartoons. PHOTO: DAVID BECKER/GETTY IMAGES
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Viacom Inc. said it bought the ad-supported video-streaming service Pluto TV for $340 million in cash, a move that gives the pay-television giant another entry to the realm of online video.
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Private-equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC agreed Wednesday to acquire RPC Group PLC, one of Europe’s biggest packaging companies, for £3.32 billion ($4.3 billion), the latest sign that U.S. buyout firms remain undeterred by uncertainty over Brexit when investing in U.K. companies.
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U.K. cafe-chain operator Patisserie Holdings PLC said Tuesday that it has gone into administration. The move, which follows revelations last year of financial fraud allegations, will lead to the closure of 70 stores and force the Birmingham, U.K., company to search for a buyer.
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Colony Capital Inc. is nearing a deal to take over the Latin American operations of troubled Dubai-based private-equity firm Abraaj Group, according to people familiar with the matter.
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KPMG is one of four accounting firms that audit nearly all large British companies. PHOTO: CHARLES PLATIAU/REUTERS
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A U.K. audit watchdog is investigating KPMG LLP over documents it submitted related to an audit of Carillion PLC, the country’s second-largest construction firm that collapsed a year ago after it failed to restructure its debts. The action, by the Financial Reporting Council, is the second investigation into KPMG’s audits of Carillion.
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