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The Morning Ledger: Tesla Hires Telstra CFO as Chairman |
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As a Tesla board member, Robyn Denholm has provided some rare automotive experience to a company that prides itself on being an industry outsider. PHOTO: NEWS CORP AUSTRALIA
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Good day. Tesla Inc. turned to Robyn Denholm, an Australian finance executive, to become its new chairman, replacing Chief Executive Elon Musk as the head of the car maker's board, reports The Wall Street Journal.
Satisfying the SEC: The announcement late Wednesday comes ahead of a Nov. 13 deadline that was part of Mr. Musk’s settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to end claims he misled investors. That deal required Mr. Musk to step aside as head of the board for three years in favor of an independent chairman.
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Industry insider: Ms. Denholm, the chief financial officer of Australian telecommunications company Telstra Corp., has served on Tesla’s board since 2014. As a board member, Ms. Denholm has provided some rare automotive experience to a company that prides itself on being an industry outsider. She spent seven years at Toyota Motor Corp. in Australia, where she was a senior financial manager.
Tasks ahead: Ms. Denholm and the Tesla board will face various challenges, including managing Mr. Musk. The executive is known for operating the company in an unconventional way that helped push Tesla’s market value to rival General Motors Co., even though Tesla has never turned an annual profit and sells a fraction of the cars.
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U.S. Federal Reserve officials are expected to keep interest rates steady at their two-day policy meeting that concludes Thursday. The WSJ's Nick Timiraos has five things to watch.
Crocs Inc., Hertz Global Holdings Inc., Pandora Media Inc., Walt Disney Co. and Worldpay Inc. are among the companies scheduled to release earnings today.
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SASB Launches Sustainability Accounting Standards |
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A nonprofit organization Wednesday launched 77 industry-specific sustainability accounting standards aimed at providing investors with in-depth information about the impact of a company’s actions on society and the environment, reports CFO Journal's Nina Trentmann.
The release marks a six-year effort by the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board to draft accounting standards that address environmental and societal issues and comes at a time of increased investor concern about companies’ business practices.
“Companies and investors around the world now have codified, market-based standards for measuring, managing, and reporting on the sustainability factors that really drive value and affect operational performance,” said SASB Chair Jeffrey Hales.
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Becoming neighbors with Amazon would pose challenges for Boeing and other defense contractors based in Arlington, Va. PHOTO: KRISTOFFER TRIPPLAAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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Amazon.com Inc.’s plans to split its HQ2 operations between two new locations pose a particular challenge for U.S. defense companies, which are already wrestling with a staffing crunch.
Alphabet Inc.'s Google is gearing up for an expansion of its New York City real estate that could add space for more than 12,000 new workers, an amount nearly double the search giant’s current staffing in the city.
Toshiba Corp. said Thursday it would liquidate its U.K. nuclear business and sell its U.S. natural-gas business, taking a combined loss of nearly $1 billion.
Ford Motor Co. is getting into the fast-growing electric-scooter business by acquiring San Francisco-based startup Spin, as more car makers push into services aimed at urban dwellers who may not want to own a car.
Vice Media LLC plans to shrink its workforce by as much as 15% through attrition and cut its selection of digital sites by at least half, as growth stalls at the onetime new-media darling.
Qualcomm Inc. swung to a loss in its latest quarter, as sales in the company’s unit that develops mobile modem technology were flat and its licensing business continued to be hurt by a continuing fight with Apple Inc.
Tyson Foods Inc. is looking to expand internationally to help stabilize its business and reduce exposure to U.S. agricultural-market swings, Chief Executive Noel White said.
Samsung Electronics Co., suffering a handset sales slide, revealed a foldable-screen smartphone that folds like a book and opens up to tablet size.
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Brexit, cash management and technological changes are key concerns for finance executives at international companies, according to a poll conducted Wednesday by JPMorgan Chase & Co.
Over 12% of treasurers and finance executives said they are kept awake at night by these issues, the poll among 85 attendees of the bank’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Cash Management Forum in London showed, reports Ms. Trentmann.
Nearly 42% of respondents said they believe the global economy will enter a recession in 2019 or 2020 and more than half said regulation is the factor that concerns their companies most.
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Regulators have identified problems across Wells Fargo’s technology operations. PHOTO: JUSTIN SULLIVAN/GETTY IMAGES
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Wells Fargo & Co. received a regulatory warning from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency that could precede an enforcement action relating to its technology operations.
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MiMedx Group Inc. said Wednesday that the Nasdaq Stock Market will delist its shares and suspend trading in the stock effective Thursday amid an ongoing probe into its financial reports.
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As new U.S. sanctions on Iran start to bite this month, Western companies still doing business in the country face fresh hurdles in a market that has been both enticing and tough to crack.
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UBS Group AG will fight an expected civil complaint from the U.S. Department of Justice over its issuance, underwriting and sale of residential mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis, the Swiss banking giant said Thursday.
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Dyson Ltd., the household appliance maker, has won a battle in the European Union's General Court over the way vacuum cleaners' energy efficiency is labeled, reports the BBC.
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A worker assembles parts for wheels during production of a sedan at a Volvo plant in Ridgeville, S.C. PHOTO: LOGAN CYRUS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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The Trump administration is facing a heated trade battle with Congress after the Democratic Party retook the House of Representatives, posing a significant challenge to President Trump’s deal with Mexico and Canada.
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The Treasury Department's auction of $19 billion of 30-year bonds met the weakest demand since 2009, a sign the flood of new U.S. government debt requires higher yields to attract investors.
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China’s exports surged anew last month on the back of resilient demand, defying many economists’ expectations for a slowdown from the trade fight with the U.S.
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Venezuela’s annual inflation rate accelerated to 833,000% in October, underscoring the country’s plunge into economic chaos.
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German exports unexpectedly declined in September, falling 0.8% from August, Bloomberg reports. Analysts had forecast a 0.4% rise.
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Telstra Corp., an Australian telecommunications company, said its Chief Financial Officer Robyn Denholm will step down, effective May 6, 2019. She leaves Telstra to become Tesla Inc. chairman, effective Nov. 13.
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Ms. Denholm joined Telstra in Jan. 2017 as chief operations officer and has been serving as CFO since Oct. 1, 2018. Telstra is undertaking a search for a new CFO, according to a statement.
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