Dong Energy Targets IPO Valuation as High as $16 Billion (Bloomberg)
Dong Energy A/S may be valued as high as 106.5 billion kroner ($16 billion) in an initial public offering, marking what looks set to become Denmark’s biggest public share sale in decades. Dong plans to sell between 15.1 percent and 17.4 percent of its existing shares in an IPO with trading set to take place in the second week of June, the utility said in a statement to the stock exchange on Thursday.
Top model agencies accused of price fixing (FT)
It is better known for investigating cartels and mergers among airlines, banks and energy companies. But the UK’s competition watchdog is now taking on the agencies behind some of the world’s most famous catwalk models. Five of London’s top model agencies — FM Models, Models One, Premier, Storm and Viva — have been named in an inquiry into price collusion by the Competition and Markets Authority. The watchdog said on Wednesday that in a two-year period to March 2015, the agencies “agreed to exchange confidential, competitively sensitive information, including future pricing information, and in some instances agreed a common approach to pricing”.
Disney chief blasts Sanders: How many jobs have you created? (CNBC)
Walt Disney chief executive Bob Iger has shot back at Bernie Sanders after the presidential candidate attacked the theme park and movie company on Tuesday over worker pay and conditions, The Wrap reports. In a private Facebook post seen by The Wrap, Iger defended his company and slammed the Vermont senator for not contributing to the U.S. economy. "To Bernie Sanders," the post said. "We created 11,000 new jobs at Disneyland in the past decade, and our company has created 18,000 in the U.S. in the last five years. How many jobs have you created? What have you contributed to the US economy?"
Mt. Gox Creditors Seek Trillions Where There Are Only Millions (NYT)
$2,411,412,137,427 is in the same ballpark as the annual economic output of France. It is also exactly the amount that people around the world claim they lost when Mt. Gox, the Tokyo-based virtual currency exchange, collapsed into bankruptcy in 2014, after huge, unexplained losses of the volatile digital currency Bitcoin. As with most of the people who lost money with Bernard L. Madoff, the investment manager who was convicted of running a Ponzi scheme, most of those who put their Bitcoin in Mt. Gox will be disappointed: The Japanese trustee overseeing the case said on Wednesday that only $91 million in assets has been tracked down to distribute to claimants — a small portion of the more than $500 million in assets that Mt. Gox claimed it had in the weeks before it went bankrupt in February 2014, and a tiny portion of the amount that claimants have requested.
Cheap bros have found a new way to get out of paying for dates (NYP)
Shaquan Bailey, a 22-year-old caretaker, was thrilled when a guy she met online invited her out for their third date at a restaurant near her Bed-Stuy apartment. She found the man charming over pizza and wine and, like a gentleman, he picked up the check and then walked Bailey back to her apartment. She thought the date had gone well — until the guy sent her a $30 payment request on Venmo to cover half the dinner bill, which she grudgingly paid. “I cut him off so quickly and stopped texting him back,” Bailey told The Post. “I do not have time for scrubs.” The app, launched in 2012, lets users link debit and credit cards online to send and request money. In January, users digitally transferred more than $1 billion on the app. “I had a guy who asked me to Venmo him to pay for a $3 well drink,” fumed Tammy, a 21-year-old beauty blogger who asked that her last name be withheld for professional reasons. “And I was like, ‘Bye.’ Where are all the real men?”
Caesars owners talked IPO while dissing shares (NYP)
Executives at Apollo Global Management, one of Caesars’ owners, dissed the casino giant’s biggest operating business as worthless in private while publicly talking up a plan to sell shares in the unit, a bankruptcy examiner’s report reveals.
Billionaire admits to funding Hogan in bid to cripple Gawker (NYP, earlier)
Silicon Valley billionaire Peter Thiel admitted Wednesday he had shelled out approximately $10 million to finance Hulk Hogan’s winning invasion-of-privacy lawsuit against Gawker, claiming the act was “one of my greater philanthropic things that I’ve done.” The PayPal co-founder, himself a frequent target of the gossip Web site, said in an interview with The New York Times that he had a legal team seek out lawsuits against Gawker with the intention of financially crippling it. “It’s less about revenge and more about specific deterrence,” Thiel told the Times in his first interview since Forbes reported he had funded the suit.
Google’s Schmidt Sees Genetics Advances, No Alphabet Breakup (Bloomberg)
Schmidt said he’s looking forward to advances in genetics, thanks to technology that will improve gene sequencing, and more personalized and efficient health care as the medical world becomes increasingly digitized. Speaking at Bloomberg’s Breakaway conference Wednesday in New York, Schmidt also said Alphabet, the holding company that owns Google and other businesses including Nest and Fiber, will probably never break up and its job is to seek out transformative solutions.
Coming to a Bar Near You: The Domesticated Bouncer (WSJ)
Venturing where Emily Post left off, Mr. Smith runs an etiquette school for bouncers, training the men and women who serve on the front lines of bars and clubs. Instead of intimidating rowdy patrons and throwing out troublemakers, bouncers today need to do their jobs with a bit more finesse, mostly to prevent bar owners from getting sued...“Folks, I know you’re big and bad,” Mr. Smith said to the group, which included four women. “Strive to never go hands on.” Instead, lure the troublemaker outside on a false pretext. “Just say, ‘I just need to check your ID and the light is better out there’,” Mr. Smith said. Other tips: Before tossing someone off the premises, remove nearby bottles and glassware that might become weapons or projectiles. Stools can be dangerous, as can stiletto heels. When a patron is about to become violent, he said, “don’t be afraid to wrap someone up.” To demonstrate a proper restraining move, two bouncers put an arm lock on bartender Ben Lawley, a student who played the role of an angry drunk. To make the scene seem more authentic, Mr. Lawley shouted obscenities and sent a chair flying across the hotel conference room as he struggled to stay on his feet.
