Opening Bell: 9.10.18
Leslie Moonves out as CBS CEO after sexual harassment allegations [CNBC]
CBS announced Moonves will depart as chairman, president and chief executive officer "effective immediately."
The company said COO Joseph Ianniello will now act as president and acting CEO "while the Board conducts a search for a permanent successor."
The allegations against Moonves were brought to light in a New Yorker article by Ronan Farrow in August in which six women accused Moonves of sexual misconduct and damaging their careers. A second New Yorker article by Farrow published on Sunday contained allegations by six more women. Moonves denied the allegations and characterized his relationships with some of the women as consensual.
Alibaba’s Daniel Zhang to Succeed Jack Ma as Chairman Next Year [WSJ]
Mr. Ma made the announcement on his 54th birthday, saying he has “lots of dreams to pursue” including working in education again. Before founding Alibaba in 1999, Mr. Ma was a teacher—he is known at the company as “Teacher Ma.”
In a letter addressed to customers, shareholders and employees—referred to as “Aliren,” or “People of Alibaba”—Mr. Ma said he would stay on the company’s board until the 2020 annual shareholders meeting.
China vows to respond if U.S. takes new steps on trade [Reuters]
On Friday, Trump said he was ready to levy additional taxes on practically all Chinese imports, threatening duties on $267 billion of goods over and above planned tariffs on $200 billion of Chinese products.
“If the U.S. side obstinately clings to its course and takes any new tariff measures against China, then the Chinese side will inevitably take countermeasures to resolutely protect our legitimate rights,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang told a regular briefing, when asked about Trump’s warning.
Crypto Wipeout Deepens to $640 Billion as Ether Leads Declines [Bloomberg]
Ether, the second-largest virtual currency, slumped 10 percent from its level at 5 p.m. New York time on Friday, according to Bloomberg composite pricing. Bitcoin lost 2.6 percent, while the market capitalization of digital assets tracked by CoinMarketCap.com shrank to about $197 billion -- down almost $640 billion from its January peak.
Cryptocurrencies have declined for five of the past six weeks amid concern that a broader adoption of digital assets will take longer than some had anticipated. That worry was underscored over the weekend after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission temporarily suspended trading in two exchange-traded notes linked to cryptocurrencies and Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin told Bloomberg that the days of explosive growth in the blockchain industry have likely come and gone.
Volkswagen Trial Offers Hedge Funds a Chance to Settle Old Scores [NYT]
Elliott Management, the hedge fund founded by Paul E. Singer, was among the firms burned in 2008 trying to bet against Volkswagen shares. The stock price rose instead, and while the funds claimed market manipulation, they never found a court that would agree.
Now a new case offers Elliott a chance at redemption. A subsidiary of the fund is bankrolling a group of institutional investors who are suing Volkswagen because of the losses they suffered as a result of the company’s emissions cheating. A German court will begin hearing evidence in the case on Monday.
Snap's Chief Strategy Officer Imran Khan to leave [Reuters]
Khan, 41, whose last day has not been determined, became the chief strategy officer in 2015. He was one of the highest paid Snap executives and was instrumental in taking the company public in March last year.
At the time of joining, Khan received stock worth about $145 million, according to media reports.
Khan said the departure is not related to any disagreements with Snap, the company said.
The company’s finance head Andrew Vollero left in May and its vice president of monetization engineering, Stuart Bowers, quit to join Tesla Inc.
'Urine therapy' is the latest health craze [NYPost]
Proponents of drinking your own pee and rubbing it on your skin claim the practice leads to the fountain of youth. “After I started fasting, the pee stopped smelling and started tasting like coconut water,” said Julia Sillaman, a 26-year-old painter from Maryland.