But Swan doesn’t have semiconductors in his DNA and is known as more of a software and finance executive than a man with deep technical expertise. He may have been given the CEO job, but it should have been clear from the outset he was never going to carry the company for the length of time of some of his predecessors.
Under Swan’s leadership,
Barron’s took a positive view of Intel stock in November, arguing that despite its troubles, the company would rise again. Wednesday’s decision was yet another step forward, arriving weeks after Daniel Loeb’s activist hedge fund, Third Point, took a $1 billion stake in the company and demanded many of the changes other investors had long pushed for. Shares have advanced 26% since
The entrance of a Carrefour supermarket in Rosny-sous-Bois on Nov. 3, 2020. Getty Images
Shares in Carrefour, France’s biggest supermarket group, rose as much as 11% on Wednesday, after Canada’s Alimentation
Couche-Tard said it was in early-stage takeover talks.
The two firms are worth more than a combined $50 billion, and a deal would give the Montreal-based Circle K owner, which mainly sells groceries through its convenience store formats, access to Carrefour’s larger supermarket footprint and boost its presence in Europe and South America.
The back story. Europe’s largest retailer,
Carrefour, has been hit hard by competition from
Amazon and other online rivals. Shopping habits are changing. Pre-Covid, consumers were already spending less time in malls and on shopping streets, preferring to buy online. The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated that trend, which is expected to stick.
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Telefónica will reduce its debt following the $9.4 billion sale of its mobile phone masts to Boston-based American Towers. Getty Images
Shares in Telefónica soared almost 10% on Wednesday, after the Spanish telecom company struck a deal to sell its mobile phone masts in Europe and Latin America to U.S.-based telecom infrastructure operator
American Tower for $9.4 billion in cash.
The back story. European telecom companies have stepped up the sale of their valuable tower estates in recent years, as they look to cut their debt and raise cash to invest in the costly rollout of 5G networks to keep pace with the surge of data for applications such as fixed wireless and autonomous vehicles.
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Home Depot could begin buying back stock this year, the analyst says. Al Bello/Getty Images
Home Depot stock is getting a lift following an upgrade from Guggenheim, which says the home improvement retailer’s profits will rise thanks to recent investments.
Analyst Steven Forbes raised his rating on Home Depot (ticker: HD) to Buy from Neutral, and established a $310 price target for the stock. The move comes on the heels of the company’s acquisition of HD Supply, its recent $3 billion debt offering, and a more moderate valuation, which stands in contrast to the stock’s historical premium, he said.
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Even banks that aren’t part of the merger bonanza can expect to see positive effects from a wave of consolidation. Dreamstime
After a relatively dormant 2020, Wall Street expects a surge of bank mergers this year.
The economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic dampened much of the expected merger activity for 2020 even as it served to intensify the rationale for why banks should combine. Last year, amid the worry over low interest rates and potentially ballooning loan losses, banks were busy navigating through their own issues and less interested in acquiring banks that could potentially bring their own set of problems. But with many of the worst-case scenarios for the economy thankfully avoided, banks are coming out of the crisis feeling a renewed pressure to become more efficient.