PE firm CVC Capital Partners has made an unsolicited bid to acquire Japan’s Toshiba Corp. “in a deal that could be valued at more than $20 billion if completed.” The proposal, which would need Japanese government approval because CVC is a foreign buyer, could rank among the largest leverage buyouts in history - WSJ and Bloomberg
Mon Dieu! A tale of spying and intrigue at Ikea France involving execs seeking to “dig up information on employees, job applicants and even customers” that is a far cry from the wholesome if anodyne image the Swedish furniture giant has spread throughout the world - NYTimes
All the latest from the Fed’s March meeting minutes, which dropped late yesterday, including the central bank’s commitment to low interest rates and massive bond purchases despite a rosier-than-expected economic outlook - WSJ and Bloomberg
Target announced this week that it will spend upwards of $2 billion on partnerships with Black-owned businesses through 2025 as part of the retailer’s “bid to advance racial equity in the United States” - NYTimes
In an effort to appeal to big businesses—particularly bankers and financiers—despite Beijing’s crackdowns on “political opposition,” “free speech,” and perhaps the “independent court system” there, Hong Kong officials “are preparing a new tax break and other sweeteners” that they hope will outweigh “the Chinese Communist Party’s increasingly autocratic rule.” The tack appears to be working so far - NYTimes
So . . . Avelo, anyone? Yep, a new U.S. airline aiming “to serve smaller airports and routes that it says larger carriers have ignored or left behind” is launching, hoping to capitalize on a post-pandemic travel boom after delaying its debut by a year - WSJ and Marketplace
Bloomberg Businessweek helps us understand how Toyota managed to avoid nearly entirely the chip shortage issues that have halted production at many of its rival automakers. Short answer? The company learned from past crises and “rigorously manage[d]” its supply chains - Bloomberg
While we’re talking chips, here’s the real-deal behind Intel’s “Hail Mary” $20 billion bet on American manufacturing that it hopes will help the company rebuild after “a decade’s worth of missteps” - Bloomberg
Food delivery-service companies Instacart and DoorDash have both expressed interest in expanding their offerings with the addition of their own credit cards. Instacart will collaborate with JPMorgan on its card venture, while DoorDash has reportedly received offers from “more than 10 large banks and financial-technology firms” to partner on its version - WSJ and Bloomberg
Physicists working at the Fermi National Accelerator Lab in Batavia, IL are closing in on the identification of “forms of matter and energy vital to the nature and evolution of the cosmos that are not yet known to science” thanks to experiments in which muons appear to be “disobeying the known laws of physics” - NYTimes and Quanta
Stay safe,
MDR
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