EU to Rule on Microsoft's ZeniMax Acquisition by March

Microsoft wants to buy ZeniMax to be more competitive with Sony's PlayStation, but it needs the EU's signoff.

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    (Bloomberg) -- HSBC Holdings Plc’s head of wealth and personal banking in the U.S. and Canada Pablo Sanchez is leaving the lender, to be succeeded by Tara Latini, according to a person familiar with the matter.Sanchez is departing to pursue other opportunities, the person said, asking not to be identified discussing a private matter. Latini, who joined HSBC in 2004, will relocate to New York and take over as head of WPB on April 1, after holding the same position in Malaysia, the person said.A spokesman for HSBC declined to comment. Sanchez couldn’t immediately be reached to comment.HSBC is poised to unveil a strategy update on Tuesday with its full-year results. The lender is expected to speed growth of its Asian operations and will return some global leaders to the bank’s original hometown of Hong Kong, Bloomberg reported earlier.The Financial Times reported that HSBC is expected to announce a withdrawal from consumer banking in the U.S., citing unidentified people. The bank’s spokesman declined to comment about such moves.HSBC announced last year that it was combining its retail banking and wealth management with global private banking to create the wealth and personal banking division, with a combined $1.4 trillion in assets.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Square Buys $170 Million More Bitcoin, Deepening Crypto Bet

    (Bloomberg) -- Square Inc. said it purchased $170 million in Bitcoin, further committing to the cryptocurrency and raising its holdings to about 5% of the company’s cash and equivalents.The announcement came Tuesday as Square reported that cryptocurrency continues to be a growing part of its business through the use of its Cash App for Bitcoin transactions. The financial payments company’s involvement with Bitcoin is a reflection of Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey’s belief in cryptocurrencies and the open internet.The investment “really comes down to the alignment with our purpose, and aligning our incentives with cryptocurrency and more broadly expanding the economic empowerment opportunities and making them acceptable more broadly in a fair way around the world,” Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja said. Square also bought $50 million worth of Bitcoin in October.“Bitcoin has the potential to be a native currency of the internet and we want to continue to participate and learn in a disciplined way,” she said.Square said Cash App, its peer-to-peer payments platform that lets people buy stocks, store money and send money to friends, increased monthly users 50% to 36 million in December from a year earlier. The company previously said usage of the app picked up in mid-2020 as people turned to it to accept government stimulus checks. Square also pointed to Cash App’s success as a main driver of the business in the third quarter, thanks in large part to Bitcoin-related transactions.The company reported that fourth-quarter revenue more than doubled to $3.16 billion. Analysts, on average, estimated $3.22 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.Shares declined about 4% in extended trading after closing at $256.59 in New York. The stock has gained 18% this year.Profit, excluding some items, was 32 cents a share, compared with analysts’ estimates of 24 cents. Net income declined to $294 million from $391 million in the quarter a year earlier, the company said Tuesday in a statement. Gross Payment Volume, or the cost of goods and services processed by retailers using Square’s sales products, increased 12% to $32 billion.(Updates with comments from CFO quote in the third paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.

  • Kohl’s Faces Activist Group Seeking Control of Board

    (Bloomberg) -- Kohl’s Corp. said it rejects attempts by a group of activists “to seize control of our board and disrupt our momentum,” pushing back against a group that seeks to name nine directors and overhaul the retailers’ inventory. The shares pared some of their earlier gains.“We are well underway in implementing a strong growth strategy and accelerating our performance,” the company said in a statement on its website, adding that its plans already include several of the initiatives the activist investors are proposing. Other plans, it said, “would not be accretive to shareholder value.” The company pointed to sequential improvements in recent quarters as evidence that its strategy is producing results.The statement signals tensions with the group, which holds a combined stake of about 9.5% and has called on Kohl’s to reduce inventory and quit its “dizzying array of promotional gimmicks.” In a statement Monday, the investors, which include Macellum Advisors GP LLC, Ancora Holdings Inc., Legion Partners Asset Management LLC and 4010 Capital LLC, said the board lacks retail experience and has limited ownership of Kohl’s shares.“Poor retail execution and strategy have led to stagnant sales and declining operating margins,” the group said. “The board has overseen a long list of sales and margin-driving initiatives which have created no meaningful value for shareholders.”Kohl’s shares rose 7.9% at 12:56 p.m. in New York. Earlier on Monday, they jumped as much as 10.8%, the most intraday in more than two months.The activist slate of nominees includes Marjorie Bowen, who had a nearly 20-year career in investment banking at Houlihan Lokey; David Duplantis, a former executive at Coach; and Thomas Kingsbury, who serves on several other retailer boards.Kohl’s pushed back on the criticism of its directors, saying it had replaced half of its board with six new independent directors since 2016. The board will engage with the activist investors, the company said.The investors earlier this year nominated the potential directors to join Kohl’s 12-person board, according to a person who asked not to be identified. The board effort and the size of the stake were first reported Sunday by the Wall Street Journal.Pandemic WoesLike other major U.S. retailers, Kohl’s has struggled amid the pandemic, which hurt back-to-school sales as many students remain homebound. However, Kohl’s shares have rebounded since its disappointing third-quarter earnings report, more than doubling since mid-November.The activists are looking to place experienced retailers on the board to work with Chief Executive Officer Michelle Gass. With the right team and strategic plan, Kohl’s could generate more than $10 a share in earnings within a few years, the group said. That would be roughly double its performance in fiscal 2020.The investors also want the company to consider a sale-leaseback of some non-core real estate. Kohl’s could unlock as much as $8 billion of value through real estate transactions, the group said.Even before the pandemic, Kohl’s had experienced difficulties. It logged about a 1.3% drop in total revenue in the year ended February 2020 -- right before Covid-19 hurt foot traffic at U.S. stores. As Kohl’s raced to roll out socially distant services like curbside pickup, shoppers last year increasingly shifted their dollars away from department stores to internet giants like Walmart Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.Holiday SalesIn the critical holiday period, Kohl’s total revenue dropped 10%, preliminary results show -- though that’s better than the chain’s performance at the height of the pandemic. It will report results for the most recent 12-month period in early March.In a bid to differentiate Kohl’s from its peers, many of which are based in traditional malls, Gass has tried several out-of-the-box ideas, including becoming a drop-off point for Amazon returns. In December, it announced a plan to open Sephora shops inside at least 850 Kohl’s locations by 2023 to attract more customers.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2021 Bloomberg L.P.