Top Financial Stories Tuesday, September 6: Focus on iPhone 14 Event, OPEC+ Plans Mild Production Cut, Netflix Says No To Crypto Ads And More…

Reuters

EQT Corp Close To Buying THQ Appalachia

U.S.-based natural gas producer EQT Corporation EQT is in advanced talks to purchase exploration and production company THQ Appalachia I for approximately $4 billion, including debt, reported Reuters, citing people familiar with the matter.
The sources said that after successful negotiations, EQT is expected to sign an agreement with THQ Appalachia’s owners as early as this week.

SoftBank Group Corp SFTBY might invest $35 million in Indian car service and repair firm GoMechanic, Reuters reported.
Vision Fund’s early-stage talks with GoMechanic are being held around a $600-700 million valuation.
GoMechanic was valued at $300 million last year with annual revenue of around $40 million.

The European Commission has prohibited Illumina Inc’s ILMN acquisition of GRAIL.
Reuters reported that Illumina is in talks with European Union antitrust regulators to divest Grail ahead of an expected EU veto next week of its $8 billion acquisition.
The Commission is scheduled to decide on the takeover by September 12.

Volkswagen AG VWAGY shared plans to list a minority stake in the Porsche sports-car maker in 2022 amid inflation and the Russia-Europe energy standoff, Reuters reports.
VW weighed an initial public offering between September and October, making way for one of Europe’s leading IPO.

Washington Post

Signal appointed Meredith Whittaker, a former Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL as its first President, adding to the roster of tech critics leading the encrypted messaging app.
The Google manager has been outspoken about the harms of Big Tech.
Non-profit-backed Signal competes against WhatsApp and iMessage, championed by Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc META and Apple Inc AAPL.
Whittaker says that the only way to escape technology that makes money off your data is by paying for products that don’t.
Tesla Inc TSLA chief Elon Musk praised Signal and recommended that Twitter Inc TWTR have end-to-end encryption for its direct messages to ensure security.

Unite Here, a 300,000-member union of hotel and food service workers, has strived to unionize Silicon Valley cafeteria workers since 2018, experiencing maximum success at Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google.
The cooks and servers behind Google’s popular cafeterias are third-party contractors deprived of the generous perks and benefits.
Employed by the contract companies Compass and Guckenheimer, those unionized now make up 90% of total food services workers at Google.
Workers have unionized at 23 Google offices nationwide, including in Seattle and San Jose.
Google workers in Atlanta employed by Sodexo cafeteria company voiced their list of demands, including their plan to unionize.
Tens of thousands more workers voted to join unions in the first half of this year than in the first six months of 2021.

Bloomberg

Sony Group Corp’s SONY veteran PlayStation hardware architect Masayasu Ito will retire shortly.
The 60-year-old EVP of Sony Interactive Entertainment, responsible for PlayStation and Sony’s other gaming initiatives, will depart on October 1.
During his tenure at the PlayStation group, Ito led engineering for the PlayStation 4 and the latest-generation PlayStation 5.
He also helped bring to market the upgraded PS4 Pro model, adding improved graphics and compatibility.
The PS5 battled supply chain and logistics jams since its debut in November 2020.

Nikkei

Amazon To Set Foot In Prescription Drug Sales In Japan

E-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc AMZN is purportedly planning to enter the prescription drug sales market in Japan, the Nikkei reported.
Amazon will partner with small and medium-size pharmacies to create an online platform, and customers can have their medicines delivered at home.
The move will be a huge game changer for Japan’s brick-and-mortar pharmacies.

Benzinga

Streaming giant Netflix Inc NFLX is reportedly in talks to introduce a new ad-based subscription service in Australia — but cryptocurrency-related content won’t be a part of it.”
As part of its new service rollout in Australia, the streaming giant has decided to reject ads related to cryptocurrency, politics, and gambling, The Sydney Morning Herald reported, citing anonymous local media sources.

Ireland’s data privacy regulator, the Data Protection Commission (DPC), has decided to levy a record fine of €405 million ($402 million) against Meta Platforms Inc META-owned Instagram following an investigation into its handling of children’s data, a spokesperson confirmed to Benzinga in an emailed statement.
Reuters reported on the matter earlier on Monday.
Instagram plans to appeal against the fine, a spokesperson for parent Meta Platforms told Reuters in an emailed statement.

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance is suspending all deposits and withdrawals of Ethereum (ETH/USD) ahead of the Merge event that will go live this week.
Binance said all ETH and Wrapped Ethereum (WETH/USD) on a number of networks would be suspended on September 6 at 2 a.m. UTC. The suspension will last until The Merge is complete.

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world, Binance, announced Monday that it would delist USD Coin, the stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar, in favor of its native Binance USD (BUSD/USD) stablecoin beginning September 29. Here’s what you need to know.
In a statement, the company said it is introducing Binance USD Auto-Conversion for users’ existing balances and new deposits of the following stablecoins at a 1-to-1 ratio.

Oil maintained gains from the previous session on Tuesday morning in Asia trading after the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies, including Russia (OPEC+) decided on a modest 100,000 barrel-a-day supply cut while adding that the group may do more in the fourth quarter if necessary.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures were trading at $89.23/barrel on Tuesday, up from the lows of $86.82/barrel seen on Friday.

Apple Inc’s AAPL “Far Out” hardware launch event is only a few days away, and rumor mills are working overtime over what the newest iteration of the company’s flagship iPhone product holds for users.
The iPhone enhancements would be more modest than mind-blowing for the second year in a row, Bloomberg columnist Mark Gurman said in his weekly Power On newsletter.
He expects Apple to announce four variants: two iPhone Pro models and two standard versions. The company won’t release an iPhone 14 mini, he added.

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