Benzinga Before The Bell: Elon Musk Sells $6.8B Tesla Shares, Nio Begins ES7 Test Drives, Coinbase Accused Of Misleading Investors And Other Top Financial Stories Wednesday, August 10

Wall Street Journal

Equifax-Backed Credit Score Provider Says Unpaid Medical Bills Do Not Predict Creditworthiness

• Wall Street Journal reported that VantageScore Solutions LLC would stop factoring all medical debt in collections into the latest versions of its scores starting October.
• The credit-score provider was founded by Experian Plc EXPGY, Equifax Inc EFX, and TransUnion TRU in 2006.
• VantageScore decided to remove all medical collections after finding that they aren’t good at predicting a person’s likelihood of repaying other debts, especially compared with other accounts in collections, said Silvio Tavares, the company’s CEO.

Microsoft Continues To Focus On Cost Cutting To Beat Inflation, Slowdown: Report

• Microsoft Corp MSFT asked teams across the company to rein in some employee expenses, the Wall Street Journal reports. Managers have told staff regarding various cutbacks to the company’s budget.
• Microsoft also targeted some spending on business travel, outside training, and company gatherings. At a recent picnic for one Microsoft team, managers paid for their employees’ food and drinks instead of billing the company, writes WSJ.
• Microsoft’s other cost-cutting initiatives included a hiring freeze in some parts of the company and a plan to lay off less than 1% of its workforce of about 181,000 employees.

Bloomberg

SoftBank Expects Windfall Gain of $34B From Alibaba Stake Sale: Report

• SoftBank Group Corp SFTBY looks to post a 4.6 trillion yen ($34.1 billion) gain from settling forward contracts for Alibaba Group Holding Limited BABA stock, Bloomberg reports.
• It is a far more considerable windfall than previously reported.
• SoftBank’s board approved the early physical settlement of prepaid forward contracts corresponding to 242 million American Depositary Receipts.

DeFi Protocol Curve Finance Reports Security Incident, $500K Stolen

• Cryptocurrency exchange Curve Finance seems to have had a security breach on Tuesday, adding to a long list of previous hacks that have afflicted the digital token industry.
• Curve tweeted that an “issue has been found and reverted” after an earlier warning against using its curve.fi website.
• The exchange also retweeted a message that said attackers fled with around $500,000 in stolen funds. Nameservers are used to route internet traffic to the appropriate websites.

Financial Times

Apple Supplier Foxconn Being Pushed By Taiwan To Unwind $800M In Chinese Chipmaker

• Taiwanese national security officials are pushing Apple Inc’s AAPL supplier Foxconn to unwind its $800 million investment in Chinese chipmaker Tsinghua Unigroup, according to a Financial Times report.
• A senior Taiwanese government official involved in national security issues told the publication that the deal would definitely not go through.
• The development comes as Taipei seeks to align itself more closely with the U.S. after Nancy Pelosi visited the island nation last week in the face of escalating threats from Beijing.

Benzinga

After Elon Musk’s Canada Gigafactory Hint, Tesla Said To Be Lobbying For Ontario Plant

• After Tesla, Inc. TSLA CEO Elon Musk teased the possibility of a new Gigafactory in Canada by the year-end at the company’s annual shareholder meeting last week, it appears the electric vehicle maker may have already started the groundwork for the plan.
• Tesla is lobbying the Ontario government to establish an advanced manufacturing facility in Canada, Reuters reported, citing a filing by the company with the province’s Office of the Integrity Commissioner.
• Tesla’s Canadian unit is working with the government to “identify opportunities for industrial facility permitting reforms,” the company reportedly said in an amended filing done on Jul. 18.

Nio Begins ES7 Test Drives In Some Chinese Cities: Here’s When Deliveries Will Begin

• Nio Inc NIO has started allowing its customers to test drive its new SUV ES7 post locking in orders beginning Aug. 2, reported the CnEVPost.
• Cities: Test drives of the SUV became available in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Xi’an, and Dongguan, according to information shared by the Nio App, as per the report.
• Nio reportedly said the first group of customers who took part in the test drives were primarily those who first reserved the Nio ES7 and those who finished their order lock-in.

To Avoid Supply Crunch, FDA Temporarily Allows Higher Impurity Levels In Merck’s Diabetes Drug: Report

• The FDA recently became aware of a nitrosamine impurity, Nitroso-STG-19 or NTTP, in certain samples of Merck & Co Inc’s MRK type 2 diabetes drug Januvia/Janumet (sitagliptin).
• The agency said that to avoid a shortage and to help ensure patients have access to an adequate supply, the FDA said it would not object to the temporary distribution of sitagliptin containing the impurity above the acceptable intake limit.

Morgan Stanley’s New’ Speculation Indicator’ Enables Ethereum (ETH) Price Forecasting

• Morgan Stanley MS has introduced a new indicator that can potentially forecast the price of Ethereum ETH/USD based on speculative activity among traders.
• The PAVA (price-adjusted volume per address) indicator differentiates price movement based on market fundamentals from price movement based on network usage, reported CoinDesk on Tuesday.
• PAVA is calculated by dividing ETH’s price in U.S. dollars by the ratio of blockchain transaction volume to active wallet addresses (90-day average).

Coinbase Issued’ False,’ ‘Misleading’ Statements Ahead Of Public Listing: Shareholder Lawsuit

• Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global Inc COIN has been accused of misleading investors regarding its public listing, as per a new shareholder derivative lawsuit.
• What Happened: Coinbase and nine of its executives allegedly breached fiduciary duties, violated the securities act, and issued false and misleading statements concerning its direct listing, according to a shareholder complaint filed on Aug. 4.
• The complaint alleges that Coinbase “negligently prepared” its registration statement, which contained untrue statements of material fact as a result.

Chipotle Mexican Grill Agrees To Pay $20M To NYC Workers For Sick Leave Violation

• Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc CMG has agreed to pay $20 million to settle a claim on unpaid sick leave and scheduling violations.
• The restaurant chain will pay compensation to about 13,000 of its current and former workers in New York.
• Chipotle will also pay $1 million in civil penalties.

Apple Re-Enters Fray For Streaming Rights Of Big Ten Athletic Events: Report

• The Big Ten Conference, the oldest collegiate athletic conference in the United States, is floating a streaming package, and tech giant Apple, Inc. AAPL could be interested in lapping up the rights to it, the Athletic reported.
• Apart from Apple, Amazon, Inc. AMZN could be interested in the package, the report said, while Comcast Corporation CMCSA-owned NBC’s Peacock may also want to vie for streaming rights.
• Apple had previously negotiated for the streaming rights to Big Ten athletic events, including football and basketball, 9to5mac said. The conference’s decision to add USC and UCLA earlier this summer has renewed Apple’s interest in the sporting event, as per The Athletic.

Elon Musk Sheds Tesla Shares Valued At $6.8B — In First Such Sale Since April

• Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk sold $6.85 billion worth of the electric-vehicle maker’s shares, according to filings made with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.
• What Happened: The billionaire entrepreneur sold 7.92 million Tesla shares valued at nearly $6.85 billion, taking into account Friday’s closing price of $864.51.
• The shares were sold on Aug. 5 in 55 transactions, according to the filings.

Elon Musk Reveals He Sold Tesla Shares Last Week To Prepare For An ‘Unlikely’ Event

• Tesla Inc TSLA CEO Elon Musk said he sold shares of the automaker to avoid an emergency sale in the “hopefully unlikely” event Twitter Inc TWTR forces his buyout deal to close.
• Musk confirmed that he was done selling in response to a question on Twitter.
• The entrepreneur said, “In the (hopefully unlikely) event that Twitter forces this deal to close *and* some equity partners don’t come through, it is important to avoid an emergency sale of Tesla stock.

AppLovin Offers To Acquire Unity In $20B Deal: What Investors Should Know And 3 Stocks To Watch

• Mobile app company AppLovin APP wants to buy Unity Software Inc. U, a software and gaming platform company.
• AppLovin submitted a non-binding proposal to combine with Unity. The Palo Alto, California-based company believes the combination would boost shareholder value and “create an unprecedented full-stack solution for developers to create, monetize, measure and grow games.”
• The proposal cites increased scale, synergy value creation, capacity for strategic investments, diverse and liquid shareholder base, and shareholder value creation as reasons for the deal to be approved.

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