Benzinga Before The Bell: Johnson & Johnson To Stop Selling Talc-Based Powder, Google Fined $43M In Australia For Misleading Users Over Data Tracking, S&P Global Drops Coinbase Debt Rating And Other Top Financial Stories Friday, August 12

Reuters

This Leading South Korean Chipmaker Eyes US For Advanced Chip Packaging Plant: Report

• SK Hynix Inc HXSCL targeted a U.S. site for its advanced chip packaging plant and plans to break ground there around the first quarter of 2023.
• The plant, worth “several billion,” would ramp up to mass production by 2025-2026 and employ 1,000 workers.
• SK Group, South Korea’s second-biggest conglomerate, owner of SK Hynix, announced the new plant in July as part of a $22-billion U.S.-based investment package.

Why Alibaba-Backed Fintech Paytm Plunged 6% Today

• Shares of Indian digital payments service provider Paytm, backed by SoftBank Group Corp SFTBY and Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. BABA, fell close to 6% on Friday following a proxy advisory firm’s opposition to the re-appointment of its CEO and the Reserve Bank of India’s new guidelines for digital lending apps.
• The Objections: Proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services said it is against the re-appointment of Vijay Shekhar Sharma as CEO and managing director at the annual general meeting next week, Reuters reported.

Wall Street Journal

3 M’s Aearo Technologies Files For Bankruptcy To Get Out Of Her Courtroom, Federal Judge Says

• A month ago, many U.S. military veterans had filed lawsuits against 3M Co MMM for hearing impairment caused by faults in the company’s military-grade earplugs.
• A federal judge questioned 3M Co.’s decision to transfer several claims regarding military earplugs to bankruptcy court, noting that a corporate company “voluntarily agreed” to take on those harm responsibilities prior to filing for Chapter 11, reported Wall Street Journal.
• Aearo Technologies LLC, a 3M subsidiary named as a co-defendant and its publicly traded parent company in the roughly 230,000 pending claims, filed for bankruptcy last month.

Deutsche Telekom Nears Majority Stake Ownership In T-Mobile 

• Deutsche Telekom AG DTEGY reiterated plans to build its stake in T-Mobile US, Inc TMUS.
• Deutsche Telekom acknowledged nearing the majority ownership of T-Mobile US by customers.
• Deutsche Telekom raised its guidance for the second time this year, citing in part the performance of T-Mobile.
• T-Mobile’s business in the U.S. accounted for about two-thirds of Deutsche Telekom’s net revenue in Q2.

ValueAct Acquires 6.7% Stake In New York Times; Describes Stock As’ Undervalued’

• San Francisco-based investment firm, ValueAct Capital Partners LP has acquired a 6.7% stake in New York Times Co NYT, according to a regulatory filing.
• The investment firm has acquired the stake for $350.24 million. ValueAct noted that NYT stock is undervalued and represented an attractive investment opportunity.
• The firm will likely bat for the media house to vigorously market its subscriber-only content, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Bloomberg

Billionaire Huobi Founder Seeks To Sell ~60% Of His Stake

• The founder of Huobi Group, Leon Li, is in negotiations to sell his majority stake in the cryptocurrency exchange for up to $3 billion, reported Bloomberg.
• According to people familiar with the situation, the Chinese crypto mogul has held talks with a variety of bankers about selling about 60% of the business.
• The founder of Tron Justin Sun and Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX are among those who have spoken with Huobi informally about a share transfer, the people stated.

Financial Times

TikTok’s Toxic Work Culture At London Forced Employees To Quit; Continues Hiring In US

• TikTok compelled its London office staff to quit by creating a hostile working culture, Financial Times reports.
• TikTok created what staff described as a “kill list” of colleagues in the e-commerce department whom it wanted to fire or end the contracts.
• Some of the targeted employees had only been in the positions for a couple of weeks.
• TikTok reportedly assigned the staff named on the so-called “kill list” to untrained roles.

Benzinga 

Johnson & Johnson To Stop Selling Talc-Based Powder

• Johnson & Johnson JNJ said it plans to stop selling its legacy talc-based baby-powder products globally in 2023, a move amid continued legal battles and two years after the company discontinued the product in the U.S. and Canada.
• After assessing its portfolio, J&J said it had made the “commercial decision” to transition all its baby powder products to cornstarch instead of talcum powder in 2023.
• The health conglomerate maintains that the product is safe. It faces about 38,000 lawsuits claiming its talc products caused cancer due to contamination with asbestos, a known carcinogen.

Google Fined $43M In Australia For Misleading Users Over Data Tracking

• Australia’s competition watchdog said the country’s federal court ordered Alphabet Inc’s GOOGL GOOG Google on Friday to pay AU$60 million ($42.7 million) in penalties for misleading users.
• The court found that the company misled users about collecting their location data through their Android mobile devices between January 2017 and December 2018, the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) said in a statement.
• It estimates that around 1.3 million Australian Google account users may have been affected by this.

S&P Global Drops Coinbase Debt Rating Over Crypto Market Downturn, Doubts Over Company’s Ability To ‘Operate Efficiently’

• S&P Global has lowered its credit rating of Coinbase Global Inc COIN, citing a “negative” outlook for the cryptocurrency exchange.
• S&P Global lowered its long-term issuer credit rating and unsecured debt ratings on Coinbase to ‘BB’ from ‘BB+’ on Thursday.
• The rating agency said it had revised its assessment of the crypto exchange’s financial risk after Coinbase reported weak earnings in the second quarter.

Petrobras Cuts Refinery Diesel Prices Again, Puts Amazon Basin Potash Rights On Sale

• Brazilian state-run Petroleo Brasileiro PBR, also known as Petrobras, will lower refinery gate diesel prices by almost 4% from today, marking the second cut in a week after a drop in international prices.
• The company said it would cut diesel prices to 5.19 reais ($1.01) from 5.41 reais, while gasoline prices were kept unchanged.
• The oil giant had already lowered diesel prices by 3% last week, the first time in more than a year.
• Petroleo Brasileiro, said it has begun looking for bidders for its potassium mining rights in the Amazon basin.

OpenSea Addresses The ‘Elephant In The Room’ — The Sale Of Stolen NFTs

• Decentralized NFT marketplace OpenSea addressed its policy regarding the sale of stolen items on its platform.
• In a series of tweets on Thursday, OpenSea said it plans to incorporate user input in preventing the sale of stolen NFT.
• “So why do we have this policy? It is against US law to knowingly allow the sale and transfer of stolen items. We do not want to incentivize theft by allowing our platform to be used to help sell stolen items,” stated OpenSea.

Ethereum Classic (ETC) Rally Pushes Short Liquidations To $9M

• Ethereum Classic ETC/USD rallied to an intra-day high of $42.29 on Thursday, liquidating $9 million worth of short positions.
• ETC surged 10% over 24 hours, reclaiming a one-month high, according to data from Benzinga Pro. ETC was up 9.31% against Bitcoin BTC/USD and 6.85% against Ethereum ETH/USD.
• Over 12 hours, more than $9 million worth of ETC shorts were liquidated while just $3.8 million longs were liquidated over the same period.

EXCLUSIVE: Qualcomm CFO Says Company Is ‘Naturally Positioned’ To Benefit From The Digital Transformation: ‘The Opportunity In Front Of Us Is Unlimited’

• QUALCOMM Inc QCOM shares surged in July leading up to the company’s quarterly results. A strong earnings report from the chipmaker at the end of the month helped to reinforce the recent rally.
• “We had record revenue both in IoT and automotive, and within handsets, we saw tremendous year-over-year growth in a market that’s been relatively challenged because of the overall macroeconomic situation,” Qualcomm CFO Akash Palkhiwala said Thursday on Benzinga’s “Stock Market Movers.”
• Earnings Highlights: Qualcomm remains focused on diversifying its revenue streams. The chipmaker aims to transform itself from a “phone chip company” to a “connected processor company,” Palkhiwala said.

Rivian Q2 Earnings Highlights: Revenue Beat, Production Update And What’s Next For EV Manufacturer

• Electric vehicle company Rivian Automotive RIVN reported second-quarter financial results after the market close Thursday. Here are the key highlights.
• Rivian reported second-quarter revenue of $364 million, beating a Street estimate of $337.52 million, according to data from Benzinga Pro.
• The company reported a loss of $1.89 per share in the second quarter.
• “We should be able to add a second shift for vehicle assembly towards the end of the third quarter,” the company said.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons.