Management & Leadership

EU’s Trump plan requires carrots, sticks and vibes

10 Feb 2025

Given the president’s tariff antics, Brussels needs a plan of action. Beyond identifying tit-for-tat levies, the EU may also face US pressure to ease up on Big Tech regulation. The best counter is growth-friendly signals, and to exploit its scope to deploy its own rules flexibly.

BP now stands for ‘Best Partitioned’

6 Feb 2025

The $85 bln UK oil major that once repositioned itself as ‘Beyond Petroleum’ trades at a discount to its rivals. Merging the whole company might short-change its investors. But if CEO Murray Auchincloss instead broke up his empire, the sum of its parts might be nearly 60% higher.

How US presidents imposed their will on CEOs

4 Feb 2025

Tycoons like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg bent the knee to Donald Trump. They’re not the first to bow to the Oval Office. In this episode of The Big View podcast, former White House aide Tevi Troy explores the shifting balance of power between corporate and political leaders.

Orsted’s new skipper is stuck in same wind storm

31 Jan 2025

The $16 bln wind developer replaced CEO Mads Nipper with deputy Rasmus Errboe after writedowns on US investments. It may be too late to walk away from those projects. The new boss needs to better articulate the risks facing the group – and take steps to fix its balance sheet.

UK antitrust ouster signals risk as much as growth

22 Jan 2025

The Labour government replaced the Competition and Markets Authority’s chair for insufficient focus on its drive to gee the economy. The CMA’s record is mixed, and regulation elsewhere is in politicians’ sights. But it may mean UK overseers downplay both consumers and stability.

Age is the wrong number by which to judge a CEO

21 Jan 2025

Grumpy investors seeking to oust boss Seifi Ghasemi from $70 bln Air Products are harping on the fact he’s 80. Seniority raises the stakes for succession planning, but poor returns furnish a better yardstick. The irony is that they suffered because an old dog learned new tricks.

Telefónica ouster flags need for a Spain discount

20 Jan 2025

Madrid has used its stake in the $22 bln telco to abruptly replace boss José María Álvarez-Pallete. Spain’s fast growth means it borrows more cheaply than France. But if the government keeps throwing its weight around, domestic companies may warrant a governance markdown.

Davos becomes world’s most exclusive watch party

20 Jan 2025

The annual conflab in the Swiss resort presents itself as a place where business and political leaders solve big problems. This year, most of the 2,750 delegates will instead pay more attention to Donald Trump’s White House return. Even global elites are now passive viewers.

How private share sales could kill the tech IPO

8 Jan 2025

Databricks, Stripe and Elon Musk’s $350 bln SpaceX facilitated large exits by insiders without a float. There’s a growing pool of patient capital targeting mature startups. The bigger the trend gets, the more likely it is that profitable unicorns can stay private indefinitely.

London’s lethargy aids Boaz Weinstein’s new tilt

7 Jan 2025

The US hedge fund manager wants to boot out the board at seven UK investment companies. His fund Saba, which bet against the London Whale, is no stranger to targeting underperforming funds. The growing lack of investor engagement in UK shares makes it easier to do so.

Art of the 2025 deal will be postBidenism

30 Dec 2024

A new US president probably means laxer trustbusters, adding fuel to lower borrowing costs and corporate quests for growth. Exxon, Comcast, Rivian and Google are primed to dust off older M&A plans or craft new ones. Even the White House is positioned to orchestrate a merger.

Dick Parsons led way for nice guys to finish first

27 Dec 2024

The onetime Citi chair and Time Warner CEO, dead at 76, was a beloved Mr. Fixit. He earned the reputation from finance to philanthropy despite backing two M&A disasters for the ages. In a world that rewards hard-charging executives, he carved out a place for humility and warmth.

Honda-Nissan merger moves too slow for comfort

23 Dec 2024

There’s some logic to the struggling Japanese carmakers balking at speeding into a $50 bln tie-up. But taking at least 18 months to test the waters risks losing even more ground to their increasingly dominant Chinese rivals. Potential US tariffs strengthen the case for alacrity.

Microsoft’s AI setback: an imaginary letter

20 Dec 2024

After rushing headlong into machine-learning chips, data centers and startups, the software titan is set to suffer from the frenzy it helped foment. Breakingviews speculates how boss Satya Nadella might break the bad news to investors about a drop in valuations and spending.

India starts resembling China in unflattering ways

19 Dec 2024

Growth is slowing and allegations of interference in the West’s affairs are rising. Part of the narrative weighing on the world’s second-largest economy is applicable to its fifth largest. Even if similarities are exaggerated, the connection poses a threat to India’s moment.

Oil will aid rather than hinder Trump-MbS bromance

16 Dec 2024

Both the US president-elect and the Saudi crown prince want to pump more crude in 2025. Yet US drillers aren’t certain to do so. And Mohammed bin Salman may be able to extract a quid pro quo in return for deploying spare oil capacity should Donald Trump crack down on Iran.

Korea’s value push is getting a much-needed spark

11 Dec 2024

President Yoon Suk Yeol's botched coup adds urgency for Seoul to curb the power of family businesses. Even before the political crisis, the KOSPI was one of the world's worst performing major stock indices. That makes $22 bln Korea Zinc's upcoming shareholding meeting a key test.

ANZ’s new CEO has his hands partly tied

9 Dec 2024

HSBC's ex-retail boss Nuno Matos will take charge of Australia's second-largest lender. Its subpar performance merits the outside hire. But key projects, like integrating Suncorp's bank, are far from complete. That will limit his ability to shake things up at the $60 bln group.

Months of chaos will cripple France for years

6 Dec 2024

PM Michel Barnier’s budget was only the first step in a plan to stabilise public debt at 116% of GDP by 2028. His government’s collapse will make businesses and households even more reluctant to invest and spend, hitting growth. The country is headed for long-term economic pain.

UnitedHealth tragedy opens deep healthcare wounds

5 Dec 2024

The murder of insurance boss Brian Thompson drew a slew of callous responses, including on a company Facebook post. Industry profit is rising in a nation spending double its peers on healthcare for worse outcomes. Policy ideas are weak, but political risk is amping up.