Marvell bids $6B for chipmaker Cavium
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -- Marvell Technology announced Monday it has bid about $6 billion for Cavium in a cash-and-stock deal that would create a chipmaker to compete with Intel and other giants in the industry.
The potential deal extends a long-running consolidation for computer-chip producers which are trying to grow so that they can better supply tech leaders like Apple, Google and Samsung.
Last week, Qualcomm rejected an unsolicited, $103 billion buyout from Broadcom, saying the bid was too low.
Qualcomm last year said it would buy NXP Semiconductors for $38 billion. That deal remains under regulatory review. Avago Technologies purchased Broadcom for $37 billion in 2016.
Cavium makes chips for wired and wireless tech products and is prominent in networking technology. Marvell makes application-specific chips and integrated circuits for data storage.
-- The Associated Press
Texans urge U.S. to keep NAFTA intact
At the border of Mexico, heads of Texas industries ranging from energy to farming are saying they'd like to keep the North American Free Trade Agreement largely intact with minor modifications.
Key business leaders talked up the economic benefits of the 23-year-old accord at a U.S. Senate committee field hearing in San Antonio, countering the message of President Donald Trump who called the pact a "disaster." Trump has threatened to exit NAFTA if current talks to update the deal don't yield more benefits for American workers and companies.
"We believe in NAFTA, it makes sense and we ask for your help in continuing to go forward," Richard Perez, chief executive of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, said Monday at the hearing. Perez suggested changes like improving regulations and customs procedures and reducing non-tariff barriers would help facilitate trade across the borders.
Texas would be one of the hardest-hit states by a NAFTA withdrawal, according to a new analysis by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. An exit would throw into jeopardy nearly a million jobs that depend on trade with Mexico and Canada, with nearly half the state's exports destined for the bordering nations, according to the Chamber.
-- Bloomberg News
Gunmaker Remington's sales, profits dip
Remington Outdoor, the second-largest U.S. gunmaker, has had a "rapid" and "sharp" deterioration in sales and a similar drop in profit since January, and faces "continued softness in consumer demand for firearms," credit analysts at Standard & Poor's Global Ratings said in a report.
S&P as a result has cut the company's corporate credit rating -- already at a junk-bond-level CCC+ -- two full notches, to CCC-, which is likely to make the company's high-yield debt less attractive to investors and lenders, and force Remington to pay more in interest.
A backlog of unsold firearms will force Remington to operate at a loss and "pressure the company's sales and profitability at least through early 2018, resulting in insufficient cash flow for debt service and fixed charges," unless Remington gives up cash to pay for ongoing operations, S&P said.
S&P expects "a heightened risk of a restructuring" of Remington's $575 million senior secured loan and asset-based lending facility, which it is supposed to pay back in 2019.
-- The Philadelphia Inquirer
Uber orders 24,000 SUVs for robot fleet
Uber Technologies Inc. agreed to buy 24,000 sport utility vehicles from Volvo Cars to form a fleet of driverless autos, a signal that the company remains committed to autonomous cars under newly appointed Chief Executive Officer Dara Khosrowshahi.
The XC90s, priced from $46,900 at U.S. dealers, will be delivered from 2019 to 2021 in the first commercial purchase by a ride-hailing provider, Volvo said in a statement Monday. San Francisco-based Uber will add its own sensors and software to permit pilot-less driving.
Uber's order steps up efforts to replace human drivers, the biggest cost in its on-demand taxi service. The autonomous fleet is small compared with the more than 2 million people who drive for Uber but reflects dedication to the company's strategy of developing self-driving cars.
-- Bloomberg News
Texas coal plants to shut; 600 jobs lost
DALLAS -- Electricity generator Luminant is cutting about 600 jobs as it closes three coal-fired power plants and a mine in Texas.
The Texas Workforce Commission said Monday that Luminant plans to make the layoffs in January.
Luminant previously announced that it would shutter the Monticello, Big Brown and Sandow power plants. The filing with regulators puts a number on the affected jobs, nearly half of which are at the Three Oaks mine near Elgin, Texas.
The company is closing the power plants because of competition from cheap natural gas, low wholesale power prices and an increase in renewable generation.
Luminant is part of Irving, Texas-based Vistra Energy Corp., which also owns Texas electric retailer TXU Energy.
-- The Associated Press
Bubble feared as bitcoin rises to $8,290
Bitcoin's relentless and volatile rally shows no sign of abating, with the world's largest cryptocurrency defying growing bubble fears to hit yet another milestone.
Bitcoin rose as much as 7.7 percent to a record $8,290 on Monday in New York. It's been a tumultuous year for the virtual currency, with three separate slumps of more than 25 percent all giving way to subsequent rallies.
"The inflation in this thing is massive," Luke Hickmore, a senior investment manager at Aberdeen Standard Investments in London, said in an interview with Bloomberg TV. "When will it collapse? Who knows. It will cause a lot of pain."
Even as many skeptics call the asset a bubble waiting to pop, it's becoming too big for many on Wall Street to ignore. CME Group Inc., the world's biggest exchange, will start offering futures trading on bitcoin next month, while senior executives at Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Citigroup Inc. have said they are researching cryptocurrencies and the blockchain technology that underlies them.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 11/21/2017