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IN INDIA’S STARTUP capital of Bangalore, auto-rickshaw drivers are no less prized than software engineers. Given the city’s chaotic traffic, rickshaws are sometimes the fastest way to get around. But finding one isn’t easy. Threats, pleas and moral appeals are necessary before a driver accepts a ride. The experience is no better with Ola and Uber, two ride-hailing firms which offer rickshaw services for a commission. Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

THE GAME is on. Or so ruled an American appeals court on July 14th when it threw out another effort by the Federal Trade Commission to block Microsoft’s $69bn acquisition of Activision Blizzard, a games developer, which a federal judge had cleared three days earlier. A few days later Sony and Microsoft agreed to keep “Call of Duty”, Activision’s hit first-person shooter, on Sony’s PlayStation console, increasing the pressure on Britain’s trustbuster, the last holdout, to approve the merger.Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

It is something of a revolution in the country which once deemed yogurt-making to be a strategic industry. For the first time in the history of the fifth republic one of France’s big retail chains will be in foreign hands. Daniel Kretinsky, a Czech tycoon who made his fortune investing in coal and natural gas, is on the verge of taking control of the Casino group, which includes a chain of hypermarkets, as well as Monoprix and Franprix, two other retail chains, and convenience stores.Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

Dear Max, I am an extremely nervous public speaker and I was told long ago that it can help to imagine that my audience is naked. I casually mentioned this piece of advice to another member of staff the other day and have now been reported to HR for inappropriate behaviour. What should I do?Listen to this story. Enjoy more audio and podcasts on More

American Airlines raised its earnings outlook for 2023 after a strong start to the peak travel season.
Record revenue of $14.06 billion topped analysts’ expectations and was up 4.7% from a year earlier.
Airline executives have been upbeat about travel demand, particularly for international trips.

Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, from American Airlines company, taking off from Barcelona airport, in Barcelona on 24th February 2023. 
JanValls | Nurphoto | Getty Images

American Airlines on Thursday raised its earnings outlook for 2023 after a strong start to the peak travel season, the latest airline to reap the rewards from the continued boom in demand.
The Fort Worth,Texas-based carrier expects to earn between $3 and $3.75 a share for the full year, adjusting for one-time items, up from a forecast in May to earn about $2.50 to $3.50. That updated 2023 profit guidance falls in line with Wall Street expectations of $3.10, according to Refinitiv consensus estimates.

Airline executives have been upbeat about travel demand, particularly for international trips. Some airfares have declined compared with last year, when airlines struggled to rebuild their schedules after the worst of the Covid pandemic, leaving travelers with fewer flights and seats to choose from.
American said Thursday that it expects unit revenues to drop as much as 6.5% in the third quarter from a year earlier with capacity growth of up to 7% from the same period of 2022. For the third quarter, American expects to earn an adjusted 85 cents to 95 cents per share, in line with estimates.
The company’s forecasts include costs from labor deals, like a tentative agreement with its pilots. However, American’s pilots union are seeking improvements to its tentative contract following a deal struck but rival United and its pilots’ union last week.
“In regard to wages, we’re going to match those,” American’s CEO, Robert Isom, told CNBC’s Phil LeBeau on Thursday. “I want our pilots to know that.”
Here’s how American Airlines performed in the second quarter compared with what Wall Street anticipated, based on an average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Refinitiv:

Adjusted earnings per share: $1.92 vs. $1.59 expected
Total revenue: $14.06 billion vs. expected $13.74 billion

American reported net income in the second quarter of $1.34 billion, or $1.88 a share, up from $476 million, or 68 cents a share in the same period a year earlier. Adjusting for one-time items, including costs associated with planes retired early in the pandemic, the company earned $1.37 billion, or $1.92 per share.
Record revenue of $14.06 billion topped analysts’ expectations and was up 4.7% from a year earlier.
The airline’s flying capacity was up 5.3% from a year ago. More

Kenvue reported second-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that topped expectations in the consumer health company’s first quarterly report since it spun out from Johnson & Johnson two months ago.
The company also issued an upbeat sales outlook for 2023.
Kenvue’s beat was driven by resilient demand for its wealth of widely known brands such as Band-Aid, Tylenol, Listerine, Neutrogena and Aveeno.
J&J still owns a 90% stake in Kenvue, meaning it can generally control the direction of the spinoff’s business for the time being.

Kenvue, a unit of Johnson & Johnson’s consumer health business.
CFOTO | Future Publishing | Getty Images

Kenvue reported second-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that topped expectations Thursday in the consumer health company’s first quarterly report since it spun out from Johnson & Johnson two months ago.
The company, formerly J&J’s consumer health division, also issued an upbeat sales outlook for 2023.

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Kenvue’s beat was driven by resilient demand for its wealth of widely known brands such as Band-Aid, Tylenol, Listerine, Neutrogena and Aveeno.
“This quarter was yet another proof point, showcasing the power of our portfolio,” Kenvue CEO Thibaut Mongon said during an earnings call Thursday.
But J&J still owns a 90% stake in Kenvue, meaning it can generally control the direction of the spinoff’s business for now. J&J will reduce its stake in Kenvue later this year. 
J&J reported its own second-quarter earnings on Thursday, which included Kenvue’s results. 
Here’s how Kenvue results compared with Wall Street expectations, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: 32 cents adjusted, vs. 30 cents expected
Revenue: $4.01 billion, vs. $3.96 billion expected

Shares of Kenvue were flat in premarket trading Thursday. After a strong debut on the public market in May, the stock has struggled as investors question how much growth the company can deliver with its iconic brands as consumers pull back on spending. 
Kenvue’s stock has shed more than 7% since it debuted on the public market, dragging its market value down to roughly $47.9 billion. 
Kenvue on Thursday also initiated a quarterly cash dividend of about 20 cents per share for the third quarter, payable to shareholders on Sept. 7. 
Unlike most recent IPOs, Kenvue is already profitable. 
The company posted second-quarter sales of $4.01 billion, up 5.4% from the same period a year ago. Foreign exchange headwinds dragged on sales by around 2.3%, according to Kenvue.
It reported a net income of $430 million, or 23 cents per share, compared with $604 million, or 35 cents per share, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, the company’s adjusted earnings were 32 cents a share.
Kenvue is forecasting 2023 sales growth of 4.5% to 5.5%. In April following its IPO, Kenvue said it expects annual sales growth through 2025 to be about 3% to 4% globally. 
The company’s full-year adjusted earnings outlook is $1.26 to $1.31 per share. Analysts surveyed by Refinitiv expected $1.23 per share.
The company reported sales growth across its three business divisions in the second quarter.
Kenvue’s self-care unit, which includes products for eye care, cough and cold and vitamins, generated $1.66 billion in sales for the quarter. That rose 12.2% from a year ago, fueled by increased demand from higher cough, cold and flu cases.
Skin health and beauty products accounted for $1.15 billion in sales, which climbed 1.9% from a year ago. Among those products are shampoos, conditioners, hair loss treatments and skin care. 
Items in the essential health division, including baby products, mouthwash and dental rinses, sanitary protection and wound care, saw $1.20 billion in net sales, up 0.5% from the same period a year ago.
Kenvue’s IPO still left J&J liable for thousands of allegations that its talc baby powder and other talc products caused cancer.
Those products fall under the company’s consumer-health business, now Kenvue, but the spinoff will assume only talc-related liabilities that arise outside the U.S. and Canada, according to its IPO filing from January.
There are only a “small number” of lawsuits outside of the U.S. and Canada that “we do not consider material at this stage,” Mongon said at the Deutsche Bank Global Consumer Conference last month.  More

Johnson & Johnson on Thursday reported second-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that topped Wall Street’s expectations due to strong sales growth from the company’s medtech business. 
The company. whose financial results are considered a bellwether for the broader health sector, also raised its full-year guidance. 
J&J’s quarterly results come amid investor anxiety over the thousands of lawsuits claiming that the company’s talc-based baby powder and other products caused cancer.

Johnson & Johnson on Thursday reported second-quarter revenue and adjusted earnings that topped Wall Street’s expectations, and lifted its full-year guidance as sales from the company’s medtech business jumped.
The medtech division provides devices for surgeries, orthopedics and vision. The company is benefitting from a rebound in demand for non-urgent surgeries among older adults, who deferred those procedures during the pandemic.

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That increased demand has been observed by health insurers like UnitedHealth Group and Elevance Health.
Here’s how J&J results compared with Wall Street expectations, based on a survey of analysts by Refinitiv:

Earnings per share: $2.80 adjusted, vs. $2.62 expected
Revenue: $25.53 billion, vs. $24.62 billion expected

Shares of J&J rose about 2% in premarket trading Thursday. J&J’s stock has dropped more than 10% for the year, putting the company’s market value at roughly $412 billion. 
J&J, whose financial results are considered a bellwether for the broader health sector, said its sales during the quarter grew 6.3% over the same period last year. 
The pharmaceutical giant reported a net income of $5.14 billion, or $1.96 per share. That compares with a net income of $4.8 billion, or $1.80 per share, for the same period a year ago.

Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings per share were $2.80 for the period.
J&J is now forecasting full-year sales of $98.80 billion to $99.80 billion, about $1 billion higher than the guidance provided in April.
The company raised its 2023 adjusted earnings outlook to $10.70 to $10.80 per share, from a previous forecast of $10.60 to $10.70 per share.

In this photo illustration the stock trading graph of Johnson and Johnson is seen on a smartphone screen.
Rafael Henrique | SOPA Images | LightRocket | Getty Images

Sales for the company’s medical devices business rose to $7.79 billion, up 12.9% from the second quarter of 2022.
J&J said growth came from electrophysiological products, which evaluate the heart’s electrical system and help doctors understand the cause of abnormal heart rhythms. Wound closure products and devices for orthopedic trauma, or serious injuries of the skeletal or muscular system, also contributed.
J&J said its acquisition of Abiomed, a cardiovascular medical technology company, in December helped fuel that growth as well.
J&J reported $13.73 billion in pharmaceutical sales, which grew more than 3% year over year. Excluding sales of its unpopular Covid vaccine, the pharmaceutical division raked in $13.45 billion. 
The business is focused on developing drugs across different disease areas.
The company said the growth was driven by sales of Darzalex, a biologic for the treatment of multiple myeloma, Erleada, a prostate cancer treatment, and the blockbuster drug Stelara, which is used to treat a number of immune-mediated inflammatory diseases.
J&J will lose patent protection on Stelara later this year. 
Growth was partially offset by the decline in sales of arthritis drug Remicade, which faces competition from biosimilars, or lower-cost medicines almost identical in structure.
This quarter was the first without any U.S. sales from J&J’s unpopular Covid vaccine. In April, the company said it expects no domestic revenue beyond what it reported during the first quarter because its commitments under government contracts are complete.  
But the shot still brought in $285 million in international revenue. 
J&J’s consumer health business spun out as an independent company under the name Kenvue in early May, partway through the quarter. 
J&J continues to own nearly 90% of Kenvue shares and plans to distribute them to its shareholders later this year.
J&J said the business raked in $4.01 billion in sales for the quarter, up 5.4% from the same period a year ago. 
That growth primarily came from over-the-counter products such as Tylenol, the pain reliever Motrin and upper respiratory products. Skin health and beauty products under the Neutrogena brand contributed to international sales growth. 
J&J’s quarterly results come amid investor anxiety over the thousands of lawsuits claiming that the company’s talc-based products were contaminated with the carcinogen asbestos, which caused ovarian cancer and several deaths.
Those products, such as J&J’s namesake baby powder, now fall under Kenvue. But J&J will assume all talc-related liabilities that arise in the U.S. and Canada.
In April, J&J’s subsidiary LTL Management filed for bankruptcy in New Jersey, proposing to pay nearly $9 billion to settle more than 38,000 lawsuits and prevent new cases from coming forward. It’s the company’s second attempt to resolve talc claims in bankruptcy court after a federal appeals court rejected an earlier bid. 
Most litigation has been halted during the bankruptcy proceedings.
J&J continues to deny the allegations and contend that its talc-based products don’t cause cancer.  More

Netflix subscriptions rose 8% in the second quarter as its revenue climbed year over year.
While Netflix beat earnings estimates, it missed on revenue. The company reported $8.19 billion in revenue.
The company is cracking down on password sharing.

Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

Netflix said Wednesday that its quarterly revenue and subscriptions rose, as efforts to curb password sharing took hold.
Here’s what the company reported for the second quarter versus what analysts expected, according to Refinitiv:

Earnings: $3.29 a share vs. $2.86 per share expected
Revenue: $8.19 billion vs $8.30 billion expected

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The streaming giant said it added 5.9 million customers during the second quarter amid its broader crackdown on password sharing in the U.S. Netflix said it would roll out its new policy to the rest of its customers on Wednesday.
Netflix’s stock fell as much as 8% in after hours trading.
The company reported revenue of $8.19 billion, up 3% from $7.97 billion in the prior-year period. Net income of $1.49 billion climbed from $1.44 billion in the year-ago quarter.
The earnings report comes soon as investors look for more information on the rollout of Netflix’s ad-supported streaming tier and push to boost subscriptions by rooting out account sharing.
However, Netflix said it was too early to report a breakdown of revenue from the ad-supported tier — which was introduced late last year — as well as the accounts that have come from the new password policy.

Netflix said Wednesday it expects a boost in revenue in the second half of the year as it begins “to see the full benefits of paid sharing plus the steady growth in our ad-supported plan.”
Netflix said it now forecasts revenue of $8.5 billion, up 7% year over year, for the third quarter. It attributed the expected revenue growth to more average paid memberships.
The company also anticipates paid net subscriber additions in the third quarter will be similar to the second quarter. Meanwhile, Netflix expects revenue growth in the fourth quarter to “accelerate more substantially” as the efforts to curb password sharing gain steam and as advertising revenue grows.
In May, Netflix began alerting members about the policy to deter the use of other people’s accounts. Subscribers can either transfer a profile to someone outside of their household so they can pay for their own account, or the member can pay a $7.99 additional fee per person.
The company’s subscriber base rose in the weeks following the sharing policy rollout, according to a report from Antenna.
Netflix executives declined on Wednesday’s earnings call to give specific information on the rollout of its paid sharing initiative so far.
Co-CEO Greg Peters said Wednesday that the company will not see the full effect of the policy for several quarters.
“It’s not an overnight kind of thing,” Peters said on the call. “In part because of interventions that are applied gradually, and in part because some borrowers won’t immediately sign up for their own account, but will do so in the next month or three months or six months or maybe even longer down the line as we launch a title that they are particularly interested in.”
The executives noted that the password sharers who have started their own accounts have similar characteristics as longstanding customers, leading the company to expect a high retention rate.
Netflix introduced both the new sharing policy and ad tier in the last year as part of its response to its first subscriber loss in more than a decade in 2022.
Netflix’s stock has risen with the rollout of the initiatives. The company’s shares have climbed more than 60% this year, and it notched a 52-week high on Wednesday amid expectations it would show growth this quarter.
The company on Wednesday said it hopes the changes will help to “generate more revenue off a bigger base,” adding it wants to use the additional funds to reinvest in the platform.
In May, Netflix said it expanded its paid sharing policy to more than 100 countries, which account for more than 80% of its revenue.
“The cancel reaction was low and while we’re still in the early stages of monetization, we’re seeing healthy conversion of borrower households into full paying Netflix memberships,” Netflix said Wednesday, adding it would address the issue in the remainder of the countries that it is available.
Meanwhile, media companies have turned more to ad-supported streaming as a way to get to profitability.
During its pitch to advertisers in May, Netflix unveiled few details about its ad-supported tier, albeit enough to push its stock higher. The company said it had 5 million active users for the new tier, and 25% of its new customers were signing up for the tier in areas where it’s available.
On Wednesday, Netflix confirmed that it removed its “basic” ad-free plan, making its standard plan with ads its cheapest option at $6.99 a month. The standard and premium tiers without commercials cost $15.49 and $19.99, respectively, a month.
These initiatives come as the media industry goes through one of its most tumultuous periods in some time.
Industry analysts have long suspected the industry could consolidate, particularly through mergers and acquisitions.
On Wednesday, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said Netflix looked at opportunities to buy intellectual property and build its content library.
“Some of those assets are stressed for a reason,” Sarandos said of potential media companies or assets up for sale. “Our M&A activity would mostly be around IP that we could develop into great content for members. Traditionally, we’ve been very strong builders over buyers and that hasn’t changed.”
Netflix is also contending with the potential fallout of the Hollywood writers and actors strikes.
Analysts expect Netflix to fare better than other media companies during the work stoppage due to its deep bench of content, particularly from international sources.
As a result of the strike, Netflix increased its free cash flow forecast to $5 billion for 2023, up from a prior estimate of at least $3.5 billion due to lower spending on content this year.
Sarandos said during Wednesday’s call that Netflix has a lot of fresh content in the pipeline, but did not say how long that stream would last. Still, he said the strike needs to reach a conclusion.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do. There are a handful of complicated issues,” Sarandos said. “We’re super committed to getting to an agreement as soon as possible, one that’s equitable and one that enables the industry and everyone in it to move forward in the future.” More