Chinese phone maker Huawei punishes employees for iPhone tweet blunder

HONG KONG (Reuters) - China’s Huawei Technologies [HWT.UL] has punished two employees for New Year greetings sent on the smartphone maker’s official Twitter account using an iPhone, an internal memo showed. Huawei, whose P-series handsets compete with Apple’s iPhone, on New Year’s Day wished followers a “Happy #2019” in a tweet marked sent “via Twitter for iPhone”. The tweet was quickly removed but screenshots of the blunder spread across social media. “The traitor has revealed himself,” quipped one user on microblog Weibo, in a comment ‘liked’ over 600 times.

In an internal Huawei memo dated Jan. 3 seen by Reuters, corporate senior vice-president and director of the board Chen Lifang said, “the incident caused damage to the Huawei brand”. The mistake occurred when outsourced social media handler Sapient experienced “VPN problems” with a desktop computer so used an iPhone with a roaming SIM card in order to send the message on time at midnight, Huawei said in the memo.

Twitter, like several foreign services such as those from Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc, is blocked in China, where the Internet is heavily censored. To gain access, users need a virtual private network (VPN) connection. Huawei, which overtook Apple as the world’s second-largest smartphone vendor by volume in January-September, declined to comment on internal issues when contacted by Reuters. Sapient did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent via the contact form on its website. Calls to its Beijing office went unanswered.

Huawei in the memo said the blunder showed procedural incompliance and management oversight. It said it had demoted two employees responsible by one rank and reduced their monthly salaries by 5,000 yuan ($728.27). The pay rank of one of the employees - Huawei’s digital marketing director - will also be frozen for 12 months, it said.

It is not the first time use of the Apple product has given cause for embarrassment. Hu Xijin, editor-in-chief of nationalistic tabloid Global Times, was mocked online last year after he used his iPhone when expressing support for Huawei and domestic peer ZTE Corp. He later said his actions were not hypocritical as foreign brands should not be discriminated against.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-huawei-iphone/chinese-phone-maker-huawei-punishes-employees-for-iphone-tweet-blunder-idUSKCN1OY0B2?il=0

Bristol-Myers to buy Celgene for $74 billion in largest biopharma deal

(Reuters) - Bristol-Myers Squibb Co (BMY.N) said on Thursday it would buy Celgene Corp (CELG.O) for about $74 billion, combining two of the world’s largest cancer drug businesses in the biggest pharmaceutical deal ever. Both Bristol-Myers and Celgene face separate challenges, and some Wall Street analysts questioned whether the combination - which the companies said would create $2.5 billion in cost savings and significantly raise earnings - would solve them. Amid clinical setbacks and other missteps, Bristol-Myers shares fell 15.2 percent in 2018 while Celgene plunged nearly 40 percent last year.

Bristol’s most important cancer immunotherapy and growth driver, Opdivo, has lost much of its luster as Merck & Co’s (MRK.N) rival drug Keytruda seized dominance in advanced lung cancer, the most lucrative oncology market. Meanwhile, Celgene has endured high-profile clinical failures and U.S. exclusivity on its flagship multiple myeloma drug, Revlimid, will start being phased out in 2022. On Thursday, Bristol’s stock ended another 13.3 percent lower at $45.12. “Doing this transaction clearly indicates that risk to Opdivo in lung cancer is obviously a concern,” SunTrust Robinson Humphrey analyst John Boris said in an interview. There is also shareholder concern that drugs in development would not have enough sales to offset major products losing exclusivity between 2022 and 2026.

But cash flow from Revlimid buys Bristol-Myers time to pay down debt and position for another transaction, Boris said. Revlimid is expected to record nearly $10 billion in 2018 sales. Celgene shares were up 20.7 percent at $89.43.

“Both of them were coming into this year kind of limping,” said Brad Loncar, who runs the Loncar Cancer Immunotherapy ETF. The deal makes “the combined entity a lot stronger,” he added. Including debt, the deal is worth $95 billion, eclipsing Pfizer's $89 billion purchase of Warner-Lambert in 2000, according to Refinitiv.

Some analysts, including Baird Equity’s Brian Skorney, said it raised the possibility of a new era of big drug deals, much like in 2009, when Pfizer Inc (PFE.N), Merck, and Roche Holding AG (ROG.S) all pulled off transformational acquisitions. The news pushed up shares of rivals Gilead Sciences Inc (GILD.O), Allergan Plc (AGN.N), Biogen Inc (BIIB.O) and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc (REGN.O). Bristol expects to achieve the $2.5 billion in cost savings by 2022, with 55 percent coming from cuts in sales, general and administrative expenses, 35 percent through reduction in research & development spending and 10 percent from manufacturing. It said the deal will add more than 40 percent to its earnings in the first year after the deal closes, expected in the third quarter of 2019.

Under terms of the deal, Celgene shareholders will receive one Bristol-Myers Squibb share and $50 in cash for each share held, or $102.43 per share, a premium of 53.7 percent to Celgene’s Wednesday close. Celgene shareholders will also receive a so-called CVR payment, or contingent value right, of $9 if three treatments in development achieve timely approvals. Those are the high-profile multiple sclerosis drug ozanimod, lymphoma treatment liso-cel by Dec. 31, 2020 and a CAR-T therapy for multiple myeloma known as bb2121 from a partnership with bluebird bio (BLUE.O) by March 31, 2021.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-celgene-m-a-bristol-myers/bristol-myers-to-buy-celgene-for-74-billion-in-largest-biopharma-deal-idUSKCN1OX0VM?il=0

U.S. judge limits evidence in trial over Roundup cancer claims

(Reuters) - A federal judge overseeing lawsuits alleging Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based weed killer causes cancer has issued a ruling that could severely restrict evidence that the plaintiffs consider crucial to their cases. (Reuters) - A federal judge overseeing lawsuits alleging Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based weed killer causes cancer has issued a ruling that could severely restrict evidence that the plaintiffs consider crucial to their cases. U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria in San Francisco in an order on Thursday granted Bayer unit Monsanto’s request to split an upcoming trial into two phases.''' The order initially bars lawyers for plaintiff Edwin Hardeman from introducing evidence that the company allegedly attempted to influence regulators and manipulate public opinion.

Thursday’s order applies to Hardeman’s case, which is scheduled to go to trial on Feb. 25, and two other so-called bellwether trials which will help determine the range of damages and define settlement options for the rest of the 620 Roundup cases before Chhabria. But Hardeman’s lawyers contended that such evidence, including internal Monsanto documents, showed the company’s misconduct and were critical to California state court jury’s August 2018 decision to award $289 million in a similar case. The verdict sent Bayer shares tumbling though the award was later reduced to $78 million and is under appeal.

Under Chhabria’s order, evidence of Monsanto’s alleged misconduct would be allowed only if glyphosate was found to have caused Hardeman’s cancer and the trial proceeded to a second phase to determine Bayer’s liability. Bayer denies allegations that glyphosate causes cancer, saying decades of independent studies have shown the world’s most widely used weed killer to be safe for human use. But the company faces more than 9,300 U.S. lawsuits over Roundup’s safety in state and federal courts across the country.

Bayer in a statement welcomed Chhabria’s decision. “The court’s decision to keep the focus of the trial on the extensive science relevant to human health is encouraging,” the company said. Aimee Wagstaff, one of Hardeman’s lawyers, in a statement said she was confident the jurors will find Roundup caused the man’s cancer and proceed to the second phase.

Hardeman’s attorneys had opposed proposals to split up the trial on the grounds that their scientific evidence allegedly showing glyphosate causes cancer was inextricably linked to Monsanto’s alleged wrongful conduct. Bayer has also asked that some of the plaintiffs’ evidence on causation, specifically a finding by the World Health Organization’s cancer unit that glyphosate is “probably carcinogenic,” be excluded in the first phase because it has no basis in science. Chhabria, who has previously expressed skepticism of that finding, on Thursday said he would soon decide to which degree he would allow it to be introduced at trial. The assessment is central to the plaintiffs’ claims, as other regulatory agencies, including the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have determined glyphosate likely does not cause cancer.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bayer-glyphosate-lawsuit/u-s-judge-limits-evidence-in-trial-over-roundup-cancer-claims-idUSKCN1OY03N?il=0

Ex-Credit Suisse bankers arrested on U.S. charges over Mozambique loans

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Three former Credit Suisse Group AG bankers were arrested in London on Thursday on U.S. charges that they took part in a fraud scheme involving $2 billion in loans to state-owned companies in Mozambique, a spokesman for U.S. prosecutors said. Andrew Pearse, 49; Surjan Singh, 44; and Detelina Subeva, 37 were charged in an indictment in Brooklyn, New York federal court with conspiring to violate U.S. anti-bribery law and to commit money laundering and securities fraud, according to spokesman John Marzulli. They have been released on bail in London while the United States seeks extradition.

The arrests came five days after former Mozambique Finance Minister Manuel Chang was arrested in South Africa as part of the same criminal case. A fifth man, Jean Boustani, was arrested on Wednesday at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport, Marzulli said. Boustani was a Lebanese citizen who worked for an Abu Dhabi-based contractor of the Mozambican companies, according to the indictment. Lawyers for the defendants could not immediately be reached for comment after business hours in New York and London.

“The indictment alleges that the former employees worked to defeat the bank’s internal controls, acted out of a motive of personal profit, and sought to hide these activities from the bank,” Credit Suisse said in a statement. It added that the bank will continue to cooperate with authorities.

According to the indictment, between 2013 and 2016 three Mozambican state-owned companies borrowed more than $2 billion through loans guaranteed by the government and arranged by Credit Suisse and another investment bank, which was not named. Chang, 63, signed off on the guarantees as finance minister, but did not disclose them. When the guarantees were revealed in 2016, foreign donors including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to cut off support for Mozambique, plunging the southern African country into a debt crisis that still plagues it two years later. According to the indictment, the three state-owned companies were created to undertake maritime projects, but were really “fronts” for Chang, Boustani and the three bankers to enrich themselves.

Prosecutors said at least $200 million was diverted to the defendants and other Mozambican government officials. They said the defendants concealed the misuse of the funds and misled investors abroad including in the United States about Mozambique’s creditworthiness. The companies missed more than $700 million in loan payments after defaulting in 2016 and 2017, the indictment said. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mozambique-credit-suisse-charges/ex-credit-suisse-bankers-arrested-on-u-s-charges-over-mozambique-loans-idUSKCN1OX1WT?il=0

>>4590338

Good to know, perhaps this type of narrative is to curb the amount of people wanting to take action of their own..