The hedge fund manager aimed to have the biggest and most shareholder-friendly blank-check firm. After a deal setback and a lawsuit, he’s hoping to return $4 bln to investors early. His novel ideas have become a burden for them, for him, for regulators and even for other SPACs.

The pandemic has deterred women from working. U.S. employers are short of workers and long on office space. Patagonia, for one, says providing for employees’ kids is worth it over time, and government aid can extend the perk to lower-income staff. It’s a teachable moment.

The pandemic has deterred women from working. U.S. employers are short of workers and long on office space. Patagonia, for one, says providing for employees’ kids is worth it over time, and government aid can extend the perk to lower-income staff. It’s a teachable moment.

A shareholder is suing the hedge fund manager, claiming his blank-check company acted like an investment company and should be governed as such. U.S. regulatory ambiguity creates scope for such disputes. Clearer guidelines would help, but for now, some managers will be deterred.

NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Robinhood Markets (HOOD.O) on Wednesday released its first earnings report since it went public last month read more . It showed customers of the roughly $40 billion trading app swinging toward trendy cryptocurrency in the second quarter after so-called meme stocks fueled an equity-trading frenzy in the first three months of the year.

Old market hands may be surprised by one nugget revealed by boss Vlad Tenev during a call with investors. As well as its own, Robinhood has given customers a way to buy into read more six other recent initial public offerings – all oversubscribed by five times or more, according to Tenev. For the two IPOs that took place last quarter, some 80% of shares originally bought by Robinhood’s customers were still held by them a month later. As he noted, that’s contrary to the stereotype of retail punters as hype-driven, short-term flippers .

The meme-stock spirit wasn’t far away though: Tenev...

NEW YORK, Aug 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Amazon.com (AMZN.O) became a $1.6 trillion behemoth in part by using e-ecommerce to put brick-and-mortar retailers out of business. Jeff Bezos’ company, originally online only, already opened small physical stores, and may now add a department store format, according to the Wall Street Journal.

That’s sadly ironic, with names like J.C. Penney and Neiman Marcus going bust in recent years. Yet it underlines how Amazon is, in some ways, a 21st-century Sears, Roebuck & Co. The storied U.S. group – another recent casualty of bankruptcy after years with investor Eddie Lampert in charge – produced the first of its famous mail-order catalogs in 1893, with a first retail store following in 1925. In a foreshadowing of today’s buy-now-pay-later enthusiasm read more , Sears even launched a credit program in 1940.

Amazon can get more from stores by making them multitask as showrooms, instant gratification for customers unwilling to...

A shareholder is suing the hedge fund manager, claiming his blank-check company acted like an investment company and should be governed as such. U.S. regulatory ambiguity creates scope for such disputes. Clearer guidelines would help, but for now, some managers will be deterred.

David Solomon’s bank bought Dutch insurer NN Group’s asset management arm for 1.6 bln euros. It gives it a boost in sustainable investing, but the real benefit looks like greater scale at a time of slow growth. On that metric, Goldman probably needs to do more deals.

LONDON, Aug 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - GlobalFoundries could lend Arm a helping hand. The American chipmaker late on Wednesday filed confidentially for a U.S. initial public offering, with an eye on a $25 billion valuation, Reuters reported citing sources read more . That works out at 4 times this year’s revenue, assuming it hits its 10% top-line growth target. Behemoth Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing (2330.TW), worth $520 billion, trades at 9 times.

There are several reasons for GlobalFoundries’ modest multiples. TSMC is at the cutting edge of silicone technology, and controls over half the market for made-to-order chips; GlobalFoundries’ share is a mere 7%, according to TrendForce. Nevertheless, an IPO coinciding with a major chip shortage could boost its worth. That would benefit Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala, which has invested more than $21 billion since buying the firm in 2009. It may also bode well for Arm. The SoftBank Group-owned (9984.T) chip designer’s Plan B is...

MELBOURNE, Aug 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Beijing was able to expand its influence in central Asia while America and its allies held back the Taliban. The Islamic fundamentalists’ return to power presents China with new challenges – and opportunities. Plus: CEO Mike Henry shakes up mining giant BHP.

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MELBOURNE, Aug 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Beijing was able to expand its influence in central Asia while America and its allies held back the Taliban. The Islamic fundamentalists’ return to power presents China with new challenges – and opportunities. Plus: CEO Mike Henry shakes up mining giant BHP.

Listen to the podcast

Follow @AntonyMCurrie on Twitter

David Solomon’s bank bought Dutch insurer NN Group’s asset management arm for 1.6 bln euros. It gives it a boost in sustainable investing, but the real benefit looks like greater scale at a time of slow growth. On that metric, Goldman probably needs to do more deals.

ATHENS, Aug 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The Western alliance may be so damaged by the crisis in Afghanistan that it can’t provide leadership to tackle the mounting climate emergency. It’s not just that America’s and by extension the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s credibility is so shot to bits that the West will find it hard to provide leadership on anything in coming years. The Afghan calamity will suck up leaders’ attention in coming months, meaning it will be harder to build momentum in the run-up to November’s crucial COP26 climate conference, which is supposed to result in a big push by countries across the world to come up with more ambitious decarbonisation plans.

If the effort to address the climate crisis flags, it is not just that the planet will fry and there will be more extreme weather events of the sort experienced in recent months. There will be a myriad of knock-on effects on financial markets: there will be less investment in zero- and low-carbon...

The Western alliance may be so damaged it can’t provide climate leadership. Global decarbonisation plans would fail to build momentum, storing up massive financial pain. But there’s a chance the West will regroup – and devise a Pax Planeta to replace the failed Pax Americana.

HONG KONG, Aug 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China Huarong Asset Management’s (2799.HK) bailout provides some lessons for investors, but only up to a point. The so-called bad bank, which expects to generate a $16 billion net loss for 2020, also unveiled plans on Wednesday to restructure with state-owned CITIC Group. Any read-across on moral hazard is thin, though.

Details are scant as the rescue group hasn’t firmly committed. Huarong also missed a March 31 deadline to disclose last year’s earnings. If it doesn’t do so by the end of August, it will be in technical default on some bonds. The profit warning at least quantifies the damage and suggests the company, whose former chairman was executed in January following a corruption scandal, is making progress. Its shares have been halted for more than four months.

A capital injection also would help backstop efforts to sell assets. CITIC hardly ranks on a par with the current Ministry of Finance backer – indeed the...

HONG KONG, Aug 19 (Reuters Breakingviews) - China Huarong Asset Management’s (2799.HK) bailout provides some lessons for investors, but only up to a point. The so-called bad bank, which expects to generate a $16 billion net loss for 2020, also unveiled plans on Wednesday to restructure with state-owned CITIC Group. Any read-across on moral hazard is thin, though.

Details are scant as the rescue group hasn’t firmly committed. Huarong also missed a March 31 deadline to disclose last year’s earnings. If it doesn’t do so by the end of August, it will be in technical default on some bonds. The profit warning at least quantifies the damage and suggests the company, whose former chairman was executed in January following a corruption scandal, is making progress. Its shares have been halted for more than four months.

A capital injection also would help backstop efforts to sell assets. CITIC hardly ranks on a par with the current Ministry of Finance backer – indeed the...

Buying BHP’s oil and gas unit solves two problems: growth and cash flow. A 10% fall in Woodside’s shares, however, suggests missing details on valuation, well closure costs and climate risk are worrisome. And yet voting against the transaction could leave the company worse off.

Buying BHP’s oil and gas unit solves two problems: growth and cash flow. A 10% fall in Woodside’s shares, however, suggests missing details on valuation, well closure costs and climate risk are worrisome. And yet voting against the transaction could leave the company worse off.