Quartz Daily Brief—Alibaba’s IPO, Twitter’s tumble, Bayer’s drugs deal, political selfies
Good morning, Quartz readers!
What to watch for today
Jacob Zuma secures another term. The South African election is the incumbent president’s to lose, with his party, the ANC, on track to take 64% of the vote despite discontent about inequality and corruption. This election marks the country’s 20th year of democracy.
Nintendo languishes in the red. The Japanese gaming company is set to post a $240 million loss for the year and a 36% drop in revenue, after managing to sell only 2.8 million consoles compared to its 9 million target. That has a knock-on effect: Fewer consoles means fewer games bought.
Janet Yellen faces some unscripted questioning. Market players are itching to know whether the US Federal Reserve will raise interest rates before next year, and the Fed chair might say something to that effect in testimony before Congress—particularly in light of last week’s surprisingly strong jobs data.
Thailand delivers Yingluck’s verdict. The Constitutional Court is set to find prime minister Yingluck Sinawatra guilty of abuse of power, removing her from office and banning her from politics for five years. This could set off fresh riots from Yingluck’s supporters, who believe the courts are biased.
While you were sleeping
Alibaba filed for its IPO. The long-awaited filing showed that the Chinese internet giant (see our “obsession interlude” below) made 8.27 billion yuan ($1.33 billion) in profit in its latest quarter—over double the year before—and that its ambitions, at least for now, are to expand in China, not globally.
Twitter’s stock took a tumble. Shares in the social network dropped more than 18% to a record low of $31.72, following the end of the post-IPO “lockup period,” when employees and early investors could sell their shares for the first time, freeing up about 87% of the company’s stock.
Countries clamped down on tax evasion. Switzerland and Singapore joined the 47 countries that agree to share tax information with each other’s governments in a bid to prevent people hiding their money in foreign jurisdictions. Private Swiss banks hold about $2 trillion in offshore assets.
Germany scored a major drugs deal… Bayer agreed to buy Merck’s over-the-counter business for $14.2 billion, which will transfer brands such as Claritin, Afrin and Coopertone to the German company’s portfolio. That makes Bayer (the maker of Aspirin) the world’s second-biggest consumer healthcare company.
… while the UK tried to prevent one. In its latest attempt to shrug off Pfizer’s ongoing advances—or drive up the value of its offer—AstraZeneca issued a sales forecast predicting more than $45 billion in yearly revenue by 2023, or as much as $63 billion in peak-year sales, compared to last year’s $25.7 billion.
Investors showed troubled European countries some love. Italian and Spanish 10-year bond yields fell to record lows, in a renewed sign of confidence about the economic future of the euro zone, including its debt-strapped periphery. Portuguese, Spanish and Irish bonds also rose.
Quartz obsession interlude
Gwynn Guilford, Lily Kuo and Nikhil Sonnad explain Alibaba’s vast empire. “Alibaba, which is expected to file for its IPO any day now, isn’t just the ‘Amazon of China’—it’s also the Dropbox, PayPal, Uber, Hulu, ING Direct, and more. Though Google has its fingers in a similarly high volume of pies, its enterprises, unlike Alibaba’s, are exclusively digital. Alibaba’s distinct businesses resemble more than a dozen major Western companies, by our count—a phenomenon we’ve sketched out in the graphic below. In the text that follows, we unravel some of that complexity—and explain how Alibaba has expanded on its way to a New York listing.” Read more here.
Matters of debate
Whoever said business and politics don’t mix is wrong. Business leaders should use next week’s St Petersburg economic form to speak up to Putin (paywall).
China’s housing bubble is bursting. This could be seriously bad news for the country’s GDP, and there’s not much the government can do to stop it.
College is still worth it. Graduates earn $830,800 more over their career—but that doesn’t necessarily make them happier.
The US needs to choose its approach to immigration reform. It’s either many rights for few immigrants or few rights for many.
We should stop looking for life on Mars. The oceans of Jupiter’s moon Europa would be a much more fruitful place to search.
Surprising discoveries
India has found a solution to its public peeing problem. A masked group is spraying wayward urinators with a water cannon.
The top 10 best-paid hedge fund managers made $15 billion last year. That’s more than the GDP of Jamaica or Iceland.
The selfie is now a political tool. Mark Zuckerberg’s political advocacy group wants celebrities to send selfies to lobby for immigration reform.
China plans to reverse-engineer breast milk. The $1.6 million project will attempt to create a more natural form of baby formula.
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, political selfies, and baby formula recipes to [email protected]. You can follow us on Twitter here for updates throughout the day.