1.WALMART : Walmart’s Flipkart should not be treated the same as rival Amazon in an Indian antitrust probe as the evidence against the two firms was “qualitatively different”, Flipkart argued in a court filing seen by Reuters.
In final submissions made to a court in southern India’s Karnataka state, the Walmart unit argued that CCI and the court “confuse the facts” between the case of Amazon and Flipkart, and overlooked that they were “fierce competitors”.
To back its arguments, it said that a business agreement examined by the CCI before ordering its probe was only between Amazon and its sellers, and there was no such evidence against the Walmart unit.
“The allegations and the evidence before the CCI against the Appellant were qualitatively different from those relating to Amazon … The CCI should have independently examined the case against each of the two platforms,” Flipkart said in its 46-page submission, which was not public.
2.PFIZER:- Pfizer Inc has agreed to pay $345 million to resolve claims by consumers who say they overpaid for EpiPens due to anticompetitive practices by the drugmaker and the company that markets the emergency allergy treatment, Mylan.
The proposed class action settlement was disclosed in a filing in federal court in Kansas City, Kansas. The deal, which requires a judge’s approval, would not resolve claims against Mylan, which is scheduled to face trial in January.
Paul Geller, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said they were “pleased that Pfizer resolved its part of this class action lawsuit over the pricing of EpiPens.”
Pfizer did not admit wrongdoing. In a statement, the company said that it “denies any wrongdoing and continues to believe that its actions were appropriate.”
The EpiPen is a handheld device that treats life-threatening allergic reactions by automatically injecting a dose of epinephrine.
The litigation followed a public outcry in 2016 after Mylan, which owns the rights to market and distribute the devices, raised the price of a pair of EpiPens to $600, from $100 in 2008, putting it in the center of an ongoing U.S. debate over the high cost of medicines.
The lawsuit accused Mylan, which is now part of Viatris Inc, and Pfizer, which manufactured the EpiPen for Mylan, of engaging in anticompetitive conduct that allowed them maintain a monopoly over the market for the devices and their profitable revenues.
3.DEUTSCHE BANK:- Deutsche Bank’s international private bank (IPB) unit said on Friday it hired seven bankers in the Americas, as it looks to strengthen its business in the region.
The bankers will be joining from Citigroup Inc , Bank of America Corp and Goldman Sachs Wealth Management and will be part of the New York, San Francisco and Latin America teams, the unit said.
It added that the U.S. operations were also looking to recruit in New York, the West Coast and Florida.
The German lender’s IPB unit offers advisory and wealth management services to high net-worth individuals and their families.
4.MORGAN STANLEY:– Morgan Stanley beat expectations for quarterly profit on Thursday, as the Wall Street bank got a boost from record investment banking activity even as the trading bonanza that supported results in recent quarters slowed down.
Executives offered an optimistic outlook, saying clients were eager to get deals done toward the end of the second quarter, an encouraging sign that advisory revenue could rise further.
“We ended the quarter with momentum,” said Chief Financial Officer Sharon Yeshaya.
Trading revenue was a sore spot across Wall Street last quarter, given comparisons to a blockbuster year-ago period when the coronavirus pandemic caused wild volatility, especially in fixed-income markets.
.5.ZOOM –Zoom Video Communications Inc announced a $14.7 billion all-stock deal to buy cloud-based call center operator Five9 Inc in its largest-ever acquisition, as competition intensifies in its core videoconferencing sector.
The teleconferencing services provider has become a household name and investor favorite in the year since the coronavirus pandemic, as businesses and schools adopted its services to hold virtual classes, office meets and socialise.
The San Jose, California-based company is now shifting focus to its two-year-old cloud-calling product Zoom Phone and conference-hosting product Zoom Rooms as bigger players Facebook and Alphabet’s Google amp up their video products.
“The acquisition is expected to help enhance Zoom’s presence with enterprise customers and allow it to accelerate its long-term growth opportunity by adding the $24-billion contact center market,” Zoom said in a statement on Sunday.
The acquisition will complement Zoom Phone service, an alternative to legacy phone offerings, by adding Five9’s business customers and combining its contact centre software to optimize customer interactions across channels, it added.
Five9’s customers include Under Armour , Lululemon Athletica Inc and Olympus Corp, according to its website.
