Business news — at a glance — for September 9
Debate will be 90 fateful minutes for two candidates, and one network
(NYTimes) — Tens of millions of Americans will tune in live Tuesday to see how Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump handle their first head-to-headencounter on the debate stage. That mass audience will also scrutinize the performance of ABC News. TV networks prefer to recede into the background on a debate night. But ABC has found itself at the center of crisscrossing accusations from both campaigns. Harris’ aides have complained that some ground rules disadvantage the vice president. Trump, meanwhile, has assailed the network in increasingly belligerent ways, deeming ABC “the worst” and “the nastiest.”
Russia secretly worms its way into America’s conservative media
(NYTimes) — In early 2022, a young couple from Canada, Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan, registered a new company in Tennessee that went on to create a social media outlet called Tenet Media. By November 2023, they had assembled a lineup of major conservative social media stars to post original content on Tenet’s platform. The site then began posting hundreds of videos — trafficking in pointed political commentary as well as conspiracy theories about election fraud, COVID-19, immigrants and Russia’s war with Ukraine — that were then promoted across the spectrum of social media. It was all, federal prosecutors now say, a covert Russian influence operation.
7-Eleven rejects takeover bid from big Canadian chain
(NYTimes) — The owner of 7-Eleven has rejected a buyout offer from a Canadian convenience store giant, snubbing a deal that most likely would have been the largest foreign-led acquisition of a Japanese company. The move will put pressure on the Japanese company to show it is taking other steps to increase the company’s value for its shareholders. The Tokyo-based operator of 7-Eleven, Seven &i Holdings, said last month that it had received an unsolicited takeover proposal from Alimentation Couche-Tard. In a letter to Couche-Tard released Friday, Seven &i said its board of directors had concluded that the offer was not in the best interest of shareholders.
Japan tries to reclaim its clout as a global tech leader
(NYTimes) — After a period of stagnation that Japan’s economy ministry refers to as “the lost three decades,” Tokyo is engaged in a multibillion-dollar industrial policy to jump-start the lackluster economy and recapture its position as a tech innovator. This time, Japan is working with technology leaders in the United States and other countries — a collaborative approach that decades earlier would have been unthinkable. Tokyo’s industrial policy focus today is on advanced technologies ranging from batteries to solar panels, but the priority is reclaiming a bigger share of the global semiconductor industry.
They had thriving lives on X, until Brazil banned it overnight
(NYTimes) — When Brazil’s Supreme Court blocked the social platform X last weekend after its owner, Elon Musk, refused to comply with court orders to suspend certain accounts, many Brazilians who had built their businesses on X were thrown into a frenzied search for new platforms. Many would have to start from scratch to reach clients, market their work and connect with sponsors. The idea that so many businesses and livelihoods could be suspended so swiftly, on the whims of a single tech executive challenging a judge, shows how the digital economy has become concentrated in the hands of just a few technology giants.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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