Qualcomm Impacted by $272m EU Antitrust Fine

The fine is related to Qualcomm's historical pricing (from 2009 to 2011) of 3G modem chips and comes at the end of a four-year long investigation by the EU.

The fine was announced by the EU's Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager. She was previously a member of the Folketing (Danish Parliament) known as Folketinget in Danish ("people's thing") which governs Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland.

Antitrust laws govern the distribution of economic power and are aimed to ensure fair competition.
Price fixing activities generally come under antitrust law.

Amazon Contributes to $575m Investment in Deliveroo

Amazon has invested heavily in Deliveroo, having scrapped its own online food delivery service. Deliveroo will use the money for international expansion. Its model is not to employ riders directly but pay them per delivery.

Avengers: Endgame Boosts Disney Share Price to $140

Disney's share price rose to $140 following news of the success of Avengers: Endgame, its latest release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU).

To date, the top 10 Marvel films have brought in  more than $1bn each on average, supporting Disney's decision to acquire Marvel in 2009 for $4bn. Marvel was founded in 1986 as a subsidiary of Cadence Industries (it was subsequently taken over several times, and was described as a "mini-Disney in terms of intellectual property" by Greensboro-born American businessman,  Ron Perelman, who won $1.5bn from Morgan Stanley in legal claims, a decision which was later reversed).

After Marvel, Disney later acquired Lucasfilm (2012) from founder George Lucas for $4bn (citing "substantial pent-up demand" for Star Wars movies, and 21st Century Fox (2019) (which owns in turn Star India, and majority owns Hulu, a low-cost streaming media subscription service and Fox Deportes, formerly Fox Sports en Espanol).

Disney Plus, a new streaming service, is also set to be launched late 2019, featuring the entire Star Wars series plus a range of Disney-owned content.

ABC Television alumnus Robert ("Bob") Iger has been CEO of Disney for over a decade, succeeding Michael Eisner in 2005, having been five years in the COO position.

Bob went to Ithaca College in New York (Tompkins County).

Bob earned a whopping $65m for being CEO in 2018. He also joined the Board of Directors of Apple in 2011 (chaired by American businessman and former CEO and later Chairman of Genentech, Arthur Levinson).

Bank of England Governorship Up for Grabs

With Mark Carney due to step down, the governorship for the Bank of England is up for grabs.

Names "in the frame" include Agustin Carsens, former Central Bank governor of Mexico who is now general manager of the BIS, and Raghuram Rajan, former Central Bank governor of India.

American economist Jason Furman, who has a PhD from Harvard and is currently a Professor at HKS and was Barack Obama's Chief Economic Adviser for eight years, has also been tipped as being in the race. He has also worked at the CEA (Council of Economic Advisers).

Other names include Andy Haldane, Chief Economist at the Bank of England, whose six-year term at the BoE ends on 11 June 2020. A founder of "Pro Bono Economics" and author of 4 books, he is also a Visiting Fellow at Nuffield College, Oxford. He has a Fellowship of the Academy of Social Sciences (FAcSS). He is also Chair of the UK government's Industrial Strategy Council.

UBS Posts Q1 2019 Results - 1.1bn USD Profit Despite Drop in IB Revenues

Huge drop in Investment Banking revenues but still more than a Billion Dollars in Quarterly Profit

UBS posted a 21% fall in wealth management and 64% drop in investment banking revenues for Q1 2019. "Profit" came in at 1.1bn USD (with PBT coming in at USD 1.5bn).

A Closer Look at UBS' Capital Ratios

13%  CET1 capital ratio. How do we interpret this 13% number? Basel III capital rules require all banks to maintain a minimum CET1 to RWA ratio of 4.5% by 2019. CET1 is a capital measure introduced in 2014 to protect the economy from financial crisis - the mandating of a minimum requirement ensures banks have a financial "cushion" to absorb unexpected losses. Thus UBS has almost three times the minimum requirement. CET1 stands for Common Equity Tier 1 which is a component of Tier 1 capital that consists mainly of common stock held by a bank or other financial institution.

A quick recap on the calculation -

CET1 Ratio = Common Equity Tier 1 Ratio = Common Equity Tier 1 Capital / Risk Weighted Assets

CET1 capital is at the bottom of a bank's capital structure implying in the event of a crisis, losses are first deducted from this tier. If the ratio falls below minimum level required by regulators, banks must build back that capital layer or risk being shut down or taken over. Dividend payments and employee bonuses may be restricted during this time.

Leverage -
3.8% CET1 leverage ratio
5.4% Tier 1 leverage ratio

"The UK Retail Trading Environment is Tough" - Monsoon Accessorize Spokesperson, As Company Mulls CVA

Monsoon Accessorize, owned by its founder Sri Lanka-born Peter Simon, who was inspired to start the company following a road trip, declared via a spokesman that "The UK retail trading environment is tough" and in a bid to reduce costs will continue to reduce its store portfolio. Deloitte has been hired to help the firm negotiate a CVA or company voluntary arrangement, a controversial insolvency procedure used by firms like Debenhams, New Look, Mothercare and Byron in recent years.

Revenues at Companies where UK Executive Pay is at Its Highest

Persimmon PLC, a FTSE 100 British company headquartered in York, UK, is the company with the highest executive pay, with ousted Chief Executive Jeff Fairburn earning £47.1m. He joined the company in 1989 and became CEO in 2013. Persimmon's former Chairman resigned in his role in awarding Jeff a £100m+ bonus. 2018 revenues at Persimmon were £3.7bn in 2018. Its current Group Chief Executive is Dave Jenkinson.