FEI Weekly

March 13, 2018

Notable tech and business leaders speaking at SXSW 2018, Goldman Sachs' future CEO.

Yahoo Users Can Sue Over Data Breach

Bloomberg

A federal judge in California has ruled that a class action lawsuit against Yahoo related to a series of data breaches at the company can move forward. Verizon, which bought Yahoo last year for a reduced price of about $4.5 billion, had asked the judge to dismiss many of the lawsuit’s claims. The plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit claim that they would have chosen another email service if they had been informed sooner of Yahoo’s security woes—a claim that U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh found credible.

Can Broadcom Save The Qualcomm Deal?

Digiday

Broadcom Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Hock Tan met with Treasury Department officials in Washington Monday to address concerns that his hostile bid for rival chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. threatens national security. The meeting followed a letter from Treasury to the companies Sunday that said national security risks from the takeover may prompt a recommendation to President Donald Trump to block the deal. The government said an investigation of the deal by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S., which reviews purchases of American firms by foreign investors, has confirmed national security concerns related to the Qualcomm acquisition by Singapore-based Broadcom.

Goldman President and COO to Retire

Business Insider

Harvey Schwartz, Goldman Sachs’ president and co-chief operating officer, has decided to retire effective April 20, 2018. He was seen as a possible successor for Goldman’s current chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein. Schwartz held leadership roles across a broad range of the firm's operations - from Securities and Investment Banking to CFO. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Blankfein was planning to step down as early as the end of this year. Schwartz's retirement appears to clear the way for his fellow president and co-chief operating officer, David M. Solomon, to become the company’s next chief executive.

Blockchain Has Lasting Power

WSJ - Paywall

Blockchain has the potential to be a fundamental enabling technology, the way new standards for transmitting data across networks led to the internet. More concretely, it could someday underlie everything from how we vote to who we connect with online to what we buy. Already, 1.1 million items sold or on sale at Walmart are on a blockchain, helping the company trace their journey from manufacturer to store shelf. Global shipping giant Maersk uses the same technology from IBM to track shipping containers, making it faster and easier to transfer them and get them through customs.

The Tech and Business Leaders You Can See at SXSW 2018

Tech.Co

While the entertainment industry takes a lot of credit for South by Southwest (SXSW), tech holds its own when it comes to creating the electric atmosphere of this epic coming-together. Hundreds of celebrities, thousands of companies, and millions of attendees descend on Austin for concerts, parties, events, and speakers that impart wisdom, instill joy, and generally engage people in ways most of us could only imagine. Speakers included Ann Hiatt, Chief-of-Staff to the Chairman at Google, Neha Narula, Director of the Digital Currency Initiative at MIT Media Labs, and Ray Dalio, Chairman of Bridgewater Associates.