In recognition of CD&R's remarkably active year, the firm is honored to be nominated in five categories of the 2021 PEI Awards, including Firm of the Year EMEA and Deal of the Year EMEA (Morrisons)
Voting is open and can be found here until 11:59pm PST on Wednesday 12 January 2022, with the results announcement in March.
The World
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell called high inflation a “severe threat” to a full economic recovery and said the central bank was preparing to raise interest rates because the economy no longer needed emergency support. Powell said he was optimistic that supply-chain bottlenecks would ease this year to help bring down inflation as the Fed takes its foot off the gas pedal. But he told lawmakers that if inflation stayed elevated, the Fed would be ready to step on the brakes: “If we have to raise interest rates more over time, we will.” (Wall Street Journal)
Inflation in the world’s rich economies hit a 25-year high, hitting 5.8% in November, up from just 1.2% in the same month the previous year and the highest rate since May 1996. The increase was driven by energy prices, which soared by 28%, up more than 3% from the previous month to the highest rate since June 1980. Food price inflation also picked up strongly to 5.5%, from 4.6% the previous month. (Financial Times)
China’s December inflation slowed, with its consumer price index up 1.5% in December compared to a year ago, lower than the 1.8% rise expected in a Reuters poll. (CNBC)
President Biden threw his full support behind changing the Senate filibuster to ease passage of voting rights bills, using a major speech in Atlanta to endorse an idea increasingly backed by Democrats and civil rights activists seeking momentum on what has been an intractable issue. The remarks from Biden, who was a senator for 36 years, amounted to his strongest endorsement yet of changes he had resisted for most of his career. The president made clear that he, like many others in his party, now believes the filibuster is being abused to block legislation that is fundamental to democracy. (Washington Post)
51% of Germans and 49% of French adults said they supported American efforts to negotiate a resolution to the Ukraine crisis, compared to 42% of British adults and 34% of U.S. adults. 64% of Russians said they backed talks with the U.S. and NATO, and were the most likely to think negotiations could find a peaceful resolution. Americans were both the least likely to support a diplomatic approach and most likely to support direct military aid to Ukraine. (Morning Consult)
North Korea's missile launched this week was "more advanced" than the previous test, reaching an estimated top speed of about 10 times the speed of sound, according to the South Korean military. Meanwhile, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un called for more 'military muscle' after watching the hypersonic missile test. (Nikkei Asia Review, Reuters)
Hungarians will go to the polls on April 3 to elect a new parliament, President János Áder said on Tuesday — setting up a likely showdown between longtime incumbent Viktor Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party and a now-unified opposition. The closely watched race, coming at a time when Budapest is locked in multiple disputes with Brussels over rule-of-law standards, is expected to define whether Hungary will return to the European mainstream or move even closer to Moscow and Beijing. (Politico EU)
Covid’s latest surge spreads an epidemic of confusion: Amid the deep polarization about masks and vaccines and the discord over whether and how to return to pre-pandemic life, a strange unity of confusion is emerging: a common inability to decipher conflicting advice and clashing guidelines: Test or don’t test? Which test? When? Isolate or not? For five days? Ten? Go to school or not? See friends and resume normal life, or hunker down again — and if so, for how long, to what end? (Washington Post)
Surging Covid-19 puts an end to projected return-to-office dates: An average of only 28% of the workforce last week returned to the office in the 10 major cities monitored by Kastle Systems, a nationwide security company that monitors access-card swipes. That compares with more than 40% the first week in December. These reversals have persuaded many business leaders to avoid specific return dates. Instead, they are adopting more nuanced workplace strategies that recognize that Covid-19 will be around for the indefinite future. (Wall Street Journal)
Meta has a(nother) new return-to-office date. It plans to start bringing employees back on March 28, and will require vaccinations and boosters for those who are eligible. (Protocol)
Walgreens, CVS cut paid sick leave for workers in line with CDC guidance. (Reuters)
A third Chinese city has locked down its residents in the lead-up to the Winter Olympics because of a COVID-19 outbreak — Anyang, home to 5.5 million people — raising the number confined to their homes in China to about 20 million people. Another 13 million people have been locked down in Xi’an for nearly three weeks, and 1.1 million more in Yuzhou for more than a week. (Associated Press)
The Omicron variant is on track to infect more than 50% of Europeans, but it should not yet be seen as a flu-like endemic illness, the WHO said. (Reuters)
The nest is empty — again. The percentage of young adults — or "boomerang kids" — who live with their parents is back to pre-pandemic levels, according the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. Nearly 47% of adults aged 18–29 were living with their parents as of September, the lowest point since February 2020. 36% of boomerang kids live with families in the top 10%, with a household income of more than $140,000. (Axios)
Economy
U.S. oil production is on course to break pre-pandemic records next year, complicating the Biden administration’s ambitions to shift the country away from fossil fuels. U.S. natural gas production will also set new records over the next two years. It marks a stark reversal for an oil and gas industry that was sent into freefall by the pandemic-driven economic downturn, and defies widespread predictions that the country’s oil industry would not recapture peak production levels. (Financial Times)
Reunion Island aims to produce all of its energy through renewables by the end of 2028. (Deutsche Welle)
EU competition officials are preparing to block a $2bn merger between two of the world’s biggest shipbuilders in South Korea, the first time since 2019 that Brussels has decided to veto a corporate tie-up. Officials said a proposed merger between Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering and Hyundai Heavy Industries would be stopped as anti-competitive. (Financial Times)
Citigroup will exit consumer, small-business and middle-market banking in Mexico, a business best known as Banamex. Those businesses accounted for about $3.5 billion in revenue in the first nine months of 2021, Citigroup said, or about 6% of the bank’s total revenue in the period. Citigroup will be keeping its investment banking and institutional businesses in Mexico, as well as the private bank operations. (Wall Street Journal)
Bank of America to cut overdraft fees to $10 from $35. (Wall Street Journal)
Startup round size inflation skyrocketed in 2021, as the size of the median Series A round in 2021 increased a whopping 30% YoY. (Crunchbase)
Female founders raised just 2% of venture capital money in 2021, the smallest share since 2016. (Bloomberg)
U.S. digital health startups nabbed a record $29.1 billion in funding in 2021, nearly double the investment volume in the year prior. That was across 729 deals, with an average deal size of almost $40 million. Digital health companies catalyzing research and development in biopharma and medtech brought in the most funding, helped by pandemic-era adoption of real-world evidence and decentralized trials. (Healthcare Dive)
Are American investors going to keep putting money into China? A key test of how investors feel is underway. One of China’s top VC firms, Qiming Venture Partners, an early backer of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, is in talks with U.S. institutional investors as it tries to raise more than $1.2 billion for a new fund, according to three people familiar with the matter. If successful, the fund would be among the biggest of its kind and could reverse a dramatic slowdown in dollar-based fundraising by Chinese venture capitalists. (The Information)
More than 100 Massachusetts cities and towns sued McKinsey & Company in federal court for the company’s role in fueling the opioid crisis. The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal actions taken by local governments following a settlement deal reached between the company and attorneys general across the country. (WBUR)
Technology
A federal judge ruled that the FTC’s antitrust case against Facebook could proceed, a reversal of fortune for the agency after its first challenge against the social network was thrown out last year. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote that an amended complaint the agency filed in August offered “more robust and detailed” evidence to suggest Facebook has an alleged monopoly. In the filing, the FTC argued that Facebook is in a class of its own and should not be compared to other social apps such as TikTok. (Washington Post)
Huawei received 2,770 US patents in 2021, behind IBM, Samsung, Canon, and TSMC; US companies got under half of the 327,329 US patents issued in 2021. (Bloomberg)
The real reason Take-Two bought Zynga: That the publisher behind Grand Theft Auto would buy the creator of FarmVille, and for more money than Microsoft paid for all of Elder Scrolls- and Fallout-maker Bethesda, tells us everything we need to know about the future of gaming. Here’s why. 1) Mobile gaming is the only part of the industry that keeps growing, now accounting for more than half of the $180 billion game industry. 2) The traditional console business model has gone out of style. Most of the growth today is coming from mobile games, which grew 7.3% annually last year while console gaming actually declined 6.6%. 3) Most of the growth today is coming from mobile games, which grew 7.3% annually last year while console gaming actually declined 6.6%. (Protocol)
New age art thieves: NFT art sales are booming. Just without some artists' permission. NFTs were hyped as a way to make sure artists get paid for their work. Now, many creators are struggling to stop a wave of piracy. (NBC News)
Smart Links
Women take top business roles at news outlets. (Axios)
Just 22% of people give themselves high scores on financial wellness. (CNBC)
Prepaid card transaction value to exceed $4.1 trillion by 2026 globally — up from $2.3 trillion in 2021. (Juniper Research)
Hong Kong’s brain drain worsens as expats, locals flee city. (Bloomberg)
CES attendance dropped to 40,000 amid COVID surge — down from 171,00 in 2020. (Protocol)
Girl Scout cookies come to DoorDash. (Axios)
Bulgaria's vanishing act: Population dives by more than 11% over the past decade. (Washington Post)
Asia's richest man is buying the Mandarin Oriental in New York for $98 million. (CNN)