Category: 3. Business

  • Del Monte files for bankruptcy as its canned fruit and vegetable sales slide

    Del Monte files for bankruptcy as its canned fruit and vegetable sales slide

    Del Monte Foods, the 139-year-old company best known for its canned fruits and vegetables, is filing for bankruptcy protection as U.S. consumers increasingly bypass its products for healthier or cheaper options.

    Del Monte has secured $912.5 million in debtor-in-possession financing that will allow it to operate normally as the sale progresses.

    “After a thorough evaluation of all available options, we determined a court-supervised sale process is the most effective way to accelerate our turnaround and create a stronger and enduring Del Monte Foods,” CEO Greg Longstreet said in a statement.

    Del Monte Foods, based in Walnut Creek, California, also owns the Contadina tomato brand, College Inn and Kitchen Basics broth brands and the Joyba bubble tea brand.

    The company has seen sales growth of Joyba and broth in fiscal 2024, but not enough to offset weaker sales of Del Monte’s signature canned products.

    READ MORE: What happens to DNA data of millions as 23andMe files bankruptcy?

    “Consumer preferences have shifted away from preservative-laden canned food in favor of healthier alternatives,” said Sarah Foss, global head of legal and restructuring at Debtwire, a financial consultancy.

    Grocery inflation also caused consumers to seek out cheaper store brands. And President Donald Trump’s 50% tariff on imported steel, which went into effect in June, will also push up the prices Del Monte and others must pay for cans.

    Del Monte Foods, which is owned by Singapore’s Del Monte Pacific, was also hit with a lawsuit last year by a group of lenders that objected to the company’s debt restructuring plan. The case was settled in May with a loan that increased Del Monte’s interest expenses by $4 million annually, according to a company statement.

    Del Monte said late Thursday that the bankruptcy filing is part of a planned sale of company’s assets.

    Support PBS News Hour

    Your donation makes a difference in these uncertain times.


    Continue Reading

  • Tariffs Are Reshaping Tech Functions as Deglobalization Accelerates

    Tariffs Are Reshaping Tech Functions as Deglobalization Accelerates

    New tariffs in 2025 have exposed vulnerabilities and increased uncertainty across regions and industries. The effects on information technology are real and immediate: tighter regulations, rising costs, and more complexity, particularly in China and other geofenced markets. While the pace of decoupling varies, the direction is clear: Tech environments are becoming more regionalized and risk sensitive.

    For technology leaders, this means rethinking core decisions—vendor strategy, architecture, and the operating model. Tech executives will need to deliver results in a more fragmented, more expensive landscape. Understanding five key trends can help leadership teams build smarter, more resilient strategies.

    • Hardware: Shifting away from China comes at a premium. As companies move production out of China, hardware costs are rising—by up to 20% in some categories. The added effort to qualify new suppliers, build buffer stock, and manage a broader vendor base is straining budgets and creating near-term supply risks.
    • Data: Localization redefines architecture needs. Tougher data privacy and AI regulations increasingly require companies to store and manage data locally. That means duplicative cloud setups, region-specific security tools, and in some cases, split AI and data platforms—all of which drive up cost and complexity.
    • Cloud: Fragmentation erodes scale advantages. Hyperscalers are investing in sovereign cloud, in-country AI, and multiregion infrastructure to meet local demands. While necessary, these investments are pushing up cloud computing costs and reducing the savings of a centralized model, requiring greater architectural planning and financial discipline.
    • Cybersecurity: Rising geopolitical risk increases threats. As global tensions rise, so do cyberthreats—from state-sponsored attacks to vendor breaches and phishing campaigns themed around tariffs. Companies will need sharper monitoring, stronger vendor oversight, and continuous employee upskilling to stay ahead.
    • Talent: Mobility constraints reshape delivery models. Limits on cross-border talent movement are pushing companies to shift toward more onshore, nearshore, or insourced teams. That means new cost structures, capability trade-offs, and a rethink of how and where tech work gets done.

    Act now, plan ahead

    To navigate this new terrain, tech leaders must balance near-term moves with longer-term bets. In the short run, that means managing exposure, triaging IT budgets, reassessing vendor footprints, and exploring workforce levers. Longer-term, the focus should shift to reimagining sourcing, architecture, and the operating model to thrive in a more fragmented future.

    Continue Reading

  • France asks airlines to cut flights at Paris airports by 40% ahead of planned strike – Reuters

    1. France asks airlines to cut flights at Paris airports by 40% ahead of planned strike  Reuters
    2. France asks airlines to reduce flights due to planned air traffic controller strike  France 24
    3. UK tourists issued Foreign Office warning over ‘flight disruption’ as strikes kick off in holiday hotspot  Birmingham Live
    4. French air traffic controller strikes: How many flights are cancelled?  Euronews
    5. Urgent travel warning as flights cancelled in a popular European holiday destination  Daily Express

    Continue Reading

  • Investors fret on talk of AstraZeneca US move – Financial Times

    Investors fret on talk of AstraZeneca US move – Financial Times

    1. Investors fret on talk of AstraZeneca US move  Financial Times
    2. AstraZeneca CEO wants to move listing to the US  The Times
    3. What If London Loses One Of Its Top Companies?  Bloomberg.com
    4. HQ in Cambridge, quoted in New York. Heartbeat in China? The AstraZeneca conundrum!  Business Weekly
    5. Trending tickers: AstraZeneca, Constellation Brands, Ford, Santander and Greggs  Yahoo

    Continue Reading

  • Santander takeover of TSB is boost to Reeves as she fights to keep City’s trust | Banco Santander

    Santander takeover of TSB is boost to Reeves as she fights to keep City’s trust | Banco Santander

    Santander’s takeover of TSB will be music to Rachel Reeves’ ears: sparing the under-pressure chancellor the potential embarrassment of having to explain why a major high street lender had given up on Britain.

    On Tuesday night, Spanish-owned Santander said it would buy TSB from its fellow Spanish owner, Sabadell, for £2.65bn, ending months of speculation over the future of the British bank – and reaffirming Santander’s commitment to the UK.

    Rumours had emerged in January that Santander UK could pull out of high street banking, potentially reversing gains made in stepping up its British presence with the acquisition of Abbey National two decades earlier. Bosses had started slashing 2,000 jobs months earlier, fuelling speculation that it was trying to create a leaner business that could lure potential suitors.

    The chatter sparked panic, feeding into a growing existential crisis over whether allegedly burdensome regulation was driving potential investment and foreign firms away from the City – which was already losing stock market listings and floats to foreign rivals .

    Publicly, Santander repeated that the UK was a core market, with 14 million customers served through 350 branches and 18,000 staff. But in Madrid, executives led by executive chair Ana Botín, were said to be increasingly frustrated over UK regulations and costs that were dampening profitability.

    That included post-financial crisis rules such as ring-fencing, which protect and separate consumer deposits from riskier operations including investment banking, but are criticised as costly and complex by banks. Meanwhile, Santander’s frustrations were compounded by the car finance commission scandal, which could lead to a £1.9bn compensation bill for the bank’s aggrieved borrowers.

    Reeves and her Labour government, however, appeared alive to the threats.

    Months earlier, the chancellor had ordered City watchdogs to do more to promote growth and competition, including by watering down financial crisis regulation that she claimed had “gone too far”. By late January, the chancellor was attempting to intervene in a supreme court case over the car finance scandal, concerned it could curb lenders’ activities.

    Days after her intervention emerged, Reeves met with Botín on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. While in the Swiss Alps, Botín declared: “We love the UK, it is a core market and will remain a core market for Santander. Punto [fullstop], that’s it.”

    Speculation of its sale continued to swirl, but Santander finally put its money where its mouth is: agreeing to buy TSB from Spanish rival Sabadell in a deal that could eventually hit £2.9bn if the smaller bank’s profits meet forecasts.

    For Santander, the takeover will help fend off competition from the likes of Nationwide Building Society, which has been nipping at the bank’s heels after its own £2.9bn acquisition of rival Virgin Money. It will add 5 million customers to its books, and make Santander the fourth largest mortgage provider and third largest bank in terms of personal current account deposits, behind Lloyds and NatWest.

    But for TSB, the future of its 5,000 staff and 175 branches is at stake. Santander will have to consider how to strip out duplicate roles and branches and whether to scrap the 215-year history old TSB brand, which could disappear from UK high streets following the takeover.

    Santander bosses told analysts on Tuesday night that they were aware of duplications, including “overlapping branches”.

    Meanwhile, unions have been holding urgent talks with TSB to try to get some clarity for staff, who have been subject to a tumultuous 12 years, marked by ownership upheavals and a disastrous IT meltdown that tarnished its reputation for years.

    Hived off from Lloyds Banking Group as part of state-aid rules following its £20.3bn government bailout in 2008, TSB again became a standalone brand and floated on the London stock exchange in 2014. It was delisted following its takeover by Spanish lender Sabadell in 2015, in a major cross border deal that the Treasury hailed as a “vote of confidence” in the UK.

    But the party did not last. As soon as 2020, Sabadell began exploring a sale of TSB after the botched launch of a new IT system two years earlier sparked a tech meltdown, locking millions of customers out of their bank accounts. It caused a customer exodus, executive resignations, financial losses and a £48m fine from regulators.

    Sabadell eventually swallowed the losses, and was heartened by TSB’s recovery, even rebuffing a £1bn approach by the Co-operative Bank in 2022.

    It took a hostile bid for Sabadell by Spanish rival BBVA for the bank to reconsider a sale, with proceeds from TSB’s sale due to be distributed among shareholders who it hopes will see less benefit in agreeing to the takeover.

    But Sabadell’s loss could be Santander’s gain, and provide a timely boost for Reeves as she fights to keep the trust of the City courted on the election campaign trail amid a gloomy economic outlook.

    Continue Reading

  • Microsoft to cut 4 per cent of staff in new wave of lay-offs – Financial Times

    Microsoft to cut 4 per cent of staff in new wave of lay-offs – Financial Times

    1. Microsoft to cut 4 per cent of staff in new wave of lay-offs  Financial Times
    2. Microsoft is laying off as many as 9,000 employees  The Verge
    3. Microsoft Makes Deep Job Cuts Across Xbox Division, Cancels Games  Bloomberg.com
    4. Sources: Everwild has been cancelled as Xbox layoffs hit Rare  Video Games Chronicle
    5. Microsoft continues Xbox layoffs, with jobs cut at King and ZeniMax Media — read Phil Spencer’s note to staff  Windows Central

    Continue Reading

  • UK financial watchdog expands bullying rules to 37,000 City firms | Financial Conduct Authority

    UK financial watchdog expands bullying rules to 37,000 City firms | Financial Conduct Authority

    The UK’s financial watchdog is expanding bullying and harassment rules to more than 37,000 City firms, in an effort to crack down on “rolling bad apples” who avoid consequences by hopping from firm to firm.

    It means that “serious, substantiated cases of poor personal behaviour” by senior managers at a range of firms including hedge funds, insurers and pension firms will have to be reported to the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), as well as future employers who are assessing whether new hires are fit and proper for the job.

    Previously, only banks were required to report bad behaviour to the watchdog. The rules will now apply to tens of thousands of other firms across the City that are bound by the so-called senior managers and certification regime (SM&CR) that is meant to hold senior bosses accountable for wrongdoing at their firms.

    The regulator said the expanded rules would help “prevent ‘rolling bad apples’ – people moving from firm to firm without appropriate action being taken or without past serious non-financial misconduct being disclosed”.

    Sarah Pritchard, the FCA’s deputy chief executive, said: “Too often when we see problems in the market, there are cultural failings in firms. Behaviour like bullying or harassment going unchallenged is one of the reddest flags – a culture where this occurs can raise questions about a firm’s decision-making and risk management.

    “Our new rules will help drive consistency across industry and support the vast majority of firms that want to do the right thing to deepen trust in financial services.”

    The expanded rules on non-financial misconduct, which also cover racism, sexual harassment and violence and intimidation, will come into force on 1 September 2026. However, they will not apply to payments and e-money firms, regulated investment exchanges or credit ratings agencies, none of which are subject to SM&CR rules.

    The FCA recently won a tribunal challenge brought by the former Barclays boss Jes Staley, with judges upholding a lifetime ban against the former chief executive for misleading the regulator over the nature of his relationship with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and their last point of contact.

    skip past newsletter promotion

    The new rules come despite the FCA and fellow regulators facing mounting pressure from the government to slash red tape for businesses.

    Continue Reading

  • Online Gambling and Italian Digital Services Tax – Clarifications on how to determine revenues

    With Ruling No. 6 of 3 June 2025, the Italian Tax Authority provided important clarification on determining taxable revenues for digital services tax (Digital Services Tax, or DST) purposes for operators in the online betting and gambling sector. Among the most significant aspects, we note the exclusion of bonuses granted to players from the calculation of the DST tax base.

    Before examining the clarifications introduced by the interpretative ruling, it should be noted that the digital services tax – governed by Article 1, paragraphs 35 to 50, of Law No. 145/2018, as subsequently amended – applies at a rate of 3% to revenues deriving from specific services provided in Italy, namely:

    • the provision of digital interfaces for the delivery of targeted advertising messages based on the analysis of data collected during users’ browsing (Article 1, paragraph 37, letter a), Law No. 145/2018);
    • the management of multilateral digital interfaces that enable interaction between users and the sale of goods and services between them (Article 1, paragraph 37, letter b), Law No. 145/2018);
    • the transmission to third parties of data generated by users’ activities on digital platforms (Art. 1, paragraph 37, letter c), Law No. 145/2018).

    In its original wording, the DST applied only to entities which, individually or as a group, simultaneously achieved:

    1. global revenues of at least EUR750 million;
    2. revenues from digital services in Italy of at least EUR5.5 million.

    However, as of 1 January 2025, pursuant to the provisions of Article 1, paragraph 21, of Law No. 207/2024 (2025 Budget Law), requirement (ii) has been repealed. Consequently, the DST now applies to all entities providing the above-mentioned digital services in Italy, provided that their global revenues – including at group level – exceed the threshold of EUR750 million.

    With specific reference to the online betting and gambling sector, Circular No. 3/E of 2021 (which provides general guidelines for the application of the Italian digital tax) had already clarified that, although the sums represented by “bets” are excluded from the scope of the tax, for the purposes of applying the DST, it is important to draw a distinction based on the role of the gaming platform operator:

    • ‘where the entity operates as a bookmaker (ie as an entity that accepts bets from players by setting odds, such as in the case of sports or other event betting) or a banker (ie as an entity against which players bet, such as in the case of online poker or roulette), the entity assumes risks on its own account and the proceeds are therefore excluded under Art. 37-bis, lett. b)’;
    • “where it operates as an entity that allows players (users) to bet or gamble against each other, the entity does not bear any risk associated with the betting or gaming, but acts as an intermediary Although the sums represented by ‘wagers’ are excluded under subparagraph 37(a) or (b), the interface operator ‘commission is instead digital revenue within the meaning of subparagraph 37(b), realised as an intermediary in transactions between users.”

    Interpretative Ruling No. 6/2025 confirms this approach and provides useful operational guidance on determining the revenues from Italian digital services provided in Italy that constitute the taxable base for DST purposes for gambling operators. In particular, the tax shall apply exclusively to the portion actually retained by the operator, ie the amount remaining after deducting the prize money paid to players and any single tax on gambling from the payments made by users. This criterion also applies where, in a single tournament, the winnings distributed exceed the bets collected, confirming that the taxable base coincides with the actual margin retained by the platform, which varies according to the type of game and the specific contractual conditions. Incidentally, reference is made to “tournament” as the game mode that falls within the scope of the DST, as it is clear that the role played by the platform managed by the concessionaire is to allow users to play against each other in return for remuneration in the form of a commission.

    Particular attention is paid to the treatment of bonuses granted to players (eg welcome bonuses, free plays). As these amounts are granted free of charge and without consideration, they do not generate actual revenue for the operator and must therefore be excluded from the calculation of the taxable base for DST purposes. It follows that, in determining the commission subject to tax, the gross gaming revenue must be adjusted by subtracting the value of any bonuses paid. The dual track system for bonuses under the DST and the single tax on gaming is clear: while the document in question clarifies that bonuses do not contribute to the taxable base for the DST, the same does not apply for gaming tax purposes. In fact, as clarified by the provision of 10 June 2011 (Prot. 2011/20659/Giochi/GAD), bonuses are generally included in the collection.

    In light of these clarifications, gambling operators who, in previous tax periods, falling within the scope of application of the Italian digital tax, included the bonuses granted to users in the calculation of the taxable base, or adopted criteria that differed from the approach outlined by the Italian Tax Authority, may have made an excessive payment. In such cases, it will be necessary to assess, on a case-by-case basis, the most appropriate methods for recovering the excess amount paid.

    You can have an outline on the Italian gambling law regime in DLA Piper’s Gambling Laws of the World Guide available here.

     

    Continue Reading

  • Fears AI factcheckers on X could increase promotion of conspiracy theories | X

    Fears AI factcheckers on X could increase promotion of conspiracy theories | X

    A decision by Elon Musk’s X social media platform to enlist artificial intelligence chatbots to draft factchecks risks increasing the promotion of “lies and conspiracy theories”, a former UK technology minister has warned.

    Damian Collins accused Musk’s firm of “leaving it to bots to edit the news” after X announced on Tuesday that it would allow large language modelsto write community notes to clarify or correct contentious posts, before they are approved for publication by users. The notes have previously been written by humans.

    X said using AI to write factchecking notes – which sit beneath some X posts – “advances the state of the art in improving information quality on the internet”.

    Keith Coleman, the vice president of product at X, said humans would review AI-generated notes and the note would appear only if people with a variety of viewpoints found it useful.

    “We designed this pilot to be AI helping humans, with humans deciding,” he said. “We believe this can deliver both high quality and high trust. Additionally we published a paper along with the launch of our pilot, co-authored with professors and researchers from MIT, University of Washington, Harvard and Stanford laying out why this combination of AI and humans is such a promising direction.”

    But Collins said the system was already open to abuse and that AI agents working on community notes could allow “the industrial manipulation of what people see and decide to trust” on the platform, which has about 600 million users.

    It is the latest pushback against human factcheckers by US tech firms. Last month Google said user-created fact checks, including by professional factchecking organisations, would be deprioritised in its search results. It said such checks were “no longer providing significant additional value for users”. In January, Meta announced it was scrapping human factcheckers in the US and would adopt its own community notes system on Instagram, Facebook and Threads.

    X’s research paper outlining its new factchecking system criticised professional factchecking as often slow and limited in scale and said it “lacks trust by large sections of the public”.

    AI-created community notes “have the potential to be faster to produce, less effort to generate, and of high quality”, it said. Human and AI-written notes would be submitted into the same pool and X users would vote for which were most useful and should appear on the platform.

    AI would draft “a neutral well-evidenced summary”, the research paper said. Trust in community notes “stems not from who drafts the notes, but from the people that evaluate them,” it said.

    But Andy Dudfield, the head of AI at the UK factchecking organisation Full Fact, said: “These plans risk increasing the already significant burden on human reviewers to check even more draft Notes, opening the door to a worrying and plausible situation in which Notes could be drafted, reviewed, and published entirely by AI without the careful consideration that human input provides.”

    Samuel Stockwell, a research associate at the Centre for Emerging Technology and Security at the Alan Turing Institute, said: “AI can help factcheckers process the huge volumes of claims flowing daily through social media, but much will depend on the quality of safeguards X puts in place against the risk that these AI ‘note writers’ could hallucinate and amplify misinformation in their outputs. AI chatbots often struggle with nuance and context, but are good at confidently providing answers that sound persuasive even when untrue. That could be a dangerous combination if not effectively addressed by the platform.”

    Researchers have found that people perceived human-authored community notes as significantly more trustworthy than simple misinformation flags.

    An analysis of several hundred misleading posts on X in the run up to last year’s presidential election found that in three-quarters of cases, accurate community notes were not being displayed, indicating they were not being upvoted by users. These misleading posts, including claims that Democrats were importing illegal voters and the 2020 presidential election was stolen, amassed more than 2bn views, according to the Centre for Countering Digital Hate.

    Continue Reading

  • Healthcare insurers fall sharply as patient care costs jump – Financial Times

    Healthcare insurers fall sharply as patient care costs jump – Financial Times

    1. Healthcare insurers fall sharply as patient care costs jump  Financial Times
    2. Centene’s Medicaid business and healthcare costs are a problem, and its stock plunges  MarketWatch
    3. S&P 500 Health Insurer Crashes On ACA Exchange, Medicaid Woes  MSN
    4. Centene’s Financial Outlook Challenged by Marketplace and Medicaid Trends, Hold Rating Issued  TipRanks
    5. Centene’s stock plummets as health insurance giant scraps 2025 financial outlook  STAT

    Continue Reading