Corporate governance - Vigil

Canadian National Railway Co. made a roughly $30 billion topping bid for Kansas City Southern, likely kicking off a bidding war for a railroad operator that has already agreed to a sale to another Canadian rival.

For all those bitcoin true believers who survived the crypto winter of 2017-2020 with their holdings intact, the listing of digital currency exchange service Coinbase must have felt a vindication. Not only did its $75.9bn listing on Nasdaq mark the biggest cash-out in crypto history, many would say it unequivocally established digital currencies as a force to be reckoned with on Wall Street. For crypto boosters the world over, more simply, it marked the day they were finally proven right.

The Covid-19 pandemic helped Netflix solidify its place on the TV dial. The streaming company now needs to show it can stay there—profitably.

The Ontario government is scrambling to remake its COVID-19 response plan after reversing new lockdown measures in the face of unprecedented civil pushback and pleas from the province’s science advisers to adopt their recommendations as the health care system buckles under the impact of growing case counts.

Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd.  and Loblaw Cos. Ltd.  both blew through revenue goals, but missed their targets on profits. Yet they took two slightly different approaches when it came time to write the annual bonus cheques: Loblaw’s board chose to scale back the benefits to its executives from the sales boom, while Canadian Tire allowed its plan to pay out maximums for the COVID-19-boosted revenue.

China has flagged it will seek to raise its power generation from solar and wind plants to around 11% of the country’s total power consumption in 2021, from 9.7% in 2020, said the National Energy Administration (NEA) in a draft rule on Monday.

Other European cities are eating away at Britain’s edge in financial services. The government is trying to find ways to keep it.

Mothers in provinces heavily hit by school closures during the pandemic appear to be stepping away from their careers to provide childcare and homeschooling at a disproportionate rate, government data tied to the Canada Recovery Caregiving Benefit (CRCB) suggests.

The budget will contain more than $2 billion for childcare, the person said, and impose new taxes on digital services, which the government has previously promised.

As annual meetings fast approach for many companies, the status quo across boardrooms is on the table for discussion. With so much focus on topics such as ESG, GRC, corporate responsibility and digital transformation, the takeaways from these annual meetings, proposals and shareholder votes should signal what to expect in global governance trends.

Business leaders discuss President Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan and proposal to raise tax rate on companies

Public companies aren’t required to disclose the amount of taxes they pay in each of the states or countries where they operate

The retail union that failed to organize Amazon workers at a Alabama warehouse wants the results of a recent vote to be thrown out, saying that the company illegally interfered with the process.

The U.K. Treasury and Bank of England have launched a joint taskforce to explore a potential central bank digital currency.

WeWork, which had one of the most spectacular IPO implosions in recent years, is trying to go public again—and some of the factors that worried regulators on the first deal are back again.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney says his province will start offering the Oxford-AstraZeneca shot to those 40 and older starting on Tuesday.

Energy giants such as Exxon Mobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell are pushing carbon capture and storage—where carbon is gathered and buried underground—as part of a drive to reduce both their own and their customers’ emissions. Executives say the service could become a new source of income when the industry is grappling with how to adapt to a lower-carbon economy.

A group of U.S. electricity companies wrote to President Joe Biden this week saying it will work with his administration and Congress to design a broad set of policies to reach a near-term goal of slashing the sector’s carbon emissions by 2030.

The debate about dual-class shares for premium listings on the London Stock Exchange usually revolves around those who think they are a good idea and those who say they rob shareholders of a voice. New entrants to the discussion say they work—but not with the governance safeguards currently proposed for the City.

Canada’s first budget in two years, to be presented to parliament on Monday, proposes a sales tax for online platforms and e-commerce warehouses, a digital services tax for Web giants and a luxury tax on items like yachts, government sources familiar with the document said.

Nutrien Ltd., the world’s largest fertilizer maker, named Mayo Schmidt its new chief executive officer, replacing Chuck Magro, who stepped down to pursue new opportunities.

Take our cash, or at least our shares. That appears to be Microsoft’s mantra these days. After failing to acquire the American operations of TikTok, a short-video app, last year, the software giant was recently rumoured to be in takeover talks with Pinterest, a virtual pin-board, and Discord, an online-chat service. And on April 12th the firm announced that it would acquire Nuance, a speech-recognition specialist, for nearly $20bn in cash—its second-biggest acquisition ever.

We still don't know exactly how it started — a runner on a treadmill, or perhaps someone lifting weights — but an outbreak at a gym in Quebec City has become one of the largest recorded COVID-19 superspreading events in Canada.