Corporate governance - Vigil

BenchSci Analytics Inc. became one of Canada’s most promising and heavily funded startups by using artificial intelligence to help pharmaceutical giants cut time and costs from the drug discovery process. Now the Toronto company is turning to AI to slash its own costs. Since May, BenchSci has cut 23 per cent of staff – about 83 jobs – as it goes all-in on adopting generative AI to do work formerly done by humans, the company said in an e-mail. CEO Liran Belenzon signalled BenchSci’s commitment to generative AI in a July blog post. “As I often remind my team, those who fail to embrace AI risk being left behind – not by the technology itself but by peers who have mastered it,” he wrote. The company this year “shifted to become an AI-first company, which has become our guiding principle. Before adding new people or processes, we ask: ‘Could AI do this?’”

Perplexity AI, jeune entreprise d’intelligence artificielle (IA) spécialisée dans la recherche en ligne, a proposé mardi à Google de racheter pour 34,5 milliards de dollars son navigateur Chrome, dont l’avenir est menacé par la condamnation pour abus de position dominante du géant de l’internet. La jeune entreprise a confirmé à l’AFP avoir envoyé une lettre d’intention à Google. L’information a d’abord été révélée par le Wall Street Journal (WSJ). D’après le quotidien économique, Perplexity vaut environ 18 milliards de dollars, un peu plus de la moitié de l’offre faite au groupe californien. Mais un porte-parole de l’entreprise a assuré à l’AFP que plusieurs grands fonds d’investissement veulent participer au financement de cette acquisition, et que la direction n’était pas inquiète quant à sa capacité à réunir la somme avancée.

La Caisse, qui avait racheté la participation d’Hydro-Québec dans Innergex et retiré les actions du producteur d’énergie renouvelable du marché boursier, revend une partie de ses actions au gouvernement du Québec pour une somme de 500 millions. En février, le premier ministre François Legault avait applaudi l’acquisition de La Caisse au coût de près de 10 milliards, qui permettait de maintenir le siège social d’Innergex au Québec. « Bonne nouvelle ! La Caisse de dépôt protège ce siège social stratégique. Innergex est un fleuron québécois de l’énergie renouvelable », avait écrit le premier ministre sur les réseaux sociaux. En juillet, après la conclusion de la transaction qui lui donnait 100 % de la propriété d’Innergex, La Caisse avait déjà fait savoir qu’elle voulait s’associer avec d’autres partenaires et avait nommé Investissement Québec, Desjardins et Fondaction comme futurs coactionnaires.

Sans la « bonne performance » de ses investissements dans les marchés boursiers durant le premier semestre, La Caisse aurait sans doute loupé son objectif d’au moins égaler sinon dépasser le rendement de son « indice de référence ». Dans sa mise à jour de résultats effectuée mardi de son siège administratif à Montréal, La Caisse affiche un rendement de 4,6 % pour les six premiers mois de l’année 2025, une performance tout juste supérieure à son indice de référence, qui pointe à 4,3 %. Durant le premier semestre 2025, dans les marchés boursiers, les gestionnaires de La Caisse ont obtenu un rendement de 6 %, ce qui est mieux que les 5,5 % de l’indice de référence sectoriel. Le rendement a été propulsé par les titres en Bourse canadienne et sur les marchés internationaux.

How boards can understand, oversee and hold management accountable for building and sustaining a resilient corporate culture. Workplace culture is more critical— and perhaps more vulnerable—than ever. Absent a positive and engaging work environment, disruptive forces like political divisiveness, the advent of AI, market gyrations and macroeconomic turmoil all have the potential to seep into a workplace in insidious ways, sowing fear and discord. Over and over, we’ve seen that a strong, adaptable culture can act as a superpower during such times, bringing team members together to combat negativity, forge a path forward and emerge stronger than ever.

Canada’s Gildan Activewear is nearing a deal to acquire Hanesbrands, in a takeover which could value the US underwear-maker at approaching $5bn including debt, according to people familiar with the matter. Hanesbrands has suffered weak sales and inventory reductions at its retail partners, as President Donald Trump’s tariff policies have also raised input costs. Its shares have fallen 40 per cent since the start of this year. In contrast, Gildan’s share price is trading close to all-time highs and it reported record sales and earnings in the second quarter of this year. The takeover gives Hanesbrands an enterprise value including debt approaching $5bn, said the people. The deal talks are at an advanced stage and an acquisition could be agreed by the end of the week but the talks are not finalised and could collapse, they added.

Amazon.com-backed Anthropic said on Tuesday it will offer its Claude AI model to the U.S. government for $1, joining a growing list of artificial intelligence startups proposing lucrative deals to win federal contracts. This comes days after OpenAI's ChatGPT Gemini and Anthropic's Claude were added to the government's list of approved AI vendors. "America's AI leadership requires that our government institutions have access to the most capable, secure AI tools available," CEO Dario Amodei said. Rival OpenAI had announced a similar offer last week, wherein ChatGPT Enterprise was made available to participating U.S. federal agencies for $1 per agency for the next year.

Sinclair said on Monday its board has authorized a strategic review of the company's broadcast business and it is considering a separation of its Ventures portfolio, sending its shares up 15% in extended trading. The review comes as media companies are exploring options for their cable TV businesses, as audiences rapidly abandon linear TV in favor of streaming platforms. Sinclair owns, operates and provides services to 178 television stations in 81 markets. The Ventures portfolio is comprised of Sinclair's private equity and real-estate assets, a cable network that includes coverage of most of tennis' top tournaments called the Tennis Channel, as well as its ad tech unit, Digital Remedy. "We expect separating Ventures will crystallize significant value that the market has overlooked within our current structure, giving us even more flexibility to drive our broadcast strategy forward," CEO Chris Ripley said.

Spanish drugmaker Grifols is selling medicine abroad made from Canadian-donated blood plasma as part of a complex arrangement with Canadian Blood Services, despite a pledge by CBS that all blood donations would be used for products that stay in Canada. CBS, a charity that runs the blood donation system everywhere in Canada but Quebec, announced in 2022 that it would partner with Grifols to collect blood plasma. Grifols pays donors and makes its profits by processing and reselling their plasma, while CBS was founded as a voluntary donation system. Plasma is a straw-coloured fluid in blood used for transfusions and to make therapies such as immunoglobulin, commonly used for people with immune disorders.

Financial companies from Bank of America to Fiserv are preparing to launch their own dollar-backed crypto tokens now that a new U.S. law has established the first-ever rules for stablecoins, but experts warn the path forward could be anything but simple. U.S. President Donald Trump on July 18 signed the GENIUS Act into law, setting federal rules and guidelines for cryptocurrency tokens pegged to the U.S. dollar known as stablecoins. This U.S. law, the first designed to facilitate crypto usage, could pave the way for the digital assets to become an everyday way to make payments and move money, experts said. The use of stablecoins, designed to maintain a constant value, usually a 1:1 U.S. dollar peg, has exploded in recent years, notably among crypto traders moving funds to and from other tokens, such as bitcoin and ether.

A generation ago conventional wisdom held that as China liberalized, its economy would come to resemble America’s. Instead, capitalism in America is starting to look like China. Recent examples include President Trump’s demand that Intel’s chief executive resign; the 15% of certain chip sales to China that Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices will share with Washington; the “golden share” Washington will get in U.S. Steel as a condition of Nippon Steel’s takeover; and the $1.5 trillion of promised investment from trading partners Trump plans to personally direct. This isn’t socialism, in which the state owns the means of production. It is more like state capitalism, a hybrid between socialism and capitalism in which the state guides the decisions of nominally private enterprises.

A $16 billion merger of two state-controlled shipbuilders in China is set for completion this week, creating the world’s biggest shipbuilder while the U.S. searches for a path back into the business. American shipbuilders are playing catch-up after decades of maritime-industry decline, though President Trump’s ambitious plans to revive American shipbuilding have hit snags recently. In the shorter term, Trump’s threat to impose higher fees on ships made in China is giving South Korean and Japanese rivals an opening to win back market share. The Chinese champion is called China State Shipbuilding, or CSSC. This week it is scheduled to absorb its merger partner, China Shipbuilding Industry, and take the sole listing on the Shanghai Stock Exchange after regulators recently approved the deal.

La branche d’investissement immobilier de l’une des plus importantes caisses de retraite du pays s’inquiète de la valeur de ses actifs si une milliardaire britanno-colombienne parvient à acquérir les baux de La Baie d’Hudson dans ses propriétés. Dans des documents déposés auprès de la Cour supérieure de l’Ontario en fin de semaine, Oxford Properties Group soutient que le transfert de baux à une entrepreneure « non vérifiée et non reconnue » comme Ruby Liu « présente un risque grave et inacceptable » pour l’entreprise. « Une diminution de la valeur ou de la stabilité du portefeuille immobilier d’Oxford aurait un impact négatif sur le rendement des placements d’OMERS et, par extension, sur les intérêts à long terme de millions de bénéficiaires actuels et futurs de régimes de retraite », a affirmé Nadia Corrado, vice-présidente d’Oxford, dans une déclaration sous serment ajoutée au dossier judiciaire, samedi.

Air Canada says it will begin a gradual suspension of flights to allow an orderly shutdown as it faces a potential work stoppage by its flight attendants on Saturday. The airline says the first flights will be cancelled Thursday, with more on Friday and a complete cessation of flying by Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge by the weekend. Air Canada Express flights operated by Jazz and PAL Airlines will continue to operate as normal. Air Canada says customers whose flights are cancelled will be notified and they will be eligible for a full refund. The company also says it has made arrangements with other Canadian and foreign carriers to provide customers alternative travel options to the extent possible. The union representing around 10,000 Air Canada flight attendants issued 72-hour strike notice on Wednesday. In response, the airline issued a lockout notice.

China has announced a 75.8-per-cent duty on Canadian canola seed, escalating a costly trade war between the countries and prompting Ottawa to say it will hold off on making concessions until it knows Beijing will respond in kind. Beijing unveiled the preliminary duty on Tuesday toward the end of a one-year anti-dumping probe, which began after Canada imposed high tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles. China’s Ministry of Commerce said Canada’s agricultural sector has benefited from extensive government subsidies and preferential policies that distort markets. Many in Canada’s canola industry, however, say China’s action is instead a political response to Canadian tariffs in other sectors.

Elon Musk a accusé Apple de favoriser OpenAI et son assistant d’intelligence artificielle (IA) ChatGPT sur l’App Store, sa plateforme de téléchargement d’applications, menaçant la firme californienne de poursuites en justice. « Apple agit de manière à rendre impossible pour toute entreprise d’IA autre qu’OpenAI d’atteindre la première place sur l’App Store, ce qui constitue une violation manifeste des règles de concurrence », a protesté mardi le milliardaire sur son réseau social X. Sa société xAI, qui a développé l’assistant IA Grok, « va immédiatement engager une action en justice », a-t-il ajouté. L’App Store permet de télécharger des applications sur les appareils d’Apple. Cette plateforme est cruciale pour les éditeurs qui espèrent être choisis par les consommateurs.  

La Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) repousse une fois de plus le lancement de la première phase du chantier Numériccq, pierre angulaire du virage informatique du secteur québécois de la construction, a appris La Presse. La facture anticipée dépasse maintenant de 30 % le budget initialement prévu. Prévue pour 2023, la première phase de cet important chantier informatique de la CCQ ne devait pas coûter plus de 280 millions de dollars. « Le dernier budget qui a été approuvé [pour cette phase] est rendu à 365 millions, donc 30 % d’augmentation », a confirmé à La Presse Audrey Murray, PDG de la CCQ. Ces dernières semaines, la CCQ a repoussé pour la quatrième fois le lancement de la première phase du projet Numériccq. 

In the first half of 2025, rapid market shifts, new regulations, including updated SEC guidance on Schedules 13D/13G – and changing activist tactics pushed boards, investors and advisors to rethink how they operate. It’s been the most disruptive proxy season in years – and the impact is far from over. Based on insights from Diligent Market Intelligence’s Proxy Season Review 2025, here are five things you need to know : 
1. Engagement is no longer business as usual

2. ESG proposals are losing steam, but governance still matters

3. Activists are picking their battles, and winning them

4. Agility and anticipation are now table stakes

5. Data-driven engagement is the new gold standard

Billionaire activist Daniel Loeb is battling with shareholders to turn his London-listed company into a Cayman Islands-based reinsurer, testing new UK governance rules in a bid to manage money for American retirees. In May, Loeb’s London-listed investment company Third Point Investors Limited (TPIL) announced plans to buy Malibu Life Reinsurance (Malibu Re) in a reverse takeover that would transform the investment vehicle into a reinsurer focused on the fast-growing US market for fixed annuities.  The London vehicle was set up as a feeder fund giving investors access to the strategies of Loeb’s New York hedge fund Third Point, which separately created and capitalised Malibu Re.  The proposed takeover has met a backlash from a group of TPIL investors, even after a July offer sweetened the deal.

Video platform Rumble which hosts U.S. President Donald Trump's Truth Social, is weighing boosting its global AI cloud capabilities by acquiring Germany's Northern Data the companies said. Rumble said it was considering making an offer for the company which would give it control of Northern Data's cloud business, Taiga, and its large-scale data center arm, Ardent, with plans to integrate both into its own operations. The Taiga cloud unit holds a significant inventory of Nvidia graphics processing unit (GPU) chips, including around 20,480 H100s and over 2,000 H200s, Rumble said. "Following consummation of the potential transaction, Tether would become an important customer of Rumble, with a multi-year commitment to purchase GPUs," Rumble said. Under a potential exchange offer, Tether is expected to be Rumble's largest single holder of its class A common stock and the majority of voting rights would continue to lie with Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski, Rumble said.

India's market regulator will further simplify regulations for foreign investors to encourage long-term capital flows into the country, the Securities and Exchange Board of India said in its annual report published on Tuesday. Last week, the SEBI proposed a single-window clearance and access to India's securities markets for overseas investors such as government-owned foreign investment firms, sovereign wealth funds and firms that pool funds from retail investors, who belong to the low-risk category. That could encourage greater foreign participation, the SEBI had said. The regulator will also undertake a comprehensive exercise to rationalize and optimize existing regulations this year, the annual report added. To ease the compliance burden, focus will be on identifying and removing regulatory redundancies, the regulator said.

Less than a week after demanding his resignation, President Donald Trump is now calling the career of Intel’s CEO an “amazing story.” Shares of Intel, which slid last week after CEO Lip-Bu Tan came under fire from the U.S. President, bounced higher before the opening bell Tuesday. The attack from Trump came after Sen. Tom Cotton sent a letter to Intel Chairman Frank Yeary expressing concern over Tan’s investments and ties to semiconductor firms that are reportedly linked to the Chinese Communist Party and the People’s Liberation Army. Cotton asked Intel if Tan had divested from the companies to eliminate any potential conflict of interest. Trump said on the Truth Social platform Thursday that, “The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”

The business running the defunct department store once known as Hudson’s Bay has changed its name. The company and its subsidiaries now have various names beginning with Rupert Legacy. The name is a reference to Prince Rupert, the Bay’s first governor, and Rupert’s Land, a vast swath of wilderness Hudson’s Bay was given control over in 1670, when it began as a fur trading business. Hudson’s Bay had to make the change as a condition of an agreement it signed to sell Canadian Tire Corp. Ltd. its name and trademarks. The $30-million deal included the Bay’s iconic stripes motif, its coat of arms, its Distinctly Home housewares brand, its Hudson North apparel line, as well as catchphrases like “Bay Days” and the Zellers slogan “the lowest price is the law.”

Bain Capital is considering an initial public offering of retailer Bob’s Discount Furniture for as soon as later this year, according to people familiar with the matter. The private-equity firm is currently looking to hire bankers to work on the offering, the people said, cautioning that the plans could still change or fall apart. Last year, the furniture store chain generated around $2 billion in sales and about $200 million in earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization, a common measure of profitability, according to analysts at D.A. Davidson. As of earlier this year, the analysts estimated the company had no debt. The business could be valued at around $1 billion if it were to command a multiple of around five-times Ebitda, which is typical for the furniture industry. 

Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce is shaking up its most senior leadership team, as Harry Culham prepares to take the reins from chief executive officer Victor Dodig. Mr. Culham, CIBC’s current chief operating officer and a former head of its capital markets business, will step into the role of CEO on Nov. 1, the start of the bank’s fiscal year. As part of the overhaul, the head of the bank’s U.S. region, Shawn Beber, who was considered a contender for the CEO seat, is leaving the bank, along with chief legal officer Kikelomo Lawal. “Across CIBC, we are accelerating our momentum by delivering on our client-focused strategy and by fostering a purpose-led, connected culture, which starts with our leadership team and extends to every corner of our bank,” Mr. Culham said in a statement.