Une incursion, des protestations indigènes, un incendie et désormais un affrontement sur le pétrole : les chaotiques négociations climatiques de la COP30 entre près de 200 pays achoppent vendredi, au dernier jour, sur la question de pointer du doigt ou non les énergies fossiles. Au point que l’Union européenne évoque ouvertement la perspective d’une COP30 « sans accord », ce qui serait un échec humiliant pour le Brésil et cette première conférence climatique de l’ONU en Amazonie. La présidence brésilienne du sommet, qui se tient à Belem depuis la semaine dernière, a mis un projet de texte sur la table avec une grande omission : il ne contient pas le mot « fossiles », et encore moins la création de la « feuille de route » réclamée par au moins 80 pays européens, latino-américains ou insulaires. Protestation immédiate des Européens et de leurs alliés, dont la Colombie, qui mène la bataille contre la « prolifération » du pétrole.

CEO turnover is accelerating in 2025—and it’s not primarily triggered by poor corporate performance. New research from The Conference Board, Egon Zehnder, and Semler Brossy finds that high-performing organizations are now nearly as likely to undergo a CEO transition as underperforming ones. In 2025, turnover among S&P 500 CEOs in the top three performance quartiles (measured by total shareholder return) came in at 12%, nearly matching bottom-quartile performers (14%). This marks a stark shift from the previous year, when the gap between the two cohorts was 7% versus 18%. At the same time, CEO departures are rising. The succession rate climbed to 12.5% in 2025*, up from a historic low of 9.8% in 2024 and 12.2% in 2023. While part of this reflects a return to historical norms, it also stems from persistent macroeconomic volatility, shifting leadership skill requirements, and an increase in externally hired CEOs.

Brussels has confronted Italy over its far-reaching “golden power” merger rules, warning that the measures used to recently deter a proposed bank deal potentially run against the principles of Europe’s single market. The formal start of infringement proceedings on Friday reflects the European Commission’s long-standing unease with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government using the powers, first adopted to protect strategic assets from foreign takeovers, as a tool to intervene more widely in the economy. The rules allow Rome to vet and potentially block foreign takeovers in sensitive sectors as well as to impose various requirements on any transactions deemed to have national security implications. The number of deals subjected to such scrutiny has increased in recent years. The “letter of notice”, issued by Brussels on Friday and first reported by the Financial Times, is the first stage of a process under which Italy is challenged to amend laws that potentially breach EU law.

Australia on Friday blocked a A$672 million ($435 million) buyout offer for Mayne Pharma from Cosette Pharmaceuticals after the U.S. drugmaker became a reluctant suitor and threatened to close a local plant. The decision by the country's centre-left government sent shares in Mayne tumbling 23% before it halted trading pending an update on the deal. Treasurer Jim Chalmers said his decision was in line with advice from the Foreign Investment Review Board (FIRB) that the proposal would be contrary to Australia's national interest. "This is about doing what is necessary to protect Australia's national interest, the security of our critical medical supply chains, local jobs and the local community," he said in a statement. In an after-market update on Friday, Mayne said in a statement the takeover was "unlikely to proceed" after failing to secure FIRB approval, which was required under the agreement between Cosette and Mayne. "Mayne Pharma is currently assessing its options and next steps," it said. The vast majority of Mayne shareholders had voted in favour of the takeover in June.

British Columbia Premier David Eby said Thursday that his counterparts in Alberta and Saskatchewan are jeopardizing major economic development by engaging in what he called “secret” talks with Ottawa on oil pipelines through his province. The pipeline fight escalated earlier in the day after Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe revealed he is involved in Alberta’s negotiations with Ottawa about a potential oil pipeline across northern B.C., which would mean allowing oil tankers to ply the waters off B.C.’s north coast, where they are currently banned. The B.C. government has not been a party to those talks, and Mr. Eby said he learned about them through media reports. Mr. Eby likened his two neighbouring premiers to unprepared tourists wandering into B.C.’s wilderness: “They’re going to have to be rescued at some point. I worry about the cost and the damage that they’re going to cause along the way,” he said in an interview.

Activist investor Elliott Management has built up a sizable stake in Barrick Mining, putting pressure on the gold and copper producer to consider splitting up its operations. The stake positions Elliott as one of Barrick’s top 10 shareholders, a person familiar with the matter said, and was made because the activist was encouraged by the prospect of Barrick’s exploring a breakup. A spokeswoman for the Toronto company declined to comment on the investment or Elliott’s ambitions, saying the company doesn’t comment on matters relating to individual shareholders. Barrick has a clear plan and industry-leading assets, as well as a strengthened leadership team aligned on delivering strategic priorities, the spokeswoman said. Other news outlets reported on Elliott’s stake earlier this week. Barrick is currently undergoing a review of operations, which is aimed at improving efficiencies and utilization across its assets. 

Cracker Barrel shareholders voted to retain the company’s embattled chief executive after a calamitous rebranding campaign, but sent a clear message of discontent. In a binding vote Thursday, Cracker Barrel shareholders voted around 75% of shares in favor of keeping CEO Julie Felss Masino on its board, according to preliminary results. Board member Gilbert Dávila, a longtime marketing and diversity specialist, didn’t receive the necessary votes to stay on the board and has resigned, the company said. Masino and Dávila both had been targeted by activist efforts after the chain’s logo change and restaurant remodels set off a political firestorm over the summer. Cracker Barrel requires that director nominees receive a plurality of shares voted, or more than 50%, to serve on its board. Roughly 60% of shares voted were cast against Dávila, Cracker Barrel said Thursday. At last year’s shareholder meeting, Masino and Dávila both received roughly 98% of shares voted.

Dye & Durham Ltd. has been hit by a mass boardroom defection, with three of its seven directors – including chairman Arnaud Ajdler, the hedge-fund manager who led a successful activist campaign to overhaul its governance last year – quitting the embattled legal-software firm, the company said Thursday. Mr. Ajdler, founder of New York’s Engine Capital LP, swept in a new board at last December’s annual meeting. He, along with five hand-picked nominees that he’d recruited, joined the board. A seventh was nominated by ex-chairman Tyler Proud’s holding company under a shareholder-rights agreement. Support for the new slate from disaffected shareholders, including Mr. Proud, was so overwhelming that the company pulled its rival slate before the vote. The dissidents had favoured sweeping changes atop the company led by Mr. Proud’s brother, Matt Proud, who agreed to step down as chief executive officer weeks before the meeting.

One of Europe’s largest asset managers is looking to invest more in Canadian digital and energy infrastructure after hearing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s pitch to attract foreign capital on a state visit with Sweden’s Royal Family. The head of infrastructure at Stockholm-based EQT Group, Masoud Homayoun, said in an interview Wednesday that the general “tone, receptiveness, openness to partnership” that he heard in Ottawa this week opens the door to an expanded presence in Canada. EQT manages €267-billion ($433-billion) – of which about 30 per cent is in infrastructure – and has stakes in more than 300 portfolio companies around the world. Its infrastructure team has “continued very high interest” in investing in Canada, especially in digital and artificial intelligence infrastructure, clean energy and waste management, he said.

Across the vast sweep of the American economy, airlines, appliance manufacturers, vintners, parcel companies, restaurateurs, cattlemen, miners and tiremakers have joined to petition the Donald Trump administration to uphold North American free trade. In mid-September, the U.S. Trade Representative launched a consultation process on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, opening an online portal for public comment ahead of a joint review of the free-trade pact expected to formally begin next year. Mr. Trump, an outspoken critic of liberalized trade, has overseen the largest increase in U.S. tariffs in nearly a century. But among more than 1,500 submissions to the USTR, companies and industry groups large and small have pleaded with the administration to preserve the free movement of goods across the continent.

The role of the board has never been more critical or dynamic. Given the complex geopolitical and corporate landscape, boards should function as living, breathing organisms that evolve alongside the companies they oversee. Regular board refreshment is no longer just a matter of good governance hygiene; it is a strategic imperative. A proactive approach enables boards to continually assess what skills are needed in the boardroom and rigorously evaluate themselves against those needs. It also supports long-term succession planning by allowing time for orderly transitions and broadening the pool of director candidates well in advance of a departure. Institutional investor expectations about board composition have also tightened. BlackRock, Vanguard Group, and State Street Corp., for example, advise companies to demonstrate a formal process for proactive board refreshment to ensure the board maintains an appropriate mix of skills and diverse perspectives. 

European Union governments and the European Parliament have reached agreement on harmonising the 27-nation bloc's insolvency laws to make it easier to invest across the EU and create a more liquid EU capital market, the EU Council said in a statement. Work on harmonising some key aspects of the 27 different national bankruptcy laws has been going on for a decade, slowed down by vested interests, different national legal cultures and traditions and turf wars between justice and finance ministries. Because of the different insolvency laws, the time for investors to recover their money from a bankrupt company ranged between seven months and seven years depending on its location, while judicial costs could range from zero to more than 10%. The International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and all the EU institutions have pointed to the lack of a harmonised insolvency law as one of the key barriers to greater capital market integration in Europe.

Most Canadian companies have begun to roll out artificial intelligence in some form, but only a small fraction have seen any return on their investments so far, according to a new report. KPMG in Canada found in its online poll of more than 750 business leaders across the country that 93 per cent said their organizations are using AI, significantly up from 61 per cent last year. However, a mere two per cent of respondents said their companies are seeing a return on their generative AI investments, the audit and consulting firm found. “Only a small sliver of Canadian businesses are generating growth from their AI investments today, and that’s understandable -- new technologies take time to be adopted and demonstrate identifiable return on investment,” said Stephanie Terrill, managing partner of digital and transformation at KPMG in Canada, in a release. However, the country’s slowing productivity means that waiting years for AI investments to create value is “downright risky,” she said.

Boards are entering a new era of accountability. The forces reshaping business — from AI and global markets to shifting regulatory demands — are also redefining what directors should know to lead effectively. Yet, while expectations have evolved, director development may not be keeping pace. PwC’s 2025 Annual Corporate Directors Survey reveals directors increasingly want to raise their own bar for performance. Nearly half (45%) say they plan to seek additional training on key topics, the single most common step cited for board improvement to help make their boards more effective. Directors are rethinking what development should look like and what belongs on the new training curriculum for boards. Develop fluency for the boardroom of today. Traditional onboarding typically prepares directors for the companies they join, not for the environment that each company operates in. The pace of change across markets, technology and stakeholder expectations means directors may not be able to rely on experience alone.

For private company boards, the question is no longer whether technology belongs in the boardroom but rather how fluently directors can use it to govern with confidence. Digital fluency doesn’t mean keeping up with every new app. It means making technology work for each director, which brings clarity, security, and alignment to the board’s work. Board members don’t need to be information technology experts or artificial intelligence specialists, but they do need to know how digital systems either slow their decision-making or empower them to guide the organizations they serve. When the board works fluently with technology, the technology itself fades into the background. Directors then experience secure access to their board materials and communications, streamlined processes, and sharper oversight. That is what governance in the digital age should feel like.

GE HealthCare said on Thursday it will acquire medical imaging software provider Intelerad for $2.3 billion in cash as the medical device maker seeks to expand into outpatient care markets. The deal gives GE HealthCare, whose equipment are prominent in hospitals, access to Intelerad's cloud-based medical imaging software and other solutions that are used by outpatient care clinics. Outpatient enterprise imaging presents an attractive high-growth, $2 billion-plus opportunity for the company worldwide, GE HealthCare said. Intelerad also offers products through a software-as-a-service model, helping GE HealthCare significantly increase its recurring revenue. "As GEHC pushes to increase use of internally developed AI algorithms within Imaging, we think it will pair well with Intelerad's suite of products over time, likely accelerating adoption," BTIG analyst Ryan Zimmerman said. The medical device maker expects Intelerad's acquisition to immediately lift revenue growth and margins, and deliver a high single-digit return on invested capital by the fifth year.

Mark Zuckerberg and current and former leaders of Meta Platforms agreed to pay the company $190 million to resolve shareholder allegations that they damaged Meta by violating Facebook users' privacy, according to a settlement unveiled on Thursday. The company's board also agreed to policy changes governing directors' conduct, insider trading and whistleblower protections. The deal ended litigation by shareholders who accused the Facebook co-founder and other defendants of saddling the company with billions of dollars in fines and legal costs stemming from violating privacy regulations. The agreement fleshes out a deal announced in court on July 17 that ended a scheduled eight-day trial on its second day. Shareholders were seeking $8 billion from Zuckerberg and 10 current and former directors and officers for allegedly allowing Facebook users' personal information to be accessed without their consent.

OpenAI and Taiwan electronics giant Foxconn have agreed to a partnership to design and manufacture key equipment for artificial intelligence data centers in the U.S. as part of ambitious plans to fortify American AI infrastructure. Foxconn, which makes AI servers for Nvidia and assembles Apple products including the iPhone, will be co-designing and developing AI data center racks with OpenAI under the agreement, the companies said in separate statements on Thursday and Friday. The products Foxconn will manufacture in its U.S. facilities include cabling, networking and power systems for AI data centers, the companies said. OpenAI will have “early access” to evaluate and potentially to purchase them. Foxconn has factories in the U.S., including in Wisconsin, Ohio and Texas. The initial agreement does not include financial obligations or purchase commitments, the statements said.

French waste-management company Veolia Environnement said it agreed to buy U.S. hazardous-waste specialist Clean Earth from Enviri for around $3 billion including debt. Veolia said Friday that the deal would allow it to expand in the growing U.S. hazardous waste sector. Enviri separately said Veolia would pay an aggregate cash sum of $3.04 billion. After completion of the deal, Veolia expects revenue from its hazardous-waste division to be 5.2 billion euros ($5.99 billion) with an earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization margin of 17%. It is now targeting the division’s Ebitda to grow at least 10% from a 2024 baseline through 2027, it said. Veolia said the deal would deliver synergies of $120 million within four years of completion, and be accretive to earnings per share from the second year. It expects to complete the deal by the middle of 2026, subject to approval by Enviri’s shareholders.

Paramount, Comcast and Netflix have submitted bids for Warner Bros. Discovery, owner of the storied Warner Bros. movie and television studio and HBO, according to people familiar with the matter. The bids submitted are nonbinding, and additional rounds are expected, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Warner Discovery has indicated it would like to have the process concluded by the end of the year. At the same time, Warner Discovery continues to move forward with plans to separate its assets into two companies: one to house its studios and streaming business, and the other comprising its cable networks. Of the three bidders, only Paramount is pursuing all of Warner Discovery, including studios and streaming as well as its portfolio of cable networks like CNN, TNT and Food Network, people familiar with the matter said. NBCUniversal parent Comcast and streamer Netflix are bidding only for the studios, HBO and streaming service HBO Max, the people said.

Activist mining veteran Mick McMullen is throwing his name into the ring as a candidate to be the next chief executive officer of Barrick Mining Corp. and says the problems at the big Canadian gold miner are fixable. In an interview with The Globe and Mail, Mr. McMullen said some of Barrick’s major shareholders have talked to him to gauge his interest in the job and find out what his vision for the company is. While not confirming if Barrick has already approached him, he said he has the energy and vision for the job, and a strong track record given his history working alongside an activist investor in an earlier campaign to turn around Canadian gold miner Detour Gold Corp. “It’s a really interesting opportunity, but ultimately it will come down to what does the board want,” he said about the prospect of becoming the next CEO of Barrick. “But certainly it’s not unlike things that I’ve done before.”

For decades, Canada has been the largest foreign buyer of U.S. goods, a point Ottawa and the provinces have stressed in their push to get the Trump administration to lower its tariffs on Canadian goods. Now Mexico has surpassed Canada to become the U.S.’s top customer. In recent years, as Mexico steadily closed the gap in buying U.S. stuff, there were occasional months when it actually edged out Canada for the top spot. But in July and August, Mexico’s imports of U.S. goods soared, topping Canada’s purchases by a combined US$4.9-billion, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The decline in U.S. exports to Canada is partly owing to Ottawa’s countertariffs on certain U.S. goods, which made them more expensive. All those retaliatory duties were lifted in September. Consumer boycotts of U.S. products and bans by some provinces of U.S. alcohol are also weighing on demand. For Mexico, the biggest factor propelling it as a buyer of U.S. goods is also what has helped fuel its success this year as an exporter to the U.S.: computer equipment.

The Bank of Canada said the country is “stuck in a vicious circle” of low productivity and suggested lowering the regulatory burden for companies and increasing competition as part of a co-ordinated push to improve the country’s growth prospects. In a speech on Wednesday, deputy governor Nicolas Vincent made the case that Canada is facing a “systemic problem” when it comes to productivity – which can be understood as output per worker, or how efficiently labour and capital are combined to produce goods. Canada’s productivity growth has lagged peer countries for the past two decades, leaving Canadians poorer than they would otherwise be and the economy less resilient to shocks, such as a sharp protectionist turn from our largest trading partner. This, he said, is the result of structural problems that lead to low business investment, limit competition and prevent companies from growing.

The energy industry’s most ambitious new dealmaker is reshuffling its leadership team after its first year of operations, having attempted more than $40bn of acquisitions.  XRG was created last November by Abu Dhabi’s national oil company Adnoc as a flagship $80bn vehicle to buy up international gas, chemicals and low-carbon energy businesses.  Its board features Abu Dhabi investment minister Mohamed Alsuwaidi, as well as Jon Gray, president of private equity group Blackstone, and former BP chief Bernard Looney.  XRG is now revamping its executive team by appointing former Goldman Sachs banker Nameer Siddiqui as chief investment officer. Siddiqui was most recently senior vice-president for business transformation at Phillips 66, where he helped defend the US refiner against the activist investor Elliott Management. One person close to XRG noted Siddiqui’s experience of the US, which is a focus for his new employer. 

Electric component maker Atkore said on Thursday its board and management team are considering its options, including the potential sale or merger of the company, sending its shares down 3.5%. Bloomberg News had reported, opens new tab in September that activist investor Irenic Capital Management, holding a 2.5% stake in Atkore, was urging the board to explore a potential sale. The same month, Atkore said it was working with Citigroup to evaluate strategic alternatives, opens new tab to increase focus on its core electrical infrastructure portfolio. Atkore announced the appointment of Franklin Edmonds to its board as part of a cooperation agreement with Irenic Capital. With the addition, the company's board will form a review committee to oversee strategic alternatives to include assets outside of its core electrical infrastructure portfolio. The electric component maker has been taking steps to cut costs, including a headcount reduction, as it grapples with higher input costs and resulting pressure on profit margins due to tariffs.