PHARMACEUTICALS
Layoffs at Marlborough drugmaker
Japanese drugmaker Sumitomo Pharma and its Sunovion Pharmaceuticals subsidiary are laying off 360 employees at Sumitomo Pharma’s Marlborough facility, which also serves as the headquarters for Sunovion. A top US executive at Sumitomo Pharma sent a note to state labor officials last week informing them that the group of affected employees includes remote workers and field staff who report to managers in Massachusetts as well as some in other parts of the country. The layoffs will begin on Jan. 13. A spokeswoman for Sunovion declined to say how many people will remain at the Marlborough site once the layoffs are concluded. She said the job cuts are “designed to reflect both the external landscape and Sunovion’s evolving commercial portfolio.” Sunovion, she said, will continue to have a strong presence in the United States and remains committed to keeping its global headquarters in Marlborough. — JON CHESTO
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ATHLETIC SHOES
Adidas lowers earnings forecast after cutting ties with Ye
Adidas on Wednesday lowered its earnings forecast for the year to account for losses from ending its partnership with the rapper formerly known as Kanye West over his antisemitic remarks. The German shoe and sportswear maker cut its sales and profit outlook for the year as part of its third-quarter earnings statement, even as the company’s chief financial officer said the profitability of the Yeezy shoe collaboration with Ye had been “overstated.” The company would largely offset the impact of the breakup next year by no longer having to pay royalties and marketing fees for the brand, CFO Harm Ohlmeyer said. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
E-COMMERCE
Amazon loses $1 trillion in market value
Amazon is the world’s first public company to lose a trillion dollars in market value as a combination of rising inflation, tightening monetary policies, and disappointing earnings updates triggered a historic selloff in the stock this year. Shares in the e-commerce and cloud company fell 4.27 percent on Wednesday, pushing its market value to about $878 billion from a record close at $1.882 trillion on July 2021. Amazon and Microsoft were neck-and-neck in the race to breach the unwelcome milestone, with the Windows software maker close behind after having lost $900 billion from a November 2021 peak. While technology and growth stocks have been punished throughout the year, fears of a recession have further dampened sentiment in the sector. The top five US technology companies by revenue have seen nearly $4 trillion in market value evaporate this year. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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BEVERAGES
Keurig Dr Pepper invests in non-alcoholic beer maker
Keurig Dr Pepper has invested $50 million in Athletic Brewing Co., the nonalcoholic beer-maker, as part of a $75 million fund-raising round by Athletic, the companies announced Monday. The investment by Keurig, which also owns the brands Canada Dry, Snapple, and Green Mountain, is the beverage giant’s second foray into the nonalcoholic beverage category, following a deal to acquire a nonalcoholic cocktail brand called Atypique this summer. Keurig has said it wants to make more acquisitions and has about $20 billion to do so. — NEW YORK TIMES
INTERNATIONAL
Germany blocks sale of chip factory to subsidiary of Chinese company
The German government on Wednesday blocked the sale of a chip factory to a Swedish subsidiary of a Chinese company, a decision that comes as Berlin grapples with its future approach to Beijing. The move by the Cabinet follows a recent compromise over a Chinese shipping firm’s investment in a German container terminal and a visit to Beijing last week by Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The blocked sale was anticipated after German company Elmos said this week that it had been informed the sale of its chip factory in Dortmund to Silex Microsystems AB of Sweden would likely be prohibited. — ASSOCIATED PRESS
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SOCIAL MEDIA
TikTok cuts ad revenue target
TikTok has slashed about $2 billion off its target for 2022 ad revenue, underscoring the fallout of a global downturn that’s hammered fellow Internet giants from Google to Meta. TikTok chief executive Shou Zi Chew told a handful of employees during a recent meeting that the Chinese-owned app has slashed its ad forecast for 2022 to $10 billion from at least $12 billion previously, according to a person briefed on the matter. Like most social media platforms, TikTok makes most of its revenue from advertising. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
ENTERTAINMENT
Disney looking to cut costs after loss of $15 billion in market value
Walt Disney Co. is evaluating its costs and seeking “meaningful efficiencies” after reporting results that fell short of expectations and wiped out about $15 billion in market value. Losses at the company’s direct-to-consumer arm, driven by its Disney+ streaming service, more than doubled to $1.47 billion in its fiscal fourth quarter, due to higher programming expenses and the cost of global expansion. Weakness in cable-television advertising revenue also hurt Disney’s performance. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
BANKING
Citigroup and Barclays cut investment banking jobs
Citigroup and Barclays have started eliminating jobs in their investment-banking operations, joining other major banks in responding to plunging revenue from the business. Dozens of positions at New York-based Citigroup were cut this week, while reductions expected to eventually total about 200 have begun at London-based Barclays, according to people familiar with those moves. US banks have been hurt by the dramatic slowdown in investment banking as the volatility that spurred gains for trading weighed on capital markets and asset management. Third-quarter investment-banking fees plummeted 64 percent at Citigroup and were down 45 percent at Barclays. Morgan Stanley is considering eliminating about 50 investment-banking jobs in the Asia-Pacific region, people familiar with the matter said earlier this month. That followed a similar move in September by Goldman Sachs, which is embarking on its biggest round of job cuts since the start of the pandemic. — BLOOMBERG NEWS
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GAMING
Nintendo stock drops after disappointing news on Switch sales
Nintendo Co. cut its fiscal-year forecast for Switch console sales by 10 percent to 19 million. It was the biggest drop in more than a year for the Kyoto-based games maker, which also maintained its operating profit outlook despite strong currency tailwinds. Nintendo said it sold fewer Switch consoles in the quarter than the year-ago period in part because of a prolonged chips shortage. The company says it’s now front-loading production to maximize delivery in the holiday shopping season and production output has been improving since September. — BLOOMBERG NEWS